In this episode, Kimberly and return guest Sophie Strand celebrate publishing week for Sophie’s extraordinary new book The Body is a Doorway: A Memoir: A Journey Beyond Healing, Hope, and the Human. They discuss where Sophie currently finds herself in a post-diagnosis reality and what writing the book taught her about the mysteries of illness. She emphasizes the complex power of doctor relationships and medical information on the body through the nocebo effect. Kimberly and Sophie talk through what it looks like to support someone dealing with illness day to day. Sophie shares her personal and social experiences with chronic illness, as well as the contemporary cultural pressures to intertwine identity with labels. She also highlights the role of community, creativity and bad story on diagnoses and treatments. This open-hearted conversation touches on the broader implications of health, identity, and the need for a more open and relational approach to care and self-understanding.   Bio Sophie Strand is a poet and writer with a focus on the intersection of spirituality, storytelling, and ecology. Her poems and essays have appeared in numerous projects and publications, including Spirituality & Health, Atmos, Braided Way, and Art PAPERS. She is the author of The Flowering Wand and The Madonna Secret, and the creator of the popular Substack “Make Me Good Soil.” She lives in the Hudson Valley of New York.   What They Share The impact of a long-awaited diagnosis The No-Cebo Effect What we pay attention to we pray towards The Mystery of Illness Bad Story in Myth and Psychotherapeutic fields Self-Diagnosis How to tell a different stories about chronic illness Performing Sickness to have invisible illness be more visible How to check in with friends having a hard time/facing health challenges End of the addiction line Chronic Sickness as it relates to sobriety Eco-cidal culture wants to turn everything into product Somatic Protest Body can’t work The miracle of GoFund Me alongside an unaffordable health care system History of oral culture Orality and Literature by anthropologist Walter Ong What is an individual? Monotheism of Psychology The impulse to classify is about control and fear Prayer is another energy that might have a better idea of what I need Vending Machine Prayer Finding book endings that aren’t fantasies How to separate negative from worse How to operate with one spoon   Links IG @cosmogyny Substack https://sophiestrand.substack.com/ Sophie's New Book: https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/sophie-strand/the-body-is-a-doorway-a-memoir/9780762487417/?lens=running-press The Body is A Doorway Amazon Review page: https://www.amazon.com/review/create-review/?ie=UTF8&channel=glance-detail&asin=0762487410 Money and The Nervous System Sign-Up: https://kimberlyannjohnson.com/money-the-nervous-system/

This is a special re-release of an episode featuring guest host Jackson Kroopf speaking with the incomparable Kimberly Ann Johnson and Stephen Jenkinson. We’re bringing this conversation back to let you know about something special happening this weekend from Stephen Jenkinson and the Orphan Wisdom School: Sanity and Soul: Die Wise 10 Years. Taking place on March 15th and 16th at 10am Pacific, this 6-part online event is a deep dive into the wisdom of death, grief, and the soul, 10 years after the publication of Stephen's transformative book Die Wise. You’ll get to experience the depth of Stephen’s work in a pretty unique way: through 4 recorded grief counsel sessions with dying people, hearing Stephen practice, in 2025, the kind of work described in Die Wise. Plus, he’ll be joined by two brilliant colleagues—a neuroscientist studying human consciousness and a filmmaker exploring the afterlife—to discuss the lasting impact of Die Wise on grief counseling, death doulas, and the way these ideas continue to shape our world. If you want to learn more and register, visit orphanwisdom.com/events. But now, enjoy this conversation from March 2023, following Reckoning at Mt. Madonna. Please do consider gifting yourself or a loved one this upcoming offering, Sanity & Soul that promises to provide some ceremony in these  troubled times in ways only Stephen and the Orphan Wisdom School can. Link: https://orphanwisdom.com/event/die-wise-sanity-and-soul-ten-years-on/   What You’ll Here in this Episode: Reflections on witness from retired birth and death workers The value of disillusionment The power of loneliness The proliferation of self pathologizing The complex politics of feelings The religion of western psychology Adolescents grabbing for pop psychology labels The respect in not offering solutions The eagerness to escape from pain while grieving Is love dead? Blessing not as approval but the emergence of something new Marriage as both celebration and loss Matrimony between cultures An only child and single parent inviting in a new husband Building an escape route as you enter a union The no-go zone of contemporary western marriage 15 minute weddings, 15 minute funerals, 15 minute births The cultural casualties of uniformity Being healthy enough to tend to home and neighbor   Links ig @reckoning live Sanity & Soul Sign-Up https://orphanwisdom.com/event/die-wise-sanity-and-soul-ten-years-on/

In this episode, return guest Joelle Hann and Kimberly discuss the complexities of publishing, including traditional, self, and hybrid publishing. Joelle walks us through the importance of a book proposal, which serves as a roadmap for authors and a calling card for agents and publishers. Kimberly weighs in on her own experience in navigating the book publishing world and the incredible value she has found in working with Joelle. Joelle highlights the need for authors to understand their audience and market, and the potential pitfalls of self-publishing without an existing audience. Joelle's Book Proposal Academy is enrolling now and starts March 14th. This is the only cohort for 2025. Apply now! To be eligible to save up to $500 and get other early-bird bonuses, mention Sex, Birth, Trauma podcast in your application.  Bio Joelle Hann is an award-winning writer with a history of developing high-level book projects for major American publishers. Subject areas have included wellness and transformation, women’s health, leadership and spirituality, as well as conscious business, personal finance and memoir. She has worked with top CEOs and humanitarian activists,visionary coaches and thought-leaders, spiritual teachers, scholars, moms, midwives, entrepreneurs, and many others. She founded Brooklyn Book Doctor to help people write transformational books to help change the world. Links IG @brooklynbookdoctor Learn More & Apply to Book Proposal Academy 2025: https://brooklynbookdoctor.com/bpa Learn More about Sanity & Soul: Die Wise Ten Years On with Stephen Jenkinson here: https://orphanwisdom.com/event/die-wise-sanity-and-soul-ten-years-on/

In this episode, Kimberly dives deep into guest author Catherine Simone Gray's book Proud Flesh: A Memoir of Motherhood, Intimate Violence, and Reclaiming Pleasure. With tenderness, Kimberly and Catherine share their mutual appreciation for each other’s writing and the deep impact Kimberly’s work has had on the journey that led to Catherine’s book. Catherine guides us through her journey of healing from a vaginal tear postpartum, which led to the discovery of proud flesh, a term for hypergranulation tissue. She describes the emotional and physical challenges she faced across two births (one hospital/C-Section, one home/natural), including silver nitrate treatments and the support of her husband; recounting the story of how the couple’s relationships to one another’s bodies changed when she invited him to draw her vulva daily. Catherine and Kimberly both emphasize the importance of language and writing in redefining sexuality and eroticism, and how this process can support women in reconnecting with their body. If you enjoyed this conversation be sure to sign up for their online gathering Writing as a Pathway to Pleasure on Sunday, February 23rd at https://kimberlyannjohnson.com/writing-pathway-to-pleasure/   Bio Catherine Simone Gray is a writer and teacher. Her writings on motherhood and healing first appeared on her blog Unsilenced Woman, where her piece about teaching her son consent reached 2.5 million around the world. Featured by Roxane Gay in The Audacity’s Emerging Writer Series, her work has also appeared in The Bitter Southerner and the Michigan Quarterly Review: Mixtape. Her blog writings have been shared by respected organizations for new mothers, such as La Leche League USA, International Cesarean Awareness Network, and ImprovingBirth. Gray is the recipient of a literary arts fellowship with the Mississippi Arts Commission and has delivered three addresses at the Mississippi Women's March and Womanist rallies. With over a decade of experience as a writing teacher to people aged eight to eighty, she holds a master of arts in curriculum and instruction. She leads writing circles for women, mothers, and caregivers, exploring how writing can be an ally in our living and loving. Her debut memoir Proud Flesh: A Memoir of Motherhood, Intimate Violence, and Reclaiming Pleasure was published in 2025 by North Atlantic Books. She lives in Jackson, Mississippi, with her husband and their two sons.   What You’ll Hear Kimberly’s deep appreciation for the writing craft found in Catherine’s book and is moved by the way their work has intersected Catherine has been a Jaguar since 2017 and shares the way many baths listening, reading and sitting with Kimberly’s work influenced Proud Flesh Catherine recalls key moments with her doctor in making a healing plan for a natural birth injury Catherine describes how  the scientific term Proud Flesh took on poetic meaning in her life Catherine discusses the difference in healing from the numbing disconnect of C-Section to the embodied pain of a natural birth. Catherine describes a profound confrontation with how her and her husband relate to each other’s bodies, which led to a durational art project in which he drew her vulva over time. Catherine and Kimberly reflect on erotic writing that doesn’t reify centering the male gaze Kimberly and Catherine talk about their own evolving relationships to their bodies and the craft of writing   Links IG - @unsilencedwoman Website - www.unsilencedwoman.com Book - https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/771427/proud-flesh-by-catherine-simone-gray/ Online Gathering - https://kimberlyannjohnson  

In this episode, Kimberly and Pānquetzani discuss her new book Thriving Postpartum: Embracing the Indigenous Wisdom of La Cuarentena and the thirteen year process of navigating that creative act. Pānquetzani reflects on the ways her relationships with partners and her four children have impacted the journey of making a business and writing a book. Pānquetzani’s writing is inextricably linked directly to the work she has done in and for her community around postpartum care, as well as the lessons she learned around mental health and partner agreements along the way. A deep meditation on personal healing and learning how to make and hold boundaries. The episode lovingly asks: how do you listen to your intuition, your womb, and your baby?   Bio Pānquetzani comes from a matriarchal family of folk healers from the valley of Mexico (Tenochtitlan, Texcoco, and Tlaxcala), La Comarca Lagunera (Durango and Coahuila), and Zacatecas. As a traditional herbalist, healer, and birthkeeper, Pānquetzani has touched over 3,000 wombs and bellies. Through her platform, Indigemama: Ancestral Healing, she has taught over 100 live, in-person intensives and trainings on womb wellness. She lives in California.   What you’ll hear: The 13 year journey of writing a book Differences in how men and women are treated in public as new parents Liberation of separation and divorce The challenge of holding boundaries with mothers-in-law Creating a culture of community care in a colonial context How to navigate who you want in your cuarentena? How to work with narcissism and boundaries? Listen to your womb, listen to your intuition, ask your baby: what do you need? Pain and martyrdom’s role in parenting Respect is connected to access in a relationship A birth story that led to parent/child healing How to be in communication with your womb   Resources Website: https://indigemama.com/ IG: @indigemama Book: Thriving Postpartum at Sounds True  

Kimberly and Mirabai Starr engage in a rich and intimate exploration of mysticism, personal loss, spirituality, and the intersection of sexuality and the sacred. They consider how they have each found spirituality in their everyday lives while being mindful of their journeys, cultures, ancestry, and the complexities involved. They discuss Mirabai's new book, "Ordinary Mysticism," which delves into the nature of mysticism and its accessibility to everyone every day. Mirabai emphasizes that mysticism doesn't require institutionalized religion and can be found in ordinary moments. They discuss the profound impact of loss and grief in Mirabai’s life. She describes how these experiences deepened her connection to the sacred and the beauty intertwined with suffering.   Bio Mirabai Starr is an award winning author of creative nonfiction and contemporary translations of sacred literature. She taught philosophy and world religions at the University of New Mexico, Taos for 20 years, and now teaches and speaks internationally on contemplative practice and inter-spiritual dialog. A certified bereavement counselor, Mirabai helps mourners harness the transformational power of loss. She has written over 15 books, and the latest is “Ordinary Mysticism.” But you'll hear her talk about “Caravan of No Despair,” “Wild Mercy,” and some of her translations from Spanish to English, “In The Mystics,” “The Great Mystics.” She lives with her extended family in the mountains of northern New Mexico.   What you’ll hear: Mirabai's views on spiritual, literary and poetic writing. The origin story of her new book "Ordinary Mysticism" - including it’s connection to Anne Lamott The ease in finding the mystical if you are open to it. The challenges of having that openness in the everyday The intersections of grief and the sacred Cultivating mystical awareness in daily life Searching for spiritual grounding Uprootedness of being spiritual but not religious How to understand your relationship to different spiritual technologies How to tap into spiritual bounty without colonizing and appropriating Intention and attention are crucial for recognizing the sacred in the mundane. The integration of sexuality and spirituality The common split many women feel between the sexual and the sacred aspects of their lives. How healing from/through sexual abuse can lead to sacredness in intimacy What’s a responsible and mindful approach to drawing from various spiritual traditions? How does storytelling and reflecting on shared struggles lead to insights within the spiritual journey? And how ending an abusive sexual and spiritual relationship can lead to healing through new forms of intimacy. Healthy intimacy can be holy Resources https://mirabaistarr.com/

Fellow Orphan Wisdom Scholar, and founder of Marketing for Hippies, Tad Hargrave dives deep with Kimberly into his ever-evolving relationship to whiteness and ancestry. They discuss Tad’s journey into exploring his ancestral roots, language and cultural identity, as well as Kimberly and Tad’s shared rites of passage experiences doing anti-racism work. Tad shares how he initially felt disconnected from indigenous cultures, but found deep resonance exploring his own heritage, particularly his Scottish Gaelic ancestry. The two discuss the polarities of self-loathing and self-glorification amidst contemporary white activists of both the left and right, and the broader implications of whiteness and cultural identity for white individuals. They touch on the importance of considering both privileges and poverties when it comes to whiteness, and also consider the challenges and complexities faced by white people in navigating issues of privilege, guilt when trying to meaningfully engage with marginalized histories and communities. Overall, the conversation delves into the nuanced and often difficult process of reclaiming one's cultural heritage and identity as a white person, and ends on a consideration of how to creatively and meaningfully approach speaking the colonizer tongue of English. Bio: Tad Hargrave is a hippy who developed a knack for marketing (and then learned to be a hippy again). He spent his late teens being schooled in a mixed bag of approaches to sales and marketing – some manipulative and some not. When that career ended, he spent a decade unlearning and unpacking what he’d been through. How had he been swept up in it? Why didn’t those approaches work as well as advertised? Were there ways of marketing that both worked better and felt better to all involved?  It took him time but he began to find a better way to market. By 2006, he had become one of the first, full-time ‘conscious business’ marketing coaches (for hippies) and created a business where he could share the understanding he had come to: Marketing could feel good. You didn’t have to choose between marketing that worked (but felt awful) or marketing that felt good (but got you no clients). Since 2001, he has been touring his marketing workshops around Canada, the United States, Europe, and online, bringing refreshing and unorthodox ideas to conscious entrepreneurs and green businesses that help them grow their organizations and businesses (without selling their souls). Instead of charging outrageous amounts, he started doing most of his events on a pay what you can basis. He is the author of sixteen books and workbooks on marketing. Tad currently lives in Edmonton, Alberta (traditionally known, in the local indigenous language of the Cree, as Amiskwaciy (Beaver Hill) and later Amiskwaciwaskihegan (Beaver Hill House) and his ancestors come primarily from Scotland with some from the Ukraine as well. He is now dedicated to spending the rest of his days preserving and fostering a more deeply respectful, beautiful and human culture.   What you’ll hear: Tad’s intro to anti-racism and youth organizing work in the Bay Area Tad found himself pushing up against something in anti-racist/white supremacy trainings What  is the role of self-loathing in anti-racism trainings? Tad  found admiration toward indigenous rituals, but unlike some white peers, didn’t feel drawn to doing more work with indigenous cultures Something changed when Tad began learning his indigenous language Tad came to understand whiteness as a cover for something Whiteness is a kind of forgetting Can a white person participate in a indigenous ritual? Yes, but always as a guest and with consideration for the impact their presence might be having on that community Recognizing that whiteness was trouble, that it was a kind of poverty  Tad found he no longer was so anxiously seeking approval from indigenous people and people of color, which he recognized as another form of taking The importance of finding rootedness in ancestral story Kim discusses her experience in urban education in Chicago and studying under Michael Eric Dyson Kim found she was often comparing her ancestor grief to Black peers  Kim has found Canada’s links to the older world to be more apparent than the United States Unpacking whiteness is an empty box - there’s nothing there. Where do white people go for culture? Often Black culture in North America You can’t start with shame - you have to remind people who they came from Peter Levine’s idea that you don’t, in locating feelings in the body, rest in what’s good and stay comfortable; but you also don’t stay in the bad and turn to ash. For white people there is no “good” place to go connected to the term white- it’s discomfort all the time. A polarizing time - one end of  the spectrum is MAGA which reinforces white supremacy/entitlement the other end is leftist positive reinforcement for self-loathing, guilt, and shame. White privilege gets conflated with cultural appropriation The belief that deep down you are bad is a non-indigenous worldview - it’s a Christian one. A rite of passage in a certain way to be so different than the rest of a room of people. There is privilege in white innocence, wide-eyed and curious about other worldviews, but it is not one that you come out the other side of without recognizing cultural poverty. There are double binds of contemporary identity politics discourse - despite the intention to advocate for another group of people, there is also anticipated criticism for participating in culture or movement that is not your own. After an event, there are lines of young people paralyzed by guilt about being white, male, or part of the settler-colonial class.  There’s a lot of learning that can happen if you look back to why people left, further than just North American history. Self-loathing is a collapse onto oneself and self-glorification if a puffing up/posture on a very dark history of  genocide, slavery, and racism - they aren’t opposites - they are two sides of the same coin. Dominant society has a tendency to co-opt, and possess everything that is holy. There is no movement that isn’t co-opted by a dominant society -  BLM, Feminism, Indigeneity Corporations co-opt every movement without changing their practices - the enemy is that machine. Wendell Berry - live as a machine or live as a creature? Whiteness is a construct of empire. How do you make a living when you want to opt out of empire, late-stage capitalism and try and work on a more human scale? How to find or make the village? Leaving more than you had for the next generation. The origins of a conception of whiteness is privilege - but as you go further there are also poverties. At Orphan Wisdom School Tad saw something not just preserved, but practiced How do we not only preserve ancestral culture but also practice it? What does it mean to make culture in the times and places we are living? Resources Tad’s Substack: https://tadhargrave.substack.com/ Tad’s Marketing Business: https://marketingforhippies.com/ Tad on Whiteness: https://healingfromwhiteness.blogspot.com/  Tad’s IG: https://www.instagram.com/marketingforhippies/ Martin Prechtel’s book: Rescuing the Light  Stephanie Mackay’s website: stephaniemackay.ca  

Kimberly Ann Johnson, a collaborator on culture-making, and Stephen Jenkinson, an author of orphan wisdom, dive into the impact of their recent trip to Ireland. They explore ancestral ties, the complexities of grief, and how cultural narratives influence identity. Their conversation touches on the significance of 'dirt' in understanding heritage and the layered wisdom it holds. Listeners will ponder the implications of travel on personal history and the fine line between making culture from and for. This engaging dialogue offers a glimpse into their upcoming live audio series.

In this episode, Kimberly and April discuss her most recent book of poetry titled Matter / Mother which shares about April’s experience of traveling through the underworld of grief, hardship, and heartbreak while mothering her young child. Together, they share their desires for a culture that makes space for the depth of mothering experiences and stories through all of the different seasons of life. They also discuss how to bear the pain and responsibility of both creating a world we want our children to live in while simultaneously inhabiting the one that currently exists. Overall, their vulnerability and honest reflections from their differing seasons of mothering offers language to those deep experiences and possibility for all mothers.   Bio April Tierney is a poet, activist, craftswoman, mother, and lover of stories. Her work follows threads of ecopoetics, myth, culture, and lineage. She has been nominated for The Pushcart Prize and featured in Orion Magazine, Deep Times: A Journal of the Work that Reconnects, Clarion Poetry Magazine, and Real Ground Journal, among others.   What She Shares: –”Matter / Mother” poetry and mothering –Mothering in the upper world while traversing the underworld –Creative process while mothering –Motherhood hardship and joys of different seasons –Creating the world we want our children to inhabit   What You’ll Hear: –Latest book “Matter Mother” of poetry –Reading of “Birth Story” poem –Birth as animalistic and mythic –Decision behind black cover on book –Longing for more mothering stories from underworld journey –Writing a book during early mothering –Listening to experiences not from our own –Finding language for mothering experiences –Finding the right voices on mothering experiences –Birth culturally accepted as traumatic –Mothering in the underworld while raising children in the upperworld –Mothering as existential –Heartbreak of mothering in these times –Unable to talk about lived, ongoing way while holding children –Fantasy of modern motherhood –Modern living as kind of trauma we learn to cope with –Four forest fires in three days –Evacuating from home from forest fires –Pausing from writing and trusting the quiet places –Writing as torture until its tended to –Bringing forth for the world what is asking to come through –Books as living, breathing things –Creative portion of mothering in tension with energy and needs –Kimberly’s surprise of mothering young adulthood –Grieving and loving during mothering in all phases –Importance of sharing from different stages of mothering –Physical versus psychological demands of mothering –Noticing the glory spots of mothering –Sending children out into the world –Creating the world we want our children to live in   Resources Website: https://www.apriltierney.com/ IG: @apriltierney11  

In this episode, Kimberly and Marysia discuss how they’ve navigated the challenges and benefits of single motherhood. In many ways, their lives and stories run parallel: surprising pregnancies, marrying into another culture, becoming single mothers with babies, and living out single motherhood while being entrepreneurs. This honest, raw, and tender conversation offers vulnerable testimonies and nuggets of wisdom for other single mothers. They emphasize the difficulties but importance of building kinship and community, undoing internalized shame, and tending to community. Marysia’s School of the Sacred Wild is now open for enrollment with Kimberly as a guest teacher!   Bio Marysia Miernowska is a teacher, author, Earth activist, green witch, folk herbalist and healer rooted in the Wise Woman Tradition of Healing. Born in Poland, she carries with her a lineage of European folk herbalism. Marysia honors plants as sentient beings, elders, healers and teachers. As a Plant Spirit Communicator, Marysia channels messages from the Earth spirits and guides students to connect with plant spirits through meditation and through their bodies, to receive guidance and learn about the constituents, energetics and properties of plants. Registration is now open for the School of the Sacred Wild and can be accessed through the link below. What She Shares: –Journeys into pregnancy –Trauma and shame around single mothering –Finding kinship and community   What You’ll Hear: –Marysia’s surprising journey into motherhood –Managing cultural differences as a couple –Traumatic experience becoming a single mother with a baby –Kimberly’s pregnancy and divorce –Single motherhood sisterhood –Navigating single motherhood challenges and joys –Marysia entering single motherhood –Receiving judgment for divorcing –Physical manifestations of wounds and healing –Functional freeze reactions for survival –Finding the village as single mothers –Fairy godmothers and aunties –Bringing in chosen family for children –Cultural differences in background and local living –Anticipating the death of empty nest –Reviewing mothering choices –Grief and cultural isolation –Predictability and calm in hiring anticipatory help –Working through shame in asking for more help –Nervous systems and being trapped –How culture is physically organized disruptive to kinship –Spontaneous social interactions –Taking risks and extending our ways of gathering –Doing it imperfectly and letting go of shame –Tending to the ecosystem of families, parents, and single mothers –School of the Sacred Wild herbalism program –Creating kinship and a deep sense of belonging between human & non-human –Holding vitality of the Mother archetype and cutting back, releasing, and discerning –September 7th registration closes –10% off code for listeners –Kimberly to guest teach in School of Sacred Wild   Resources Website: https://www.schoolofthesacredwild.com/ IG: @marysia_miernowska Course Link for Listeners: here