Psyche

In this episode, I speak with Barbara Daughter. Here's Barbara in her own words: Since a young teen, I have ardently pursued my personal and spiritual growth and development through a variety of practices and religious / spiritual traditions. Raised as a Lutheran, I entered my undergraduate years, thinking I would become a counseling pastor. Instead, I left that tradition in the 1970s when I discovered for myself that God is beyond our concepts of gender. Since the early 1980s, I have followed pre-Christian wisdom traditions as they have been shared by exemplars like Z. Budapest and Starhawk. Because I view our spiritual understanding as the foundation for our choices in the world, decades later, I was led to completing my Master's degree in Philosophy & Religion with a concentration in Women's Spirituality, as well as working directly with advanced spiritual teachers, honing my awareness of and connection to the world beyond the seen and what is widely-accepted as "true." Through both my academic studies and personal explorations, I have continued to return to and deepen my connection with our Mother Earth and many of Her nature-teachers. As an artist, I work primarily in acrylics, preferring large-scale “magical realism” paintings of imaginal, inspirational, and mythical women. I have studied with Shiloh Sophia, internationally-renowned artist, and founder of Intentional Creativity, but am otherwise self-taught. As a teacher of Intentional Creativity, I create the space for others to explore their own creativity, inner messages, and healing, while rendering and illuminating them on canvas and in their lives. Based on my years of study in a variety of modalities, I offer techniques and support to connect one with their infinite nature and sovereign Being-ness. As an experienced mentor and spiritual life coach, I can offer an eagle's eye view of one's circumstances and challenges, helping to ground one in their own innate wisdom and connection to Mother Earth's mysteries and guidance. My work speaks to the deep need for women to see themselves as sacred, numinous beings, connected to Mother Earth, and to Her Sacred Mysteries which emanate from myths and cultural traditions from around the world. Commingling my Intentional Creativity teachings with these spiritual development tools, I create openings for transmutation and transformation of one's life -- both through coaching and one's own explorations on the canvas. In this episode we explore: Her religious and spiritual transformation in college The cultural milieu of the 1970s that helped shape her identity Her spiritual relationship to Mary Magdalene The importance of self-love and self-acceptance The dangers of patriarchy and toxic masculinity Her experience as a lesbian Our disconnection from the earth And much more! Website: https://www.becomingyouart.com

In this episode of the podcast, I speak with Eliot Rosenstock. Eliot is a psychotherapist and author. In this episode, we discuss ideas from his two books, Zizek in the Clinic and The Ego and Its Hyperspace. In the end, the therapist does not tell the client what to think or how to live. The therapist works with the client, helping them to learn how to think and construct their own identity in the world.  Books:  https://www.johnhuntpublishing.com/zer0-books/authors/eliot-rosenstock Social Media: https://twitter.com/CtrlRetrnRpresd?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor https://www.facebook.com/Eliot-Rosenstock-Clinical-Psychology-MA-RAMFT-375670716175350/

In this episode, I speak with Kenyatta Sadiki. Kenyatta is a human services professional. He works for Advantage Lifecare Solutions. They are dedicated to meeting specific needs in four main categories: Counseling Court/Probation Mandated Classes CPR/Basic Life Support/First Aid Training Employment In this episode, we explore many topics:  How he got into working with substance abuse and anger management  His difficult adolescence and time in prison  The black psyche  The dominant psychological paradigm and how it does not fit the black experience  The experience of slaves and the ongoing effects of negative conditioning  Martin Luther King, Malcolm X and other black figures that have shaped his perspective The benefits and dangers of religion  Connect with Kenyatta: https://www.advantagelifecaresolutions.com

In this episode, I speak with Dr. Ken Chitwood. Ken is currently doing research on the interesections of ethnography and journalism with the University of Southern California’s Center for Religion and Civic Culture’s Spiritual Exemplars Project and on Latinx Muslim philanthropy with the Muslim Philanthropy Initiative (MPI), an initiative of Lake Institute on Faith and Giving and the Lilly Family School of Philanthropy at IUPUI. From 2020-2022, he was the Fritz Thyssen Foundation Postdoctoral Research Fellow with the Berlin Graduate School Muslim Cultures & Societies at Freie Universität Berlin. He obtained a doctorate from the University of Florida in 2019, where he worked with the Department of Religion and the Center for Global Islamic Studies. His academic work focuses on Islam in the Americas, Puerto Rican Muslims, Latinx Muslims, American religion (including North America, Latin America, and the Caribbean), translocal religion, intersections of religion & culture, Christian-Muslim relations, global Christianity, Muslim minorities, & ethnographic methods and manifestations of religion-beyond-religion in a global and digital age. Additionally, he has published work on Judaism in Latin America and the Caribbean, religion and popular culture, and the theme of global heroism. He has been reviewing books on Christianity, Islam, religion, anthropology, culture, and history for seven years with Publisher's Weekly, the Houston Chronicle, Reading Religion from the American Academy of Religion, and other scholarly and popular publications. In that time, Ken has read and reviewed over 150 popular books, academic monographs, and edited collections. In this episode we explore: Islam in Latin America and the Carribean  Religious syncretism & the sacred Feminine  Cosmopolitanism  Love of neighbor  Generative frictions and the importance of relational repair  The benefit of therapy for men  Much more! Website: kenchitwood.com

This is the third installment of my series with Patrick McGrath-Muñiz exploring the first twenty-two cards or the Major Arcana of the Tarot. Patrick is a professional artist from Puerto Rico. His work has been featured in museums across the country. In this episode, we explore the symbolism and significance of the Popess card. Some of the ideas we explore include: Duality  Death & Life  The Unconscious  Jung's notion of the anima  The sacred feminine  Syncretistic religions in Latin America Afro-Caribbean influences  Intuition  And much more! Website: https://www.patrickmcgrath-art.com/  Texas Monthly Article: https://www.texasmonthly.com/arts-entertainment/houston-artist-neocolonial-tarot-deck/ Crossing Waters : Undocumented Migration in Hispanophone Caribbean and Latinx Literature & Art

In this episode, I speak with Rick Lee James. Rick Lee James is a worship leader, singer and songwriter, speaker, author, and podcast host with over two decades of experience in ministry. In 2021 he enrolled as a graduate student at Loyola University and in 2022 began his clinical pastoral education working for Kettering Health, as an intern hospital chaplain, and as of August 2022, accepted a residency. Over the years Rick has used music to share the gospel in numerous venues from the National Worship Leader Conference to the world famous Ryman Auditorium. As host of the podcast “Voices In My Head” Rick has worked with Jason Gray, Andrew Peterson, Sara Groves, Paul Baloche, All Sons and Daughters, Michael Card, Brian Zahnd, Tripp York, Brothers McClurg, Brett McCracken, Ian Morgan Cron, Steven Tobolowsky, Walter Brueggemann and many more. Rick also created and curates the popular Twitter account @MisterRogersSay where he daily posts quotes from Fred Rogers. As an outgrowth of the popularity of the Twitter account, Rick also created and hosts the podcast Welcome To The Neighborhood: A Mister Rogers Tribute Podcast where he has welcomed guests such as Tom Junod, François (Officer) Clemmons, David Newell (Mr. McFeely), Joe (Handyman) Negri, Jon Secada, Jaci Velasquez, Tom Bergeron, Lee Greenwood, and more. In this episode we explore: Why Mister Rogers is important for us today Mister Rogers and the humanistic psychology of Carl Rogers  The importance of authentic presence and listening  Matthew 25 and its application to chaplaincy  Death Emotionally healthy masculinity  And more! Website: https://www.rickleejames.com

In this episode, I speak with Dr. Niki Kasumi Clements. Niki is the Watt J. and Lilly G. Jackson Associate Professor of Religion at Rice University. Dr. Clements is an ethicist working on how humans can shape their lives through daily practices and come to critique the social, political, cultural, economic, and ecological factors that render humans differentially vulnerable to structural violence. Clements’s first monograph, Sites of the Ascetic Self (2020), approaches these questions through the ethics of John Cassian (c.360-c.435), the late ancient ascetic whose views of human ability contributed to new forms of life in a shifting empire. Between 1977 and 1984, philosopher Michel Foucault became particularly interested in Cassian as part of the genealogy of the desiring subject–and Sites reconsiders these readings through Cassian’s attention to embodied, affective, and inter-relational practices. Clements’s research for her second monograph, Foucault the Confessor, engages Foucault’s fascination with Christianity and ethics through both his published works and the archives at the Bibliothèque nationale de France. The posthumous publication of History of Sexuality, Volume 4, Les Aveux de la chair (2018, translated as Confessions of the Flesh in 2021) confirms the extent of his engagement with early Christianity and ancient sexual ethics as an art of living; it also confirms just how important the study of religion is for engaging Foucault’s work on subjection, alongside the possibilities for self-formation and challenges to structures of domination. Influenced by her mentors at Brown University (Ph.D., 2014), Harvard Divinity School (M.T.S., 2007), and Sarah Lawrence College (B.A., 2003), as well as her students at Rice, Clements’s teaching and service share her research attention to recognizing human ability and critiquing structural disparities. In this episode, we explore a various topics: Michel Foucault (some of the exciting new findings from the archives) Ancient philosophical and spiritual self-care practices Why Christianity (through St. Augustine) routed sexuality and subjectivity so closely together How to think about the cultivation of individual autonomy while also participating in collective spaces of resistance Why modern figures like Jordan Peterson are dangerous (even if they have some useful points to make) How men can think about their complicity in systems of oppression while also listening to themselves and others as a means of self-care and political engagement. Website: http://www.nikiclements.com

In this episode, I am joined by Aaron Inkrott and Amy Galpin. Aaron is the Brew Master at Saint Arnold Brewing Company. Amy is a Licensed Professional Counselor Supervisor in Katy, TX. We have a great conversation about Thich Nhat Hanh's book, "Living Buddha, Living Christ." In this conversation we explore various topics including:  Mindfulness  Peace Discipline  Religion vs a Spiritual Path Psychotherapy Hell  Anger  God as Inter-Being And much more! 

In this episode, I have a conversation with James A. Godley. He is a postdoctoral fellow in the Society of Fellows at Dartmouth College. James's work explores mourning as a process of retroactive invention in literary and philosophical works. His current book project, “Unthinkable Loss: Mourning and the Object of Speculation in Nineteenth Century U.S. Literature,” examines how slavery, the privatization of mortality, and the Civil War brought vast changes to the ritual structure and philosophy of death in the 19th century, impelling American literary authors to find new ways of mapping speculative futures for those who would otherwise have been condemned to a futureless end. Combining literary-historical, philosophical, and psychoanalytic perspectives, the project will constitute the first of a two-volume set devoted to the problem of “infinite grief” in modern and contemporary U.S. literature. Godley’s publications include Inheritance in Psychoanalysis, a co-edited anthology of theoretical interventions into biological, anthropological, aesthetic, and clinical notions of inheritance, and an article on the critique of finitude in Hegel and Lacan in Angelaki. In this episode, we discuss Herman Melville's The Confidence-Man and its implications for modern political engagement. We weave together a variety of ideas including Freud's myth of the primal horde, Jacques Lacan's notion of the phallus and the exception of masculinity as well as William James' pragmatic philosophy. When it comes to political engagement, we can't reduce everything to knowledge. We have to wrestle with the potent reality of enjoyment.  If you want to connect with James: James.A.Godley@dartmouth.edu Here's the article by Jacqueline Rose that we mention: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/nov/15/trump-disaster-modern-masculinity-sexual-nostalgian-oppressive-men-women

In this episode, I speak with Dr. Jonathan Tran. Originally from Southern California, Jonathan joined Baylor University’s Religion Department in 2006 after completing his graduate studies in theology and ethics at Duke University. He teaches undergraduate and graduate courses and his research examines the theological and political implications of human life in language.  Jonathan is the author of several books, which we discuss in this episode. His latest book is entitled, "Asian Americans and The Spirit of Racial Capitalism." This episode covers a lot of ground. We start by exploring how the traumatic death of his brother shaped the trajectory of his life story. From there we explore his encounter with religion, the influence of Stanley Hauerwas on his thinking during his time at Duke, the contemporary relevance of Michel Foucault's philosophy, the difficulty with gender and sex and how the overturning of Roe v. Wade highlights the problematic state of our collective existence.  If you'd like to connect with Jonathan, please visit his website: https://jonathantran.blog