Sounds Good with Branden Harvey

Sarah Stewart Holland (a progressive) and Beth Silvers (a conservative) became friends in 1999 and haven’t recovered since. Sarah, a professional blogger and social media consultant, and Beth, a human resources executive and yoga teacher, challenged the notion that talking news with your politically opposite college friend is always messy. What evolved out of their friendship was Pantsuit Politics — a podcast that has someone on the right (Beth) and someone on the left (Sarah) having conversations with the goal of listening to each other first and talking politics second. In this conversation, Branden, Beth and Sarah, talk about bringing a distinctly women-centered perspective to the conversations happening around politics, intending only to learn from each other rather than walking into the discussions trying to win. More: http://soundsgoodpodcast.com/pantsuitpolitics  

Dylan Marron is a writer, performer, video maker and self-acclaimed snacker. He also receives a lot of hate messages on the internet. Producing work that mainly focuses on social justice issues such as race, sexuality and privilege, Dylan’s learned how to take hateful conversations online and turn them into productive conversations offline — an idea and practice that we could all benefit from. Dylan’s creative resume has included (but not limited to) writing multiple series for Seriously.tv, the voice of Carlos on the hit podcast Welcome to Night Vale, an alum of the New York Neo Futurists, and the creator of Every Single Word (Tumblr's "Most Viral Blog" of 2016; Shorty Award Nominee), a video series that edits down popular films to only feature the words spoken by people of color. And now he’s started a new podcast, Conversations with People Who Hate Me. In this conversation, Branden and Dylan go deep into the complicated and sometimes hilarious navigation of two strangers who disagree getting to know each other. More: http://soundsgoodpodcast.com/dylan

Anis Mojgani has been said to be a poet who gleefully spurns the boundaries of poet. He is not only a two-time National Poetry Slam Champion, winner of the International World Cup Poetry Slam, and multiple-time TEDx Speaker, but he’s also an Iranian American living in Oregon with a passion for processing the human interior. Notable to mention: he is one of Branden Harvey’s favorite poets. Anis has performed his slam poetry around the globe and has performed for audiences as varied as the House of Blues and the United Nations. He is also the author of three poetry collections — Songs From Under the River, The Feather Room, Over the Anvil We Stretch. In this conversation, Branden and Anis (while eating doughnuts) take an in-depth look at how poetry can be a tool for creative exploration through the tremendous grief and joy that life holds for humanity. More: http://soundsgoodpodcast.com/anis

In 2015, WeRateDogs was born. If you would've told Matt Nelson then that he’d be entertaining 750,000 people in less than a year, he would've laughed in your face. For those of you who never knew something like WeRateDogs existed, it does. More than 3 million Twitter followers eagerly await the internet phenomenon of dog photo submissions being paired with witty captions — and the final products are brilliant. Not only is WeRateDogs used as a “joy outlet” for it’s followers, Matt has also ventured to use his online presence to converse and bring awareness to global conversations. In this episode, Branden chats with Matt on the creative craft of molding your words to convey your embarrassingly quirky thought or idea in 140 characters for your unpredictable audience. More: http://soundsgoodpodcast.com/weratedogs

Never disregard an 8 year old who dreams of becoming Oprah one day. Noor Tagouri, a Libyan-American storyteller and journalist, is currently one of the most talked about young adults in the country having worked with the CBS Radio, Newsy, CTV News while being known as the first hijab-wearing news anchor on American television. After the release of her first documentary passion project, The Forest Haven Story, and she went on to embark on a unique journey to achieve of her dreams of exposing cultural injustices and combating the challenges facing women on a global scale. In this conversation, Branden digs deep with Noor to truly understand the power of the right question while always aiming to break the glass ceiling. More: http://soundsgoodpodcast.com/noor

Where does true optimism come from? How do we choose to gravitate toward hope when there is so much pain in the world? These are questions that John Jacobs, co-founder and CCO (Chief Creative Optimist) of Life is Good, has been resiliently living out the answer to ever since his early childhood. 1989 marked the beginning of his passion for three main things: spreading optimism, helping children in need, and making rad and iconic t-shirts. In this conversation Branden chats with John about trading blind positivity for meaningful optimism. More: http://soundsgoodpodcast.com/john

The Shine Project began when Ashley Lemieux’s heart was taken by the inner-city youth of Phoenix, AZ. What began as a small project has now resulted in over 40 scholarships being given to help kids go to college since 2011. Ashley’s life’s work has been a testament to the love she pours out amidst a story that has been embedded with so much pain.  In this heartfelt conversation, Ashley shares about how a call one Sunday morning asking both she and her husband to become permanent guardians to two kids overnight changed their lives forever — and how it took a dark turn 3 years later with a letter from the court in the mail.  This is the first time she publicly shares her story.  More: https://www.goodgoodgood.co/ashley -- Good News: https://www.goodgoodgood.co Sounds Good Podcast: https://www.goodgoodgood.co/podcast

Zim Ugochukwu believes that everything about travel comes from a spark of curiosity. She’s currently the founder and CEO of Travel Noire, an award-winning boutique travel company and is a passionate advocate for personal transformational. Her background consists of everything from cloning genes at 19, to running a national anti-tobacco campaign, working on the Obama campaign, becoming a precinct judge while in college, and travelling through 90% of Asia. In this conversation, Branden and Zim unpacked the importance of seeking to call out the beauty in ‘otherness’ in the people around you while asking the questions that take you places. More: http://soundsgoodpodcast.com/zim

“Who are you? Are you you?” British visual artist Shantell Martin has originated her work upon the foundation of these two questions and is now an unconventional truth-teller in her field. After moving to New York from Tokyo, she became best known for creating stream-of-consciousness drawings and light projects with childlike wonder and joy. Her artwork (mainly lines and stick figures) has appeared in the Brooklyn Museum, Museum of the Contemporary African Diaspora, Bata Show Museum, as well as many other well-known art venues in New York. In this conversation, Branden and Shantell discuss how understanding who you are and asking unconventional questions are keys to keeping the wonder alive in your work. More: http://soundsgoodpodcast.com/shantell

You've probably seen @jonnysun's "weird Twitter" tweets of his life as a lonely alien experiencing earth. What you might not know is that Jonny Sun, the Asian Canadian playwright, artist, architect and comedian has a master's degree from Yale, is a PhD candidate at MIT, and is a fellow at Harvard's Berkman Klein Center. In this episode, Branden talked to Jonny about navigating the world of happiness in art and academia while wrestling with depression and anxiety. They also giggled through a conversation about Jonny’s news book, ‘Everyone's a Aliebn When Ur a Aliebn Too’. More: http://soundsgoodpodcast.com/jonnysun