Second Adolescence

This week’s guest is community organizer, Jordan Killebrew (he/him). On this episode, Jordan let's us in on the journey he’s traveled since growing up within a context that was quite oppressive to who he was, having to endure many attacks to his humanness. His younger self set his sights on college as the place he just had to make it to to get through it all and for things to change. This, it turned out, was true for him - his Second Adolescence and his own healing journey began in college. Jordan invites us into what this healing has looked liked, and what has been helpful for him to get to the place he is at now where he is truly living a life his younger selves might dream of. About the guest:Jordan Killebrew (he/him/his) is the founder of Juneteenth Santa Barbara and Project IV Love. He is a community organizer, with an abnormal love of the community, especially in Santa Barbara County. He works at the Santa Barbara Foundation as Director of Communications, while his free time is spent volunteering with local nonprofits, including support for Juneteenth Santa Barbara, Community Formation Commission for the City of Santa Barbara, Healing Justice Santa Barbara, the Board of Endowment for Youth Committee, Independent Advisory Board, to name a few. Jordan is a graduate of the University of California, Santa Barbara, and he revels in the pride of being a Gaucho alum. Learn more about him at jordankillebrew.com or follow him IG @jordankillebrew.For more, visit www.secondadolescencepod.com or @secondadolescencepod.Download episode transcript here. 

This week’s guest is Patrick Carlos Olsen (he/him), who is the person behind the gay surfing magazine, podcast, and Instagram account, Surfer.Gay.  In his work, Patrick is creating inclusion of queer people within the sport of surfing, which has been historically not too welcome of a place for LGBTQ+ people. This conversation starts here and is filled with so much more. Patrick lets us into his own story and experience growing up in Norway as an adoptee, navigating being of a different race as his peers, then dealing with his budding sexuality in adolescence while growing up within a conservative, christian part of Norway. He goes on to share about his journey in finding himself and integrating together all parts of him self. Patrick was so generous with his story, I feel so grateful he wanted to contribute it to this greater collective work supporting our community.About the guest:Patrick (he/him) is not your average adopted gay christian arctic surfer. He has lived and worked in his van for the last 5 years and absolutely love that lifestyle. Surfing has become a way for him to find his community local and global.  For more about Patrick, visit Surfer.Gay, or follow @surfer.gay and @pcolsen on Instagram.For more about Second Adolescence, visit www.secondadolescencepod.com and @secondadolescencepod.Download episode transcript here.

This week’s guest is queer, non-binary artist and writer, Nat Urban (they/them), who is currently working on a badass project on queerness and girlhood which you’ll hear them talk about towards then end of this episode. Nat brings such an interesting and important story to this show and I feel so grateful they wanted to let us all into it. You’ll hear them share about their own adolescence in which they stepped into the role as the primary out, loud, and proud queer person in their high school who other queer people started looking up to, but how this was connected to overcompensating for some painful rejection they were experiencing at home and lots of internal struggle. They go on to share about the evolution of their experience in their queerness, their mental health journey, and how stepping into their non-binary identity in the past couple of years has come with another layer of needing to travel through a Second Adolescence. This was such a powerful conversation. (Just a heads up there is discussion of the topics of depression, suicide, and self-harm, so I invite you to do whatever you might need to take care of yourself as a listener.)About the guest:Nat (they/them) is an artist and academic exploring queer experience through a number of mediums. They're a recent graduate of Butler University and just stepping into their life outside of undergrad and discovering their joys and passions in this new space. They're currently working on a project on queerness and girlhood consisting of a multitude of mediums and areas of exploration as well as getting into costuming and custom clothing in Los Angeles.For more visit www.secondadolescencepod.com or @secondadolescencepod.Download episode transcript here. 

This week’s guest is Nicole Liv (she/her), host of Late Bloomers Clvb podcast. The Late Bloomers Clvb is a community and podcast for Late Blooming queer folks who identify as having come out later in life and find themselves later blooming into their most true queer selves. I cannot recommend this community and Nicole’s work enough. Today, Nicole sat in the role of guest and offered her own story and journey with us.  She shares what led to her being someone who didn't start to have full awareness of her queerness until being in her thirties, and how so much of her story and healing has involved looking back in her story to see the moments when her queerness was hijacked from her, repressed, and not given space to fully breathe and develop, and how she engaged in undoing all this now. She talks with us about Joy and Grief being the two primary markers of her queer healing journey, and truly invites all of us to more deeply look at our own stories and our own needs for healing and liberation. I friggin loved this conversation and love everything the Late Bloomers Clvb is about and am excited to invite you into it. About the guest:Nicole Liv (she/her) identifies as a late blooming lesbian who came out at 34 due to compulsory heterosexuality. She's a podcast host and community facilitator whose mission is to help late blooming queer folks (and all queer folks) cultivate more joy and justice in their lives. For more about the Late Bloomers Clvb, visit www.latebloomersclvb.com or follow @latebloomersclvb.For more about Second Adolescence, visit www.secondadolescencepod.com or follow @secondadolescencepod.Download episode transcript here. 

This week’s guest is Christos Papaioannou (he/him). On this episode, Christos shares SO many things representative of the Second Adolescence experience that many of us will likely relate to. We talk everything from Heartstopper and young queer contemporary media, to growing up dealing with and trying to overcompensate for shame, efforts to turn straight, and, finally, those first experiences of queerness that open us up to a whole new world of experiencing. Christos shares about the meaningful first relationship and breakup he had, and the process of finding liberation and freedom in himself and his he exists in the world. There was so many gems in this conversation, I feel so grateful to Christos for sharing his story with us.About the guest:Christos is a 40-year old gay man living in London, UK, working as a leadership coach and a consultant for humanitarian organisations. Originally from Athens, Greece, he lived and worked in several countries across Europe, Africa and the Middle East before moving to London. He has lived in the UK for the past eight years, and he considers himself a citizen of the world. He loves connecting with other people, cooking, travelling and going to the cinema; he is active in many social justice and political issues, among others being part of the Board of Mosaic LGBT+ Trust, an organisation that supports LGBTQ+ adolescents in London.You can learn more about him and his coaching work at www.coaching-labs.com or connect with him on Instagram or Linkedin.For more, visit www.secondadolescencepod.com or @secondadolescencepod.Download episode transcript here. 

This week’s guest is José Morales (he/him). José shares with us his experience growing up within a context that ended up being quite oppressive to him and his budding queerness. He shares about having an upbringing marked by a lot of people policing his masculinity and his identity, having the experienced of being told who he was and who he should not be before he himself had a chance to figure this out for himself. He then goes on to share about how all of this influenced the rest of his adolescence and his own path to finding what he experiences now as such queer liberation. I really enjoyed getting to speak with José and hear his story, and I’m so grateful he wants to invite you all into it too. About the guest:José Morales (He/Him) grew up in Texas, graduated from LSU with a degree in English Rhetoric, works for the US Post Office and hosts the podcast Jinxler & Professor Strange’s Cortex. You can follow José on IG at: @casa_de_jose.For more, visit www.secondadolescencepod.com and @secondadolescencepod.Download episode transcript here. 

This week’s guest is Caleb Irwin (he/him). Caleb came out two years ago at age 33 which marked the beginning of his Second Adolescence. He so generously lets us in to his experience growing up in Australia in a very religious community that viewed being gay as a mental health issue that one needed to heal from, and how he too operated from this belief. He goes on to share what his evolution has been in navigating this belief system and his own identity, to eventually get to the place he is at now. I so loved getting to talk with Caleb, particularly because I felt so much personal resonance with his Second Adolescence experience, everything from feeling stunted in many ways to having the exciting and scary new first experiences, the joys of getting to share such adolescent-like excitement about dating with friends, and so much more. About the guest:Caleb Irwin (He/Him) is a skilled visual communicator and emerging producer. Currently based in Sydney,  Australia, Caleb has a passion to see stories portrayed on screen in a way that leave audiences changed for the better. Working for his church and various international charities, Caleb has been dedicated to bringing people’s stories to the screen and plans to do this in new and beautiful ways as he steps into the film industry. Caleb chases after life experiences that push his creativity; from living in a village monastery, traveling intentionally with no plans, to now completing a Master of Arts Screen: Producing degree at the Australian Film Television and Radio School.  You can connect with Caleb on IG at: @young_master_irwin.For more, visit www.secondadolescence.com or @secondadolescencepod.Download episode transcript here. 

This week's guest is Tanaya Joshi (she/her). This was SUCH an incredible and powerful conversation! I am so appreciative for Tanaya coming on to let us into her story. She came out 7 years ago, and now has such a happy ending but had quite a challenging journey getting here. She grew up in Mumbai and then moved over to the US at age 11. Navigating India’s historically very anti-queer beliefs greatly impacted her ability to understand her identity, leading to a delay in making sense of the feelings that were there since adolescence. She shares with us about the confusing experience of having such deep feelings for her female friends during adolescence and how this was not reciprocated. She then shares about her process of finding her identity, falling for her now wife, and then the long journey that coming out has been. What was especially powerful about this conversation was how Tanaya let us all in to some challenging dynamics with her parents she’s had to navigate with regards to acceptance and celebration of her identity. Tanaya was so so generous with her story, I felt so honored and touched to be witness to it and feel so grateful she wants to invite you all into this conversation too. About the guest:Tanaya is a product designer living in San Francisco, CA with her wife. To join Tanaya's Newsletter, visit: https://tanayajoshi.substack.com. If you're interested in connecting with her via email, you can reach her at tanayarjoshi at gmail.com (combine in typical email format, it is written out here to avoid bots) For more, visit www.secondadolescencepod.com or @secondadolescencepod.Download episode transcript here.  

Host of the show, Adam James Cohen, shares a mini update about the podcast - we will be having a full new episode next week and then will be taking a summer break, returning with new episodes in September.  Thank you SO much for being a part of this community and these conversations about Second Adolescence!

This week's guest is Finn May (they/he). Finn shares with us about their experience being genderfluid and what their journey has been to understanding and validating their identity and having this validated back to them. He talks about his own experience moving through transphobia and internalized limiting constraints around identity, and what their journey has been to find the joy and healing they experience now. About the guest:Finn (they/he) is a genderfluid/transmasc barista living in Maryland with their fiance and chosen family. He loves theater, the beach, and reading. They are a quadruplet and have been described as an 'openly queer poet', and are currently enrolled at Arizona State University. He is hoping to become a therapist specializing in LGBT+ care. You can reach out to Finn on Instagram: @finnwinn98For more, visit www.secondadolescencepod.com or @secondadolescencepodDownload episode transcript here.