A Millennial's Guide to Saving the World

Whitney Will is a psychological astrologer and writer. She has a B.A. in the History of Math and completed her M.A. in Counseling Psychology with a focus on Jungian and Archetypal Studies at Pacifica. Whitney and I participated in the same astrology apprenticeship and have a very complimentary approach to the practice. We chat mostly about Saturn and Saturn returns - an astrological initiation/"coming of age" that occurs for the first time in our late 20s. We define planetary returns, explore the multivalent archetypes associated with Saturn and share about our own Saturn return journeys, reflecting on their similarities and differences. This episode pays deep reverence to humility, time, honesty, heaviness, the physical manifestation of our hopes and dreams, and all that Saturn offers us if we're open to receiving it.  Find Whitney at at StarHearthAstrology.com, Youtube and Instagram. Whitney's book recommendations: Power and Innocence by Rollo May and Drama of the Gifted Child by Alice Miller and  Songs featured: "10 Laws" by East Forest and "Voice Inside the Well" by Valley Maker Please note: the Lunar Circle is now full! The program will return sometime in the fall. How to support the show: Rate, review and subscribe to the podcast on iTunes! Support my work on Patreon and get access to perks like an exclusive Discord Server, a book club just for patrons, shirts + stickers, playlists, and curated workshops led by myself, fellow Patrons and former guests of the podcast. Visit my website - AnyaKaats.com & Find me on Instagram Get full access to Dirt Road Dispatch at anyakaats.substack.com/subscribe

Chris Ryan returns to the podcast to elaborate on an episode he recorded for Tangentially Speaking, regarding "The Way of the Superior Man" by David Deida. We were both a little shocked at how much we disliked this book, especially given how many people had recommended it to us. We share our own opinions about healthy masculine & feminine expression/integration, and why we think this book reads more like a parenting book than a guide to healthy & evolved relationships. We discuss our thoughts on how to maintain eroticism in relationships, why growth isn't always comfortable and why "othering" your partner is never a good strategy for "enlightenment" nor self-awareness. Want to watch the video version of this conversation? Click here. Find Chris at ChrisRyanPhd.com, on Twitter and on Instagram. Songs featured: "Righteously" by Anna Ash Interested in participating in the Lunar Circle? Visit anyakaats.com/lunarcircle for more information and to enroll.  How to support the show: Rate, review and subscribe to the podcast on iTunes! Support my work on Patreon and get access to perks like an exclusive Discord Server, a book club just for patrons, shirts + stickers, playlists, and curated workshops led by myself, fellow Patrons and former guests of the podcast. Visit my website - AnyaKaats.com & Find me on Instagram Get full access to Dirt Road Dispatch at anyakaats.substack.com/subscribe

Jenny Odell is a multi-disciplinary artist and writer. Her book How To Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy, was just released in paperback. Jenny and I speak about what "doing nothing" actually means and how we can work to resist capitalist value structures that demand we consume and produce in order to stay relevant and valuable in society. We also discuss how to carve out authentic and enjoyable ways to be creative without falling victim to the culture of productivity, and share our thoughts on social media & tips for navigating the realm of self-promotion in a way that honors our humanness and doesn't force us to become "a brand". Find Jenny at at jennyodell.com and on Twitter. Jenny's book recommendations: The Spell of the Sensuous by David Abram and Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer Songs featured: "I Can't Sleep" by Oliver Tank, "Shorty Don't Wait" by A Great Big World, "Chill or Be Chilled" by The Polish Ambassador feat. Nitty Scott and and off the cuff guitar lick by my dear Patron Axel, recorded in his new home. Interested in participating in the Lunar Circle? Visit anyakaats.com/lunarcircle for more information and to enroll.  How to support the show: Rate, review and subscribe to the podcast on iTunes! Support my work on Patreon and get access to perks like an exclusive Discord Server, a book club just for patrons, shirts + stickers, playlists, and curated workshops led by myself, fellow Patrons and former guests of the podcast. Visit my website - AnyaKaats.com & Find me on Instagram Get full access to Dirt Road Dispatch at anyakaats.substack.com/subscribe

On this episode, I delve into what it was like to go through what some may call a Spiritual Awakening, but what I prefer to call a Spiritual Emergency. I speak about both the gifts and dangers of developing a spiritual practice, and how we often use spirituality, psychedelics and other forms of "magic" to avoid confronting our shadow. I speak about gurus, synchronicity, astrology, discernment, psychological projection and share my thoughts on "ascension," "5D" and other go-to spiritual concepts. This isn't an episode dismissing spirituality, but rather, a plea to bring nuance and critical thinking to the extremely useful & meaningful, (but often misused) practice of "Spirituality".  The book that I read from was Robert A. Johnson's Inner Gold. Songs featured: "Dream 13 (minus even)" by Max Richter, and "The Weaver" by Trevor Hall Interested in participating in the Lunar Circle? Visit anyakaats.com/lunarcircle for more information and to enroll.  How to support the show: Rate, review and subscribe to the podcast on iTunes! Support my work on Patreon and get access to perks like exclusive WhatsApp group chats, an exclusive Discord server, a book club just for patrons, shirts + stickers, playlists, and curated workshops led by Patrons and former guests of the podcast. Visit my website - AnyaKaats.com & Find me on Instagram Get full access to Dirt Road Dispatch at anyakaats.substack.com/subscribe

Dana is a Nutritionist and Body Image Coach who teaches women how to heal their relationship to food and to their bodies. She's also one of the very few people I actually trust in the wellness/functional medicine community. We speak about our personal health journeys, how we met in the food blogger world, and where we are now. We talk about the shadow sides of "wellness" culture as a whole, but specifically related to the paleo/ancestral/whole food world, & elaborate on how "functional," whole food diets are still diets. We also talk about the correlations between stress & health, how food and wellness influencers are rarely healthy and how the unhealthy relationship we have to food and to our bodies may very well be an extension of our unhealthy relationship to control.  Find Dana at realfoodwithdana.com and on Instagram. Dana's book recommendations: Daring Greatly by Brené Brown, The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho, and Beyond Beautiful by Anuschka Rees Songs featured: "This is How We Walk on the Moon" by José González and "I Like That" by Janelle Monáe Interested in participating in the Lunar Circle? Visit anyakaats.com/lunarcircle for more information and to enroll.  How to support the show: Rate, review and subscribe to the podcast on iTunes! Support my work on Patreon and get access to perks like exclusive WhatsApp group chats, a book club just for patrons, shirts + stickers, playlists, and curated workshops led by Patrons and former guests of the podcast. Visit my website - AnyaKaats.com & Find me on Instagram Get full access to Dirt Road Dispatch at anyakaats.substack.com/subscribe

Shulie Hersh is a graduate of the Academy for Jewish Religion, and a Cantor for the Beth Sholom Congregation in Frederick, MD. Shulie and I went to High School together, and reconnected for the first time on this episode. We speak about what it was like for Shulie growing up with a father who was a Rabbi and how it felt being "the Jewish girl" in our High School. We deconstruct Judaism as both a religion and a culture and discuss the nature of ancestral Jewish trauma. We speak about how we can incorporate traditional practices of all kinds into our lives, but also evolve them to suit our modern day values. And Shulie also explains how Judaism encourages us to question & struggle with faith, how the Jewish calendar can help connect us to nature, and how being angry and processing grief has always been a crucial component Judaism throughout history and into the present.  Send Shulie an Email - cantor@bethsholomfrederick.org Shulie's book recommendations: The Jewish Book of Days by Jill Hammer Songs featured: "Opening" by Jamie Sieber and "Avinu Malkeinu" by Barbara Streisand Interested in participating in my first Lunar Cycle Intensive? Send me an email to reserve your spot: anyakaats@gmail.com How to support the show: Rate, review and subscribe to the podcast on iTunes! Support my work on Patreon and get access to perks like exclusive WhatsApp group chats, a book club just for patrons, shirts + stickers, playlists, and curated workshops led by Patrons and former guests of the podcast. Visit my website - AnyaKaats.com & Find me on Instagram Get full access to Dirt Road Dispatch at anyakaats.substack.com/subscribe

Sex Witch and all around badass Lenore Black joins me to have a conversation about sex, taboo and accepting our full selves without judgement. Lenore vulnerably shares about her past, including her experiences with sexual abuse and child sex trafficking, and how it landed her where she is today - helping others move through trauma and become fully embodied. We speak about the complexities of trauma and victimhood, and how we can idealize the persona of being someone who's "fucked up". We speak about the positives and negatives of social media, especially in regard to sexuality and censorship. We discuss the differences between sex addiction and having a high sex drive, why it’s imperative to form relationships with people who can accept the full embodiment of who we are and why we should move toward our triggers, not away from them. Lenore also explains why she likes being catcalled, and why she doesn't call herself a feminist. Find Lenore on Instagram @lenoreblack_, at LenoreBlack.com and download her free Erotic Self Care Ritual Guide here. Lenore's book recommendations: Existential Kink by Carolyn Elliott To learn more about child sex trafficking, click here.  Songs featured: "Warm Animal" by Sure Sure and "The Cult of Dionysus" by The Orion Experience Listen to the official MGSW playlist on Spotify here. How to support the show: Rate, review and subscribe to the podcast on iTunes! Support my work on Patreon and get access to perks like exclusive WhatsApp group chats, a book club just for patrons, shirts + stickers, playlists, and curated workshops led by Patrons and former guests of the podcast. Visit my website - AnyaKaats.com & Find me on Instagram Get full access to Dirt Road Dispatch at anyakaats.substack.com/subscribe

The ladies of Kosmic Tonic join the podcast once again, this time to discuss sun signs, moon signs and rising signs. We speak about how each is significant in its own way, how they differ from one another and how they show up in our personal natal charts. We talk about how to find the planetary ruler of a chart, why reading horoscopes from your rising sign is more accurate than your sun sign and how tracking lunar cycles can help you learn about yourself in new ways each month. We also talk about tonight's Cancer full moon and how Cancer shows up differently in each of our lives.  Find Eliza, Kestrel and Jasmine at KosmicTonic.com Songs featured: "Petrichor" by Keaton Henson & "Crying Woman" by Holly Arrowsmith How to support the show: Rate, review and subscribe to the podcast on iTunes! Support my work on Patreon and get access to perks like an exclusive WhatsApp group chat & book club just for patrons! Visit my website - AnyaKaats.com & Find me on Instagram Get full access to Dirt Road Dispatch at anyakaats.substack.com/subscribe

Back by popular demand, everyone's favorite gay dad returns to the podcast. We picked up right where we left off - diving deeper into the topic of identity. We discuss my Dad's childhood, how being raised by psychotherapists/sex therapists lead to overstimulation and anxiety, but also emotional fluency. We talk about identity as a construct and how my dad navigated his identity throughout the 70s, 80s & beyond, and we discuss my Dad's lifelong passion for theatre & how reacquainting ourselves with the importance of stories might lead us to embody ourselves and our identity more fully. Saucy Rod's book recommendations: The Complete Lyrics of Cole Porter, Scandinavian Design by Charlotte and Peter Fiell and The Trouble with Normal by Michael Warner Songs featured: "When You Come Back Down" by Nickel Creek & "Star People" by George Michael How to support the show: Rate, review and subscribe to the podcast on iTunes! Support my work on Patreon and get access to perks like an exclusive WhatsApp group chat, patron-led workshops, community contact list & a book club just for patrons! Visit my website - AnyaKaats.com & Find me on Instagram Get full access to Dirt Road Dispatch at anyakaats.substack.com/subscribe

Maren is a writer, podcaster & curious free-thinker, currently working with her partner Jake on a multimedia project called Death in the Garden, which explores the complex intersection of the cycle of life and death, holism, climate change, civilization, ecology, and psychology from the perspective of two millennials on a journey to make sense of our very nuanced world. I invited Maren on the podcast to speak about our society's proclivity to seek out easy solutions to complex problems, how our focus on symptoms rather than systems prevents meaningful change and how embracing responsibility and rejecting blame in our personal lives is the only way to think critically, be honest with ourselves and work to construct meaningful community, empowered activism & a rejection of the status quo. Find Maren on Instagram @onyxmoonlight & @deathinthegarden, at DeathInTheGarden.org & on Medium Maren's Book Recommendation: Belonging by Toko-pa Turner, Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer and The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz Songs featured: "Dying to Live" by Jonny Lang & "Home" by Caribou How to support the show: Rate, review and subscribe to the podcast on iTunes! Support my work on Patreon and get access to perks like an exclusive WhatsApp group chat, patron-led workshops, community contact list & a book club just for patrons! Visit my website - AnyaKaats.com & Find me on Instagram Get full access to Dirt Road Dispatch at anyakaats.substack.com/subscribe