slow inside

there are so many ways to be human. so many ways to look at what we have been given. so many ways to respond to a life. I turn to rob bell when I want to be a human filled with possibility, to look at what we have been given with joy, and to respond to life with wonder.rob is a master creator who talks, writes, and teaches you how to say the thing you’re dying to say and do the thing you’re dying to do. he is a speaker, podcaster and author of ten books including several new york times bestsellers and his most recent, “everything is spiritual.” his podcast – the robcast – was named by iTunes best of 2015. he’s been profiled in The New Yorker, toured with Oprah and in 2011, Time magazine named him one of the 100 most influential people in the world.rob is one of my heroes. he takes the hard, he turns towards the pain, and transforms it into a beautiful gift for us all.some things we talk about: finding your joythe most brilliant response to fear. ever.  how to use your imagination to create the life you long to live the miracle of the universestepping into the mystery and dancing with the unknown 

in a time when covid physical distances us from one another, politics emotionally separates us, and an economy driven by individual success financially divides us, it can seem almost impossible to create what we most need to truly belong: community.mia birdsong, pathfinder, activist, storyteller and author of “How We Show Up: reclaiming family, friendship and community” has devoted her life to creating and cultivating community not just because it feels good but because we need it. we need it because we are human. because we are interdependent creatures who rely on one another to survive. we need it because it’s through shared wisdom and experience that we can save what is failing and create what we are imagining. and we need it because, as much as creativity is a solo act, it comes from our shared existence.mia has “a gift for making visible and leveraging the brilliance of everyday people so that our collective gifts reach larger spheres of influence, cultural and political change, and create wellbeing for everyone.”and in this conversation mia brings her experience as senior fellow of the Economic Security Project, founding co-director of Family Story, vice president of The Family Independence Initiative, speaker at conferences and universities around the country and her Ted talk (viewed over 1.7 million times), to show us how we can use community to chart a new path forward.some of what we talk about: the american dream, toxic individualism and the power of communitywhat we value and why we better change it. now. finding agency in spaciousness (and how to create more spaciousness in a busy life)looking to the marginalized for freedomand why you only have to do your partmay it inspire you to make your thing and change your world.  

morgan harper nichols offers her art daily to her 1.6+ million instagram followers, via her podcast and her book of poetry and art, “all along you were blooming” and through her many collaborations with companies like coach, adobe, live nation, aerie and more.in this conversation,  we talk about going from paycheck to paycheck to a business with employees, two books, multiple partnerships and a massive social media following, the role of intuition in her art and life, staying the course and how she keeps herself inspired, dealing with doubt, healing differences and how she defines success at this point in her career.you can listen to more conversations with brave and experimental artists and makers hereyou can follow the host, daphne cohn, on instagram

Poet and philosopher David Whyte delves into breaking surface conversations, humor as spiritual practice, body's role in art, being a 'real artist,' and vulnerability in creative work. Emphasizes deep listening, embracing silence, restoring childhood wonder, and exploring vulnerability for growth and authenticity.

 in this conversation with self-help pioneer and author of, "why bother: discover the desire for what’s next," jennifer louden talks about claiming your agency and knowing your work matters, how to know when to stop bothering and move on to something else? what to do when you don’t know what your desires are, how to keep choosing yourself over and over again and how to be vulnerable in your work and then share it with the world.

there are those souls that are both soft and strong, wise and wide open. toko-pa is one of those souls.when toko-pa was just 15 she ran away from a violent, destructive home life and found herself having to navigate “the system.” the next decade was a hard one as she figured out, on her own, how to become an adult in a complicated, often uncaring world. this was the beginning of her search for belonging.this search has led her down many creative, beautiful paths and today she is the founder of dreamschool: weaving a living bridge to the otherworld as well as the author of the award-winning book belonging: remembering ourselves home. in toko-pa’s words, “in addition to tending dreams, my work focuses on restoring the feminine, reconciling paradox, elevating grief, and facilitating ritual.”join us as we explore a pathway home.some things we talk about: how to start down the path of belonging to yourself and the worldwhen she lost sight of her creativity and how she came back to itfinding your own values and  your own voiceher own creative process and how she gets to what is truewhen it’s time to commit and when it’s time to let go (and how to tell the difference)and cultivating a vision for your life in tune with your longingyou can learn more at daphnecohn.com or follow BEYOND on instagram @daphnecohn

in this episode of the ten-part series, "who we might become," joy researcher, jesh de rox, explains what is joy, why it’s so important to creativity, and how to connect to ithow to respond to sadness and pain with a creative spiritthe path to greatnessand how we let go of what doesn’t serve us anymore in order to make what doesyou can learn more about jesh and download the remaining seven episodes of this series over at daphnecohn.comyou can check out "within studio": a community with hands-on art workshops, live q & a's with well known artists, makers, and activists, open studios and monthly check-ins at daphnecohn.comwithin studio is currently pay-what-you-can in response to covid-19 and all the financial uncertainty during this time. and you can follow the BEYOND podcast over at instagram @daphnecohn 

join joy researcher, jesh de rox, and I for part 2 of our ten-part mini-series “who we might become.” in this episode we explore how to see differently, create your own language and change the culture with your creativity. some things we talk about: the seed of all creativitythe three stages of the creative processthe gift of enough and not enoughwhat it takes to become an artist who will actually produce change in the larger culturewhy joy matters so muchand how to start breaking the rules and creating something new.you can learn more about jesh and previous podcast guests over at daphnecohn.comyou can check out the pay-what-you-can "within studio" membership community at withincommunity.com. there are monthly live q & a's with artists and makers, bi-monthly creativity check-ins and weekly open studios. it's a chance to gather, make, love, laugh, play, and make some more. and you can follow the BEYOND podcast over at instagram @daphnecohn

jesh de rox, at heart, is an explorer. a man who has spent much of his life asking the big questions; the ones that help make sense of who we are and why we’re here. over the years, traveling the planet, immersing himself in experiences and conversations that test the boundaries of commonly accepted ideology and culture, jesh has become a very successful creative entrepreneur, thought leader, and business coach.through his journey, jesh learned to shape and grow his businesses based on principles of joy and personal growth. his work has been featured in Vogue, Huffington Post, Elle, and Range Finder, to name a few, and he has an international client list that includes celebrities and world-class performers in many fields.in this ten-part mini series, "who we might become," we dive deep into ALL things creative: permission and courage, social media and sharing, rejection and criticism, discovery and greatness, and ultimately, who we might become.these are big topics and we go pretty deep with a lot of them. we visit, and revisit, many of them over the ten episodes (which I will be sharing weekly) so if at first some of it feels too deep or too vast, give it time. let it wash over you and slowly integrate into your being. 

marlee grace is a writer, a dancer, an artist, and a “shape maker.”she has books on social media addiction and  “how to not always be working.” she teaches and does creative advising. she has a podcast and a project called CENTER, “an experiment unfolding in space and time.”she lives in a patriarchal, cisnormative, heterosexual-driven culture as a queer female artist constantly blurring the lines of the known and the unknown. she is not afraid to be many things and she is not afraid to share her truth in all of it.here are marlee's thoughts on spinning out and getting calm, sharing truth, grappling with doubt and living in joy, and using all of it to find your own “right size.”some things we talk about:how she stays present and manages anxiety, obsessive thinkingon being honest about who you are even when that means losing those who follow youhow quitting drinking has informed her workher daily “marlee maintenance” planmaking what’s most important to who you are