Afleveringen
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In this episode, Kimberly and return guest Sophie Strand celebrate publishing week for Sophieâs extraordinary new book The Body is a Doorway: A Memoir: A Journey Beyond Healing, Hope, and the Human. They discuss where Sophie currently finds herself in a post-diagnosis reality and what writing the book taught her about the mysteries of illness. She emphasizes the complex power of doctor relationships and medical information on the body through the nocebo effect. Kimberly and Sophie talk through what it looks like to support someone dealing with illness day to day. Sophie shares her personal and social experiences with chronic illness, as well as the contemporary cultural pressures to intertwine identity with labels. She also highlights the role of community, creativity and bad story on diagnoses and treatments. This open-hearted conversation touches on the broader implications of health, identity, and the need for a more open and relational approach to care and self-understanding.
Bio
Sophie Strand is a poet and writer with a focus on the intersection of spirituality, storytelling, and ecology. Her poems and essays have appeared in numerous projects and publications, including Spirituality & Health, Atmos, Braided Way, and Art PAPERS. She is the author of The Flowering Wand and The Madonna Secret, and the creator of the popular Substack âMake Me Good Soil.â She lives in the Hudson Valley of New York.
What They Share
The impact of a long-awaited diagnosis The No-Cebo Effect What we pay attention to we pray towards The Mystery of Illness Bad Story in Myth and Psychotherapeutic fields Self-Diagnosis How to tell a different stories about chronic illness Performing Sickness to have invisible illness be more visible How to check in with friends having a hard time/facing health challenges End of the addiction line Chronic Sickness as it relates to sobriety Eco-cidal culture wants to turn everything into product Somatic Protest Body canât work The miracle of GoFund Me alongside an unaffordable health care system History of oral culture Orality and Literature by anthropologist Walter Ong What is an individual? Monotheism of Psychology The impulse to classify is about control and fear Prayer is another energy that might have a better idea of what I need Vending Machine Prayer Finding book endings that arenât fantasies How to separate negative from worse How to operate with one spoonLinks
IG @cosmogyny
Substack https://sophiestrand.substack.com/
Sophie's New Book: https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/sophie-strand/the-body-is-a-doorway-a-memoir/9780762487417/?lens=running-press
The Body is A Doorway Amazon Review page: https://www.amazon.com/review/create-review/?ie=UTF8&channel=glance-detail&asin=0762487410
Money and The Nervous System Sign-Up: https://kimberlyannjohnson.com/money-the-nervous-system/
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This is a special re-release of an episode featuring guest host Jackson Kroopf speaking with the incomparable Kimberly Ann Johnson and Stephen Jenkinson. Weâre bringing this conversation back to let you know about something special happening this weekend from Stephen Jenkinson and the Orphan Wisdom School: Sanity and Soul: Die Wise 10 Years.
Taking place on March 15th and 16th at 10am Pacific, this 6-part online event is a deep dive into the wisdom of death, grief, and the soul, 10 years after the publication of Stephen's transformative book Die Wise. Youâll get to experience the depth of Stephenâs work in a pretty unique way: through 4 recorded grief counsel sessions with dying people, hearing Stephen practice, in 2025, the kind of work described in Die Wise. Plus, heâll be joined by two brilliant colleaguesâa neuroscientist studying human consciousness and a filmmaker exploring the afterlifeâto discuss the lasting impact of Die Wise on grief counseling, death doulas, and the way these ideas continue to shape our world.
If you want to learn more and register, visit orphanwisdom.com/events. But now, enjoy this conversation from March 2023, following Reckoning at Mt. Madonna. Please do consider gifting yourself or a loved one this upcoming offering, Sanity & Soul that promises to provide some ceremony in these troubled times in ways only Stephen and the Orphan Wisdom School can.
Link: https://orphanwisdom.com/event/die-wise-sanity-and-soul-ten-years-on/
What Youâll Here in this Episode:
Reflections on witness from retired birth and death workers
The value of disillusionment
The power of loneliness
The proliferation of self pathologizing
The complex politics of feelings
The religion of western psychology
Adolescents grabbing for pop psychology labels
The respect in not offering solutions
The eagerness to escape from pain while grieving
Is love dead?
Blessing not as approval but the emergence of something new
Marriage as both celebration and loss
Matrimony between cultures
An only child and single parent inviting in a new husband
Building an escape route as you enter a union
The no-go zone of contemporary western marriage
15 minute weddings, 15 minute funerals, 15 minute births
The cultural casualties of uniformity
Being healthy enough to tend to home and neighbor
Links
ig @reckoning live
Sanity & Soul Sign-Up https://orphanwisdom.com/event/die-wise-sanity-and-soul-ten-years-on/
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Zijn er afleveringen die ontbreken?
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In this episode, return guest Joelle Hann and Kimberly discuss the complexities of publishing, including traditional, self, and hybrid publishing. Joelle walks us through the importance of a book proposal, which serves as a roadmap for authors and a calling card for agents and publishers. Kimberly weighs in on her own experience in navigating the book publishing world and the incredible value she has found in working with Joelle. Joelle highlights the need for authors to understand their audience and market, and the potential pitfalls of self-publishing without an existing audience. Joelle's Book Proposal Academy is enrolling now and starts March 14th. This is the only cohort for 2025. Apply now! To be eligible to save up to $500 and get other early-bird bonuses, mention Sex, Birth, Trauma podcast in your application.
Bio
Joelle Hann is an award-winning writer with a history of developing high-level book projects for major American publishers. Subject areas have included wellness and transformation, womenâs health, leadership and spirituality, as well as conscious business, personal finance and memoir. She has worked with top CEOs and humanitarian activists,visionary coaches and thought-leaders, spiritual teachers, scholars, moms, midwives, entrepreneurs, and many others. She founded Brooklyn Book Doctor to help people write transformational books to help change the world.
Links
IG @brooklynbookdoctor
Learn More & Apply to Book Proposal Academy 2025: https://brooklynbookdoctor.com/bpa
Learn More about Sanity & Soul: Die Wise Ten Years On with Stephen Jenkinson here: https://orphanwisdom.com/event/die-wise-sanity-and-soul-ten-years-on/
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In this episode, Kimberly dives deep into guest author Catherine Simone Gray's book Proud Flesh: A Memoir of Motherhood, Intimate Violence, and Reclaiming Pleasure. With tenderness, Kimberly and Catherine share their mutual appreciation for each otherâs writing and the deep impact Kimberlyâs work has had on the journey that led to Catherineâs book. Catherine guides us through her journey of healing from a vaginal tear postpartum, which led to the discovery of proud flesh, a term for hypergranulation tissue. She describes the emotional and physical challenges she faced across two births (one hospital/C-Section, one home/natural), including silver nitrate treatments and the support of her husband; recounting the story of how the coupleâs relationships to one anotherâs bodies changed when she invited him to draw her vulva daily. Catherine and Kimberly both emphasize the importance of language and writing in redefining sexuality and eroticism, and how this process can support women in reconnecting with their body. If you enjoyed this conversation be sure to sign up for their online gathering Writing as a Pathway to Pleasure on Sunday, February 23rd at https://kimberlyannjohnson.com/writing-pathway-to-pleasure/
Bio
Catherine Simone Gray is a writer and teacher. Her writings on motherhood and healing first appeared on her blog Unsilenced Woman, where her piece about teaching her son consent reached 2.5 million around the world. Featured by Roxane Gay in The Audacityâs Emerging Writer Series, her work has also appeared in The Bitter Southerner and the Michigan Quarterly Review: Mixtape. Her blog writings have been shared by respected organizations for new mothers, such as La Leche League USA, International Cesarean Awareness Network, and ImprovingBirth. Gray is the recipient of a literary arts fellowship with the Mississippi Arts Commission and has delivered three addresses at the Mississippi Women's March and Womanist rallies.
With over a decade of experience as a writing teacher to people aged eight to eighty, she holds a master of arts in curriculum and instruction. She leads writing circles for women, mothers, and caregivers, exploring how writing can be an ally in our living and loving. Her debut memoir Proud Flesh: A Memoir of Motherhood, Intimate Violence, and Reclaiming Pleasure was published in 2025 by North Atlantic Books. She lives in Jackson, Mississippi, with her husband and their two sons.
What Youâll Hear
Kimberlyâs deep appreciation for the writing craft found in Catherineâs book and is moved by the way their work has intersected
Catherine has been a Jaguar since 2017 and shares the way many baths listening, reading and sitting with Kimberlyâs work influenced Proud Flesh
Catherine recalls key moments with her doctor in making a healing plan for a natural birth injury
Catherine describes how the scientific term Proud Flesh took on poetic meaning in her life
Catherine discusses the difference in healing from the numbing disconnect of C-Section to the embodied pain of a natural birth.
Catherine describes a profound confrontation with how her and her husband relate to each otherâs bodies, which led to a durational art project in which he drew her vulva over time.
Catherine and Kimberly reflect on erotic writing that doesnât reify centering the male gaze
Kimberly and Catherine talk about their own evolving relationships to their bodies and the craft of writing
Links
IG - @unsilencedwoman
Website - www.unsilencedwoman.com
Book - https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/771427/proud-flesh-by-catherine-simone-gray/
Online Gathering - https://kimberlyannjohnson
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In this episode, Kimberly and PÄnquetzani discuss her new book Thriving Postpartum: Embracing the Indigenous Wisdom of La Cuarentena and the thirteen year process of navigating that creative act. PÄnquetzani reflects on the ways her relationships with partners and her four children have impacted the journey of making a business and writing a book. PÄnquetzaniâs writing is inextricably linked directly to the work she has done in and for her community around postpartum care, as well as the lessons she learned around mental health and partner agreements along the way. A deep meditation on personal healing and learning how to make and hold boundaries. The episode lovingly asks: how do you listen to your intuition, your womb, and your baby?
Bio
PÄnquetzani comes from a matriarchal family of folk healers from the valley of Mexico (Tenochtitlan, Texcoco, and Tlaxcala), La Comarca Lagunera (Durango and Coahuila), and Zacatecas. As a traditional herbalist, healer, and birthkeeper, PÄnquetzani has touched over 3,000 wombs and bellies. Through her platform, Indigemama: Ancestral Healing, she has taught over 100 live, in-person intensives and trainings on womb wellness. She lives in California.
What youâll hear:
The 13 year journey of writing a book
Differences in how men and women are treated in public as new parents
Liberation of separation and divorce
The challenge of holding boundaries with mothers-in-law
Creating a culture of community care in a colonial context
How to navigate who you want in your cuarentena?
How to work with narcissism and boundaries?
Listen to your womb, listen to your intuition, ask your baby: what do you need?
Pain and martyrdomâs role in parenting
Respect is connected to access in a relationship
A birth story that led to parent/child healing
How to be in communication with your womb
Resources
Website: https://indigemama.com/
IG: @indigemama
Book: Thriving Postpartum at Sounds True
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Kimberly and Mirabai Starr engage in a rich and intimate exploration of mysticism, personal loss, spirituality, and the intersection of sexuality and the sacred. They consider how they have each found spirituality in their everyday lives while being mindful of their journeys, cultures, ancestry, and the complexities involved. They discuss Mirabai's new book, "Ordinary Mysticism," which delves into the nature of mysticism and its accessibility to everyone every day. Mirabai emphasizes that mysticism doesn't require institutionalized religion and can be found in ordinary moments. They discuss the profound impact of loss and grief in Mirabaiâs life. She describes how these experiences deepened her connection to the sacred and the beauty intertwined with suffering.
Bio
Mirabai Starr is an award winning author of creative nonfiction and contemporary translations of sacred literature. She taught philosophy and world religions at the University of New Mexico, Taos for 20 years, and now teaches and speaks internationally on contemplative practice and inter-spiritual dialog. A certified bereavement counselor, Mirabai helps mourners harness the transformational power of loss. She has written over 15 books, and the latest is âOrdinary Mysticism.â But you'll hear her talk about âCaravan of No Despair,â âWild Mercy,â and some of her translations from Spanish to English, âIn The Mystics,â âThe Great Mystics.â She lives with her extended family in the mountains of northern New Mexico.
What youâll hear:
Mirabai's views on spiritual, literary and poetic writing.
The origin story of her new book "Ordinary Mysticism" - including itâs connection to Anne Lamott
The ease in finding the mystical if you are open to it.
The challenges of having that openness in the everyday
The intersections of grief and the sacred
Cultivating mystical awareness in daily life
Searching for spiritual grounding
Uprootedness of being spiritual but not religious
How to understand your relationship to different spiritual technologies
How to tap into spiritual bounty without colonizing and appropriating
Intention and attention are crucial for recognizing the sacred in the mundane.
The integration of sexuality and spirituality
The common split many women feel between the sexual and the sacred aspects of their lives. How healing from/through sexual abuse can lead to sacredness in intimacy
Whatâs a responsible and mindful approach to drawing from various spiritual traditions?
How does storytelling and reflecting on shared struggles lead to insights within the spiritual journey?
And how ending an abusive sexual and spiritual relationship can lead to healing through new forms of intimacy.
Healthy intimacy can be holy
Resources
https://mirabaistarr.com/ -
Fellow Orphan Wisdom Scholar, and founder of Marketing for Hippies, Tad Hargrave dives deep with Kimberly into his ever-evolving relationship to whiteness and ancestry. They discuss Tadâs journey into exploring his ancestral roots, language and cultural identity, as well as Kimberly and Tadâs shared rites of passage experiences doing anti-racism work. Tad shares how he initially felt disconnected from indigenous cultures, but found deep resonance exploring his own heritage, particularly his Scottish Gaelic ancestry. The two discuss the polarities of self-loathing and self-glorification amidst contemporary white activists of both the left and right, and the broader implications of whiteness and cultural identity for white individuals. They touch on the importance of considering both privileges and poverties when it comes to whiteness, and also consider the challenges and complexities faced by white people in navigating issues of privilege, guilt when trying to meaningfully engage with marginalized histories and communities. Overall, the conversation delves into the nuanced and often difficult process of reclaiming one's cultural heritage and identity as a white person, and ends on a consideration of how to creatively and meaningfully approach speaking the colonizer tongue of English.
Bio:
Tad Hargrave is a hippy who developed a knack for marketing (and then learned to be a hippy again). He spent his late teens being schooled in a mixed bag of approaches to sales and marketing â some manipulative and some not. When that career ended, he spent a decade unlearning and unpacking what heâd been through. How had he been swept up in it? Why didnât those approaches work as well as advertised? Were there ways of marketing that both worked better and felt better to all involved? It took him time but he began to find a better way to market. By 2006, he had become one of the first, full-time âconscious businessâ marketing coaches (for hippies) and created a business where he could share the understanding he had come to: Marketing could feel good. You didnât have to choose between marketing that worked (but felt awful) or marketing that felt good (but got you no clients). Since 2001, he has been touring his marketing workshops around Canada, the United States, Europe, and online, bringing refreshing and unorthodox ideas to conscious entrepreneurs and green businesses that help them grow their organizations and businesses (without selling their souls). Instead of charging outrageous amounts, he started doing most of his events on a pay what you can basis. He is the author of sixteen books and workbooks on marketing. Tad currently lives in Edmonton, Alberta (traditionally known, in the local indigenous language of the Cree, as Amiskwaciy (Beaver Hill) and later Amiskwaciwaskihegan (Beaver Hill House) and his ancestors come primarily from Scotland with some from the Ukraine as well. He is now dedicated to spending the rest of his days preserving and fostering a more deeply respectful, beautiful and human culture.
What youâll hear:
Tadâs intro to anti-racism and youth organizing work in the Bay Area
Tad found himself pushing up against something in anti-racist/white supremacy trainings
What is the role of self-loathing in anti-racism trainings?
Tad found admiration toward indigenous rituals, but unlike some white peers, didnât feel drawn to doing more work with indigenous cultures
Something changed when Tad began learning his indigenous language
Tad came to understand whiteness as a cover for something
Whiteness is a kind of forgetting
Can a white person participate in a indigenous ritual? Yes, but always as a guest and with consideration for the impact their presence might be having on that community
Recognizing that whiteness was trouble, that it was a kind of poverty
Tad found he no longer was so anxiously seeking approval from indigenous people and people of color, which he recognized as another form of taking
The importance of finding rootedness in ancestral story
Kim discusses her experience in urban education in Chicago and studying under Michael Eric Dyson
Kim found she was often comparing her ancestor grief to Black peers
Kim has found Canadaâs links to the older world to be more apparent than the United States
Unpacking whiteness is an empty box - thereâs nothing there.
Where do white people go for culture? Often Black culture in North America
You canât start with shame - you have to remind people who they came from
Peter Levineâs idea that you donât, in locating feelings in the body, rest in whatâs good and stay comfortable; but you also donât stay in the bad and turn to ash.
For white people there is no âgoodâ place to go connected to the term white- itâs discomfort all the time.
A polarizing time - one end of the spectrum is MAGA which reinforces white supremacy/entitlement the other end is leftist positive reinforcement for self-loathing, guilt, and shame.
White privilege gets conflated with cultural appropriation
The belief that deep down you are bad is a non-indigenous worldview - itâs a Christian one.
A rite of passage in a certain way to be so different than the rest of a room of people.
There is privilege in white innocence, wide-eyed and curious about other worldviews, but it is not one that you come out the other side of without recognizing cultural poverty.
There are double binds of contemporary identity politics discourse - despite the intention to advocate for another group of people, there is also anticipated criticism for participating in culture or movement that is not your own.
After an event, there are lines of young people paralyzed by guilt about being white, male, or part of the settler-colonial class.
Thereâs a lot of learning that can happen if you look back to why people left, further than just North American history.
Self-loathing is a collapse onto oneself and self-glorification if a puffing up/posture on a very dark history of genocide, slavery, and racism - they arenât opposites - they are two sides of the same coin.
Dominant society has a tendency to co-opt, and possess everything that is holy.
There is no movement that isnât co-opted by a dominant society - BLM, Feminism, Indigeneity
Corporations co-opt every movement without changing their practices - the enemy is that machine.
Wendell Berry - live as a machine or live as a creature?
Whiteness is a construct of empire.
How do you make a living when you want to opt out of empire, late-stage capitalism and try and work on a more human scale?
How to find or make the village? Leaving more than you had for the next generation.
The origins of a conception of whiteness is privilege - but as you go further there are also poverties.
At Orphan Wisdom School Tad saw something not just preserved, but practiced
How do we not only preserve ancestral culture but also practice it?
What does it mean to make culture in the times and places we are living?
Resources
Tadâs Substack: https://tadhargrave.substack.com/
Tadâs Marketing Business: https://marketingforhippies.com/
Tad on Whiteness: https://healingfromwhiteness.blogspot.com/
Tadâs IG: https://www.instagram.com/marketingforhippies/
Martin Prechtelâs book: Rescuing the Light
Stephanie Mackayâs website: stephaniemackay.ca
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In this episode, podcast producer Jackson Kroopf interviews Kimberly Ann Johnson and Stephen Jenkinson about their upcoming live audio series Never Land / Sever Land - Dirt, Place, Ancestry, and The Making of Culture From The New World. They discuss the impact of their recent trip to Ireland on their ongoing collaboration around culture making in the wake of a global pandemic. They reveal details about Stephen's work-in-progress manuscript and how it relates to orphan wisdom. They consider the implications of the âNew Worldâ in contemporary circumstances, the sticky territory of ancestry, and how dirt fits into all of this. A glimpse into a very special offering to come, this conversation gives you a preview into what happens when these two come together to consider the topics and work theyâve devoted so much of their respective writings and teachings to: how to consider (your) place when history is never far past.
Bio
Stephen Jenkinson, MTS, MSW is a worker, author, storyteller, musician and culture activist. In 2010, he founded Orphan Wisdom, a house for learning skills of deep living and making human culture that are mandatory in endangered, endangering times. It is a redemptive project that comes from where he comes from. It is rooted in knowing history, being claimed by ancestry, working for a time he wonât live to see. When not on the road, he makes books, succumbs to interviews, tends to labours on a small farm, mends broken handles and fences, and bends towards lifeways dictated by the seasons of the boreal borderlands.What youâll here wonderings about:
What it means for North Americans to visit their ancestral homeland The consequences of being cultural orphans Native culture and its relationship to whiteness What ancestry means to your travel plans The difference between making culture from and making culture for... Peter Behrens' book "The Law of Dream" Stephen's musings on Tobe Hooper and Stephen Spielberg's film Poltergeist Back to the land / farming fantasies Dirt and its layered wisdom Shifts in Stephen's teachings from warnings to descriptors The Unauthorized history of North America What it means to always feel like you're running Why its different to listen to this series live... What wellness has to do with all this...You can learn more and sign up for their upcoming class "Never Land / Sever Land: Dirt, Place, Ancestry, and The Makings of Culture From the New World" from October 20th-November 17th at:
https://kimberlyannjohnson.com/never-land/
photo by Mattias Olsson
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In this episode, Kimberly and April discuss her most recent book of poetry titled Matter / Mother which shares about Aprilâs experience of traveling through the underworld of grief, hardship, and heartbreak while mothering her young child. Together, they share their desires for a culture that makes space for the depth of mothering experiences and stories through all of the different seasons of life. They also discuss how to bear the pain and responsibility of both creating a world we want our children to live in while simultaneously inhabiting the one that currently exists. Overall, their vulnerability and honest reflections from their differing seasons of mothering offers language to those deep experiences and possibility for all mothers.
Bio
April Tierney is a poet, activist, craftswoman, mother, and lover of stories. Her work follows threads of ecopoetics, myth, culture, and lineage. She has been nominated for The Pushcart Prize and featured in Orion Magazine, Deep Times: A Journal of the Work that Reconnects, Clarion Poetry Magazine, and Real Ground Journal, among others.
What She Shares:
ââMatter / Motherâ poetry and mothering
âMothering in the upper world while traversing the underworld
âCreative process while mothering
âMotherhood hardship and joys of different seasons
âCreating the world we want our children to inhabit
What Youâll Hear:
âLatest book âMatter Motherâ of poetry
âReading of âBirth Storyâ poem
âBirth as animalistic and mythic
âDecision behind black cover on book
âLonging for more mothering stories from underworld journey
âWriting a book during early mothering
âListening to experiences not from our own
âFinding language for mothering experiences
âFinding the right voices on mothering experiences
âBirth culturally accepted as traumatic
âMothering in the underworld while raising children in the upperworld
âMothering as existential
âHeartbreak of mothering in these times
âUnable to talk about lived, ongoing way while holding children
âFantasy of modern motherhood
âModern living as kind of trauma we learn to cope with
âFour forest fires in three days
âEvacuating from home from forest fires
âPausing from writing and trusting the quiet places
âWriting as torture until its tended to
âBringing forth for the world what is asking to come through
âBooks as living, breathing things
âCreative portion of mothering in tension with energy and needs
âKimberlyâs surprise of mothering young adulthood
âGrieving and loving during mothering in all phases
âImportance of sharing from different stages of mothering
âPhysical versus psychological demands of mothering
âNoticing the glory spots of mothering
âSending children out into the world
âCreating the world we want our children to live in
Resources
Website: https://www.apriltierney.com/
IG: @apriltierney11
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In this episode, Kimberly and Marysia discuss how theyâve navigated the challenges and benefits of single motherhood. In many ways, their lives and stories run parallel: surprising pregnancies, marrying into another culture, becoming single mothers with babies, and living out single motherhood while being entrepreneurs. This honest, raw, and tender conversation offers vulnerable testimonies and nuggets of wisdom for other single mothers. They emphasize the difficulties but importance of building kinship and community, undoing internalized shame, and tending to community. Marysiaâs School of the Sacred Wild is now open for enrollment with Kimberly as a guest teacher!
Bio
Marysia Miernowska is a teacher, author, Earth activist, green witch, folk herbalist and healer rooted in the Wise Woman Tradition of Healing. Born in Poland, she carries with her a lineage of European folk herbalism. Marysia honors plants as sentient beings, elders, healers and teachers. As a Plant Spirit Communicator, Marysia channels messages from the Earth spirits and guides students to connect with plant spirits through meditation and through their bodies, to receive guidance and learn about the constituents, energetics and properties of plants. Registration is now open for the School of the Sacred Wild and can be accessed through the link below.
What She Shares:
âJourneys into pregnancy
âTrauma and shame around single mothering
âFinding kinship and community
What Youâll Hear:
âMarysiaâs surprising journey into motherhood
âManaging cultural differences as a couple
âTraumatic experience becoming a single mother with a baby
âKimberlyâs pregnancy and divorce
âSingle motherhood sisterhood
âNavigating single motherhood challenges and joys
âMarysia entering single motherhood
âReceiving judgment for divorcing
âPhysical manifestations of wounds and healing
âFunctional freeze reactions for survival
âFinding the village as single mothers
âFairy godmothers and aunties
âBringing in chosen family for children
âCultural differences in background and local living
âAnticipating the death of empty nest
âReviewing mothering choices
âGrief and cultural isolation
âPredictability and calm in hiring anticipatory help
âWorking through shame in asking for more help
âNervous systems and being trapped
âHow culture is physically organized disruptive to kinship
âSpontaneous social interactions
âTaking risks and extending our ways of gathering
âDoing it imperfectly and letting go of shame
âTending to the ecosystem of families, parents, and single mothers
âSchool of the Sacred Wild herbalism program
âCreating kinship and a deep sense of belonging between human & non-human
âHolding vitality of the Mother archetype and cutting back, releasing, and discerning
âSeptember 7th registration closes
â10% off code for listeners
âKimberly to guest teach in School of Sacred Wild
Resources
Website: https://www.schoolofthesacredwild.com/
IG: @marysia_miernowska
Course Link for Listeners: here
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In this episode, Natalie and Kimberly dive deep into the choose your own hormone phenomenon. They discuss an evolutionary biologist's perspective of individual vs. group think when it comes to womenâs health, the connections between hormones and reproductive health issues like endometriosis and PCOS, as well as the evolutionary case for grandmothering.
Bio
Natalie Dinsdale, PhD is an evolutionary biologist, a researcher, an astrologer, a dancer, and a mother. She investigates how evolutionary dynamics shape features of sexuality, reproduction, and health & disease in humans.
What you will hear:
Carl Jung as inspiration for ideas on individual experience vs. groupthink - mass psychology The true person vs. The statistical person While individuals matter, her research is on patterns of populations changing over time Pregnancy screening for women in late 30s Trusting intuition around medical choices Endometriosis - is menstrual fluid the cause of legions? Bi-polar disorderâs connections to oxytocin Do people with PCOS have a uterine that contracts less? How does Natalieâs research relate to connective tissue, collagen, and parasympathetic responses? Oxytocin doesnât only mean good Trade-offs in evolutionary biology - activities and functions that have to happen for evolution to occur. What is the effect of high testosterone in women and PCOS? How do females of a species obtain the resources they need to reproduce? Choose your own hormone phenomenon in menopause treatment There is good evidence that grandmothering has benefits to mothers and daughtersResources
website: https://www.nataliedinsdale.com/
substack: https://natalield.substack.com/
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In this episode, Kimberly and Chris dive deep into the impact of travel on their lives and the consequences of tourism in places they call home. As two world travelers, who have each spent a decade living abroad, Kimberly and Chris consider what they have learned about home, hospitality, and culture from places far from the lands they were raised. They discuss how the pandemic impacted travel to where Chris resides in Mexico, one of two countries that kept its borders open? How Air BnBâs, second homes, and passive income have changed the real estate landscape for future generations? They wonder what it would look like to re-imagine the set of relationships and responsibilities one has if they âbelongâ to their neighborhood? They ask what if we imagined both our âleisureâ and our âworkâ as connected to the place we live? And how does the question of confinement to home, so relevant to new mothers, show up in the âpost-pandemicâ summer of 2024?
Bio
Chris Christou is a writer, educational curator, and activist. Born and raised in Toronto, Canada, he moved to Oaxaca, Mexico in 2015 after a decade of delirious wanderlust. In 2016, Chris began concurrently working in and writing about the tourism industry, founding Oaxaca Profundo, a deep learning organization focused on food culture and radical hospitality. In 2021, alongside friends and strangers, he organized and launched the End of Tourism Podcast. He is the author of a book of poetry entitled the Black Braid of Memory, as well as forthcoming books on the psychedelic culture, the unauthorized history of tourism, and radical hospitality. Finally, he is a student of all things chocolate and cacao-related.
What Youâll Hear
Being at home in other places Are places âback to normalâ? Are we âpost-pandemicâ? Mexico as an escape route for coping with Covid culture How is a sense of home impacted by tourism? What does it mean to be forced to stay at home and the response is to get as far away as fast as possible? Wanderlust - wanting to be everywhere and by virtue of that not wanting to be anywhere How much of tourism an unwillingness to be where one is? What does it mean to consider what the place you call home needs? And what you can offer that place? I donât think you can be responsible to a place if youâre elsewhere The history of mobility in north American Culture How to re-neighbor Seeing places as temporary makes them disposable How the pandemic led to lots of profit-driven real estate aquisitions The impact of Air Bnbs in tourist destinations Do we make our homes for ourselves or for our parents and others we want to welcome people How do locals become second class servants or mascot for Instagram world views? Dehumanization is a two way street in the tourist industry Leaving one expensive city for a less expensive city you bring the landlords with you. The un-sustainability of second homes Hospitality is complex - learning a culture to invoke hospitality with the stranger How difficult staying at home is for a new mother? Feeling confined when trying to make home with a baby Having family in and of two cultures Travel vegans vs. living it upResources
https://www.chrischristou.net/
chrischristou.substack.com
IG - @zajorino / @theendoftourism / @oaxacaprofundo
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In this episode, Kimberly and Lauren discuss her teaching journey, which led to the restorative exercise techniques Lauren offers in the womenâs health field. As a lifelong mover, Lauren went through several different yoga trainings and anatomical frameworks to arrive at a simple truth: there isnât a right or wrong, good or bad when it comes to understanding your bodyâs needs. They discuss re-writing injury stories, and consider what leads women to medically intervene at different phases of life. In addition, Kimberly and Lauren talk about raising teenage girls. In this open hearted conversation, two somatic experiencing practitioners talk through their way of practicing what they teach.
Bio
Lauren Ohayon isan internationally recognized yoga + Pilates teacher specializing in core and pelvic floor issues. She has been teaching for the past two decades. Lauren creates online exercise programs that are challenging, unique, safe, sustainable and life-changing.
In addition to yoga and Pilates, she is certified as a Restorative Exercise Specialistâą, in Neurokinetic TherapyÂź and in Anatomy in Motion. The web site Holy Shift yoga was her first online baby and has since become this web site under her own name. Nothing has changed but the name. Learn more at www.laurenohayon.com
What Youâll Hear
Supporting women in training their bodies The intersection of Anatomy and the Nervous system The pelvic floor world Movement as soothing Injuries as a yoga teacher Needing to dig less healing wells, instead dig one deep well Set one on a path of a more mindful way of moving Re-writing the stories of our injuries Distinguishing anatomy and biomechanics Somatic nervous system approach to exercise Feldenkrais technique was a big influence Letting your body teach you What leads us to try and intervene in our bodies as women at different life phases Good filters for not entertaining the cult/âyou shouldâ mindset Diet and protein Being sensory following nature and desire for warmth Parenting teens A mother who was a very experimental/exploratory teen Consent communication and safety Restoring your core- a central support system that receives and transmits To be restorative is to not approach the body through good/bad right/wrong anatomical frameworks Accepting the bodyâs changes with agingResources
IG: @thelaurenohayon
Website: www.laurenohayon.com
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With fellow educator and Orphan Wisdom Scholar Johannah Reimer, Kimberly discusses Johannahâs long cultivated journey with Girl Groups that work on collective rites of passage. They explore the difference between weekend and longer form rites of passage processes for girls crossing the threshold to adolescence and womanhood, as well as ways to de-emphasize soul work that doesn't center "the self." Johannah emphasizes the impact she has seen guiding Girls Groups and their families into relationships that reflect boundaries, values, and connection. Johannah talks through her passionate approach to the Matricarchical archetype, as well as their shared thoughts on being a single parent. Johanna describes her upcoming 9-month Girl Group facilitator training âPathways to Womanhoodâ where she shares her elemental curriculum, which has been honed over 10 years of work with girls of all ages. Links to a free workshop and the facilitator training below.
Bio
Johannah Reimer is a soulcentric educator, ceremonialist, teen mentor, and an artist of many trades. Trained as a Waldorf teacher, Johannah has been working with children of all ages for over 20 years and holds a particular passion for tweens/teens striving to meet their developmental needs for mentorship and initiation in a culture that has forgotten how to do so. An apprentice of visionaries: Sage Hamilton and Melissa Michaels of SOMA Source, Johannah has worked for many years as a Waldorf teacher under the guidance of her elder Sage, and as an embodied leader for international youth in movement based Rites of Passage with Golden Bridge & Golden Girls Global.
What She Shares
Initiatory rites for girls crossing the threshold into adolescence
Village mindedness in a Culture without village norms
Severance - a death happening in rites of passage
Stepping into a threshold, into a new phase of being
What does it mean when girls go on a quest to leave childhood behind and then return back to their parents and community?
Parents also cross a threshold when their children go on such a quest.
A year long process that she does with 5th graders
The conflation of big experiences with rites of passage
Distinguishing between a rite of passage vs. a threshold
How short-term retreats are often not living up to the term rites of passage
Girls Groups are designed for a longer-term structure within a collective
The power of collective work vs. over-emphasis on the self
Working with teens you sometimes need an iron fist and a velvet glove
The power of improvisation when working with teens
The power of parents letting go of control
Parents fear of their own children: important to assert boundaries/values and stay connected
Parents: âStay true. Stay the course.â
As a child of divorce, the challenge of being a single parent
Gathering the men around the son of a single mother
She describes her upcoming free class for anyone who feels the call to be a village auntie, as well as her intimate 9-month Girl Group facilitator training.
The power of the Matricarchical archetype and Village Aunties.
Resources
Pathways to Womanhood - Girls Group Facilitator Training
Becoming a Village Auntie (Free Training)
www.wakefulnature.com
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In this episode, Kimberly discusses wild mothering, elder mothers, and mothering from our centers with Tami Lynn Kent, returned special guest, womenâs health healer, elder mother, and teacher of previous Jaguar classes. We discuss how to remain in true relationship with the feminine, unlearning how weâve embodied patriarchy, and living and mothering from our feminine centers. She also discusses the challenges of mothering during these times, especially for mothers of teens and young adults. Ultimately, she offers deep wisdom and medicine for staying true to our centers during these fractured times.
Bio
Tami Lynn Kent is a womenâs health physical therapist, founder of the original method of Holistic Pelvic Careâą for women, and author of âWild Feminine: Finding Power, Spirit & Joy in the Female Body,â âWild Creative,â and âWild Mothering.â She is passionate about the potential in our female bodies and cultivating this vibrant energy thatâs meant to run through all aspects of a womanâs life. She draws upon hers daily in mothering three sons now all young adults themselves. Her previous book, âMothering from Your Center,â is being re-released as âWild Mothering,â which includes new elder mother wisdom.
What She Shares:
âDeep relationship with the feminine
âUndoing internalization of patriarchy
âMothering teens during challenges
âEmbodied mothering during fractured times
What Youâll Hear:
âWalking in deep relationship with the true feminine
âBoundaries around values and work
âUnlearning embodied patterns of patriarchy within us
âOvercompensation in business
âBodies giving out from overcompensation
âWomen giving up space instead of centering
âComing into truth of where energy and body are
âOver-extending out of perfectionism and wanting safety
âHelping children find their centers gradually
âMothering young adults with internet, pandemic, polarization, etc.
âInformation is not wisdom
âImportance of listening to embodied wisdom and those with it
âMothering as a wild journey
âPrioritizing the body and face-to-face
âEmbodied presence important to mothering
âWeekly family facetime meetings
âGoing through the pandemic with males
âStrain on mothers and families feels higher now
âLack of safety webs and social supports
âTrends of delaying independence from youth
âDetermine of pandemic on isolation and young adults
âAssessing nervous systems after isolating during pandemic
âEmbodied care versus smoothing discomfort
âCreative, inspired, moving towards passion, tracking health, connection
âIncrease of body images issues in boys
âGetting boys out of looking and more of feeling/felt sense
âFear of interacting in world
âTracking and noticing people around us is embodied mothering
âLost art of tending to home and those around us with presence
âMonitoring screen time for young adults
âPlaying online with real peers
âEncouraging children to verbalize online interactions
âRules as child-specific and season-dependent
âBuilding trust bridges
âChecking in and checking on
âCreating daily embodied moments with children
âEmbodied mothering as the tether
âPresence with children creates more presence within themselves
âStories we tell our children, stories they hear
âBalancing heavy times as parents
âLack of deep containers taking toll
âEnergetic force pulsing through life
âReaction versus resonance
âAlways new medicine and new hope in true feminine
âNot disassociating from deeper problems
âLiving in deep relationship to feminine field
âTending to our parts of the field is the mending
âUsing connection to mystery to do our part
âRepairing a fractured web
âMay 11th Mini Motherâs Day Retreat!
Resources
Website: https://www.wildfeminine.com/
IG: @tamilynnkent
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In this episode, Kimberly interviews Ajaye, the founder of The Project PT, a fitness center creating major social change in the community of Oxford, England. They discuss Kimberlyâs experience at the gym, similarities of fitness culture in the U.S. and U.K. and how it is intimidating to many kinds of people interested in exercise. They also discuss the decrease of physical movement in schools and how that motivated The Project PTâs mission of supporting teen girls in health and fitness. They also discuss other community outreach programs that The Project PT runs as well as the importance and business model of ethical bonds and balancing service-related businesses with motherhood.
Bio
Ajaye is the driving force behind The Project PT, a fitness center committed to ethical business standards, social justice, and community outreach. Ajaye has over 18 years of experience in the fitness industry and is a fully qualified personal trainer, crossfit coach, Olympic weightlifting coach, and a sports therapist. The Project studio runs several social work programs in the Oxford community and continues to expand.
What She Shares:
âIntense gym culture and The Project PT
âDiversity and inclusion in fitness spaces
âSupporting youth in fitness
âCommunity outreach
âBalancing business & motherhood
What Youâll Hear:
âDifferent physical needs after motherhood
âIntense gym culture
âDiversity at Project PT Gym
â17% in UK attend gyms, 83% do not
âForming community for Project PT
âRepresentation and informed professional development
âLimited physical movement in schools
âWorking with fitness and teenage girls
âSkateboarding, boxing, and weight-lifting for girls
âFocusing on enjoyment in fitness
âLong-term goals for Project PT
âForming a blueprint for other fitness centers
âPolicy change needed
âWorking with vulnerable young people
âProviding confidence and skills for young people
âCrime prevention program working with police
âRun social impact reports to study findings
âImportance of studies and representation
âFitness, business, and motherhood of 3 children
âStruggling to find balance in business and parenting
âKimberly navigating perimenopause and physical/emotional changes
âAccepting limitations and being open to change
âAdopting children and business thriving
âEthical Bond
âEthical Exchange supporting business bonds and shares
âOffering employee shares
âCollaboration and community with other businesses
âEthics platform for housing, energy efficiency, etc.
Resources
Website: https://www.theprojectpt.com/
IG: @theprojectpt
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In this episode, Kimberly and Joelle discuss the joys, challenges, and complexities of writing a book and publishing. They met when Kimberly was pitching âThe Fourth Trimesterâ and have connected ever since. Kimberly discusses her journey as an author in relation to her other work previous three books. They also discuss self-publishing, traditional publishing, how the publishing industry has changed because of social media, and the importance of book proposals. Joelle is currently enrolling for the Book Proposal Academy, a six month, robust course and mentorship program that supports new authors through the book proposal process. Register through the link below!
Bio
Joelle Hann is an award-winning writer whose essays and poems explore the nature of our deepest relationships, and whose articles have covered the highs and lows of yoga culture, as well as food, film, books and travel. Sheâs worked in-house as a Senior Development Editor at Bedford/St. Martinâs. A decade later she jumped ship to freelance as a book doctor and collaborator. Since then, sheâs developed and written many acclaimed books for authors in the realm of self-transformation, activism, spirituality, health, finance and business. Joelle is also a seasoned yoga teacher and practitioner. Her journalism has appeared in The New York Times, TimeOut New York, Poets & Writers, Yoga Journal, Yoga International, and other publications. Her essays have appeared on NPR, YourTango, Geist, and others. Joelle is also an award-winning poet with an MFA (poetry) and an MA (English Literature) from New York Universityâs top-ranked program, and many publications in journals and anthologies including McSweeneyâs, Matrix, Painted Bride Quarterly, Drunken Boat, Breathing Fire: Canadaâs New Poets, Broken Land: Poems of Brooklyn and more.
What She Shares:
âTraditional versus self-publishing
âPitching your book idea
âTending to the voice within
âBook Proposal Academy with Joelle begins April 17th!
What Youâll Hear:
âKimberlyâs process of book writing
âExperiences with various kinds of publishers
âSelf-publishing process
âKimberlyâs upcoming book deal
âFive main publishing houses and politics
âDifferences between first-time proposing versus fourth
âLack of confidence in initial stage of process
âSmall advances versus large advances
âThe Fourth Trimester best selling back-listed book
âPublicity and marketing during proposals
âMaking the case for your book
âAuthor versus writer
âBookTok as powerful engine for making authors
âPower of readers to make best-sellers from BookTok
âHybrid publishing on the rise
âChallenges of self-publishing
âUniversity publishing
âTrauma angles need hope, tools, and resilience
âShorter and easy to digest are book preferences
âLiterary agent burnout
âSoul calling towards writing
âTending to the voice within
âFollowing and engagement from audience
âQuality and marketability
âProposal is key in not getting lost in process
âProposal is a map for book
âArtistry and practical vision
âJoelleâs Book Proposal Academy begins April 17th!
âRuns for six months through 5 phases
âEarly bird sign-up begins April 3rd
Resources
Website: https://brooklynbookdoctor.com/bpa/
IG: @@brooklynbookdoctor
Book Proposal Academy Application: https://brooklynbookdoctor.com/bpa
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Summary
In this episode, friends Kimberly and Kendra share their experiences and insights around mothering and the complex webs of care in non-traditional family structures. They discuss the beauty and challenges of single parenting, parenting young children while dating, forming new care structures, and navigating professional roles while mothering children of all ages. They also discuss their co-led upcoming retreat Apprenticing the Web taking place in Booneville, California this September 2024!
Bio
Kendra Cunov has been studying, facilitating, and practicing Authentic Relating, Embodiment Practices & Deep Intimacy Work for over fifteen years. Kendra has worked with thousands of men, women & couples in the areas of embodiment, intimacy, communication & full self-expression. She co-founded âAuthentic World & Fierce Grace,â as well as âThe Embodied Relationship Training Salonâ (with John Wineland), and pioneered some of the most cutting edge relation work on the planet. Kendra has consulted for companies such as Genentech & been on staff for 4PC, an elite mastermind for the top 4% of coaches in the world. She works with organizations & leaders, as well as men, women & couples, who know that embodied presence, truth, connection & integrity are our truest access points to success â in business & in love.
What She Shares:
âNon-traditional family structures
âCo-parenting with young children
âLove as a guiding compass
âMothering and professions
âUpcoming retreat with Kimberly and Kendra in September
What Youâll Hear:
âApprenticing the Web Retreat September 2024
âBlended families, partnership, and parenting non-traditionally
âMothering and marriage traditionally and non-traditionally
âEase as a compass in hard situations
âKimberlyâs pregnant in Brazil
âMaking partnerships for co-parenting
âFeeling alone in single parenting
âMothering alone in marriage
âCentering the child/children
âFacilitating opportunities for children to connect with fathers
âInquiring in co-parenting
âLove as an invitation to the co-parent
âDating while single parenting young children
âWork changes through mothering
âLove as a compass
âManaging finances while single parenting
âWanting to be in the world sooner while parenting young children
âOlder children needing more mothering than younger
âTraveling and working while mothering young children
âCreating community as single parents and living abroad
âBenefits of single parenting
âNot wanting to be a buffer while co-parenting
âUnpacking child at the center
âMothering the culture
âMaiden-Mother-Crone transitions
âSomething to âkeep upâ with while mothering
âMothering through menopause
âAccepting missing out in mothering
âResponding to life in the moment
âCultivating capacity for discomfort and the unknown
âTrusting self to respond in the moment
âBeing willing to fail relationally
âCuriosity over shaming
âUpcoming retreat in September, California!
âKendra buying land near Mt. Shasta
âStewarding the land before building
Resources
Website: https://kendracunov.com/
IG: @kendra_cunov
Retreat Details: https://kendracunov.com/apprenticing-the-web/
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With special guest host Stephen Jenkinson, Kimberly and Stephen consult with three engaged couples and an unmarried woman to wonder aloud about the institution of marriage.
Stephen describes his experience, when he was asked to marry several couples, how he did his homework.
What does it mean to approach matrimony as something other than a predictable, foreseen conclusion? Are weddings overly performative? Is it possible for a wedding to feel authentic?Kimberly describes what she learned from having a wedding in the working terreiros culture of Bahia, Brazil.
Stephen describes why a ceremony has no audience - it only has witnesses and participants. Stephen and Kimberly contend with how contemporary couples, longing for ceremony in their matrimony, strive for integrity in their union.
This episode is just the tip of iceberg. Starting February 25th, Stephen and Kimberly will start their 5-part Online Series "Forgotten Pillars: Patrimony, Matrimony, Kinship, Ancestors & Ceremony." They will dive much deeper into the lessons gleaned from working cultures of the past to inform meaningful ways for couples, families, and communities to come together for experiences that linger long past the "big day." Find out more or join us: https://kimberlyannjohnson.com/forgotten-pillars/ -
In this episode, you hear reflections on Kimberlyâs wedding, just weeks out from the event in Salvador, Brazil. With guest host/podcast producer/cousin, Jackson Kroopf, you will hear Kimberly sit with all of the proceedings: from spiritual preparation to rehearsal to ceremony to celebration. What does it mean to be married in the traditions of a spouseâs culture? Who is a wedding for? What role do children play in their parentâs ceremony? How do we understand the relationship between matrimony and contemporary weddings? In this open hearted conversation, you will hear family reckon, reflect, and bask, in real time, on their expanding family.
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