Poema Podcast

Today is the 300th episode of the Poema Podcast (despite some numbering issues with iTunes), and to celebrate, my friend Becky Castle Miller is acting as host, in a semi-fun ask me anything! Many listeners and friends sent in questions, and I had no idea what they were before recording. Questions on podcasts, how the podcast started, on my dreams, on creativity, spirituality, curiosity and a whole lot more. This episode was so much fun and a perfect way to end 2021 on the podcast. I'll be back in January 2022 with lots more incredible guests and episodes. 

Today I talk with fellow singleton Kristyn DeNooyer about the challenges of singleness and stigma around this, and the importance of hospitality to and by single people in order to have healthy support networks.  Kristyn shares her own story and the challenges she's faced and how its impacted her mental health. She also discusses the stigma single people can often face in spiritual communities and even society and how it can affect us. And she gives us hope and insight into how we can make the world and churches more welcoming, and accepting of singleness.

Today my friends Trace Bell & Tina Olsen join me to talk about everything spiral dynamics - and how we can apply the concept of spiral dynamics to our every day living and grow in awareness and consciousness.  We talk about what spiral dynamics is, and Trace and Lisa unpack some very practical lessons they've learned about how we can use spiral dynamics as a tool. They explain how living the spiral can help us live more creative, healthy lives, as well as growing in our own level of consciousness. 

My geek philosophy series continues today as writer Doug Humphries and I spend time reflecting on the season one of 'Loki' and the lead characters personal journey.  We explore how Loki confronts his past, his actions, and his grief and goes through an incredible personal deconstruction & transformation, and how his journey is often reflected in our own. We also talk about the similarities between TVA and evangelicalism/capitalism, - a system we are part of and seems friendly, but has a sinister side - and a lot more too. This is one of my favourite shows, and one of my favourite episodes in this series.

Today my geek philosophy series continues, as my friend Drew Brown and I sit down to discuss the series 'Falcon and the Winter Soldier'. We explore the character arcs of the two central characters, their processing of grief and trauma from the events of Avengers Endgame and loss of Steve, and how this journey helps them discover themselves.  We also explore the issues around systemic racism and white supremacy in the US and how these manifest themselves in the show, and the lessons they can teach us.  This was a fascinating conversation which covered a number of important topics, and Drew has some great insights to share. 

Today on the podcast, another in our occasional series of deconstruction / spiritual transformation journeys, this time blogger and author Deborah Brunt.  Deborah shares with us her experiences of growing up in a toxic religious environment and the spiritual abuse she experienced, and how it impacted her faith & her mental/emotional health. She tells me how in order to follow what she believed to be a call to ministry and be free of this abuse and toxicity, she had to make tough choices, and let go of everything she'd known in relation to her life and faith. **TW: Spiritual abuse, toxic religion**

Today my friend Marie joins me to tell her deconstruction story. She talks about how she and her husband found their way into evangelical culture as adults, and how she slowly began to feel trapped in toxic religion. She shares her experience of purity culture and how this impacted her marriage & her faith. Marie then tells us how she began her journey out of of toxic religion and purity culture, and found true liberation on the other side.

**Trigger warning: Narcissistic abuse, spiritual abuse, emotional abuse** My friend Ana returns to the podcast today, to share her lived experience of narcissistic abuse within Christian fundamentalism.  It's a powerful, discomforting story which shows us the depths of narcissism within evangelical Christianity and patriarchy, and how challenging it is to break free of it.  Ana tells us how she found a way to freedom, her deconstruction, the challenges she faced along the way - and still does - and how she discovered freedom to be fully herself & embrace her identity an LGBTQIA native woman.     

Today I'm joined by John Howey, otherwise known as Bridge Livwat, who shares with us his personal, spiritual and creative journey. He talks about his faith deconstruction and the journey from aspiring worship leader into creating his own music, and his creative and spiritual journeys intertwined and interacted. We talk about our shared love of the work of Rob Bell, and how he's impacted each of our lives and journeys, including the principle of sabbath, and time. Ultimately, it's a story of how John escaped from a God and life which was caged and restricted, to a an uncaged life and spirituality, with a divine who is not contained by religion or structure.

My friend Cat, tarot reader, joins me today. They tell their powerful, challenging story from evangelicalism through deconstruction into tarot and spellwork, and coming out.  They also tell us about how they discovered the transformative power of tarot and spellwork, and the impact it's had on their life.  It's a discomforting but honest story, of Cat's experiences within an evangelical cult, the struggles of leaving it behind and the freedom from discovering & embracing their true identity. ***** My podcast is free, but if you want to support my work financially, you can do that either on PayPal or CashApp: PayPal: https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/jamesprescottwriter  Cashapp: @£JamesPrescott77

Today I'm joined by podcaster, creator, artist and spiritual mentor April Kling Meyer. April tells us her own story and talks to us about the intersection between creativity and spiritual journey. She shares through her story and experience how our spiritual and personal journeys inform our creative journey. Finally, we discover how we can use the energy of grief and trauma to transform our lives, our spirituality and allow us create something fresh, new and life giving.

I'm honoured to be joined again by my friends Jenna DeWitt & Holly Stallcup today, to explore healthy sexual ethics in the church and being sex positive. We explore topics like masturbation, sex toys and other things which rarely get discussed in church environments. We also go on to explore different sexual ethics, and how we should honour and respect each others sexual ethics, even if they're different.  We discuss how harmful it can be to force one sexual ethic on everyone, and how sexuality in our culture is very static. We share about how this static view differs from our basic biological make ups, which are all very different and how every ethical expression of sexuality - including things like abstinence and asexuality and waiting till marriage  - all belong.  Holly and Jenna have such wisdom in this area and talk with such honesty, in a way which is reassuring, inclusive and encouraging, without shame. 

I'm honoured today to be joined by Suzanne and Declan DeWitt Hall, authors, activists and Christians. They tell us their story as a couple, and in particular the journey of Declan to embrace his gender identity. Declan talks about his own journey of coming to terms with his true gender identity, being honest about this with herself, before God and the world, and beginning the transitioning into that identity.  It's a powerful, courageous story, which shows once again the divine loves and accepts us as we are, for who we are, and is fully inclusive of the LGBTQI community. 

My friend Trace Bell joins me for the first time today Trace has done a lot of work, some with his dad Rob Bell, on talking about spirituality, awareness, time and spiral dynamics. Today he shares his own spiritual journey, and in particular how his curiosity led him into an understanding of awareness. He shares how he began to see his own consciousness and awareness as separate from his body and even time itself, and how this impacted his understanding of spirituality, his work and his personal journey. We both share stories of experiences we've had which have given us a greater awareness that time and our bodies are constructs/people which exist within our awareness/consciousness, rather than the other way around. It's a powerful, eye opening and fascinating conversation you won't want to miss. 

I'm delighted to welcome back my friend, writer, author and coach Jim Woods to the show this week! Jim's just released his first novel 'Bite the Bullet', and today we talk about the creative process behind the novel, how long it took to write, and the experience of novel writing. Jim talks about the power of storytelling, why stories resonate with us why the best stories connect with us. He also tells me about the process of creating characters and writing their stories, and the interesting dynamic which can happen between author and character. Jim has such wisdom about story, and has great insight on the creative process. Well worth a listen. 

Today I'm joined by TED speaker and grief/loss facilitator Jennifer Mathews. Jennifer tells her own tragic, in some ways unique, and powerful story of loss...and how her response to the death of her life partner was not one she calls grief, and the lessons this experience taught her about dealing with loss. Jennifer explores how processing loss can lead to connection, and how she experienced this, and why it's so important for our healing and thriving that we confront our trauma and loss, rather than hide from it.

Today on the podcast I'm joined by author Kat Armas (MDiv and MAT), who shares her own story, and talks about the wisdom of women on the margins - mothers, grandmothers, sisters, daughters - and how & what it teaches us about spirituality and the divine.  Kat shares her own experiences and lessons she's learned, as well as some other powerful stories, and we see how some of the great theologians of our time have been previously overlooked women.

Today my occasional series on ADHD continues with therapist, mental health advocate and podcast host Robert Vore sharing his own story.  Robert shares his own unique experience of growing up with ADHD and then becoming a therapist and advocate himself and encountering/working with others with ADHD and trauma.  Robert gives us a valuable insight into the lived experience of ADHD and insight into working with others with the condition. 

Today my series on ADHD continues with the return of my friend Elle Rose, to share their lived experience of ADHD, and the challenges and stigma they have experienced growing up with ADHD and in getting a diagnosis.  Elle shares honestly, and with great courage, about their day to day experience of ADHD, patterns of behaviour which can be linked with the condition, and the difference getting a diagnosis and medication can make. They also share words of solidarity, encouragement and wisdom for those with ADHD and for those who know people with ADHD. I'm so grateful to Elle for sharing their story. 

Today I'm delighted to welcome my friend Sarah ('Sheologian' from Twitter) to the podcast for a new series of episodes focussing on ADHD. I myself have undiagnosed ADHD and there's a lot of stigma and misunderstanding about it. This series aims to raise awareness. Sarah shares her own story and experiences growing up with ADHD, in particularly in evangelical patriarchal culture, the day to day challenges she encounters, her own lived experience and lessons she's learned. She also talks about the challenges she faces as a therapist with clients who themselves often have ADHD.  Sarah has a lot of wisdom, solidarity encouragement and insight into living with ADHD and supporting people ADHD, this is a powerful episode we all need to hear.