Self Description - "Yes. I am a down home girl from the south. I know I'm a full adult. But I think of myself as a daughter at the south. I am a mother, I have two children, Josiah, and Zara. And I'm also a diviner I'm a spiritualist. So some of my work includes giving divinations giving readings for people offering spiritual care and support. And there's a big part of my work because it's ancestral for me, I know that I come from preachers who are also raised born and raised in the south. I come from medicine people and midwives, who were also born and raised in the south. And so although I may not be preaching in particular, you know, in the same regard, I don't have a church. Although I may not be birthing babies. I think that my work as a spiritualist is about helping folks birth their own purpose and purposes and like really define and discover their own destinies. And so I do that in a spiritual sense. And that's really important to me. So I'm also a writer. I'm a storyteller. And that is also a big part of my work. "

Self Description: "I grew up Hasidic and the Chabad Hasidic sect, and had a you un- a un- if you'll pardon the pun unorthodox education. And I eventually when I was in my 20's, I let I left the religion and, you know, went back to school. And while I was at school, I started out as a pharmacy technician, and I've been a pharmacy technician, on and off since I want to say 2012, 2013."

Self Description - "Well, um, it's it's very particular to this moment that I am a minister of a new Unitarian Universalist congregation in Atlanta that we founded our four and a half years ago. So our fifth anniversary will be the same date that Mandela walked out of prison was our first official Worship Day, February 11. Some I'm really proud of that coincidence, or sacred timing, however you want to look at it. And that I was called to that. Because we will be for a while now. The only Unitarian Universalist congregation in Atlanta of the six or seven of us, who is centered in an African American community, predominantly. And yeah, and I'm proud of that. And it was myself and a group of people who wanted to see this happen. And we're not the first attempt at this, but we're the latest. Yeah, so that's going on. I also because of my being a Unitarian Universalist minister. I needed to do some things around credentialing. So I took a part time job with Dr. John Sullivan's at Emory University, and the Global Health Division of Rollins School of Public Health. And what Dr. Blevins does is he pairs public health issues with issues around faith and HIV and AIDS. And he's been working in HIV and AIDS since he was an act up as a very young man. But that's his story. I also have been working in HIV and AIDS since I was a young man, I have friends and act up I wasn't. I have very good friends in active. And it is interesting for me to have, in my mind, left the black Baptist Church gone and experienced liberal religion among a group of folks in Atlanta called existentialist and felt very free and very open and then to have watched my ministry grow there to have become a Unitarian Universalist and and really feel like that's where I'm called to serve. And to end up right back in HIV and AIDS, and in predominantly black community, this time Sub Saharan Africa and fighting some of the same fights and, and championing some of the same causes. It's not all fight this many years later. It feels very surreal at times. very surreal, because I find myself being the one openly black gay man in rooms now. Like I used to be way back in the late 80s and That's like, really? Yeah. Kind of sad actually. Kind of sad. But we're called where we're called."

Self Description: "I am LM Bennett. I am 42 years old. I live in Virginia. I'm an author, I also have a day job. I have a lot of thoughts about the pandemic."

Self Description: "I Antonia Okafor I, I would say profession wise, first, I'm the national director for women's outreach for Gun Owners of America. I'm second, I'm an advocate. I'm a mother of two little ones, too, specifically babies a toddler as well, and husband to a pastor grew up in Dallas, Texas, most of my life. And then after got married, moved here to Houston. So I'm here. But essentially, my biggest passion is empowering women. And the means to do so has been through the Second Amendment and in my work and advocacy through Gun Owners of America, and also the organization I started Empowered2a, which was in 2017. And now as part of GOA,"

Self Description - "So to anyone who might find themselves listening to this my name is Willis Porter, like I mentioned at the beginning, and I am a liver transplant recipient of now 22 years, I was originally transplanted at children's in Atlanta, back on January 1, 2000, during Y2K, if anyone's alive and not alive, and remembers that. And if you're not alive during that, and you've never heard of it, just look it up. Um, and I'm very thankful to be here, you know, lots of challenges with transplant, lots of challenges during the COVID pandemic. But again, it's about extending the conversation and really focusing on those expenses. And I'm very grateful to you Kit for inviting me on here. And for us having this conversation."

Some of the things we discussed include: Working as a romance author and centering strong Latinx women in fiction. The impact of the pandemic on the careers of new authors; reviews not reflecting sales. The difference between connecting with readers in person and online. Gen X generational norms; learning that no one in authority is coming to save us. The 2016 election and being a target of Trump’s racism; having family members who support Trump; having kind Trump-supporters in one’s community. Watching others try to figure out how to be an ally without centering themselves after the murder of George Floyd. Moving from Northern Virginia to Houston, Texas in July 2020; selling the family home; getting to know one’s neighbors mid-COVID. Easier access to COVID vaccination with good healthcare in Texas; living in a state with low-vaccine demand. Living with husband and adult son during the pandemic; a house full of introverts; another extroverted, younger son in college moving home shortly. Son with social anxiety disorder; masks helping to manage anxiety; university mental health support. Seeing friends struggle with depression and couples going through divorce. Telehealth enabling continuity of mental healthcare despite moves. The politicization of the virus. Catching COVID; son catching COVID. 16-year-old dog (name?) loving having the family home all the time. Coping with the overturning of Roe v. Wade. Safety, control, and predictability. The 2022 Texas election. Other cultural references: Houston Methodist Clinic, CVS, Rice University, Gatorade, Twitter, Keeping Up With The Joneses, Beto O’Rourke, the Kansas vote on abortion (August 2022), Weight Watchers, the TV show Supernatural

Self Description: "I'm a 31-year-old Asian American living in Sacramento, in as a non-prescriptive way as possible."

Self Description: "My name is Tony. I am Asian migrant, F-1 student visa holder currently, and non-binary. And currently, I'm studying at Yale School of Architecture for my masters. But also, I'm a practicing sex worker, as well as an organizer with Red Canary Song based in New York."

Self Description: "I co founded Kohenet Hebrew Priestess Institute, which is devoted to reclaiming and innovating embodied earth based models of Jewish feminist spiritual leadership. And I am the host of Jewish Ancestral Healing a podcast, which speaks to share with conversations with spiritual leaders, artists, activists, and visionaries around ancestral traditions and counter oppressive practice. I also serve as faculty at Starr King School for the ministry, where I train emergent clergy in organic multi religious ritual. And these strands inform my work and my pray. I'm also musician with five albums of sacred chant, mostly Hebrew goddess chant. The most recent album is Hebrew and Arabic chants of counter oppressive devotion. And my projects in the world tend to be around reinvigorating ancient traditions, to support connection to what has been in ways that are juicy, alive and resonant now, and supporting folks in finding connection to places of meaning, power and possibility within their own traditions, the traditions that either they're from or that draw deeply to them, to help folks make more meaning and find more pleasure, presence and joy. And so these strands shaped my orienting to most things I, I also place a really strong value on presence as prayer. This comes from my own orientations of what's possible when we are additionally here in this moment, honoring our bodies honoring right pace, as a foundation, and all the things"

Self Description - "Well, I am from New Zealand, obviously, because of my accent. And I am sort of, I like to be kind of like outside of culture, looking, looking at it sort of, you know, once removed. And so I'm a researcher, and a writer, because of that, and visionary, I see things either in visions or dreams, often telling me about the future. And when I go blind, that is pretty scary, because I don't know what's coming up."

Self Description: "my name again is Zola Bruce, I actually am someone who identifies as an artist, social worker, activist, sex worker, and all around, I feel like I am an existential traveler. So one thing that I would like people to know about me off the bat is, I'm a person that has traveled to over 20 countries. I have lived outside the states for seven of those the for seven years. Specifically in Europe, I was in Amsterdam, and then Berlin. And that's where I actually did migrant sex work myself. And when I say sex work, it's there as an industry of sex work. So I learned even more about that, as I was able to expand my ideas around sex and sexuality. While living in Europe, I started to do BDSM work, because I learned more about it through other practitioners there."

Self Description: " I'm a kung fu Tai Chi and Qigong teacher in Boulder, Colorado, I have a studio here. I've been in business since 2007. But I've been studying these Mind Body practices for over 25 years now."

Self Description: "my name is Arti Kumar-Jain and I'm the Executive Director of Diya Holistic Life Care, which is a nonprofit organization."

Self Description: "I am Alan Vandever. I'm a contemporary artist based out of Chicago. I'm an activist, a father, a husband, a friend to many I am about as outside of the box is you can possibly be I don't, I don't have a box anymore. I think I run a not for profit. We're called childhood fractured. We work on prevention and awareness of child sexual abuse through contemporary art. We have recently, in the process of expanding that, and we're focusing more on working with survivors and helping them become healthier. I guess probably more specifically healthier in their their sexual lives. Just because there's a lot of, from being sexually abused, there's a lot of sexual trauma. And we were also working with I should say, we're also working with adult sexual abuse survivors. And just trying to one of the things I just from doing this for years, realizing what people need the most help with, is regaining control and power of their sexuality [inaudible]. Yeah. So yeah. Let's see what else about me. I'm always experimenting with my art and figuring out ways to, I feel like with art, you need to make art that helps society, not just make it beautiful. I like to make art that makes people think I like to tell stories, tell that with my art and verbally tell stories. I have a new book coming out soon. So close. I've been dealing with publisher stuff. And it's been over a year long process of getting it published were almost there. Yeah, super excited about that. I've just recently, one of my best friends from college, moved here, and is helping me with the studio and in the non for profit. And we're starting a new venture called scannerdo where we're using new technology to create 3d scans of people and objects for the metaverse. And I'm really excited about this project. It, as an artist, it allows me to, I feel like create anything I ever imagined. It's it's just such a wonderful tool and the the possibilities seem almost endless. And then also, we're going to be using that for our not for profit to creating a safe space for people in the metaverse to ask survivors to come to. A virtual safe space. And then the next project after that is trying to work with counselors to create virtual counseling, instead of zoom counseling. With VR, you'll feel like you're in the room with the counselor. Yeah, so I'm really, really excited about that. Im in an interview. We're just starting the day here. So it's, we open at 10. So everyone's coming in. All right, so yeah, that's that's me. I could go on and on and on. So we'll start the questions."

Self Description- "So my name is Gracia, I. I'm born and raised in the United States. My mom is Puerto Rican and my dad is Dominican. I have been living my life as an Episcopal priest for the last 30 years. And well, Episcopal Minister has become a 27 years of my priesthood or something 27/28. But I was a deacon before that. And now I'm an assistant professor of practical Theology at Virginia Theological Seminary in Alexandria. And I'm also the director of the contextual ministry program, which is basically field ed. So all my all my pieces have come together to bring me to this place."

Self Description: "Yeah, my name is Jackie Casimire. I am adult division director of Mothers Of Murdered Columbus Children. Hence, I am a mother of a murdered Columbus child."

Self Description: "Yes, my name is Dwelyn Williams. I am a dialysis technician for 22 years now here residing in Phoenix, Arizona. I came to Phoenix Arizona as a traveler due to COVID experience in April 2020."

Self Description: "My name is Amanda Lohman Yeu and I am an end of life doula"

Self Description: "My name is Setoria James. I am a Masters Prepared Nurse (MPN). I am currently working in the Jackson area on an oncology unit. I am the president of Black Nurses Rock Metro Jackson chapter of the Black Nurses Rock Foundation."

Self Description: "Well, I'm I came to San Francisco as a four year old in 1957. So basically, I've been mostly in the Bay Area, only with small amounts of time elsewhere. So basically, I've been in the San Francisco Bay Area. So, I've seen it all in terms of the Summer of Love, and all those kinds of things, all these changes. So, even though I was just a four year old, I'm pretty much like a native San Franciscan, most people think that. I started practicing Tai Chi in 1973, and it was through that community that I met older people that were involved in a lot of the cutting edge of more of the new agey things, and also things about natural foods and all those kinds of things. And so, that really colored my my lifestyle choices, and it is an ongoing journey. It's never like a settled, even my personal science is not settled. So as far as I know, science is never settled. It's an ongoing process. And true scientists want their hypotheses tested. And so that for the greater good. And that's just a hint as to anything else I might be saying, but but there are so many elements that I've found through found in terms of what makes wellness, not only personal but planetary, or even the health of the ecosystem, it's multifaceted. There's never like one, one thing you can target to solve a problem. And there's, as we know, now, even quantum physicists are pointing out that they're multi dimensions to reality. So, it's not just like, solid. Third dimensional, is the only thing to consider when talking about healing or health. And also, it's gotten to the point to for me that when I teach now, I always keep the sovereignty principle that any anything that I say to the people, I want them to run it to their own direct experience, which in actuality, if I was teaching, from my experience, it would be the same thing. I never really followed any teacher to the letter. And so, my first teacher was kind of like that too; I studied under many teachers, which he was kind of against the tradition already. And I'm not a traditional teacher though, so but I'm blessed that I was able to be with people and share what what I do."

Self Description: "I am dentist and I live in a little town in Illinois. Near salt village actually Chicago Heights, Illinois. unincorporated Chicago, Heights. We're very near a town called salt village. I’m Raelian, I don't know this is a member of the Raelian movement, which is, I think important to this particular discussion. I’ve been a member of the Raelian movement for since 2004"

Self Description: "I'm a longtime activist, boots on the ground organizer. I'm originally from New York. I started the first BLM Hudson Valley Chapter outside of New York City. And that was when Mike Brown actually died. And I am based on going to Ferguson when Mike Brown was murdered. I started called black line, but a bunch of black femmes and Call BlackLine has been really live since 2016, but really became official in 2017. I'm a mom of two queer children. Nayisha and Haquin I came who are my, my joy, you know, my reason that I do live and do organizing work. I moved to San Diego four years ago, and was lucky to do some civic engagement with organization in San Diego, and then secured a county job recently, about a year ago when they created the newly Office of Equity and race of justice. So that is kind of in a nutshell who I am. I mean, my both my my mom was the organizer. You know, she was a I call it professional organizer and my grandmother, I think I got a lot of my spirit from my grandmother, my grandmother was a bomb, really a community organizer. So I always want to lift up those two Pearly Mae Height and my mom, Jean Grey."

Self Description: "My name is Dolores Stanford, I am at my home. And basically, I stay have stayed in my home most of the time for the past two or three years that the COVID has been out. And I live alone. So I don't and I have not had any people in here. Except cert, you know, certain people who have had their shots and have never had COVID."

Some of the things we discussed include: COVID’s impact on the karaoke scene in San Francisco; online karaoke; singing and catharsis. Shifting from working in the office to working from home; the social importance of socializing at work. Being in a poly relationship with a woman before the pandemic and social distancing from her. Connecting with people in-person, over the phone, and video calls. Roommates and rent prices. The early days of the pandemic, how little we knew. Using statistics as a means of assessing risk. Consent and respecting COVID boundaries. Vaccination access in Republican and Democratic counties. Social interaction post-vaccination. Capitalism and the political demonization of marginalized people: the criminalization of trans people and those who support them. Getting healthcare as a trans person; essential treatments not being covered. The difference between queer-scenes and gay-male-scenes. Kink culture and play-parties shutting down. Clickbait; isolation after leaving social media; controlling news media consumption. The pandemic’s impact on mental health; mental health’s impact on physical health. Pre-pandemic loving horror films, dystopias, and dark sci-fi, moving to happier and lighted content during the pandemic . Catching COVID in December 2021. Other cultural references: Zoom, BBC, The Associated Press, NPR, Netflix, Sabrina the Teenage Witch, Terry Gilliam’s Brazil (1985), The Spanish Flu, Hurricane Katrina

Self Description: "So my name is Molly Adler. I'm a social worker, clinical social worker, and therapist in Albuquerque, New Mexico, I am a trainer, I have a company called Sex Therapy in New Mexico. And it's a therapy, private practice focused on sex therapy, and working with LGBTQ, IA, two spirit folks, and, and do continuing ed trainings on topics related to anti oppression, therapy practices, and sexuality and gender, and relationships. And I previously co founded self serve sexuality Resource Center, foster choice, here in Albuquerque, New Mexico, in the sex ed world."

Self Description: "I was actually adopted in 1990, by two wonderful parents do from Guatemala and brought over to the US had a good childhood. But at age 18, I ended up having a stroke due to high blood pressure. And because I didn't do what I should have done for a sticking with medication, I ended up on dialysis as a patient in 2013. With in stage renal disease, I did dialysis for four years got transplanted in April 13 2017, have had the opportunity to work in the medical field in a in a technical capacity, which has been wonderful. And even in you know, things were going well with it. And then 2020, of course, COVID hit and definitely changed the way the medical field was at the time, and also some of the different experiences that we found during COVID. And even at one time catching COVID myself. "

Self Description: "My name is Nora, I am a YA author. I my you know, I am a pretty new author. My book just came out in May of 22. And see, I live in Arizona. I've been writing for most of the pandemic."

Self Desription: "I am an African American female. And I will tell you why that's important later on. I am a mother. I am self employed. But most of most of my work is around my family. And so I work, I'll say I'm self employed, and I worked part time, that's a better way of describing it. I'm also an artist, during the pandemic, I became a podcaster. And I am also a doll expert. And my primary focus is in how minorities, you know, in the DEI space, and having more representation with dolls. So that's how all of that's going to play in later with what happened for me, during the pandemic."

Self Description: "I'm a naturopathic physician who's been in practice for close to 15 years. I focus on the treatment of multi system chronic degenerative disease. I have been actively treating COVID patients since January of 2020. And have been avidly involved in following all of the research from both a biomedical and a alternative and holistic standpoint, as well as very involved with trying to understand the political and economic and social landscape of this pandemic."

Self-description: “I’m a Voodoo Priestess. I’m a spiritual worker. I’m a small business owner, a mother, and instructional designer of online courses; so, you can imagine what my life has been like the last couple of years. And, you know, community servant. You know. I do the things I do, not just to help myself, but to help the other people in my community spiritually.”

Self Description - "So I'm Dionne. I live in St. Louis, Missouri, born and raised in St. Louis, Missouri, both of my parents born and raised in St. Louis, Missouri. spent some years in Atlanta, Georgia going to college there, I went to the historically black college and university Spelman College. And I was in a dual degree program in math and engineering. And so I spent two years at Georgia Tech getting an engineer degree in civil engineering. And then I joined, let's see, no, I came home, I did some substitute teaching. And then I found a job as an engineer with our water division, St. Louis City Water division. After that, I got the bug as far as wanting to travel, which had been implanted in me with by my parents by my mother specifically. And I joined the Peace Corps, because that's something my aunt did in the early 60s, and she was my favorite aunt. And so I followed in her footsteps and became a Peace Corps volunteer. So that was the start of my international travel."

Self Description: "Oh, gosh, it's a long list as far as titles go. I am currently at the very end of my master's program for clinical mental health. So I'm a mental health intern. I also work full time in the school district, the local school district, as the director of prevention and intervention. I am a certified CADC for the state of Iowa, which means I'm, I'm a substance abuse counselor, and I have been for close to five years now. Gosh, I'm a trans man, I'm a husband, I'm a dad. I'm a dog dad. I used to be a chef, and now I just wear about 15 different hats and and try to do all the things that feel right to me to make the world better."

Self description: “My name is Lucinda Hemmick and I’m the President of the Southold Indian Museum, which is a chapter of the New York State Archaeological Association. The museum is owned by the chapter and it’s located in Southold New York. I am the museum President, but I am also a high school science research teacher. So I do always have an agenda and that’s going to come out in this interview.”

Some of the things we discussed include: Coming from a diverse range of cultures and respecting diverse traditions. Having been raised Catholic and turning to Eastern medicine through Edgar Casey; Christian taboos on learning other spiritual traditions. Childhood trauma and PTSD; choosing to be born into one’s own family. Having visions and dreams since childhood; visions of trials and tribulations, such as this pandemic. Holistic healing; working in Beyond Quantum Hypnosis Healing Therapy; developing own healing techniques. Healing as a lifestyle. Teaching clients which internal voices to listen to and which to ignore. Trauma and mental illness culminating in physical illness; unlearning self-loathing and discovering self-love. Breaking away generational trauma. Angels and demons. Living with trust that the universe has your back; divine protection. Manifesting a better world; beliefs creating new realities. Visions of a future with a healed world; a New Eden; Heaven on Earth. Recovering from Lyme Disease; physical illness as a spiritual test. Having a strong immune system and trusting that for COVID-19 protection. Avoiding allopathic medicine; seeing chiropractors, acupuncturists, and Ayevedic healers. The pandemic as the beginning of a big change. Spending more time with family, gardening. Strengthening marriage. Teenage son homeschooling during the pandemic. Shrinking social circles; unfriending 1000s of people from Facebook. Distrust of government; historic examples of government atrocities against Indigenous people. Safety as freedom of choice without government interference. TikTok and social media as the people’s news. Fear, social control, and masking; fear as a trap; victimization. Environmental consequences of masking. Concerns about vaccine safety and DNA; vaccine injuries. Ancient healing technologies: crystals and using Quantum energy maps. Red light therapy. Harming ourselves when we harm others. Energy vibrations/frequencies, binaural beats, solfeggio frequencies, Tibetan chanting; trusting that scientific evidence of the healing properties of frequencies are coming. The philosophy of John Locke. Other cultural references: Dolores Cannon, Netflix, Coca Cola, Rainbow Warrior Prophecy, Whirling rainbow, Edgar Cayce, the Declaration of Independence, Google, the Egyptian Pyramids, TikTok

Self Description - "My name is Meeka Caldwell, I'm currently I'm a mom, a wife, I'm a sister I have, we have six kids total. We're a blended family. Just very diverse. Uh my occupation, I'm an HR talent director for nonprofit organization based in Washington, DC. And I'm also a children's book author. I actually specialize in writing children's books for those communities that are unheard. So, my son who was eight years old, has Down syndrome. And he is a wonderful black child. And I noticed that we didn't have any books that, that highlighted black children with Down syndrome, much less Down syndrome at all. So that's why I became a children's book author."

Self Description: "Well, I'm an energy, one of my practices I do. I'm an energy therapist, and a hypnotherapist in Clarksville, Tennessee. And I also am really big on providing affordable housing, in our community, and outside of our community. And one of my biggest goals is to have an amazing retreat in Mount Shasta, California."

Self Description: " I have had type one diabetes, since I was 15. I came very close to death at my diagnosis, and have been doing very well ever since. But I think that because I have this daily reminder, it wasn't like a car accident, which I scraped by and survived. And then the, you know, the danger went away. It's when you live with some a chronic disease that can kill you, it's every day of your life, you feel like, at least I should say, I feel like, I'm just all I need to do is be out of my medication for a few days or weeks. And, and so I'm always in the valley of the shadow of death. I think that is one reason that I've been I don't want to say obsessed but very interested in deaths all my life. I am also the coordinator of an Austin, a city wide group of people who serve Jewish deceased by sitting with them and praying for them around the clock from death to burial. And I've become sort of a national figure on the in that community, for getting it organized and inspiring people to do that. And I think that mostly out of that, out of that work, I got interested in doula work and exposed to it. So I'm now training to become an end of life doula, and working towards that."

Self Description - "So I am a professor at the, Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, Georgia. I'm an associate professor. And I'm also the director of a program that is called Global Media and cultures. it's a joint master's program between my school at Georgia Tech, which is called the School of Literature, Media and Communication, and another department that is called the School of Modern Languages. And, so that's sort of my, my life in terms of how I have built a career. for the last 20 or so years. I've been here in Atlanta since 2003, which is hard to believe. So I've lived here for a long time but I grew up in, living a life that was much more about moving and mobility. So, I'm the child of Pakistani diplomats. so I kind of grew up growing up around the world. I was born in Turkey, my father had a lot of postings kind of throughout the Middle East and Europe. And so as a child, I grew up moving about every two to three years. and then I went to graduate school in upstate New York, and from there, moved to Virginia for two years, and then came here and started teaching at Georgia Tech, in 2003. So, that's sort of who I am in terms of my, professional career. but I also have been a yoga teacher for the last, 20 or so years as well. yoga is something that I've practiced, really pretty consistently, since college. And it actually really got me through writing a dissertation and getting through graduate school. And soon after that, I started doing training. And then when I moved to Atlanta, I continued studying and practicing yoga. And in 2018, opened a studio"

Self Description: "My name is Sid Azmi. I am an immigrant, foremost. First personally in in the United States. And now in France. I was highlighted for this interview, because of my work at a shop called Please. And I would like to talk a little bit about that. So Please, is a pleasure shop and I call it Please is a Pleasure shop in Brooklyn, New York. And I started it in 2014 as part of my work to normalize sexuality, while working with cancer patients in my work as a radiation therapist. And I'm a sex educator, I'm a hedonist. I'm a mother of three. I am. That's me."

Self Description - "Well, I'm a 40 year old female identifying person with the pronouns she, her or they, and I'm not married and not in relationship. And I'm a very open minded and curious person about the world and about people and relationships and spirituality. I am a licensed acupuncturist and I pretty deeply woven into the Chinese medicine lineage. I have a few very prominent or teachers who I would say play a pretty crucial role in my life, including Jeffrey Yuen, and Lonnie Jarrett, and kind of a very emotional and spiritual based practice of Chinese medicine. So I look at people and I don't I don't judge people based so much on a physical level, but rather, not even judge I would say, my, my understanding of people and wellness or illness is often much more rooted in emotional and spiritual place, even though I also treat like physiological issues. So that whole realm is extremely interesting to me. And I spent most of my life and most of my days understanding all that and as well as how is how it affects my body, my life and my mind and spirit. So that's, and then I'm also very much a plant lover, nature lover. I live in a tiny home in the woods. And yeah, I'm an animal lover, I love my weekly visit to a horse rescue ideally to work eventually doing acupuncture on horses, and yeah, and my spiritual practice. As both a priestess and practitioner the medicine kind of interestingly weaves me through through life with that sort of lens. Yeah, and I also work with this group called the Lilium initiative, and it's, I do presentations with them also, based on like, plant plant history, wisdom, cultivation. So yeah."

Self Description: "Sure. So again, I'm Cherylin Holloway, I am the founder and current president of pro black pro life. We were created in 2020, after the George Floyd murder, where I just felt like kind of an outsider in the pro life movement, because I had just this deep appreciation for racial justice work, and also a deep appreciation for life in general, no matter where it was located. And the two just never seem to match, or. And so I created out of just hoping that this I could have a space where other people that may be out there that felt the same way could join in. So we've been around for now two years. And we focus on education, as well as messaging and understanding the history of racial inequality, the history of systemic racism, and how that equates to every aspect of the black community's lives."

Some of the things we discussed include: Becoming in touch with the body through dance, working as a dancer, working in somatic body work, coming out as gay. Having witnessed the sexual revolution and the mainstreaming of birth control. Witnessing the HIV/AIDS crisis as a pandemic the government handled poorly before witnessing this government handle COVID-19 poorly. Learning to take care of this body, living the practice, connecting with the body, bodywork, and moving training. COVID messaging under Trump; Trumpism, populism, and election deniers. The personal lost opportunity for failing to engage fully in self-exploration, breath-work, and emotional expression during the pandemic. Experiencing depression for the first time during the pandemic. Pandemic isolation when living alone. Forming a small pod, navigating boundaries. Ups and downs in relationship with boyfriend. Going for walks. Teaching the Trager (R) Approach to Somatic Therapy for 30+ years across the world. Teaching in person during the pandemic pre-vaccination, draconian protocols and precautions. Working as a surrogate partner in sex therapy. Being honest with clients about the limitations of what one can offer. Canceling plans to go to Europe to teach in early 2020. Receiving early access to vaccination due to age; poor organization of rollout from the federal government and misinformation. Recently traveling to the Netherlands, changes in traveling after major events like 9/11 and COVID. Catching COVID while traveling in Switzerland. Mild symptoms. Complying to the others’ safety requests. Enjoying being mask-free at any available moment. Handling the challenges of having an aging body, needing more medicine and assistive devices as aging; parents modeling aging well. The conflation of “healthcare” and “medical care”. Hierarchies in the health care and wellness industries. The limits of health insurance; Obamacare, Medicare, and health as a human right. Discrimnation in healthcare for women and trans people. Social pressure and activism, activism getting in the way of equanimity, being enough and being intentional with energy.

Self Description - "Well, I go by Steve Ramsey. I'm a medical cinematographer. I have a PhD in Public Health and Health Science from Wisconsin University and my master's degree in medical ultrasound from Charles Sturt University and in Australia and [inaudible] University Australia. My BSc in diagnostic imaging, also from Charles Stewart university in Australia, and I've got multiple diplomas. I got diploma in radiography from Canada, diploma and cinematography in Canada. I got diploma in natural health and multiple certification, mostly ultrasound, vascular, cardiovascular and general sonography. And my main work now is MSK, musculoskeletal stonography, joints and nerve and I work here in Grand Prairie with a pain management and a radiologist. I do 90% of MSK muscle, tendons, joints and nerves, and of course the general sonography I write a lot I have my own blog. It's mixed between Parapsychology and psychology and the paranormal zone. And I do a lot of psychology writing in my blog, and I publish a lot in medical ultrasound in USA, UK, Italy and with mostly medical journal journals and deal with ultrasound diagnostic imaging. And I presented many lectures in Japan Korea, Italy, my original language I'm a mixed race mix between Macedonia and Greek, mother's side and Lebanese father side. So I speak Arabic I speak Greek. So English as you know, it's not my first language. It's kind of hard but you know, it took me a long time to conquer the English language is one of the most difficult one."

Self Description: "'m Vie Darling. I am I refer to myself as the cosmic queen in intergalactic interpreter. I identify as a queer non binary, a fab high femme person, as well as a creator, transmuter, scholar, educator, abolitionist and ethereal being first generation Liberian American."

Self Description - "I was born and raised where I am in Lima. So this is the traditional homelands of the Shawnee, Kickapoo, Miami relatives as well as Wyandotte, Erie relatives. And so I always think it's important to kind of name place and name the peoples here who have been removed from their original home place. I understand that as being important in part because I have always felt that place and location and connection to land is important. It's been a theme, I think, for many people, but in my life, it's played a significant role. And I find that to be true as I navigate, you know, living, navigate my own personal experiences, heal from intergenerational trauma, as a mother, as a partner; all of that really informs place, and place informs all of my identity and who I am for myself and for others. I would want first and foremost people to know that about me. I come from sharecroppers and farmers in Ohio and Northwest Ohio and in Kentucky. And then further in my matrial- matriar- matrilineal line coming also from people who are stewards of the land in the Carolinas, indigenous folks and black folks. "

Self Description: "Hi, everyone. My name is Analucía Lopezrevoredo. I am the founder and executive director of Jewtina y Co., which is a is a Jewish and Latino organization on a mission to nurture Latin Jewish community, identity, leadership and resiliency."

Self Description: "As an artist. I'm expressing my feelings in clay. And I documented the history of the Holocaust in my work. As a survivor from Slovakia, I focused my work on World War Two and the Holocaust. So the years I did 50 Holocaust related sculptures. I published an art book, The agony of the Holocaust that is available on my website GabrielleKarin.com When the pandemic started, I felt secluded in my home and aware of the fact that it will not go away quickly. "

Self Description: "I'm Danny Black. I'm a guy that has taken his disadvantage and, and used it to, to my advantage. Finally, back in. Maybe I did it sooner than then when I began my career. I probably did. I just didn't apply it quite as well, as I did. When I started my career. In 1980 was it? I was looking for something. In the 5-10 10 years prior to that. I was looking for happiness. I think we're all looking for happiness. And I didn't realize my happiness was to be found by providing happiness to others. And a true set of circumstances happened to answer, whatever you want to call it, coincidence. discovered how to do that back in 1980 where I found a career in entertainment, acting and and using my like I said, disadvantage to my advantage feed me lead me on because I know there's I know there's more and you know, there's more. Just it's it's been, what three hours and I'm still not quite awake yet."

Self Description: "I am an oncology social worker, I work with cancer patients and an outpatient cancer clinic and infusion center. I support family members, patients, with just the various challenging situations that they've, you know, that they encounter with a cancer diagnosis. And I've been doing this for about 15 years."