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 have three titles. In essence, I'm a separation and divorce coach, I'm a family mediator. And I'm also a relationship transition, relationship transition coach. And they all sort of work together in tandem, depending on where my clients are, at any given time in their relationship with another with themselves, that sort of thing. Yeah, and I'm a coach. So I help people, I help people from where they are today to where they want to be in the future in terms of personal growth, understanding how they got here, when it comes to separations and divorces, very relationship oriented. "

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."

Betty es una mamá soltera y peluquera que tuvo que cerrar su salón en Lima cuando comenzó la pandemia. A medida que la ciudad comenzó a reabrir, Betty trabaja en 2 o 3 trabajos para tratar de llegar a fin de mes para poner comida en la mesa y pagar las facturas. La pandemia la ha vuelto más reflexiva y señala que la pérdida de seres queridos ha impactado a casi todos los que conoce.

En esta entrevista Javier Hernández Echeverria es entrevistado por Carmen Kordick Coury concerniente al covid-19 en Costa Rica. Para empezar, hablan de la primera ves que Javier se dio cuenta de la pandemia, de cómo se sintió y sus preocupaciones. Habla de su hogar y las formas en que su vida ha cambiado, también habla de su trabajo de ingeniero agrónomo. De allí, hablan de la economía, de su familia y comunidad. Hablan del gobierno, cambios en su barrio y el uso de las mascarillas. También hablan de gente conocida que se han enfermado, gente que aun viajan y las fronteras cerradas. Para terminar, hablan de las fuentes principales desinformación, corrupción del gobierno y cambios en como ve su familia sus amigos y su comunidad.

En esta entrevista Silvia Muñoz Mata es entrevistada por Carmen Kordick Coury concerniente al covid-19 en Costa Rica. Empiezan hablando de los cambios que habían ocurrido desde el ano anterior. Hablan del trabajo y el trabajo virtual. De la violencia domestica y otros problemas que existen en la sociedad. De allí hablan del crimen, violencia y las divisiones económicas que existen alrededor de ella. Hablan de las vacunas, gente conocida que no se quiere vacunarse y las teorías conspiratorias que existen sobre las vacunas. De allí hablan del gobierno, familia y salud física y mental. Para terminar hablan de narcotraficantes y del futuro.

En esta entrevista Francisco Guzman Solano es entrevistado por Carmen Kordick Coury concerniente al covid-19 en Costa Rica. Empiezan hablar de los cambios que Francisco ha visto desde el ano anterior. Hablan de la economía y el gobierno, de su trabajo y la vacuna. También hablan del aumento del crimen, de las drogas, y de las noticias falsas. De la Caja y el ministro de Salud. Francisco también habla de su familia y su hogar, de las fuentes principales de información y la sociedad. Terminan hablando de las clases virtuales de su hija, de la educación y del Ministerio de Educación.

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."

Rocio s es entrevistada por Katy Kole de Peralta sobre la pandemia de COVID-19 en Peru. Rocio vive en Lima, Peru y trabaja para Unicef. Habla de la pandemia, como era ajustarse a trabajar desde casa, como pasaba la cuarenenta, y el valor para las personas y relaciones.

Jenny Rubis Corrales es entrevistada por Katy Kole de Peralta sobre la pandemia de COVID-19 en Peru. Jenny vive en Arequipa, Peru y recién se graduó de la universidad con una carrera en psicología. Habla de la pandemia, como vendió fruta, fiestas de COVID, y como apoyaba sus abuelos.

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."

Self Description: " I'm a born and bred true New Yorker. I probably the most relevant information with regards to why we're having this interview is that I am a certified end of life doula. That's probably how I identify myself recently, although it's only a profession and a role that I've come into more recently in life. But it's become a major part of my life and my identity right now and the work that I do and the way it has impacted me in the last few years. So but, um, but it's not the sum total of who I am. But we'll just leave it at that."

Self Description: "My name is Melissa Lynn Gonzalez, and I am an end of life doula, a grief support guide, and a trauma informed yoga teacher and Reiki practitioner."

Self-Description: “My name is Merilou Salazar. I’m a queer artist, musician out here in Los Angeles. I front a band called WASI. Queer activism has just been a part of my whole life since I came out in high school, so it’s something that’s dear to my heart. As time goes by, always making sure to stand proud for all the struggles that I have personally had to go through, all the people before me had to go through to give me the privileges I have today.” Some of the things we talked about included: Maintaining optimism that we could come out of this pandemic better than how we entered it Inequitable access to health care Bereavement and COVID related deaths in the family Imposter syndrome Unlearning fight, flight, and freeze responses Unstable housing at the beginning of the pandemic The ending of her 9 year relationship and changing ideas about “closeness” in friendships Diving into new passions during the pandemic: tech and design work Re-evaluating collaboration Spiritual surrendering and accountability toward one’s self Using the word “love” more often, getting in touch with the body, meditating, and gratitude Other cultural references: Postmating, Zoom See also: https://wasi.bandcamp.com

Self-description: “I’m a child survivor of the Holocaust, so my perspective brings into the current situation a very relevant background. I find this very very difficult to acknowledge, because I never thought that I would have to speak about that in the here and now. I’ve been involved as a public advocate for ethical research in medicine. It began when my son, my older son, got sick. He got mentally ill. He had schizophrenia. So, I had to do a lot of learning about the field, what could be done to help him. I both learned, and I had to bury my son. Okay. He was put on a medication that was promised to be the end-all and be-all. It was just going to be great. It killed him. Okay. Before that, during his sickness because I had to start learning how to maneuver the mental health system, which is about as bad as it can be.” Some of the things we discussed included: Childhood experiences of the Holocaust. Recent examples in American history of medical abuse and comparisions to Nazis. Forming the Alliance of Human Research Protection. The Nuremberg Code’s relevance today and its origins. The importance of voluntary-informed consent. Doctors as government agents. Individualism vs. the greater good. What information is necessary for “informed consent”. Profit driven healthcare and the pharmaceutical industry. Atrocious management of mental health/illness. Billionaires and oligarchs, biocracy, technocracy, digital surveillance, censorship. Not being able to see husband in a home with dementia, who died 12 April 2020 (not of COVID). Governor Andrew Cuomo as a mass murderer for his COVID policies. The absence of liability for doctors and nurses. Day-to-day living as depressing and shocking. American funding of Gain of Function Research. Changing masking CDC guidelines: double masking, masking inside and outside, using pantyhose. Masks as dehumanizing. OSHA studies on masking vs. COVID policy guidelines. Suspicion that “flu” deaths are being mislabeled as COVID-deaths, driving up the numbers. The value of viruses to ecology. Scientific method, the Falsification Principle, evidence, anecdotes, statistics Small businesses Suicides among performing artists The difference between quarantining the sick and quarantining the healthy. Comparisons between how the USA is handling the pandemic and COVID treatment in contrast to Tanzania and India. A friend deciding to get vaccinated. Taking back democracy. Military involvement of vaccine distribution. Losing access to methods of self-care, such as going to walks. Living medicine-free, homeopathy. The importance of joy. Other cultural references include: a 1987 article in the American Journal of Psychiatry, “L-dopa Challenge and Relapse in Schizophrenia” (https://doi.org/10.1176/ajp.144.7.934), Bayh-Dole Act, Aktion T4, Amazon, Milgram Experiment, 1918 influenza, BSE, Ezekiel Emanuel, ObamaCare, Pandemrix, iPhone, JAMA, The New England Journal of Medicine, The Lancet, George Orwell’s Nineteen-Eighty-Four (1949)

Self description: “My name is Patricia Tate. I consider myself a healer. I use astrology, tarot, I’m a Reiki Master, and I use Aka Dua, and so I’m an energy worker. And the goal is to help work with others through whatever they… or to guide them or to give them information. I receive dreams. And yeah, I don’t know what else you’d want to know about that.” Some of the things we discussed included: Knowing something big was coming from astrology; preparing with adult children for change; new beginning; pushing comfort zones. Adult daughter moving home during the pandemic. Digital connections and the air element; the importance of in-person connection. Moving homes, downsizing hoarding, reconnecting to space. Take clients home to do energy work. Socially distanced reiki work. Recent traveling in an RV; campgrounds and other state facilities being shut down because of the pandemic. Family moving away during the pandemic; letting go; separation from parents and social distancing; driveway visits with parents. Husband had COVID early in the pandemic; neighbor died early in the pandemic. Catching COVID in December 2021; holistic treatments; going to the doctor; slow test results; symptoms. Fear of dying alone in the hospital and staying home. Different ideas about medicine and health in the family; discussions with family members and vaccination decision; others’ assumptions about masking and vaccination status. Fibonacci sequence, ley lines, pyramids. Routine falling apart during the pandemic. Commitment to service; volunteer services shutting down: Appalachia Service Project Equinox and Spring Seed Festival; Serpent Mound; ceremony; Goddess gatherings Social media and policing safety behavior. Old structures collapsing and making room for the new: governments, hospitals, schooling. The war in Ukraine; nation’s and national leader’s astrology charts; synastry charts. The move to greener energy. Planetary alignment in April 2023. Choice and trauma; that we chose when we came into the world and learning lessons from that generation; free will and determinism in astrology. The difference between surviving and thriving. Shadow work. Helping clients learn to use video-chat and Zoom; technological change, life before computers; Zoom Thanksgiving. Some other cultural references included: Zoom, GoogleMeet, YouTube

Self Description: "I recently started doing my death doula work. But I've been doing nursing since about 2006. If I'm correct. I'm also been studying shamanic…shamanic Andean shamanism up around 2018. And the way you found me is because I merged them together death doula with shamanism."

Self Description: "my name is Lukas Soto. I use they them pronouns in English and elle en Espanol, I'm a mixed race Chile Mapuche, and then Minnesota Chippewa or Ojibwe and Western European. I grew up in the Pacific Northwest, and lived in Oregon for the better part of 30 years. And I currently reside on the Pyramid Lake Paiute reservation in northwestern Nevada, where I live with my elder Dean bar lease, who had been kind of apprenticing or mentoring under when it comes to traditional death work."

Self Description: "Well, my name is Veronica. And I am the mother of four. And I'm married. I went through a lot of trauma growing up. So to be introduced, another traumatic experience shows the resilience that has been cultivated me over time."

Self Description: "my name is Shay Koloff, and I am a master entrepreneurs, a creative a person who really has no rhyme or reason or plan, but can make things happen. That's who I am"

Self Description: "So I'm Kara, I'm in San Francisco, and then native Californian, although I spent about 12 years living on the East Coast, eight of them in New York, where I met my born and bred New York husband. And we had a daughter, and then came back to California, because my parents still live here, and then had another baby. My kids are now 15, and 12. So there's been a lot of life changes in the decade or so. I also worked full time. I've been working full time, since I could work. And definitely during COVID. Some interesting tidbit is I've been working remotely for the last 15 years. So all the new things that came about in COVID, with remote work were not new to me. It was very interesting to watch, a mass movement of people sort of like walk into that into that life and into that lifestyle, albeit under very different circumstances than I did. And I, what I do for a living is not really the career I fell into working sort of administrative HR, Chief of Staff sorts of things at a nonprofit is not really where I ever saw myself. I never saw myself as a career person at all. And in light of that, I do a couple of things on the side. We're in the gig economy. So you know, that's the thing and these days. So I do a lot of youth sports coaching. That's really like where my passion is. I'm a yoga instructor. I studied massage therapy. At one point, I was a massage therapist at one point. I have hopes of writing a book at some point in my life. I don't know that's about it."

Agatha Taylor Self description: “I’m 92. I live by myself with a little dog. I was born in Kingston; I’ve lived here all my life. I’ve lived in this house for almost 70 years.” Some of the things we spoke about include: Not feeling like day-to-day living changed that much with the pandemic, but missing things like coffee shops and shopping COVID-19 and population control The Bible, tithings, church; taking what the Good Lord dishes out; the world going to hell Having groceries delivered by family members and getting drives to appointments Family getting vaccinated Wearing masks in the home Having a daughter-in-law working in the ICU Having lived with dogs for the last 60 years; currently living with a dog named Andy Ontario COVID policies and Doug Ford Preferring print media over TV or online news; enjoying reading the newspaper Consulting healthcare professionals over the phone and in person Feeling safe Isolation accompanying aging Trucker convoy in Ottawa Putin, Russia, and the threat of war The taking down of the statue of Sir John A. McDonald in Kingston after protests The Spanish Flu Not having been vaccinated as a child, first vaccine was for Polio Neighbours with polio, hospitalization, media Other cultural reference: The Hunt (2006) by Allison Brennen After thoughts from Agatha Taylor: “man proposes and god disposes.” And “The God Lord only gives you so many days and when your time is up it’s up.”

Self Description: "My name is José Santos Woss. I'm the director for justice reform at the Friends Committee on national legislation, which basically means that I work on criminal legal system reform to make communities safer, while focusing on non-carceral solutions to violence. As well as making democracy more accessible to all at a quicker lobby."