Seen

While we often want to hold onto the things we love forever, endings are a sacred part of our natural cycles and they deserve to be honoured. In this final episode, Nic and Lala discuss their decision to end the podcast, reflect on their achievements and regrets, dream into their futures, and celebrate everything SEEN is and has been.

For the final episode of the season, Nic and Lala are joined by Marcellite Failla, a practitioner and scholar of African diasporic religions and spiritualities. Together, they explore the alchemy of change once more, interweaving the importance of ritual and routine, and discussing what it means to reclaim spiritual practices in a decolonized way. 

The challenges associated with growth, transformation or success are often under-discussed. Often, we imagine that getting  the thing you’ve been working so hard for means you’re set, that you have it under control — but what happens in reality? In this episode, Nic and Lala are joined by Mebrat Beyene to discuss the peaks and valleys of levelling up.

At some point along our journeys of personal growth or healing, we can find ourselves plateauing into a dreaded sense of stagnancy. In this episode, Nic and Lala explore the ways that stopping, stillness and taking stock are crucial elements to personal transformation, and how bringing more compassion and less comparison can support us in moving forward. 

In this episode, Nic and Lala continue to explore transformative justice on a personal level by tackling hope: its elusiveness, some of the uncomfortable pressures that it can place on us to be toxically positive, and how a ‘grounded’ hope can serve us well.

In this episode, Nic and Lala are joined by jaye simpson. Together, they talk about the ways that change can involve loss, how grief can be our teacher, and how grieving can illuminate what we care for and deserve. 

In this episode, Nic and Lala are joined by Nadine Tilma and explore the concept of radical self-love: how it supports the change process, what it makes possible in our lives, and how to hold the dialectic of acceptance and change.

In this episode, Nic and Lala explore safety as a condition and as something to cultivate within and around ourselves in order to foster the change we desire. They discuss what safety means to them and some of the tools we can use to create it.

In this episode, Nic and Lala are joined by activist, organizer and writer, Harsha Walia to talk about perfectionism, the fear (or necessity) of being seen, and how visibility is never more important than our shared humanity, relationships, and connections.

In this episode, Nic and Lala discuss longing, what drives change, and the magical ways that nature and a sense of wonder can both sustain and reframe how we accept the inevitabilities of transformation within ourselves. 

Nic and Lala discuss how their lives and relationships with themselves have changed, and explore the concept of transformative justice for self.

Nic and Lala describe their upcoming season of Seen, The Alchemy of Change, available January 2023.

Nic and Lala discuss changing directions and future plans for the podcast.

As the pandemic stretches on, Nic and Lala turn away from isolation and dream into the communities that would nourish and sustain them, exploring the intentionality, values, and vulnerability that would be required to bring these dreams into reality. Song of the week: My Kind of Love by Emeli Sandé

When is laughter medicine, and when is it something more harmful? In this episode, Nic and Lala break down their ideas about comedy, the responsibility of the comedian, and the alchemy they believe it can offer us. Song of the week: Mooo! by Doja Cat

If we were freed from the pressures of healing our past or controlling our present, what would we be able to access about who we are, and all we’ve done? In this episode, Nic and Lala explore what it means to tap into distant parts to receive the wisdom they’ve held all along. Song of the week: I Am by Kindred the Family Soul

Do you know how to make contact with your younger self? In this episode, Nic and Lala explore therapeutic time travel and begin to transform the circumstances that keep parts of them stuck in the past. Song of the week: Never Would Have Made It by Teyana Taylor

We long to be seen the way we see ourselves - to be understood. And yet, what seems to be a foundational part of being in relationship often feels elusive. In this episode, Nic and Lala discuss the inevitability, the pain, and the gifts of being misunderstood. Song of the week: Don’t let me be misunderstood by Nina Simone

Success is a loaded word, coopted by capitalism and often connected to money, power, fame and fortune. But do these definitions of success actually work for you? In this episode, Nic and Lala offer reflections on what this word means and how we can re-orient ourselves to it. Song of the week: Free Mind by Tems

Not ones to beat around the bush, Nic and Lala dive in to discuss the impact that their periods have had on them over time, how they've navigated pain and intimacy, and what it means to chart a new course in their relationship to their cycles. Song of the week: And The Beat Goes On by The Whispers

After 5 seasons of beautiful, Black excellence, dazzling visuals, a soundtrack that just won’t quit, and laughs to last forever, our beloved comedy series has ended. In this spoiler-laden episode, Nic and Lala chat about their biggest takeaways and lessons learned from watching Issa Rae’s HBO series. Song of the week: Insecure by Bryson Tiller & Jazmine Sullivan

In this last episode of 2021, Nic and Lala reflect on the last six months of extreme weather and natural disasters in so-called BC, and the feelings of grief, overwhelm, and impending doom that has come with them. They explore what it means to cope under these conditions, and how to keep ahold of both the precariousness and preciousness of life. Song of the week: Made of Gold by Ibeyi

Simple words spoken to us in childhood can create lasting imprints on how we take up space, and the lessons of unlikely teachers can drastically alter the path of every relationship we have. In this episode, Nic and Lala share some of the most impactful teachings and teachers in their life. Song of the week: Appletree by Erykah Badu

In this episode, Nic and Lala discuss their respective wishes for acceptance and peace, what makes these states elusive, and the paradox of living inside and outside of what we have and what we long for at the same damn time. Song of the week: The Other Side by Jazmine Sullivan

In this episode, Nic and Lala share what it has meant to them and how they engage and plan to sustain decolonization as a lifelong committed practice. song of the week: Zombie by Fela Kuti