The Thought Atlas Podcast

What do our desires and fantasies reveal about who we are? Today’s guest is Pepper Kat, a former news producer turned podcast host and entrepreneur who has worked in the adult industry for about four years and has hosted her podcast, Spicy Spectrum, for about three years. With a background in psychology and broadcasting, Pepper uses her experiences in the adult industry as a lens through which to...

What if every ingredient in your skincare had a face, a place, and a story? Today’s guest is Monique Montoya, a cosmetic formulator, entrepreneur, and founder of LMBK, also pronounced Alambique. After spending more than a decade behind the scenes formulating products for major beauty brands, Monique became increasingly interested in the stories behind the ingredients being used—and the farmers pro...

What happens when you learn to see value in the things everyone else overlooks? Today’s guest is Kira Hartley, an entrepreneur, writer, collector, public speaker, and buyer and seller of unusual and overlooked objects. She describes herself as being somewhat like an American picker, buying and selling items for profit. After turning 40 and needing to build a business that would allow her to remain...

What happens when you learn to see value in the things everyone else overlooks? Today’s guest is Kira Hartley, an entrepreneur, writer, collector, public speaker, and buyer and seller of unusual and overlooked objects. She describes herself as being somewhat like an American picker, buying and selling items for profit. After turning 40 and needing to build a business that would allow her to remain...

IQ may get you into the room. EQ may help you relate to people. But what helps you lead yourself? Today’s guest is Nami Prakesh, a former scientist and corporate healthcare communications leader who spent more than two decades in high-pressure executive leadership before embarking on a deeply personal journey of healing and transformation. That journey led her to develop The Mind Quotient (MQ)—a f...

What happens when you step outside the world you’ve always known? Today’s guest is Sarah Marshall, a novelist, former U.S. Navy officer, engineer, traveler, and longtime participant in Burning Man. Sarah says she left home at 17 and has spent her life exploring—moving between highly structured institutions such as the military and industry and experimental environments that offered very different...

Can technological progress, economic growth, and planetary wellbeing reinforce one another rather than compete? Today’s guest is Tom Raftery, a technology and sustainability analyst, keynote speaker, and former SAP Global Vice President whose career has been driven largely by curiosity and an interest in emerging technology. Tom began studying biology and was working toward a PhD when his hobby of...

What if some of the most important forces shaping our lives exist beyond conscious awareness? Today’s guest is Danielle Green, a psychoanalyst and marriage and family therapist whose work explores trauma, relationships, meaning, the unconscious mind, and the deeper dimensions of human experience. Danielle says her own early mystical experiences led her into a lifelong exploration of questions surr...

What if the difficult experiences in your life don’t have to define your future? Today’s guest is Dr. Oluwole Babatunde, a physician, scientist, psychiatrist, epidemiologist, and author. Born in Nigeria, Oluwole lost his mother at seven and his father at thirteen. He describes those experiences as shaping his independence, resilience, and ability to navigate adversity. His journey took him from me...

What if our cities could function more like living ecosystems? Today’s guest is Joshua Harrison, co-founder and chief strategy officer of Leaf Island and Director of the Center for the Study of the Force Major at UC Santa Cruz. For more than three decades, Joshua has worked at the intersection of ecology, systems thinking, design, and art, exploring how we can rethink the relationship between citi...

How will businesses stay visible and trustworthy as AI changes the way people search for information? Today’s guest is Elias Curtis, founder and CEO of Transform Design, a digital growth agency that works across branding, logo design, website development, marketing, SEO, and AI integration. Elias has been working in the digital space for 17 years, and his experience has given him a front-row view...

What if the history we’ve been taught is far more complicated than the stories we tell about it? Today’s guest is Neil Laird, an Emmy- and BAFTA-nominated filmmaker, author, and historian who has spent roughly three decades making documentaries around the world. Based in New York, Neil has worked extensively in documentary television, particularly around ancient history, the Middle East, Egypt, Ro...

What can making pizza teach us about leadership, community, and living a meaningful life? Today’s guest is Jeff Christian, founder of C4 Leaders, a registered nurse, leadership coach, former basketball player and coach, and host of the Life’s Essential Ingredients podcast. Jeff spent 33 years in nursing, including time working in a Level 1 trauma center and later in nursing education. His experien...

What makes a conversation memorable—and why do genuine conversations matter more than ever? Today’s guest is Richard Wilmore, an award-winning talk show host, podcast producer, and founder of Make Your Day Richer LLC. Richard has been interested in becoming a talk show host since he was 12 years old, inspired in part by The Rosie O’Donnell Show . What stayed with him wasn’t simply the format of th...

Why does love often remain while passion slowly fades? Today’s guest is Michael Cook, author of Reignite: The Secret to Lifelong Passion and Intimacy and creator of what he calls the Outside Sex Revolution. Michael spent much of his life working hands-on in the building, mining, and pearling industries, as well as working on sheep stations. His own experiences in relationships eventually led him t...

What can decades of investigating organized crime teach us about human nature, power, loyalty, fear, addiction, and justice? Today’s guest is Gary Jenkins, a retired Kansas City Police Intelligence Unit detective, former attorney, author, filmmaker, and host of the Gangland Wire podcast. Gary spent 25 years on the police department, followed by three years in law school and approximately ten years...

What if the smallest thing you do today has a much bigger impact than you realize? Today’s guest is John Verrico, a leadership coach, retired Navy Master Chief, communicator, storyteller, and self-described lifelong learner. John’s career has taken him through electronics engineering and technical work, journalism, military service, stand-up comedy, theater, public affairs, small-business consulti...

What if the greatest mystery isn’t something outside of us—but life itself? Today’s guest is Nancy Orlen Weber, a former registered nurse, psychic detective, medical intuitive, and founder of the Soul Detective Approach. In the conversation, Nancy reflects on more than five decades of exploring intuition, consciousness, healing, service, and what she describes as the deeper dimensions of human exp...

What happens when you spend years trying to belong, please everyone else, and escape the pain inside—until you no longer recognize yourself? Today’s guest is Rowan Vale, the author of Enough , a memoir about addiction, identity, and the long road back to oneself. Writing under a pen name to protect his family’s privacy, Rowan shares his story from lived experience. He explains how growing up in a...

What can war, humor, and storytelling teach us about human nature? Today’s guest is Kenny Dupar, a retired military officer, retired construction professional, author, and storyteller based in East Tennessee. He describes himself as “Colonel Kenny” because, as he puts it, he refuses to take himself too seriously. In this conversation, Kenny reflects on his experiences in the military, his time in...

What if the way you age isn’t simply something that happens to you—but something you can prepare for? Today’s guest is Butch Phelps, a functional massage therapist, author, and creator of the Stretch and Release Technique. After experiencing major weight loss and later developing severe lower-back pain, Butch entered massage therapy and spent more than two decades studying the human body and worki...

What does foreign aid actually look like when you’re the person working on the ground? Today’s guest is Clifford H. Brown, a former commercial lawyer who spent 27 years working with USAID, serving across Latin America, Africa, and Central Asia. During his career, Clifford experienced military coups, civil unrest, revolutions, and humanitarian crises firsthand. Those experiences gave him a very dif...

Why are human beings so fascinated by things we don’t understand? Today’s guest is Robert O. Bowers, a storyteller, outdoorsman, and self-published author whose writing grew out of a lifetime of hunting, fishing, outdoor adventures, and encounters he describes as unexplained. After 43 years with the Oklahoma Department of Transportation, Robert began writing his stories later in life. What started...

What happens after you’ve made the movie? For independent filmmakers, finishing a film is only part of the challenge. The harder question can be finding an audience—and building a distribution strategy that gives the film a realistic chance of succeeding. Today’s guests are Shaked Berenson and Tom Malloy, the team behind Studio Dome, a film distribution and streaming company. In this conversation,...

What happens when technology moves faster than the systems built to support it? Today’s guest is Ken Chester, a nationally syndicated automotive journalist, technology communicator, entrepreneur, and CEO of Tech Mobility Productions. He has spent nearly four decades in business and has built multiple companies, including Motor News Media and his current multimedia company, Tech Mobility Production...