Beautiful Voyager

This episode, which will be simultaneously released here and on Vanessa Soto's new book coaching podcast, is a behind-the-scenes on book publishing.  In it we discuss how I approached writing GET OUT OF MY HEAD, the stops and starts of the process, and surprise learnings along the way.  Vanessa is a Managing Director at Charles Schwab and Book Proposal Coach. Follow her on @vanessasotobookcoa...

Suhail Rasheed is an Indian writer, editor, and curator currently living in Dubai. A longstanding member of the Beautiful Voyager community, Suhail has written about his mental health journey in the past, but in this very special and personal interview he covers new terrain. Childhood abuse is not a topic that is often  discussed in his culture. He is incredibly courageous to open up about his own...

It was such a treat to have this conversation with superstar Product Manager Anamita Guha. Anamita is the Global Lead of Product Management at IBM, where she focuses on Quantum computing (yes, we talk about what that means) and she's dedicated to inspiring the next generation of female innovators and pioneers.  As a national ambassador for the American Association for the Advancement of Scien...

Joshua Kemble lives in Antelope Valley, California, where he is an Art Director and illustrator. A Xeric Award Winning Cartoonist, Josh's newest book is a labor of love: an autobiographical graphic novel about depression and panic attack called Two Stories. In this conversation, Josh and I talk about the comic book artists he admires, why "making" is good for mental health, and how...

Dr. Tameika Lawrence holds a doctoral degree in counseling psychology and is a member of the Hudson Valley Psychological Association and the American Psychological Association. She's the author of Outgrow Your Comfort , a 6-step self-help model and book. In this conversation, Dr. Lawrence and I talk about how she felt "different" growing up, and how it helped later in life. We also...

Robert James is a podcaster and mental health coach originally from the UK. Robert developed OCD at the age of 16 and spent his twenties trying everything he could to face it. He read every book he could find on the topic and made a commitment to personal development. This rough ride taught him some lessons along the way, and now he helps others to do the same while sharing what he learned. In thi...

Caitlin Schiller and I first met on the audio platform Anchor many years ago. I liked her immediately: she clearly has a love of language and is sharp as a whip. Caitlin lives in Berlin and works as an Executive Producer of New Content at Blinkist, where she produces and co-hosts the podcast Simplify. A true word person, Caitlin's been writing online  for more than a decade and has lived in a...

Comedian Sara Schaefer is proud of her new book, GRAND: A Memoir , and she should be! It is the kind of delightful and moving tale that makes you feel like you know Sara, even more so if you listen to her read it, as I did.  I loved talking to Sara about what it was like to write this book after years of comedy writing, how her own internal critic (nicknamed DOOM) tried to sabotage her along the w...

Johnny, aka "The Anxious Beard," is a former nurse who was born and raised in Southern California (though he spent time in Las Vegas as well). He describes himself as having "31 flavors of mental health:" anxiety, panic, and agoraphobia disorder, as well as ADHD and a learning disability.  Johnny's been married for 12 years to his high school sweetheart, and they have a fa...

In honor of World Mental Health Day, today's special guest is singer and activist Meredith O'Connor.  Meredith originally came to attention when her music video for the song "Celebrity" went viral on Youtube. Her music was then featured on Teen Nick, and she began to tour and perform around the world. She then found her voice as an anti-bullying activist.  Meredith is now relea...

Born and raised in Quebec City (he's French-Canadian), Patrice worked in pharmaceutical marketing in Boston when he experienced serious mental health challenges that almost took his life. His recovery took him on a new career path and led him to California, where he found a government-funded role I didn't even know existed: Certified Peer Specialist in mental health. Just last week, Gov...

Amanda Stern is the author of Little Panic, a memoir about growing up in 80's New York with undiagnosed panic disorder. She also wrote The Long Haul, and eleven books for children. She's an advisory board member of the non-profit The Child Mind Institute.  The founder of New York City's iconic Happy Ending Music and Reading Series, widely considered the gold standard for literary ev...

Writer Rachel Murphy and I work at Pinterest together. Earlier this year we founded Pinside Out, Pinterest's first mental health employee resource group. Rachel recently launched her own new mental health site, Us & Our Stories, a place to have real conversations around emotional wellbeing from a Christian perspective.  Rachel lives in San Francisco with her husband, Tom, who also works a...

Mental health writer Cassie Clark grew up in Appalachia and moved to Fayetteville, North Carolina when she married her husband Brandon 17 years ago. Cassie writes a blog, Cozy in Carolina, which she describes as "hygge anxiety writing." In this interview we talk about homeschooling, her diagnoses of PTSD, OCD, and Generalized Anxiety Disorder, and what it's like to speak out about m...

Jordan Brown is a mental health advocate, writer, and entrepreneur. Since 2016, he’s been blogging to make mental health more accessible and meaningful (a project near and dear to our hearts). Formally trained as a social worker, Jordan considers his mental health struggles and open-heart surgery the greatest, most life-affirming lessons. He is the author of the book In Search of Happiness: Healin...

I've known Leslie Dotson Van Every for over a decade. We first worked together at CBS, where she rocked her role as Director of PR. Since then, she's led communications and content for companies like Overstock, Scribd, and Future Family. In her spare time(!), she and two partners built a powerful and well-respected community action group called Solidarity Sundays. With over 17K active pa...

Ryan Fan is a writer and special-ed teacher in Baltimore, Maryland. A co-editor of the Medium publication Invisible Illness, Ryan is a passionate advocate for new writers in the mental health space. In his free time, Ryan runs marathons. To read some of Ryan's writing on his faith, mental health, and education, follow him on Medium @ryanfan.

Ashwini Dodani is a poet and writer who lives in Mumbai, India. Originally trained as a mechanical engineer, Ashwini switched career paths to work in the ever-evolving realm of social media, helping support the launch of major TV shows from the likes of Amazon in India. We talk about his adopted city and I learn how Mumbai is a way of life, but Bombay is a feeling. We also discuss his philosophy o...

This the first experimental episode of the Beautiful Voyager podcast!  I talk with Logan Johnston, community builder extraordinaire. Logan and I first met years ago at a startup called Outdoorsy ("the Airbnb of RVs"). He now works with community leaders of Facebook Groups. We delve into social media use and community-building in a difficult environment, as well as overthinking, habit bui...