The Thought Atlas Podcast

What if the way we understand health changes when we stop looking only at symptoms? In this episode of Thought Atlas, Dr. Dean Howell, a naturopathic doctor and developer of Neurocranial Restructuring (NCR), discusses his decades of clinical experience and his approach to what he describes as structural foundations of health. Howell shares his personal history with chronic illness, his decision to...

What if the way we understand health changes when we stop looking only at symptoms? In this episode of Thought Atlas, Dr. Dean Howell, a naturopathic doctor and developer of Neurocranial Restructuring (NCR), discusses his decades of clinical experience and his approach to what he describes as structural foundations of health. Howell shares his personal history with chronic illness, his decision to...

What does it take to rebuild a life after addiction? In this episode of Thought Atlas, Dr. Larry Smith shares his personal journey through 30 years of alcohol and drug use and nearly 27 years of recovery. He reflects on the voice he experienced during his addiction, which he eventually named “Johnny,” and why personifying that voice became a way of understanding the internal battle of addiction. T...

What happens when someone who once struggled with English in high school eventually becomes a university writing instructor, author, poet, and mentor to aspiring writers? In this episode of Thought Atlas, H. A. Callum shares how a lifelong love of reading and writing eventually led him from a career in the legal field into literature and education. We explore the connection between law and storyte...

Who are you when the titles, achievements, expectations, and identities you’ve built around yourself fall away? In this episode of Thought Atlas, I sit down with Michael N. Fineman, an author, speaker, leadership strategist, and father whose work centers on identity, authenticity, communication, leadership, and purpose. Michael introduces the idea of “Authority Drift”—the gradual process of making...

What does it really mean to find your voice? In this episode of Thought Atlas, I sit down with Alison Love David, a professional singer of 32 years, coach, writer, speaker, and vocal guide whose work centers on helping people connect with their authentic selves through voice and self-expression. Alison explains that finding your voice isn’t necessarily about singing or speaking. Sometimes, it’s ab...

What if the fictional worlds we escape into can actually help us understand the world we live in? In this episode of Thought Atlas, I sit down with Terrence L. Rotering, a retired U.S. Air Force officer, author, and storyteller whose massive fiction project brings together fantasy, science fiction, and spiritual warfare. Terrence grew up in Wisconsin and attended the United States Air Force Academ...

What if forgiveness isn’t about excusing someone else’s actions, reconciling with them, or pretending the past never happened—but simply getting them out of your head? In this episode of Thought Atlas, I sit down with Katharine Giovanni, an author, speaker, and practical forgiveness educator who has spent decades teaching people how to approach forgiveness in a practical way. Katharine’s perspecti...

What if healing doesn’t mean erasing the past, but changing our relationship with it? In this episode of Thought Atlas, I sit down with Jacob Modak, a holistic health practitioner, trauma recovery coach, and founder of the Trauma Healed Online Coaching Program. Jacob’s work grew out of his own long healing journey and his desire to help people work through what he describes as unresolved trauma pa...

What enables someone to keep moving forward after experiencing unimaginable loss? In this episode of Thought Atlas, I sit down with Andy Campbell, an author, speaker, cancer survivor, and resilience advocate who has endured profound hardship and now works to help others build resilience through difficult and tragic circumstances. Andy shares how his understanding of resilience has evolved through...

What if you don’t have to become someone completely new to transform your life? What if the deeper work is remembering who you already are? In this episode of Thought Atlas, I sit down with Dr. Victoria Rader, a transformational teacher, author, and founder of YU2SHINE. Her work brings together spirituality, personal development, and what she calls quantum personal development, with a strong empha...

What if the products we use every day were designed around the realities of human life—not an imaginary “ideal” user? In this episode of Thought Atlas, I sit down with Douglas Katz, a West Point graduate, disabled Army veteran, inventor, and entrepreneur whose journey has taken him from the U.S. Army and the private sector into adaptive product design. Douglas grew up in Michigan, attended West Po...

What gives a human voice the power to make us feel something—even when we can’t see the person behind it? In this episode of Thought Atlas, I sit down with Kris Keppeler, an actor, voice artist, audiobook narrator, writer, and storyteller whose career has taken her through singing, acting, narration, podcasting, and writing. She has narrated more than 50 audiobooks and continues to coach authors w...

What if the stories we tell aren’t simply entertainment, but tools for understanding who we are? In this episode of Thought Atlas, I sit down with Darlene Franklin Campbell, an author, artist, educator, and award-winning poet whose work is deeply influenced by mythology, philosophy, psychology, history, and her fascination with languages and cultures around the world. Darlene grew up in Kentucky,...

What if your relationship with money is really a relationship with life? In this episode of Thought Atlas, I sit down with Morgana Rae, an author and wealth coach who has spent more than three decades exploring the psychology of money, abundance, and personal transformation. Morgana’s journey into money coaching wasn’t intentional. She says it began with her own financial struggle. Despite having...

Why do we sometimes know exactly what we should do—and still don’t do it? In this episode of Thought Atlas, I sit down with Billy Seol, a Buddhist life coach and former software engineer who has worked at companies including Apple, Disney, and Foursquare. After studying computer science at Cornell and spending years working in software, Billy began exploring a very different kind of engineering: u...

What happens to the American Dream when artificial intelligence begins changing the way we work, build businesses, and create wealth? In this episode of Thought Atlas, I sit down with Bradley Aman, an entrepreneur, author, business strategist, and veteran whose journey through business, technology, and entrepreneurship has shaped the way he thinks about opportunity. Bradley shares lessons from his...

What if building a healthier society has less to do with hospitals than we think? In this episode of Thought Atlas, I sit down with Dr. Nicholas Freudenberg, a public health researcher, teacher, and longtime activist whose work has spanned more than five decades across health and social justice issues. Nicholas argues that health is profoundly influenced by the conditions in which people live, wor...

AI is becoming increasingly capable—but the harder question may not be what AI can do. It may be what we should allow it to do. In this episode of Thought Atlas, I sit down with Latha Karthigaa, an AI governance expert and technology leader who serves as Head of AI Governance at the Global AI Certification Council. Latha began her career as a software engineer, completed a PhD in software engineer...

What if a symptom isn’t simply something to eliminate, but something worth paying attention to? In this episode of Thought Atlas, I sit down with Jeff Feinman, a veterinarian, molecular biologist, and educator whose career began in molecular biology before moving into veterinary medicine and, eventually, broader approaches to animal and human wellness. Jeff explains how his early work studying how...

What if the health of a relationship isn’t determined by its biggest romantic moments, but by the tiny things that happen every day? In this episode of Thought Atlas, I sit down with Rebecca Mullen, a relationship coach, author of Six Steps to Better Marriage Communication , and host of Habits for Your Happily Ever After with Coach Rebecca Mullen . Rebecca’s approach to relationships focuses on st...

What happens when the thing you’ve spent your life doing suddenly becomes something you can no longer do? In this episode of Thought Atlas, I sit down with Laura Van Wormer, a best-selling novelist, former editor, and creator of the serialized fiction podcast The Class of ’74 . Laura had wanted to be a writer since high school. She eventually became a published novelist and says she wrote 14 novel...

What if the symptoms we experience are not simply problems to eliminate, but signals worth understanding? In this episode of Thought Atlas, I sit down with Cindy Costley, a speaker, trainer, and educator whose work grew out of her own 34-year experience with chronic illness and severe physical reactions. Cindy says that at 15, she suddenly became allergic to almost everything—including animal life...

We spend enormous amounts of time training our bodies, but why do we often wait until something goes wrong before we start taking care of our minds? In this episode of Thought Atlas, I sit down with Cory Chadwick, a founder, entrepreneur, and mental performance coach who believes we should approach mental fitness with the same consistency and intention that we bring to physical fitness. Cory’s phi...

What if failure isn’t the opposite of success, but part of the process of becoming who you want to be? In this episode of Thought Atlas, I sit down with Dr. Thaddeus Jones Jr., a filmmaker, producer, educator, entrepreneur, and storyteller whose journey has taken him from growing up in Hampton, South Carolina, through years of different jobs, back to college and into filmmaking and creative entrep...