Circle This

Dre witnessed Ava Delaney's birth. Twenty-five years later, she sat in Ava's women's circle and found herself learning from the young woman she had watched grow up.       This week, Dre and Em welcome singer-songwriter, actress, and circle keeper Ava Delaney for a conversation about art as medicine, belonging, and the wisdom that moves between generations.       Based in Brooklyn, Ava finds "magic...

We're bringing The WECAN Podcast to Circle This to share a special conversation with our friend Stephanie Ferrario—this time, with Dre and Em  on the other side of the microphone.       Dre and Stephanie Ferrario met in Dre's online circles during the pandemic. Around that time, Stephanie launched SHECAN, which has since grown into WECAN, a platform sharing stories, mentorship and the wisdom of pe...

What changes when we stop trying to be the most impressive person in the room and start taking care of the room itself?       Broadway director, educator, and producer Marc Tumminelli joins Dre and Em for a deeply moving conversation about creativity, collaboration, grief, leadership, and the courage to open ourselves to possibility.       Marc shares how theater helped save his life, why the most...

After taking August off, Dre and Em are back and ready for the newness of a new cycle of the school year to begin.        In this welcome-back episode, they catch up on wedding-planning chaos, experiments in intentional living, and the practices that helped them get out of autopilot and come back to connection.       They share about a 30-day meditation challenge, unexpected lessons in accountabil...

What if the experiences that shaped you—even the painful ones—weren't detours at all, but preparation for the life you're here to live? This episode will leave you thinking differently about your past, your purpose, and the healing power of genuine human connection.       In this episode, Dre sits down with educator, speaker, and Kid Grit co-founder Julia Gabor for a deeply honest conversation abo...

In this episode,  actress, author, therapist, and addiction specialist Rosa Blasi joins Dre for an honest conversation about intuition, reinvention, accountability, grief, and the courage to trust yourself.        Together they explore why so many of us ignore our instincts, how feelings of "not enough" quietly shape our lives, and what it actually takes to break old patterns instead of simply und...

Davide De Pierro has become one of the internet's most thoughtful voices on love, heartbreak, and modern relationships as he willing asks questions many of us quietly carry.       In this conversation, we circle around modern masculinity, loneliness, dating, and the stories we tell ourselves about love. Along the way, an even bigger question emerges: What are we really searching for? Is it permane...

In this episode, Dre sits down with transformational coach, hypnotist, and author Jim Curtis to explore how our subconscious stories shape the lives we create. Jim shares his own journey through chronic illness, heartbreak, isolation, and reinvention, revealing how some of life's most difficult moments became catalysts for profound transformation.       Together, they explore how childhood experie...

In this episode, Dre sits down with former LAPD officer Lyndon Barber for a conversation about policing, loneliness, vulnerability, nervous systems, and what happens when people trained to suppress emotion are finally given permission to speak honestly. They explore how council-based practices (think circle) are transforming law enforcement from the inside out.       A 16-year veteran of the LAPD,...

In this episode, Dre sits down with death midwife, interfaith minister, mystic, and founder of Sacred Crossings, Olivia Bareham, for a conversation about death, grief, presence, and what it truly means to care for one another.       What began for Olivia during the AIDS crisis eventually became a lifelong devotion to helping people move through death with honesty, tenderness, dignity, and love. To...

In this episode, Dre sits down with powerhouse actress/producer Constance Zimmer and filmmaker Abby Epstein, the collaborators behind The Midlife Monologues, for a conversation that goes straight to what's rarely said out loud and what needs to be heard.        They talk about the reality of midlife as it actually lands: identity shifts, grief, hormonal changes, loneliness, and the disorientation...

In this episode, Dre sits down with journalist and News Not Noise founder Jessica Yellin for a conversation about how to stay informed without losing yourself in the process.       From her time as Chief White House Correspondent at CNN to now speaking directly to millions from her living room, Jessica shares the real story behind her evolution and the isolation, pressure, and purpose that came wi...

In this episode, Dre and Em follow the thread of signs, synchronicities, and the moments that feel too precise to be random.       From a spontaneous "Sing with Emily" exchange echoed  by a billboard, to ladybugs showing up at pivotal life and creative moments, to standing on the exact New York corner described in a voice note as it plays—they track the patterns that blur the line between coincide...

In this episode Monica Corcoran Harel, screenwriter, bestselling author and founder of PRETTY RIPE and author of the viral essay "The Women Quietly Quitting Their Husbands" joins for a conversation that goes straight to the truth many women have been living but not naming.       What happens when the life you've built no longer fits?       Monica shares how her popular essays tap into a larger cul...

In this episode of Circle This, Dre sits down with Jared Seide, Executive Director of Beyond Us & Them, a groundbreaking nonprofit bringing compassion, connection, and real tools for transformation into some of the most unlikely places—prisons, law enforcement agencies, healthcare systems, and policy spaces.       Through circle and council practices, along with mindfulness-based techniques, Jared...

Award-winning filmmaker, writer, actor, and creative force Jenna Laurenzo joins Dre and Emily for a conversation about storytelling, representation, and the courage to create the stories we long to see.       When Jenna entered the film industry, she quickly realized that the stories reflecting her own experience as a queer woman were largely missing. Instead of waiting for them to appear, she beg...

In this episode Dre shares the ongoing integration of her recent death doula training — an experience that began with a surprising invitation: before learning how to support others at the end of life, she first had to face her own mortality.       What started as curiosity quickly opened into something deeper. Dre and Em circle around grief, awe, ritual, and the ways our culture avoids talking abo...

In this episode, Dre sits down with Ashley Turner—licensed depth psychotherapist, yoga and meditation teacher, psychedelic therapist, and menopause advocate—to explore what's rising at the intersection of midlife transformation, mental health, sovereignty, and the psychedelic renaissance.       Together, they unpack perimenopause vs. menopause, myth-bust the most common symptoms, and explore the l...

Odette and Dave Annable return for Part 2 to take us deeper into the rupture, the repair of their partnership and their choice to begin again. They were on the brink of divorce, separate homes, papers nearly signed, when COVID forced them back under one roof with nowhere to escape. What followed became what they now call "our second marriage… it just happens to be with each other."       But recon...

Actors and real-life married couple Odette Annable and Dave Annable join Dre for a candid conversation about what it actually takes to stay connected in modern marriage—through the peaks, the valleys, and the chapters you don't post.       Odette and Dave share their near-miss origin story, the season when "this shouldn't be this hard" almost became the end, and how therapy helped them reframe con...

We're back. And instead of rushing into "new year, new you" energy, Dre and Em open the season by honoring winter, integration, and the deep exhale that comes after a big creative year.       With 55 episodes behind them (and a podcast ranked in the top 2% globally), they circle around what's sustaining them now: chosen family, learning to receive support, and expanding the places love is allowed...

In this year-end episode, Dre and Em record under the final full moon in Gemini and reflect on the year through their own version of the rose, thorn, and bud.       Emily shares the joy of getting engaged and fully moving in with her fiancé, alongside the challenge of caretaking after a sudden injury. Dre reflects on the podcast as both her greatest joy and greatest stretch, a year shaped by learn...

Dre sits down with writer, teacher, and embodiment leader Natalie Kuhn, founder of Make the Sun and former Co-CEO of The Class. Natalie shares how her early experiences with conditional love shaped her sense of self, and how her current work in seminary and Al-Anon is revealing a different understanding of belonging and internal safety.       They explore the pressures of spiritual overload, the t...

In this episode, beloved friend of the show, entrepreneur and founder, Nyakio "Kio" Grieco returns for a hard-won conversation about resilience, faith, and what adversity can reveal.  After being named in a lawsuit nine months ago—and recently cleared with a full retraction—Kio shares publicly for the first time, what it was like to sit in the unknown, navigate loneliness, and how she managed to m...

In this special episode, Dre sits down with her 16-year-old son, the one and only Strummer James Rouse, for a tender, funny, and surprisingly profound look into the emotional world, entrepreneurial drive, and connection language of Gen Z.         Later, they're joined by Strummer's friend and collaborator, 19-year-old entrepreneur Jack Jiang, for an eye-opening second chapter on credibility, reput...