Driftwood Conversations

This is the fifth and final episode of Writes of Passage: Stories of Service, presented by Mil-Tree Veteran Project. Produced by Dawn Davis, the series features conversations with participants in Mil-Tree's recent Writes of Passage program, which ran from February through June 2026. Mil-Tree is a nonprofit organization based in Joshua Tree, California, that fosters community among veterans, servic...

In this fourth episode of Writes of Passage: Stories of Service, presented by Mil-Tree Veteran Project, host Dawn Davis speaks with John Kalb, a Vietnam veteran, musician, actor, theater producer, and longtime supporter of Mil-Tree programs. John served in the U.S. Navy aboard the aircraft carrier USS Oriskany and shares the story behind his powerful Writes of Passage piece, Fire on the Water, whi...

Omar Columbus: Transforming Service Into Story In this episode of Rites of Passage: Stories of Service, host Dawn Davis speaks with Omar Columbus, a twelve-year Air Force veteran, artist, photographer, poet, performer, and curator. Growing up in a small town in North Carolina, Omar joined the Air Force in search of opportunity and purpose. His military career eventually led him to become an intell...

The Stories We Carry | Brenda Littleton What happens when we begin to reclaim the parts of ourselves we've left behind? In this episode of Driftwood Conversations, I sit down with writer, artist, educator, and depth psychology practitioner Brenda Littleton for a conversation that moves through story, creativity, healing, and personal transformation. Brenda shares her journey from environmental act...

In the second episode of Rites of Passage: Stories of Service, host Dawn Davis speaks with Renee "RA" Pickup, a Marine Corps veteran, writer, editor, artist, publisher, and longtime Mil-Tree facilitator. Their conversation explores military service, creativity, storytelling, and the ways people find meaning and connection through sharing their experiences. RA reflects on her decision to join the M...

Rites of Passage: Stories of Service — Mary Jean "MJ" Puckett Mil-Tree Series In this episode of Rites of Passage: Stories of Service, Dawn Davis speaks with Mary Jean "MJ" Puckett, a nurse, military spouse, and mother of a Marine whose life has been shaped by decades of service to others. MJ reflects on her career in emergency medicine, public health, and child protective services, sharing storie...

Writer, regenerative mentor, and Luna Arcana co-founder Rohini Walker joins Hilary Sloane for a thoughtful conversation about identity, creativity, healing, and the Mojave Desert. Born in India and raised in England, Rohini shares how immigration, cultural displacement, and inherited trauma shaped her journey toward the work she does today. Together, Hilary and Rohini explore somatic awareness, de...

Fashion designer and artist Anja Broenink joins Hilary Sloane for an intimate conversation about creativity, reinvention, illness, aging, and the courage to keep evolving. Born and raised in the Netherlands, Anja began her career as a nurse, studied fashion design, and eventually built her clothing line, Anja SF, in San Francisco during the dot-com boom. Today she lives in Joshua Tree, where she b...

In this episode of Driftwood Conversations, I speak with therapist, writer, and longtime spiritual explorer Catherine Auman about relationships, emotional growth, friendship, awakening, and the long arc of becoming ourselves. Catherine shares stories from her life, including her early feminist performance work in Los Angeles, her years of therapeutic practice, and the deeper understanding she gain...

  In this episode of Driftwood Conversations, I sit down with Sandra Mendelson—animal communicator, channel, and, as it turns out, my second cousin. Though we grew up aware of each other, life took us in different directions, and it wasn’t until recently that we reconnected and discovered a shared sensitivity to the unseen. Sandra came into her abilities later in life, learning to trust the messag...

n this episode of Driftwood Conversations, I speak with Olga Naiman, an interior designer, author, and teacher whose work moves far beyond aesthetics into what she calls spatial alchemy. Rather than focusing on decoration, Olga explores the emotional and psychological imprints we carry into our homes. She asks questions about safety, identity, memory, and what we are ready to release. As a refugee...

In this episode of Driftwood Conversations, I sit down with Wayne Kastning, an artist, designer, and teacher whose life journey spans from a remote farm in the Ozark Mountains of Arkansas to the creative worlds of New York and Los Angeles. Raised without electricity or running water until his teenage years, Wayne grew up surrounded by storytelling, craftsmanship, and a deep connection to making th...

In this episode of Driftwood Conversations, I speak with Dr. Joan Hangarter, known to many as Joan of Angels. Joan has spent more than four decades working with people at moments of change in their lives. She began her career as a chiropractor and eventually expanded her work to guide intuitive and visionary women navigating crossroads in their personal and professional lives. In this conversation...

Rachel Reid Wilkie is a shamanic practitioner and tarot reader based in the Joshua Tree area. Born in Cambridgeshire, England, she has lived and traveled widely, with time in Europe, New York, and Los Angeles before the desert became her home. Her work weaves shamanic ceremonial healing and journeying with tarot and Hermetic studies, shaped by trainings in the Andes and the Amazon and years of men...

In this episode of Driftwood Conversations, Hilary Sloane sits down with fellow Z107.7 reporter Gabriel Hart — novelist, musician, and founder of the print-only literary magazine Beyond the Last Estate. Hart’s punk-noir novel On High at Red Tide challenges conventional crime fiction, resisting easy moral packaging in favor of psychological depth and institutional critique. Together they explore wh...

In this episode of Driftwood Conversations, Hilary Sloane sits down with longtime Joshua Tree resident Buck Buckley for a wide-ranging conversation that begins with his move to the desert during the 2007 construction collapse and unfolds into something much larger. Buck is a big thinker, someone who connects history, language, culture, energy, health, and community into one continuous thread. What...

In this episode of Driftwood Conversations, I sit down with Julie Daniels for a conversation that unfolds slowly and with intention. Julie is a writer, thinker, and guide whose work explores attention, presence, and what it means to live in a deeper relationship with time, language, and self. Rather than rushing toward conclusions, our conversation lingers in uncertainty, curiosity, and the spaces...

Heather Clisby is a reporter, traveler, and keen observer of the human condition, and in this episode of Driftwood Conversations, we talk about what it means to stay curious in a changing world. Heather and I both work at Z107.7, a family-owned local radio station, and our conversation moves through journalism, comedy, travel, intimacy, and the shifting ground beneath it all. We reflect on why loc...

In this episode of Driftwood Conversations, I sit down with Claudia for a thoughtful, unhurried conversation about the paths we take and the ones that quietly shape us along the way. Claudia shares the wisdom she has gathered through years of paying attention, including her relationship with the moon as a guide for reflection, rhythm, and renewal. We talk about how lunar cycles influence the way s...

In this episode of Driftwood Conversations, I sit down with Talor Stewart, a licensed architect and the author of Conscious Home Design. Talor approaches architecture as a living relationship rather than a technical exercise, exploring how the spaces we inhabit quietly shape our behavior, our nervous systems, and the way we give and receive care. Our conversation moves beyond materials and floor p...

This episode of Driftwood Conversations features an intimate conversation with Mark Winters, a singer-songwriter and former aerospace engineer whose music carries both depth and restraint. Woven throughout the episode are songs written and performed by Mark himself, offering a sonic extension of the themes we explore—curiosity, reinvention, and the courage to keep creating. The episode opens with...

In this episode of Driftwood Conversations, I’m joined by Cynthia Abulafia, a yoga teacher and guide whose work bridges embodied practice, Goddess wisdom, and lived spiritual experience. What unfolds here isn’t a lesson or a prescription; it’s a deeply human conversation about trust, surrender, and learning to inhabit the body with honesty. Cynthia speaks with rare openness about her own journey,...

In this episode of Driftwood Conversations, Hilary Sloane speaks with Isha Marla, a 14-year-old student from Portland, Oregon, whose curiosity and discipline have already led her to develop a biodegradable, seaweed-based fabric called Alginifab—an alternative to fast fashion. But this conversation goes beyond innovation. It’s a thoughtful exchange about creativity, persistence, community, and what...

In this episode of Driftwood Conversations, I sit down with my longtime friend Steven Cuden, a writer whose creative life has spanned Broadway, television, film, and teaching. Our friendship stretches back more than four decades, and that history allows us to speak honestly about what it really means to stay with the work. We talk about doubt, discipline, revision, and the uncomfortable moments th...

This week’s episode of Driftwood Conversations steps away from a traditional guest format and turns toward listening to the moment we’re living in, to the questions people are quietly asking themselves, and to what’s emerging beneath uncertainty. As the year comes to a close, I reflect on themes of exhaustion, clarity, simplification, and integrity, sharing observations about how people are choosi...