Let’s Have The Conversation

Every fall, (PSL) pumpkin spice latte season rolls in with its own ritual. This year, ( like last ), it collided with calls to boycott Starbucks in solidarity with Palestine ( as well as unions ). And when I showed up, PSL in hand, the comments lit up. Some accused me of hypocrisy. Others lectured me about unions or Palestine’s struggle. A few got downright hostile. But here’s the truth: This isn’...

Rest. Reset. Resist. Liberation Lessons (6th in the Arc) Over the last five weeks, you’ve received Rest. Reset. Resist. Liberation Lessons (here is the 6th), a sacred arc that’s guided us from pause to clarity to refusal. I’ve just come back from a month away, and let me tell you: it wasn’t just a vacation, it was also survival. It was birthdays and rites of passage, grief and eulogies, delays and...

Let’s start with the truth: Liberation work is too sacred to be done in isolation. And too often, we try to carry it alone. Out of fear, out of shame, out of “I don’t want to burden anyone.” But community is the antidote to both supremacy and burnout. And today’s reflection? It’s a call to bring someone with you. The Resistance Was Never Meant to Be Solo Whether you’re organizing, healing, learnin...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit desireebstephens.substack.com Because true freedom isn’t fireworks and flag-waving; it’s honoring our bodies, our boundaries, and our brave refusals. July has arrived, and with it, a divine invitation. To unhook from the myth that urgency is holiness. To step back without apology. To let stillness do the speaking. Because rest is not re...

We’ve spent this entire month pulling at the roots of language, not the polished SAT words or the grammar rules we were taught in school, but the inherited phrases, scripts, and soundbites that either build bridges or reinforce bars around our becoming. This final episode in the Word Is Born arc is an invocation, a return to the truth that every relationship we are in, from our lovers to our linea...

Some conversations feel like medicine. Not the kind you swallow, but the kind that softens you open from the inside. Today’s episode was different, not just because it was our first co-hosted conversation, but because we dared to name what’s been left out of nearly every public health conversation: Perimenopause is not a malfunction; it’s a rite of passage. Today, I had the honor of speaking with...

We gathered today under the theme Teaching a New Tongue , a call to become conscious stewards of the language we speak, inherit, and pass down. As we expand the June series Word Is Born , we unpack the violence and possibility embedded in our everyday speech. Because language is never neutral, it’s a portal. A portal into cosmologies of liberation or control. We’re not just replacing oppressive wo...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit desireebstephens.substack.com Today’s episode sits at the sacred intersection of truth-telling and trauma, where our ancestral urge to speak collides with the systemic conditioning to stay small. We went deep into what it costs to use your voice in rooms that never had the range to receive it. This episode is a reclamation. A sacred pau...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit desireebstephens.substack.com “You don’t owe anyone your silence—not even the ones who say they love you.” Dear Liberators, Today’s episode pulled no punches. We unpacked the painful intersections of family expectations , religious conditioning , and the unspoken contracts that demand our silence as the price of belonging. What happens...

In today’s episode, we wade into the treacherous waters of truth-telling ,not the sanitized kind that fits into TED Talks or team-building retreats, but the inconvenient, marrow-deep truths that threaten fragile egos and polished optics. We ask: 🗣 What does it cost to tell the truth in a room that’s built to collapse under the weight of it? 🗣 How do we discern the difference between spaces that ar...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit desireebstephens.substack.com Sometimes, the most revolutionary “no” is the one we whisper to our own hustle. On the day of this live, I said no to showing up at 9:30 am, not because I didn’t care, but because I did. Because my body asked for rest. And in honoring that no, I didn’t miss the moment… I made space for the moment to meet me...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit desireebstephens.substack.com Saying No Without a Thesis Statement: Wildfires, Witness, and the Wisdom of Refusal We opened with this song. I chose this song because it echoes what so many of us know in our bones: Resistance doesn’t always come loud. Sometimes it simmers, it sobs, it survives. In the embers of oppression, we don’t just...

The sun is high. The blooms have blossomed. And yet, nature isn’t sprinting—it’s sustaining. In the sacred rhythm of the seasons, summer isn’t about burnout. It’s about deepening. So why are we still running on fumes? Why does rest feel like failure? Why does pausing feel like giving up? Because supremacy culture taught us to fear stillness. Because grind culture made exhaustion a badge of honor....

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit desireebstephens.substack.com They meant it to comfort you. But it felt like dismissal. A neat little phrase to tuck your grief away. An attempt to spiritualize survival. But here's the truth: Resilience isn't proof that the burden was fair. And capacity doesn’t equal consent. When Comfort Becomes Complicity We live in a world that cons...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit desireebstephens.substack.com They say words are just words. But those of us doing the sacred work of liberation know: Language reveals allegiance. The words we choose, especially when we’re scared, uncertain, or seeking power, tell the truth about who we’re really serving. Not just in theory, but in practice . Mirror or Funhouse? Let’s...

They said,“It is what it is.”“Everything happens for a reason.”“Boys will be boys.”“Time heals all wounds.” But none of these offered justice. None of these made us safer. None of these honored what was really happening in our bodies, homes, or communities. These phrases aren’t neutral. They’re silencing tools, polite dismissals in the language of colonized care. So today, we unmask them. 3 Core T...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit desireebstephens.substack.com Planting Seeds for Those Who Come After The end of May isn’t the end of blooming, it’s the moment where we step back, look at the petals, and ask: “What does this mean for who comes next?” This conversation is for those of us who have bloomed in concrete, grieved in gardens, and decided that our thriving wo...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit desireebstephens.substack.com A Sacred Contextual Anchor Let’s begin with this quote from Nicole Rubin of Soul Science Healing , which speaks directly to the heart of today’s teaching: “Our bodies are hardwired for joy and connection. Going as far back as we can find, humans have been gathering together to celebrate life and death and f...

Let me be clear: your joy is not a luxury. It is not a reward you earn after suffering. It is not a permission granted by systems that oppress you. Your joy is a radical act of resistance. In a world built on your exhaustion, your burnout, your shame—choosing joy is rebellion. And not just any joy. I’m talking about sacred joy. Rested joy. Unapologetic, belly-laugh, barefoot-in-the-grass, dancing-...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit desireebstephens.substack.com Nature tells us every day: some things must rot so others can rise. Composting is sacred. Letting go is a nutrient. But releasing isn't easy, especially when what you're carrying once kept you alive. This week, we walk into the sacred fire of ownership .Not with shame, but with clarity. Not with guilt, but...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit desireebstephens.substack.com (I noticed the sound quality is not amazing, so this is a heads up) We’re told that healing has a deadline. That growth needs to be visible. That if you’re not blooming by now, you must be behind. But what if the problem isn’t that we’re late? What if the problem is that we’re rushing? In today’s episode, I...

Making Space for Shadow, Sadness & Slowness in a World that Demands Bloom After 100 Days of Community and a two-week break that was anything but restful (hello testing accommodations, homeschooling, and parenting in real time), I’m back. And I’m blooming— in my own damn time. This conversation is for anyone who’s watching the world burst into color and asking, “But what if I’m still gray?” “What i...

Hey Sacred Ones, We made it.100 days. 100 truths. 100 sacred returns to ourselves and each other. Today wasn’t just a wrap-up. It was a re-membering —a weaving together of every thread we’ve carried in our bodies, our spirits, and our stories over these last 100 days. This space wasn’t just a live session. It was ceremony. And like all sacred rites of passage, it spilled over the time we set becau...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit desireebstephens.substack.com Whew. We made it. Not just to the day. To the moment. The milestone. The proof. That community built on truth, rhythm, and ritual doesn’t just survive—it transforms . Today, we laughed, we danced to Shania, we cried with coffee in hand, and we anchored in the sacred knowing that we’re still here. And you’re...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit desireebstephens.substack.com A Fairy Tree, a Burger, and the Beauty of the In-Between We opened today rooted in joy—literally. With a tour of my magical fairy tree, wrapped in joy and stories, and a burger on my lap, we held space for celebration without pretense. Because yes, we are wrapping up this 100-day journey. But we’re also exp...