Naoness: The Power of Connection

Join us as we celebrate Naoko's birthday and delve into the profound benefits of meditation. In today's episode, we explore how meditation can transform your life, offering insights and techniques to enhance your well-being. Let's dive in and discover the power of mindfulness and inner peace. Happy Birthday Naoko!

We welcome back Monica from Ep. 49 to talk a little about Japanese pop culture in the realm of reality TV. Ultimately, we talk about how cyberbullying knows no international boundaries and how we can build healthy habits around media literacy. We end on a happy note of Japanese Girl's Day celebrated on March 3 every year.

We kick off our conversation by sharing our 'word for the year,' a concept inspired by a career coach. The idea is to think about one word that can keep us grounded, focused, and have a profound impact throughout the coming year, as opposed to setting up often intangible and unachievable hefty resolutions. We then delve into our thoughts on Course 1 of the UC Berkeley-based Othering &...

Naoness is thrilled to host a special guest, Monica, in our first recording of 2024! We met Monica over 30 years ago, but didn't keep in touch per se until recently. It's extraordinary to revisit some time capsule moments, picking up right where we left off in junior high school. In this episode, we dive into Monica's journey—from her impactful work in social services at a mental healt...

This marks our final episode of the year! We want to extend our gratitude to the many listeners who discovered us for the first time, as well as those who continue to join our conversations. In this episode, we cover a wide range of topics, from the debate between gas and electric stoves to various holiday traditions. We also discuss our favorite books and highlight authors who are on our bucket l...

We remain focused on cultivating life intentions that foster environments of belonging. With a dedication to learning, we're excited to share our thoughts on a free online course provided by the Othering and Belonging Institute (OBI University). As fall comfort food and Thanksgiving approaches, we're thrilled to engage in an exciting discussion about Japanese curry too!

We're thrilled to welcome Tim, an educator in private and public high schools for decades in California and Japan. Naoko x Naoko are interested in the topic of education as parents and in our growth development. We discuss current events like the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and how Tim teaches students to formulate unbiased opinions of the conflict as much as possible. We touch upon his uniqu...

Naoness celebrates our 2nd Anniversary recording, which started as an idea incepted in 2020 by Naoko. A birthday request reciprocated, launches our first episode in September 2021. This is a love letter to our families as we cherish our 35 years of friendship with love, laughter, and gratitude. In this episode, we discuss a recent book we started together, "Build the Life You Want: The Art an...

Fitting for the change of seasons from summer to fall, this episode is a meaty discussion about accepting the "organized chaos" in our lives. How do we discern next steps in our lives when so much is going on, how to find moments of clarity, and how to be present daily. Join us as we share quotes from Pema Chödrön, who inspired the title of our podcast, along with a few shared Buddhist a...

Welcome to Naoness! This is our new recording after a 4-month hiatus of living. We catch up on the epic trips we made this summer, and briefly touch upon Barbie and Oppenheimer; while talking about death and how thinking about it can help us live better lives!

From improvisation techniques to method acting, Naoko reflects on the past year after celebrating another birthday. How do we intentionally live every day so the past doesn't go by in a blur? We talk about community building, respect for teachers, and nurturers. The final question in this episode is "A year from now, what will you wish you had done today?" Listen to hear what Naoness...

March Madness, weathering through Cali blackouts, cherry blossoms, and toxic work cultures. As always, Naoness spans many topics to maintain a healthy work-life balance. For every Naoness episode, we have consistently talked about belonging and inclusion; this is no exception. We end with Naoko's obsession with vanilla cream & cakes and pan out to fermented foods.

We welcome back special guest, Sahira, from Episode 19 almost exactly a year ago, to share our reviews about her recommended film viewing of Jonah Hill's "Stutz." We love the simple visual model of therapy tools that Jonah extracts from his therapist, leading psychiatrist, Phil Stutz.  Part love story of their relationship, part useful and practical tools to bring to your everyday - don't mis...

We open our first New Year episode to share One word we'd like to focus on intentionally this year. Naoness also honors MLK day 2023 with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s open letter, "Letter from Birmingham Jail," written in August 1963, after he was imprisoned as a participant in a nonviolent demonstration.  69 years later, what have we learned from America's landscape, and as women of color, w...

Final recording for 2022!  We have so much to celebrate with our 38th episode to date. Thank you to our listeners, the "Adventurers" that you are!  Spotify shares with us that you like to venture out into the unknown, searching for fresher podcasts and gems yet to be found. Yaas!  That's us—the hidden gem of Naoko x Naoko's 35-year friendship.  We open up the chat with the Japa...

Feeling the changing seasons—whether it's through the climate, our relationships, or our values. We share how a painful end to something important in our lives can be used to manifest finer-tuned values, purpose, and meaning, so we can be internally stronger to make the best decisions we can moving forward.  What would we tell our younger selves about relationships? What would we say to our d...

WARNING: We audio test a keychain with an alarm (130dB decibels) at minute 19 for 3 seconds for those who are sensitive to high decibel noise. We start this episode with our love of lox and bagels, then pivot to staying alert with safety gadgets on the market. Naoness shares a recent journey of job searching, sharing pivotal moments in our life that led to our careers and dreams we had as children...

Crisp air, apples and pumpkins are more pronounced in WA state vs. Northern California and certainly Naoness is going through seasonal changes as Naoko embarks on a new job, and another kid is dropped off at college.  Why is it an embarrassment to show our deep emotions in public and why is crying in public a sign of weakness?  Join us as we explore these emotions and end on a note of hu...

34 episodes, 1,000+ plays later, we are still here, recording organic conversations of COMMUNITY, FAMILY, HEALING, WORK, IDENTITY, CULTURE, and FOOD THOUGHTS.  Thank you to our steady listeners who track each episode and Welcome, if this is the first episode that you're tuning and listening to.  With gratitude, Naoko x Naoko

A rare morning recording of Naoness begins with gratitude -women empowering women and inspiring each other.  We expand on ALOK (from ep. 31 & 32) addressing in an ACLU podcast conversation that "creative self-expression is foundational to being alive and not some luxury." Naoko x Naoko aspire to continue to explore a culture of dissent - which is cultivating an environment where our commu...

This episode of Naoness is had within the present moment of back-to-school for one Naoko and enjoying the remainder of summer for the other Naoko.  Listen to the previous episode 31, as we delve deeper into profound topics that inspire us. We reference two of ALOK'S (an acclaimed gender non-conforming writer/poet, performer and speaker's podcasts: one from their conversation with ACLU | Ameri...

Welcome to Season 3 of Naoness.  The more we explore themes of inclusion, belonging, and the human condition, we find ourselves naturally exploring what it means to be free from gender norms.  This is just the tip of the iceberg of being inspired by ALOK, an acclaimed gender non-conforming writer/poet, performer, and speaker, who captured our attention with their take on the necessity of...

We're wrapping up our 2nd Season mid-summer. Naoness never fails to connect the present to our AAPI community. The preciousness of time is another  ever-present theme. What are your summer plans? We touch upon camping/glamping and always end on a delish food note. Are you familiar with Korean namul or Japanified Korean namuru ? Listen to Naoko share the base of making namuru, her comfort food...

We honor Memorial Day by remembering our US military men and women who served our country for our freedom, protected the common good, and brought relief to disaster-stricken areas of the world. We pivot to highlight two high school students graduating this year - 2022.  Mia and Sam share how they met in 6th grade and how their lives converge from one who was born and raised in the same town,...

We are opening up with gratitude toward our loyal listeners—shout out to Naomi and Annette! Teasers for future episodes to explore one's identity as a high-school all-star athlete starting over in college, and an Invisible Man book club discussion invitation to Naoko's mother-in-law. Naoness aka Nowness—everything that comes to mind in the present—grapples with addiction, privilege, and post-pande...