Poema Podcast

Trigger warning: Suicide, suicidal ideation, depression ______ Today I'm joined by author and advocate Chris Morris. He shares his story about his experiences of depression, suicidal ideation. He shares his powerful and raw story of his depression and various suicide attempts. He talks about his experience in a psych ward, and how he did the work of healing, and the battles he still has. He also t...

In this new episode, recorded pre-election 2024, Amanda Held Opelt joins me again, this time for a conversation about some major events in history & their impact on how our culture processes grief.  We talk at length about the two World Wars, and how different outcomes for different nations impacted how their cultures responded to them, and how it changed their culture. We explore how one bad...

This week Virginia Spotts returns to the podcast to talk about her acting and creative career, and her experiences of trauma.  We talk about the various roles and different types of characters she's played, and how these have helped her process trauma and grief. She also shares the challenges of playing certain types of characters & how she tries to seperate herself from characters she plays. ...

Jenna DeWitt returns to the podcast this week to discuss Taylor Swift's latest album, the "Tortured Poets Department".  We explore several of the tracks and how they relate to the deconstruction journey, living as an LGBTQI person and the experiences of grief and trauma. We look at them in the context of our own journeys and Taylor's own story, and what we can learn from them. This again is such a...

This week I welcome back my friend, poet and author Marla Taviano, to talk about her latest collection of poems, "Whole". "Whole" is the third in a series of 3 compliations of poetry exploring Marla's own deconstruction journey, and all the grief, doubt conflict, challenges and healing of this journey. We talk about the creative process both behind "Whole" and the series of poetry books about her...

Today, my friend, qualified IFS practitioner Becky Castle Miller, joins me to discuss and explore Internal Family Systems therapy, how it works, and how it can benefit us.  Becky and I both shares our own experiences with this kind of therapy and we also discuss internal managers, exiles and firefighters. We explore who they are, why they exist and how they were formed - and how we can work with t...

My friend Trace Bell returns to the podcast this week to have a discussion about the mysterious power of music.  Together we explore how music can tap in to both our consciousness, our subsoncious and our bodies and help us somehow connect with the wider energy of the universe. We explore the mystery of how it unlocks emotions, energy and even desire, and helps us become more in tune with our bodi...

Today I talk to creators and filmmakers Ien Chi and Jon Bregel about Jon's recent documentary, the short film "I Do" which tells the grief story of a married man, from diagnosis, through loss, to grieve and finding life after death. Ien and Jon share their own experiences with creating and producing the movie, and how this exploration of grief in a creative format impacted their own perspective on...

Friend of the podcast Rob Bell returns today to discuss his new latest work, a novel, "Where'd You Park Your Spaceship? An Interplanetary Tale of Love, Loss and Bread: Book One, Welcome to Firdus." (Yes this is the title).  It's an incredible novel, which explores grief, identity, toxic systems, all from the perspective of someone outside of earth learning it for the first time. Rob tells me his c...

This week my friend MJ joins me to discuss Dan Levy's movie director debut, 'Good Grief', which is available on Netflix.  The movie is about a person who loses their mother and husband in the space of the year, and their grieving process which reveals a lot of secrets and surprises, and how it impacts his life.  MJ and I, who both have lived experience of grief, watched it together and in this epi...

This week my friend Jenna DeWitt returns to discuss Taylor Swift's "1989 - Taylor's Version" which released earlier this year.  Jenna shares her own experience with the album - both the new version, and the original - and what these meant for her as she explored her own identity. Then together we explore various tracks on the album and the stories behind them. We discuss how these songs and their...

My guest today is Virginia Spotts. She is a writer, actor, fiction podcaster, and aspiring death doula. In this episode she shares her experiences of grief and how they impacted her. As a writer, actor and fiction broadcaster, she shares unique experiences of how witnessing death and going through the grieving impacted the creative aspects of her life and identity.  Virginia also shares her experi...

Today we begin another series exploring grief on the podcast, with Andrea De Ward talking about her experiences of doing pastoral work with the dying, as chaplain of a care home. Andrea talks about how this impacted her perspectives on death and grief, as she then herself had experiences of grief and loss. She tells us how these impacted her life, her relationships and her personal/spiritual journ...

Today I'm joined by writer, advocate and podcast host Shari A Smith. She talks to us about her advocacy works with trauma victims and survivors, and the importance of sharing our stories.  Shari shares her experiences of sharing and bearing witness to trauma and grief stories, and how its' impacted her and the people sharing those stories. She tells us how sharing stories can provide solidarity to...

Today I'm joined by therapist Heidi Dennis, MS LPC, to discuss her new book, "Hello Anxiety", and explore a new approach to dealing with anxiety.  Heidi shares how we can learn to say "hello" to our anxiety. Heidi shares what anxiety is, why it’s there and how to respond to it instead of distracting from it. She tells us how listen to our anxious feelings and work with them instead of against them...

This week I'm joined by activist and writer Justin Ancheta. In this episode they share their own story of discovering they were a biromantic demisexual & the prejudice they faced as a Filipino-Canadian, queer man with a stutter. They also talk about the connections between asexuality and tarot, and how discovering tarot helped them feel more at peace with their own identity, and discovering th...

In our first episode of 2024, my friend Cat Dean joins me for a fun conversation about being human in the changing seasons of life.  We discuss how the changes in the movement of the earth can impact our lives so directly, how we process change and the grief involved, and how it can impact our connection to our own humanity, and our creative lives.  We also explore how growth and healing increase...

For Grief Awareness week this week, I'm joined by Vicky McQuarrie, who works for AtaLoss Charity, a non-profit organization that signposts bereaved people to support. TW: Suicide, grief, loss of spouse _ Vicky courageously shares her stories of loss and grief, both being widowed and losing her sister in the space of a year. She shares the impact this had on her life, the rituals and practices she...

A new Poema podcast special episode with myself and Douglas Humphries - recorded during the strike specifically for a post-strike release.  In this episode we discuss Christopher Nolan's "Oppenheimer". We explore the various themes of the movie, how the movie impacted both of us, and the biggest lessons we can learn from the movie. We also talk about the storytelling in the movie, and the creative...

I'm honoured today to be joined by author and speaker Daniel Finklestein. Daniel tells us the story about his parents and grandparents, Jewish families caught up in the growing anti-semitism of the 1920's & 1930's, ultimately leading to their imprisonment in concentration camps by the Nazi's.  But the story doesn't end there, they survived these camps and eventually moved to England where they...

This week my friend Jenna DeWitt returns to the podcast to discuss two songs - "You're Losing Me" by Taylor Swift and "Faith" by Selmer - and exploring them in detail, in relation to their respective messages about queer liberation and owning your gender and identity. We breakdown the lyrics of each song and discuss them in depth, and Jenna gives great insight into the deeper meaning of these song...

This week my guest is my friend and colleague Maria French, author, speaker and theological coach. In this episode we discuss her new book, "Reconfiguring " A Collection of Post-Christian Thoughts and Theologies", and in particular two essays from this book. Firstly we explore the power of nostalgia, and how our yearning for some idealistic past which never existed can hinder our thriving and livi...

Today I'm joined by my friend Ali Smith, who shares their story of how they slowly discovered they were autistic, and ultimately had ADHD. They share common patterns of behaviour they experienced which they realised can be giveaways for these diagnoses, and the process of them obtaining a diagnosis.  Ali also talks about the challenges of coming to terms with their diagnoses and how they learned t...

This week I'm joined by my friend Amber Kay to discuss living with epilepsy, how they discovered they were autistic and how this changed their life. They also share the story of discovering their bisexuality and embracing their true identity, and how this tied in with their autistic discovery. This episode is Amber sharing their journey of acknowledging and living fully into who they really are, a...

This week I'm joined by author Lyndsey Medford, who tells us the story of when an autoimmune condition opened her eyes fully to the limitation of being in our bodies within the systems we live in.  Lyndsey talks about how learning to be comfortable in her body with its limitations impacted how she sees and interacts with the world. She also shares how it showed her how to heal and be free from the...