The Deeper Pulse with Candice Schutter

Hi y'all. Things are off the rails in the U.S., and I'm here because what we need most in dark times is each other. In this release, I'm sharing excerpts from an earlier-this-week Patreon drop where I discuss how I'm coping and making my feelings of outrage actionable, specifically my fury toward federal agencies like ICE and Customs & Border Patrol whose history of violenc...

Episode 99(!) of the pod is a riveting and heart-hitting conversation with Darcy Totten, Executive Director of the California Commission on the Status of Women and Girls. In this episode, you’ll hear about the Commission's history, its growth over the course of 60 years, and the critical work it does to promote gender equity. Darcy is a staunch advocate for solidarity among women, and she sha...

November is Native American Heritage Month, and in the lead-in to this week’s convo, I speak about the whitewashing of U.S. history, not to be a Thanksgiving buzzkill (sorry, not sorry), but because truth matters. Then I invite listeners into a conversation that explores the critical differences between Western and Indigenous perspectives on leadership. My guest, Wyatt Kelly, is a young Apache lea...

Is embodiment a tool in the ongoing fight for collective justice? In the intro, I share how the wellness world shaped my understanding of embodiment (why it matters and what it is for) and share how two decades of navel-gazing conditioned me to be complacent in the face of injustice. I catch us up on some current events, then share a riveting interview with Dr. Lesa Clark, a strategic leader in in...

Kicking off a new short-form series on reinventing leadership, I sit down with Dr. Suze Wilson, an associate professor at Massey University in New Zealand. She and I discuss the history and significance of critical theory as a tool in understanding and transforming leadership dynamics to foster greater inclusivity and equity. Suze shares a bit about her background and then summarizes her doctoral...

In the words of Timothy Snyder: “Do not obey in advance.” On October 18th, millions of Americans will gather across the nation to say ‘No’ to authoritarianism. This episode opens with audio from my solo experience at the first No Kings Protest in Downtown Los Angeles back in June. I share excerpts and offer a felt-sense of peaceful resistance and love in action. Then I take a critical look at &apo...

This episode is dedicated to American psychiatrist and author Robert Jay Lifton, who recently passed after decades of research into the psychology of totalism. “Doctrine over person” is one of Lifton’s eight criteria of thought reform; it’s widely considered to be a defining characteristic of the cultic headspace. But how exactly does it function? Meet T Brown. In 1997, T entered a Sufi group as a...

Risk is relative, and fascism places everything in perspective. As such, this episode puts an end to ‘Org’ aliases (because, why not?) before reiterating the purpose that has been core since the 'cult'ure series inception. It was never about one specific brand or a few bad players. It's about every one of us owning up to our complicity and passive acceptance of cult-capitalistic nor...

It's time for another encore! Ep.67 (originally released September 20, 2023) — Originally from Chile, Magdalena Weinstein spent the first 17 years of her life living under the rule of an authoritarian dictatorship. In this episode, she shares her childhood experiences, family life, and what motivated her to immigrate to the US in 2004. Magdalena speaks very candidly about the challenges of be...

“My mouth is a fire escape. The words coming out don't care that they are naked. There is something burning in here.” ~ Andrea Gibson (RIP 🙏🏽💕) It's time I spoke to the 'mean girl' label. It's been tossed around a bit too liberally for my taste, so I've decided to risk the high-road backlash and tell you what I’ve really been thinking and feeling. Am I a mean girl?...

This pic you see in the episode thumbnail was taken at an LA photo shoot back in 2002. I’m sharing it now because, in today’s pod release, I include personal stories that challenge the gender binary. And if your brain is suddenly scrambling to try and figure me out, that feeling you have is the entire point of this episode. Rather than jumping to conclusions, I hope you’ll listen in. Today’s relea...

Happy Pride month, y’all! Please help me to welcome lifelong activist and Arizona Drag Show organizer, Christopher Jay Hall, to the pod. Earlier this week, Christopher and his father were featured in a CNN article & this episode is a timely follow-up. Listen in as Christopher shares about his upbringing in rural Arizona, and how he & his dad have repaired their relationship in recent years...

“Be Like Penny.” If you visit my current hometown of Cottonwood, Arizona, you’ll see these three words displayed around town. Penny Smith was a friend to many and a living example of how everyday citizens can make a meaningful difference in their local communities. She passed away in 2021, but her legacy lives on in the hearts of those who know and love her, and also through The Penny Peace Projec...

Nikki G isn’t the type to say “I told you so.” Nevertheless, it was just one year ago when she was on the podcast, walking us through the evangelical vision behind Project 2025 and the looming theocratic dominionism of the far right. Now that the NAR agenda (see Ep.81) is coming to pass, she’s back to regroup. Nikki & I discuss how to maintain sanity and balance under narcissistic rule, what i...

Here's a preview of a bonus drop now streaming on Patreon. It's a peek behind the scenes at where we'll be heading next, with a critical examination of leadership that's likely to push some buttons. If you want to listen to the whole episode, you can access it via a 7-day free trial at patreon.com/thedeeperpulse. Sliding-scale membership starts at just $5 per month. Subscriptio...

Time for another encore! Ep.80 is even more relevant now than when I recorded it one year ago. And in the newly updated intro, I share audio from Saturday's Hands Off Protest in Flagstaff, Arizona - one of over 1400 protests around the globe where over 5 million individuals said aw-hell-no to the Trump regime's patriarchal power flex. Daddy issues are alive in the zeitgeist right now and...

I'm doing a lot of deep breathing lately, and I know I’m not alone. A helluva lot of Americans are feeling overwhelmed, discouraged, and preoccupied by a single question: What can I possibly do in response to a billionaire-funded fascist coup?   Long-time friend of the pod, Susan McCulley, is here to help us find a few answers to that question. No, she's not a seasoned activist or recogn...

I’m just gonna leave this right here. It's an encore presentation of an episode I dropped almost two years ago. Ep.59 is ripe for a reboot because fascism has come for America, and much of what I speak to here has become an everyday norm. I’ve re-recorded the intro to reflect our current reality, and I hope you listen to the end, where I take a closer look at tone policing and why it works to...

I'm back. Because silence isn't an option right now. In this episode, I share how graduate study / critical inquiry into leadership and social psychology is helping me make sense of an upside-down world. Groupthink, aka hive mind, isn't just a 'culty' thing. Conformity happens everywhere along the political spectrum. I speak to how unspoken "display rules" keep u...

Candice is back on the main feed with a final #gotv reminder and a deep-dive into this thing we call 'hope' - what is it, really? She shares about her pre-election anxiety and how she's actualizing hope in the face of so muchness. Various definitions of hope are offered, then she digs into the groundbreaking work of her late mentor, C.R. Snyder, 'the hope guy', sharing wha...

The main feed of the pod is on hold indefinitely, but solo episodes continue rolling out over on Patreon. In this one-off drop, Candice offers a summary of recent content, sharing why she's taking sides in the upcoming U.S. general election and offering perspective re: the cognitive dissonance that reluctant-yet-resigned MAGA voters are likely experiencing in the final weeks leading up to Nov...

Right around the time Candice was puzzling over how to wrap the 'cult'ure series, regular contributor Tracy Stamper reached out to ask: Hey, Can I Q Her A? The result is the series finale where Candice responds to a long list of listener questions like: What's it been like carrying on in the face of backlash? How has this project been impactful on a personal level? Were there any un...

Candice is proud to welcome New York Magazine's Cover Story: Power Trip producers Lily Kay Ross & David Nickles to the pod. Lily & Dave share about the behind the scenes events that led to the 2021 launch of their investigative podcast series and about the backlash they’ve experience researching and reporting on abuse in psychedelic communities. Topics touched upon in this episode inc...

Welcome to the second half of a two-part exposé on the NAR movement in America. Candice continues her conversation with former insider, Nikki G, who shares more about the strategic aims of this belief system and how dominion theology has long been carving out a space in US politics. They touch a bit more on the Heritage Foundation’s presidential playbook (Project 2025), specifically its focus on u...

American democracy is hanging on by a thread. But how did we get here? Today's episode offers an insider's peek into Christian nationalism. You may remember Nikki G from Ep.77; she was on the pod back in January, sharing about her work as a Certified Trauma Recovery Coach who specializes in spiritual and religious abuse. In early March, Candice invited her to sit down again for this two-...