WHY ARE YOU YOU?

Lindsay recently caught up with Meg Riley who reflected on her time working at the UUA and much more! www.whyareyouyou.org

Caelan Schrama we met while visiting the YES conference on Star Island. YES is an acronym for Youth Empowerment and Spirituality.   Kerri Bell-Delgado came up to our booth at the Unitarian Universalists General Assembly in Portland, OR in 2022. We loved the idea of getting a current young person's take on being a Unitarian Universalist. Atticus Fisher is the child of Ginger Young Fisher whose inte...

Lindsay recently caught up with Julia Pulver who gives us a great perspective on YRUU in Michigan. www.whyareyouyou.org

This interview with Bill Sinkford was the most anticipated interview we conducted.  The reason we wanted Bill to be interviewed was because he was the president of the Unitarian Universalists Association when the decision to defund YRUU took place. But what you will get from this interview is a deeper understanding of the life Bill had growing up and growing into leadership. We met him in Portland...

Dawn connects with Aileen Dashurova for a very candid conversation about what it was like to be a youth advisor. www.whyareyouyou.org

This episode features Matt Meyer. MATT HAS LED WORSHIP FOR HUNDREDS OF CONGREGATIONS, TRAVELING THE COUNTRY SHARING A MESSAGE OF LOVE AND JUSTICE, THROUGH RHYTHM AND SONG. He is currently the Director of Community Life for Sanctuary Boston. One of our original ideas in making the documentary was to highlight different organizations that are continuing the ideas from the YRUU program. Either throug...

We first met with Emily and Aisha when they hosted a Dinner Church that we went and recorded. They call their gatherings Nourish. As the website– NourishUU.org  says “Dinner church is all about nourishing bodies and spirits through food and ritual. It is a worship service and a meal woven together to tap into the heart of what it means to be in embodied spiritual community with one another.” We la...

Lindsay recently caught up with Lisa Feldstein for another perspective on the Common Ground process and what it was like to work in the LRY Office.   www.whyareyouyou.org

Hank Peirce’s name came up at the very beginning of this project as someone we should consider talking to. He tells the story of how the name Young Religious Unitarian Universalist, with the acronym YRUU came to be.  But listen closely because he doesn’t take credit for coming up with the idea but rather was the messenger to the group. Later on in the process we received an email from someone who...

Lindsay ended up doing a solo trip to Washington DC where she met with a few folx for interviews.  Sam Ames was one of them.  They met in a strange hotel right by a busy highway. Sam was so trusting of Lindsay to be in this weird place with framed pictures of squirrels and a small circular cushion that Lindsay sat on to listen to them. www.whyareyouyou.org  

In the summer of 2023 Lindsay traveled with her family to SUUSI.  Southeast Unitarian Universalists Summer Institute.  Her goal was to have some fun but also to meet and interview a variety of voices.  This episode we will hear from Dana Taylor.  After we looked through her photos and old t-shirt collection we sat together on a rainy day in North Carolina to hear her YRUU stories.   www.whyareyouy...

This episode we have a special person to both Dawn and Lindsay. Nan Moore was one of their youth advisors and continues to this day to be an important person in their lives.  Nan represents one of those safe adults that they could turn to as youth.  Nan wrote a testimonial at the beginning of this project but we never had a chance to interview her until recently. One of our favorite lines from tha...

Our featured person for this episode is Anna Sale.  You may recognize Anna from her podcast Death, Sex and Money. Anna was a participant of YRUU but not necessarily a leader in YRUU.  But what was so exciting about Anna was her story of how she uses her media work now based on her upbringing in the Unitarian Universalists faith in West Virginia.  Lindsay and Naomi traveled to the west coast to mee...

This episode features Brian Schorr who came into this project by sending us a beautifully written email that got our attention. Strangely enough we happened to be driving to Brooklyn, NY that coming weekend and when we asked Brian where Brian lived it happened to be in NJ! So, we took a detour to Brian’s beautiful lake house home and with the warmth of a lit fire we interviewed Brian after a lovel...

For this episode we are starting our first podcast with the first interview we recorded with Julie-Ann Silberman-Bunn.  Lindsay and Naomi drove to Springfield, MA on a beautiful snowy day and met Julie-Ann.   Julie-Ann has really been the glue to this whole project as she herself produced a documentary called We All Benefit - about YRUU and the Youth Office in Boston, MA. She helped lead us to man...

Host, Lindsay Caddle LaPointe welcomes you to the new WHY ARE YOU YOU? podcast launching April 1, 2026. www.whyareyouyou.org