The Artist Within Podcast

Send us Fan Mail Some relationships feel good for a night out. The ones that change your life are the ones that can handle your worst day, your ugly truth, and the long road back to yourself. We’re talking about that kind of partnership, the kind built in private when nobody is clapping, and the kind that forces you to admit, “Hi, it’s me, I’m the problem,” so you can finally start healing instead...

Send us Fan Mail What happens when the person everyone leans on needs someone to lean on? In this episode of The Artist Within , Adela sits down with Zach Phillips, a Jacksonville financial representative with Western & Southern Financial Group, for an honest conversation about rebuilding after divorce. Zach shares what it felt like to lose touch with himself, why asking for help was difficult...

Send us Fan Mail Your calendar is packed, your brain is loud, and the world keeps asking for more. So what does real self-care look like when you only have ten minutes and zero extra energy? We sit down with our Project Human community for a peer-to-peer conversation about “ceremonies of care” and why small, intentional rituals can be the difference between getting through the day and actually fee...

Send us Fan Mail For years, Tonya Jackson felt as though two versions of her existed: the confident leader who continued showing up—and the woman underneath who felt ugly, avoided mirrors, and wanted to disappear. After a traumatic birth experience and an unexpected reaction to medication, Tonya began developing vitiligo, an autoimmune condition that causes the skin to lose pigment. When the chang...

Send us Fan Mail A dream can break, a plan can evaporate, and you still have to wake up and decide who you are. That is the heartbeat of this conversation with returning guest Claire Louise Huder, an actor, writer, director, producer, and founder of Cinder Pictures LLC. We talk about resilience as something you build through real responsibility, real setbacks, and the choice to keep coming back. C...

Send us Fan Mail Fashion can be a mirror, a mask, or a lifeline. We’re taking the lifeline route, and we’re inviting you into the story behind Runway to Resilience, our September 19 fashion and art fundraiser for Project Human in Jacksonville. The whole point is simple and hard at the same time: celebrate resilience without pretending the hard parts never happened, and use art to bridge the gaps w...

Send us Fan Mail Pain can steal more than movement. It can steal your plan, your confidence, and the version of you that felt unstoppable. Today we sit down with Kali Farnsworth, a 16-year-old athlete and early college student, to talk about what happens when chronic knee pain and repeated sports injuries force you to rethink everything you thought your future would look like. Kali shares her real...

Send us Fan Mail This month's Community Conversation explores the identities we carry throughout life—the parent, caregiver, leader, survivor, peacemaker, employee, friend, and countless others. Together, we reflect on how these "hats" shape our thoughts, responsibilities, and relationships, while asking an important question: At what point do the roles we wear stop serving us? Thro...

Send us Fan Mail Men’s health isn’t just a number on a scale or a clean lab report, and we wanted a conversation that treats it like the full-body, full-life reality it is. We sit down with our community and hear honest stories of turning points that force clarity: a shoulder replacement that changes everything, a heart attack at 32 that reshapes priorities overnight, and a prediabetes warning tha...

Send us Fan Mail Your body isn’t being dramatic, it’s sending data. We sit down for a candid monthly community conversation on women’s health, and we start where most of us actually live: doing everything for everyone else, running on low sleep, and telling ourselves we’ll deal with it later. We connect the emotional side of women’s health to the physical reality, including why chronic stress show...

Send us Fan Mail Forgiveness can sound like a rule you’re forced to follow, but we treat it like something far more honest: a decision you make so your body and mind can stop carrying what hurts. Our monthly community conversation gets into the real questions people avoid saying out loud. What if forgiving doesn’t mean excusing the damage? What if you can forgive and still leave? And what if the h...

Send us Fan Mail On this deeply personal episode, I share the truth of what it means to survive, rebuild, and choose renewal. April 16 marks 33 years since the day my life changed forever, and for the first time, I can speak about it from a place of acceptance, faith, and peace. This is a conversation about trauma, resilience, God’s grace, and the decision to define your life by how you rise, not...

Send us Fan Mail You can love people deeply and still be running on empty, and that “empty” shows up as stress, anxiety, resentment, brain fog, and burnout that feels normal because it’s been your baseline for years. We sit down for a monthly community conversation with PHInc. to get practical about self-care and self-love, then push the idea further into what we call care of self: the daily, ungl...

Send us Fan Mail Some stories begin at the bottom of a valley and keep climbing, one deliberate step at a time. This conversation is one of them: a raw, faith-forward journey through complex PTSD, dissociative amnesia, a medical maze that offered more pills than answers, and the stubborn decision to “try” until trying became living. We share how a childhood shaped by war rewired memory, how the bo...

Send us Fan Mail Some conversations change how we move through the world. This one starts with a simple idea—showing up—and expands into a working model of compassion you can practice today: presence over fixing, empathy with boundaries, and community care that protects everyone’s safety and dignity. We share why self-compassion is the first step toward sustainable support, then map the bridge fro...

Send us Fan Mail After a long hiatus following a car accident, I return to share how daily gratitude practice and self-advocacy helped me navigate serious healthcare challenges while strengthening my faith and purpose. • Starting each day with a "thank you prayer" creates powerful positive energy that sustains you through difficulties • Car accidents and healthcare systems can test our f...

Send us Fan Mail This episode isn't just about fashion photography or magazine features—it's a testament to how creativity can transform our darkest moments into something beautiful, how authentic self-expression leads to unexpected opportunities, and why the act of creation itself is often more valuable than the recognition that follows. Whether you're an artist seeking inspiration...

Send us Fan Mail What happens when mental health support gets stripped to its most essential element—human connection? In this groundbreaking first episode of Project Human's Monthly Community Conversations, founder Adela Hittel takes us on a journey that challenges everything we think we know about mental health advocacy. Born from Adela's own harrowing experience in 2017 when she found...

Send us Fan Mail Adela welcomes award-winning filmmaker William Cook to discuss their creative partnership and how art heals trauma. Cook shares his journey from Florida to LA, the making of his Western short film "Blood Money," and how a desert sandstorm became an unexpected creative element. • Project Human's upcoming events include a September 2025 event, Quarterly Mental Health...

Send us Fan Mail Adela explores the power of creative expression through fashion, documentary filmmaking, and podcasting as tools for healing and self-discovery. She shares her journey of resilience, from navigating trauma to embracing multiple artistic mediums that helped shape her identity and purpose. • Fashion as a sensory experience and form of self-expression  • Creating an entire dress in 2...

Send us Fan Mail You are capable of creating change in your life by taking control of your time. This discussion emphasizes the importance of self-accountability, effective time management, and prioritizing personal values.  - Importance of managing 24 hours effectively  - Exploring the definition of success in relation to time  - Importance of making commitment contracts for personal growth  - In...

Send us Fan Mail A deep dive into the importance of self-care, resilience, and community support during tough times. We discuss personal experiences and insights surrounding mental health and how to maintain faith in oneself.  • Importance of taking breaks for mental health  • Strategies for community engagement and support  • Personal struggles with hope and navigating life  • Exploring self-care...

Send us Fan Mail What if understanding your emotional triggers could transform your life? This episode takes you through a personal journey of emotional growth, focusing on the delicate balance between supporting others and maintaining one's own well-being. With insights from constant emergency calls, we examine PTSD and the importance of setting boundaries while staying true to our spiritual...

Send us Fan Mail How do you handle life's unexpected roadblocks, both literal and metaphorical? Picture this: a flat tire on an empty road, with no one around to help. Such moments can either break us or become pivotal experiences of growth. Join me as I recount a personal story where managing a flat tire while my husband was out of town transformed my approach to anxiety and stress. By harne...

Send us Fan Mail Join us on an enlightening journey through the intersection of mental health and the arts with our special guest, Nesli Akkol, a seasoned nonprofit development professional from Istanbul who has made waves in the Los Angeles nonprofit sector. With a rich tapestry of experiences from the American Film Institute to the Alcott Center for Mental Health, Nesli brings a profound passion...