In this episode, Kimberly speaks with Jaye Marolla, a bodyworker, martial artist, Qigong teacher, and founder of The Body Innate and the Yin Dojo in Santa Fe, New Mexico. They explore the integration of martial arts, bodywork, and Qigong as a path of healing and sovereignty, and what Jaye calls "yin warriorship:" a reclamation of the warrior archetype rooted in surrender, Eros, and facing one's own mortality rather than competition or heroism. They discuss how Jaye came to open her home as a dojo, the ancient tradition of merging practice space with living space, and the energetic responsibility that requires. The conversation moves through the role of Eros and sexuality in training spaces, the difference between safety and emergence, the trauma frame versus a vitality frame, and what it means to lead atmospheres rather than follow scripts. They also explore queerness as a state of questioning, the tension between sovereignty and individualism, and the concept of couples dojos as somatic spaces for partnership.

Bio

Jaye Marolla is a bodyworker, martial artist, and Qigong practitioner based in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where she runs the Yin Dojo. She is the founder of The Body Innate and has trained extensively in multiple martial arts traditions including Aikido and Jiu Jitsu, as well as Thai bodywork, which she studied for three years with a master teacher in Thailand. A former Division 1 basketball player, Jaye integrates decades of physical training with Taoist philosophy, somatic practice, and community-based teaching. Her work sits at the intersection of yin warriorship, Eros, and embodied leadership, and she teaches martial arts, Qigong, bodywork, and leadership through emergent, atmosphere-based practice. She also leads couples dojos and collaborates with practitioners including Stephen Jackson on retreats exploring death, embodiment, and communal practice.

What She Shares:

– How the Yin Dojo came to be in her home in Santa Fe

– The ancient tradition of integrating bodywork and martial arts under one roof

– Yin warriorship as a response to cultural chaos and the call of the body

– Vitality and animism versus the pathological medicine frame

– The role of Eros, eroticism, and sexuality in training spaces

– Her journey from D1 basketball to Thai bodywork to martial arts teaching

– Couples dojos as somatic, embodied spaces for partnership

– Queerness as a state of questioning and healthy boundary transgression

What You'll Hear:

– Kimberly's introduction to Jaye's work and their collaboration at Ghost Ranch

– Creating a home-based dojo and the energetic configuration of practice, treatment, and living space

– The interplay of healing and combat knowledge across traditions

– Why body workers need to train their own bodies

– Sovereignty versus taking on others' energy in bodywork

– Transitioning from an all-women's dojo to an all-gender space

– The "toxic masculinity" conversation and the abandonment of the masculine

– Leadership as emergent, atmosphere-based, and rooted in physical training

– The creation of atmospheres: moving away from comparative gaze toward cooperative gaze

– Warriorship as a dying art rooted in death awareness, not competition

– Frames beyond trauma: warriorship, vitality, eroticism

– Training for three years in Thailand and the gray space of becoming a practitioner

– The necessity of being in the flesh in a technological age

– Eros in training spaces: the puritanical bind of encouraging then discouraging the body's response

– Self-modulation and erotic sovereignty as a resource

– Sovereignty versus individualism: belonging and exile

– The trauma orientation as a cultural and capitalist hindrance

– Simple ceremony and self-reverent practice

– Yin and Yang: growing capacity in both simultaneously

– Emergent teaching versus deterministic scripts in group spaces

– Safety as a placation of wildness versus supportive disorientation

– Queerness as living off the main path and transgressing boundaries healthily

– What "the layers between" means: space, Yin, and limitless possibility

– Couples dojos: somatic conversations beyond the sexual context

Resources

Business: The Body Innate

Location: Santa Fe, New Mexico

Website: https://www.thebodyinnate.com/

IG: @thebodyinnate

In this episode, Kimberly speaks with Jane Hardwicke Collings, a post-menopausal grandmother, former midwife, and founder of the School of Shamanic Womancraft. They explore how the lessons learned from the natural childbirth movement must now be applied to menopause, discussing what Jane calls "sage-escence," the becoming of the wise woman. Jane shares her journey from hospital nurse to home birth midwife, how her midwifery awakened her to the patriarchy's medicalization of women's bodies, and why she sees a natural menopause movement emerging. They dive deep into the connections between all rites of passage, from menstruation to birth to menopause, and examine how unresolved trauma surfaces during these transitions. The conversation also explores sexuality and the erotic through life's seasons, the impact of childhood trauma on menopausal symptoms, body shame, aging, and the cultural pressure toward hormone therapy versus embracing natural processes.

Bio

Jane Hardwicke Collings is a post-menopausal grandmother, mother of a blended family with four adult children and four grandchildren. A former Registered Nurse who worked in Paediatric Intensive Care Units and Women's Operating Theatres, she became a midwife at 26 and left the hospital system so as not to be complicit with institutionalized acts of abuse and violence on women and babies masquerading as safety. She was a homebirth midwife for 30 years in city and rural areas of Australia.

Jane carries the lineage of Shamanic Midwifery from her teacher Jeannine Parvati Baker and created the School of Shamanic Womancraft in 2009, an international Women's Mystery School. She travels internationally giving workshops on the wisdom of cycles, the spiritual practice of menstruation, sacred dimensions of pregnancy, birth, and menopause, and reclaiming women's rites of passage. She also offers teacher training, books, and e-courses.

Jane is a co-creator of Hygieia Health, a not-for-profit with a mission to create freestanding birth centers and fund homebirth. She lives in the bush on the edge of a forest in New South Wales, Australia, committed to walking her talk and treading lightly on the earth. She sees herself as an Agent of the Goddess, a Priestess at the altars of transformation.

What She Shares:

–Journey from hospital nurse to home birth midwife

–Applying lessons from natural childbirth to menopause

–Sage-escence: the becoming of the wise woman

–How childhood trauma affects menopausal symptoms

–Salutogenic vs pathogenic perspectives on women's health

–Personal healing journey around sexuality at menopause

–Crowning the Crones ceremony

–Preparing for the transition to elderhood at 70

What You'll Hear:

–Jane's awakening to the patriarchy through midwifery training

–Why she left hospital to become a home birth midwife

–Bringing midwife eyes and heart to all rites of passage

–The state of birth in Australia and globally

–Free birth, doulas, and current threats to birth workers

–How home birth advocates are embracing medicalized menopause

–HRT keeping women in a static hormonal state

–The natural menopause movement emerging

–Anti-aging culture and the privilege of aging

–Body shame rooted in menstrual shame

–Kimberly's reflections on cosmetic procedures and nervous system impact

–How orgasm and sexuality change across a woman's lifetime

–Healing sexual inheritance from mothers and grandmothers

–Unresolved trauma surfacing at menopause as healing opportunity

–First sexual experience as imprint that unfolds through life

–Libido changes through life stages

–Finding new reasons for sexuality post-reproduction

–The spiral of life: what unfolds at each new season

–Honoring crones and receiving their wisdom

Resources

Website: https://janehardwickecollings.com/

IG: @janehardwickecollings

Kimberly's Mobilize Freeze Course: https://kimberlyannjohnson.com/freeze/

In this episode, Kimberly and Alex discuss his extensive background in working with children on the Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). He spent much of those years taking a non-traditional approach from just behavioral to prioritizing fun and community. This work led him to keenly understanding the importance of local agriculture, nutrition, and the gut-brain connection, and eventually he began working as an animal butcher and supporting his wife's work, The Wild Nutritionist. Aspects of their discussion are connected through the thread of the importance of holistic care for ASD individuals as well as local farming, nutrition, and the gut-brain connection.

Bio

Alex Johnson is a father, butcher, former autism specialist, husband of Kate Pope, The Wild Nutritionist, and long-term friend of Kimberly's. His background in theater studies, and then psychology, led him to working with children on the Autism Spectrum Disorder for over a decade. Understanding the needs of this population then helped him transition to regenerative agriculture and animal butchery. 

What He Shares:

–Working with children on the Autism Spectrum Disorder

–How and why ASD has changed in recent years

–Harms and limitations of diagnoses and labels

–Transitioning to regenerative agriculture and butchery

–Prioritizing community through local farming

What You'll Hear:

–How Alex began working with kids

–Studied theater and psychology

–Role play and autism in 2010

–How insurance changed autism 

–In home and in community teaching to kids with ASD

–Bringing families together with potlucks

–DSM-5 refining definition of ASD

–Disproportionately diagnosed in boys versus girls

–Severity ratings (1, 2, 3) of ASD

–Issues with self-diagnoses

–Performative vulnerability

–Challenges in diagnosing ASD

–Social, Communication, and Behavior 

–Familial approaches to ASD and community

–Neurodivergence and ASD labels

–Limitations of checklists of diagnoses

–Gut issues and ASD

–Behavioral versus holistic and community care

–Regenerative agriculture, nutrition, and ASD

–Transitioning to animal butchery

–Small-scale, mobile harvest operation 

–Mobile Harvest Truck

–Art of animal butchery and carrying traditions

–Politics and farming

–Community care in farming and rural areas

–Nutritional needs for families

–Getting kids involved in family nutrition

–Importance of local farmers markets

–Talking to local farmers

–Buying seasonal produce

–Harms of individual priorities versus community

–Returning to community care

Resources

Website: https://regenerativecookingschool.com/

IG: @wildnutrionist

In this episode, Kimberly and Stan discuss attachment theory, styles of learned attachment, and ways to maintain healthy relationships. They discuss attachment theory regarding parent-child relationships as well as romantic partners, differences between codependence and interdependent relationships, and how to work towards mutually beneficial relationships even during conflict. Tatkin believes that with proper understanding and/or coaching, all humans can sustain loving and beneficial relationships despite conflict.

Bio

Stan Tatkin, PsyD, MFT, is a clinician, researcher, teacher, and developer of A Psychobiological Approach to Couple Therapy®. Tatkin has written many books based on his attachment and relationship work such as Wired for Love and most recently Baby Bomb. Tatkin created the PACT Institute in 2010 with his wife, Tracey Boldemann-Tatkin, PhD, to train mental health professionals to think and work through a psychobiological lens in their clinical practice.

What He Shares: 

--Definition of Attachment theory

--Attachment styles (Islands, Waves, and Anchors)

--Co-Dependence vs. Interdependence

--Single and step parenting

--Handling conflict

What You'll Hear:

--Attachment theory is felt sense of safety and security of infant and primary caregiver

--Secure and insecure reactions of infant, child, adult

--Island, Wave, and Anchors as learned attachment behaviors

--Island preoccupied with independence and autonomy

--Wave encouraged to stay dependent

--Co-dependence as one-way street

--Interdependence as two autonomous beings in agreement of stakeholders in relationship

--Healthy relationships always being two-person system, not individual 

--Couples as co-architects creating culture around them

--Thinking big picture in a relationship

--Importance of vetting before a relationship

--Focus on perfect relationship: safety & security, love & affection, admiration & growth

--Relationship/children hierarchy

--Single parents moving to relationships

--Evolution of pair-bonding in herds

--Interrupting stress patterns during conflict to remember benefits of other person

--Put something in place to remind each other to keep from harming each other

--Humans wired for threat, have to work through emphasizing love and benefits for individuals involved

Resources

website www.thepactinstitute.com

IG: @drstantatkin

In this episode, Kimberly and Amanda discuss language, cultism, and community. Amanda explains aspects of her book "Cultish" to describe how religious principles still permeate much of our secular culture, how groups such as fitness brands and start-ups use language similar to cults, and how we can give ourselves and each other more flexibility in how we use language, identify with groups, and hold disagreements. Ultimately, they discuss how language is based on context, evolves over time, and requires a genuine understanding as we use it to communicate with each other.

Bio

Amanda Montell is a writer, language scholar, and podcast host from Baltimore. She is the author of two critically acclaimed books: Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism, an indie bestseller about the language of "cults" from Scientology to SoulCycle and Wordslut: A Feminist Guide to Taking Back the English Language. Amanda's books have earned praise from The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, Time Magazine, Harper's Bazaar, and Kirkus Reviews, among others, and Amanda is currently developing Wordslut for television with FX Studios, serving as creator, writer, and executive producer. Amanda is also the creator and co-host of the comedy-cult podcast, Sounds Like A Cult. As a reporter and essayist, Amanda's writing has been featured in Marie Claire, Cosmopolitan, Teen Vogue, Refinery29, DAME Magazine, The Rumpus, and Who What Wear, where she formerly served as the Features & Beauty Editor. She holds a degree in linguistics from NYU and lives in Los Angeles with her partner, plants, and pets.

What She Shares:

--How religious principles still exist in secular culture

--Aspects of cults that can be harmless and harmful

--How social media is cultish

--Finding space in the grey areas 

What You'll Hea:r

--American protestant principles infiltrates culture through finding meaning, community, transformation

--Fitness brands like SoulCycle and CrossFit act as religions in a secular society

--Cult definitions vary despite sensationalized media portrayals

--Most cults have not been linked to criminal activity

--Everyone is susceptible to cultish influence

--Language clues us to cultish groups or communities

--Protestant ethic deeply embedded in ideas of meritocracy and cleansing self of badness found in culture

--Many cults of 60s and 70s use Evangelical concepts appropriated with Eastern religious language

--Obsession with word art is similar to Protestant shift from images to text 

--Buzz words from psychology, feminist politics, etc. used as codes in various communities

--"Thought terminating cliches" as expressions that are easily remembered and shut down any questioning

--Semantic stop-signs in conspiritualist circles

--Intuition vs. facts

--Admitting when we're wrong and overwhelmed by information

--No spaces culturally exist for grey areas of life

--Evolving language and incredibly challenging time of reckoning what language feels inclusive and accurate

--Cults aren't always necessarily as extreme as Jonestown but can be exploitative, abusive, and trauma-inducing

--Mainstream groups that function as certain dangers and exploitation

--"Cult" definition is varied and nuanced

--Language is dependent on context

--Social media cultivating cultism in ourselves, our interests, our beliefs, etc.

--Being able to recognize our full humanity outside of groups and communities

Resources

Website: http://amandamontell.com/

IG: @amanda_montell

In this episode, Kimberly and Eliza discuss intergenerational relationships, mother-daughter healing, and navigating parent-child dynamics during the preteen and teenage years in order to cultivate more conscious, self-loving, and resilient children. Eliza discusses how she began this work, alongside her mother, Sil Reynolds, as a teenager. They discuss the need for parents to have intergenerational support while parenting and for teens, holding space for rapid developmental changes and intensity through the teen years, and pushing back on negative cultural stereotypes of preteens and teens in order to raise more empowered youth.

Bio

Eliza Reynolds is a best-selling author, speaker, and professional mentor. She's the coauthor, with her mom, Sil, of Mothering and Daughtering: Keeping Your Bond Strong Through the Teen Years. For almost 15 years, Eliza has been facilitating sold-out workshops for thousands of mothers and their preteen and teen daughters, and now offers online and in-person mentorship programs teaching emotional intelligence, embodiment, body literacy, and more for big-hearted preteen and teen girls at Badass Girls.

What They Share 

--Need for intergenerational support for parents and children

--How cultural stereotypes of teen girls impact them

--Commonalities between teens and toddlers development

--Mature mentorship

--Healthy resistance and how to hold space for it from preteens and teens

What You'll Hear

--Describes writing book and teaching with mother at 15

--"Full body yes" to teach and facilitate

--Dominant culture "mom bashing" from teens and culture

--Sil always looking for mentors, intergenerational village for Eliza

--Cultural degradation of teenage girls

--Not normalizing parents feeling overwhelmed and isolated

--False, harmful narrative that teen parenting is only hardship

--Preteens and teens need intergenerational village of support

--Parents can't bridge intergenerational gap with teens without the village

--Underestimate fracturing of extended family, place, and impact on parent-child

--Healthy mentorship and positive power dynamics

--"Daughtering" as being active in relationship with your parent

--Growing between healthy independence and healthy dependence

--Negative stories/stereotypes we tell teen girls about themselves often come true

--Sil would never trash talk Eliza to other people

--Teenage girls as fiercely loyal, loving, kind, radically inclusive with support

--Mothers need other mother/mentor support in community raising preteens and teens together

--Children surrounded by peers in toxic mom-bashing culture 

--Dual shift parents getting parenting in community and mentorship and daughter getting healthy peer community and mentorship

--Teens starve for mentorship and want to be in stable and grounded community mirrors back their magic

--Badass Girls Academy supports parents and daughters

--Pushing through the resistance as parents

--Commonalities in parenting, attachment, and rapid development in toddlers and teens

--Preteen and teen "tantrums" because of brain development, psyche, hormones, etc. remembering they are not adults yet

--Being safe harbor and adult through teen tantrums

--Empowering young people to have more conscious relationships to make home easier and less conflict

--Building skill-set to consciously communicate through practicing with mentors, scripts, body-centering techniques, etc.

--Holding boundaries and containment around preteens and teens

--Safety still really important with this age group

--Working with healthy resistance as parents, pushing up ways against similarities and differences as parent

--Feel safety with parents to express themselves and not taking it personally as parents

--Helping teens navigate resistance and intensity

--Holding true space for their 'no' in order to hold true space for their 'yes'

--Badass Academy is program private app and community curated by professional mentors all online, monthly themes, being more invested in radical responsibility of respecting and loving yourself

Resources

Website: https://badassgirls.me/

IG: @eliza.feelings

—The role of parenting

—Grandparenting is not elder hood

—Elderhood or grandparenting or godparenting

—Opioids- the longing after beauty- "anesthetic"

—Seeking not after approval but for blessing

—If you choose to choose the world or you, give them to the world

—Parents are in charge of custodial duties- the janitors

—Closeness and intimacy belies the suspicion of distance

—What was everyone on about before there was a vaccine

—Euthanasia is consistent with death-phobia 

—A personal truth? and the I-focus

—Conception of God, the serenity prayer

—Crisis- the imagined possibilities are frayed and are no more

—There's a clarity comes with crisis that obliges you that's not available when you are feeling fine

—Grief and brokenheartedness in a culture that believes in wholeness only

—Fundamental addiction to self-determination

—Consequence of this gross fracturing of a sense of commons will last far longer than the conspiracy itself

—Heartbreak is how you cleanse yourself of prejudices, you do not rid yourself of them

—Origin of our capacity for gratitude

—Labor on behalf of a better day without hope

—We don't need people who have an answer for everything

—A healthy respect for the unknown 

—Meaning of the word "Awake"- of the web of consequence that fanned out from everything you did and did not do, and you did and did not say

—What is the sound upon awakening that we make?

In this first of two episodes, Kimberly and Stephen look at what happens when we normalize these uniquely troubled times, as well as how we got here. Together they wonder about grief, parenting, elderhood, me-first culture and conspiracies in times of crisis. Stephen places emphasis on how relationship to history informs our present circumstance and meaning making. What do we gain by normalizing times such as these? Where does health come from? How do we reckon with our me-first world in a time so desperate for community and culture?

What You'll Hear

--Plague is not an easy thing to normalize, 1919 is the last time

--Spirit work is a response to troubles of the times, not freedom from the troubles of the times

--How wisdom is distinguished from prejudice

--Our spirit work is our response to the world, not our feeling tone about the world

--A puritan about your own fundamentalism

--The last thing a conspiracy theorist does is imagine that their conspiracy is conspiratorial

--Mania of challenging everything rarely gets challenged

--Culture orchestrated around appealing to and buying and selling to 17 year olds- inherited from the 60s

--What do our kids do with what we've given to them

--Etymology of the word Fate- from the Latin word from the verb "to speak" What the Gods had said."

--Now that the Gods have spoken, what shall you do- what are the obligations?

--Origin of the concept of "bucket list"

--Skillfulness or ability to be good, "good" is not a temperature of your character or indwelling possession 

--Where does your health come from?

--What happens if we imagine that the differences between us are problems to solve?

--You are incapable of generating the meaning of your life

--The meaning of your life is assembled when you die, what a village minded person owns their neighbors

--You don't get to know your legacy, it's not yours, it's the consequence of your death

--Your act of dying is your last act of citizenship

--The word "therapeo" to cure, you require a malady

--Preoccupation with self is the principle malady of the times

--What's the source of the enthronement of the self and social media

--Elderhood as a check-and-balance on the regime of self-absorption

--What will happen if you don't know how to die?

--Death as a great act of humanity and its fullest incarnation or an insult to humanity

--Willingness to work is a casualty of the "me first" movement

--The moral quandary of having children

--Inclusivity is a blowing apart of the capacity to distinguish, inclusivity shames discernment

--Culture work versus personal work

--Dominant culture of North American founded by flight risks, people on the run, casualties

--"The world" doesn't exist, place does

Resources

Website: www.orphanwisdom.com

In this episode, Kimberly and Gay discuss his revolutionary term "upper limit problem," which describes when a person's capacity for feeling positive emotions is immediately followed by conflict or a dip. They also discuss how Gay discovered this phenomena and his life's work regarding relationship building, aligning oneself with pure consciousness, and his passion for helping people discover their "genius" or true creativity. Gay discusses his experience being a thought leader of transformational psychology early in academia and mainstream culture and his thoughts on being an elder in today's society.

Gay Hendricks is a psychologist, author of forty books (including "The Big Leap" and "Conscious Loving"), teacher, and therapist on all things regarding relationships and body-mind transformation. He received his PhD from Stanford University in Counseling Psychology and taught for twenty years at University of Colorado. With his wife, Dr. Kathleen Hendricks, he founded The Hendricks Institute where they coach teachers and conduct workshops on relationships and wellness. They have been featured in a number of radio and television shows as well as many conferences and seminars.

What He Shares:

--Gay's personal awakening in mid 20s

--The Upper Limit Problem

--The Genius Zone

--Embracing all emotions and opening towards pure consciousness

--Relationships for mutual healing

--Discovering your true genius and creativity

What You'll Hear:

--Describes beginning of academic career from PhD studies to professorship

--Negative fantasy that caused worry despite feeling good and being successful

--Growing up overweight and body image issues with dieting

--Turning point moment of pure consciousness recognized blocking of negative emotions with food

--Opening significant new territory within ourselves is major life event

--Upper limit problem occurs when intense feelings of goodness are followed by intense feelings of not feeling good (reached upper limit)

--Upper limit problem in relationship

--Societal upper limit problem from 60s-70s

--Expanding with fear instead of contracting with it

--Pay-off is living in peaceful flow of positive energy within relationships

--Steady relationship, not a lot of ups and downs

--Zero-criticism relationships

--Criticism as attack on your being instead of actions

--Become masters of fear and moving through waves of fear

--Staying open to the collective with hearts open not closed towards others' suffering

--Sitting in pleasure without spiritual by-passing, using pleasure to heal trauma

--New book describing extension of upper limit problem

--How to feel flow and connection all the time

--Creativity important in relationships for individuals to grow "your genius"

--Everybody has same desire inside to bring forth their "genius," their true creativity

--Finding genius in relationship

--Pre-order copy of upcoming book

--Being an elder in our culture

--Planning for what you want in older age

--Choosing creativity instead of stagnation; Choosing integrity instead of despair

--Experience being a thought leader and academic in New Age time from 1960s-70s to now

--Leaving his legacy

Resources

Website https://hendricks.com/

IG: @hendricks.gay

In this episode, Kimberly and Lisa discuss the lymph system and all its facets. Lisa describes what the lymph system is, what lymph drainage massage is and feels like, and the benefits of lymph massage for total well-being. They also discuss the importance of communication and safety in bodywork and how to perform self-massage on your lymph system. Kimberly and Lisa are going to host an upcoming workshop on lymph massage and listeners can check out Lisa's new book, "The Book of Lymph" and website below for more resources. 

Bio

Lisa Levitt Gainsley is a Certified Lymphedema Therapist, Manual Lymphatic Drainage practitioner, Author, Educator, and Speaker. Her work has appeared in GOOP, ELLE, The Hollywood Reporter, Healthline and more. She has worked at UCLA Medical Center and been in private practice for 20 years. She holds a double certification in Lymphedema Therapy and is a member of the Lymphatic Education & Research Network (LE&RN) and National Lymphedema Network (NLN). Lisa leads workshops across the country and has pioneered the field of Lymphatic self-massage and just published her book "The Lymphatic Message."

What She Shares:

--What is the lymph system?

--Lymph drainage massage

--Health benefits of lymph massage

--Importance of communication in bodywork

What You'll Hear

--Lymphatic system is circulatory system, part of immune system

--Role picks up waste products of body and absorbs waste

--Lymph hard to see and dissect making it slow to scientific discourse

--Improve lymphatic health to quell inflammation and affect mood and nervous system

--Understanding lymph system can unlock cures possibly to certain diseases such as MS, cancer, etc.

--Lymph system moves 6-12x per minute, slow rhythm and layers of lymph

--Lymph massage changes lymph and the nervous system

--Lymphatic massage is highlighted for different benefits around the world (aesthetic, immune-boosting, etc.)

--Pregnancy causes inflammation and swelling but natural process of body

--Shift from mindset of weight-gain during pregnancy to natural, intrinsic movement and clearing of waste in support of body

--Lymph has patterns of drainage, understand locations of lymph nodes for self-massage

--Self-care as self-massage rooted in physiology and clearing waste

--Book contains 3-5 minute self-care practices 

--Different approaches for self-touch

--Laying hands flat to grab fluid and move up and let go

--Lymph stroke similar to how one touches baby for nourishing touch

--Negotiating how and where we accept or request touch

--Body-workers needing to communicate type of treatment and touch

--Three-layer touch (motherly, gripping, lightly) for lymphatic massage similar to baby sleep training

--Communicating through touch what feels safe and secure

--Importance of interpersonal communication during bodywork

--Importance of relationship with practitioner and client

--Proactive towards health with lymphatic massage

--Lymphatic massage as community engagement and ways of connecting

--Digital course, pre-recorded tutorials and monthly lives to practice on own and in community

--Kimberly and Lisa to have workshop together

--Cancer and lymph massage

--Palliative care and lymph massage

Resources

Website: https://www.thelymphaticmessage.com/

IG: @thelymphaticmessage 

In this episode, Kimberly and Joanna discuss Joanna's upbringing and personal history that ultimately birthed the artwork of The Fourth Trimester Journal. Joanna describes her experience as a Black adolescent growing up in Sweden, her identity as a mother and artist, her participation in Mother Jaguar and MotherCircle, and how she processes experience through her artwork. In addition to Joanna's insights learned from Mother Circle, they discuss the racial politics of Sweden, performative anti-racism, and making meaningful change on individual and structural levels. They also discuss the importance of Black art, its contributions to the world, and how that influenced the creation and publishing of The Fourth Trimester Journal.

Bio

Joanna Johnson is a self-taught artist and illustrator, social worker by trade and single mom from Sweden with roots from both Sweden and Sierra Leone, West Africa. She is also a beloved member of the Jaguar community and the featured artist and illustrator for the newly released The Fourth Trimester Journal. This summer, Joanna was one of only 12 students to be selected the first time she applied for the highly competitive art school, Östra Grevie. She hopes to move into freelance work and can be supported for her art school tuition in the link provided below. 

What Joanna Shares:

--Growing up Black in Sweden and history father's place of origin, Sierra Leone

--Brief history of recent racism in Sweden and impact on Joanna

--Using art to process personal transformation through motherhood and postpartum

--Birth of the art in The Fourth Trimester Journal

--Support Joanna's art school tuition

What You'll Hear:

--Joanna describes journey joining Kimberly's MotherCircle course and community

--Journaled through Images

--Artistic style of drawing and upbringing

--Discusses African diaspora in relation to upbringing and parents

--History of Freetown in Sierra Leone, father's hometown, and Creole heritage

--Awakening process during adolescence reading Black history

--Sweden's history and participation in Slave Trade

--Identifying as Black, political choice of choosing identity

--Experiencing racism being Black in Sweden

--Rise of Neo-Nazis in Swedens in 1990s, murders of people of color and effect on Joanna

--Blackness as joy, whiteness as violence

--Unique experiences of being biracial and disconnection from ancestral countries

--Beginning of The Fourth Trimester Journal and Joanna's artwork

--Joanna's birth experience and finding MotherCircle

--Using artwork to process fourth trimester after actual postpartum period with child

--Importance of rest and nourishment

--Integration of postpartum processing

--Joanna's experience with MotherCircle that provided safety and nourishment to process difficult birth and postpartum

--The Fourth Trimester Journal publishing behind the scenes and negotiations

--Performativity of anti-racism while racist disceprancies in culture remain unchanged

--Politics of art in relation to imperialism, colonization, and cultural values

--Art as essential

--Examining predominantly white spaces in "white bubbles" to interrogate racism

--Examining whiteness broadly as set standard of norms, expectations, aesthetics, etc.

--Tokenization of Black people in various spaces without real change and as an artist

--The Fourth Trimester Journal as anti-racist work as gaze of a Black woman

--Creating a new vision of motherhood as a Black woman as a political act

--Crowd-sourcing Joanna's art school tuition as recognition of Black art's contribution to the world

--Appropriation of Black art, styles as modern colonization, symbolic of actual mining from Africa

Resources

Website https://www.gofundme.com/f/black-joy-resilience-send-joanna-to-design-sc

https://www.shambhala.com/the-fourth-trimester-journal.html

IG: @joannajohnson_art

In this episode, Kimberly and Kathleen discuss branding, identity, entrepreneurship, and privilege. Kathleen explains how her branding business came to be and her philosophy for how to brand oneself authentically. Kathleen describes her business, Braid Creative, and the Braid Method. Kimberly and Kathleen also discuss how to have difficult conversations around race, privilege, and capitalism as white women and entrepreneurs. Kathleen shares her expertise around branding and marketing to discuss tips of branding authentically as well as her perspective of recent politics through a marketing lens. 

Bio

Kathleen Shannon is the Co-Founder and Creative Director of Braid Creative, a branding agency for entrepreneurs, small businesses and organizations. She is the author of "Being Boss: Take Control of Your Work and Live Life On Your Own Terms" and created the Braid Method, a formula for personal business branding.

What They Share 

—The branding Braid Method

—How to brand authentically

—Navigating work and parenting responsibilities during COVID-19

—Interrogating privilege as a white woman entrepreneur 

What You'll Hear

—Describes founding branding agency with sister

—Started blogging about life as freelancer

—Forms repeatable methods for branding

—Articulating preferred forms of working style

—Branding for Kimberly's work

—Creative processes in the in-between moments

—Trusting in collaboration with others during creative process

—Being vulnerable to criticism and feedback

—Became life-coach certified to be a entrepreneur

—Branding authentically to self

—Presenting aspirational self to dream clients

—Cohesiveness and authenticity in branding

—Working and schooling from home during COVID-19

—Running business with working mothers

—Navigating daily life with work schedules, school, and other responsibilities

—Money narratives in relation to white and class privilege

—Dismantling capitalism within places of power

—Anti-racism and branding work

—Marketing and politics

—White women holding unpolished conversations together regarding power and racism

—Lifetime commitment to equity and progress as white women

—Imperfection and discomfort in difficult conversations regarding power and privilege

Resources

website: braidcreative.com

IG: @andkathleen 

In this episode, Kimberly and Lily discuss issues with conventional nutritional guidelines for pregnancy, which foods provide needed nutrients during pregnancy, and the importance of proper nourishment postpartum. Lily's research on how food affects pregnancy culminates in her most recent book "Real Food for Pregnancy" which provides evidence-based data on best foods with the most health benefits, meal plans, and nutrient breakdowns for pregnancy and postpartum. Lily and Kimberly also discuss the commonalities between "Real Food for Pregnancy" and Kimberly's "The Fourth Trimester" which both emphasize the importance of preparation and nourishment for postpartum. 

Bio

Lily Nicholas is a registered dietician and nutritionist, certified diabetes educator, and has built her career researching real food for pregnancy and gestational diabetes. Her work includes prenatal nutrition public policy, consulting, research, writing, and clinical practice. Her best-selling books "Real Food for Gestational Diabetes" and "Real Food for Pregnancy" combine evidence-based and traditional information regarding prenatal nutrition. She also offers nutritional trainings for professionals.

What They Share

—Why mainstream dietary advice is misguided

—Which foods and nutrients are essential for pregnancy 

—Health issues with vegetarian and vegan diets during pregnancy 

—Food preparation and cooking tips

—Importance of nourishment postpartum

What You'll Hear

—Prenatal nutrition guidelines are outdated

—Conventional nutrition advice for past forty years is unchanged

—Conventional nutritional advice as dogma with consequences in practice and public policy

—"Play it safe" approach for prenatal nutrition out of caution

—Focus on what can't eat versus what can eat to optimize baby's health

—Focus on macronutrients (fats, carbs, protein) and ratios is problematic

—Guidelines create deficiency in micronutrients and minerals

—Under-estimated amount of protein needed in pregnancy by 73%

—Deprivation, rigidity, fear around weight gain is common because of conventional guidelines

—Focus on taking away instead of making space for more (food, money, nutrients, etc.)

—Carbs need fat and protein for balanced blood sugar levels

—Unbalanced blood sugar extremes causes feeling out of willpower physiologically

—Body tells this information very clearly

—Kimberly describes deficiency from being vegetarian for years

—Blood sugar management as vegetarian is challenging

—More plant-based diets harder to manage and recover after pregnancy and birth

—Postpartum challenges due to vegetarianism (pelvic floor health, breastmilk production, blood sugar levels)

—Nutrients in animal foods easiest to get for optimal health

—Research shows fully vegan diets create nutrient deficiencies without supplementation

—Some nutrients may not be well-absorbed in vegan diet and create deficiency in baby's health

—Nutrients need to be present and in synergy for optimal health (DHA and choline, for example) that even supplementation can't mimic

—Recommends real whole food sources for optimal health in pregnancy and

—Experiencing mental health challenges on a vegetarian diet

—Shifting from cultural norms to making food preparation valuable

—Finding ways to make food prep and cook less time consuming

—"Real Food Instant Pot Recipes"

—"Lazy Meal Planning" on Lily's blog

—Time for food prep and cooking for optimal health as self-care

—Cook in bulk, use leftovers, repurpose leftovers, batch cooking

—Differences in prenatal and postpartum

—Emphasize protein, don't fear fat, higher quality carbs, less white flour carbs, produce and vegetables

—Greater emphasis on eating more and water intake during postpartum

——Mental health as addressing physiological needs especially postpartum

—Preparation for postpartum essential to health

—Ask for help postpartum

—First book chapter available for free 

—Trainings for professionals in nutrition

Resources

Website: lilynicholdsrdn.com

IG: @lilynicholsrdn

In this episode, Kimberly and Kathryn discuss Kathryn's work in Jungian psychology, psychotherapy, embodiment, and body image. Kathryn walks us through her workbook which is designed to help women understand how much body image issues are distractions from feelings of anxiety and ambivalence about their lives. Instead, she describes how to create the capacity to unearth more deeply rooted thoughts, feelings, and sensations in our psyches and our bodies.

Bio

Kathryn Holt, PhD, LCSW, is a depth psychologist and writer. She completed her PhD in Jungian/Archetypal Studies at Pacifica Graduate Institute and has an extensive background in long-term psychotherapy, feminist psychoanalytic group therapy, community ritual, dance and movement practices, intentional psychedelic work, and more. Her latest workbook "Overcoming Body Hatred: A Woman's Guide to Healing Negative Body Image & Nurturing Self-Worth Using CBT & Depth Psychology" helps women identify their purpose, manage stress, change cultural messaging, and cultivate embodied presence.

What She Shares:

–Body preoccupation as a defense

–Cultural obsession with young and beauty

–Building capacity for ambivalence 

–Fostering emotional intelligence for ourselves and others

–Approaches to our childrens' body image issues

What You'll Hear:

–Writing dissertation a baby during pandemic

–Publishing workbook from dissertation

–Why Kimberly avoided body image discussions

–Body preoccupation functioning as a defense

–Issue of projection onto women's bodies and suffering

–Locating conditioning as inherited 

–Self-sensing our own bodies 

–Self-objectification and projection

–What is under the fantasy of our ideal body image?

–Body image work puts us into reality

–Culture's obsession with youth

–Preparing for bodies changing and age

–Fantasy that bodies are fixed means problems are fixed

–Living with body dissatisfaction and preoccupation

–Parenting girls and young women around body image

–Listening, inhabiting, and growing with body changes

–Defensiveness of body image decreasing intimacy with self

–Distinguishing between thought versus physical sensation

–Foundational psychological work with body image

–Dialectical behavioral therapy and psycho-spiritual therapy

–Jungian and spiritual psychology

–Internal versus cultural 

–Ending our delusions to be our full selves

–Increasing tolerance for anxiety to get underneath it

–Body ambivalence as inevitable

–Accepting ambivalence in all areas of life

–Inundated with images

–Defenses keep us from the solutions

–Fostering emotional intelligence for us and our children

Resources

Website: https://www.kathryncholt.com/

IG: @dr.kathryncholt

In this episode, Kimberly and Hala discuss the nervous system's role in self-regulation and social justice activism. Healing must happen individually and collectively by understanding and regulating the nervous system, establishing and maintaining heart-centered relationships, and working with each other towards liberation. They discuss how to move beyond one's privilege towards discomfort in order to enact change for the greater good and why trauma-informed spaces are necessary for social justice activists and allies. Hala also describes the process of writing her book "Peace from Anxiety" and why it was written for this time.

Bio

Hala is a yoga teacher, somatic counselor, trauma therapist, social justice activist, author, mother, and co-founder of Off the Mat and Collective Resilience Yoga. "Peace from Anxiety: Get Grounded, Build Resilience and Stay Connected Amidst Chaos" is Hala's latest book which combines somatic experiencing with social justice through an intersectional lens of privilege and power-dynamics.

What They Share 

—How and why "Peace from Anxiety" was written by Hala

—Importance of Critical Consciousness in Somatic Experiencing and healing

—Moving from fight-flight response to tend-befriend with social awareness and love for the other

What You'll Hear

—Inception of first book as culmination of Hala's teachings from past twenty years

—Book discusses anxiety and using somatic experiencing to cope

—Critical consciousness as awareness of socio-political context 

—Well-being includes equity and justice for everyone not just most privileged

—Healing can be individualized but have to expand compassion for others

—Move towards uncomfortable edges towards unfamiliar and discomfort

—Use self-regulation and healing to move towards discomfort

—Work is to turn towards one another

—How to move towards discomfort for privileged people

—Love people who are targeted in the world

—Change happens relationally through love not intellectually

—Change begins with heart and the body

—Tending to recent cultural reckonings regarding racism

—Creating trauma-informed spaces for healing and a bridge

—Addressing nervous system in social justice activism

—Understanding trauma and nervous system as we move towards liberation

—Hala returns to process of writing book which includes tips, tools, and practices

Resources

Website: www.halakhouri.com

IG: @halayoga, @offthemat, @collectiveresilienceyoga

In this episode, Kimberly and Haize discuss Haize's Get Rooted with Haize Doula Training, Haize's experience as a doula and mentor, and birth work in relation to relationships, energy, and community-building. Haize describes her experience as a spiritual mentor and doula for birthing families and how her new doula training curriculum came to be. She also discusses how COVID-19 has impacted pregnant and birthing people, causing even more isolation and health risk factors. The pandemic in addition to Haize's lifelong experiences have re-energized Haize in her trainings to focus on holding space, relationships, and community for birth workers, birthing families, and the community at large.

Bio

Haize Hawk is a certified doula, student midwife, spiritual counselor and community leader, mother, and offers full-spectrum doula care. She recently created and runs doula trainings based on her decades of experience in holding birth as spiritual, a rite of passage, and initiation for families. Get Rooted the Haize Way is Haize's doula training that began as a pregnant people's class and has developed into a full curriculum and certification for doulas and birth workers.

What They Share 

--Get Rooted with Haize Doula Training philosophy

--Importance of birth workers supporting one another

--Importance of birth workers supporting families energetically

--Impact of COVID-19 on pregnant and birthing people

What You'll Hear

--Started group coaching for pregnant mothers

--Developed class as a doula training

--Doulas needing certification for hospitals during COVID-19

--Creating curriculum and certification for doula training

--Curriculum includes spiritual ancestry, masculine/feminine, herbology, nutrition, homeopathy and more

--Cohorts building community with each other

--Trainees doing inner work on themselves to prepare for birth work

--Understand importance of birth workers

--Importance of relationships between midwives, pediatricians, hospitals, doulas and all birth workers and support

--Birth workers showing solidarity for each other

--Protecting energy as birth workers

--Power-with vs. power-over

--Pregnant and birthing during COVID-19 increase in high risk factors

--Birth as a spiritual transformation to individual and family

--Maintains morning and evening routines as boundaries for time and access

--Turns to community for support and nourishment

--Self-replenishment as service for community

--Love as foundation of everything

--Recommendations to hold energy not place-holders

--Doula support as mutual energetic reciprocity 

--Business of relationships, space-holding as energy in doula work

--Returning to origins of birth with relationships and space-holding

Resources

IG: @iamhaizehawkrosen

Welcome to Jaguar Bites: new solo episodes where I break down big nervous system concepts into bite-sized pieces.

Jaguar Bites are meant to clarify some of the major ideas and misconceptions in somatic experiencing, polyvagal theory, sex education, as well as the birth world.

These podcast episodes are for you. They are also for anyone who you don't think will take a course or read a book; but who you really want to hear about how trauma works, how we heal from it, how the body is involved, and why it matters so much (especially right now in the world).

In this episode, Kimberly and Livia discuss Livia's latest book "The Somatic Therapy Workbook" and how it came to be during a difficult marital separation. Livia shares how writing her book was an anchor in the midst of relationship chaos, all while mothering and how to co-regulate with children at developmentally appropriate ages. Livia walks us through her ultimate decision to separate from her ex-partner as healthy self-preservation, as well as the difficulties of doing so within a family unit. 

Bio

Livia Shapiro is a mother, long time yoga practitioner and teacher, somatic psychotherapist and author. Livia writes on the intersection of yoga, somatics, and psychology. She is the author of "The Somatic Therapy Workbook: stress-relieving exercises for strengthening the mind-body connection and sparking emotional and physical healing." Her article "Yoga-Based Body Psychotherapy" is published in the International Journal of Body Psychotherapy and is a tool for weaving yoga and psychotherapy into a seamless psychotherapeutic model. As a Somatic Psychotherapist Livia works holistically, helping women reorient and repair their nervous systems to live more vibrantly and powerfully.

What They Share 

— Betrayal and infidelity in a marriage while mothering

— How to co-regulate with children verbally and physically during crises

— Separating and single parenting/co-parenting

— Living with actual reality vs. desired reality

— Preserving Oneself as ultimate act of Mothering

What You'll Hear

— Livia shares writing "The Somatic Therapy Workbook" during a life crisis

— Dealing with difficult pregnancy physically and emotionally

— Experiencing miscarriage as grace

— Livia's "Fully incarnate" soul into body as a woman, therapist, mother, human

— Blighted ovum miscarriage

— Break-up of relationship with ex-partner and daughter's father

— Family secrets and developmentally appropriate honesty with children 

— Boundaries, privacy, and protection with children

— Betrayal and shock during marital crisis and mothering

— Repairing after marital arguments in front of children

— Spousal separation while parenting

— Giving children language during difficult times

— Single parenting

— Co-regulation as acknowledging difficult emotions for children

— Confirming realities instead of hiding for children

— Lack of confirmation leading to cultism, narcissism, binary thinking

— Growing up without honest conversations between parents and children

— Teaching verbal and bodily ways to shake out a tense situation

— Sharing space both individually and together with children

— Needing individual and emotional space from children

— Healing, repairing, and recalibrating from infidelity

— Infidelity as a power struggle

— Self-preservation within a family dynamic

— Discovery trauma occurs when told of betrayal

— Grieving future sibling loss with same parents as a result of separation

— Difficulty accepting potentially new parents in child's life after separation

— Family in-tact doesn't necessitate individual being in-tact

— Kimberly's desire for marriage and leaving relationship with child's father and Brazil

— Being first person in lineage to divorce

— Evaluating relationship difficulty vs. needing to leave traumatic situation

— Leaving unhealthy environments as necessity and self-preservation

— Accepting what is true and not what wished was true

— Claiming self as mother, wife (ex-wife), author

— Need for Applied Psychology for all body-workers and somatic professionals

— Yoga teachers as somatic practitioners

— "The Somatic Therapy Workbook" for all practitioners (yoga, birth, therapists)

— "The Somatic Therapy Workbook" complimenting and pairing with "Call of the Wild"

Resources

Website: http://ecstaticunfoldment.com/

IG: @liviashapiro

Email: lgsyoga@gmail.com

In this episode, Kimberly and Marisa Meltzer discuss body image within diet culture and the politics of food. Marisa discusses her latest book, This Is Big: How the Founder of Weight Watchers Changed the World -- and Me, which describes her relationship with food, her body, and dieiting. Feminist politics complicate how many women experience body image and dieting; additionally, food is largely cultural which further complicates how women navigate eating, weight, and their bodies within an ever-changing landscape. Kimberly and Marisa both discuss their personal experiences with their bodies and aversions to diet culture.

Bio

Marisa Meltzer is a journalist based in NYC. She has written for The New York Times, The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, The Guardian, New York Magazine, Vogue, and more. She has authored How Sassy Changed My Life and Girl Power: The Nineties Revolution Music, as well as her latest book This Is Big which discusses her personal relationship with weight, the founder of Weight Watchers, and diet culture.

What They Share 

-Personal experience regarding body image, weight, and diets

-Researching Weight Watchers for This Is Big

-Diet culture and food within U.S. versus other countries

-Feminist conflicts with diets and weight

What You'll Hear

-Marisa was put on a diet at age 4

-Familial relationships with one's body and food

-Experience while writing latest book This Is Big

-COVID-19 pandemic influencing our relationship with weight and food

-Researching Founder of Weight Watchers

-Experience with Weight Watchers

-Kimberly describes experience with weight

-Feminism influencing weight politics

-"Fat" as a descriptor not value judgment 

-Food in community vs. food individually 

-Excess of choice in food, diets, and lifestyles

-Compulsive eating behavior versus normal eating

-Impulses, needs, desires, and satiation

-Cultural approaches to food

-Approach to food as rebellious act

-Relationship with parents after latest book

Resources

Website: https://www.marisameltzer.com/

IG: @marisameltzer

Welcome to Jaguar Bites: new solo episodes where I break down big nervous system concepts into bite-sized pieces.

Jaguar Bites are meant to clarify some of the major ideas and misconceptions in somatic experiencing, polyvagal theory, sex education, as well as the birth world.

These podcast episodes are for you. They are also for anyone who you don't think will take a course or read a book; but who you really want to hear about how trauma works, how we heal from it, how the body is involved, and why it matters so much (especially right now in the world).

In this episode, Kimberly and Joan discuss how to develop resiliency and gracefulness in stressful times. Joan describes the mind-body connection when experiencing stress as well as how to embody bravery through connecting with others, music, nature, exercise, and more. Resilience and bravery are learned characteristics which require embodied acts to cultivate within oneself as part of living an authentic life.

Bio

New York Times best-selling author,Dr. Joan Borysenko, is a world-renowned expert in stress management and mind-body medicine. Her training as a psychologist and cell biologist combined with her grace, sense of humor and ability to combine the latest neuroscience with mindfulness and personal stories, have made her a popular teacher worldwide. Enjoy this excerpt from her book, It's Not the End of the World: Developing Resilience in Times of Change.

What They Share 

-Transforming stress to resiliency as a rite of passage

-Mind-Body connection during stress

-Socializing, nature, music, exercise and more for moving beyond stress

-Embodied acts of bravery

What You'll Hear

-Transformation occurs as a rite of passage

-Phases of handling stress for transformation

-Learnable skills to develop more resilience

-Bodies and importance of community

-Tend and befriend as a stress response

-Connection to other people, inner lives, and nature

-Naming fear causes neo-cortex to release hormones to calm it down

-Reframing fear by claiming bravery 

-Mind-Body as a field and its inception

-Experience of being a woman at Harvard Medical School

-Trauma as most severe type of stress

-Trauma healed through body not mind

-Stress is somatically-based and must be released through body

-Writing spiritual memoir as legacy left for generations

-Positive psychology versus spiritual by-passing

-Creating bravery circuits through small, embodied acts

-Holding onto goodness as resources in desperate times

Resources

Website: https://www.joanborysenko.com/about-joan/

Welcome to Jaguar Bites: new solo episodes where I break down big nervous system concepts into bite-sized pieces.

Jaguar Bites are meant to clarify some of the major ideas and misconceptions in somatic experiencing, polyvagal theory, sex education, as well as the birth world.

These podcast episodes are for you. They are also for anyone who you don't think will take a course or read a book; but who you really want to hear about how trauma works, how we heal from it, how the body is involved, and why it matters so much (especially right now in the world).

In this episode, Sheri and Kimberly discuss female anatomy and arousal. Sheri shares that breathing, sound, and engagement of pelvic floor muscles enhance altered states of pleasure, similar to the experience of birth. Sheri shares the importance of how understanding female anatomy enhances arousal and the sexual experience in both child-bearing and post-menopausal years. 

Bio

Sheri Winston is a wholistic sexuality teacher, award-winning author, and medical professional. Her celebrated books Women's Anatomy of Arousal: Secret Maps to Buried Pleasure and Succulent SexCraft: Your Hands-On Guide to Erotic Play and Practice share her medical knowledge in relation to sexuality. Additionally, her Wholistic Sexuality™ curriculum has over 50 classes covering subjects such as orgasmic abundance for men and women, integral genital anatomy, expanded arousal, sex and relationship skills, and holistic sexual and women's reproductive health.

What They Share 

• Similarities between birth and sex
• Female anatomy during arousal
• Pleasure-driven sex
• Post-menopause sex

What You'll Hear

• Path from midwife to sex educator
• Birth and sex are integrated
• Breath, sound, pelvic floor movement all contribute to both birth and sex 
• Same energy takes to have sex is same energy in birth
• Healing trauma in pregnancy/childbearing years
• Importance of support in pregnancy and parenting
• Birth, postpartum, and breastfeeding as altered states
• Breastfeeding as an antidepressant
• Humans learned distrust of pleasure, appetites, and body knowledge, especially girls and women
• Female reproductive anatomy 
• Female arousal anatomy largely ignored in medicine
• Uterus involvement during orgasm
• Women have network of structures of erectile tissue 
• Knowing all of the parts of erectile tissue and teaching partners
• Pleasure-drive as reproductive evolutionary asset
• Erogenous matrix of structures encourages conception and birth
• Clitoris as jewel of the crown of pleasure network
• Touch and contact to feel connected and safe
• Create safety & connection for sexual arousal for women
• Most female arousal takes 30-45 minutes for full arousal
• Most heterosexual couples do 12 minutes of sexual activity
• Premature penetration limits female arousal
• Expanding amount of time of orgasms
• Sex as journey of pleasure
• Fear and anxiety are antidote to arousal and pleasure 
• Labor disruptions inhibiting altered state
• Menopause, aging, and libido
• Sheri's struggle post-menopause with libido
• Unilateral partner sex
• Frequency vs. quality sex
• Importance of time and space for desire and arousal
• Taking pressure off of long-term partnerships for sex

Resources

Website: https://intimateartscenter.com/about/sheri-winston/ 

Welcome to Jaguar Bites: new solo episodes where I break down big nervous system concepts into bite-sized pieces.

Jaguar Bites are meant to clarify some of the major ideas and misconceptions in somatic experiencing, polyvagal theory, sex education, as well as the birth world.

These podcast episodes are for you. They are also for anyone who you don't think will take a course or read a book; but who you really want to hear about how trauma works, how we heal from it, how the body is involved, and why it matters so much (especially right now in the world).

In this episode, Kimberly and Tyson discuss the magnitude of pornography including addiction, nervous system regulation, and recovery. Tyson describes his own personal journey being addicted to and then healing from porn addiction and how that informs his work with men and couples today. He discusses the prevalence of porn, how it functions with technology and AI, and how many men use it to either up-regulate or down-regulate their nervous systems. Rather than moralizing porn and porn addiction, Tyson describes how to find healing and freedom through channeling real life force as well as advice for women who may have partners or sons addicted to, or exposed to, pornography.

Bio

Tyson Adams is a trauma-informed IFS men's coach, somatic bodyworker and psychedelic facilitator. After spending 20 years addicted to pornography, he outgrew it ten years ago and has found his passion and purpose in helping other men master their lifeforce energy. He also co-facilitates men's work leadership intensives and works with couples experiencing intimacy challenges. When he's not working you'll catch him on a rock wall or riding a slackline in sunny San Diego.

What He Shares:

–His own addiction and healing from porn

–The normalization and prevalence of porn

–Porn and the nervous system

–Advice for women and mothers

–How to heal from porn addiction

What You'll Hear:

–Tyson's first introduction to porn at early age

–Boyhood innocence being fractured

–Secrecy, shame, and hiding with internet porn

–Joined fraternity in college

–Porn chairman in fraternity

–Normalization of porn and drinking

–90 percent of porn has some form of violence

–A third of internet searches is porn

–Expecting partners to mimic porn content

–Normalization of extreme sexual behaviors from porn

–Highjacking nervous system

–No age verification 

–Comparing ourselves to AI models

–War on nervous system and spiritual warfare

–Installing browser blockers on children's devices

–Ages 8-9 typically first exposure to porn

–BARK.us Blocker and search tracker

–Importance of early conversations with children

–Importance of community in these conversations for men and boys

–Blind spot in mens' groups around sex and sexuality

–Inflation of power causing harm in mens' groups

–How and why Tyson ended porn addiction

–Psychedelic use with studying pornography

–Preys on trauma and normalizes behaviors 

–Men using porn to activate energy and nervous system regulation

–Women and porn addictions

–Seminal fluid as a life force

–Healthy number of ejaculation frequency 

–Not moralizing porn addiction

–Women blaming themselves for partner's porn addiction

–Seek therapy and trusted community help in partner's addiction

–Hope and healing is possible

–Open communication and repair

–Developing archetypes with sex worker

–One on one work and IFS sessions

–From thinking to feeling way to orgasm

–Nervous system resetting with clients

–Convergence of technology, porn, and psychedelics

Resources

Tyson Adams' Website 

IG: @tysonadams__

An excerpt from the Jaguar Mother 2021 course, Metzli discusses the postpartum experience according to the Mexican Indigenous tradition in which she was raised. She describes the baño pos-parto (postpartum ceremony) as a rite of passage from birth to motherhood, where women are cared for by the community with sobada (massage), rebozo (binding), herbs, baths, and other spiritual rituals. Postpartum is a sacred time not only for the baby but for the mother as well.

Bio

Metztli Lopez Torres is a sobadora, doula, childbirth and lactation educator, anthropologist, feminist, mom, sister, daughter, friend, advocate of women's rights and environmentalist. Growing up in Mexico, she learned traditional ways of healing for pregnancy and postpartum, and after completing her bachelor and master degrees, began providing services during all stages of women's lives through her company Luna Mama.

What They Share 

• Metzli's personal postpartum experiences for each of her babies
• Details of bano-post parto (postpartum ceremony) for healing
• Food, bodywork, and spiritual rituals for postpartum healing

What You'll Hear

• Being a teen mom led Metzli to work with pregnancy
• Metzli learned from community midwives, inter-generational teaching of midwifery and postpartum care
• Sobada, a style of Mexican massage learned from midwives
• Role of sobadora and midwives in Mexican culture
• Midwives considered sacred and highly respected in the community
• Cuarentena (first 40 days after delivery) considered a sacred time, woman needs to be taken care of
• Baño pos-parto as an indigenous tradition from Aztecs
• Temescal as a type of sweat lodge during postpartum
• Heat/Cold aspects of Mexican traditional medicine (drinks, food, body, etc.)
• Returning heat back to body after pregnancy and birth
• Metzli's first postpartum experience in U.S. after Mexico
• Conversation with husband to plan for postpartum experience while in U.S.
• Recommends no household chores in early postpartum, plan for finances, explain significance of postpartum time for mother and baby
• Postpartum ceremony Metzli does includes sobada, herbal bath with spiritual rituals, massage breasts, sweat lodge
• Women can do bano posparto anytime for healing
• Use herbs, bath, discuss birth stories to heal, ask spirit of herbs to help heal wounds from births
• Connection between body and spirit for healing
• Belly binding
• Healing done in community with other women
• Describes postpartum experience while baby was in NICU
• Acceptance of difficult pregnancy, birth, infancy period
• Gap in culture of community and postpartum care

Resources

website https://www.lunamama.net/form__map

IG: @lunamama_services

Kimberly and Alisa discuss female biohacking as an under-researched field, leaving many women feeling that they aren't meeting society's demands. While culture largely operates according to the 24-hour cycle (circadian), the 28-day cycle (infradian) significantly impacts women's energy, productivity, and overall health. Alisa demonstrates the importance of women understanding their menstrual cycles in relation to food, fitness, and time management to sustain optimal health and vitality.

Bio

Alisa Vitti is a woman's hormone and functional nutrition expert and founder of FLO Living Hormone Center in Manhattan. A graduate from Johns Hopkins and the Institute for Integrative Nutrition, she is a regular contributor to Cosmopolitan, Women's Health, and Harper's Bazaar. She is the author of the best-selling books WomanCode and In the Flo and the creator of MyFLO, the #1 paid period app on iTunes and the first and only period tracking and cycle syncing app. Her work helps women understand the biochemistry of their menstrual cycles in order to sustain efficiency, well-being, and overall health.

What They Share 

• Differences of hormonal cycles for males and females
• Prioritizing menstrual cycle's phases with life activities
• Benefits of female orgasm

What You'll Hear

• Circadian, infradian, and ultradian rhythms
• Culture prioritizes male hormonal rhythms
• Male/Female brain patterns
• Male/Female hormonal patterns
• Phases of menstrual cycle which align best with responsibilities and activities
• Food and fitness for menstrual cycle patterns
• Intermittent fasting differences for men and women
• Reproductive education as an empowering conversation
• Framing first period as a scientific super-power
• Female orgasm as the "best biohack"

Welcome to Jaguar Bites: new solo episodes where I break down big nervous system concepts into bite-sized pieces.

Jaguar Bites are meant to clarify some of the major ideas and misconceptions in somatic experiencing, polyvagal theory, sex education, as well as the birth world.

These podcast episodes are for you. They are also for anyone who you don't think will take a course or read a book; but who you really want to hear about how trauma works, how we heal from it, how the body is involved, and why it matters so much (especially right now in the world).

Welcome to Jaguar Bites: new solo episodes where I break down big nervous system concepts into bite-sized pieces.

Jaguar Bites are meant to clarify some of the major ideas and misconceptions in somatic experiencing, polyvagal theory, sex education, as well as the birth world.

These podcast episodes are for you. They are also for anyone who you don't think will take a course or read a book; but who you really want to hear about how trauma works, how we heal from it, how the body is involved, and why it matters so much (especially right now in the world).

Stephen W. Porges, Ph.D. is a researcher and professor best known as the originator of the Polyvagal Theory, a theory that emphasizes the importance of physiological state in the expression of behavioral, mental, and health problems related to traumatic experiences. He is the author of The Polyvagal Theory: Neurophysiological foundations of Emotions, Attachment, Communication, and Self-regulation (Norton, 2011), as well as several other books on Polyvagal Theory. Stephen is also the creator of a music-based intervention, the Safe and Sound Protocol ™, which currently is used by more than 2000 therapists to improve spontaneous social engagement, to reduce hearing sensitivities, and to improve language processing, state regulation, and spontaneous social engagement.

What He Shares:

• Why he wears glasses for virtual meetings
• Why we're still able to co-regulate when we're all wearing masks
• The intersection of sex hormones and polyvagal theory

What You'll Hear:

• The subtle cues our bodies respond to during virtual contact
• Landing in the co-regulatory aspects of online work or classes
• How your openness and intention to connect impacts people you're interacting with
• The importance of the orbital muscles in non-verbal communication
• How beauty standards impact our accessibility of interpersonal regulation
• Cultural interpretation of facial muscles
• How our nervous system responds to various perceived threats, including cultural and religious teachings
• Locating your resources for settling
• Co-regulating with the natural world
• The importance of in-person community for parents and children
• Oxytocin's role in co-regulation between mother and baby
• Fawning vs appeasement
• The evolutionary value of appeasement
• Differentiating between an objective event and how it actually registered in your nervous system.
• Understanding the autonomic nature of both openness and defensive responses
• Being a good student of your body
• Being a 'good enough' co-regulator
• The power of authentic connections
• Reducing social distance, even while physically distance is important

In Jaguar Bites, Kimberly draws from her new book "Call of the Wild" to break down some big nervous concepts into bite-sized pieces. The bites clarify some of the major ideas in somatic experiencing, polyvagal theory, sexual education, and the birth world. 

In this bite, Kimberly talks about how yoga and meditation impacts the nervous system is not always obvious or straightforward.

Elizabeth Lesser is the author of several bestselling books, including Cassandra Speaks: When Women are the Storytellers, the Human Story Changes; Broken Open: How Difficult Times Can Help Us Grow and Marrow: Love, Loss & What Matters Most. She is the cofounder of Omega Institute, recognized internationally for its workshops and conferences in wellness, spirituality, creativity, and social change. She has given two popular TED talks, and is one of Oprah Winfrey's Super Soul 100, a collection of a hundred leaders who are using their voices and talent to elevate humanity.

The Skill of Culture Building, The Making of Tribe, Spiritual Colonialism, and Grief Practice with Matthew Stillman.

We dive into the big questions of where we are at in this point in time- what is community? How do we make it? Are we right to want tribe, and if so, what does that really mean? We also touch on the deepest parts of our connection from Earth and place, and how that can come to bear with "medicine," Ayahuasca and spiritual colonialism.

What Matt Shares: 

-How the city you are from is different than the place you are from -Origin of the word "tribe" - tribe is much more than an affinity

-How race + culture intersect, and the origin of culture

-The history of Ayahuasca and spiritual colonialism

-The need for grief practice

Luisa Muhr joins me to talk about her work in Family Constellations Therapy, including intergenerational trauma resulting from the holocaust as well as racial trauma within the United States. We talk about the importance of community space in a therapy setting, why working within an energy field is so effective, and staying somatically engaged while online. 

What She Shares:

• What Family Constellations is and how it works
• The importance of honoring our ancestors and those in our systems
• How working with the impact of the Holocaust has shaped her work in the world

What You'll Hear:

• Working within an energy field
• Unwinding old patterns through ancestry work
• The difference between drama therapy and Family Systems
• Who is included in our family systems
• The importance of speaking a story out of secrecy
• The value of processing within community 
• How working with archetypes can help us process and heal
• Restoring appropriate predator energy
• Creating space for healing intergenerational social traumas
• Weaving Family Constellations into your own work
• Processing beyond the overt narrative
• The importance of ritual in healing
• Connecting into the energy field even when separated by geographical distance
• Identifying what you need
• Using technology to continue our somatic practices in community
• The difference between the outer relationship and narrative, and the internal experience
• Centering yourself in your own healing work
• How your healing impacts your children

Resources

Website: www.familyconstellationsnyc.com 
Website: www.luisamuhr.com 
IG: @familyconstellations.nyc

Luisa Muhr is a New-York-based artist and healer, specializing in Family & Systemic Constellations. As the descendant of her great-grandfather, a Holocaust survivor, Constellation work has always played an integral part in Luisa's life. She provides group workshops and one-on-one sessions.

Liz Koch rejoins me for a third interview, this time to discuss whiteness and colonization in the body. We explore how those pieces show up in the physical body and sensory systems, why it matters, and the importance of physical movement in anti-racism.

What Liz Shares: 

• The interconnection between how we use our bodies and our racialization of bodies
• Racialized movement patterns 
• Recognizing racialized nervous system responses
• How the idealized body in fitness is not only white, but also male, and how that impacts female fitness

What You'll Hear:

• Noticing how performative behaviors re-iterate a frozen spine
• Changing our view to see Body as Process, rather than Body as Object
• Valuing the expressivity of the human body
• Re-assessing the idealized human body to include expression
• Developing your sense of self through knowing primal responses
• Examining your ancestral relationship with colonization
• Using movement patterns to re-enforce or interrupt white body supremacy
• Engaging with your psoas to feel more grounded 
• Letting go of control as decolonization
• Becoming available for genuine responses rather than socialized reactions
• Questioning what whiteness looks like in the white female body
• Tracking subtle whiteness
• Healing ancestral trauma through owning your Eros
• Decolonization as an ecological imperative
• Participating in society as a community member, not as an individual
• Re-membering into culture and community and out of strategy
• The more animal you are, the more human you become
• Animal body as coherence
• Pre-empting anti-racial work through movement and the sensory system
• If your body can't move, you can't feel your instincts

Resources: 

https://coreawareness.com/

IG: @stalkingwildpsoas

Liz Koch is an international teacher and author with 42 years of experience, focusing on kinesthetic intelligence and somatic awareness. She is the author of "The Psoas Book," "Unraveling Scoliosis," and "Stalking Wild Psoas: Embodying Your Core Intelligence."

Return guest Ash Robinson dives deep with Kimberly Ann Johnson into the challenges and opportunities for women in business amidst the current economic and technological climate. They discuss the role of AI on personal and professional life, the importance of financial stability, and the need for a clear vision and strategy, particularly for women. Ash emphasizes the significance of taking stock of one's current situation, identifying needs, and focusing on sustainable growth. They also touch on the role of professional resourcing, the balance between enduring and sacrificing, and the importance of community and support in achieving long-term goals. This Fall, they will be offering round 2 of the Mastermind for Women Entrepreneur, so look out for a sign-up announcement coming this August!

Bio

Ash Robinsoon is the strategist standing behind many leaders who are doing their big work. From Ash: "I'm a wife, mother of three, and deeply value my family life. As a CEO for most of my career, I spent most of my time creating and building, not consulting. I come from a family of entrepreneurs, and have personally worked in both product and service businesses across many industries, including early education, fitness, consumer products, online education, brick and mortar, franchise systems, and technology (software). My experience is a unique blend of professional management and entrepreneurship in both private and public companies. In 2014, I co-founded bon-fire for business, an experiential education and consulting firm that leverages strategic planning and human design to bridge the gap between untapped potential and business performance.  bon-fire is built on the idea that human beings are driven to create value, and that creating a path for harnessing talent and creating sustainable, thriving culture is the surest way to win in our networked age.  For the last 15 years, I have been a student of people and the teams and organizations they work on-- from my work in early education leading a team of hundreds to my own pursuit of optimal health and making a real difference in my work.  My passion and research in neuroscience, cognition, behavior change, and culture inform both the tools and approach we use in bon·fire.  I believe that your organization is actually a living system- highly adaptable, renewable, and self-organizing- which creates the possibility for a new level of both value creation and engagement with your vision and effective progress toward it. Business can be a bridge— igniting the spark of the human spirit and providing the structure in which a committed group of people make a positive impact.  My passion is for bringing people around the bon·fire to achieve extraordinary personal and business performance. I believe we have to build the world we want to belong to."

What You'll Hear

• After seeing so many women's businesses thrive from  their masterminding course they wanted to craft another offering.

• Our finances are a huge part of our eros and how we express ourselves in the world

• What role does AI play in online and coaching businesses? 

• To build the world we want to belong to that's  our work to do

• What does AI use tell us about our nervous systems

• Do one thing well

• Uncertainty creates instability

• When we are clear we can take more embodied action to what we are after.

• Existential dilemmas live in the parasympathetic nervous system

• Action comes from a healthy sympathetic drive

• How do you young people deal with a helpless parasympathetic response to the world?

• Mistaking business/system problems for personal problems 

• The how do wee accomplish the vision can be messy

• Finding clarity not all about a perfect strategy it's also about being resourced and nourished

• Trying to take stock of the "As Is View"

• What do I need to get where I want to go?

• Reaching financial goals always has a weigh 

Links

Website: https://bon-fire.co/

IG: @ashrobinsoncalhoun

-Story of the Apollo/ Artemis birth

-The role of twins in mythology- two sides of a coin

-Artemis is the goddess of childbirth, when she is born, she immediately midwife's her brother's birth

-Artemis- Moon Goddess, darkness, untamed;  Apollo- Sun God, bright, civilized

-How are these archetypes helpful in birth preparation?

-Ordered culture over wild nature

-In an Appolonian setting (hospital,) how do you bring Artemis?

-Kimberly's birth experience and handing over power in Apollonian way to midwife

-Pandemic popped the Apollonian illusion of control and tossed us into Artemisian realm

-Children are Artemisian

-How do we compromise the Artemisian in Apollonian structure in spite of our ideals?

-Parents beating themselves up in pandemic for kids falling behind

-The blurring of public and private

-Did birth move you to be more Apollonian or Artemisian?

-The grief and loss through the pandemic

Dr. Britta Bushnell (she/her) is a wife and mother, author of Transformed by Birth, veteran childbirth educator, celebrated speaker, mythologist, and specialist in childbirth, relationship, and parenting. For over 20 years, Dr. Bushnell has worked with individuals and couples as they prepare for the life-changing experience of giving birth. Her work with parents has been enriched by her doctoral work in mythology and psychology, her years spent as former co-owner of Birthing From Within, as well as her dedicated study of solution-focused brief therapy, storytelling, sustaining sexual vibrancy, and helping romantic partnerships thrive even during parenthood.

What Clelia Shares:

• Her journey with money coming from generational wealth
• Accepted gender roles within her community and her work with Mama Gena and Barbara Stanny 
• Turning point in her journey about her role as a woman came with having an abortion
• How she came to terms with money, wanting to enter the "marble hall of the daddies," and getting there

What You'll Learn:

• What gender roles look like in communities with generational wealth
• System of dependence in humanitarian aid paralleled system of dependence of being wealthy and feeling that you will be taken care of
• Women are outside of the worlds of money + commerce
• Revenue - costs = profits
• Assuming she would have a non-accretive job, and a virtuous, non-threatening in dating
• Thinking business school was a "world of benevolent daddies"
• Business school is 75% male, 25% female (the one professional school that remains disproportionately male)
• What business school is really like
• The shift to be motivated by money and power
• Interviewing women in business, and if they'd left, why had they left?
• Shifting structures and logistics in keeping women in workforce, but there is something much more profound than "solving" the logistical problems
• Generations and stages of feminism in business, the metaphor of a building
• Few models for feminine leadership
• Codeshifting women do in corporate jobs
• Online businesses are operating outside of the core systems of power that exist (real estate, technology, finance)
• The US is not a true capitalist country, it is a corporatist country 
• We give corporations (not people ) welfare, with bailouts
• Market-based system, where both people come as empowered transactors
• What about reparations- how do we level things so people are empowered transactors? How do we level set the system?
• What rich people really do or think- are they Democrats or Republicans?
• Economy managed on merits, based on financial outcomes
• 2500 years of white supremacist patriarchy that we've lived in, and we are in a transition
• Developing a vocabulary of collective questioning
• Being a channel and gauging with her intuition when deciding whether to invest
• Why it's taboo to state your sex within business, even if that may be informing your communication style
• Does she look for female-run companies to invest in?
• Masculine as triangle, feminine as a circle

Kate White is an advanced bodyworker, perinatal educator, and somatic trauma resolution professional. She developed much of her work following the pregnancies and births of her own two children. She is the Founding Director of Education for the Association for Prenatal and Perinatal Psychology and helps administer an online program for parents and professionals who work with parents, runs a private practice, and offers her own seminars through the Center for Prenatal and Perinatal Programs. 

What Kate Shares: 

• What prenatal and perinatal psychology are
• How these fields developed
• Personal stories about helping clients with difficult birth stories
• The process of repair

What You'll Hear:

• The importance of including pre- and peri-natal psychology in the gestalt of psychology
• How neuroplasticity, epigenetics, and attachment play into perinatal psychology
• The impact of fetal experiences on the adult body- FOADs
• Understanding that most experiences are repair-able
• Incorporating mindful exercises around boundaries, differentiation, and connection to help your baby feel secure
• The importance of restoring intuition
• Why sleep is foundational to a healthy mother-baby dyad, and why sleep training may be detrimental
• Bodywork to support babies with tongue tie
• How Pitocin impacts the birthing pattern
• The importance of slowing the narrative to resolve traumatic imprints
• How Supported Attachment can help babies process birth trauma
• Completing birth impulses
• Learning how to hear what babies are saying
• Supporting older children in repairing birth trauma

James Nestor, author of "Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art" joins me to speak on all the ways facial structure, nutrition, eating habits, and industrialization have impacted humans' ability to breathe, why it matters, and ways we can get back to the basics.

What James Shares: 

• Details of his years-long research into breath
• How he increased his facial bone density and expanded his airways
• When the paperback edition is released there will be new material!
• His creative process for writing

What You'll Hear:

• Reclaiming breath as your own human right
• The environmental and morphological challenges to breathing well
• The theory of dis-evolution in the human species
• How the industrialized diet has impacted face shape and breath efficacy
• How facial bones differ from other bones in the body
• How chewing raw food helps kids breathe better
• Redefining 'healthy' food to include chewability
• How chewing impacts the nervous system
• The importance of breastfeeding for long term airway health
• The potential connection between industrialization and tongue ties
• Helping your kids build helpful breathing habits 
• The connection between ADHD and breathing
• The data behind breathwork
• Why data and anecdotal evidence are both important for changing our minds
• The connection between the nose and the vagina

What You'll Hear: 

• Definitions of sex + gender +intersex
• Sex is a functional category defined by the gametes you reproduce. Males produce sperm; females produce eggs.
• Sex is binary
• Gender is the social and cultural attributes and rules based on their sex
• Intersex is a mismatch between phenotype and genotype, or when sex based on observation is not obvious
• How common is intersex? Ambiguous genitalia is about 1 in 5000. (The origin of misinformation of intersex as 1 in 200, as common as redheads)
• Evidence of intersex increasing
• Explanatory power and unifying systems of evolution and astrology
• Is evolutionary biology equivalent to Darwinism?
• How evolutionary biology helps us understand female sexuality.
• How humans differ from animals- brain size, large energetically expensive brain related to the placenta, walk on two legs, intense social nature
• Are humans monogamous? Or Non-monogamous?
• Sex for pleasure, social reasons or reproduction
• Possible immunological benefit to monogamy- preeclampsia study as an example
• Female as coy, shy strategy waiting for males to come to them. Darwin in Victorian England. Female in estrus are aggressive and search out mates
• Strip clubs tips change based on where a woman is during her cycle!
• Role of homogenous spaces, same sex as well as same gender places
• Females produce a larger gamete, by definition females invest more heavily in reproduction and take on more risk, which presents asymmetry in the sexes.
• Why doesn't the male get to decide about abortion
• Role of homogenous spaces, same sex, same gender places
• Controversy of Vancouvers women's center that is female only
• Body, felt sense of sex. Our perception of sex is adaptive for coding for "female" and "male" for saefty
• Preferred gender pronouns and Using respectful pronouns
• Birth and gender
• Learning about sexuality through 1st person experience, kids coming to explorations through different avenues.
• Reductionist biology- we are pieces and parts and can just dismantle and take them apart
• Human pregnancy is much more expensive and risky than any other species
• Testosterone has a negative influence on fertility
• Fertility as an industry, and its impact on women
• Aquarian battle of the old and new. Futuristic and technological androgynous planet
• We felt controlled by reproduction and now we want control over it, rather than surrendering to our body
• Menopause is rare, grandmother investment

What Dwight Shares:

• Is this the worst, most contentious election in history?
• What should we do with our emotions during this time?
• Why is he spending his retirement working as a Mayor of a small town?
• How to decide where to donate, where to give money or time
• The historical role of the Supreme Court?

What You Will Hear:

• Historical contention during elections
• Do emotions belong in politics?
• Most people agree more than they disagree, when we get beyond labels
• Orienting to blue within politics
• How to deal with overwhelm when there is so much suffering
• Acknowledging what is actually possible
• What to do when you get into the rabbit hole
• What about homeless people living in Del Mar? What happened with that?
• Does your vote matter?
• Small donations matter because candidates need money but they count the people that contribute
• Democratic National Committee distributes money to the other causes (Senator and Representative candidates
• What happens if the Senate goes 6-3? What do you think about extending the number of seats?
• Supreme Court traditionally was conservative and in favor of corporations and business, against the individual
• The Warren Court changed the court, and we may be going back to pre Warren Court.
• Echo chambers of news sources and listening to news on both sides.
• No common source of information any more
• Learning how to relate beyond labels
• The US is partially socialist
• Should we have hope?
• Progress is sometimes minimizing backsliding
• Are the debates important? Does this format work?
• Trump exemplifying an unhealthy fight response in debate- and how we see authority
• We've trained ourselves to expect a game show, not a debate
• Why running a country is not like run a business

What Bethany Shares:

• Bethany discusses her new book, "Strange Situation", and why understanding attachment is so helpful
• Her personal journey as a mother and the re-evaluation and renegotiation of her own narrative
• Bethany gives her thoughts on modern attachment parenting

What You'll Hear:

• Bethany tells us about her book, "Strange Situation: A Mother's Journey into the Science of Attachment"
• The difference between research and me-search 
• Classical Attachment and Modern Attachment Styles
• Bethany's journey of renegotiating her past and her narrative through the lens of Mary Ainsworth's research and writings
• The power of leaving your kids alone
• Attachment parenting
• Dr. Sears is public enemy #1
• Reflective functioning/ mentalization
• The struggle to understand the world as a third being when raising your child
• How being your best and worst self can ultimately benefit your child
• The secret window of time
• Being comfortable is key to comforting your child
• Why attachment is nothing to be afraid of, because we can always move ourselves into more security

Summary: 

Bethany Saltman joins the Magamama podcast once again, this time to discuss her new book "Strange Situation: A Mother's Journey into the Science of Attachment. We talk about how insecurities can devastate your ability to function as an independent adult, and Bethany shares her own story of how she's overcome these difficulties. 

Bio: 

Bethany Saltman humbly describes herself as a long-time Zen student who lives in a small town in the Catskills with her husband, daughter, and two dogs. Moreover, she is a renowned author, researcher, and editor whose work can be found in publications such as New Yorker, New York Magazine, Atlantic Monthly, Parents. Bethany has spent years studying the many emotions we feel that make us human. Amongst those emotions, attachment is one that stuck with Bethany, leading her to write her first book "Strange Situation: A Mother's Journey into the Science of Attachment". 

Resources:

• https://www.bethanysaltman.com/strange-situation
• Twitter - @BethanySaltman

What Shannon Shares:

• How astrological cycles affect our everyday lives
• Directing our understanding of astrology into personal growth
• The significance of Mars in retrograde and what we can expect in the coming months

What You'll Hear:

• 2020 forward from an astrological standpoint
• What is a retrograde? What does Mars represent?
• How do our actions, as well as the actions of others, exemplify the current solar alignment?
• Innovation, positivity, and renewal during times of social and political strife
• Is Mars encouraging us to behave more passionately?
• Being aware of how you're directing your own personal energy
• What astrology can tell us about other generations
• How Pluto returns map onto what we name generations- Boomers, GenX, Millennials and GenZ 
• What can we expect in the coming months?
• Where does money and economic structure factor into astrology?
• The importance of writing down our dreams

Summary: 

Shannon Aganza re-joins the Magamama Podcast to talk about retrograde, generational behaviors, and what we can expect to see unfold astrologically over the coming months.

It's been a while since Shannon was last on the podcast, so we had plenty to discuss regarding what has happened both politically and socially this year.

Bio: 

Shannon Aganza is an astrologer, a pundit, and a counselor for many based out of San Diego. Shannon has spent over 20 years within the field of astrology, searching and helping others to understand how we are shaped by the universe around us. Shannon specializes in astrological readings, moon circles, and spiritual hygiene amongst many beneficial services.

Resources:

https://fourmoonsspa.com/shannon-aganza/

What Pam Shares:

• The importance of understanding our bodies and why self-exploration is crucial
• Feminism as it relates to social empowerment and education
• Embodied sex education- Take Back the Speculum

What You'll Hear:

• What feminism is right now
• How to overcome being disempowered sexually
• Understanding what sex positivity really means 
• "Take Back the Speculum"
• How understanding your body can change your life
• Self-pelvic mapping
• Menstrual extraction- what is it and who does it?
• 2nd wave of Feminism
• Depictions of clitoral anatomy in textbooks
• Sex education in schools, and the switch from reproductive education to whole human education
• The importance of touch, and learning to cope during quarantine
• Finding joy in the opportunities this pandemic has provided

Summary: Pam Samuelson, a close friend and educator/bodyworker at Embodywork, joins us to talk about feminism, understanding your sexual body, and how to make the steps towards knowing yourself more intimately. Pam discusses the importance of carrying on the feminist conversations started by the founders of the movement, and how we as a whole can improve the status quo.

Bio: Pam Samuelson is a practitioner and advocate of somatic therapy, exploratory bodywork, and meditation. Founder of Embodywork, Pam finds joy in helping others understand their bodies and teaching that transformation is possible if you know how to find it. Pam is an outspoken advocate for female empowerment, still actively in conversations with some of the leaders of feminist movements dating back to the 60's.

Resources:

https://embodyworkla.com/

What Matthew Shares:

• The impetus to ensure the information we intake pertaining to disease is factual
• Understanding the conflation between science and hope
• Why hope and hopeless are two sides of the same coin
• Why being "hope-free" is an important skill to learn

What You'll Hear:

• Germ Theory versus Terrain Theory
• Why have masks become political?
• Impact of Coronavirus 
• The danger in the political divide of mask wearers
• Politicization of Coronavirus amongst society and academia
• Republicans and New Age spiritual Nazis
• Racial impacts of how we frame these conversations
• The problem of hope
• Vaccinations in this context
• Relationship to death and to children
• How our world viewpoint effects pandemic response
• Is it ok to speak metaphorically about the disease? To personify it?

Matthew Stillman has spent years studying both Eastern and Western spiritual practices. Currently working as a creative approach consultant in New York, Matt applies the skills he's learned over his many years of seeking to help others overcome the obstacles they face.  Though his ability to listen to others and have nuanced conversation, Stillman has become a liaison amongst academics and the spiritual world.

Bio: Matthew Stillman is a writer, consultant, and co-founder of Primal Derma. Matt has worked one-on-one with thousands of people to help them understand, transform, shift, and sometimes solve their problems. From poverty to religion, Stillman has contributed to a wide range of projects with the goal of raising awareness and understanding towards these issues and practices.

Resources:

https://primalderma.com/

https://stillmansays.com/

Twitter - @stillmansays

In this episode, Kimberly Ann Johnson and filmmaker/producer Jackson Kroopf reflect on their respective experiences watching Best Picture Winner Anora. They discuss their contrasting experiences of seeing the films in theaters, what role sex and violence played in the film, and unpack some of what they were drawn to and troubled by in the film. And while they both found the hedonism in the film uncomfortable, the film's ending landed, particularly in its portrayal of power dynamics, intimate rapport, and the broken fantasies that emerge in pursuit of the American dream. Along the way, they consider to what extent the film's success hinged on a desensitized audience and what that might say about where we find ourselves culturally when it comes to the female body, our nervous systems, and sexuality. If you'd like to dive deeper into these topics, consider signing up for Kimberly's upcoming course Activate Your Inner Jaguar: Movement, Meditation & The Female Nervous System.

What You'll Hear

• Why Kimberly walked out the first time she saw it.
• A consideration of how sex and violence functioned in the film.
• What commentary is the film making about the nature of sex work?
• The erotic vs. the pornographic
• What is the moral center of the film?
• What role does comedy play in the film?
• Sadness around desensitization in our culture
• The desire for representations of sexuality that are connected, off-script, non-generic
• Representations of sexuality on a woman's own terms
• The fantasy of the American Dream falling apart
• Old world vs. new world when it comes to 1st and 2nd generation immigrants
• Is there any worth in bearing witness to extreme hedonism
• Can cinema re-sensitize us?
• Does violence in films reflect what's in the collective or determine what's in the collective?
• What happens when couples more openly discuss their sexual preferences?
• Can repair happen if a negative sexual experience takes place with a partner?
• Longing for seeing representations of moral men outside of "hero" roles

Links

Sign up for the course Activate Your Inner Jaguar: Movement, Meditation & The Female Nervous System here.

What She Shares:

• The historical foundations of the consolidation of whiteness

• Collective Healing vs. Personal Healing-- How Are They Related-- are they automatic?

• The timeline of the emergence of the new wave of identity politics and its impact

What You'll Hear:

• The role of collective and individual healing in race relations

• Beginning of "whiteness" as a concept

• How whiteness has manifested into what is seen throughout the world today

• Societal role of immigrants within early America

• How other groups view whiteness

• Acknowledging white privilege

• Differentiating between white guilt and white privilege, and how to use it for change

• Understanding why identity politics are so strong today

• The role of white people within minority studies

• How to turn understanding and solidarity into change

• How racism is institutionalized and indoctrinated

• The power shift of White = Good to White = Bad

Resources:

How Jews Became White Folks by Karen Brodkin Sacks

The Possessive Investment in Whiteness by George Lipsitz

In this roundtable episode, Jaguar alumni Meryl Yecies speaks about her experience with Jaguar and interviews 3 women who recently participated in the most recent Jaguar offering Jaguar in the Time of Cholera a course created to provide somatic tools and support during the quarantine.. Tune in to hear from Meryl, Leilani, Alissa, and Chessa as they share their unique experiences with the jaguar work.