Join host Grisha Stewart in exploring all things love, dogs, and the relationships we create with a new phenomenal guest each episode!
Grisha is an author, international speaker and virtual dog school facilitator based in Oregon, USA. Her seminal book, ”Behavior Adjustment Training: BAT for Aggression, Reactivity, and Fear in Dogs,” was published by Dogwise in late 2011, and she most recently debuted training for BAT 3.0 in Winter 2022. Guests on the show include singers, artists, researchers, healers, and more!
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Feeling Into the Possibility of a Different World | Shireen Amini
Episode 8
Thursday, January 4, 2024 • Duration 41:58
Episode 8: Feeling Into the Possibility of a Different World | Shireen Amini
“I feel like when we gather to sing–when I call it like a little bubble of a universe–to me it’s like, we have to know what it feels like to then know how to bring it in the greater bubbles, the greater ripples until it becomes something that we know how to feel as an entire global community.” -Shireen Amini
Join us for the eighth episode of The Lesson is Love, as I speak with Shireen Amini, a community songleader, percussionist and teaching artist based on unceded Multnomah, Wasco, Cowlitz, Kathlamet, Clackamas, Bands of Chinook, Tualatin, Kalapuya, Molalla, and Grande Ronde land, aka Portland, Oregon.
In this episode we talk about the capacity to interrupt reactivity with care, community singing as a little bubble of a universe in which we can experience a felt sense of liberation, Shireen’s recent east coast tour with Lyndsey Scott, and the philosophy of grief to activism.
Shireen Amini (non-binary using she/her in English, elle in Spanish) is a queer Puerto Rican-Iranian American, Earth-loving singer-songwriter, community songleader, percussionist, and teaching artist based on unceded Multnomah, Wasco, Cowlitz, Kathlamet, Clackamas, Bands of Chinook, Tualatin, Kalapuya, Molalla, and Grande Ronde land, aka Portland, Oregon. As a human, she carries a deep commitment to her own liberation path and vision of a more just world. As an artist, she believes strongly in music’s power to propel cultural revolution. To this end, she blends pop, rock, hip hop, latin, and roots sensibilities with socially-conscious themes to tell soulful stories of change and to create modern medicine music for community singing. As a community songleader, she holds transformational space, leading joyful, groove-based songs, evoking tenderness, and often engaging her participants the rhythm and deep ceremony of it all. She also teaches drumming, leads workshops, and facilitates grief ritual as part of her community-based music empowerment project Shireen Amini Music Medicine.
Tender Touch, Practice vs Performance, and The Skill of Tracking | Aaron Johnson
Episode 7
Thursday, November 9, 2023 • Duration 54:22
Episode 7: Tender Touch, Practice vs Performance, and The Skill of Tracking | Aaron Johnson
“For me when I think of consent, particularly black bodies and animals and touch and the violations that have been historically in place and how we’re finding new language and new ways to be together, I feel like the question I often have is: can we slow down and acknowledge what’s happened? Can we see all the levels of choice that are given to folks, and all the ways that choice is not given to folks?” -Aaron Johnson
Join us for the seventh episode of The Lesson is Love, as I speak with Aaron Johnson, a facilitator, public speaker and touch specialist working to identify and interrupt barriers between people.
In this episode we talk about singing (and other activities) as a spiritual and life practice versus a performance, the importance of tender touch in our lives, consent, the practice of tracking to expand our awareness and cultivate safety for others, and how our relationships with dogs can teach us about community.
Tapping, Embodied Healing Practices, and The Value of Re-Membering | Damon Silas
Episode 6
Tuesday, September 26, 2023 • Duration 01:08:13
Episode 6: Tapping, Embodied Healing Practices, and The Value of Re-Membering | Damon Silas
“We are whole mind, body, soul beings. And so to just do therapy with the frontal part of the brain is doing the rest of the body a disservice. It's doing the rest of your healing process a disservice. And not saying that for some people, traditional talk therapy might be their thing--and I love it for you--and our bodies hold so much valuable information as well, and I think it's important to acknowledge the messages that our bodies hold too.” -Damon Silas
Join us for the sixth episode of The Lesson is Love, as I speak with Damon Silas, a clinical psychologist, published author (From Mourning to Knight: Overcoming Loss and What's Your ACTION Plan? 6 Powerful Ways to Get Unstuck In Your Life Now), speaker and teacher.
In this episode we talk about what brings us joy, the importance of exploring the role our bodies play in healing, honoring our somatic experiences and integrating body connection into our healing and therapeutic practices, and the power of re-membering--learning (and teaching) new ways of navigating harm, healing and relating in self and collective community. Damon also leads us through a guided tapping session!
About the Host, Grisha Stewart:
Grisha Stewart is an author, international speaker, dog trainer, and online dog school facilitator based in Oregon, USA, who specializes in dog reactivity and canine empowerment. She’s been training dogs since 2003. Her two most recent books are Behavior Adjustment Training 2.0: New Practical Techniques for Fear, Frustration, and Aggression in Dogs and The Official Ahimsa Dog Training Manual: A Practical, Force-Free Guide to Problem Solving and Manners. In 2022, she revealed the update to (BAT 2.0 is still the best book on the subject). She presents dog training and behavior seminars around the world and lessons online. There are over 100 different courses in her innovative , with more coming every few weeks from a variety of instructors, including Grisha. In addition to her professional pursuits and projects, Grisha is an avid conversationalist and enjoys exploring topics of connection, love, communication, and interspecies community.
Collective Culture, Systems Change and Choosing Ourselves | Lisa Moreno
Episode 5
Friday, July 21, 2023 • Duration 51:59
Episode 5: Collective Culture, Systems Change and Choosing Ourselves | Lisa Moreno
“How might I take as good of care of myself as I took care of [my dog] Lily? How might I give myself as much grace as I gave her?” -Lisa Moreno
Join us for the fifth episode of The Lesson is Love, as I speak with Lisa Moreno, one of my dear friends and a systems-focused community activist currently working as a Behavioral Health Strategic Planner.
In this episode, we explore the affirmations we need to hear through the lens of those we love, learn about systems work for political change and the different cultures systems have in different cities, talk about how belonging and community responsibility are key for collective and individual practices of regulating, and discuss how making the choice to surrender a dog can sometimes be the most compassionate choice for both dog and human.
How To Be With Every Part of Yourself | Karen Faith
Episode 4
Wednesday, June 7, 2023 • Duration 01:00:35
Episode 4: How To Be With Every Part of Yourself | Karen Faith
“We should always be our own safest person; it would be really alarming if we were not. But creating that safety takes some work. I know so many people do not have safety with themselves. If I had a mission that would be it, to just help people be safer with themselves.’” -Karen Faith
Join us for the fourth episode of The Lesson is Love as I speak with Karen Faith, an ethnographer, strategist, empathy trainer and founder of Others Unlimited. In this episode we explore how to build a relationship with all the different parts of ourselves, the importance of practices like intentional listening and unconditional welcome, and what becomes possible when we feel safe with ourselves and each other.
Karen’s open and grounded presence and beautiful words made this such a wonderful episode to create. I hope that this conversation resonates with you and inspires you to make space for all the different parts of yourself.
Practicing Grief and Practicing Pleasure | Alexandra ”Ahlay” Blakely
Episode 3
Tuesday, May 2, 2023 • Duration 54:39
*Content warnings: mentions of slavery at 13:35-14:50 and 36:27-37:25, the Holocaust at 19:00-21:00, and CSA at 25:35-26:00*
“This is why these things are happening, because it’s only through the embodiment of these knowings do you carry the wisdom as an elder. And so the song came through: ‘Move at the speed of trust and breathe…what kind of elder do you want to be?’” -Alexandra “Ahlay” Blakely
Join us for the third episode of The Lesson is Love as I speak with Alexandra “Ahlay” Blakely, a song carrier, grief tender and community organizer. In this episode we explore how our relationships with our dogs can be spaces to both acknowledge and unlearn internalized oppression, the significance of grief in a grief-phobic culture, what it is to be an elder, and the importance of intentionally practicing pleasure.
Ahlay’s thoughtful words and grounded presence made creating this episode such a beautiful experience. I hope this conversation resonates and inspires you to connect to your grief, your pleasure and your kin.
Episode 2: It’s Ok to Not Know (Yet), with Justin Farren
SHOW NOTES:
“I felt like I was out of control and I didn’t want anybody else to think I was out of control. So that was just young Justin not being comfortable with: 'I don’t know.' Just being comfortable with, 'this dog sometimes does stupid stuff and it’s not my fault, it’s something we should be working through together.'" -Justin Farren
Join us for the second episode of The Lesson is Love as I speak with Justin Farren, a singer-songwriter, husband, father and dog lover based in Sacramento, California. In this episode we explore the parallels in nurturing dogs and children, the insatiable nature of money as a reinforcer and ways to help his dog Clara become more comfortable with people. As always, we also talk about dogs. Topics in this episode range from leaning in to saying, “I don’t know,” to making space for ourselves (and our children) to imagine new realities. Justin also plays one of my favorite songs of his, Two Wheel Drive and Japanese. I hope this conversation resonates and gives you practical ways to live into your best case scenario.
About the Host, Grisha Stewart, MA, CPDT-KA, KPACTP:
Emotional Balance is as Easy as Riding a Unicycle | David Wilcox
Episode 1
Monday, February 6, 2023 • Duration 42:08
“I love songs that will give me the emotional reality of something I want to live into, so that I can feel it present tense and anchor that experience…and hold that experience as irrefutable proof of: ‘it’s possible to be there. It’s possible to get there.’” -David Wilcox
Join us for the very first episode of The Lesson is Love as I speak with David Wilcox, a transformative folk singer-songwriter and lifelong learner. In this episode we explore the power songwriting and music-making has in teaching us to access presence and creating space for possibility to flourish. As always, we also talk about dogs. Topics ranged from reactivity (“barking” in both dogs and humans) to the richness of our dog-human relationships. So much magic is created when people come together who love music, love dogs and love love. I hope this conversation resonates and gives you practical ways to live into your best case scenario.
Aaron Johnson is a facilitator, public speaker, and touch specialist working to identify and interrupt barriers between people. As co-founder of both Holistic Resistance and Grief to Action, Aaron takes the time to hold the stories of black people around homophobia, transphobia, internalized racism, and those that are Chronically UnderTouched. Because oppression is a part of historical and present American culture, the long-term impact of those trauma stories should be acknowledged and held as a map for our collective healing. Aaron Johnson practices and invites various methods of moving through these stories, such as the communal listening ear, sound healing, meditation, and closeness to the earth.
Dr. Damon Silas is a clinical psychologist, published author (From Mourning To Knight: Overcoming Loss, and What’s Your ACTION Plan? 6 Powerful Ways To Get Unstuck In Your Life Now,), speaker and teacher. In his over 20 years in the field of psychology, he has worked with a wide range of populations and issues including but not limited to anxiety, grief and loss, and trauma. He is currently working as a contractor overseas, helping service members and their children adjust to and thrive within the military lifestyle. He also belongs to various mental-health related groups such as Movement Genius and Black Tappers United. When not living overseas, he resides in the Charlotte, NC area with his husband and two dogs, Lamont and Lola.
Lisa Moreno is an advocate and change agent who is happiest when exploring and designing solutions to complex organizational and social challenges. She is a masters-level social worker and a policy generalist and brings strong systems and equity approaches to her work. She has worked in D.C, Alaska, and Colorado.
While her family roots are grounded in Colorado several generations deep, her paternal grandparents originated in Jalisco and Durango, Mexico. Lisa grew up as a military brat and continues to migrate every 4 or so years. When not working, she can be found deconstructing and rebuilding her house, training dogs, and making all kinds of things. She is proud to call Longmont, CO home for now.
Karen Faith is the founder and CEO of Others Unlimited, a company that trains groups and individuals in the skills of observation and empathy. Karen Faith is an ethnographer, strategist, and creator of the Others’ curriculum. With two decades of experience in ethnographic discovery to inform marketing, branding, and product design, her work utilizes tools from multiple disciplines to empower teams to define, understand, and solve problems from the granular to the grandiose. Karen’s findings, talks and workshops have guided brands as diverse as Google, Amazon, Applebee’s, The NBA, The ACLU, Blue Cross Blue Shield, The Federal Reserve Bank, and the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art.
Alexandra "Ahlay" Blakely (she/her) is a song carrier remembering that which was meant to be forgotten in her lineages: song technology as connective tissues of the communal body. She blends song, body percussion, dance, stillness, breath & silence with the deepest intention to support others in remembering their inherent birthright to singing and rhythm.
Her ancient ancestors of Old Europe (Ashkenazi, Scandinavian, Finnish, English, Scottish, Irish) sang while building, creating, birthing, working & being in reciprocity with the Land. She understands song to be fundamental in the expansion of one’s internal capacity to participate in the collective shift towards life-affirming conditions. An underlying prayer in her song offerings is that they may contribute to the shared effort to transform white culture into being more connected with our bodies, emotions, Land & the animate world around us.
These songs are swirls of spells for cracking open, falling humbly to our knees and cultivating more access to the conversations our souls are aching to have with us about their most intimate longings. They are dedicated to the more than human world, the Waters and our Kin in both the seen and unseen realms. We sing to shame, courage, for breaking cycles of intergenerational trauma and for the preparation of being ready for these times we are living in, all while sending these song-beings in ripples through to the ancient and future ones. The songs sung have come directly through Ahlay.
Some of her mentors: Whale, Mycelium, Rue, Lightning, Rain, Oak, Redwood & Rosemary
In addition to her professional pursuits and projects, Grisha is a musician, meditator, budding artist, and an avid conversationalist. She delights in exploring topics of connection, love, communication, and interspecies community.
About the Guest, Justin Farren:
Justin Farren was born and raised in Sacramento, where he lives in a house built with his own two hands - or as he likes to refer to it, "a living museum of my own mistakes". Justin's twin brother is yellow truck named Yellow. In the last few years he's won a bevy of awards including the Kerrville New Folk Competition, Songwriter Serenade, and Wildflower. He's shared the stage with David Wilcox, Anna Tivel, Sam Baker, Matt Costa, Pierce Pettis, and many other outstanding performers. He is way more likely to toilet paper a house now than he ever was as a kid.
Justin's fourth Full Length album, Pretty Free, was released on October 23rd, 2020. It's a homespun masterpiece featuring 11 original songs crafted and recorded in a shed in Justin's own backyard. The majority of the songs on the record have won awards In various songwriting competitions around the country, and the album features some of the finest musicians on the planet, Including Brian Chris Rogers, Anna Tivel and Andre Fylling among others. He plays a cheap guitar, but everyone always asks him about his tone and how to get it. They don't know that the sound they're hearing is in his fingers. It's in his playing - a combination of unboxed fluidity, unbridled creativity and muted space. The only way to get Justin Farren's tone or to write songs like him is to be him. He can write a song about anything.
More than three decades into his career, singer/songwriter David Wilcox continues to push himself, just as he always has. Wilcox, by so many measures, is a quintessential folk singer, telling stories full of heart, humor, and hope, substance, searching, and style. His innate sense of adventure and authenticity is why critics and colleagues, alike, have always praised not just his artistry, but his humanity, as well. In the 30 years and more than 20 records since — whether with a major label, an indie company, or his own imprint — Wilcox has continued to hone his craft, pairing thoughtful insights with his warm baritone, open tunings, and deft technique. He's also kept up a brisk and thorough tour itinerary, performing 80 to 100 shows a year throughout the U.S., and regularly deploying his talents by improvising a “Musical Medicine” song for an audience member in need.
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