Poema Podcast

Poema S9 026 | Douglas Humphries on Lessons from Oppenheimer

A new Poema podcast special episode with myself and Douglas Humphries - recorded during the strike specifically for a post-strike release. 
In this episode we discuss Christopher Nolan's "Oppenheimer". We explore the various themes of the movie, how the movie impacted both of us, and the biggest lessons we can learn from the movie.
We also talk about the storytelling in the movie, and the creative/storytelling lessons we can learn from Chris Nolan. 

Poema S9 025 | Daniel Finklestein on Hitler, Stalin, Mum & Dad

I'm honoured today to be joined by author and speaker Daniel Finklestein. Daniel tells us the story about his parents and grandparents, Jewish families caught up in the growing anti-semitism of the 1920's & 1930's, ultimately leading to their imprisonment in concentration camps by the Nazi's. 
But the story doesn't end there, they survived these camps and eventually moved to England where they raised a family. And of course there are shades of the shift to the hard right we've seen in the US & UK recently.
It's a story of struggle, grief, courage and hope, and Daniel shares it beautifully. 

Poema S9 024 | Jenna DeWitt on Taylor Swift, Selmer, and Queer Liberation

This week my friend Jenna DeWitt returns to the podcast to discuss two songs - "You're Losing Me" by Taylor Swift and "Faith" by Selmer - and exploring them in detail, in relation to their respective messages about queer liberation and owning your gender and identity.
We breakdown the lyrics of each song and discuss them in depth, and Jenna gives great insight into the deeper meaning of these songs, how they've impacted her, and how they can speak to us too.
We also touch on how despite one piece of art being labelled 'secular' and one more overtly, 'Christian', both can impart equally powerful messages about these issues.

Poema S9 023 | Maria French on Reconfiguring Nostalgia, Death & Grief

This week my guest is my friend and colleague Maria French, author, speaker and theological coach. In this episode we discuss her new book, "Reconfiguring " A Collection of Post-Christian Thoughts and Theologies", and in particular two essays from this book.
Firstly we explore the power of nostalgia, and how our yearning for some idealistic past which never existed can hinder our thriving and living now. We discuss this from both an individual and cultural perspective, looking at the impact of nostalgia on the political trajectory of both the US and UK in recent years.
We then naturally move into a conversation about grief, death, and loss, and how sitting in our grief and allowing it to work on us, and doing healing work, can actually lead us become more fully alive. We explore how when we embrace the reality of death and grief, it can move us to be more fully present, and create a thriving life of purpose.
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You can buy Maria's new book "Reconfiguring " A Collection of Post-Christian Thoughts and Theologies" on Amazon here and find more of her work on her website here.

Poema S9 022 | Ali Smith on Autism, ADHD and Getting a Diagnosis

Today I'm joined by my friend Ali Smith, who shares their story of how they slowly discovered they were autistic, and ultimately had ADHD.
They share common patterns of behaviour they experienced which they realised can be giveaways for these diagnoses, and the process of them obtaining a diagnosis. 
Ali also talks about the challenges of coming to terms with their diagnoses and how they learned to acknowledge and accept who they are and thrive in their autistic and ADHD identities - and how we can too.

Poema S9 021 | Amber Kay on Epilepsy, Autism and Bisexuality

This week I'm joined by my friend Amber Kay to discuss living with epilepsy, how they discovered they were autistic and how this changed their life.
They also share the story of discovering their bisexuality and embracing their true identity, and how this tied in with their autistic discovery. This episode is Amber sharing their journey of acknowledging and living fully into who they really are, and how we can do the same. 

Poema S9 020 | Lyndsey Medford on Her Body & Other Crumbling Empires

This week I'm joined by author Lyndsey Medford, who tells us the story of when an autoimmune condition opened her eyes fully to the limitation of being in our bodies within the systems we live in. 
Lyndsey talks about how learning to be comfortable in her body with its limitations impacted how she sees and interacts with the world. She also shares how it showed her how to heal and be free from the limitations of the systems we live in, and find a healthy, sustainable life for herself.

Poema S9 019 | James’ Demisexual Story with Elle Rose

In this episode, my friend, ace advocate and writer Elle Rose, joins me to hear me tell my story of how I discovered I'm demisexual and on the asexual spectrum.
Firstly, I talk about how I discovered what demisexaulity is and began to resonate with this label.
I then discuss how once I acknowledged my demisexuality, and looked back at my life and my relationship to my sexuality, how it explained a lot of my experiences, lack of sexual attraction and why I was so different from my peers - and how what I thought was 'usual' wasn't the experience of others.
Then I move to explain how this discovery has changed my life, helped my relationships, plutonic and romantic, and helped me find peace with myself. 

Poema S9 018 | Marla Taviano is Jaded

I'm honoured to welcome back my friend, author Marla Taviano today. In this episode we talk about her recent book of poetry, 'Jaded'.
We talk about the messiness of deconstruction, the parts of the journey where we need to get things of our chest, release the grief, anger and trauma we carry, and learn to speak truth to ourselves and of ourselves. 
Marla shares her own journey and how this is reflected in the poems and how writing the book helped that process. She talks about her experience of the anger and grief of discovering oppressive systems we've been a part of and damage we could have done, coming to terms with that, and the healing process. 

Poema S9 017 | Amanda Held Opelt on Grief, The Two World Wars & Queen Victoria

This week my friend Amanda Held Opelt returns, and we discuss grief rituals, why they were popular in the reign of Queen Victoria, and the impact of the first world war on our cultural grief rituals and how we process grief & loss.
We also explore how the trauma and grief culturally felt and experienced in the first World War, had an impact on the allied nations initial response to Hitler's tyranny and how this could have inadvertently contributed to WWII. 
We then discuss how defeat and having to face up to their actions as a nation, and do the work of healing and transformation, impacted Germany and their culture, and how victory contributed indirectly too many of the problems we now see in the UK and Germany.