THE PULLING THE THREAD PODCAST
THE PULLING THE THREAD PODCAST
Pulling the Thread is a weekly show hosted by Elise Loehnen: 45-minute conversations and investigations with today's leading thinkers, authors, experts, doctors, healers, scientists about life's biggest questions: Why do we do what we do? How can we come to know and love ourselves better? How can we come together to heal and build a better world?
Making Sense of Time (Jenny Odell)
March 30, 2023
Listen now (53 mins) | "I guess for me, the real tragedy is this idea of a life where you're getting further and further away from something meaningful or what you want and..."
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A Mapmaker for the Soul (Cynthia Bourgeault)
March 23, 2023
Listen now (62 mins) | “We are in a time where everything that we think we have taken for granted in terms of human achievement, human conscience, human goodness are..."
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The Origins of Inequality (Angela Saini)
March 16, 2023
Listen now (63 mins) | “People have always fought against anyone trying to impose power on them or trying to assert their status on them. That is true right throughout history, from..."
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The Uses of Enchantment (Katherine May)
March 9, 2023
Listen now (62 mins) | “When I'd gone off and got lost in the woods and I walked for hours and I just couldn't find my way back out of the woods, there was this moment..."
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Self-Healing in the Dark (Tara Schuster)
March 2, 2023
Listen now (54 mins) | "“And we are made of stars, you know. It's not some fun little thing I'm trying to make everyone feel happy with. It's the carbon in your muscles, the calcium in your..."
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Managing Unhealthy Family Relationships (Nedra Tawwab)
February 23, 2023
Listen now (51 min) | “I think the biggest challenge with codependency is when a family member is catered to when their unhealthy or toxic behavior is catered to..."
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The Friendships We Need (Will Schwalbe)
February 16, 2023
Listen now (58 min) | "A conversation that I hope this book sparks, because it's such a fun conversation, is the conversation about gay men being friends with straight men, but also straight..."
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Learning to See Our Parents as They Are (Priscilla Gilman)
February 9, 2023
Listen now (62 min) | "And then there was that moment where she sent me that brief email where she affirmed his essential goodness, his essential integrity and his worth as a father, which was..."
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What We’re After (Solo Episode)
February 2, 2023
Listen now (51 min) | In today’s episode—my first ever solo attempt—I explain how my spirituality emerged out of a largely secular, nature-based childhood, how I learned to work with the forces of the universe, and what I think we’re after. (Hint: Wholeness.)
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Understanding Spiritual Power (Carissa Schumacher)
January 26, 2023
Listen now (107 min) | “This is the time where it's kind of like the things that we didn't get right, we need to start fixing. Not fixing, I would say, but opening up to new paths of ..."
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Learning How to Breathe (James Nestor)
January 19, 2023
Listen now (55 min) | “I mean, look at how we've convoluted and complicated the most simple things. Look at nutrition now, how many supplements are we supposed to take?..."
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In Search of Paradise (Pico Iyer)
January 12, 2023
Listen now (60 min) | “There are many places I'd love to see and I know I would learn from. But if I never see them, I won't be sorry. I mean I feel..."
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Working With the Power of the Earth (Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee, PhD)
January 5, 2023
Listen now (69 mins) | “We're aware that we're in an ecological crisis. We are destroying our own ecosystem. We're aware there's loss of biodiversity, these beautiful species..."
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Where Self Meets World (Dan Siegel, M.D.)
December 29, 2022
Listen now (62 min) | “How do we actually with due speed, because this is a timely issue, start to live in modern culture, which has taken over the planet basically live in a way..."
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The Kitchen Healer (Jules Blaine Davis)
December 22, 2022
Listen now (62 min) | “I mean, nourishing is truly, honestly, it is, it is, uh, an activism. It is it, the, the minute you are nourished the decisions you make versus when you weren't...”
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Processing our Collective Past (Thomas Hübl)
December 15, 2022
Listen now (57 min) | “If you don't change things that we already feel we should change or we feel called to change, if you're holding onto our job alone or to a relationship that is toxic...”
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On Collaborating with Ourselves (Alexandra Grant)
December 8, 2022
Listen now (58 min) | “Now I'm making something that I didn't imagine. It's not going like I imagined, but it's going. And then when you finish the Object, Thing, Book...”
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Living a Committed Life (Lynne Twist)
December 1, 2022
Listen now (58 min) | “But a life devoted to something larger than yourself is a life worth living. It's a life that is in recognition of life is given to us...”
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The Boundaries We Need (Melissa Urban)
November 23, 2022
Listen now (65 mins) | “Boundaries don't tell other people what to do. They tell other people what you are willing to do to take responsibility..."
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The Closet of Inauthenticity (Jessi Hempel)
November 17, 2022
Listen now (49 mins) | “My childhood was a childhood in the closet. I had some good things. I had some bad things, like living in the closet is, you know, not always..."
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Recovering Every Part of Ourselves (Richard Schwartz, PhD)
November 10, 2022
Listen now (58 mins) | “I’m trying to map the territory in the center world, just the way I did with families and the distinction that immediately leaped out was between parts..."
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Decolonizing Wellness (Chelsey Luger & Thosh Collins)
November 3, 2022
Listen now (71 mins) | "We have offered a model, the seven circles, that helps people to understand that it's not just food and fitness, which so many wellness practitioners..."
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The Power of Visual Thinkers (Temple Grandin, PhD)
October 27, 2022
Listen now (63 mins) | “The thing is the type of thinking where you can figure out how mechanical things work. It’s a different kind of intelligence..."
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Being a Good Enough Person (Dolly Chugh)
October 20, 2022
Listen now (52 mins) | “What I'm positing is, is an ability to grapple with contradiction. So that's the paradox mindset that Wendy Smith, Maryanne Lewis...”
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When Women Lead (Julia Boorstin)
October 13, 2022
Listen now (57 mins) | "But my other favorite thing about the confidence piece, as someone who can be very anxious and nervous myself, is that sometimes it's valuable...”
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A Map to Your Soul (Jennifer Freed, PhD)
October 6, 2022
Listen now (65 mins) | “Well, I think of it like the metaphor of the ensemble in a great musical, like everybody has to know their part. Everybody has to give 2000% ..."
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What Makes Love Last (John & Julie Gottman, PhDs)
September 29, 2022
Listen now (56 min) | “I’ve never really figured out how come we stop asking each other questions. You know, we always do that in the beginning of a relationship..."
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Embracing Uncertainty (Estelle Frankel)
September 22, 2022
Listen now (52 min) | “Sometimes you can't see the full path. And so you don't even venture into the unknown, you know, you're unhappy..."
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When Stress Becomes Illness (Gabor Maté, M.D.)
September 15, 2022
Listen now (66 min) | “Where in your life where you're not saying yes, but there's a, yes. That wants to be said where there's some desire for self-expression..."
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What Makes Us Whole (Susan Cain)
September 8, 2022
Listen now (56 min) | “I think we all have these stories, you know, whether they come through bereavements or betrayals or, or whatever, we, we all have these losses…"
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The Fallacy of Time Management (Oliver Burkeman)
September 1, 2022
Listen now (53 min) | “There seems to be this basic idea that if you make a system including a human life, more efficient, capable of processing more inputs..."
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Touching the Other Side (Laura Lynne Jackson)
August 25, 2022
Listen now (53 min) | “There seems to be this basic idea that if you make a system including a human life, more efficient, capable of processing more inputs..."
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The Power of Myth to Heal (Kwame Scruggs, PhD)
August 18, 2022
Listen now (52 mins) | “I tear up at the drop of a hat and got another facilitator who tears up quicker than I do. But like we tell the youth, the soul would have no rainbow had the eyes..."
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Overriding Implicit Bias (Jessica Nordell)
August 11, 2022
Listen now (53 min) | “I mean, the idea that we're colorblind or, or gender blind or age blind or something, is ridiculous. I mean, we categorize those things..."
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The Power of the Enneagram (Susan Olesek)
August 4, 2022
Listen now (57 mins) | “And I just feel that people, I now I have so much more perspective, but at the time, even I felt people who have already had so much adversity..."
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Navigating Quarterlife (Satya Doyle Byock)
July 28, 2022
Listen now (51 mins) | “The focus of adulthood has been on stability, just, you know, find a job and don't leave it, find a partner and don't get divorced..."
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Understanding the Intelligence of the Universe (Jeddah Mali)
July 21, 2022
Listen now (53 min) | “So natural intelligence has this ability to bring order when we allow it to. The reason that we don't see it so often in operation..."
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The Mystery of Spontaneous Healing (Jeffrey Rediger, M.D., M.Div)
July 14, 2022
Listen now (48 mins) | “If you don't know how to say no, your body will eventually say no for you. I think there is so much depth to that. And that's why it's so important that we help..."
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The Map of Loss (Mary-Frances O’Connor, PhD)
July 7, 2022
Listen now (43 min) | “I think I find great comfort in this idea that when you form that bond, when you fall in love, your neurons are actually changed..."
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The Power of Boundaries (Nedra Tawwab)
June 30, 2022
Listen now (51 min) | “As a therapist, I started to discover that when people need boundaries, they start to have issues around anxiety in their relationships..."
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Finding the Mother Tree (Suzanne Simard, PhD)
June 23, 2022
Listen now (53 min) | “As scientists, we often look at one thing and we say, oh, that's the one thing it's competing for light. And then, and that's true..."
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Don’t Wait to Live (Rabbi Steve Leder)
June 16, 2022
Listen now (58 mins) | “There are 12 questions that enable every person who's willing to, to answer them, to reevaluate their life and their legacy. Because what..."
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Finding the Sacred Pause (Jennifer Rudolph Walsh)
June 9, 2022
Listen now (48 mins) | “I didn't wanna be still, I had to be still, but I wanted more than anything to continue being a human doing. And the universe was insisting..."
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Bringing Our “Wise Adults” Into Relationship (Terry Real)
June 2, 2022
Listen now (53 min) | “I talk about dysfunctional relational stances that would repeat over and over again. For example, angry pursuit is an oxymoron. Angry pursuit..."
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The Beauty of Aging (Nigma Talib, N.D.)
May 26, 2022
Listen now (49 mins) | “I think the key is to really believe it when you see something that you're doing every day in your diet that is making..."
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Why Do We Suffer? (Carissa Schumacher)
May 19, 2022
Listen now (66 min) | "If you are in a Western life and, and are designed as an empath or a spiritual being that feels things very deeply, it is important for you..."
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Understanding Essential Labor (Angela Garbes)
May 12, 2022
Listen now (55 min) | "This to me is basic, but it feels like we've drifted really far from it in our culture. That to be a human, the basic condition of being a human is being needful..."
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Understanding Emotional Inheritance (Galit Atlas, PhD)
May 5, 2022
Listen now (59 min) | "When we talk about the ghost of the unsaid, we're talking about the inherited feelings of our parents, unprocessed trauma, where the Phantoms that..."
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Where Are Our Huddles? (Brooke Baldwin)
April 28, 2022
Listen now (62 min) | "I talk to so many women who, you know, we talk about huddle and we talk about, I referenced, you know, back catalog friends, people who I've known..."
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When Illness is Not Validated (Meghan O’Rourke)
April 21, 2022
Listen now (44 min) | “One reason I wrote the book is that the lack of recognition is such a powerful harm done to patients. And I think until you've gone..."
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Navigating Conflict (Amanda Ripley)
April 14, 2022
Listen now (55 min) | “Usually in high conflict, the conflict becomes the whole point. So you make a lot of mistakes and you can miss opportunities..."
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Living Without Lying (Martha Beck, PhD)
April 7, 2022
Listen now (60 min) | “I’ve won arm wrestles with big muscular men, right out of prison because you align the energy. Everything wants to harmonize with it..."
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Why Closure is a Myth (Pauline Boss, PhD)
March 31, 2022
Listen now (55 min) | “You have to have something new to hope for sure. You might still keep hoping that somebody with a terminal illness might get better and..."
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Having Conversations We’d Rather Not Have (Celeste Headlee)
March 24, 2022
Listen now (50 min) | "So if we take that off the table, if we take off this, this goal of changing somebody's mind, then what are you left with? What's your..."
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Passing as “Normal” (Katherine May)
March 17, 2022
Listen now (53 min) | “I increasingly feel that modern life is becoming intolerable for everyone, whether they're neurodivergent or not. I think we've noticed it earlier..."
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What Our Anxiety Tells Us (Ellen Vora, M.D.)
March 10, 2022
Listen now (50 min) | “I think we're due for a cultural rebranding around crying. I think that crying, you know, if we start to cry, we invariably apologize..."
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Manifesting What We Actually Want (Lacy Phillips)
March 3, 2022
Listen now (53 min) | "When I would witness somebody that I identify with in whatever capacity of what I'm calling in, have, what I want or are successful in..."
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Why Design Matters–and the Courage to Create New (Debbie Millman)
February 24, 2022
Listen now (55 min) | “I think what makes it much more difficult to, to have the courage, to continue to experiment, you know, look at somebody like Joni Mitchell..."
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The Psychology of the Body (Olivia Laing)
February 17, 2022
Listen now (44 min) | “That's what I think is so funny about this is like a hundred years on these things that he's talking about remain as live as ever..."
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How Science Got Women Wrong (Angela Saini)
February 10, 2022
Listen now (49 min) | “But what I do do is whenever I read an academic paper is I read around it. I don't just take that as given or assume..."
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Understanding Our Sexual Potential (Ian Kerner, PhD)
February 3, 2022
Listen now (48 min) | “We sort of get into this, you know, relational model. And look, when it's working, when sex is a form of intimacy and merging and lovemaking..."
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Finding Balance in Our Bodies (Aviva Romm, M.D.)
January 27, 2022
Listen now (56 min) | “I've spent many years, like med school residency, as a mom, eight books, which is a lot of deadlines. Just a lot of things..."
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Challenging the Stories We Tell Ourselves (Elizabeth Lesser)
January 20, 2022
Listen now (54 min) | “The obviousness of something that has been with us forever and must change, is often the most painful part..."
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Unblocking the Creative Self (Julia Cameron)
January 13, 2022
Listen now (51 min) | “Are you doing something that brings you joy? Are you doing something that brings you fulfillment? Do you take yourself seriously..."
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The Guru in Our Own Minds (Mark Epstein, M.D.)
January 6, 2022
Listen now (53 min) | “But the true guru, you know, the Buddha came and turned all that inside out. You know the Buddha taught the Four Noble Truths..."
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Struggle is Real—Suffering is Optional (B.J. Miller, M.D.)
December 30, 2021
Listen now (49 mins) | “My goal isn't to not be afraid, my goal is to have a relationship with fear. So I presume fear is going to be part of the picture. So my goal..."
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Where Should Work Fit in Our Lives (Anne Helen Petersen & Charlie Warzel)
December 23, 2021
Listen now (53 min) | “Like family relationship has obligations that go both ways. Hopefully there's unconditional love there, but it's also like your..."
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Why Don’t We Believe Women? (Deborah Tuerkheimer)
December 16, 2021
Listen now (45 min) | “Outside the legal context, I'm urging readers and listeners in this case to think very deliberately about whether that high standard of proof..."
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The Reprioritization of Relationship (Lori Gottlieb)
December 9, 2021
Listen now (50 min) | “I think what COVID did was it really made people realize that the state of their emotions, the state of their relationships, all of those things..."
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Solving the American Gun Crisis (Ryan Busse)
December 2, 2021
Listen now (54 min) | “The NRA and gun owners then signified, you know, the sort of comradery, responsibility, safety, sort of a bygone..."
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My Spiritual Teacher & Yeshua Channel (Carissa Schumacher)
November 24, 2021
Listen now (87 min) | Since she was a little girl, Carissa Schumacher has always seen and spoken to dead people. She pushed all of that aside, went to Brown University...
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How to End Zero-Sum Thinking (Heather McGhee)
November 18, 2021
Listen now (58 min) | “We must stop the siloed thinking that racism is great for white people and bad for people of color..."
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Navigating an Addictive Culture (Anna Lembke, M.D.)
November 11, 2021
Listen now (43 min) | “We are living in a world that primes us all for the problem of addiction. So even though some people come into this world..."
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What Our Anger Teaches Us (Harriet Lerner, PhD)
November 4, 2021
Listen now (58 min) | “I think it's very important to mention also, Elise, that even if a woman feels permission to be angry, that anger..."
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Where Did the Patriarchy Come From? (Riane Eisler, PhD)
October 28, 2021
Listen now (54 min) | Dr. Riane Eisler is a social systems scientist, cultural historian, futurist, attorney and internationally bestselling author of many notable classics...
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Healing Male Depression (Terry Real)
October 21, 2021
Listen now (55 min) | “Before our boys have learned to read, they have already read the stoic code of masculinity and are conforming to it..."
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Women, Food, and Hormones (Sara Gottfried, M.D.)
October 14, 2021
Listen now (60 min) | Dr. Sara Gottfried is a Harvard-educated doctor, scientist, researcher, mother, and seeker with 25 years of experience...
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The Legacy of White Feminism (Kyla Schuller)
October 7, 2021
Listen now (61 min) | “There's a fantasy in argument, in Lean In, or Girlboss style corporate feminism that says, once you have women in charge of your company, then..."
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Finding the Line Between Savoring and Saving (Jamie Wheal)
September 30, 2021
Listen now (63 min) | “We as a generational cohort are coming of age where we simultaneously have more awareness of life...and at the same time..."
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Calling in the Call-Out Culture (Loretta Ross)
September 23, 2021
Listen now (53 min) | “Do you want to continue to live out the patterns of your childhood? Or do you want to make different choices? Are you programmed or are you self-determining?..."
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Building the House of Knowledge (Joy Harjo)
September 16, 2021
Listen now (51 min) | “Humanity is messy, each of us starts with ourselves, it's horribly messy and then multiply that times millions. And that's an incredible, lovely mess."
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