A Peace of My Mind: Recent Episodes
John Noltner
Bryonie Reid is a writer, artist, and cultural geographer whose work explores the deep connections between place, memory, and belonging. Working with her sister, Gemma Reid, as Quarto Collective, she creates community-based projects that invite people to reflect on the landscapes they inhabit, the histories they inherit, and the futures they hope to imagine together.
Rooted in Northern Ireland's complex history, Bryony's practice is shaped by listening, curiosity, and the quiet work of building relationships across difference. Through art, storytelling, and collaborative public projects, she creates spaces where communities can engage with the past while nurturing new possibilities for peace, connection, and shared belonging.
Credits:
- Interview by summer intern Kaitlin Imai
- Photos and text, John Noltner
- Field production, summer interns Kate West, Sawyer Garrison, and Kaitlin Imai
- Audio Engineering, Razik Saifullah
Thanks for listening to A Peace of My Mind's podcast. For photos, videos, and additional content, visit our website and follow us on Instagram.
This episode includes two separate interviews.
Hilary Lawrey knows what it means to live with invisible boundaries. Growing up in Belfast during the Troubles, she experienced a world where fear quietly shaped everyday life—determining where people went, whom they met, and how communities remained separated. Though she never carried bitterness, the divisions around her became part of the landscape of her life.
After spending fifteen years caring for her husband before his death, Hilary faced a different kind of isolation. Grief had narrowed her world, and the thought of walking into a shared space where Protestants and Catholics gathered together felt overwhelming. Yet she chose courage over fear.
That single decision changed her life.
Today, Black Mountain Shared Space has become a second home. Surrounded by friends from across the community, Hilary has rediscovered laughter, purpose, and the confidence to embrace new experiences—including traveling with women she had only recently met. She believes peace is built not by pretending differences don't exist, but by making room for one another while remaining true to who we are.
Looking at her grandchildren, Hilary sees a future she never imagined as a child: one where friendships cross old divides and young people are free to go wherever life leads them. Her journey is a reminder that reconciliation is often less about changing someone else's mind than finding the courage to step through a door that once seemed impossible to open.
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Mark Fenton is a community leader and founding member of Black Mountain Shared Space in Belfast, where he has spent nearly two decades helping build relationships across one of Northern Ireland's most deeply divided interfaces. Raised in the area during the Troubles, Mark became involved in interface violence as a child and later in loyalist paramilitary organizations, experiences that shaped his understanding of the conflict and the cost it imposed on local communities.
A strong supporter of the Good Friday Agreement, Mark became involved in community peacebuilding to help ensure that future generations would not have to experience the violence and division he had known. Working alongside former members of the republican community, he has helped build trust, respond to community tensions, and create opportunities for people from both traditions to meet in a safe and welcoming environment.
Mark is also a single father who raised two daughters after the death of his wife. He credits his work in peacebuilding with helping create a different future for his family, one in which his daughters—and now his grandchildren—can form friendships across community lines that would have been nearly impossible during his own childhood. Today, he remains committed to building safer, stronger communities by encouraging people to step beyond fear and give one another a chance.
Credits:
- Photos and text, John Noltner
- Field production, summer interns Kate West, Sawyer Garrison, and Kaitlin Imai
- Audio Engineering, Razik Saifullah
Thanks for listening to A Peace of My Mind's podcast. For photos, videos, and additional content, visit our website and follow us on Instagram.
This episode includes two separate interviews.
Alastair Kilgore is a Northern Irish educator, peacebuilder, and longtime member of the Corrymeela Community, where he has been involved for more than fifty years. Raised in the Protestant tradition, Kilgore has dedicated much of his life to fostering understanding across religious, political, and cultural divides in Northern Ireland.
Inspired by Corrymeela founder Ray Davey, whose experiences during the bombing of Dresden shaped a lifelong commitment to reconciliation, Kilgore embraced the belief that "we are all the same" and has carried that principle throughout his work. As a teacher, community leader, and advocate for integrated education, he played an early role in supporting Lagan College, Northern Ireland's first integrated secondary school, helping pioneer efforts to educate Protestant and Catholic children together.
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Dot Wilson is a community-builder, peace advocate, and lifelong resident of Northern Ireland who has spent decades fostering connection across divides. Living in Ballycastle on the North Antrim Coast, Dot is a former probation officer, gardener, fused-glass artist, and grandmother of four children and several grandchildren. Deeply shaped by her involvement with the Corrymeela Community movement, she has dedicated much of her life to creating spaces where people from different backgrounds can live, learn, and grow together.
Alongside her late husband, Derek Wilson, Dot helped establish Mill Strand Integrated Primary School in Portrush during the 1980s, working with other parents to create one of Northern Ireland’s pioneering integrated schools. The effort required extraordinary commitment, including securing funding, overcoming community resistance, and even leveraging their homes to support the project. Today, she looks back on that work with pride as a tangible contribution to a more inclusive society.
Credits:
- Photos and text, John Noltner
- Field production, summer interns Kate West, Sawyer Garrison, and Kaitlin Imai
- Audio Engineering, Razik Saifullah
Thanks for listening to A Peace of My Mind's podcast. For photos, videos, and additional content, visit our website and follow us on Instagram.
For most of the world, Nell McCafferty was a pioneering journalist, feminist, civil rights activist, and one of Ireland's most fearless public voices. For Carmel McCafferty and her daughter Muire McCallion, she was simply "our Nell."
Carmel is Nell McCafferty's youngest sister, one of six siblings raised in a modest three-bedroom home in Derry's Bogside.
Muire, Carmel's daughter, grew up knowing Nell as the adventurous aunt who arrived with improbable schemes, unexpected journeys, and endless curiosity.
This episode is a free-wheeling recollection of Nell McCafferty, the sister and the aunt, as remembered in a warm and raucous conversation.
Credits:
- Photos and text, John Noltner
- Field production, summer interns Kate West, Sawyer Garrison, and Kaitlin Imai
- Audio Engineering, Razik Saifullah
Thanks for listening to A Peace of My Mind's podcast. For photos, videos, and additional content, visit our website and follow us on Instagram.
Patricia Moore is a community activist and longtime Sinn Féin member from Derry, Northern Ireland, whose life has been shaped by the Troubles and the subsequent peace process. Raised in Derry during some of the most violent years of the conflict, she experienced military raids, street violence, and the daily realities of a divided society from an early age. At 17, she became involved in republican politics and later spent more than a year in prison after being detained during a mass arrest operation; the case against her ultimately collapsed when the key witness withdrew her testimony.
Moore describes prison as both a hardship and a place of political education, where solidarity among women prisoners and engagement with political debate deepened her commitment to social and political change. In the decades since, she has become a strong advocate for dialogue and reconciliation, working with former prisoners, loyalists, former British soldiers, and community groups across traditional divides. She has also participated in efforts to rebuild trust in public institutions and encourage nonviolent civic engagement.
Today, Moore speaks openly about the human cost of conflict while emphasizing the importance of conversation, accountability, and cooperation. She remains committed to building what she describes as “a new Ireland for everybody”—one based on equality, respect, and shared opportunity across communities.
Credits:
- Photos and text, John Noltner
- Field production, summer interns Kate West, Sawyer Garrison, and Kaitlin Imai
- Audio Engineering, Razik Saifullah
Thanks for listening to A Peace of My Mind's podcast. For photos, videos, and additional content, visit our website and follow us on Instagram.
Paul McLaughlin is an educator, historian, community leader, and lifelong resident of Derry, Northern Ireland. Growing up during the Troubles, Paul's earliest memory is witnessing the day of Bloody Sunday as a six-year-old child, an experience that profoundly shaped his understanding of conflict, identity, and justice. Rather than following many of his peers into the violence that engulfed Northern Ireland, he found purpose through sport, education, and public service.
A passionate student of history, Paul devoted his career to helping young people understand the past while building a more hopeful future. As a teacher, youth football coach, and community advocate, he has worked to create opportunities for cross-community engagement and reconciliation. Having lived through decades of division, military occupation, and political turmoil, Paul witnessed firsthand the transformative power of the Good Friday Agreement and remains committed to fostering peace, understanding, and dialogue.
Today, he shares his story as a reminder that even in societies marked by deep conflict, hope, education, and human connection can help create lasting change.
Credits:
- Photos and text, John Noltner
- Field production, summer interns Kate West, Sawyer Garrison, and Kaitlin Imai
- Audio Engineering, Razik Saifullah
Thanks for listening to A Peace of My Mind's podcast. For photos, videos, and additional content, visit our website and follow us on Instagram.
Mark Durkan has spent much of his life navigating Northern Ireland 's difficult path from conflict to peace. A native of Derry, he was deeply involved in the negotiations and implementation of the Good Friday Agreement, later serving as Deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland and as a member of Parliament.
Throughout his career, Mark has championed the idea that peace is more than a political settlement. While agreements can create the conditions for change, he believes reconciliation is sustained by the everyday work of communities, artists, educators, and ordinary citizens who choose connection over division. Drawing on decades of experience, he speaks about the challenges of addressing painful histories, building trust, and creating shared spaces where people can re-imagine a common future.
Today, through his work with the John and Pat Hume Foundation and other civic initiatives, Mark continues to encourage dialogue, understanding, and the belief that lasting peace is built one relationship at a time.
Credits:
- Photos and text, John Noltner
- Field production, summer interns Kate West, Sawyer Garrison, and Kaitlin Imai
- Audio Engineering, Razik Saifullah
Thanks for listening to A Peace of My Mind's podcast. For photos, videos, and additional content, visit our website and follow us on Instagram.
Martina Anderson is a lifelong Irish republican, former political prisoner, and veteran political leader from Derry’s Bogside. Arrested in the early years of the Troubles, she spent nearly fourteen years in prison, including a decade in England, before her release under the Good Friday Agreement in 1998.
Following her release, Anderson unexpectedly found herself in public office, serving as a member of the Northern Ireland Assembly, a Junior Minister in the Executive Office, and later as a Member of the European Parliament for Sinn Féin, where she represented Northern Ireland for more than seven years.
She was also among the first Sinn Féin representatives appointed to the Policing Board, helping oversee reforms aimed at increasing accountability and human rights protections in post-conflict policing.
Credits:
- Photos and text, John Noltner
- Field production, summer interns Kate West, Sawyer Garrison, and Kaitlin Imai
- Audio Engineering, Razik Saifullah
Thanks for listening to A Peace of My Mind's podcast. For photos, videos, and additional content, visit our website and follow us on Instagram.
Chris McDonough is a community development worker based in the Fountain/Bishop Street interface area of Derry, where he works to bridge divides between Protestant and Catholic neighborhoods through peacebuilding, regeneration, and youth engagement.
Raised in a family shaped by both nationalist and republican traditions, Chris combines deep knowledge of Northern Ireland’s history with a practical commitment to reconciliation and social equity. His work focuses on addressing the lingering trauma and tensions of the Troubles by fostering dialogue, shared understanding, and cross-community relationships—especially among young people. Passionate about justice, identity, and democratic change, he believes lasting peace comes not from suppressing differences, but from learning to respect and understand them.
Credits:
- Photos and text, John Noltner
- Field production, summer interns Kate West, Sawyer Garrison, and Kaitlin Imai
- Audio Engineering, Razik Saifullah
Thanks for listening to A Peace of My Mind's podcast. For photos, videos, and additional content, visit our website and follow us on Instagram.
Shelley Cowan is a disability advocate, speaker, and founder of Justus, a community organization creating inclusive social spaces and opportunities for adults with disabilities across Northern Ireland. After becoming severely ill at age fifteen, Shelley spent more than a decade confined to bed, unable to walk, eat independently, or continue her education. Through years of determination, family support, and rehabilitation, she gradually regained mobility, returned to school as a mature student, and earned a master’s degree focused on accessibility and inclusion.
Today, Shelley is known for transforming personal hardship into community impact. Alongside her close friend and caregiver Tracey Farry, she advocates for accessibility, disability awareness, and connection across social and cultural divides. Together, the pair have become known for their humor, honesty, and deep friendship—building spaces where people of all abilities feel seen, welcomed, and celebrated.
Credits:
- Photos and text, John Noltner
- Field production, summer interns Kate West, Sawyer Garrison, and Kaitlin Imai
- Audio Engineering, Razik Saifullah
Thanks for listening to A Peace of My Mind's podcast. For photos, videos, and additional content, visit our website and follow us on Instagram.
Martina Byrne is a community builder and quiet changemaker rooted in Hilltown, County Down. Originally trained in marine biology and business development, Martina’s path shifted after becoming a mother, when she experienced firsthand the isolation that can exist in rural life. Rather than wait for connection, she created it.
As a co-founder of a local women’s group that has now thrived for more than a decade, Martina has helped cultivate a space where women gather, learn, and grow—often in unexpected ways, from coffee mornings to creative workshops. What began as a simple effort to bring people together has evolved into a powerful platform for community development, cross-border collaboration, and grassroots peacebuilding.
Guided by the belief that real change happens in small, consistent steps, Martina works to bridge divides—social, political, and personal—by building trust one relationship at a time. She is especially passionate about elevating the role of women in peacebuilding and creating opportunities for voices that have too often gone unheard.
Credits:
- Photos and text, John Noltner
- Field production, summer interns Kate West, Sawyer Garrison, and Kaitlin Imai
- Audio Engineering, Razik Saifullah
Thanks for listening to A Peace of My Mind's podcast. For photos, videos, and additional content, visit our website and follow us on Instagram.
Vincenta Leyden lives in Hilltown, County Down, Northern Ireland, near the Mourne Mountains. Born in Northern Ireland and raised partly in the Republic of Ireland, her life has unfolded along the border between two places and identities. Growing up during the Troubles, she experienced the conflict not through dramatic moments but through the everyday realities of living in a divided society. Those experiences shaped her curiosity about history, identity, and the ways communities understand the past.
A creative thinker and lifelong learner, Vincenta is drawn to poetry, music, and art as ways to explore emotions and open conversations across differences. Inspired by poets like Seamus Heaney, she writes and reads poetry as a way to reflect on personal and collective stories.
As a mother, she encourages her children to engage with a wider world through music and cross-border cultural experiences. Vincenta believes creativity and curiosity can help people challenge assumptions, connect across communities, and imagine a more hopeful future.
Credits:
- Photos and text, John Noltner
- Field production, summer interns Kate West, Sawyer Garrison, and Kaitlin Imai
- Audio Engineering, Razik Saifullah
Thanks for listening to A Peace of My Mind's podcast. For photos, videos, and additional content, visit our website and follow us on Instagram.
Nula McNulty is a lifelong resident of North Leitrim, Ireland, who returned home in 2003 after years working on Ireland’s east coast and two years in China as a food technologist. Raised on a mixed farm near the Northern Ireland border, she grew up during the Troubles with a father from the North and a mother from the South. Her upbringing instilled in her a strong sense of inclusivity, social conscience, and respect for others regardless of religion, politics, or background.
Living near the border deeply shaped her understanding of conflict. As a child, crossing into Northern Ireland meant passing through multiple military and police checkpoints—an experience she accepted at the time but later recognized as extraordinary. She recalls both the deep divisions and the gradual healing that followed, particularly through integrated schools, cross-border initiatives, and community-based projects.
Nula believes peace requires communication, acknowledgment of harm, and sustained relationship-building. She has seen healing happen when people work side by side—through women’s groups, cross-border arts projects, and community campaigns. For her, the process of collaboration matters more than the finished product; shared work creates understanding and dissolves “othering.”
Nula sees prejudice as an ongoing challenge but insists the work of peace is never finished. True progress, she says, comes from listening, acknowledging pain on all sides, apologizing where necessary, and respecting both people and the natural world. Ultimately, she believes respect—for oneself, for neighbors, and for the environment—is the foundation of peace. Love, she says, is easier and more sustaining than hate.
Credits:
- Photos and text, John Noltner
- Field production, summer interns Kate West, Sawyer Garrison, and Kaitlin Imai
- Audio Engineering, Razik Saifullah
Thanks for listening to A Peace of My Mind's podcast. For photos, videos, and additional content, visit our website and follow us on Instagram.
Two stories again in this episode:
Carmel Loughlin grew up in the Republic of Ireland but spent time crossing the border frequently to visit family in the North, until the Troubles broke out when she was about 12 years old. She has spent much of her career in mental health, helping people navigate the ongoing challenges and lingering effects of the violence.
Lauri McCusker works in community development in an effort to make life better in County Fermanaugh. And while he becomes frustrated by “watching people find reasons and excuses for not creating positive change in our society,” he is driven forward, looking for the next — sometimes small — win for his community.
Credits:
- Photos and text, John Noltner
- Field production, summer interns Kate West, Sawyer Garrison, and Kaitlin Imai
- Audio Engineering, Razik Saifullah
Thanks for listening to A Peace of My Mind's podcast. For photos, videos, and additional content, visit our website and follow us on Instagram.
In this episode we share two conversations with people we met in Manorhamilton in the Republic of Ireland, just across the border from Northern Ireland. Like so many things, conflict and tensions are not confined within a political line that is drawn on the map.
Gerry Creamer is the youngest of five children. He grew up in a traditional and devoutly Catholic family in the Republic of Ireland, close to the border with the North. Although he has several family members who have been active in politics, Gerry is more interested in community work and spends his time trying to find funding for programs that can make his community a better place to live.
Elaine O’Hara has spent most of her life in Manorhamilton with short stays in Cork and Belfast, just after the signing of the Good Friday Agreement. She is active with a women’s group in Manorhamilton. Although life has taken some unexpected turns, she says she knows who she is, she holds her head up high, and she is immensely proud of the three sons she has raised.
Credits:
- Photos and text, John Noltner
- Field production, summer interns Kate West, Sawyer Garrison, and Kaitlin Imai
- Audio Engineering, Razik Saifullah
Thanks for listening to A Peace of My Mind's podcast. For photos, videos, and additional content, visit our website and follow us on Instagram.
Israel Eguaogie was 17 when he left Nigeria and relocated to Germany as an asylum seeker. A decade later he moved to Dublin and soon after that, shifted north to Belfast. It was a decision that horrified his mother back in Nigeria, who had heard news reports of the sectarian violence in the country. But Israel said that he experienced the calm and the peace of Northern Ireland and recalled it was the first place since living in Germany, where someone said hello to him first.
Israel has also experienced racism in Northern Ireland, and in recent public protests and violence directed at immigrants, Israel says he is concerned that previous rivals in the Protestant and Catholic communities will find unifying common ground in their backlash against newcomers, and that the rocks they once threw at each other will now land on the immigrants instead.
Credits:
- Photos and text, John Noltner
- Field production, summer interns Kate West, Sawyer Garrison, and Kaitlin Imai
- Audio Engineering, Razik Saifullah
Thanks for listening to A Peace of My Mind's podcast. For photos, videos, and additional content, visit our website and follow us on Instagram.
Lewis Lyttle is an ex-Loyalist prisoner. He was sentenced to 15 years for attempted murder during The Troubles and was released early, with the signing of The Good Friday Agreement.
Now Lewis works to facilitate cross-community groups with Black Mountain Shared Space, a community center built on the site of a former peace wall and designed to bring people from both Protestant and Catholic communities together to get to know one another and build relationships and trust.
Stay tuned toward the end of the recording for some generational insights from Lewis’ daughter Roxy, a high school student, who is engaged with programs at Black Mountain Shared Space as well.
Credits:
- Photos and text, John Noltner
- Field production, summer interns Kate West, Sawyer Garrison, and Kaitlin Imai
- Audio Engineering, Razik Saifullah
Thanks for listening to A Peace of My Mind's podcast. For photos, videos, and additional content, visit our website and follow us on Instagram.
Bronagh McAtasney is the daughter of John Bosco McAtasney, a master weaver and the last hand loom weaver in Ireland. She recalls his curiosity, his desire to learn, and his passion to instill the same in his children. When he passed away in 2018, Bronagh used her small inheritance to leave her job in administration, go back to school for a master’s degree in public history and now, in her own words, “I’m actually getting paid to be nosy about people’s lives.”
Growing up during the Troubles, Bronagh kept a diary that weaves the threads of daily headlines and historical trauma with the day-to-day realities of life as a 13-year-old girl in Northern Ireland. In 2013, she started sharing her diary posts daily on Twitter (and now BlueSky) as a way to document and juxtapose the geopolitical realities with her personal experience.
Credits:
- Photos and text, John Noltner
- Field production, summer interns Kate West, Sawyer Garrison, and Kaitlin Imai
- Audio Engineering, Razik Saifullah
Thanks for listening to A Peace of My Mind's podcast. For photos, videos, and additional content, visit our website and follow us on Instagram.
Thanks for listening to A Peace of My Mind's podcast. For photos, videos, and additional content, visit our website and follow us on Instagram.
Aoife Moore is an independent investigative journalist from Derry, Northern Ireland and formerly worked as a political correspondent for the BBC.
She calls herself a victim of England’s legacy in Ireland and says that every facet of her life has been marred by British colonialism, including the death of her uncle in the violence of Bloody Sunday.
Aoife chose her path to become a journalist because of her frustration with the British media’s unwillingness to challenge the government’s official narrative of what happened on Bloody Sunday and her desire to be a part of revealing the truth.
She is the best-selling author of The Long Game: Inside Sinn Fein, a book that explores the growth of Sinn Fein from the armed struggle of the IRA to its current political dominance in the country.
Credits:
- Photos and text, John Noltner
- Field production, summer interns Kate West, Sawyer Garrison, and Kaitlin Imai
- Audio Engineering, Razik Saifullah
Thanks for listening to A Peace of My Mind's podcast. For photos, videos, and additional content, visit our website and follow us on Instagram.
Jonny Clark is the program manager for Public Theology at Corrymeela, often called Ireland’s oldest peace center.
Born in New Zealand and married to an American, Jonny has lived in Northern Ireland for 40 years. When he was growing up, his family moved to Belfast at the heights of The Troubles. As he says, “During a time when most people were not moving to Northern Ireland.”
He has spent time in South Africa, Israel - Palestine, and other places of tension, learning ways that other countries have moved through or continue to struggle with conflict.
Jonny was involved with making a documentary called Guardians of the Flame, a film that strives to hear redemptive stories from people in the midst of religious and sectarian violence.
Credits:
- Photos and text, John Noltner
- Field production, summer interns Kate West, Sawyer Garrison, and Kaitlin Imai
- Audio Engineering, Razik Saifullah
Thanks for listening to A Peace of My Mind's podcast. For photos, videos, and additional content, visit our website and follow us on Instagram.
Lisa Retezan works as a substance use disorder navigator at a day shelter for youth who are unhoused. She openly shares her story with them about her own struggles with addiction.
Lisa took her first sip of alcohol at age 15 and struggled for much of her life with addiction. Her husband at the time knew, and as Lisa says, "He cleaned up my messes." Her mother knew and begged her to get help, but Lisa wasn't ready.
Eventually the alcohol lead to a job loss, followed by an attempted suicide. Then, she was ready for help. At the time of our interview, Lisa had been sober for 6 years, 3 months, and 3 days.
Many thanks to the Minnesota State Arts Board and the arts and cultural heritage fund for supporting this work.
John Noltner is a fiscal year 2025 recipient of a Creative Individuals grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board. This activity is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund.
Thanks for listening to A Peace of My Mind's podcast. For photos, videos, and additional content, visit our website and follow us on Instagram.
Bruce Sunpie Barnes is a bandleader who plays accordion and harmonica for Sunpie and the Louisiana Sunspots. The band travels around the world playing what he calls Afro-Louisiana music: a fusion of zydeco, blues, Creole funk, gospel and tunes from Africa and the Caribbean.
But Sunpie also has a parallel career as a naturalist. He spent 32 years working for the National Park Service, much of it in Barataria Preserve, a vast expanse of wetlands, bottomland hardwood forests, and palmetto groves. The Preserve, part of Jean Lafitte National Park, has 200 bird species and is 85 percent water.
As a young man, Sunpie kept one foot in each world. By day, he surveyed plants and animals and led hikes and canoe trips. At night, he frequented the numerous New Orleans bars that offered live music. He befriended some of the greats, including rock-and-roll pioneer Fats Domino, who would sometimes call him late at night and invite him to hang out at the hardware store in nearby Chalmette.
“He would go through the hardware store, not buy a single thing, just take two hours and walk through it,” Sunpie recalls. “But before he went, he would put on a gigantic pot of red beans and rice or something like that. And it would cook for three or four hours. And he'd come back, play piano, drink a few beers, and just hang out all day.” Sunpie used his sick days for what he calls “those Fats Domino moments.”
Later Sunpie became a ranger at New Orleans Jazz National Historical Park, which is based in the French Quarter and offers musical and educational programming.
In both arenas, Sunpie is a conservationist. “I don't have a separation in me as a person between trying to sustain coastal wetlands, trying to sustain fisheries, trying to sustain culture,” he says. “I might be on a few too many boards right now, but I'm on them because it's around the passion of preservation, around the natural world and around cultural things.”
For example, he is Big Chief of the Northside Skull and Bone Gang, a New Orleans tradition that dates back to 1819. Early on Mardi Gras morning, the skeleton gang travels door-to-door in the historically Black Tremé neighborhood, waking residents with calls of “You next!” They bring a reminder of mortality and a message denouncing violence and drugs.
“It came out of enslaved African males trying to say on Carnival Day, Mardi Gras Day, that I'm actually a human,” he says. “And I'm going to self-validate and show you who I am.”
Thanks for listening to A Peace of My Mind's podcast. For photos, videos, and additional content, visit our website and follow us on Instagram.
Caitlin Carney is co-owner of Porgy’s Seafood Market in New Orleans.
Caitlin calls herself the “Lady Monger.” Her business, Porgy’s Seafood Market, is a purple storefront on a busy corner in Mid-City New Orleans. It feels like a cross between a fish shop, a lunch joint, and a neighborhood bar.
It’s a market with a mission: to reconnect New Orleanians with Gulf seafood. A lot of the fish sold in the city is not from the Louisiana coast. Most shoppers are getting their seafood from big supermarket chains, which don't always make buying local a priority. And those shoppers often choose the fish that's most familiar, like salmon or tilapia, which are not from the Gulf of Mexico. Meanwhile, Caitlin says, it's getting less and less profitable for independent fishers to harvest seafood from the Gulf.
Caitlin is trying to educate consumers and also trying to make it more profitable for fishers in Louisiana to keep working. One way she does this is by selling bycatch, which is unintended, non-target catch. Often bycatch is thrown away, even when it’s delicious, and the fisher makes no profit.
“We love what we call hot fish, which are hot fish—you know, they're sexy,” she says. “Whenever we get bycatch, and they come in and they're gorgeous, we're like, ‘Damn, that's a hot fish!’
“One of our favorite bycatch is scorpionfish, which is really fantastic as a sashimi,” she adds. “We got some long tail bass in the other day that I didn't even know you could get. So, yeah, it's always an adventure.”
if Caitlin can buy it and then convince her customers that it's worth trying, that means additional revenue for the fisher.
Thanks for listening to A Peace of My Mind's podcast. For photos, videos, and additional content, visit our website and follow us on Instagram.
Another bonus this week to share a behind the scenes conversation with journalist Barry Yeoman and A Peace of My Mind's John Noltner, who collaborated to produce this multimedia series of interviews and portraits for Still Here: Stories from a fragile coastline.
Thanks for listening to A Peace of My Mind's podcast. For photos, videos, and additional content, visit our website and follow us on Instagram.
Darrah Fox Bach is the restoration programs senior manager at the Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana.
Darrah cultivated her love for the outdoors in her native San Francisco, where environmentalism flourishes and Saturdays were devoted to hiking. She moved to Louisiana to study at Tulane University, and stayed for an AmeriCorps position with the Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana (CRCL). When a job opened up at the non-profit advocacy group, she came aboard full-time.
One of the programs Darrah manages is an oyster shell recycling program that collects the shells from restaurants in New Orleans and Baton Rouge. Volunteers then turn them into oyster reefs–”living shorelines” that serve as habitat for baby oysters and also reduce erosion and protect cultural heritage sites.
After listening to Darrah's interview, stay tuned for a bonus preview of our conversation with Rashida Ferdinand, the Executive director of Sankofa Community Development Corporation in the Lower Ninth Ward.
After Rashida earned her master’s degree in ceramics, she considered moving to New York for its energy and professional opportunities. “But I wanted to also be in a warm environment, physically and culturally,” she says. “Being around blue, purple, yellow houses. Being around my family. My grandmother was getting older. So it was a no-brainer.” She moved back home to New Orleans in 2001.
Rashida had grown up in the Lower Ninth Ward, a former cypress swamp that had become a working-class district with one of the nation’s highest rates of Black homeownership. As a child, she heard adults reminisce about the crawfish that used to live in the gullies, about the neighborhood’s informal bartering system, and about keeping their doors unlocked at night.
Then, four years after her return, Rashida’s neighborhood made national headlines. In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, the city’s levee system failed, and the low-lying Lower Ninth Ward took the biggest hit. Thousands of homes were inundated or leveled. Residents fled to their rooftops for rescue. The death toll exceeded any other part of the city. When Rashida finally saw the neighborhood again, she says, it looked like “a shell of nothing.”
Thanks for listening to A Peace of My Mind's podcast. For photos, videos, and additional content, visit our website and follow us on Instagram.
Rosina Philippe lives in Grand Bayou Indian Village, a community that is entirely based in water. The homes, along with the church, can only be reached by boat. This was not always the case. “We had solid ground beneath our feet,” she recalls. “We had garden spaces. We had fruit trees. We had lots of land where you can walk for miles.”
The Atakapa-Ishak/Chawasha are a subsistence tribe, and have long relied on the bounty of the land and water: harvesting seafood, foraging for persimmons and wild celery, growing vegetables, hunting deer, ducks, and rabbits. Always, they’ve been guided by an ethos of taking only what they needed. “There was no such thing as overharvesting or just taking and hoarding away,” Rosina says, “because the life around us makes us possible. And as long as they were here, then we were here.”
They are still a subsistence tribe. But with much of the land gone, some of their traditional foodways have become difficult or even impossible to maintain. Disappearing wetlands also means less protection from storms. Most tribal members have moved away, returning to Grand Bayou with their families for holidays.
But Rosina remains, along with about a dozen other households. “I say that we're placemarkers,” she says. “A table is here and it's set and we're like a place card holding the place for others to come. I stay because of my love for my life, my life choices, my lifeway, for the ways of being with this place. I stay because I believe that the Creator in his infinite wisdom has placed my people where we belong. This is our place. This is where we were supposed to be.
“And I stay because I feel that I can make a difference. if I just inspire one person, and that one person can inspire somebody else, and so on, then we continue our inhabitation.”
Thanks for listening to A Peace of My Mind's podcast. For photos, videos, and additional content, visit our website and follow us on Instagram.
Alex Kolker is a coastal scientist with the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium.
During the Covid-19 lockdown, while others baked sourdough bread, Alex was studying satellite images of the Mississippi River Delta. As an oceanographer, geologist, and climate scientist, he is interested in how the Louisiana coastline loses land, and also how it builds that land back.
As he examined the images, Alex noticed a channel connecting the Mississippi River to Breton Sound and Quarantine Bay. Over the course of about a year, he says, the tiny cut had widened into a veritable river. Neptune Pass, as it’s called, carried more than four times as much water as New York’s Hudson River.
That water contained sediment, which was building land. Alex started noticing islands forming in Quarantine Bay. This rapid land-building process was the opposite of what’s happening in much of Louisiana, which has lost 2,000 square miles in the past century.
After listening to Alex's interview, stay tuned for a bonus preview of our conversation with Prasanta Subudhi, a professor of plant genetics at Louisiana State University.
Prasanta grew up near India’s Bay of Bengal, in a village surrounded by rice fields. From a young age, the crop fascinated him. He considered careers in medicine and engineering, but rejected them both in favor of rice genetics.
Prasanta came to the United States to do research at Texas Tech University in Lubbock. In 2001 he joined the faculty at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. Here, he’s been trying to answer a big question: How do we keep growing rice and feeding a hungry world even as the climate changes?
Thanks for listening to A Peace of My Mind's podcast. For photos, videos, and additional content, visit our website and follow us on Instagram.
Ebony Woodruff is an agricultural attorney in Chalmette, Louisiana.
Ebony entered law school with plans to become a corporate attorney. As the daughter of a welder-electrician and a teacher, her initial goal was upward mobility. “It was really all about the money,” she said.
But her professors at Southern University Law Center in Baton Rouge, themselves first-generation attorneys, encouraged students to return to their communities and make a difference. Their words stuck with her after graduation.
Ebony combined her passion for food and her concern for civil rights—and found her place fighting Black land loss. According to a study by economist Dania V. Francis, Black farmers in the United States lost 90 percent of their land between 1910 and 1997. The reasons are numerous: state-sanctioned violence, racial discrimination by banks, and denied access to federal farm benefits by local administrators.
Ebony focused on another reason for this loss: a legal nightmare called heirs’ property. When a landowner dies without a will in Louisiana, their property is divided among all their children, and then might ripple out to the grandchildren and beyond. As the ownership spreads thinner, it becomes easy for predatory developers to buy up shares and eventually force the land out of family hands.
Now she works with families that are trying to hold onto their land, while also raising awareness. “I’m like the little mosquito,” she says. “You hear it. It’s buzzing. It’s annoying. It’s biting you. You want to slap it, but you just can’t see it. If I’m nothing more than that, I have done my job in this struggle. Because we can’t go down silent. Someone has to tell the story.”
Thanks for listening to A Peace of My Mind's podcast. For photos, videos, and additional content, visit our website and follow us on Instagram.
Kristian Bailey is a farmer, and he also considers himself a land steward and teacher. At Orais Hand Farm, located across the road from the Mississippi River, he is trying to move away from the idea of human dominion over nature. Instead, he is working in cooperation with it.
Kristian talks about farming with “tenderness”: recognizing that Southern land carries wounds (his own farm is on a former plantation site) and that part of his job is to help heal those wounds.
Credits:
- Interview and text, Barry Yeoman
- Photos, John Noltner
- Editing and production, summer interns Kate West, Sawyer Garrison, and Kaitlin Imai
- Audio Engineering, Razik Saifullah
Thanks for listening to A Peace of My Mind's podcast. For photos, videos, and additional content, visit our website and follow us on Instagram.
Chief Devon Parfait spent his early years in Dulac, a bayou community at the watery edge of Louisiana. He caught fish from the dock, bounced on his neighbor’s trampoline, and went out on his grandfather’s shrimp boat. But Hurricane Rita destroyed his family’s home in 2005, when he was 8, setting off years of displacement. The extended family migrated inland and eventually settled in the New Orleans suburb of Marrero.
Trauma followed Chief Devon for much of his childhood. Yet even as he struggled in school, the adults in his life believed and invested in him. His predecessor, Elder Chief Shirell Parfait-Dardar, tapped him as the tribe’s future leader when he was 12. A mentor, geologist Rónadh Cox, helped prepare him academically until he gained admission to Williams College in Massachusetts. There, studying geosciences, he mapped Louisiana’s traditional Indigenous land and discovered that it was eroding faster than the state’s coastline as a whole.
He imagined becoming chief in middle age. But before he graduated, Elder Chief Shirell called him. “I think it’s time,” he recalls her saying. “You are so well equipped to help deal with the issues that we're facing right now.” He finished his undergraduate degree and was sworn in during a small, Covid-safe ceremony in 2022 at the age of 25.
Credits:
- Interview and text, Barry Yeoman
- Photos, John Noltner
- Editing and production, summer interns Kate West, Sawyer Garrison, and Kaitlin Imai
- Audio Engineering, Razik Saifullah
Thanks for listening to A Peace of My Mind's podcast. For photos, videos, and additional content, visit our website and follow us on Instagram.
Nate Suppon's mother died when he was an infant. He says he was born into a home filled with depression, anxiety, and turmoil. A lack of love. And he tried to fill that void with drugs and alcohol. Between the ages of 15 and 38, he was addicted and spent time in and out of prison.
It was a self-absorbed cycle. He found both faith and sobriety and now lives his life in service to others. At the time of our conversation, he had been clean for six years and three months.
Many thanks to the Minnesota State Arts Board and the arts and cultural heritage fund for supporting this work.
John Noltner is a fiscal year 2025 recipient of a Creative Individuals grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board. This activity is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund.
Thanks for listening to A Peace of My Mind's podcast. For photos, videos, and additional content, visit our website and follow us on Instagram.
Dan Brandt is a father, a husband, and an entrepreneur who says he likes to think of himself as a kind, decent person who tries to do the next right thing.
Dan stopped drinking when he was 35 years old and he is now 56. He didn't lose his job, he didn't have a string of arrests, but he had seen alcoholism around him and he knew he was on a bad path. And he knew that he needed help.
Dan joined a 12-step program and surrounded himself with others who were pursuing sobriety, too. Along the way he has had a couple detours in his recovery and those detours have always happened when he didn't have that support network around him.
He lives by the motto, "Keep your side of the street clean." Control what you can control. Don't lie to others. Don't lie to yourself.
Many thanks to the Minnesota State Arts Board and the arts and cultural heritage fund for supporting this work.
John Noltner is a fiscal year 2025 recipient of a Creative Individuals grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board. This activity is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund.
Thanks for listening to A Peace of My Mind's podcast. For photos, videos, and additional content, visit our website and follow us on Instagram.
Josue Gonzalez grew up in difficult circumstances that he said left a lot of holes in his life. Holes where the sense of love and belonging, and being cared for should have been. He tried filling those holes with different things.
He remembers sneaking his first drink at an early age in a house that always had alcohol available. In his teens he experimented with other drugs and found himself in active addiction that cost him jobs, relationships and hope for his own future.
He was homeless when he decided to finally make a change and now he has been sober for more than 14 years.
Many thanks to the Minnesota State Arts Board and the arts and cultural heritage fund for supporting this work.
John Noltner is a fiscal year 2025 recipient of a Creative Individuals grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board. This activity is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund.
Vanessa Weyaus is a member of the Lynx clan of the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe. Her name in Ojibwe translates as The Shining Light in the Sky Woman.
Vanessa spent years in addiction, eventually living on the streets and running from the law. When she tired of it all, she turned herself in during a routine traffic stop. She was offered treatment, but chose to serve her prison sentence instead and has now been clean and sober for more than six years. Her recovery date is January 8, 2019. She now works as a substance use disorder counselor for the tribe.
Many thanks to the Minnesota State Arts Board and the arts and cultural heritage fund for supporting this work.
John Noltner is a fiscal year 2025 recipient of a Creative Individuals grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board. This activity is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund.
John Gerber is a graphic designer and a fine artist in Minneapolis. He describes himself as someone who thinks and feels deeply. He has had an on again / off again relationship with alcohol. He stopped drinking completely between the ages of 30 and 40, but when his 40th birthday came around, he decided to celebrate. He describes it like this: "Then between 40 and 60, I think I drank probably to make up for those 10 years."
John never hit a rock bottom but he noticed things about himself that he wanted to change. He said, "Between 40 and 60, I think some things would've been better had I not been drinking at all." He has been sober since August of 2023.
Many thanks to the Minnesota State Arts Board and the arts and cultural heritage fund for supporting this work.
John Noltner is a fiscal year 2025 recipient of a Creative Individuals grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board. This activity is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund.
Casey Pytleski is a mother, a wife, and a recovering addict. Although she had experimented with my substances as a youth, it was an unexpected introduction to meth as an adult that led to a quick addiction and unraveled the idyllic life she and her husband had created. At the time of our interview, it had been 89 days since her last use.
Many thanks to the Minnesota State Arts Board and the arts and cultural heritage fund for supporting this work.
John Noltner is a fiscal year 2025 recipient of a Creative Individuals grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board. This activity is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund.
Welcome to A Peace of My Mind, a project that uses storytelling and art to rediscover what connects us. I’m John Noltner, the founder and director of A Peace of My Mind and I have the good luck to travel the country and the world interviewing people to help reveal the beauty and wisdom that is all around us….if we choose to see it.
This new season of the podcast is called Sobr. S-O-B-R and we are exploring stories of addiction and recovery. I stopped drinking on August 10, 2022. It was the day I turned 55-1/2. And now I am gathering the stories of others who have decided that sobriety…for them…is easier than moderation. Whether their addiction was alcohol or drugs…these are stories of people who found a way to make a change in their lives when their lifestyles were no longer serving them. The road is not always easy and the path to recovery is not always a straight line. But there is always hope and tomorrow is always a new day. So together, we are going to explore the struggles, celebrate the victories, and reaffirm that we all have choices to make along the way.
Welcome to A Peace of My Mind. Welcome to SOBR. I’m glad you’re here.
Joe Davis is a spoken word artist in Minneapolis. I interviewed Joe in front of a live audience for one of our Creative Changemakers events on July 25 at Squirrel Haus Arts in Minneapolis. He joined us with his band Poetic Diaspora. Enjoy a little music with them and then our conversation.
Jan Selby is an award-winning filmmaker whose work has been screened internationally in settings ranging from film festivals and art museums to university classrooms and on Public Television. BEYOND THE DIVIDE premiered at Montana’s Big Sky Documentary Film Festival and won Best Feature Documentary at the Peace on Earth Film Festival. After a year of traveling to festivals world-wide, BEYOND THE DIVIDE was broadcast on Twin Cities Public Television, which led to national distribution by American Public Television.
Jan’s previous film, A CIRCLE AND THREE LINES, won a regional Emmy, screened at numerous film festivals including the Woodstock Film Festival and was featured in the Walker Art Center exhibit, The Reel Thing.
Jan is the founder of Quiet Island Films **where she brings her documentary and storytelling experience to projects for corporate and non-profit clients.
I interviewed Jan in front of a live audience before screening her film, which she has now made available for streaming for free on the website for BEYOND THE DIVIDE****.
Between the interview and Q&A segments of the podcast, you will hear musician Chris Koza play the title track from the film.**
Duncan Gray is a retired Episcopal Priest and was the 9th Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Mississippi. I met him at St. Peter's Episcopal church in Oxford, Mississippi, where he was rector, like his father before him. His father served from 1957 to 1965 during the turbulent era when James Meredith was the first Black man who was allowed admission into the University of Mississippi.
St. Peter’s organized itself in 1851. The church building was completed just prior to the Civil War in 1860. Its first service was just prior to Mississippi’s secession and, according to Duncan, “has a history of being an enlightened community in some pretty difficult times in Mississippi.”
Chief Shirell Parfait-Dardar is chief of the Grand Caillou/Dulac Band of Biloxi-Chitimacha-Choctaw in Terrebonne Parish, Louisiana. She has spent decades helping her community fight for federal recognition of their tribe and finding resilient solutions to the political and environmental challenges that have seen their traditional lands literally wash away into the Gulf of Mexico.(We did this interview on the front porch, on a windy day, along a busy road, so there is some background noise, but the conversation is rich.)
Greg Campbell has gone home to die. His liver and kidneys are failing and on Wednesday, March 8, he left the hospital because he didn't want to die in an institution. He has chosen to die at home where he finds peace and love and safety.
We talked about his faith, his desire to teach people that they don't need to fear death and the deep joy in having time to say goodbye to friends.
Greg said, "Am I sad? Yeah. But this is the trail I'm on. And I have to finish the trail."
April Grayson was born and raised in Mississippi. She left the state after college and returned again 10 years later to tell stories about her home state and, in particular, about the Civil Rights Movement and the history of race in Mississippi through oral history and documentary films. April is the director of Community & Capacity Building at the Alluvial Collective***, formerly the William Winter Institute for Racial Reconciliation, an organization that works to hold space for difficult conversations.
We talked about her love of storytelling, her work to build healing dialogue and the difficult history she finds in her own family's story right down to the name she was given.***
Randell Sam is a member of the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe. I met Randell while spending some time with the Water Protectors near Palisade, Minnesota. After a brief introduction in Ojibwe, Randell shared some of his history with alcohol and drug addiction. After years of using, he found the true meaning behind his Anishinabe name, which is, “I Am The Walking Light.” Randell plays an important role in the recovery movement in his community, fighting the opioid epidemic. Through living honestly and practicing truth, love, and humility, he's able to continue connecting and supporting others to stay sober. He's found his life's calling, sharing that he recovered loudly so addicts don't have to die quietly.
Harvey Goodsky, Jr. lives in McGregor, Minnesota. As a part of the Sucker Fish Clan, he carries the responsibility of being the shepherd of the land. His priority is to keep that teaching and learning alive through his own seven children and their future generations. Harvey opens our interview with a message in his native language, Ojibwe.
We talked about his childhood and growing up as Anishinaabe, his connection with their land and learning the clan's traditions. He shared the historical challenges that his ancestors have gone through and the contemporary struggles of today, losing touch with nature and lack of infrastructure in their community.
Sandy Gokee is Anishinaabe—Bear Clan—and lives in Ashland, Wisconsin. For the interview, we sat outside at a park overlooking Lake Superior as a storm skirted around us, so you might hear a little wind and maybe even thunder in the recording. Sandy introduces herself in her native language, Ojibwemowin.
She shares her concerns about the invisibility of Indigenous people and how imbalanced life is between human and non-human beings. She also talks about the importance and frustrations of educating others on her community's cultures, beliefs, and treaties, so that they can heal and restore the harmony and balance in their way of life.
Afton Thomas is the Associate Director for Programs at the Center for the Study of Southern Culture at the University of Mississippi in Oxford, Mississippi. Afton talks about Oxford as the progressive south, and the importance of continuing to share stories of the past so we can live better today and in the future. At the time of this interview, Afton's involvement and voice in the community had led her down a political path as she made the decision to run for Alderman in the city she now calls home.
Mary Dougherty lives in Bayfield, Wisconsin on the shores of Lake Superior. As she says, just about as far north as you can go in the state without getting wet. She is the author of "Life in a Northern Town: Cooking, Eating, and Other Adventures along Lake Superior."
We talked about preserving the watershed of the world's largest fresh water lake and how we need to look upstream at the sustainability and health of the community's surrounding it in order to preserve the wellbeing of this vast, yet fragile resource for generations to come.
Mike Radtke is the operations manager for the Madeline Island Ferry Line in Bayfield, Wisconsin. He started there as a captain and over the past 32 years, he has made the 20-minute, 2.5 mile journey between the mainland and the island thousands of times.
We talked about his observations of how Lake Superior has changed through the years, his family's long-time habit of hosting international exchange students and the beauty and richness of life in a small town.
Michael Skoler describes himself as a reformed NPR correspondent, a dad, a meditator, and a backpacker. Michael is the communications director for Weave the Social Fabric Project, an initiative of the Aspen Institute, designed to address the broken social trust in America.
We spoke about his work in Africa during the Rwandan genocide, his desire to care open-heartedly and his goals to foster community at a grassroots level with the Weave Project.
Dr. Simran Jeet Singh is the Executive Director of the Religion and Society Program at the Aspen Institute and the author of The Light We Give, How Sikh Wisdom Can Transform Your Life.
We talked about his love for basketball, his advocacy for religious pluralism and a surprise lesson he learned one day recently when he forgot his earbuds while going for a run.
Shane Claiborne is a speaker, activist and author. He founded the Simple Way, an intentional community in Philadelphia, building a neighborhood of belonging. And he leads Red Letter Christians, a group that tries to live “like Jesus meant the things he said.”
***I interviewed Shane at the Sojourners office in DC right after the Moral March on Washington, led by the Poor People’s Campaign.
We talked abut living simply, living courageously and about surrounding yourself with good people.***
Bill Mefford is the Executive Director of the Festival Center in the Adams Morgan neighborhood of Washington DC. The Festival Center is an outreach of the Church of the Saviour, designed as a hub for supporting community centered ministries and nonprofits, and to train faith leaders for mission and justice.
We talked about his journey from Evangelical to liberation theology, his understanding of proximity and immersion with those who are marginalized that can lead us to liberation and his commitment to stay in relationship with people he disagrees with.
Mitchell Atencio is the associate news editor at Sojourners. Born in Atlanta, he now works out of the Sojourners D.C. offices on Capitol Hill. I interviewed Mitchell three days before the Supreme Court released its ruling on Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.
We spoke about his work in media, his ongoing process of challenging his own assumptions, and his decision to be discalced out of religious conviction.
Sister Jenna is a spiritual mentor, the founder and director of the Brahma Kumaris Meditation Museum and the host of America Meditating Radio.We spoke about her meditation practice, her understanding of the obstacles that impede our progress toward peace, and our ability to see the divine in one another.
Andrew Cheung is the senior pastor of Washington Community Fellowship, a Protestant community located less than a dozen blocks from our nation's capital that strives to practice love as a lifestyle.
We talked about his interest in crossing boundaries, his personal walk through life with a sense of wonder, and our ability to create healing for one another.
Rose Berger is the senior editor at Sojourners magazine. She is a poet and a Catholic peace activist. She's traveled to conflict zones around the world to be in fellowship with faith communities who are working toward peace.
We spoke about her trip to Ukraine, her belief in nonviolence and finding the courage to live an authentic life rooted in her faith.
Read more about her trip and why she went at this link.
Adam Russell Taylor is the president of Sojourners, a faith-based organization exploring the Christian call for social justice. I interviewed Adam at the Sojourner's office in Washington D.C. on the eve of the Poor People’s Campaign's Moral March on Washington, where I joined Adam and tens of thousands of others in a call for moral revival in America.
We talked about America's troubled history with race, the role faith plays in racial healing, and the opportunity to build a Beloved Community that allows all people to thrive..
Katey Zeh is the CEO of the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice. She's an ordained Baptist minister and the author of A Complicated Choice, Making Space for Grief and Healing in the Pro-choice Movement.
We talked about the history of religious leaders who have helped women get the healthcare they need, the political moment we are currently in, and her decision to no longer spend her energy debating the morality of abortion, but rather tend to the care of people in crisis.
Izzy Collett is the co-founder and owner of Desert Adventures, an outfitter in Boulder City, Nevada that takes clients on outdoor adventures. With more than 20 years of paddling experience, Izzy is a searcher, always looking for new answers.
We talked about lake levels, wilderness ethics and the little things we can all do to make a difference.
Colby Pellegrino is the Deputy General Manager of Resources for the Southern Nevada Water Authority in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Las Vegas is the driest metropolitan area in the United States with an annual rainfall of just four inches.
We talked about the increasing population of Las Vegas, the unprecedented drought and the innovative water conservation programs the city has developed in the face of it all.
David Arend was named the Deputy Regional Director for the Bureau of Reclamations Lower Colorado Basin in December of 2021. His responsibilities include oversight of Lake Mead, the largest reservoir in the United States. I interviewed David at the Hoover Dam near Boulder City, Nevada.
We talked about the multiple factors that are lowering lake levels in Lake Mead, the history of the Colorado River Compact and some of the ways states, water districts and tribes are cooperating to address the challenges.
Nora McDowell is a member of the Fort Mojave Tribe in Mojave Valley, Arizona and was the chairperson of the tribe for more than 25 years. She's a part of the leadership team for the Water and Tribes Initiative and is passionate about protecting all natural and cultural resources along the Colorado River.
We talked about the history of her community, their advocacy for the preservation of the environment, and their deep connection to the land and the water that sustains it.
Bri Hernandez Rosales is a graduate research assistant at the Desert Research Institute in Reno, Nevada and did her graduate thesis on the feasibility of rainwater harvesting for a local tribe. I interviewed Bri two days before she walked the stage to receive her master's degree in hydrologic sciences.
We talked about her interest in water resources, her research on rainwater harvesting and her desire to make a difference in underserved communities.
Chad Taylor is the director of sales and marketing for Lake Mead, Mojave Adventures, and grew up on Lake Mead, when his dad was the general manager of Callville Bay Marina in the Lake Mead National Recreation Area outside of Las Vegas, Nevada.
Lake Mead is the largest reservoir in the United States, but is currently at historically low levels as the population in the southwest continues to grow and the region faces continued drought conditions.
We talked about the changes in the lake levels, the ways his business is adapting, and his belief that humans will find a solution to this challenge, as we always do.
Seth Nickell describes himself as a husband, a father, a combat veteran, and a man of God. I interviewed Seth in Stanwood, Washington at a retreat for Project Sanctuary, a nonprofit that helps reconnect returning soldiers to civilian and family life. We talked about his decision to serve, the challenges of finding help for his PTSD and the things he's learned about himself along the way.
Lisa Rutherford lives in Ivins, Utah, just outside of Saint George, one of the fastest-growing metropolitan areas in America. Lisa spent two decades working for the oil industry in Alaska and is one of the founding board members and current advisors for Conserve Southwest Utah.
We talked about water resources, smart growth, and resisting the ever-present temptation to consume.
John Weisheit grew up with a love for the Colorado River and has worked as a river guide for more than four decades. In the year 2000, John co-founded Living Rivers, an advocacy group that seeks a path to restoring the ecology of the Southwest, balanced with meeting human needs.
I interviewed John in the cool shade of his backyard boathouse in Moab, Utah just after he returned from a rafting trip through the Grand Canyon.
We talked about working in harmony with nature, the ability of time in the wilderness to eliminate some of life's distractions, and the power of the individual to create change.
Eric Balken is the executive director for the Glen Canyon Institute***, which is dedicated to the restoration of Glen Canyon and a free flowing Colorado River. Eric grew up and still lives in Salt Lake City, Utah where he developed an early love for mountains, rivers and deserts.
We talked about the structure of the Colorado River basin, the challenges of a historic 20-year drought, and what a future without Lake Powell might look like.***
Melanie Stanley lost her home and business in Blue River, Oregon in the Holiday Farm Fire of 2020. The Meyers General Store and Liquor Shop had been in her family for 29 years. I interviewed her on the cement slab that remained.
We talked about the fire that devastated the town of Blue River, her commitment to rebuild and both her dreams and fears about what the future might hold for her community.
Jackie Davis is 12 years old and lives in McKenzie Bridge, Oregon. She likes to catch snakes and salamanders in her yard. She'd like to work in claymation when she grows up.
In late summer of 2020, the Holiday Farm wildfire swept through the valley where she lives and they had to evacuate. Her house wasn't damaged by the fire, but more than 500 other homes were destroyed.
We talked about the fire, the things she brought with her when they evacuated, and what she loves about growing up in the woods of Oregon.
Jackie was named for her grandfather, Jackie Herman, who I also interviewed for A Peace of My Mind.
Jackie Herman is a retired hair dresser from Brooklyn, New York. I met Jackie in Mackenzie bridge, Oregon, where he was spending time with his daughter, Kelly, after losing his wife of 59 years.
We talked about his first date with Sheila, the business they ran together, and his journey of learning how to live without her.
Fair warning, if the f-word bothers you, it might be better to move on to the next story, but if you can manage it, Jackie has some wisdom to share.
Kelly Britt Davis works in a rural health care facility in Blue River, Oregon. After navigating the first six months months of Covid, the clinic burned to the ground in the Holiday Farm Fire, a wild fire that consumed 175,000 acres and more than 500 structures at the end of Labor Day weekend.
Our interview started by talking about the wild fire and moved on to address issues mental health, addiction, loss and recovery.
At 15:10, a hummingbird landed on Kelly's microphone and she said, "That's my mom."
Fair warning, that Kelly talks openly about her past challenges with mental health and the times she tried to take her own life. If you struggle as well, you can call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 800-273-8255.
Darcelle is the oldest working drag queen in the world, at 92 years of age. Also the owner of Darcelle XV Showplace in Portland, Oregon, Darcelle's entertainment career has spanned more than five decades.
We talked about how Darcelle started performing drag, how he has sewn more than 1,500 dresses, and the day he had to tell his wife that he was gay.
Derek Thompson is an activist in Portland, Oregon and the founder and Executive Director of Voices4Justice, an organization dedicated to bringing together concerned community members...clergy, law enforcement and elected officials...to engage in meaningful conversation that can change the relationship dynamic between opposing parties and factions.
Nathan Sheppard is a Lieutenant in the Portland police bureau. He is a father. Both he and his wife of 21 years are Army veterans who were psychological operation specialists.
Nathan was happy to share his story, but he made a clear distinction that although he worked as a police officer in Portland, he was not talking to me as a representative of the police department, but rather as Nathan.
He said, “I will definitely share my thoughts as a member of law enforcement. I think that that more members of law enforcement should talk, there should be more conversations. That being said, I'm not the public information officer for the Portland Police Bureau in any way, shape or form. My thoughts are my own. My ideas are my own. Although I don't think there’s going to be anything that the police bureau would reject or renounce, this is not an official visit. This is Nathan.”
We talked about what motivated him to serve in law enforcement, the challenges of historic unrest in the city and the various lenses through which he views current events as a black man, a police officer and a father.
Natalie Brewster Nguyen is an artist, a mother, a social justice advocate, a business owner, a writer and a sex worker. I met her in Tucson, Arizona.
Because of COVID, I interviewed Nat outside on a windy day, in a busy neighborhood, so the sound quality is challenging, but the conversation is powerful and interesting.
Kate Adair lives in a women's shelter in Corvalis, Oregon, as she works toward more stable housing.
We spoke of her journey that led to homelessness, her love of singing, and her desire to once again have a kitchen for cooking, a bathtub and a door that locks.
I met Kate at the Corvalis Daytime Drop-in Center.
Sean Davis is a writer, a veteran and a wildland firefighter. He lives in McKenzie Bridge, Oregon. In the summer of 2020, the McKenzie River Valley was devastated by a forest fire that quickly burned 174,000 acres and destroyed more than 500 homes.
Sean says he has been to the apocalypse four times. He has seen difficult things and you will find that he shares those stories candidly. You will also notice that he shares even the most graphic details with laughter...not because he doesn't care, but specifically because he does.
We talked about the ways he and others supported his community in the wildfires, the PTSD he has struggled with after his military service, and the healing that writing and art have brought to his life.
Charlene Wicks is a snowbird. Originally from Eugene, Oregon, she has spent the past 23 years at the Gila Mountain RV Resort in Yuma, Arizona, and now she works there part time.
***She was working the front desk when I checked in. She said, "Come on...hop in the golf cart and I'll show you where your spot is. But don't tell your wife you're on a hot date!"
Between that and the snowbird rendition of the song YMCA, I realized I wanted to interview her.
We talked about the RV accident that took her beloved Bud's life, her journey toward healing, and the supportive community at Gila Mountain that became family for her.***
Francisco Olachea "Pancho" Martin is a street nurse in Nogales, Sonora, Mexico and works with Voices from the Border to support migrants waiting for their asylum hearings.
We talked about his desire to change people's moments in the midst of difficult circumstances, his determination to pursue a nursing degree in his 50s, and the difficult realities he must accept while working in proximity with the cartels who control much of the migrant activity.
Paul Kaye is the President of Peace Awareness Labyrinth & Gardens and the President of the Movement of Spiritual Inner Awareness in Los Angeles, California.
We talked about the labyrinth as a meditative tool, the richness he found in the altered rhythms of the pandemic and the need to find joy even as we care deeply for the needs of the world.
Noemi Aidee Tungui Aguilar comes from the Purépecha people of Michoacán, Mexico. She is an activist and an educator, on a journey to celebrate her culture that was nearly wiped out through colonialism.
I met Noemi at a Water Protectors camp near Palisade, Minnesota where she went by the camp name Luna. She traveled there from her home in California to protest the construction of the Line 3 pipeline and to continue her advocacy for Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women.
We talked about the agricultural work that brought her family from Mexico to the United States, her embrace of and pride in her indigenous culture, and the urgency surrounding the epidemic of violence against indigenous women.
Zachary Pierce is a member of the Fallon Paiute-Shoshone Tribe. At three weeks old, he was adopted by an English and German mother and an Irish father.
Zachary spent more than a decade on the streets of Corvallis but viewed COVID as an opportunity to reset. He used it as a filter that allowed him to keep what he wanted and discard the things that no longer helped him. He is now housed and ready to accomplish things that he once thought were impossible.
We talked about the peace he finds foraging for food, the education he has gathered through personal experience and his desire for the world to wake up from its great slumber and start caring for the earth and one another again.
Kristen Sandstrom is a self-professed word geek. She is an avid reader, writer and seller of books. I interviewed her in Bayfield, Wisconsin. We talked about her love for Lake Superior, her understanding of community and the ways she has moved toward healing after surviving trauma in her teens.
Jeff Rennicke is a writer, a photographer and a storyteller in Bayfield, Wisconsin. He is the Executive Director at Friends of the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore**.
We talked about his history as a freelance travel writer, his desire to sink deeply into the landscape and history of the Apostle Islands and his practice of seeing the world in new ways through photography.**
Lori Schneider has climbed the tallest mountain on all seven continents, a feat she accomplished while being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.
We talked about finding strength in the face of skeptics, the meditation of climbing, and her choice to be happy.
You can learn more at her websites, http://lorischneider.net/ or http://www.empowermentthroughadventure.com/.
Bazile Panek is majoring in Native American Studies at Northern Michigan University. He is an enrolled tribal member of the Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Chippewa in Red Cliff, Wisconsin.
We talked about his pride in his heritage and traditions, his research exploring opportunities for traditional values to help decolonize entrepreneurship and the ways his academic pursuit of Native American Studies has helped him understand his own Anishinaabe identity in new ways.
Tania Aubid is an Anishinaabe woman involved in the Water Protector movement resisting the Line 3 pipeline in northern Minnesota.
We talked about her work as a water protector, the need for allies in the movement and the ways she hopes to speak for other voices that are not heard.
Ken Craft is the founder and CEO at Hope of the Valley rescue mission. I interviewed him at the Alexandria Park Tiny Home site, the largest tiny home community in the state of California. At that site, there are 103 tiny homes, 200 beds, toilets, sinks, laundry facilities and services. As Ken says, "Anything and everything that somebody would need to overcome the barriers that are preventing them from being housed are offered right here."
We talked about the housing crisis in Los Angeles, the change in approach that is yielding positive results and his own difficult journey to this work.
Rev. Andy Bales is the president and CEO at Union Rescue Mission on Skid Row in Los Angeles, California.
We talked about his father's experience with the devastation of homelessness, the current housing crisis in Los Angeles and his own change of heart that led him to this work.
Vincent Turner once lived on the streets of Los Angeles, in a liquor store parking lot. He tried to build barriers to keep others out because he was disappointed with himself. He knew he was hurting himself and he didn’t like hurting others. When he was ready for change, he used the one bus token in his pocket to go to the Union Rescue Mission on Skid Row. They took him in, he worked through their program, and now that he has graduated from it, he works there as a maintenance technician and has his own apartment.
We talked about his need to stay focused, protect his success and his desire to pay forward the help that was offered to him.
Neal Moore is a journalist, an adventurer and an expatriate. He is in the midst of a two-year journey, paddling 7,500 miles across the United States. I met him in a coffee shop—by chance—in Columbus, Mississippi and we found time the next day to do an interview.
We talked about the logistics of his journey, difficult childhood memories, and his determination to spin challenging moments into a positive worldview.
You can follow Neal's adventure at https://22rivers.com/.
In honor of Pride Month, we are sharing this conversation with Erica Hernandez from Yuma, Arizona. We talked about her work as a youth minister in the church, her journey as an ally for her trans child and her volunteer leadership for PFLAG, an advocacy group offering support to LGBTQ+ people and their parents, family and allies.
If you or a loved one are struggling with orientation or identity, or would like to learn more as an ally, resources and support are available to you. PFLAG is one good option. The Trevor Project can help in moments of crisis. Other resources may be available in your community or online with a quick search.
Graham Bodie is a Chief Listening Officer of Listen First Project **and also a professor of integrated media communications at the University of Mississippi in Oxford, Mississippi.
I’ve gotten to know Graham over the past year as I’ve gotten involved as a coalition partner for The Listen First Project****, a group of organizations focused on using dialogue to heal the social fabric of America.
This conversation was the first time we had met in person.**
Joe Hill is from the Seneca Nation. He traveled to northern Minnesota to a Water Protectors camp north of Palisade, to protest an oil pipeline that will cross the Mississippi River and many others. He spent the winter there living in a yurt and said he had come to support an Indigenous women-led movement, to live simply, and to exercise his obligations under the Great Law of Peace.
We talked about how his people had lived as a matriarchal society, the reasons he had come to Minnesota and the lessons he had learned from his time along the Mississippi River.
Lydia Koltai is a mother, an herbalist and a social justice activist in Oxford, Mississippi.
We talked about her efforts with others to move a Confederate statue from the courthouse lawn, to commemorate lynching victims from the area, and how the notion of reparations could lead to healing for our nation.
Peyton Scott Russell **is a Minneapolis graffiti artist and street artist who painted a 12' x 12' black and white spray paint portrait of George Floyd during the curfew and installed it at the bus stop at the intersection of 38th and Chicago, where Floyd was killed by police on May 25, 2020.
We talked about his experience growing up as a biracial child, finding his voice as an artist and the risks and rewards of being a street artist.**
Will Snowden received his law degree from Seton Hall Law School in New Jersey and worked as a public defender in New Orleans. Through his work in the justice system, he became concerned with weaknesses in our jury system that lead to a lack of diversity in jury members and ultimately, unjust outcomes.
In response, Will established The Juror Project, whose mission is “to change the makeup of juries to better represent the American population and the communities most commonly accused." They pursue this "through community and public education about jury eligibility and the jury selection process and the power jurors hold in America's high stakes criminal justice system.”
We talked about the ways the jury selection process can be reformed to lead to increased diversity, the things he will be watching for during the upcoming trail of Derek Chauvin and Will's own experience with law enforcement that led him to pursue a career in the justice system.
Gary Paul Nabhan is an ecumenical Franciscan brother who does cross cultural collaborations for environmental and social justice and caring for creation. He is known as a pioneer in the local food movement and has lead the effort to save heirloom seeds.
An Arab American, he has a great love for desert environments and lives in the desert overlooking the Santa Cruz River Valley near Patagonia, Arizona. The Santa Cruz is a binational river near the U.S. - Mexico border and supports a rich diversity of plants and animals as well as human cultural life.
We talked about walking toward the radical center, learning from traditional caretakers of the land and celebrating those who are doing the courageous work of finding solutions to the world's daunting problems.
**Sebastian Quinac immigrated from Guatemala in his 20s to flee the civil war and threats to his life. After time in California and New York, he settled in Tucson, Arizona where he has lived for the past two decades. He is now a U.S. citizen and works with the Guatemalan consulate to help migrant families navigate the American immigration system.
We talked about his journey from Guatemala, his sense of loss when he became a U.S. citizen and his desire to advocate for the migrants who cross the border now.**
**Juanita Molina is the Executive Director for Border Action Network in Tucson, Arizona. Throughout her career she has advocated for LGBTQ communities and offered support to people with HIV/AIDS, those with terminal cancer and others facing domestic abuse and sexual assault. Her current role allows her to work for the rights of immigrants and while she often is responsible for holding immigration enforcement agencies and government officials accountable, she also serves as a bridge between activists and the law enforcement community.
We talked about the vulnerability of migrants, the process of building a working relationship with border patrol agencies and the importance of maintaining joy in the face of difficult circumstances.**
Alvaro Enciso has been placing crosses in the Sonoran Desert for seven years to mark the sites where migrants have died on their journey into the United States. His goal is make the invisible visible, to honor the lives lost, and to point his finger at the policies that lead to unnecessary deaths.
**A Colombian immigrant himself, he finds that his land art project connects him to his own migration and to his heritage. And he has found that the experience of going weekly into the desert and honoring the dead has increased his sense of compassion and connected him more deeply to his own humanity.
We talked about the artistic process that led to this project, the desperation that causes migrants to take great risks and the invisibility of our elders and his own efforts to remain relevant.**
Teresa Reyes was born in El Salvador and came to the United States in 1999 when she was 17 years old, nine months pregnant and spoke only Spanish. As she established herself in her new home, she packed lettuce in farm fields, worked in slaughterhouses and taught herself English. She eventually put herself through college and now works as an environmental scientist.
We talked about the search for her mother, who had fled the country’s civil war before Teresa’s first birthday, the challenges of being raised by her grandparents, the lack of opportunities she saw for herself in her home country as a pregnant teenager, and her determination to find a different path for herself.
Tony Sedgwick is the President of the Board for the Santa Fe Ranch Foundation, a working cattle ranch near Nogales, Arizona and just a few miles north of the U.S. border with Mexico. With a background in international business law, Tony offers a sweeping view of history and economics along the borderlands and sees a need to shift our international policies away from fear and protectionism and toward development and infrastructure.
This interview was conducted in mid-January 2021, before the inauguration of Joe Biden, so when he refers to “this administration” he is referring to Donald Trump. Because of the pandemic, we conducted the interview outside at his ranch and you’ll hear chickens, dogs, neighbors, airplanes and more in the background.
We talked about how the border had changed during his lifetime, the inefficiencies of the wall in achieving its stated goals, and the importance of combating helplessness and understanding that we have the ability to make life better for ourselves and those around us.
Jonathan Green is an acclaimed American painter from Charleston, South Carolina whose work centers on his Gullah tradition and the nearby community of Gardens Corner, where he grew up.
We spoke of the path that led him to painting, the importance of representation and our need to cultivate an appreciation for the arts in our youth.
Lee Bennet, Jr. grew up a few blocks away from Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina, and is a long-time member of the congregation. A retired Army officer, Lee spent several years as Deputy Chief of Staff of the White House Drug Control Policy Office and currently serves as a volunteer historian for his church. Mother Emanuel has weathered a long legacy of challenges around issues of race, including a 2015 attack by white supremacist Dylann Roof that left nine people dead.
We talked about the history of the church, Denmark Vesey's planned uprising of 1822 and the need to have honest conversations about our past.
Trudy Grant is the Manager of Religious Affairs and External Relations for the National Action Network. I interviewed her at Charity Mission Baptist Church in North Charleston, where she serves as the assistant choir director.
We talked about her childhood, where she was immersed in a culture of love, how that embrace led her to the civil rights work she does today, and the need to celebrate together in the midst of difficult times.
Alphonso Brown is the founder and owner of Gullah Tours, in Charleston, South Carolina. Born and raised in Rantowles, a dozen miles south of Charleston, he is a retired band director. With a deep love for his city, Alphonso started a tour company dedicated to telling the stories of the many contributions Black Charlestonians made to the area.
We talked about the Gullah language, how Sunday morning continues to be the most segregated hour in America and how his black church has engaged with the white church around the corner through a common book study to explore titles related to race together.
Dr. Elijah Heyward III is the Chief Operating Officer for the International African American Museum being built in Charleston, South Carolina, and due to open in 2022. The museum is being built on the site of the historic Gadsen's Wharf, where up to 40% of enslaved Africans brought to America against their will disembarked after the transatlantic journey.
We talk about the importance of telling history where it happened, honoring untold stories and maintaining hope for a more just world.
Rev. DeMett Jenkins is the granddaughter of businessman, preacher and civil rights activist Esau Jenkins. She works as the Lilly Director of Education and Engagement for Faith-Based Communities for the International African American Museum in Charleston, South Carolina.
We spoke of civil rights activism, historical traumas and the ability to resist learned behaviors that may not lead to just outcomes.
We met at the Moving Star Hall, a Praise House on John’s Island, South Carolina. The hall holds memories of faith, community gatherings and family for DeMett. It is a place that offered both strength and shelter when times were hard.
Joseph McGill is the founder of The Slave Dwelling Project. I interviewed him at the Magnolia Plantation and Gardens in Charleston, South Carolina.
Ten years ago, Joe started spending the night in historic slave quarters and has slept overnight at more than 150 such sites across the country. He uses the experience to talk about the importance of preserving these historic structures so that we may have full and honest conversations about our country's history.
Because of COVID, I interviewed Joe outside, on a porch within sight of the slave quarters at Magnolia. It was a chilly morning, but a rich conversation. We both lost track of time and when Joe checked his watch, he realized he was late for a tour he was supposed to give, so you'll hear that the conversation ends rater abruptly. I could have talked with Joe all day. My apologies to the folks on the tour for Joe's delay. All my fault.
Jillian Peterson teaches Criminology and Criminal Justice at Hamline University in St. Paul, Minnesota. She co-founded The Violence Project with James Densley. We talk about their Mass Shooter Database, understanding the conditions that lead to violence and the power we have to prevent it.
I spoke with Michael Brown Sr. and Anthony Shahid as they were in Minneapolis to support the movement of protests following the police killing of George Floyd. We talk about the 2014 killing of Michael's son, Michael Brown, Jr. in Ferguson, Missouri, Anthony's life-long activism, and this moment's balance of hope mixed with a long history of mistrust.
Nate Houghton is an entrepreneur based in Boston, Massachusetts. We talk about his long-time diagnosis of depression and OCD and how he feels like his history with mental health issues has helped prepare him for some of the challenges of the pandemic and actually even helped him to thrive.
Bryn Baertlein is an elementary school teacher in Winona, Minnesota. She married Matt Baertlein on April 18, 2020. We talk about how they reduced their wedding from 350 guests to a party of 10, how her mother also stepped in as the piano player, and how the quiet gathering seemed just perfect in the reflective season of COVID-19.
Andrew Waite is the 5th generation of his family to run the Waite & Son Funeral Home in Medina and Brunswick, Ohio. We talk about the ways the grieving process has changed during the pandemic, their efforts to families navigate the difficult adjustments and the loss of his own grandfather just weeks before social distancing became the norm.
Kristin Schenck is the co-owner of Log Jam, a bar and grill in Menomonie, Wisconsin. Last week when the state's supreme court overturned the the extension of Governor Tony Evers' stay at home orders, many bars threw their doors open to large crowds, but the Log Jam decided to take a slower process. We talk about the snags in their supply chain for both food and sanitizers, their concern over the safety of their employees and guests, and the kind ways some of their customers have continued to support them as they offer curbside pickup for food orders.
David Smith is an American living in Moldova, and is one of the founders of Smokehouse, an American BBQ restaurant in the capital city of Chișinău. We talk about starting a business without making any bribes in a landscape that expects them, the early but sometimes awkward lockdown of the former Soviet satellite and the view of the American response to coronavirus from abroad. If you happen to find yourself in Chișinău and need a little American BBQ, you can find your way to Smokehouse by visiting their website.
My longtime friend Wade Barry turns the tables and interviews me for How Life Changed. We talk about how COVID-19 has impacted my home and work life, the value of documenting stories of hope and our propensity for breaking into song during the long road trips we have shared over years of working together.
Christa Goodwin is a middle school teacher and mother of two in Elberta, Alabama. Her husband Nate was diagnosed with cancer on June 4, 2019 and passed away at home April 9, 2020. We talk about how she and Nate met, how she has been supported by community during a difficult time and the ways we are all grieving as a result of COVID-19.
Jen Beck Seymour and Greg Seymour are long distance hikers who go by their trail names, Chica and Sunsets. For the past year, they had been renovating a hostel in Franklin, North Carolina along the Appalachian Trail and had opened to hikers just five weeks before the pandemic closed all short term rentals in the state. We talk about their love of the Appalachian Trail community, some of the hikers they met who passed through their hostel during uncertain times and the next adventure they will plan for when they can hike again. To learn more about Chica and Sunsets Hostel, visit their website at https://chicaandsunsets.com.
Ryan Silverman is a Broadway actor who was playing the role of Billy Flynn in the hit production of Chicago when the coronavirus closed down New York City's theater district. We talk about how he learned of the closure, the quietness of the city these days and how he and his wife have used this time to teach their daughter to ride her bike and tie her shoes. To learn more about Ryans work, you can visit his website at http://www.ryansilverman.com/.
Kari Rada lives in Chetek, Wisconsin. We talk about her weekly trips to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota for chemotherapy treatments, her enormous collection of pig figurines and her love of riding motorcycles.
Neal Hagberg is a singer - songwriter in Minneapolis and also the director of Tennis and Life Camps for Gustavus Adolphus College. We talk about the process of deciding whether camps can be held this summer, the many lights he sees on in houses during his 4 am walks with his dogs, and the collective suffering he sees in our journey with COVID-19.
Joe Davis is a nationally touring artist, educator and speaker based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. We talk about his faith, the creative ways he sees people coming together virtually to build community, and he also performs a new spoken word piece he wrote recently called Questions in the Time of COVID.Like many artists,most of Joe's paid engagements have been cancelled until he can perform at public gatherings again. If you'd like to learn more about how you can support his ongoing work, you can visit his Patreon page.
Ambassador James Pettit retired in 2018 from 38 years of service with the U. S. Department of State. We talk about the massive effort to repatriate American citizens back to this country during the COVID-19 pandemic, his tenure as ambassador to Moldova and the importance of having diplomats on the ground in countries around the world as a resource for understanding local and global events.
Lars Pruitt is the frontman for the Minneapolis-based band Yam Haus. We talk about the momentum the band was building, the upcoming tour they had to cancel and the creative space that opened up to write new songs. Oh yeah...and we talk about their Yam Haus Tuesday night Quarantine Bingo sessions.
To learn more about Yam Haus, visit https://www.yamhaus.com/.
To join in on their Tuesday night bingo sessions, visit them on Facebook or Instagram.
Deborah Doering is an artist and educator in Harlem, New York. We talk about her bike ride through a seemingly empty Manhattan, the nightly 7 pm banging of pots to celebrate the frontline healthcare workers and her sense of when she might be ready to venture onto a crowded subway train again.
You can see some photos of Deborah's bike ride on our Facebook page.
Mike Arneson lives in Big Sky, Montana, but he is sheltering in place with his aging parents in La Crosse, Wisconsin while his wife Sue helps take care of their grandson Hank in Minneapolis to help their children who are both working from home. We talk about their quick decision to leave Big Sky, the tag team nature of their family help in two separate states, and Mike's adjustment to a slower pace.
Danny O'Neel is a U.S. Army veteran and a fellow at the Elizabeth Dole Foundation. He lives in Folsom, California. We talk about his work with veterans who suffer from PTSD and how social isolation is impacting some of them. We talk about his own struggles with attempted suicide, how he overcame them and where he finds hope today. And we talk about his family's celebration of his daughter's 10th birthday in quarantine.
Please know that there are some graphic details in Danny's story, so use discretion when listening. And if you struggle with depression or suicidal thoughts please reach out for help. As Danny tells his fellow veterans, "You are not alone."
If you need help and don't know where to start, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255)
https://suicidepreventionlifeline.org/
Jennifer Louden is a best-selling author and a leading voice on self-care and creative transformation. Her new book, Why Bother? Discover the Desire for What's Next will be released on April 21, 2020. To learn more and to buy her book, visit https://jenniferlouden.com/why-bother/.
Jon Pancost is a stone mason in Lucas, Kansas. We talk about the small number of COVID-19 cases in the rural areas of the state, the prevalence of conspiracy theories and the difficulty in crafting policy that is relevant to both our urban centers and our rural communities.
Jody Ross was tested for COVID-19 in Minneapolis on March 18, 2020 and immediately started isolating. Her test came back positive on March 23. She has now been cleared to come out of quarantine by the Minnesota Department of Health and is doing well. We talk about the process of testing, her methods of self-care and her hope that people can use this time of social distancing as a boot camp for personal wellness.
Gavin Wagner is an Honors College student from Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey. We talk about his quick transition from learning on campus to distance learning from home, the lost opportunity to say a proper farewell to friends at school and the ways he has grown to appreciate family more as he shelters at home with them in the state with the second highest number of COVID-19 cases.
Rose McGee started Sweet Potato Comfort Pie after driving pies to Ferguson, Missouri, as a catalyst for caring and building community. We talked about the pies she is making now, the ways she is seeing people support one another and her hopes for us all moving forward.
You can learn more about her work at https://www.sweetpotatocomfortpie.org/.
Arno Michaelis is a professional speaker based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. We talk about the recent primary vote in his state, his history as a white supremacist, and his belief that love and compassion are going to save us all.
You can learn more about Arno's work at these links:
https://www.giftofourwounds.com/
https://mylifeafterhate.com
https://www.parents4peace.org/
https://www.theforgivenessproject.com/
Kris Cain is a psychotherapist in Frankfurt, Illinois. We talk about the rise of anxiety in this era of social distancing and uncertainty, our need to maintain human connections and her own discovery that she is less of an introvert than she once imagined.
Ethan Bender is a bass player, husband and father in Milwaukee Wisconsin. We talk about his frustration at having to go out to vote in the state's primary election this week, even as they were under a stay at home order, the disparities in COVID-19 health outcomes in the African American community, and how his family navigates the challenges of social distancing through music and song in their home. You can hear Ethan play bass with his wife and vocalist Donna Woodall at these links:
Website: https://www.donnawoodall.com/
Facebook: www.facebook.com/donnawoodallgroup
Watch "7 Year Itch" on YouTube:
https://youtu.be/OunwZAVzWBw
Sandi Wesel's father has been hospitalized since early March. Although his health issues are not related to COVID-19, the virus has impacted Sandi's ability to visit her father as well as do her own work as a physical therapist.
Steve Wewerka is a fine art photographer who was in the midst of his art fair season when the changing situation required him to shelter in place in his RV at a Florida panhandle campground. We talked about his cancelled shows, the community he is finding in the campground and how he is learning to see his surroundings in new ways as he photographs no more than 500 feet from his RV. You can see his work at https://stevewewerka.com/.
Tracey Erickson is a respiratory therapist in Fullerton, California. We talked about the community support she has seen for healthcare providers, the precautions she is taking to reduce the risk of exposure and the things she is looking forward to when social restrictions are lifted.
Zach Berget is a lighting designer who recently relocated from Minneapolis to Los Angeles. We talked about the difficult timing of his move, what he misses from touring on the road with musicians, and the ways he is learning to appreciate a slower pace of life.
Jason Kallsen is the owner of Twin Cities Wine Education and The Wine Workshop in Minnesota. We talk about his rapid change from in-person to online wine education, the larger changes he sees in the hospitality business and how staying busy and focused has helped him navigate shifting terrain. You can learn more about his online wine classes at https://thewineworkshop.net/.
Steph Roble is a member of the USA Olympic Sailing Team. We talk about qualifying for the team, weeks of uncertainty, learning the Tokyo games have been postponed for a year and what training looks like now. You can follow her journey at https://www.roblesheasailing.com/.
Kane Smego is a spoken word poet, a hip hop artist and an educator based in Los Angeles, California. You can learn more about Kane's work at https://www.kanesmego.com/.
Tabitha Turner is the associate director of assisted living at a facility in Marshfield, Wisconsin.
Hannah Gullixson is a musician who lives in Menomonie, Wisconsin. She is the founder of Every Little Thing Project that celebrates all bodies and addresses issues of eating disorders and social stigmas.
Barry Yeoman is a freelance journalist and writer based in Durham, North Carolina. His work has appeared in The Washington Post, The Nation, The American Prospect and Audubon Magazine, among others. You can learn more about Barry's work at https://barryyeoman.com/.