No Small Thing: Recent Episodes
No Small Thing Podcast
A weekly podcast hosted by Mace Mooney and Scott Gronholz that tries to help listeners live a less certain and more curious life. Life is big and complicated and there truly is "no small thing"; everything is worth talking about. Welcome to the conversation!
So much of our conversations regarding the enneagram, psychoanalysis, and curiosity in general circle around the concept of archetypes, but we've never actually spent an episode focusing on this particular concept! In this episode we have a fun, playful, curious, silly conversation about our emerging understanding of what archetypes ARE and how they impact our minds, relationships, and so much more. We'll definitely be returning to this topic soon!
It's no small thing with hoodies. Join us as we wander through all the associations that come about when we sit down to talk about hoodies. Utility, style, color, fit, culture, art, liberation, and just LOVE for the hoodie are all parts of this conversation.
Our second hopefully annual conversation with Professor Todd McGowan about Christmas movies and Psychoanalysis! What a better way to process the comedown of the holidays by thinking about what makes Christmas so fun yet so depressing. We talk about the movie Carol and lesbian/ queer Christmas as well as a host of other rambly curiosities. Todd is one of our favorite guests and conversation partners so we hope you enjoy this as much as we did.
It's been a while since we talked about The Enneagram! We're feeling a little rusty so we partnered up with one of our favorite enneagram druids- Ben Campbell. In this episode, Ben takes us through some super helpful, creative, light, inviting ideas regarding how integrate The Enneagram into your daily life. One big takeaway is that we're not just meant to be sitting an intellectualizing about The Enneagram all day! We need to get out there an live and join a community and TOUCH GRASS. We hope you find this conversation helpful and refreshing.
Fall is just around the corner and it brings up a lot of nostalgia for this season where many of us where heading back to school. It seems like a good time to share some memories, talk about the symbolism or metaphor of returning to school or learning, and talk about some life updates regarding your No Small Thing pals!
We're back y'all! This week we discuss an anime that is the headwaters for so many other pop-culture creations we love! Most significantly- Steven Universe! Revolutionary Girl Utena was way ahead of its time when first aired in the mid 90's! Its a fabulously queer surrealist story that invites curiosity and a psychoanalytic engagement. Its dreamy, disturbing, empowering, beautiful, and HILARIOUS. If you already know Utena we hope this is a cathartic conversation for you and if you're new to the show we hope it encourages you to give it a try! you won't regret it!
In our ongoing series on defense mechanisms we have yet to cover SUBLIMATION. Sublimation is one of our more positive defenses where we can avoid certain thoughts and feelings that make us uncomfortable and sublimate them with something more positive or "productive". Of course sublimating can still be used to avoid or displace particular situations that might be needing our attention, but generally its worth considering how it can be worked with in our lives. In this episode Scott and Mace are joined by their smart and funny friends Reuven and Daniel for some informal and quirky ponderings on this niche subject!
Christmas can be one of the strangest seasons of the year because we are supposed to be happy and full of cheer, but often Christmas afternoon is the most depressing day of the year. In this episode we talk with one of our favorite thinkers- Todd McGowan! We use Christmas and desire as a spring board for an hour of curious conversation!
Thinking about poetry and dreams and the way it relates to our mind and the ways we interact with the world can be a extremely effective way to get curious about ourselves and others. On this episode we invite our friend Katy Richardson to join us for a super playful and insightful conversation about the ways that we think about the free, seemingly nonsensical, paradoxical nature of poetry. Poetry and free association and the ways that words link up and sometimes misfire can help us enter into conversations about meaning and motives. Katy is a licensed therapist and went to grad school with Mace is a fan of Lacanian psychoanalysis! We hope you have as much fun listening to this conversations as we did having it!
We've been hosting No Small Thing for over 5 years now and we thought it would be helpful to address the challenges we face when it comes to practicing what we preach. Being curious can be one of the most challenging things any of us can do! You'll CERTAINLY be able to relate to the ways that we have felt like sometimes we just don't have capacity for curiosity and that's okay. We definitely want to encourage you all to live a less certain more curious life, but we want to encourage you if you ever feel like its too tall of an order.
This week we take a break from our regularly scheduled program to talk about a BIG thing with our friend Pat Hodges (which ironically is No Small Thing!)- a DYSON SPHERE! It could possibly the biggest conceivable human created thing we could talk about! Intrigued!? Listen into this funny curious informative convo to learn more!
Its that time of the pod cycle where we talk about the enneagram! If you're new to the show welcome to a new type of conversation about the enneagram where we try to explore different teachers, histories, modalities, and practices! In our discoveries we often come to find that previous understandings of the enneagram weren't so solid! For the OG homies! You know the story! We're still figuring it out! We hope that rambly curious conversation with our in house "expert" Daniel Keyes will get your curiosity juices flowing!
Its time to get curious about a potential new hobby! Recently we've been playing a ton of pinball with our friends and we wanted to let you in on the new target of our curiosity. Why is pinball fun? What is the history of pinball? (it was illegal for 30 years!), what are the metaphors of pinball and where can you find your local machine, league, or arcade? We're excited to invite you into this fun new dimension!
Narcissism is a hot topic in a lot of circles these days- well at least from our perspective. Its a helpful concept, but also something we may be talking about too flippantly? Or maybe its something we think we understand better than we actually do! The thing is- people are still discovering all sorts of new things about narcissism and trying to figure out what it actually IS happens to be much more complicated and even the so called "experts" have disagreements. So of course we need to have a conversation about it!
Being frustrated is a natural part of life that we often don't seem to have very creative ways of engaging with. Is frustration necessarily bad or necessarily something to be avoided? How can we work with frustration instead of just numbing it quieting it? What is trying to communicate to us and can we even learn to enjoy it a sign of life and passion? Frustration is no small thing and we are here to ravel and unravel this intriguing sensation! We also spin the color wheel and you'll want to stick around for our conversation about who was born today!
Our quest for tools for cultivating curiosity continues! This week we talk about what it would mean to find out new things about ourselves and each other by experimenting with new things as we get older. It sounds like a simple idea, but it seems that too often we narrow our season of experimentation to our teens and early twenties. Might there be more things for us to enjoy or become absorbed in? Or ways of being or existing in the world that we might not have thought about before? What types of experiments will have the potential to get us the lives we want? Can we allow the experiments to fail? Come on the ride with us! Oh! And some reflections from Reuven at the end too!
9,6,3 attachment types on the Enneagram! We finally have a conversation with all three of us: Scott, Mace, AND Daniel- together at last! In this episode we talk about the similarities and differences between these types and everything in between PLUS how we experience it as these types!
We love tools and conversations that help us get more curious about ourselves. Multiplicity and The Other Within have been helpful conversations for understanding and welcoming all the different elements that make us US. Daniel has a unique way of talking to these different part selves that they call the INNER COUNciL. Its a bunch of different Daniels that Daniel intentionally makes space for and listens to. This conversation is fun and playful and also extremely profound and mystical!
Its time to get curious about fashion on a budget! In this episode we share our emerging living experiment where we buy one outfit per quarter and wear it almost everyday! Also we talk about the color of the year and famous people that were born today....AND we share the music we've been liking lately!
What is the difference between Fantasy and Phantasy? And what roles do they play in our lives? How do our fantasies and our assumptions about the world, ourselves, and the future impact our daily decisions and the ways that we approach our relationships? And how does our unconscious influence our desires and actions! We address this and so much more including our new SEGMENTS where we spin the color wheel and talk about famous people that were born today!
Join us as we dive into the concept of OVERinterpreting...this may seem like a strange word but it is an invitation towards multiple interpretations allowing for the self to consider what they may be missing by under-interpreting (sticking to minimal narratives). In this episode we also talk about Adam Philips, a psychoanalyst who has been a recent inspiration for the two of us. NST is also starting SEGMENTS! You'll hear Mace talk about the color blue and we find out who was born this day! Reuven joins us at the end for a very titilating discussion on Marxism.
We springboard off the topic of what is a true self? What is a false self? Inspired by the work of D.W. Winnicott we explore how spontaneous gestures might give insight into a sense of our true selves. As with any NST episode, this dive into Winnicott's thoughts on the true/false self is meant to give an impression that sparks creativity in you!
WE ARE BACK BABY! No Small Thing is back with a drop of five episodes, each just as random as the next! We take the mission statement of being less certain, and more curious to heart as we playfully unpack the difference of being cheesy vs corny as well as where these words come from, which makes for the best diss and which one we relate to most. Who knew talking about cheesiness could be so fun!!
This just might be the best episode on enneagram nines we've released yet...or the most vague, meandering, soupy, floaty conversation we've ever about nines...OR...AND...it might just be a fun conversation between two nines talking about nines! Either way we know you'll enjoy Scott and Daniel (two nines) chatting about what it means to be a nine while always giving the side eye to Ian Morgan Cron...we hope you enjoy!
Growth and stress are prominent themes that often come up in enneagram conversations. We certainly have had our fair share of conversations about what this means. In this episode we have another curious chat with our friend Daniel Keyes in an effort to get a little more clarity AND little bit more wonder and uncertainty about what these concepts are trying to get at.
We are back with another enneagram episode! In this episode we talk about what it means to do "the work" of the enneagram and if that is even possible. We continue to use our pod to be curious about the enneagram and being slightly cautious about landing on any one mode of interpretation or modality....or choosing to follow any one teacher. Daniel is our resident "expert" and has put more time into learning and studying these days. We hope this continues to push the conversation. We have come a long way since our first enneagram episode over 4 years ago!
Inside each of us are different "selves" that we can spend a lifetime learning to get curious about. In this episode we revisit the idea of the "other within" and multiplicity by engaging with the work of Dr. Pamela Cooper White from Union Theological Seminary. Are you trying to make room for different aspects of yourself that you might have repressed? Are you interested in being more hospitable to yourself and others? Learning to engage with disavowed "selves" is a great place to start and this episode will get you heading in a very interesting direction!
After a weekend of recording enneagram content Mace and Daniel check in on what we've learned so far and where we're going. This conversation is a synthesis of some of the concepts that were discussed in our episodes for the last few weeks! We invite to come on this journey with us of reactivating our curiosity in the enneagram!
Another enneagram episode with our in house expert Daniel Keyes! As many of know we have spent over 5 years researching and talking about the enneagram. The more we learn the more our views shift and evolve. We are trying to model out a curious posture and in some ways letting ourselves start over. In this episode Daniel unpacks the hexad types (1,2,4,5,7, and 8)!
Our new season on the enneagram continues with a deep dive into personality and type structure! In this episode Daniel and Mace being curiously and playfully trying to unpack what we mean when we talk about "personality" and start to think about it through the different enneagram types.
We have had a very long, complicated, fun, playful, mysterious, authentic, chaotic journey with The Enneagram over the years. In some ways it is a public example of how to engage with something curiously. Recently we'e been inviting our dear friend Daniel to help us wrap our heads around The Enneagram in some new ways and there is so much to learn! In this episode we take a second pass at trying to wrap our heads around Essence and Instinct. This is the beginning of a potentially 8-10 parts "season" of talking about The Enneagram in a new way. We will be back to other curious topics eventually but for now we invite you on this journey of enneagram exploration with us! Its going to get wonky and weird and your traditional understandings of the enneagram will most likely get tampered with, but it should be fun! Also give our other instagram account a follow to see how Daniel is supplementing this podcast material at nosmallenneagram
no small thing is back?!! we've got another conversation with scott (he/him) and daniel (they/them), exploring how these enneagram ideas we hear about - passion, essence, ego, instinct, our type and wing, trifix if you're into that - how they all fit together. daniel has been studying misinformation in enneagram theories for the past few years, and on our instagram @nosmallenneagram, they share their opinions, critiques, and reasoning about the ways we've come to misunderstand the enneagram.
in this episode, we're examining the relationship between essence and instinct. some of our ideas may seem strange or wrong compared to how you're used to thinking about the enneagram, but we invite you to be > less certain < more curious > with us, and come along for the discussion with us!
For 4 years we have been up every Thursday night to have a curious conversation! If you have been on the journey with us we are so grateful! In this episode we spend some time reminiscing about the past by listening to clips from previous episodes and reacting to them. We had a blast and we hope you do to! Here's to another 4 years of curious conversation!
As usual we choose a random topic that seems to be catching our attention lately and we have a conversation! A month or two ago Mace made a playlist for Scott that culminating with an inspiring song on ENERGY! Also in a meta sense with Scott and Mace haven't had as much energy for the pod as they would like because of their outside commitments (school and work). Where does on energy come from? What gives us energy? What IS energy! Hope you enjoy this casual playful conversation as well as some inspiring music!
Ambivalence is something that all of us experience probably every second of our day. And its also one of those words that, upon further inquiry, get misused and misunderstood. Of course we need to take some time to chat about it and of course we wanted more out of this conversation, but it was a good start. And heads up! This convo got cut off somehow during recording so you don't get the juicy conclusions! But there is over 60 minutes of fun curious content for you all!
Welcome to our THIRD conversation on fashion! This one is pretty low key, but there was so much to catch up on! We address how our fashion has been evolving, how quarantine impacted our fashion choices, and what we think it ALL MEANS! There will definitely be more to come in the future, but this is restarting convo!
Welcome to the Enneagram! It has been well over a year since we halted are pattern of talking about the enneagram every 5 episodes. It was a necessary break because we came to a profound realization that The Enneagram was way more complicated and mysterious than we had appreciated...even though did really appreciate how mysterious and complicated it was! One of the many things we started to realize is that many of the modern teachers that we had been following are probably not teaching The Enneagram very well. So we needed to take a break and reset and figure out how we were going to approach The Enneagram with a new posture of even more curiosity. Since Mace is in grad school to be a therapist they are maxed out on talking about the inner self and so we are inviting our good good friend Daniel Keyes to be our resident ennea expert for the foreseeable future! This episode is a little less focused than what we intend to do with the enneagram episodes moving forward, but we thought this we be a great conversation to highlight where we are at and where we want to go...and also just give you a chance to get to know Daniel a little bit.
We could not be more thrilled to introduce you to one of our favorite people- Taylor Emmaus! We connected with Taylor Emmaus through our online affirming youth group and they have been volunteering with us for well over a year. They are a wise soul who has so much good stuff to share! They chose the topic of INTROSPECTION and we gave this word/ topic the full NST treatment!
Ironically our conversation about awkwardness gets awkward because we can't seem to agree on what awkward is! Scott gets lost talking about things he experiences as awkward only to discover that he's mostly just talking about being a jerk! Luckily Mace gets us back on track with some clear and humorous thoughts on the subject! We loved our time deep diving Grae but we are so pumped to be back to our normal routines of getting into the weeds of topics that are begging to be mined for insight! Hope you enjoy!
We are back!!! After months of temporarily focusing on Grae by Moses Sumney we are choosing to have our first conversation about one of our favorite topics: PLAY. Have a spirit in play in conversations, relationships, work, and life in general has tremendous mental health benefits and could be a cure for a lot of the rigid toxic certainty many of us experience. But what is play? And how do we get into a play state? Can we be playful talking about play? Listen to find out!
And now we come to the end...for now. Our Moses Sumney takeover is winding down friends! We plan on returning for a true finale recap episode on about 3 months, but this episode deep dives the last two tracks on Grae. We share about the impact this album has had on us and we vibe out to Before you Go. Thank you for joining us on this journey! It has a wild wild ride journeying into the grae with y'all and Moses!
And so we come to ......the second to last episode of our Moses Sumney series! We're winding down with some quite calm reflective energy in Lucky Me this week....a sweet nostalgic acceptance...co written by James Blake Lucky Me is simultaneously filled ache and gratitude. And So I come to Isolation is another spoken word that rounds out and book ends the album with some final reflections on what it means to be isolated...placed here in the album- after listening to the majority of the songs- this piece takes on new meaning. One episode left! Thank you for being on this journey with us!
Many songs on Grae could be called the "emotional climax"...and Me in 20 Years would be a top contender. Its followed by a wonderful light release of a song called Keeps me Alive. The one/two combo of things songs is deep existential anxiety combined with a light playful come down that helps recenter the listener and grounds them for the final journey of this outstanding album. We have two episodes left of our season with Grae and we are already getting nostalgic and sentimental about our time with Moses. We hope this helps you y'all appreciate these songs a bit more this week!
We are now on the second "disc" of Grae and we start with two JUGGERNAUTS this week. Two Dogs and Bystanders are both full of intense longing and lament and draw listeners into a more intimate type of inner torment. After the big bang of the first half of Grae we now enter into a more moody, somber, emotional, reflective state. There is an ache and worry to these songs. Important stuff for the overall impact of Grae! We hope you enjoy the conversation!
The Moses Sumney deep dive continues with an exploration of two very different tracks. Colouour is a vibrant, energetic breathe of fresh air with some very personal and tender questions from Moses (perhaps posed to himself) about how to present oneself and what colors to use. Also also also and and and (according to Mace) is the thesis statement of the album and features soundbites from Taye Selassie and Ezra Miller. This track highlights multiplicity (one of our favorite topics and the pod) and literally demands that others see our inherit multiplicity. Of course we have to deep dive all these things and also play you all some clips that we think influenced these tracks! Thanks for being along for the ride with us!
Fresh off of getting some shout outs from Moses himself on his instagram we are BACK with a deep dive on two very different tracks: Gagarin and Jill/ Jack. Gagarin is a spacey moody grandiose meditation on wanting to live for something beyond oneself probably inspired by the first human to go into space: Yuri Gagarin. Jill/ Jack is a playful meditation on gender and, among other things, how we have the potential to embody or perform both masculinity and femininity.
Here we go to into the Grae! This week we take a look at two epic songs that are also seemingly blended together. What does it mean to be a Conveyor? Is is a vocation that sets one up to be a messenger to the masses or is it the sense that we are all zombies on a conveyor belt? Is it both or something in between? What do we do with the boxes and labels that we put ourselves and others in! Moses and a cast of very talented and important thinkers/ artists have some thoughts for you and so do we! Hope you enjoy this episode!
Our deep dive of Moses Sumney's album Grae continues to two VERY contrasting songs this week- In Bloom and Virile. In Bloom is a slow etherial song full of heartache and longing focusing on something that seems like unrequited love while Virile is a charged up anthem that protests and mocks toxic masculinity. We had a ton of fun wondering together about the themes of these two tracks and the thoughts and feelings that arose for us!
Our first official deep dive into the music of Moses Sumney's epic double album officially begins! These week we take a look at the first two opening tracks of Grae: Insula and Cut Me!
Moses Sumney is a musician who creates music and art that invites deep exploration and curiosity. As a podcast dedicated to curiosity we decided to get curious about a single album for 3 months and we chose Grae by Moses Sumney. In this episode we explain our intentions for this journey and provide a short introduction to Moses and his music. We also sample a few of his songs from his debut album- Aromanticism. Music has an ability to seep into our psyche and soul in such a unique way. The more we spend time with works like Grae the more we discover about the album and ourselves. We couldn't be more excited to embark on this musical journey with you all!
This week we are joined by Brian Pendergast who is a licensed therapist with training in the psychoanalytic tradition. Brian will soon be releasing a book on multiplicity and we had to take the opportunity to chat with him about his insights. The idea that multiple selves reside inside us that invite curiosity and attention is, of course, something that has become increasingly captivating to us. In this episode you will hear Brian unpack what it means to be multiple and how to approach and talk about our various inner selves. The conversation around multiplicity is another excellent tool for getting curious about ourselves and who we are! We can't wait to have Brian on again someday!
Do you ever stop and notice all the fascinating variety in the way that people cross the street!? Does it ever make you laugh or angry or confused? How do YOU cross the street? Are you nervous? Apologetic? Clueless? The way people cross the crosswalk needs to be discussed! We need to get to the bottom of what the heck is going on with people's crosswalk personas and habits! Luckily you have some podcasters in your life who are willing to deep dive this topic! Get ready for some hot takes on crossing the crosswalk!
Free association is the expression of the content of consciousness without censorship as an aid in gaining access to unconscious processes. The technique is used in psychoanalysis which was originally devised by Sigmund Freud. What a fantastic tool for curiosity, right!? It is said that our unconscious is not buried inside our mind somewhere, but rather on the surface of our every day speech. We continue to try and experiment with different modes of curiosity and its actually shocking that we haven't explored this one yet! We will deep dive free association and explain why we think its important plus things get really crazy when we each take 10 minutes to free associate ourselves! Hope you enjoy!
Today's episode is an extra light and playful episode where we discuss our opinions on lunch! WHEN does lunch happen and what makes the best type of lunch in terms of location/ company/ and food. Can lunch happen before noon? Is a soda a "drink snack" (Mace says yes Scott says no!)...and can you have breakfast for lunch? All these things will be discussed, but very few answers will be given!
In our third friendship episode we continue to try and ask significant questions about what friendship is and what makes a good friend! We read some fairly interesting quotes/ engage with listener comments/ and try to describe our own friendship!
Our series on defense mechanisms continues! On our sixth installment we decide to revisit one of the major core defense mechanisms: projection! Not only is projection an extremely prominent part of our everyday lives (meaning it impacts our relationships more than we probably realize!) we have also learned so much more about projection since we first started talking about it over three years ago! This episode is a humble description of projection, but even more than that is a deep engagement with what we are to do with the knowledge that we project as a defense against uncomfortable thoughts and feelings.
We are a curiosity podcast and the notion of "slippery slope" comes up a lot during our episodes as a phrase/ concept/ vibe/ FALLACY that inhibit curiosity and intellectual exploration. In this episode we playfully unpack our experience with this ubiquitous phrase and we also engage with our amazing treasure trove of listener comments! Listeners really came through with some amazing insights! Curiosity invites us to enter the "void" of unknowing so that we can discover new insights and the vague fear of a potential slippery slop (as funny as it is to unpack) can keep people from important insights and growth! Its No Small Thing!
Our whole podcast PROJECT is about how to help people be less certain and more curious. It starts with US. We are like mad scientists that test the experiments out on ourselves. We don't just want to advocate for and model curiosity- we want to come up with "hacks" that help us enter into curiosity in ways that that broaden our perspective and imagination. Dreams continue to captivate us as a method of tricking our waking minds into seeing things from a different perspective...a perspective that is more spacious and playful...and open to otherwise possibilities.
Synchronicity: the simultaneous occurrence of events which appear significantly related but have no discernible causal connection. (that's the dictionary definition of synchronicity, but of course there is more to it than that!). In this episode we deep dive the origins and multiple meanings of synchronicity and what it brings up for us. We get curious about if it's "real" or just a fun concept...is it a phenomenon of the mind? Is it magic? Is it divine? This conversation brings up all sorts of questions for us about belief and science and why we still feel like we need to somehow choose between the two. Maybe it's all "REAL".
Our series on psychological concepts (instead of the enneagram for now!) continues with scapegoating!
This episode is basically us just going all in on curiosity and what it means to us. Barefoot to Emmaus is a podcast hosted by our dear friends- Char and Byron. It has big No Small Thing vibes in that it is long meandering conversations (typically about theology and faith) with two pals who like to get curious. This episode was actually an interview that we did with Byron and Char for their podcast, but we thought it was such a fun conversation that we would share with you all here!
Robyn Henderson-Espinoza, PhD is a Trans Latinx Scholar, Politicized Theologian, and Public Ethicist. They have a book coming out called Body Becoming which offers us a way of understanding the body beyond constructions-- political or medical-industrial-complex defined--toward cultivating the body as important in our endeavors to build a more inclusive vision for democracy. We talk about what it means to get curious about our bodies, our faith, our world...how to live a life of doubt and wonder, but also how to translate or embody that wonder in practical methods of creating change in the world. We are so excited to share this conversation!
We are throwing it back to an oldie but goodie, our episode on PLAY!! This is one of our favorite episodes from the archives where we unpack the wonders and discovery found in playing...and how its is NOT just for children...and invites us to be less certain MORE CURIOUS!
When was the last time you really stopped and wondered about breakfast? Isn't it fun to think that we can all set aside some time to really have these conversations!? In this episode we really get into some opinion and hot takes on why breakfast is so controversial! We talk about our own breakfast opinions and really deep dive all of the listener comments we got this week (we got a lot!).
George Weinberg describes Transference this was- it "may be seen as the patient's putting on a green lens on a light and shining it on the therapist. The therapist looks green to them, and that is that. No matter what color clothing the therapist puts on, they will continue to look green to the patient. To resolve a transference, the therapist must, by this analogy, help the patient appreciate that they are using a green lens, and help the patient change that lens." In this episode we deep dive transference! What is it and also how it might be impacting our daily lives!
Ashon Crawley is one of our absolute most favorite thinkers, writers, communicators, artists...all of that...Ashon graciously agreed to join us for our second annual "queer youth of faith day". This was an online festival designed to celebrate and empower queer youth of faith from all over the world. Ashon wrote a profoundly vulnerable and insightful piece for NPR about Lil Nas X's most recent single and video called "Montero". This episode is a live conversation with Ashon and several of the Beloved Arise youth for Queer Youth of Faith Day about Montero and the religious trauma that queer youth of faith often have to endure.
After three weeks of interview we are BACK with a curious and playful conversation about EMBARRASSMENT. What is it? How does it feel? How is embarrassment different from awkwardness or shame or guilt or fear? We delve into these questions and of course share some embarrassing stories of our own!
Rev. Ashley DeTar Birt (aka presbiqueerian aka Dr. Bailey) is one of our new co-laborers at Beloved Arise. This is a conversation about Ashley's journey of becoming the second ordained black queer woman in the Presbyterian Church U.S.A and also about approaching Christianity with curiosity and wonder and joy and humor and creativity. Can ordained clergy preach in drag!? Absolutely! We are so excited to share this conversation with you all!
About a year ago Kent Thomas started the Do Better Young Life campaign. The campaign aims to hold Young Life to a higher standard in regards to its treatment of queer youth. We believe that being less certain and more curious is what has the potential to change organizations like Young Life. Until then we are so grateful for people like Kent who creatively and winsomely speak truth to power. This episode is a candid interview with Kent regarding his journey and creating Do Better Young Life.
This week we have the absolute privilege of sharing what we hope to be many more conversations with our favorite "woo woo vibey-ass bitch"- KEVIN GARCIA. Kevin is a digital pastor who is helping change the way we engage with faith/ Christianity/ Jesus/ The Divine etc. We think they are a prophet. This is a classic no small thing style episode where we hear Kevin's journey and then really vibe out to some deep thoughts about "the self"/ toxic religion/ and of course embracing one's queerness.
One of the basic assumptions of Internal Family Systems (IFS) is that it is the nature of the mind to be subdivided into multiple parts or subpersonalities. These parts develop a complex pattern of interaction similar to how individuals in a family might interact, only internally. Much like a mosaic composed of multiple pieces that come together to create a singular work of art, the goal is to achieve balance and harmony with parts, appreciating the creative role each plays and helping each find its place in the system.
This week we deep dive emo punk gods- My Chemical Romance with our amazing friend Dante. Get ready for an episode of curious conversation about this mysterious (and underrated?) band and also an MCR listening party and some live covers!
In this episode we celebrate 3 years of doing one of the most fun and fulfilling things we've ever done! We look back at some of our favorite pod moments and reflect on this incredible journey we've been on. Hope you enjoy!
What are VIBES? Vibes seems to be a cool catch all word that we use for almost everything these days. "That's a vibe", "good vibes only", "I'm vibing", "I don't like that person's vibes"...what do we mean when we say we use this term!? What are its origins. Is it ultimately useful or is it so ubiquitous that its become useless!? Join us for this week's curious conversation about vibes!
Object relations is an excellent foundation to start talking about psychological concepts and modalities. This is our first deviation from the enneagram and we're hoping you like stepping into this new dimension with us! The dimension of starting to think about how our initial holding environments impacted our whole personality! Welcome to No Small Thing! lol!
We are huge fans of This Jungian Life! Its a podcast where three Jungian analysts talk about life, dreams, and how we grow! We we think paying attention to dreams is an excellent way to cultivate curiosity and this crew are some of the best in the game in terms of giving people the tools they need to learn from their dreams! We are so excited to share this conversation with you and hope for many more to come!
Vacation...or rest...or Sabbath...or blank space...etc. Join us this week as we explore the topic of taking a vacation. Both Scott and Mace are on their own breaks currently and thought it would be fun to do an episode unpacking this very thing. While we curiously unpack the concept of vacation, we spend most of our time being nostalgic and reminiscing on our own journey's pausing and exploring themes and stories. Join us on the porch for this one :)
Residing inside of all of us are a multitude of different "selves" that we can attend to if we so choose. In this episode we invite you all to get curious about your different selves- or "the other" or "others" within...
What is TIME? Well- for us- time is obviously No Small Thing. In this episode we set out to share some thoughts about what time is, how we personally relate to time, does it even exist, and why we are all so addicted to thinking about our lives in a way that revolves around TIME...but...honestly what we mostly talk about is the complicated relationship both of us have with being on time. If you listen to the pod you can rest assured that this is the first of many episodes on TIME because we are just getting started!
Is The Enneagram even REAL!? What does REAL even mean!? We are BACK everybody!...with and enneagram episode! And it might be our last for a good while! After our enneagram blitz and then going on a five week enneagram fast we wondering what the future of our pod and the enneagram will be like. We are currently finding ourselves interested in other topics...which makes sense for a curiosity podcast! We know some of you have been on a journey with us and the enneagram for a while! We're still on the journey too! We hope this episode helps clarify where we're at and also invites you into the next stage of the journey with us! Curiosity and self exploration will always remain at the heart of what we're doing! Also- go easy on yourself! If you need to take a break or back off from self work let yourself do that (that's part of "the work" too). We love you all! Thanks for listening!
Have you ever started your own small business? We did recently! We really don't have any idea what we're doing, but we're putting one foot in front of the other. This episode is an update for the folks that have been with us for a while! We want to invite you into this next phase of the pod! We are moving forward with a deeper sense of a broad vocation to help people live less certain and more curious lives. The pod is part of it, but so is our patreon- our website- and future books, curriculum, retreats, experiences and all sort of resources that help people get more playful and become less addicted to toxic certainty!
What does it mean to see yourself in others?; to view the suffering, joy, heartaches, struggles, and overall humanity of the world as your own? Do we bear the image of God as individuals or as one collective? What are the implications of seeing ourselves or God in "the other"? Our dear friend Fredrik stops by the pod to raise these important questions and call us to imagine a world where we are habitually concerned with the well being of all creation and not just ourselves.
We started a queer affirming youth group. That's basically all you need to know in terms of what you're getting into with this episode. Oh- also its over 3 hours and 20 minutes because this is the story of how we found each other in the context of youth ministry, got asked to leave because we were affirming, started an affirming youth virtual youth group- and met some of the most profound kind wise generous teens ever. This episode is mostly dedicated to them. We hope this episode is as encouraging to you as running the youth group and getting to know these teens has been to us.
What is a LEARNING VENTURE? It has something to do with setting an intention to be curious; to see the world as dynamic and full of infinite meaning and beauty..and to see "reality" as something that invites participation, play, dance, wonder, joy, and participation. After our enneagram blitz this was a palate cleanse of sorts. Getting back to our roots and getting on the course of continuing to learn how to be curious!
Welcome to the last episode of the Enneagram Blitz. This conversation is a final wrap up to our series of interviews we did with different Enneagram teachers. We share what the interviews meant to us, including each of our journeys with our types being questioned and our own ways we each engaged curiously with the new challenges/insights we were having about the Enneagram. At the end we share what we are up to next in regards to our Enneagram journey’s including entering a “liminal space” of letting go of identifying with a type and embracing the unknown. This episode would be best enjoyed after listening to the previous four interviews, thank you for joining us in this journey may it continue to fuel and nourish yours!
In part D of our "enneagram blitz" we get to talk to one of our all time favorite Enneagram teachers and authors- Suzanne Stabile. The saga of typing correctly continues, but this conversation with "the godmother of the enneagram" brought us into a spacious space where we came back to our roots to a certain extent. Suzanne reminds us of what is important and valuable about enneagram work and also describes some helpful spiritual practices for all the types. We have one more episode to go for the blitz! We hope you enjoy this episode and we can't wait to have Suzanne back on the pod someday soon!
The journey of discovering Scott's type continues! In the last episode we ended with Beatrice Chestnut thinking Scott is a 5 (which of course we've all thought for going on 4 years now), but a conversation with Ben Campbell (a self identified wizard and enneagram 6) gets us leaning in the direction of 6. This part three of our Enneagram Blitz where we are trying to get to the bottom of how people mistype and mostly using Scott as a guinea pig of sorts to try and see if he may have been mistyping as a 5 all along!
Welcome to the second episode of the enneagram blitz!- a series of five enneagram themed episodes where we really try to get curious about typing and the different approaches some the most significant enneagram teachers we know of take in terms of typing. In this episode we interview BEATRICE CHESTNUT- Author of The Complete Enneagram and host of Enneagram 2.0 (one of our favorite Enneagram podcasts!) The typing saga continues! Our conversation with Beatrice centers around classic pitfalls to mistyping and how to approach rethinking your type.
Welcome to the Enneagram Blitz! Over the next five episodes join Scott and Mace as they curiously explore the Enneagram through a series of interviews with different Enneagram teachers offering unique perspectives and approaches to this wisdom symbol. To kick of this venture NST interviewed the folks from Big Hormone Enneagram, a podcast both Scott and Mace have found refreshing in their brash and bold approaches and perspectives around typing/mis-typing. They were also featured in a previous pod, #nota4 where Mace first began to re-open their curiosity around their type. In this episode they share about their own story, answer listener questions, and then engage Scott on figuring out his own type and re-thinking if he is a 5.
Zoom is the new telephone! And 2020 will probably be the year we remember that we collectively as a society learned to communicate digitally as a lifestyle. We love it and we hate it. We're grateful and in some ways already nostalgic. We thought it would be cathartic to spend some time processing this strange year and this new technology with your nst pals!
How do we make space for grief? If you are in any way curious about that question this episode is for you. Jesse Brune-Horan is a minister and wellness coach that helps people learn to walk with grief. This is a topic that comes from a deep place of personal grief for Jesse and he was so generous to share his story and insights with us. This episode will help you learn to walk with grief in ways that will be restorative and healing.
If there is one music group that we had to choose to represent what we are trying to do here at No Small Thing it would be The Books. The Books are wonderfully quirky and iconoclastic musical duo based in New York. They started making music together in 1999 and their music usually includes obscure samples of sounds and speech combined with a variety of musical styles. Not only do we thoroughly their music, we are also inspired by their ability to constantly create songs that challenge our traditional expectations of what a song is supposed to be. We hope this episode either helps you enjoy The Books more or introduces you to this awesome band!
Do you like small talk? We really thought we didn't! Until we started thinking about what small talk actually IS. Is small talk merely that awkward superficial "filler" that we experience while passing an acquaintance in the grocery store? Or does the smallness of the talk have more to do with our mindset? Honestly we came away from this convo with more questions than answers, but we can guarantee that by the end of this episode you'll have some new ideas about small talk!
Join us this week as we sat down and talked all things Enneagram with David Gray and John Luckovich from Big Hormone Enneagram and enneagramer.com. These two have such wonderful insights into the enneagram, typing, and its symbolic roots. Our conversation was lead by curiosity as we first picked David and John's brains about all things enneagram from essence, personality, ego, growth, mistyping and more. David and John have a FRESH approach to the Enneagram that we found so refreshing throughout the conversation. The second half of the conversation shifts towards typing/mistyping as Mace opened themselves up to if they are a 4 after all...slowly, patiently, and surely David and John talked both Scott and Mace through the type distinctions between 9/4 and by the end it was clear Mace is actually a 9!! This episode is for anyone who is interested in the enneagram, the wisdom within the conversation was profound...
Our fourth full episode on DREAMS! Welcome to our final (for now) episode on dreams. This we we try to veer away from the kinds of dreams you have in your sleep at night and veer TOWARD a conversation about dreams in a meta sense or in the sense of manifesting dreams and what it means to have visions and goals for your life...THOSE kinds of dreams. We also share our particular dreams for our podcast and our sense of call to help people live a less certain and more curious life! We hope this first episode of 2021 inspires you to make your dreams a reality!
This episode is the second in our latest D R E A M S E R I E S happening with NST where we are deep diving dreams for three weeks. In our first episode we unpacked a bit of psychology around dream theory, delving into some Jungian concepts around dream analysis and symbolism. This week we start out fresh in the morning with interpreting our dreams from the night before...Scott has a really wild,fun, and seemingly silly one we explore...and then Mace (who couldn't remember their dream from the night before) shares an audio dream log where they are pregnant! So much is unpacked in both of these as we continue to try and be curious around what the dream maker may be saying to us. This episode wraps as we read aloud a bunch of listener dreams and do our best to interpret them and talk about the potential symbolism! This one was recorded in the morning, which is it's own kind of mood....we hope you enjoy listening and keep on dreaming!
We are a podcast that is trying to help people live a less certain and more curious life. Because of this mission we are in a constant search for ideas, methods, and concepts that will help us get more curious. What could be more RIPE for curiosity than DREAMS! Exploring dreams and taking them seriously instantly puts us in a place of disorientation and but also leaves us feeling in control because its "us" dreaming the dream and we can take our time trying to interpret it. Dreams, it turns out, are actually a very effective way for us to get in touch with our unconscious, but, for us, discussing and interpreting dreams also offers us a METHOD for training our brain to get more curious. This is an ongoing conversation and this episode is the first of 3 episodes in the next three weeks dedicated to dreams! So excited for you to join us on this journey!
Join us in this bonus listening party episode where we share our personal favorite albums from the year 2020. This is becoming a NST tradition where both Scott and Mace come with their top songs/albums of the year and invite you into a listening party as we reflect on the year through music. We hope this invites you to think about who your top artists and albums were this year!!
Beloved Arise is an organization that exists to support queer youth of faith and this episode is an interview with the founder! Jun Young! Beloved Arise is creating resources and support networks to help queer teens all over the world and when Beloved Arise launched in February your No Small pals began partnering with Beloved Arise and Jun to created an open and affirming youth group that now serves teens from all over the world! We are so excited to share this interview with you! You will get to hear the heart behind this amazing organization and maybe even discover your own sense of urgency to get involved in supporting queer youth of faith!
Our enneagram series continues with our THRID Enneagram FOUR episode. This has been a long time coming...and for this episode we bring you our first ever interview with another ennea four- Zach Griffin! Zach manages an ennea four instagram account called Enneagram4confessions and a podcast with the same name. We highly recommend both! This interview was true NST vibes in that it was just a perfectly organic curious conversation with a new friend!
Have you ever stopped and wondered about some of the more deep and nuanced and maybe even hidden references and imagery of the Christmas season? Advent, for example, is rich practice of waiting and YULE and Winter Solstice are often overlooked in our mostly western context as well (at least from the context of your nst pals). In this episode we interview Matty Lauder about his passion for the YULE season!
A while back your pal Mace started an instagram account called Art Moves Both Ways to highlight the art (primarily acrylic paintings) that they create in their free time. Recently AMBW has become much more central to Mace and the life of the podcast. Art is No Small Thing and it is a vehicle to explore creativity and curiosity. We thought that it was essential for us to dedicate at least one episode to Mace's art and invite you into a more spacious and creative headspace as you consider your own artistic proclivities!
Coffee seems to be something that unites most of us...its a ritual...a habit..an eye opener..a conversation starter...love it or hate it coffee is a signifiant part of our lives. We thought it deserve at least an episode's worth of curiosity! In this episode we deep dive our coffee preferences...pet peeves, ideal barista experiences, and why we like coffee so much!
What is hope? What would YOU say hope is? Is it is a feeling? A sentiment? Is it action? Where does the word come from? What does it mean for us to be hopeful right now in the midst of an important election/ covid-19 and all other things 2020. This episode will give you some good thoughts (dare we say HOPEFUL thoughts) to ponder....our HOPE is that you will end this episode with a clearer yet ...not so clear sense of what hope means to you!
Seriously no joke this might be our best enneagram episode we've ever done! This week's guests are two spiritual enneagram leaders/ podcasters/ authors/ coaches and just all around bad ass self aware enneagram 8 wing sevens! This week we welcome Abi Robins and Kevin Garcia! We deep dive enneagram eights, but we also have an enlightening conversation about queering the enneagram and what marginalized folks have to teach the world about the enneagram and about spirituality and self knowledge.
Ambiance is extremely important to us and we're surprised we haven't talked about it yet! In this episode we have a curious conversation about moments and experiences that have impacted our personal preferences for good ambiance. We also unpack why creating good ambiance could be important for hosting and curating memorable experiences while also acknowledging that both of us probably take ambiance a little too far sometimes!
Join us this week as we unpack T E L E V I S I O N! In this conversation we get curious about TV and the role it has played in our lives. We start of exploring both Scott and Mace's TV journey's which really exposes and highlight the huuuuuge difference in TV over just a 15 year time difference. The pod then jumps into the topic of reality TV, Mace loves it, Scott hates it. Reuven joins us for one of the most insightful Reuvenation's yet. We close with the "awards ceremony" as both Scott and Mace share their top three tv dramas and comedies! We invite you into this television adventure with us!
This week we continue our series on Defense Mechanisms and tackle a very complicated and tricky defense mechanism called Projection Identification. Defense Mechanisms are lies we tell ourselves to avoid discomfort and identifying ways these defenses show up in our lives can help us have healthier and more cooperative relationships...and potentially get us out of mystifying ruts we might find ourselves in. This is a tricky one though and we might have ended this conversation more confused than clear on how this all exactly works...luckily we introduced a new segment this week called ALL BIG THINGS with our friend Pat Hodges...who swings by to talk to us about the Grand Coulee Damn!
Are you a music lover? Do you like good conversations about good music with people who are interested in music? Do you like jazz or are you at least interested in knowing more about jazz as an art form and hearing people talk about the creative process? Do you like PODCASTS? This episode is for you! In this episode we talk to our good friend Gregg about his new album that just released for purchase on bandcamp called ENSO. Hope you like this episode and check out Gregg's new album out now!
Have you ever thought about how your Enneagram type influences your interaction with sports? Or have you ever thought what Enneagram type each sport is!? Your no small team is here this week to deep dive these more light hearted with questions with some curiosity around the intersection of sports and enneagram. Shout out to our friend Eli who came up with this idea!
Beloved Arise is a non profit organization that exists to support queer youth of faith. Part of the work we have been involved in is spreading this message of affirming theology to teens desperately need to hear it. Linn Maris Tonstad is professor of systematic theology at Yale Divinity School and author of Queer Theology. In this conversation we take a curious deep dive into affirming theology and beyond. This is a must listen for anybody interested in becoming more centered on love and justice in their lives.
In this week's episode we take some time to reflect on the different meanings and and collective understandings of seasons. We talk about our thoughts and feelings on summer, fall, winter, and spring...and then we have a curious conversation about seasons of life and transitions and what it means to be present to our shifting contexts. We also have a Reuvenation!
Let's pause and reflect on child hood toys! Also- let's take some time to actually contemplate and discuss what makes something a toy. Is a tambourine a toy? How about a trampoline? A frisbee? In this episode we get nostalgic and contemplative (and slightly argumentative!) about childhood toys! And we also have a hilarious discussion with my (Scott's) brothers about our childhood toys!
A year ago we released an episode where your pal, Mace, described what it meant to identity as gender queer. Since then we have hosted several wonderful and beautiful conversations about what it means to identity as transgender. We believe that there is a time and place for debates and discussion on this topic, but we also believe that hearing people's individual stories are just as important and effective. We hope you enjoy this check in with Mace!
We are long overdue for an ENNEAGRAM SEVEN episode! In this episode we interview LILLIE! An enneagram 7 and a TEEN with a lot of insight regarding this her personality and how the enneagram has helped her understand herself more. Whether you're an enneagram seven or just a person trying to understand sevens better this episode is super informative and fun!
Could we become a podcast exclusively dedicated to talking about Bjork? The answer is yes! Bjork is an absolute icon that is 10,000 years ahead of her time and has produced such dense/ rich/ layered/ beautiful original content that it was impossible...absolutely impossible to fit even 1 1 hundredth of our thoughts into one measly episode! Having said that we hope you enjoy this 2 hour convo of us just popping off to and appreciating Bjork!
In this episode we step back and try to check in on how we're are doing with this global pandemic. In many ways No Small Thing has been producing content as if nothing has changed (even though our 100th episode was about enneagram and Covid). We also realize that headlines have a lot to do with political debates/ updates and arguments about mask wearing etc. We thought it might be cathartic to just hear two people trying to process the daily minutiae and impact of covid19. We hope this conversation is somewhat helpful and a bit of a break from the daily talking points!
White Supremacy is a toxic yet often stealth like reality that has had incompressible negative consequences for America. Yet White Supremacy often seems to be a taboo subject for... you guessed it- white people. Of course we are curious about why this is so hard for white folks to grapple with...and one approach that we hope is helpful is to think about how defense mechanisms shut down white people's ability to take a good hard look at the how whiteness negatively impacts our world.
The B Boys are a Seattle Hip Hop group that we think make dope music ...but their journey as friends who formed a band together and grew as artists is just as compelling. Being a creative means living on the edge of uncertainty. These guys consistently lean into the unknown to make music that sounds fresh and authentic. For this episode we got to host the B Boys at our weekly recording spot (outside and social distanced of course!). We hope you enjoy hearing their story and their insights into their creative process! And check out their music on Apple Music and Spotify!
This week its all about ENNEAGRAM SIX (it's been a while!). For this episode we had the privilege of talking to Ben Campbell who is an enneagram six and a certified enneagram coach through The Enneagram Institute. As you know we have been studying The Enneagram for a while now, but Ben shared some thoughts and concepts that kind of blew our mind! We hope you sixes have an opportunity to hear someone who shares your type reflect on what it means to be at the center of the head types....but we also know all of you will benefit from hearing Ben share some more generalized enneagram thoughts. If you would like what you hear and would like to connect with Ben please visit his website at dragonguidance.com!
Walking is quite possibly one of the greatest human experiences. Do you agree? It makes you feel like you're epic main character in a movie when you do it by yourself, it helps you bond and problem solve when you're with a friend, it gets you places! 1 hour before we recorded this conversation an interview we had set up fell through so we pivoted and decided to talk about something that has been really good for our friendship and other relationships as well. We hope this gets you thinking about your own relationship to walking and maybe because of our episode you'll have a good walk with your self or a friend this week!s
Is it possible for two friends to have an over two hour conversation about chips? 100 percent absolutely! In the early days of the pod we often thought that the idea of talking about chips for an hour was like a challenge or something. Now we know that the challenge is actually ending the conversation! What IS a chip exactly? What makes a good chip? And, perhaps most importantly, is a cheeto a chip!? We talk about all these things and more on this weeks episode! We hope you enjoy!
One of the best rap duos of all time (if not THE best) definitely deserve a 2 hour conversation, right!? In this episode we talk about what we love about Run the Jewels...how their music speaks to us...and how their relationship as "band mates" inspires this podcast. And mostly this is actually just a really chill listening party where we listen to a bunch of Run the Jewels tracks and hope we don't get sued someday. We hope you enjoy the episode and also hope that you get into Run the Jewels if you haven't already!
What is your relationship with your dreams? How often do you dream? Is it every night? Every once in a while? Do your dreams have any significance? How does one interpret one's dreams? Are dreams serious? Funny? Insightful? Benign!? These are just some of the questions we had going into this episode! And we invite you to explore these questions with us! In this episode we talk about a history of what the great psychoanalytic thinkers/ sociologists/ anthropologists/ and philosophers have had to say about dreams. And we also share our dream logs we have been keeping for over a month and encourage you to track your own dream logs too! DREAMS!
This week we are talking Enneagram PASSIONS (aka each type's deadly sin!). Our passion is a CORE element in determining our ennea type and we are long overdue for a discussion about this. We made sort of a BOLD decision for this episode which was to allow Claudio Naranjo be our guide through one of his books on the passions. We got in a bit over our heads but we had fun doing it. We ended learning and laughing a ton and hopefully you do the same!
Having a conversation about Black Lives Matter is long overdue. It goes without saying that this is no small thing. We are committed to talking about this and doing our part to work for equity, equality, and justice. This conversation is a conversation between two white people and FOR a primarily white audience. We believe we need to be having these conversations despite inevitably making mistakes, sounding awkward, and embarrassing ourselves. Ultimately its not about us and our reputation and as we talk about it we learn and grow. We invite you into this conversation with us! We NEED to talk about this and we need to get curious and start using our imaginations to create a more just and equitable world!
This week we are bringing you an intriguing interview with BARRY TAYLOR (aka ukbloke). Barry is a philosopher, artist, theologian, author, provocateur, style mavin, and all around cool human. This starts off as a conversation about anti-branding and being true to yourself and your creative vision but in true No Small Thing fashion we end up just talking about philosophy and art and meaning and religion and the conversation just goes everywhere in the best ways! We so enjoyed this conversation and we know you will too! If not...well- read the title of this episode:)
The enneagram teaches us to pursue a path integration. 5's go to 8/ 4's go to 1/ 7's go to 5....until now we thought this was somewhat of a nebulous energy to access...but soul child theory basically says that we essentially behaved as our "integrated self" as a kid! In this episode we explore soul child theory! We try to unpack what it is and also, of course, how it applies to us!
For two years we have been recording curious conversations on Thursday nights. These curious conversations about things like Defense Mechanisms and The Enneagram and Color and The Trinity and "Voice" and all these other strange topics...well it leads to to more additional strange and emotional conversations in between takes! And people have honestly asked us to share about these things! So this episode (our first after our 100th!) is a reflection/ unveiling of all the things we talk about in between takes! We hope you enjoy!
Here is our full uncut interview with Abi Robins from Conscious Construction! This interview is a longer version of the interview we recently featured in our 100th episode where we interviewed nearly 30 different people and asked them to reflect on how they are experiencing quarantine through the lens of their type. Abi teaches this stuff for a living and really brought the big eight energy to the interview! We can't wait to have them on the pod again someday for a longer convo! Oh! also we were recording this episode outside so you can hear a lawn mower in the background! Maybe it will just make it feel like you're having a nice casual spring conversation outside with Abi on a back deck? That's what it felt like for us? Sounds like some nice enneagram seven reframing, right!? Hope you enjoy this interview!
Join us this week as we celebrate our 100th episode. It's an enneagram week, and in honor of it being our 100th episode we decided to make this a mega episode where we talk with 25+ folks from around the country to here how their are doing and to talk Enneagram AND Covid. This episode both gives a great taste of all the numbers but also sets out to make an audio recording of how folks are doing in response to a global pandemic. It's a long one so feel free to jump around and take pauses, the interviews appear in the following order: 7-5-8-2-4-1-3-6-9 ! We hope you enjoy!
JOBS PART 2 IS HERE and necessary, everyone! Yes- jobs of course are no small thing...but more than every jobs our on our minds because of covid-19. But also your no small co-hosts day jobs have changed dramatically recently and we thought you would be interested in an update on that. Hopefully this episode will be a cathartic and relevant way to relax and process a little bit with some of your podcast pals!
Join us this week as we gush are rave over Fiona Apple's newest album! We begin this episode with a conversation between Scott and Macie about first having Fiona on their radar (Macie being a big fan has a lot to say!) and then they jump right into a conversation about her latest album Fetch the Bolt Cutters...which is SO SO SO good! They talk first impressions, favorite songs and lyrics AND THEN in the second half of the episode the no small team is joined by Lindsay, Mack, and Aaron - close friends of Macie's and super Fiona fans- these are the folks with whom Macie found their love for Fiona with. The conversation only amps up more as Mack (an ultra Fiona fan) unlocks us with the Fiona facts and recitation. Enjoy...and Fetch those damn bolt cutters!!!
This week we are joined by Ashon Crawley for such a riveting and unlocking conversation. Ashon is Associate Professor of Religious Studies and African American and African Studies at the University of Virginia. He is the author of Blackpentecostal Breath: The Aesthetics of Possibility, and recently came out with a new book, The Lonely Letters. In this conversation Ashon invites us into his world and mind as we jump rapidly between topics such as queer theory, Black Pentecostalism, sound studies, the art process, love and community and so much more.
Steven Universe is one of our favorite shows and something that the both of us have bonded over throughout the history of No Small Thing. Recently (as many of you know) this very profound and emotional show came to a close. This is our attempt at a conversation where we try to process everything Steven has meant to us...and we specifically try and process Steven Universe Future. You'll hear us discuss Pink Steven as well as our top 5 favorite moments from this new series. There will most likely be bonus content coming during these covid days, but for now we hope this episode is cathartic for you all!
Everyone! Our last interview with Marisa was one of our most listened to recent episodes! And since I (Scott) live with Marisa...and we're quarantined- we thought we might as well give you some bonus content! In this episode we talk about inner sloth, keeping the peace, going to 3 and 6 in "stretch and release", and what it looks like to discover your own inner priorities as a 9. We hope you enjoy this bonus episode!
Finally! We interview Scott's wife MARIS about being and ENNEAGRAM NINE! Marisa is a certified Enneagram Consultant (as well as a wife, mom, pastor, writer, and all around highly inspiring bad ass human). This episode is for all you enneagram nines out there and for people that want to know MORE about nines. It's also for those SOCIAL nines (Marisa is a social nine which happens to be the counter type). We hope you enjoy this episode!
Is it possible to have a 2 hour conversation about hair? Of course it is! In this episode we reflect on our own hair journeys. What influenced our sense of style and what was okay and not okay. As we talk we hope you think about your own relationship with YOUR hair. its No Small Thing after all! Why do you choose to have the hair you do now? What were your major influences and what motivates you to keep the style you currently have? Let's get curious!
Welcome to our THIRD episode on gender! We think conversations around gender are SUPER honoring to each individual's story. We all have an utterly unique set of circumstances (genetic and social) that make us who we are...gender is no different! We have so much to learn about how people navigate the world by listening to their unique storie and insights We hope you enjoy this episode with Corey! It is a story about how he learned to embrace his identity as a trans-masculine human. Enjoy and stay clean and safe!
Is it possible to have a 2 hour conversations about emojis!? Of course it is! This week we take a fun and silly detour to deep dive something that impacts our everyday lives. Emojis are here to stay and impact the way we interact with each other every day! They really are no small thing!
David Bazan is a truth teller. Through his music he has found a way to be brutally honest about his feelings and thought regarding evangelical Christianity. Because of this he has gained a loyal following of fans over the years, but its fair to say that he has most likely lost a fair amount of fans as well. Either way- his music does invite people to be curious and brave regarding their beliefs. It can feel risky to let yourself be taken over by a Bazan song, but ultimately it is freeing. We can't say for sure what David Bazan is on the enneagram, but we do know we vibe big time with his emo existential vibes. During this episode we deep dive our own personal journeys with David Bazan and Pedro the Lion and also try and unpack some of what his music means to us!
We are finally BACK with an episode focused on a particular Enneagram number! This week is all about ENNEAGRAM THREES! This week we interview Emily Mandagie who, along with her husband, runs a business that entails a beautiful travel blog and several stunning instagram accounts. They are an inspiration for our podcast and Emily has definitely found a way to harness her amazing 3 abilities to supercharge her business. This was a fun and curious conversation! We hope you threes out there find this helpful and cathartic...or if you are close to a three in your life we hope you understand them a bit more because of Emily!
Is it possible to have a two hour conversation about SNACKS? Of course it is! Are we still surprised after all this time that after talking about snacks for two hours we realize there is still so much to talk about? Yes! This week we invite our friend Kiersten to the pod (aka the snack Queen) to talk snack's with us. During the episode we also munched on several delicious snacks which lead to more curious conversations! We hope you enjoy this one! Preferably while enjoying some of you favorite snacks!
Welcome to our second conversation on friendship! This week we deep dive friendships of pop-culture...what we think makes for a good friendship...and what we ultimately want out of our own personal friendships! We hope this gets you thinking about your own philosophy of friendship and maybe even enjoying your current friendships a bit more. They are no small thing after all.
This week is all about the concept of PLAY! We think learning to be able to play is a foundational skill in learning how to be more curious. Play is a vital quality to cultivate in the lives of children and it is also essential to maintaining as an adult. Play often happens when we get lost in the flow of something...that can include activities like art and sports, but psychoanalysis also is a form of play that helps us to get in touch with our subconscious. This episode is fun and silly and ultimately pretty wild! As usual we kind of bit of more than we can chew! We hope is a good launch pad for your own explorations about why play might be important in your own life!
Christena Cleveland is helping us re-imagine God in a way that prioritizes the marginalized and helps us see God through diversity. Her perspective is a crucial element in helping people who seek to pursue and enact a robust understanding of justice live that out in an effective way. She is helping us discover God in ways that are healing and necessarily transformative.
This week is a pretty light hearted discussion on The Enneagram and birthdays! How does each type engage with their birthday and how do we experience those types!? In this episode we really tried so hard no to be super serious...but we also want to honor the types and be serious! Its complicated. We hope you enjoy this episode and maybe get a few laughs!
Listening may be one of the most unpracticed yet most needed skill in the modern world. Most people live in with an extreme listening deficit. As a podcast we continue to seek out conversations that explore how to be more curious and listening seems almost synonymous. In this episode we talk about what makes a good listener and a bad listener, we engage with listener comments, and we discuss what being better listeners might look like.
This is the official recording of our LIVE SHOW! We were so honored to host a No Small Thing episode at 415 Westlake in Seattle! We focused on Defense Mechanisms..and we specifically focused on Repression and Denial(these are the things we think are fun to talk about!). This was a fantastic opportunity for us to host a live physical version of what we have been doing every week for over a year and half. We hope you enjoy listening into this fun/ awesome experience!
Here it is! Our top 5 albums OF THE DECADE. Our lists our different (no overlaps!) and we have a lively and curious discussion about our picks! Hopefully this gets you in touch with your own favorite albums and gets you into a nice reflective nostalgic mood!
As we continue to have curious conversations we have seen how the queer community are teaching us to be curious about something that we take for granted every day: gender. We believe that society has a rigid and limited view on gender. This is NOT a political conviction or something that we are "aligning with" because it's "trendy". We truly believe that curiosity is a vital element to us thriving as humans (individually and collectively). This week we are SO PROUD to present our interview with Henea who- identifies as transgender. This is the second episode in a series on gender that we hope continue to explore as we move forward as a podcast. We can debate certain topics philosophically...there is a time and a place for that. But we also believe that listening to people's stories may be one of the most productive things that we can do as people who are learning to care for and see each other. We are so happy to introduce you to Henea!
The instinctual variants of the enneagram may be even more important than knowing your number...yet the variants are often overlooked in a lot of the podcast content out there. The more we talk about the enneagram the more intrigued we are by the variants. This is an episode dedicated to unpacking why this is so important to understand. Its everything we love about the enneagram! It helps us understand ourselves and others better! Scott talks about what it's like to be a sexual type, Macie talks about what it's like to be a social type...and then there is some reflections on what it must feel like to be a self preservation type. We love these enneagram episodes and this particular episodes reflects where we are at on our own journey currently. Make sure to follow us on instagram and feel free to DM us or send us an e-mail at nosmallthingpodcast@gmail.com if you'd like to interact with us about all things enneagram! Peace!
Matthias Roberts is a pioneer in sparking discussions around the intersection of queerness and Christianity. As the host of the weekly podcast, Queerology, Matthias shines a spotlight on the stories of queer Christians. His book, Beyond Shame, releases in January. It is a profound book about how to develop a sexual ethic on your own terms. This interview is a rare opportunity to hear Matthias's story and to learn about the heart behind Queerology!
Drew Ragan is a strength coach who owns and runs his own gym called Soul Centered Strength which seeks to empower clients to become their most embodied, strong, and centered selves. In this episode we talk about Drew's journey of trauma and self-discovery that helped him become a trainer who tries to care for the whole person. We also get a bunch of good fun health and wellness tips from Drew! We know this episode will inspire you to push through challenging seasons of life and to learn to take care of yourself in healing ways.
Maturity- what definitions or descriptions come to mind when you think of this word? If you're like us its more complicated than we think. In this episode of No Small Thing we try to pull apart the meaning of maturity and look at if from different lenses. Part of this is pretty funny (just looking at a Quora article) and part of it should be fairly stimulating as we, together, try to come up with fresh appreciation for this concept.
What is a Guru? This is a complicated topic depending on how you approach it. Is a Guru a religious or spiritual teacher? Yes. Is a Guru a projection of a hope for someone who holds the answers to the universe? Also yes. Do we, as humans, tend to make Gurus of celebrities, religious leaders, and historical figures in order to avoid looking internally at our own capacity to understand and embrace wisdom? Also- YES. This week we dive deep into this topic of Gurus sharing our own journeys (of course!) and trying to pick apart how this shows up in our daily lives.
In this episode we attempt to share some "HOT TAKES" on The Enneagram. We don't really know what hot takes are, but we're pretty sure what we ended up sharing wouldn't qualify as hot takes by most people's standards. What we end up doing is sharing a lot of curious thoughts about The Enneagram. It was nice to take a step back from taking an in depth look at each number and to check in on why we continue to value the enneagram!
Jesus is King is indeed a controversial album (as all Kanye albums are!) and we are here for the deep dive! We try to approach this album with curiosity while remaining somewhat critical! Both of us take theology and spirituality very seriously so we have a lot of opinions about Kanye's new direction. Our opinions hopefully spark some true curiosity. Know that we are trying to be curious right along side of you and that our opinions have probably changed even after this recording. We hope you enjoy dissecting Jesus is King and also reminiscing on some of Kanye's best work!
What is "work"? Why do we have jobs? What is this system that we all participate in? On this week's episode we have a light hearted and curious conversation about these paradigms that have a huge influence on our daily life. We share our own journey's of work and engage with some more deep and philisophical questions about what it means to step into who are made to be.
This week we had the amazing opportunity to have an in depth conversation with Padraig O Tuama. Padraig is a poet and theologian who's work centers around themes of language, power, conflict, and religion. In this conversation Padraig specifically talks about his own experience growing up gay in the catholic church, his eventual coming out, and his profound and delicate work with as an advocate for justice and inclusion. We know you'll love and be changed by this conversation!
This week Scott interviews one of his all time favorite philosophers and teachers- Peter Rollins. They talk about something called PARAPRAXIS- the (seemingly) small things that tell us there is something wrong.
This week is an enneagram week and we are talking about TWOS. We invite our amazing two guest from last year (Katie Thomas) BACK on the podcast to check in and hear about what she has learned about herself since our last recording. We also get to talk to Sydney (Macie's partner) who happens to be a TWO. During this episode we try to go a little deeper into the variants and wings and we help Katie and Sydney try and discover their variants and stackings as well. Its a super fun episode with some kind big hearted humans! We hope you enjoy!
Gender is most certainly no small thing. This week we begin what is sure to be a long journey with this topic. We start by deep diving Macie's decision to come out as gender queer. We hope this is a helpful for anyone struggling with identity or gender or just coming out in general. And we also hope you enjoy getting to know Macie more!
Certainty is often a roadblock to curiosity and creativity. Of course- the No Small Thing squad is all about trying to help you be more curious. In this episode we finally try to address why we think its so important to try to be a little less certain in our daily lives. This is the beginning of a much larger conversation on the topic of certainty, but we hope its a helpful launch point!
It turns out we really enjoy talking about Defense Mechanisms! This is our fourth installment on this series. Defense Mechanisms are LIES WE TELL OURSELVES TO AVOID PAIN. We are on a mission to try and understand our Defense Mechanisms and help you understand yours as well. Let's get curious about Idealization and Displacement!
This week we are back with our third installment of a Steven Universe episode, this time deep diving and discussing Steven Universe THE MOVIE. We are mega-fans of this show...and super fans of this movie! Rebecca Sugar and team have done it again giving us a heart-warming, deep, introspective, thoughtful story that every audience could enjoy. We begin this week by sharing our initial thoughts on the movie aka popping off. We then spend a whole segment breaking down and talking all about Spinel (who we love!). We close this episode by each sharing our favorite emotional moments from the movie and songs from the soundtrack! This episode is near and dear to our hearts and we hope you enjoy!
We are BACK with another ENNEAGRAM ONE episode. This is our second enneagram episode since we started recording enneagram episodes over a year ago. For this conversation we invite our good friend Matthew back to check in about being an enneagram one and we talk to our friend Hannah as well. Interesting thing about Hannah is that she was on our 8 episode, but discovered that she mistyped so she joins us to talk that journey. And finally we get into the wings and variants of enneagram ones! So if you are the type of person that is looking to hear some helpful and cathartic reflections on this awesome perfectionistic archetype you have come to the right place. We hope you enjoy!
In this episode Scott interviews his friend Tony Hale. Tony is known for playing endearing characters like Buster Bluth from Arrested Development and Gary from Veep, but he is also an extremely fun/ interesting/ complicated 3 dimensional HUMAN (Enneagram 2!) that we hope you get to know a bit more through this interview. Pay special attention to Tony's appreciation for curiosity and doubt in the Christian faith.
We are back with out third installment Age and Wisdom. It's a large underlying value of NST's to see the inherent wisdom and insight in children/youth/those who are younger than us so its always fun when we come to this topic where we get to deep dive why this means so much to us. This episode starts with an actual interview with youths! For the first ten-ish minutes enjoy Scott interviewing a group of young teens :) We then jump into the episode! Macie shares quite a bit about what its like working in an environment that views children as competent, capable, and powerful. They explain the philosophy of a Reggio inspired school as well as tell some silly, and some profound stories from the classroom. Scott then takes us on a lovely book tour of Dan Allender's How Children Raise Parents. This is a book we highly recommend!! Scott discusses what its been like for him reading this book as a parent and youth pastor. It's big, and we even hear an Annie Dillard quote!! We hope this episode is potentially helpful for those of us out there parenting or teaching kids or interacting with youth's in our life, age and wisdom are no small thing!!!
What is NOSTALGIA? Do you think you have your head wrapped around that concept? Does the idea of philosophical and personal pontifications about nostalgia sound interesting to you? Then you came to the right place! Nostalgia is a feeling or phrase or concept that comes up in our discussions a lot. It may be a driving feature of No Small Thing!? We're not sure! But Nostalgia seems like a pretty important thing to talk about and this week we cover the positive and negative elements of nostalgia and also talk about our own personal associations with that feeling. We hope this curious conversation gets you in touch with your own thoughts and feelings around Nostalgia!
SUGAR. It's part of our everyday lives. We all have nostalgic memories that involve sugar and yet its actually pretty harmful to our bodies and mental health. How do we hold these two things in tension? When we started talking about recording this episode we thought it would be mostly silly and goofy (and it is in some parts), but we soon realized that sugar is actually pretty problematic...Also....Macie introduces a character called Ms. Vanilla Bones who is an ice-cream cone that lives on Macie's t-shirt.
This week we are back at it with another enneagram episode! We are circling back through all the types meaning Macie is on the hot seat again to discuss all there is to being an Enneagram Four. Unsurprisingly this conversation is emotionally deep, highly introspective, sometimes a bit tragic, and quite quirky. Macie brings the honesty and Scott brings the open energy and space for them to both discuss the ins and outs of an enneagram four! We also go quite a bit into the variants of the four, focusing most specifically on Macie's social variant...they are the four's four, the most tragic of the all! We so hope you enjoy this honest meandering curious conversation, and to all the four's out there listening, this one is for you!
This week we got a chance to interview one of our heroes- Dr. John Perkins. The occasion for this interview was a mission trip to Mississippi where we got to sit down and talk to a man who has spent his whole trying to help people wrestle with the concept of reconciliation...
This is a super rambly and personal deep dive on emotions, everyone! We can't have a conversation about emotions without a deep dive on our own personal relationships with our own emotions so we go ALL IN. We talk about our own personal journeys with our emotions, the current state of our emotions!, and what we believe are good, healthy, and wholesome ways to express and make space for emotions in important relationships. We also have a Reuvenation! Our Last one until September!
This week we approach yet another huge topic as lay folk (aka non-experts!). We have our second conversation on STYLE. We talk about our personal style and our OPINIONS on style (particularly clothing) and we also interview ALYSSA who has just recently started a style/ fashion instagram account that highlights the unique styles of friends and insta acquaintances. Not only is her instagram account (usinbetweeners) already off to a fantastic start- Alyssa has some super interesting thoughts on style! If you are here for two non experts and a "semi-expert" talking about style and clothing than this episode is for you!
What is a home? Not an actual physical home...but on a more philosophical level....and a literal level! It's an interesting, complicated, sentimental...(yet sad?) concept. At times we are longing for home and other times we think we have found it. In this episode we try to unpack what the important elements of Home are. We hope it helps you get curious about your own definitions of home and how you can create spaces in your life that help you feel less judged and more at safe and at peace.
So far we have covered the basics of each enneagram type. Now we seek to go deeper by discussing the wings and variants of each type. In this episode we talk about Enneagram type fives. It just so happens that Scott (co-host of No Small Thing) is an enneagram 5 ...and a 5 wing 4/ Sexual 5 to be specific. And Scott's son JACK is a 5 wing 6. This week we try to compare the nuances and differences that exist in type fives. We hope fives feel understood...we hope that people appreciate how different type fives can be from each other...and we hope that people walk away understanding fives a little better!
Introversion and Extroversion seem to be frequently at odd as misunderstood. These are temperaments that need to be understood and appreciated. Scott skews introvert and Macie skews ambivert and both of them find temperament to be extremely fascinating and interesting (of course). In this episode Scott and Macie deep dive what it means for us to learn to continue to make space for each other through the lens of extroversion and introversion (and everything in between).
Do you ever have doubts about your faith or The Bible or just about life in general? Do you feel like your questions and your doubts mean you're slipping or that you're somehow detached from God and life? What if your questions and doubts actually signified that you were getting nearer to God or to the heart of life? What if our questions are what draw us into a more rich and dynamic faith. On this week's episode we get to hear from Dr. Jeff Keuss who's new book, Live the Questions, helps us understand how scripture actually is a book of questions and that OUR questions help us enter into a more dynamic authentic relationship with God and with each other.
This week on NST we are deep diving defense mechanisms, specifically CONTROL and INTROJECTION. It's our third time sitting down to have a conversation about defense mechanisms because they seem to be super huge when it comes to our personality development, and the language is SO HELPFUL for healthy introspection. Scott researched control as a defense mechanism and explains the myriad of ways we can use control and manipulation (even in ways we wouldn't normally attach to control). Macie then goes into major introspective deep dive land as they explain the defense mechanism of introjection, their dominant defense. This episode is fun and wild not for the feint of heart when it comes to some cringey personality habits we may or may not be attached to!
We believe curiosity is an essential element to thriving as humans. Its also a core value of our podcast. In this episode we try to explore what curiosity is, why its important, and how to get more curious.
In this week's episode we deep dive the complicated and mysterious history of The Enneagram. Have you been told the The Enneagram is "an ancient tool"? We have! And it's true- The Enneagram IS ancient...but that statement can sometimes be lazy and misleading. In this episode we really try to unpack the mysterious origins of The Enneagram. We discover a lot of interesting things! And a lot of WONKY thinks! Ultimately we hope it encourages you to do your own research on this helpful and mysterious tool!
Originally coined in Dostoevsky's The Idiot, this week the NST team unpacks and unravels a discussion around the phrase, "Beauty will save the world." What is beauty? And what do we mean by saving the world? Join us as we wonder out loud about art and the role it plays with inspiration, transcendence, religion, and basically life. We begin by philosophizing and meandering around the topics of beauty, roughly trying to define what we see as beautiful. Scott and Macie also each share three different pieces of beauty that they are inspired/moved by. Hear a reading, a song, and a poem from Scott and a song, an excerpt, and a story by Macie. This episode is major artsy/intellectual vibes and concludes with a Reuvenation!
This week we try and discuss the concept of sports! So generic, right? We talk about our personal journeys with sports...what was good and what was bad. We rant a little bit about what is problematic about sports, but we also try to see the good and discuss listener questions. Sports truly is No Small Thing. It seems to be everywhere. Hopefully this discussion helps spark some curiosity about this ubiquitous concept!
This week on NST we are deep diving the idea of 'Conversion' as Scott unpacks from a week of learning with/alongside Peter Rollins. Peter Rollins is a major theological/philisophical/psychological thinker who is discussing some cool stuff. Macie curiously asks Scott questions as he processes/shares some of the deep wisdom and interesting concepts Peter brought up during his "learning festival", wake. This episode is fun, existential, teetering between extreme cynicism and wild curiosity!
Color is part of our every day lives and probably in ways most of us don't appreciate. During this episode Macie and Scott take up the challenge of having a conversation about COLOR. What kinds of emotions does each color evoke, why are colors important, and what does it mean for Macie as a painter? This conversation is pretty out there! We hope you enjoy it! If you're short on time and would like to skip our intro you can hear about Macie's "color journey" (when she got here room painted pink as a kid and how that set her down a path of making sure she always got to choose her room color at the 20 minute mark. If you like to get right to the heart of the episode where we engage with listener comments on color feel free to skip to the 50 minute mark!
This week is all about Enneagram type Nines! These are the calm peacemakers in our lives who love to maintain connectedness with the people around them. They have heaps of empathy and an almost magical ability to see things from other people's perspectives. Their attention on others, however, often means they sacrifice their own sense of inner motivation. This week we interview our good friend Daniel Keyes (a sweet insightful intellectual artsy 9!). He brings some super deep reflections and metaphors and personal stories about being a 9 that will certainly help you understand the nines in your life better! And if you ARE a 9 Daniels's reflections will be so helpful and cathartic!
This week on No Small Thing its a Macie takeover! Scott is out of town this week so it’s just Macie embarking on a curious conversation about the Holy Land. Macie sat down with her dear friends Adrienne and Kierstin who invite us into their pilgrimage to the Holy Land (Israel/Palestine). They share about all the different places they visited, as they walked where Jesus walked. They also spoke to the beauty of a pilgrimage, opening us into their spirituality. Their journey really was no small thing and we hope this little slice of their story invokes some wonder! Blessings!
We are back this week to do a follow up episode on one of our very first episodes....The Art of Playlist Making. About 10 months ago NST released an episode where Macie and Scott sat down and spout off about the significance of playlists in their lives, how to make the "perfect playlist", and played fast and loose with the word "art". Following that episode we received an epic email from our friend, playlist conossiur, and musician Gregg Belisle-Chi. This week we sit down with him to really hash out some of his qualms with our playlist opinions as well as talk jazz, music, NY, art, philosophy, and of course a few ennea-thoughts! It really is a CURIOUS CONVERSATION!
Is this the most generic title to a podcast ever!? Maybe! Are there other podcast episodes merely titled "Phones". It doesn't appear so! In this episode Macie and Scott talk about everything from their early experiences with phones, texting etiquette, read receipts, and much much more! This episode will leave you wondering about your own relationship with your phone and your friends and hopefully feeling a bit more curious about these ubiquitous devices!
What even defines friendship? What qualities make for a "good" friend? What expectations come with friendship? Why do we even need friends? Are there levels of friendship? Why does friendship even matter in the end? This topic is one that we ALL can relate to, and all have something to say about it. This week Scott and Macie do their very best to share some of their thoughts and opinions all about this big ol' concept of friendship!
Bold, brash, brave, exciting, lustful...just a few of the appropriate descriptors often used to explain Enneagram type 8's! They don't want to be controlled, people! In this episode we interview two enneagram type 8's (Hannah Keyes and Rebecca Bernstein) with the hope that their thoughts and stories will help you understand enneagram 8's better! We do enneagram episodes every 5 episodes because we believe that this tool helps us understand our hidden motivations and the hidden motivations of others. We hope you find this to be helpful!
Defense Mechanisms are "invisible methods by which we exclude unacceptable thoughts and feelings from awareness." Sound interesting!? We sure think it is! And we sort of feel like talking about Defense Mechanisms is an important calling for us. It syncs up well with therapy, wellness, enneagram, spirituality..and so much more. Knowing about your Defense Mechanisms will help you be a more AWARE person. This week we specifically talk about Projection and Thinking. Get ready to have your mind taken on a bit of a spin. This is a heavy one!
This week we have a fun yet sometimes serious conversation about the history of social media and how it impacts us personally on a daily basis. We discuss social media etiquette, debate its relevance in our lives, and even ennea type each social media platform! This is a fun and curious conversation about something that is extremely prevalent for most of us these days!
Curious what the heck do we mean by that? This week on NST we sat down and heard the journey of Reverend Aaron Williams. Aaron shares his journey from growing up Baptist in Augusta, Georgia dreaming of being a pastor to moving to Texas and then eventually all the way to progressive, white Seattle where he now serves at a predominantly white Evangelical Presbyterian Church. It's quite the journey Aaron has taken spiritually, culturally, and geographically!
Dr. Christena Cleveland has been an writer and speaker that has inspired us for a while now and we were so excited to get a chance to interview her! She is rightly helping us understand that God as a "white male" needs to die and a more complete and inclusive God needs to be established in our collective consciousness. We believe the work she is doing is so important and that you will all be enriched by her perspective and voice!
This is our 7th installment of our enneagram series and it is all about ENNEAGRAM SEVENS. Enneagram sevens really do bring so much joy and excitement to life and this is an opportunity to explore what make this type tick. This week we interview Mark Russo and JJ Kissinger (two enneagram sevens!) and have a fun an silly yet rich and introspective time talking about what it means to be a 7. We hope this is so helpful and honoring to type sevens!
Steven Universe is a rich, complex, multi-layered, sweet, funny, whimsical, profound cartoon that teaches people about, among other thing, tolerance, empathy, emotional-intelligence, and self-love. We think everyone should be watching and enjoying this show! This week Macie and Scott deep-dive the most recent 45 minutes special of Steven Universe called "Change your Mind". They discuss the Diamond's redemption arks, the new fusions, and the big show-down between Steven and White Diamond. There is also an awesome Reuvenation this week. Steven Universe is No Small Thing! If you want to be able to navigate this episode a bit more efficiently check out the time stamps below: 0:00- Intro/ "table of contents"
8:44- A discussion/ "pitch" about why everyone should be watching Steven Universe
25:24- Recap of the latest episode along with the Blue and Yellow Diamonds redemption moments.
49:03- Reuvenation
103:50- A deep-dive discussion of the "throne room scene" from Change Your Mind
Addiction is serious. This week DJ Evie (Evie Cooke) from Seattle's local independent radio station, KEXP, opens up about her struggle with addiction and what happened to finally help her get sober. She also shares her love and passion for music and talks about the role it has played in her life. She also shares some new music we should all be listening to! Music shared on the episode this week: Energy by Sampa the Great Dope Queen Blues by Adia Victoria Mika Dora by Amen Dunes Sweep Me Off my Feet by Pond
Beach House is considered one of the quintessential "dream pop" bands of all time. Victoria Legrand and Alex Scally seem to have perfected a sound that is ominous yet uplifting, spooky yet sweet, enchanting..and yet strange at the same time. They also happen to be one of Scott and Macie's favorite bands! So of course this merits a conversation about what makes Beach House so special! We hope you enjoy!
What is a party? Why do we have them and why is everyone getting together all the time!? In this episode Scott and Macie talk about their complicated relationship with parties; what they like and don't like about them and their ideas about what could make parties better. They also read listener's thoughts about parties from instagram and Reuven reads a poem. Here are some TIME STAMPS- if you would like to skip to the parts that most interest you!
8:41- listener thoughts from instagram!
29:48- more listener thoughts!
47:51- Reuven Poem (aka- "Reuvenation)
59:29- One final deep dive on what Scott and Macie think about parties!
We are BACK with an enneagram episode! This week we talk about the amazing loyal sixes. We interview our friend Makalee, discuss listener comments, and ultimately try to arrive at a deeper appreciation for this amazing and helpful ennea type. We hope this is cathartic for sixes and helpful for people that have sixes in their lives!
In part 2 of our Age and Wisdom series we discuss 12 year old Jesus teaching in the temple as well as the Reggio learning philosophy. This is an episode that explores the way that we can learn from kids and what it means to maintain a posture of curiosity when interacting with young people.
Where do you get your fashion sense from!? What even IS fashion? Or how about you personal sense of style? This week Macie and Scott engage in an intense conversation about the origin of their personal styles. They philosophize about hoodies, what to wear at parties, how personal clothing is, ultimately, No Small Thing.
In this week's episode we do a deep dive on Dr. James Cone who is considered to be the father of "black liberation theology". Scott spent all year reading his books and learned so much! Dr. Cone passed away this year so it seems like a perfect time to reflect on his life and legacy. We invited a special guest, Tali Hariston, to come by and talk to us about the impact James Cone has has had on the church and the black community. Tali has been the head of the Dr. John Perkins center for Racial Reconciliation for over 15 years and now works for the Seattle Presbytery. He also works as a consultant with churches across the county helping congregations understand how to meet the needs and concerns of the younger generation. We packed a lot into this episode and we hope you enjoy!
Joanna Newsom is a musician, harp player, poet, genius, phenom, revolutionary and so much more! Her music is utterly unique and sheer depth of her content merits multiple rounds of deep diving. This week Macie and Scott try to have a conversation about this musical queen and timeless legend. Whether you're already a fan or just getting into Joanna Newsom we think you'll enjoy this conversation!
Enneagram 3 is known as the ACHIEVER. This is a complex number right in the center of the heart triad. They are known for being smooth, charming, and goal oriented and they can also be a little "too smooth" sometimes. 3's are trying to find love through their efforts and success instead of just being loved for who they are. At their best they can teach us to strive to be better and reach for higher levels of performance; not only inspiring us, but also coming alongside and helping us get to the next level. This week we talk to Phil Lewis- who is the youth pastor at Quest Church in Seattle. Phil was so fun to talk to and a very self-aware three. This episode is packed with insightful information about 3's and its also a playful and fun discussion about the good and not so good elements of this number. Whether you're a three or trying to understand a three in your life this episode has something for you!
In his book "Why do I do That?" Joseph Burgo, Phd, warns that "psychological defenses may exclude or misdirect parts of our emotional life that we need for effective relationships- not just romantic ones but those with our family members and close friends or with our colleagues at work." On this episode of No Small Thing Macie and Scott discuss defense mechanisms- what are they? how can we identify them? how to they relate to The Enneagram!?- and also deep dive two particular defense mechanisms- Reaction Formation and Splitting.
The core question we ask ourselves is whether or not we belong or have value. At a young age this often fairly easy to believe, but it gets "complicated" as we get older. In this episode we hear from Dr. Ted Klontz and he gives us some helpful insights and tools all surrounding this idea of falling in love with ourselves!
Sleep seems to be one of the most important if not THE most important elements for our health and our general ability to thrive. Its also really fun to stay up late! In this episode Scott and Macie talk about their complicated relationship with sleep, listen to Reuven read some poems, and discuss some new research that reveals that there might be more complexities regarding individual sleep patters than we previously knew.
Calling it the 'Art of Podcasting' but it is actually more of a check-in episode/celebration episode. Scott and Macie reflect on the journey they have been on creating the pod and share some of their hopes, dreams, and goals for what is to come with No Small Thing.
This is our FOURTH Enneagram episode. This episode is all about the TWO (The Helper). If you are at all interested in getting to know yourself better as a two or trying to understand the twos in your life this episode is for you. We interview our friend, Katie Thomas, about what its like to be a two (sneak peak- it seems like twos have very particular thoughts that keep them up at night!). We love The Enneagram because it gives us tools to be more self aware. Whether you're new to The Enneagram or have been studying it for a while we think this episode will have a lot of helpful and cathartic moments. Enjoy!
Interested in photography/ art or starting your own business? This week Scott and Macie interview John Keatley who is a photographer and small business owner. This interview is long, but is also packed with interesting stuff about how John views his vocation as a photographer. There is also a lot of fun information and stories about Scott and John's early days in college!
The Christian Doctrine of The Trinity is an essential element of the Christian faith. In this episode Macie and Scott attempt to have a conversation about this fascinating doctrine. It highlights how the core of the Christian faith is relational, equal, playful, and invitational!
Do you know if you're an introvert or an extrovert? Or maybe you're an ambivert! In this week's episode Scott and Macie discuss the nuances of these different temperaments and how it impacts them specifically. You will find yourself having cathartic moments as you hear you temperament discussed and, hopefully, you'll develop a bit more empathy for people who don't share you temperament.
In this episode we attempt to explore the complexities of the enneagram 1 type. Enneagram 1's have an uncanny ability to improve the contexts, systems, and circumstances that they find themselves in. We interview our producer, Matthew Lauder, to try and get a clearer understanding of what makes this awesome ennea type tick!
Are you a fan of Kendrick Lamar? Do you think he is potentially the greatest of all time? Both Scott and Macie are big fans of Kendrick and believe the music and art he is producing is no small thing! We invite you to the conversation this week as Scott and Macie deep dive Kendrick! Hear about Kendrick’s songs, albums, and performances as well as a discussion of why we think Kendrick is so important and why we believe his influence is no small thing! We invite you to the wonder, beauty, and power of K-Dot!
We all struggle with anxiety. Anxiety occurs on a spectrum ranging from manageable to desperate. For the 13th episode of No Small Thing Scott and Macie interview Deb Thomas (a licensed therapist) about anxiety. They have an in depth conversation about what anxiety IS, what causes it, and how to cope. We hope this is a helpful episode!
What do we mean when we talk about "voice". Certainly this implies our the sound that emanates from our vocal chords, but it can also mean our "perspective" or our "lens" and so many other things. This week Macie and Scott try to talk about the significance of "voice"; how we use it and how we don't. Its a wild conversation that we hope inspires you to think how you are using your own voice!
Have you ever experienced ASMR? Whether you're a novice or an experienced fan this episode tries to take apart this internet phenomenon!
This episode is all about Enneagram type 4's! Since our last episode on the Enneagram we have learned and grown so much. The Enneagram truly is a tool to break us out of our self-created boxes and help us live more full integrated lives.
The concepts of Wilderness and Holy Ground in The Bible are rich with meaning. This week Macie and Scott share some reflections about the story of Moses and the burning bush and how this ancient story has wisdom to offer us in terms of how we understand and experience God.
Do you have any interest at all in exploring the outdoors more? In this episode we talk to two of our favorite people about their quest to get people to "opt outside" more frequently. Berty and Emily Mandagie have created a business that aims to motivate people to become adventurers and they do this through photography, travel, vlogging, blogging and many other platforms. The story of how they got started and how they ended up together is beautiful and inspiring. Also- this is our first ever interview! We hope you enjoy!
Steven Universe is one of the most imaginative and moving stories ever created! It is so much more than a "kids' show". In this episode Macie and Scott discuss their love for this beautiful and quirky series as well as deep dive one of their favorite elements: fusion.
Do you like Kanye West? Do you despise Kanye West? It seems like its pretty difficult to have a mild feeling about Kanye West these days. Did you know that he has released 5 albums in the last five weeks culminating with the release of Teyana Taylor's new album last Friday? Regardless this episode is all about this season of Kanye albums. Macie and Scott also spend some time checking in about what it has been like to host a podcast after 5 episodes.
Have you ever heard someone talking about The Enneagram and wondered what it was? Or are you are person that already knows about the Enneagram and enjoy learning more about the different "types". Or are you possibly a personality test "hater"? In this episode Macie and Scott talk about their love (obsession?) with the Enneagram and deep dive into Scott's number: The 5 or The Observer.
Macie Mooney and Scott Gronholz host a weekly podcast where they follow their curiosity by exploring topics that are of deep interest to them.
This week Macie and Scott dive deep into the band Twenty One Pilots, Macie’s all time fav band! Macie tells stories from first listening to their music to meeting Tyler Joseph, and Scott gives his top 5 TØP songs. Twenty One Pilots is ‘no small thing,’ their music has a lot of heart and soul. Welcome to the conversation!
Produced by Matthew Lauder
Music by Ohmega Watts
Ever thought about the connection between wisdom and age? Macie Mooney and Scott Gronholz host a weekly podcast where they follow their curiosity by exploring topics that are of deep interest to them.This week Scott and Macie talk about age and wisdom and share their thoughts on how to navigate seeing youth/children as prophets.
Produced by Matthew Lauder
Music by Ohmega Watts
Macie Mooney and Scott Gronholz host a weekly podcast where they follow their curiosity by exploring topics that are of deep interest to them. In this episode Macie and Scott talk about their vision for the podcast and why they started it in the first place.
Produced by Matthew Lauder
Music by Ohmega Watts
Do you like making playlists or receiving playlists? Do you like the idea of analyzing the subtle nuances of what goes into making a good playlist? If so- this episode is for you. This week Macie and Scott talk about their own personal experiences with playlists and their top five tips/ thoughts on what should go into making the perfect playlist for your friends and family!
Produced by Matthew Lauder
Music by Ohmega Watts