After seven months away from the main feed, I'm back with an update and a peek behind the Patreon paywall. Over the course of this podcast, particularly the 'cult'ure series, we developed shorthand for something that's hard to name: "the drift" — the way ordinary cultures, well-intentioned ones, gradually erode personal agency without anyone intending harm. Not bad actors. Just systems that reward compliance and quietly punish deviation....
After years of documenting how ordinary cultures erode personal agency — wellness spaces, workplaces, intimate relationships — I kept hitting the same wall. Understanding how "the drift" happens isn't enough. There has to be an alternative. And it can't just be try harder or find better people. In this solo drop, I use a recent social media pile-on as a jumping-off point to unpack why the conversation keeps collapsing into two bad options...
Hi y'all. Things are off the rails in the U.S., and I'm here because what we need most in dark times is each other. In this release, I'm sharing excerpts from an earlier-this-week Patreon drop where I discuss how I'm coping and making my feelings of outrage actionable, specifically my fury toward federal agencies like ICE and Customs & Border Patrol whose history of violence against citizens of color and undocumented immigrants pre-dates...
Hi y'all. This episode of STC rolls out in (roughly) four parts: Intro + it's ok to not be okay >> First, I offer a recap of some recent main feed releases, then talk about the real deal struggle to keep showing up in the face of wtf. Personal story >> I share about the time, back in 2010, when a kind-hearted Brit named Lucy changed my relationship to "the other woman" forever. It's a firsthand account of how solidarity can...
Is embodiment a tool in the ongoing fight for collective justice? In the intro, I share how the wellness world shaped my understanding of embodiment (why it matters and what it is for) and share how two decades of navel-gazing conditioned me to be complacent in the face of injustice. I catch us up on some current events, then share a riveting interview with Dr. Lesa Clark, a strategic leader in intercultural engagement and equity. Lesa shares...
This episode of Subject To Change was recorded 2 days ago. I was in all the feels at the start of this episode 🥴... sharing because I wanna normalize feeling wobbly right now. Then, I offer a reality check around the left-to-right pipeline. I share about recent TDP blowback, both publicly and behind-the-scenes, & its ironic overlap with mainstream satire-censorship. We revisit the topic of shame, specifically how apologist shame can lead...
This episode is dedicated to American psychiatrist and author Robert Jay Lifton, who recently passed after decades of research into the psychology of totalism. “Doctrine over person” is one of Lifton’s eight criteria of thought reform; it’s widely considered to be a defining characteristic of the cultic headspace. But how exactly does it function? Meet T Brown. In 1997, T entered a Sufi group as a free-thinking, openly gay man. But he...
I've divided this episode of Subject to Change into four chapters: Satire (5:28) Turns out, there's a TikTok account heckling the same launch that I've been speaking critically about here on the pod. Is it distasteful according to wellness-cult standards? For sure. Do I think that's part of its brilliance? Absolutely, and I'll tell you why. The Eagle & The Crow (21:54) There's a viral post circulating with a parable about an eagle & a...
It's been a year since the 'cult'ure series wrapped, so I invited Tracy Stamper back for a chat & check-in. No, this is not a reboot, it's a final word long in coming. Filters are off, y'all. Using the real name of 'the Org' publicly used to feel scary AF... now it feels 🤷♀️ so we do it & it's no big whoop. Tracy shares how she was able to break her addiction to "the spin cycle" & why setting boundaries has been such a...
Yep, it’s time for another solo episode! Today’s release includes excerpts from a May bonus drop over on Patreon, where I take a critical look at gender essentialism — the socially reinforced belief in a fixed gender binary. Two days ago, I recorded a new intro, adding in some personal stories. I share why my girliest school photo is the cringiest, about the time I shaved my head in the early aughts, and the name of the book that had me...
