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...
In this brief solo drop, I speak to a pattern that keeps showing up. I bring a structural critique, and it's a record scratch moment. Crickets in grad school discussion boards. Tumbleweeds on social media posts. Radio silence after podcast episodes that push beyond the simple hero-villain narrative. Avoidance in spaces of so-called "higher" education is common, as are furrowed brows in response to critiques of capitalist wellness grifters, and...
Hey y'all. I stepped away for a couple of months to take a beat, and now I'm back on Patreon with Subject To Change, this time featuring a three-part release. 🪧 - Part 1 - A message for the 'apolitical' among us (including the voice in our own heads). "I don't do politics." What this means, really. In this first bit, I tell you where my mind goes now when apolitical rationale is used as an excuse to disengage from the hard stuff + No Kings...
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. Things are difficult in the U.S. right now, and I'm going to keep showing up because what we need most in dark times is each other. In another unscripted episode of Subject to Change, I tell you how I'm personally coping and making feelings of fury & outrage actionable. I share what I've been learning about the systemic racism and brutality perpetuated by federal agencies like ICE and Customs & Border Patrol, referencing not...
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...
I'm betting that I'm not the only one trying to figure out how to engage in constructive dialogues in today's divided social landscape, so in this episode of Subject to Change, I explore several open questions: Is emotional intelligence (self-awareness, self-regulation, etc.) really enough to prepare us for difficult conversations, or is there much more to it than that - particularly when it comes to challenging deeply-embedded social systems?...
In the words of Timothy Snyder: “Do not obey in advance.” On October 18th, millions of Americans will gather across the nation to say ‘No’ to authoritarianism. This episode opens with audio from my solo experience at the first No Kings Protest in Downtown Los Angeles back in June. I share excerpts and offer a felt-sense of the experience, of peaceful resistance and love in action. Then I take a critical look at 'followership' and at how...
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...
