Unbroken Chain Podcast
Conversations along the journey: ancestral medicines, ordinary magic, and the wisdom within us all. Hosted by Maura James McNamara.
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Ep 92: Following the Mystical Thread w Kasem
03/16/2023
Ep 92: Following the Mystical Thread w Kasem
My friend Kasem joins for a tender, deeply personal conversation about his lifelong dance with the mystic. From a childhood rooted in the Missionary Baptist church to his last 13 years as a practicing buddhist, Kasem has been following the radical meme of self-discovery. We talk about everything from putting Jesus back in context and learning to examine the nature of reality, to the “double dutch” of code switching and navigating the American Dream as the child of immigrants. If you want to connect with Kasem, you can email him at [email protected]. More podcasts at and IG . [“Haenim” - Kim Jung Me]
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Ep 90: My Body Knows the Way w Phil Cook
07/11/2022
Ep 90: My Body Knows the Way w Phil Cook
Musician and human laser beam of positive energy Phil Cook comes to the woods in Alabama for an intimate conversation by the creek. We talk everything from space and swing, to dad’s ski tapes, to getting diagnosed with ADHD at 40, and learning to respect the power of plants. It’s been a big time of reflection and setting new direction. Welcome to Phil’s big, beautiful world. You're part of the family now. Watch Phil’s new documentary and listen to his new album . He’s on IG . More podcasts at and IG . [“All These Years” - Phil Cook]
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Ep 89: Looking at the Hollow Within w Chase Bauer
04/05/2021
Ep 89: Looking at the Hollow Within w Chase Bauer
My dear friend Chase Bauer returns to the podcast with a deeply personal exploration of the nature of mind. In telling the story of a recent psychedelic ceremony, Chase reveals how a constellation of wisdom including nonviolent communication (NVC), guru yoga, and the witness of LSD helped him understand his relationship to addiction in a radically new way. Along the way we contemplate cults and spiritual abuse, whiteness, codependence, the value and limitations of constructing mental models, and doing whippets in your 30s. Watch Chase’s short films and and connect with him on IG . More podcasts at and IG . [“Love Is Overtaking Me” - Arthur Russell]
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Ep 88: Not Here to Make Pretty Pictures w Kathy Nida
01/22/2021
Ep 88: Not Here to Make Pretty Pictures w Kathy Nida
Kathy Nida is an artist most well known for her quilts, which depict potent visions of the human experience. She describes quilting as a form of meditative practice that is essential to her mental health. She has intentionally prioritized it throughout her life, including while also being a mother and a full-time middle school science teacher. In this conversation, we explore truth-telling and censorship, art and capitalism, pantyhose revolt, and finding hope for the future in critically-thinking 12-year-olds, among much more. You can connect with her at and on IG . More podcasts where podcasts are found and at . [“Down By the River” - Letta Mbulu]
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Ep 86: The Magnificent Journey w Susan Ateh
12/18/2020
Ep 86: The Magnificent Journey w Susan Ateh
Susan Ateh is a breathwork facilitator whose goal is for all people to experience love for themselves. An Irish-Cameroonian living in LA as a working actor for many years, Susan realized that the misogyny, materialism, and judgment inherent to the film industry had worn down her love for her craft, and she found herself paralyzed by depression. She shares how breathwork reconnected her to the beauty of her emotions and helped her begin to release decades of unprocessed emotion, a journey into reconnection that she now holds space for others to walk. We talk about the socialization of “the good girl,” the trope of the “angry black woman,” comparison culture, capitalism and colonialism in the wellness industry, and the importance of apologizing for our participation in white supremacy—unconscious and conscious—when we begin the work of deprogramming our minds and hearts. You can find Susan and her virtual breathwork circles at and IG . More podcasts where podcasts are found, and IG @. [“Deep Silence” - Loma Suyo]
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Ep 84: Freedom Is Possible w Jeanette Waddell
11/08/2020
Ep 84: Freedom Is Possible w Jeanette Waddell
Jeanette Waddell is a storyteller and wise elder based in middle Georgia. She returns to the podcast (catch her on episode 37!) to share her experience as a black woman in America, from confronting racism in intimate relationships to underrepresentation of black bodies in the media to learning to keep her heart open with healthy boundaries through ongoing oppression. She shares the stories of community organizing and individual vision that ground her in her own agency: Malcolm X, MLK, the organizers of the bus boycotts, and the community of the black church. Through it all, she presents storytelling as a powerful tool for manifesting freedom in a world based on exploitation and enslavement. You can email her at . More podcasts where podcasts are found and . [“If You’re Ready (Come Go With Me)” - The Staples Singers]
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Ep 83: Seeking Comfort w Nick Nail
10/29/2020
Ep 83: Seeking Comfort w Nick Nail
Nick Nail is a musician, painter, gentle soul, and friend of ours in Birmingham. Here Nick explores his lifelong quest for comfort and belonging after experiencing a painful split in his consciousness in the wake of early childhood sexual abuse. At times Nick has found relief in long distance running and creating music and art and at other times in codependent relationships and regular heroin use. Nick has a tremendous capacity for compassionate observation. He talks with radical transparency about the gifts and limitations of addiction, choosing homelessness, bearing the stigma of being a “bad person,” discovering the permission to enjoy life, and learning to be of service to the world. Nick recently detoxed from heroin at our house and this conversation was recorded a few days after he was finally walking, talking, and eating again. “Who’s to say that anybody is wrong for doing something that they’re lead to do? All the things that we go through are just something to help us do better tomorrow, you know?” More podcasts where podcasts are found, and IG: @maurajames. [“Your Jewel” - Michael Nau]
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Ep 82: Ibogaine & Harm Reduction w Juliana Mulligan
10/19/2020
Ep 82: Ibogaine & Harm Reduction w Juliana Mulligan
Juliana Mulligan is the founder of , where she coaches people before and after treatment sessions with the powerful entheogen ibogaine. Her call to devote her life to helping others formulate a new healing life structure is deeply personal: after seven years of struggle with opioid dependency, which forced her into the further trauma of the mainstream rehab system, from methadone and Suboxone to 12 step programs and the justice system, Juliana finally found freedom with ibogaine. Although the treatment was a success, the clinic did not followed proper safety protocols and Juliana nearly died several times during the experience. Ever since, she has been focused on safety guidelines, promoting women run clinics and co-authoring a guide for vetting providers. She became a certified EMT and trained in three Ibogaine clinics in South Africa, Costa Rica, and Mexico, acting as a provider and lay-therapist. She currently works as the Psychedelic Program Coordinator at , which focuses on Harm Reduction. You can find her recent articles at and . More podcasts where podcasts are found and at . [“A Calf Born in Winter” - Khruangbin]
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Ep 80: You Are Not Alone w Maura James
09/18/2020
Ep 80: You Are Not Alone w Maura James
In honor of the two year anniversary of Unbroken Chain, I took a moment to look back on the journey. In a sweet conversation with my partner Daniel, I share my intentions for starting the podcast and touch on some of the things I’ve learned along the way: deep listening, connecting with the unbroken part of another’s soul, confronting suffering, reckoning with whiteness, psychedelic tools, plant medicine teachers, and other juicy goodness in between. I’m sending this out with much gratitude and love for the dear ones who have joined me on this ride. I see you, and I love you. More podcasts where podcasts are found, at and IG: . [“Solar Plexus Chakra” - Beautiful Chorus]
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Ep 79: It’s Alright To Be True w Daniel Fox
08/28/2020
Ep 79: It’s Alright To Be True w Daniel Fox
Daniel Fox is a filmmaker, music curator, cosmic coordinator, and deep lover of humans who also happens to also be my partner. The son of a Southern Baptist preacher, Daniel grew up deeply formed by evangelical conditioning in the Deep South: toxic masculinity, the eternal threat of hell, overt racism, sports as religion, rabid materialism, sexual shame, and so much fear. He talks about the suicidal depression that overtook his life when he finally left the only community he had ever known and speaks publicly for the first time about coming to terms with childhood trauma that he spent many years trying to avoid. He honors the many teachers including hiphop artists, powerful women, and entheogens like cannabis and mushrooms that offered him a path to reconnection with himself and divine wisdom, and helped him find the grace to see his parents and their culture with new perspective. He now walks with others emerging from religious trauma in confronting harm, breaking cycles of abuse, and making meaning on their own terms. You can reach out to Daniel at and IG . More podcasts where podcasts are found, and Ig . [“The Sun Will Shine On You” - Jeff Lynne’s ELO]
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Ep 78: The Powerful Example w Royal Parker
08/21/2020
Ep 78: The Powerful Example w Royal Parker
Royal Parker is an activist based in New York’s Hudson Valley. On July 18, 2020, he lead a rally of 400 peaceful protestors in support of voting rights and police oversight. The event became the subject of national news when his group was met with hate speech and violence from counter-protestors representing the Duchess County Conservative Party and pro-police supporters. In this thoughtful and transparent conversation, Royal reflects on his experience as a highly visible black leader in the movement for justice. We talk about learning to integrate non-violence into practice, the psycho-emotional fallout of violent confrontation, and the call to serve, as well as his background in the US military during the era of the trans ban as he was beginning to transition genders. You can connect with Royal on facebook @ and online at . More podcasts at and IG @. You can watch Chase Bauer’s short documentary about the recent rally and conflict, “Pleasant Valley Black and Blue,” for free online: [“Someday We’ll All Be Free” - Donny Hathaway]
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Ep 77: Body Sovereignty w Samantha Zipporah
08/11/2020
Ep 77: Body Sovereignty w Samantha Zipporah
Samantha Zipporah is an educator and support person for rites of passage related to reproductive and sexual health. She helps people understand the power, pleasure, and magic available in fertility and sexuality, particularly centered on wombs and ovaries. On her website and Patreon, you can find an abundance of resources related to conscious contraception and ovulation awareness, holistic healing after abortion and miscarriage, and non-medicalized reproductive health. In this conversation we explore the intersection of physiology and spirituality, reclaiming our bodies from pharmaceuticals, and becoming attuned to the natural cycles of our internal ecology, touching on PMS, grief, and moon lodge practice along the way. Some of the books she recommends in this episode include: , , , and from the Red School. Find Sam online at and IG . More podcasts where podcasts are found, and IG @maurajames. [“Eternal Life” - Shira Small]
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Ep 76: Making Love with the Universe w Ananda
07/23/2020
Ep 76: Making Love with the Universe w Ananda
Ananda is my housemate and one of the kindest, most beautiful old souls in a young body I’ve ever met. He has spent the last five years teaching himself to play music and channel it into the world as an expression of love and healing. In this hang from my kitchen, we explore what it means to be alive in a human experience in this world, from the nature of reality to the relationship between matter and consciousness, all deeply informed by relationships with psychedelic medicines. Ananda shares what he learned growing up surrounded by addiction and other destructive energies, how he learned to think for himself, embrace neurodivergence, drive his life with intention, and channel the masculine. Come on in. More podcasts where podcasts are found, on IG and . [“In Every Direction” - Junip]
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Ep 75: Loving Out Loud w Voice Porter
07/12/2020
Ep 75: Loving Out Loud w Voice Porter
Voice Porter is a poet, muralist, and master gardener, among many other creative roles. He is a founding member of Ensley Alive, a collective movement dedicated to the renaissance of Ensley, a neglected neighborhood where he grew up in Birmingham, Alabama which became synonymous with violence and poverty in the city’s imagination. He heads the Color Project, which creates gardens and public art that have transformed the area into a destination space for creativity, physical and mental wellbeing, and community for residents and visitors. In this expansive conversation, he talks about his experience of America as a black man and father, exploring the exposure of willful ignorance, rejecting the language of the oppressor, wielding art as revolution, and honoring his family’s lineage of growing food, bartering, and nourishing his community. You can contact Voice at , find him on facebook under Brian Voice Porter Hawkins, or on IG . More podcasts where podcasts are found, , and IG . [“Wake Up Everybody” - Teddy Pendergrass]
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Ep 74: Calling Each Other Toward Healing w Cameron Whetstone
07/06/2020
Ep 74: Calling Each Other Toward Healing w Cameron Whetstone
Cameron Whetstone is a tarot reader and intuitive based in Brooklyn, NY. In this juicy and expansive conversation, she shares her journey into the work of being human—resolving trauma and honoring her ancestors. From growing up biracial in America, to climbing the corporate fashion ladder and numbing out to reality TV and alcohol until her immune system could no longer tolerate it, Cameron shares valuable insights about awakening to her conditioning and freeing herself from it. She offers a comprehensive understanding of the physiology of trauma through the nervous system and how we can create a conscious, compassionate relationship to it. So many grounding tools here to anchor us in times of undoing. Find Cameron on IG . More podcasts where podcasts are found, and IG . [“Turtle Medicine” - Delia Chariker]
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Ep 73: White Privilege and the Criminal Justice System w Jarmel Reitz
07/03/2020
Ep 73: White Privilege and the Criminal Justice System w Jarmel Reitz
Jarmel Reitz is a Philly-based artist, font of sunshine and rainbows, and convicted felon. Here she tells the intimate story of her arrest over 16 pounds of cannabis and her subsequent experiences in jail, where she received a radicalizing education in systemic dehumanization and white privilege. This conversation was originally recorded and briefly released in 2018 before we took it offline. Today, on what would have been her release date from prison if not for a plea bargain extended because of her whiteness, Jarmel decided it was time to make this conversation public. It is more prescient than ever as we collectively grapple with deep inequity and systemic violence against people of color and those without resources. From her teen years experimenting with drugs in Jersey through incarceration in Chicago, Jarmel radiates a fundamental devotion to radical acceptance and self expression that is infectious and liberating. Find Jarmel at and IG @jarmelbyjarmel. More podcasts where podcasts are found, at and IG . [“Hold Onto Your Dreams” - Jah Wobble, The Edge, Holger Czukay]
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Ep 72: Listening As a Form of Love w Jasmyn Story
06/09/2020
Ep 72: Listening As a Form of Love w Jasmyn Story
Jasmyn Elise Story is an international Restorative Justice Facilitator and founder of The People’s Coalition, an organization that aims to provide information, access, and resources to lower the impact of structural violence experienced by historically marginalized groups. Jasmyn recently bought a 15 acre farm in the heart of Alabama, which will be home to Freedom Farm Azul, a retreat space in the tradition of Fannie Lou Hamer and Frida Kahlo. In this powerful offering, Jasmyn walks us through transformative justice process as an alternative to traditional law enforcement and punitive justice, exploring communal listening, accountability, forgiveness, relational culture, plant medicine healing, and much more along the way. This is a potent vision for a world in the throes of deep structural change. Find Jasmyn online at and IG . More podcasts where podcasts are found, at and IG . [“That’s A Sign Of The Times” - Floyd Family Singers]
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Ep 71: Trauma and the Shadow w Emma Zeck
05/26/2020
Ep 71: Trauma and the Shadow w Emma Zeck
Emma Zeck is a writer, mystic, complex trauma survivor, and recovery coach for womxn. She writes and teaches about self-love, social change, and coming into wholeness by embracing and becoming lovers with the shadow as much as the light. In this conversation, she shares some of the wisdom she has gleaned on her journey to break the generational wounds that deeply formed her early life. We talk about gaslighting, covert narcissism, dealing with feeling unsafe in your body, spiritual bypassing, and the intersection of privilege and healing. You can find her online at and IG . More podcasts where podcasts are found, and IG . [“Wild Time” - Weyes Blood]
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Ep 70: Deconstructing Purity Culture w Emily Vino
05/19/2020
Ep 70: Deconstructing Purity Culture w Emily Vino
Emily Vino is an artist, Human Design reader, and ex-evangelical Christian now helping women from all walks of life reconnect to their intuition and sensuality. Born out of her personal experiences dealing with sexual repression and shame in the church, Emily is currently developing a project about purity culture. She has started conducting informal phone interviews with others who have experienced its harm and together explore new ways to ground back into the intelligence of the body. In this vulnerable conversation, Emily shares her journey out of the church and into embodiment, undoing harmful programming around “virginity,” pre-marital sex, and patriarchy and reclaiming prayer, dance, pleasure, and the divine Mother along the way. You can find Emily’s healing offerings and illustrations at and and on IG . She recommends following @themotherspirit for teaching on the Maiden to Mother myth. More podcasts and art at and on IG . [“Follow My Voice” - Julie Byrne]
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Ep 69: Alchemizing Suffering Into Beauty w Johanna Warren
05/10/2020
Ep 69: Alchemizing Suffering Into Beauty w Johanna Warren
Johanna Warren is a musician, artist, and healer. Her newest album, Chaotic Good, came out on May 1. In this sweet and vulnerable conversation, we dive into the shadows and gifts of the creative life, touching on the karmic drives that inform self-expression, and how her understanding of her most challenging experiences has shifted as she has healed her body and spirit, releasing damaging beliefs and stepping into stories of magic and wisdom. From discipline to self-annihilation, musical ancestors to herbal wizards, this is a tender exploration of personal catharsis and the call to service as an artist. You can find her at , her music at and on IG . More podcasts where podcasts are found, and IG . [“Rose Potion” - Johanna Warren]
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Ep 68: The Mycelial Tree of Life w Michael Stuart Ani
04/29/2020
Ep 68: The Mycelial Tree of Life w Michael Stuart Ani
Michael Stuart Ani is a farmer, writer, and advocate for the protection of the environment. He has lived and worked intimately with some of the most remote indigenous communities of Central and South America and has been carrying the ritual steps of the Ghost Dance for decades. In the 1960s and 70s, he was the only outsider allowed into Mexico's Sierra Mazateca cloud forest where he developed a lifelong relationship with an entheogenic mushroom called Deshetō. He later spent 12 years with the Yanomami tribe of Venezuela, fighting epidemics. He is featured in the 1992 documentary, ”Yanomami: Keepers of the Flame” and wrote the book “The Ghost Dance: The Untold Story of the Americas.” In this fascinating and wide ranging conversation we talk about the sacred connection between plants and humans, cultivation of botanical medicines, the lineage of ritual, the fallacies of the modern approach to healing, ancestors, gods, and reclaiming our place in the weave of nature. You can find Michael at and on IG . More podcasts where podcasts are found, and on IG . [“Ghost Dance” - Patti Smith Group]
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Ep 67: Reporting on Prison w Beth Shelburne
04/14/2020
Ep 67: Reporting on Prison w Beth Shelburne
Beth Shelburne is a journalist who specializes in investigative long-form reporting on criminal justice and mass incarceration. Formerly a reporter with WBRC in Birmingham, AL, Beth left television news to focus full-time on amplifying the voices of those who are stuck inside the system and often silenced. Her recent essay on conditions inside the largest maximum security prison in the nation, “,” can be read in the Bitter Southerner. In this conversation, Beth shares wisdom from her friends and collaborators inside the system and honors the incredible odds they have overcome to develop emotionally and spiritually while imprisoned in a system not designed for rehabilitation. She taps her extensive knowledge of the systemic problems within the carceral state, and we discuss the pervasion of contraband, extortion and corruption, “tough on crime” culture, and three strikes laws (called the Habitual Felony Offender Act in Alabama) that can send people who commit non-violent offenses to prison for life. You can find Beth’s writing and documentary films at and IG . More podcasts where podcasts are found, on and IG . [“The World (Is Going Up In Flames)” - Charles Bradley]
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Ep 66: Anarchy & the Rise of Mutual Aid w Cindy Milstein
04/08/2020
Ep 66: Anarchy & the Rise of Mutual Aid w Cindy Milstein
Cindy Milstein is an anarchist organizer and writer long engaged in contemporary social movements and collective spaces. She is the author of “”, coauthor of “,” and editor of the new anthology “.” For the past couple years, Cindy has focused on doing support work for the J20 defendants and others facing state repression, touring extensively with her latest edited anthology, “,” and co-organizing the Montreal Anarchist Bookfair. Currently, Cindy co-organizes the Institute for Advanced Troublemaking and its Anarchist Summer School, and is honored, when called on, to do death doula and grief care. We talk about ways to step into the promise of anarchy in the crisis of our current times, the need for deep grieving in our culture of unnecessary losses, and the history of Mutual Aid projects past and present including the Zapatistas, Black Panthers, and Underground Railroad, among so much more. You can find Cindy’s writing online at and on facebook and IG . Her crowd-sourced directory of Mutual Aid Pandemic Disaster Relief lives at . More podcasts where podcasts are found and at and IG . [“Eclipse of All Love” - Linda Perhacs]
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Ep 65: Entering the Age of Aquarius w Juliana McCarthy
03/31/2020
Ep 65: Entering the Age of Aquarius w Juliana McCarthy
Astrologer and author Juliana McCarthy returns to the podcast (find her on Episode 2)! We talk from our offices in bed, quarantined 2,000 miles apart. I called Juliana to get some context and grounding for our current situation: to understand more about 2020, an unprecedented year of transformation, and the new age of individual liberation. And she gives us a massive download on Saturn, lord of karma, Chiron, the Wounded Healer, and the new Age of Aquarius. We talk about loneliness and aloneness, retreat mentality, looking our demons in the eyes, making our healers our heroes, and building peaceful Queendom. This is a time of potent and desperately needed change, and there are new paradigms afoot. You can find Juliana’s offerings online at and patreon.com/astrologer and on IG @etherealculture. Her book, , is available everywhere. More podcasts at and on IG @maurajames. [“There’s A Rugged Road” - Judee Sill]
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Ep 64: Psychedelic Ministry w Dave Barnhart
03/19/2020
Ep 64: Psychedelic Ministry w Dave Barnhart
Dave Barnhart is a writer and Methodist pastor who leads a network of house churches as well as a monthly psychedelic integration meet up in Birmingham, AL. In addition to maintaining a beautifully thought-provoking blog, he is the author of two books, (2008) and (2012). This conversation, recorded the week before COVID-19 and global recession, is as relevant now as ever. Dave shares his experiences participating in a psilocybin study at Johns Hopkins University and his journey to find transparency and vulnerability as a spiritual leader. We talk about guilt culture, the longing and loneliness of life, civic religion and nationalism, disruptive religion (“the kind that Jesus actually preached”), and finding God at the margins. This is good medicine for those striving to navigate these challenging times with integrity, grace, and some kind of sanity. You can find Dave online at and . More podcasts where podcasts are found and at and IG: @maurajames. [“The Ark” - Gerry Rafferty]
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Ep 63: Write to Heal w Salaam Green
03/10/2020
Ep 63: Write to Heal w Salaam Green
Salaam Green is the founder and director of the Literary Healing Arts Foundation in Birmingham, Alabama. After writing helped her recover her sense of self during the lowest point in her life, she has devoted her life to helping others use their voice and tell their stories as a healing tool as well. In this uplifting conversation, we talk about worthiness, resilience, rewiring trauma triggers, letting joy drive our lives, and following the blueprint for social change left for us by indigenous and enslaved ancestors. This is a beautiful exploration of our inherent ability to heal ourselves with the power of our imagination. You can find Salaam at . More podcasts where podcasts are found, and IG: @MauraJames. [“A Place” - Nils Frahm]
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Ep 62: Psychedelic Addiction Treatment w Dr. Peter Hendricks
02/23/2020
Ep 62: Psychedelic Addiction Treatment w Dr. Peter Hendricks
Dr. Peter Hendricks is a clinical psychologist and associate professor at the University of Alabama at Birmingham currently conducting a study on psilocybin facilitated psychotherapy for cocaine dependence. He talks about the nature of addiction, the benefits and challenges of the scientific approach, the history of psychedelic research and its suppression, and the proliferation of psychedelic culture at large. The conversation opened up beautifully to explore the search for meaning in our modern times, creativity, unconditional love, Hildegard von Bingen, Viking invaders, and much more. More podcasts where podcasts are found and or IG: @maurajames. [“Mam Yinnie Wa” - Alogte Oho & His Sounds of Joy]
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Ep 61: Peyote and Prison w Damian Warren
02/13/2020
Ep 61: Peyote and Prison w Damian Warren
Damian Warren is a new Birmingham friend we met in peyote ceremony at the Native American Church of Inner light. A beautiful and kind spirit, Damian has been undergoing a radical year of growth and healing with the help of plant medicine sacraments. He is also a corrections officer at a notoriously violent prison in Alabama that was recently cited in federal court by the Equal Justice Initiative for "severe overcrowding, understaffing and dangerous conditions” at high safety risk to its guards. In this deeply vulnerable conversation, Damian talks about his experience in the system, both as an officer and a child in juvenile detention, and traces back to his childhood growing up in a “slum of a neighborhood” where he had no positive adult role models. We talk institutional corruption, racism, abuse, and how people end up in cycles of violence. He also shares insights from his journey into healing, his new outlook on life, overcoming homophobia during a ceremony, and much more. This conversation is as honest and generous as they come. You can connect with Damian on facebook and IG @hismajesty0_0. More podcasts where podcasts are found and at . [“Babylon System” - Bob Marley & the Wailers]
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Ep 60: Healing America’s Broken Bone w T. Marie King
02/04/2020
Ep 60: Healing America’s Broken Bone w T. Marie King
T. Marie King is a community organizer and activist based in Birmingham, AL who has devoted herself to addressing bias and oppression by helping people become “custodians” of their thoughts. In this inspiring hang, we explore inaction, defensiveness, reconciliation, atonement, and inclusion among much more. She shares pragmatic tools that all of us can begin using today to address the broken relationships that this country was built on and that persist today. She is a beautiful living example of our personal responsibility and opportunity to heal ourselves and our communities. You can find her on twitter @tMKing1 and instagram @tmking79. More podcasts where podcasts are found and . [“(If You’re Ready) Come Go With Me" - Staple Singers]
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Ep 59: Battery Acid Brain w Shawn Thornton
01/24/2020
Ep 59: Battery Acid Brain w Shawn Thornton
Shawn Thornton is a visionary artist based in Philadelphia, PA. His paintings are highly detailed and symbolic, often taking him years to complete. He had a tumor in his pineal gland that went undiagnosed for six years and during that time began to experience unusual states of consciousness, including invasive voices and episodes of psychosis, energies which can be seen reflected in his visual language. In this conversation, he describes the experience of losing his mind, navigating western medicine and antipsychotic drugs, and finally finding relief in painting and exercise. He hypothesizes on the damage he did to himself as a young artist and shares what it is like to navigate life now with lasting cognitive repercussions and a new awareness and appreciation of his mental health. Find Shawn’s incredible art online at and on IG @shawn_thornton_paintings. More podcasts where podcasts are found, and on IG @maurajames. [“Lost My Head There” - Kurt Vile]
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