Episodes
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Jacqueline Suskin is a writer, poet and educator now based in Detroit, Michigan. She has released many poetry books, two artistic creation books, and is now teaching young people in Detroit at the intersection of art and nature.
Yet the move to Detroit is recent. Only a little bit ago, she was stewarding art and a farm in northern California. Before that, Jacqueline was based in Los Angeles, where we met, when she was supporting herself with a made-up job she created called ‘Poem Store.’ Jacqueline describes Poem Store as an experiment. It was an experiment in which she would pull up at farmer’s markets and special events with her bike and a typewriter. Jacqueline would sit and let people come up to her and request a poem on a topic of their choosing, paying what felt right to them. “Your poem, your price,” she would say. As she tells her students now, “You can have a weird job that you make up.” She lives that truth.
Simultaneously, Jacqueline was always writing long format pieces. She wrote for magazines. She wrote poetry books. And in the pandemic, Jacqueline released her first prose book: Every Day Is A Poem. This book encourages readers to write poems, as Jacqueline drops all of her personal practice into these pages, granting the reader access to every tool in her box.
In this bath, we dive into what goes into Jacqueline’s artistic practice and how to bring projects from start to finish. Jacqueline is wise and self-aware. She describes herself as a naturally born performer, identifying with performance from a young age. Being a performer, however, doesn’t mean always being in performance. In living in Detroit, the reality of people having basic needs is raw. In being in a landscape where everyone has to get their own things done, Jacqueline describes a natural balance of knowing when to be inward and when to be outward (when is performance-time and when is it not).
Jacqueline believes that the intrinsic knowledge all exists within the seasons. Her latest book A Year In Practice delves into what practices resonate with the cycles of the earth, in order to create art and birth it into the world. Los Angeles taught her about the seasons, because of their subtlety. She urges us to witness how we are doing art with the earth, not ever alone. Therefore, in places like Los Angeles and even just living in a capitalist society, we have to fight for Winter. We have to fight to turn down, and fight to embrace the inward nature of winter. And there are practices for that.
“You don’t have to reinvent the wheel” is a sign that sits at her desk. Jacqueline suggests that there are carefully documented and practiced activities that so many incredible artists have done before us, and we can lean into their way of doing things. We are not losing our authenticity by using someone else’s methodology. "We don’t have to make this all up from scratch," Jacqueline says. And her most recent book distills these practices into something accessible. We hope you enjoy this conversation and her book!
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Michael Milosh (RHYE) is a lifelong musician from Toronto, Canada. He learned to play cello at 3 years old, having had a father who dedicated his life to teaching and playing music. RHYE is the musical project of Mike’s that has garnered the most worldwide success, but as I reveal in this bath, I have been listening to his music since I was 18, when I first heard his song ‘The City’ under the moniker, Milosh.
In this bath, we uncover so much about how Mike makes music, why Mike makes music, and what music has unlocked in his life. Music is Mike’s journal entries - but he only writes about positive things, things that he wants to bring into the world. In this sense, music is also spiritual and he aligns it with his spiritual beliefs. Often, he has found that his lyrics reveal some truth that already exists underlyingly, or will come true. In this episode, we learn about his songwriting process, and where songs come from. For example, the most recent RHYE EP, Passing, is specifically a dedication to his father, who passed away from cancer in 2022. In writing this EP about loving his father, Mike felt it was important to digest grief in the only way he knew how: writing songs. Grief was something he felt he was not alone in, and album became birdsongs to whomever might be feeling loneliness their own experiences of loss.
We discuss loss and love in depth, speaking for the first time about our experience of being attacked online by his ex-wife, and how that has impacted our relationship and work. Mike shares about how we’ve deepened our understanding of radical self-reliance and how that plays into making art and putting it into the world. It is a story of resilience, and choosing to continue living a good life, in spite of what life throws at you. Mike talks about life and lemons, into lemonade.
This tub talks is a joy for me to share because I get to sit with someone I admire and know intimately. I am excited to share his heart with you. Welcome to our tub!
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In this Tub Talks, I get to soak in the unique wisdom of Chantel Jeffries. Chantel is known in the world for seemingly disparate things: being a DJ, investor, entrepreneur, and social media creator. She is simultaneously a mystery. However, this bathtub conversation is a treasure chest of knowledge that I’ve never heard her share before.
As we learn more about Chantel, we learn more about how interconnected all of these industries actually are. She articulates her multidisciplinary work approach as perceiving every ‘job’ as a fractal, in which all things are related to everything else. They all reflect each other.
Chantel started out making videos, and then became one of the first people to get partnerships with companies like Revolve, Samsung, Uber, and Loreal as a brand ambassador. In experiencing how deals like these were done, Chantel realized there was more opportunity to be had. Investing in companies and then supporting them made sense, because she believed in the product, and her value add was multifaceted: capital, network, audience… Chantel compares work life to playing games like Zelda or King of Hearts as a teenager, in which the player would go on a quest and have to collect the jewels or find the tools to get to the goal. The journey is the game. And the journey is meant to be enjoyed. Chantel enjoys her life quest.
In this episode, she shows us about her unorthodox approach to success and how our success can be limitless too. Chantel grew up in a military family, in which she learned the value of discipline and hard work. With these values instilled in her, Chantel shows us how taking risks aren’t really risks because if you put hard work into anything, something will give.
Chantel worked hard even as a young person, creating jobs for herself from the beginning. At 14, on the day she could get a job, she walked down the street and started at Arbys. Before that, Chantel did everything from babysitting, to washing cars and cat sitting for neighbors, to reselling her friends’ old phones on Ebay: hustling. Chantel has never been afraid to work hard.
Now, she doesn’t have to work so hard. She tells us about how to create systems and become the engineer of our lives. This approach requires thought. It requires mindfulness. It requires strategy. This approach offsets chaos and pressure. “There are infinite ways to do things,” Chantel shares, “How can I have the most enjoyment while doing them?”
Chantel is also not afraid to be authentically herself. In a sense, she is as she always has been. She tells us about rediscovering her old Macbook, in which photobooth she found the archive of videos she made from age 16 to 21. In these videos, Chantel would make videos (VLOGS) for her friends, and then answer questions from people on Tumblr, just for fun. Her life now and her hobbies now, are an extension of that joy. She keeps hobbies like tennis, golf, and rollerblading. She likes the aesthetic things in life and lives her life as if it were a hobby in itself: health is a hobby, figuring out equations is a hobby, decorating her house is a hobby… You get the picture. Chantel defines herself as curious and full of energy, and these hobbies definitely demonstrate that.
There is an incredible opportunity in listening to this conversation, and understanding the approach of someone who seems to ‘have it all’ and whose life may look like it came easy. It looks easy because Chantel has worked hard and made mindful and intelligent decisions. Her life approach is innovative. I hope you are as inspired by this conversation as I was. Soak it in!
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At 18 years old, Raquelle Stevens came to Los Angeles on a whim. Her family was moving from Chicago, and she felt called to take the risk alongside them, understanding that what is beyond our comfort zone is often what is good for us.
Raquelle’s story is one of following the signs. It begins with a good side-of-the-road car cry on Highland, in which she prayed, “God, if this is where I am meant to be, I pray that I would make the best friends I’ve made in my entire life and that you would make it really clear. And I’m going to give it one year, or I’m moving back to Chicago.” Shortly after, those friends appeared.
She had set out to do journalism, studying in Chicago and transferring to a Los Angeles college. However, Raquelle quickly realized that her life was taking a different path, in which she would do things that shed light in big ways. It was a vague destination, but a clear signal.
And, fast forward to now, she has. A great example is the bestselling book Raquelle wrote with Tanya Rad: The Sunshine Mind. The Sunshine Mind was born out of the pain they witnessed people experience in the pandemic. Together, they shared their wisdom in relationships, in faith, in overcoming low self-esteem and loneliness. Their aim was to give people courage. The Sunshine Mind’s underlying message is that there is more light in the world than darkness. There is more good in the world than bad.
Raquelle breaks down the process of writing a book, and the vulnerability within it as she shares personal stories of hope and overcoming adversity. Vulnerability plays into all of Raquelle’s work, as she shares about the process of making My Mind And Me, the Apple+ Selena Gomez documentary which Raquelle produced and starred in. In all of the ways that Raquelle grants people access into her world, there is a dash of vulnerability, because it is a one-way window into her real life and real friendships. She does this in the hopes to share the wisdom that we can change the world with how we love. Raquelle explains how love begins with patience, and she demonstrates this truth in how she moves through the world, as you will hear in this episode. I hope you enjoy our time in the tub together!
This episode is brought to you by Fractal Forest. Fractal Forest is an Earth-Tek research collective restoring meaningful connection between humanity and the Earth. I wanted to share how I personally use FRACTAL FOREST products. Their shilajit drops help with my focus and energy levels. I’m someone who often wakes up with a burst of energy, which gradually wanes as the day goes on. I have noticed a change in my energy and ability to focus since I started implementing Fractal Forest Shilajit drops into my daily routine. I think what makes Fractal Forest so special is that they use only earth elements in their formulation process: this means No synthetic additives or preservatives are included and it shows - the sensation is pure, the plant is pure! Whether I’m drinking the blue lotus tea, or imbibing drops of dream state, shilajit, these herbs enhance my experience of life. You can use our code SABBATH22 to receive a 22% discount on your next order. We look forward to seeing how it enhances your overall health too!
To join Secular Sabbath membership, you can find us at secular-sabbath.com/membership. Joining grants you access to our Inner Circle community of sensory-exploring like-minded people, where you can gather with us locally in LA for monthly meet-up experiences, and pop-up events around the globe, and partake in our exclusive ambient online community.
Ready to dive into the dialogue deeper? Join us on our Discord channel.
See what we get up to at
@secularsabbath
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Carlo Montagnese, known in the music industry as Illangelo, has been exploring his musical landscape since childhood. He is best known for his work with the Weeknd in creating The Trilogy, and songs like “The Hills” which has accrued billions of streams. Hitting major mainstream professional success relatively young, Carlo moved to LA from Canada to continue collaborating with interesting artists. However, a good life in LA didn’t come easy. He describes the beginning as a ‘disaster,’ when he had been hyperfocused on the goal of ‘making it’ in Hollywood.
Yet, it was while living in Los Angeles that Carlo deepened his relationship to nature, the earth, and spirituality. Carlo believes it takes three to four years to drop into a culture of a place. Eventually in LA, he found his people, his friendships: deeper connections. It was through exploring different dietary options and ultimately the film Game Changers, that Carlo committed to a life of veganism, and active care for all life forms. Through an initial 10 day silent Vipassana meditation retreat in Joshua Tree, Carlo connected to the importance of breath, and his physical body.
In Tub Talks, Carlo shares about this journey into living a life in alignment with the earth across self care, creativity in music, and integrating technologies of the future. We can learn from Carlo about cryptocurrency, AI, music, spirituality, and creativity. Most significantly, he shows us how they intersect and blossom together.
Carlo sees cryptocurrency as the future. He impresses upon us how we need to have a more secure financial system, and that is possible through the blockchain. We have access to storage of value, and that means having access to our finances. Financial freedom is in alignment with creative freedom. Carlo describes why cryptocurrency can be successful, but cautions behaviors that lean on ‘get rich quick’ schemes.
Carlo looks at 'storages of value' across different genres of life. He not only warns about ‘get rich quick’ schemes in crypto, but also in popular music, and health and wellness. A way of shifting that desire could be utilizing his idea of observation as a way of being. Carlo says that his life has shifted into a state of ‘observation’ in opposition to manifesting. This life shift includes having moved to Miami, surrounding himself with good people, creating his own music, spending more time with family, and playing games.
There is much wisdom from the way Carlo moves authentically through life, and there are many nuggets of information shared in this bath. Perhaps this is the first bath in his life, as we quickly learn when we start soaking, and you will too. Soak it up!
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Today we're diving into the remarkable journey of Orville Peck, who is best known as a one-of-a-kind country artist who's been captivating hearts with his soulful music and creative, inclusive spirit.
Our story with Orville begins with an unexpected connection that occurred during the heart of the pandemic. He and Genevieve met via Diplo at Joshua Tree Acres, where Secular Sabbath holds the annual May retreat. Peck remembers this experience well, as his music is often inspired by the desert, specifically the hauntingly beautiful Joshua Tree landscape. This environment has become a source of solace for Orville, reminding him of his South African homeland. Even though he had moved to California a decade ago, the desert's solitude and stark beauty struck a chord in him connecting him back to his roots.
Life outside of South Africa meant dealing with the challenges of being an immigrant and navigating cultures far different from his upbringing. Yet, he has always embraced ‘an escapist personality,’ throwing himself into a world of music. Orville's musical journey has taken him through various genres. He even toured with punk bands, reminiscing here about the days of driving 13 hours with drums in his lap, playing at empty bars, and crashing on people's floors. These, he reflects, have been some of the happiest days of his life.
Orville's unique voice and deep love for music led him to explore classical British theater training, where he discovered a truly distinctive low voice. He decided to weave country music with avant-garde elements, pulling inspiration from David Bowie and seeing how that perspective could apply to country music. Orville’s blend of musical influence and knowledge is diverse, and it is reflected in his songs. He educates us on how country music comes from around the world, such as the banjo being brought into play by slaves, fiddles from Irish farmers, inspiration from gospel, and Mexican cowboy culture. He reveals the deep worldly history of country music.
Yet, Orville has faced resistance and criticism from country culture, questioning his authenticity as a country artist. The notion that country music is reserved for a certain type of person hasn’t detered him. Orville describes himself as a classic country artist.
However, his music has reached mainstream culture, with songs like ‘Dead At Night,” featured on the hit show "Euphoria." He shares the history of where this song came from, touching back on the loneliness he experienced in his sexual identity within straight punk community. However, Orville didn't set out to intertwine his sexuality with his music. He dislikes the label of "queer country.”
The podcast episode delves into Orville's experiences with friendships, his late entry into queer communities, and how these connections not only made him feel more accepted, but also boosted his confidence in embracing his uniqueness. He's learned to collaborate with others and appreciates how his career has allowed him to support both himself and his family, and grow beyond his wildest dreams.
Orville Peck's journey is a testament to the power of staying true to yourself and pushing boundaries, regardless of the challenges and expectations you might face. It's a story of artistry, authenticity, and the strength to continue to follow one's own path. Enjoy!
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In this podcast episode, Pablo and I dive into his history with Esalen Institute and beyond. Pablo Piekar came to Esalen Institute in the late 1980’s for what was supposed-to-be a Gestalt workscholar month. He ended up staying there for 16 years, working as a Esalen Massage Therapist and workshop facilitator.
Back in Argentina, he was a licensed psychotherapist at 22 years old. But when he arrived at Esalen, someone told him he was going to heal people with his hands instead, and that he was going to teach people how to give massages. When he said he didn't know how, she said to him, “You don’t teach technique, you teach love.”
Pablo went on to practice and teach Esalen Massage around the world, starting on the land itself, but traveling as far as Japan to share this technique.
At Esalen, he found community. He found purpose. He met his wife. It was all going until Pablo injured his wrist. In this moment, his body told him he needed to leave and use his brain again - use his intellect. He shares how the body reveals the deeper truth, whether you want to hear it or not. It was really hard to leave the womb of Esalen, where everything was provided for him: from three meals a day, to community and comfort.
He refers to Esalen as ‘Mama Esalen,’ a safe place to hold onto. Pablo shares that Esalen is a community, in which people get really close to each other. And when you are coming from a place of authenticity, conflict arises with others. He talks the spirit of Esalen, about how getting naked is not just about removing the clothes but in a symbolic way, it’s about opening up to your authentic self. He impresses the importance of honoring and loving your body today as it's the best body you have today. He urges us not to compare it to others. "Support your authenticity," he says, "That is the spirit of Esalen." We talk about the preschool named Gazebo, that was formulated under the principles of Gestalt in which the kids are allowed to fight. The kids come out of the fights much closer, and my childhood best friend and I are prime examples.
When Pablo left Esalen after his injury, he wanted to incorporate these wisdoms into advising businesses. However, he didn’t have the business languaging. He moved to Santa Cruz and got his masters on organizational behavior, which is the behavior of science applied to business environments. In this conversation, he shares about how his education at Esalen directly applies to his executive coaching clients.
In this conversation, we meander through philosophies of Esalen, the history of Esalen, and how to live and share a life of meaning. Pablo left Esalen many years ago and returned to Argentina to live with his family, where he advises businesses on how to function better with a background in psychotherapy, gestalt, and bodywork. In the bath, he shares about how his wife and him met at Esalen, how they transitioned into the outside world and grew their family in a multicultural and mindful way. We hope you enjoy getting to know Pablo Piekar.
This episode is brought to you by Fractal Forest. Fractal Forest is an Earth-Tek research collective restoring meaningful connection between humanity and the Earth. I wanted to share how I personally use FRACTAL FOREST products. Their shilajit drops help with my focus and energy levels. I’m someone who often wakes up with a burst of energy, which gradually wanes as the day goes on. I have noticed a change in my energy and ability to focus since I started implementing Fractal Forest Shilajit drops into my daily routine. I think what makes Fractal Forest so special is that they use only earth elements in their formulation process: this means No synthetic additives or preservatives are included and it shows - the sensation is pure, the plant is pure! Whether I’m drinking the blue lotus tea, or imbibing drops of dream state, shilajit, these herbs enhance my experience of life. You can use our code SABBATH22 to receive a 22% discount on your next order. We look forward to seeing how it enhances your overall health too!
To join Secular Sabbath membership, you can find us at secular-sabbath.com/membership. Joining grants you access to our Inner Circle community of sensory-exploring like-minded people, where you can gather with us locally in LA for monthly meet-up experiences, and pop-up events around the globe, and partake in our exclusive ambient online community.
Ready to dive into the dialogue deeper? Join us on our Discord channel.
See what we get up to at
@secularsabbath
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For our season finale of Tub Talks, we soak with my first friend ever in life, Nitsa Citrine. Nitsa and I became friends upon her birth, 9 days after mine. Our parents all met at Esalen Institute in Big Sur, and created us there, with her mother famously even sharing her breast milk with me from time to time. We have been fostering friendship for over 30 years; allowing Nitsa and me to share our earliest childhood memories that molded us and our relationship into who we are today. Nitsa and I discuss our unconventional upbringings, drawn up by strong-personalitied parents who pushed against societal norms and imbued that into us.
As we share memories, Nitsa details the first moments of her entering adulthood through various jobs from working as barista at a local coffee shop and assisting an energy healer, to working as a server at an upscale restaurant where she would meet Scott, with whom she developed a successful herbal supplement brand. Nitsa shares her journey in her early twenties of building a business around her passion of nourishment from ground up: from pushing samples in markets to traveling the world speaking on panels and being a thought-leader in the wellness space. Nitsa was written up and interviewed for nearly every major news outlet.
As her business grew, her opportunities for exploration grew simultaneously. She created the “Women with Super Powers” photography series featuring women like Jane Goodall. A series she co-created with Tasya van Ree to emphasize women empowerment by photographing and interviewing women who live in their strengths.
After struggling with her own physical ailments, Nitsa was forced to acknowledge her traumas which had manifested into the somatic experience. Nitsa recounts working with a mentor for business management who has counseled her in navigating death cycles, childhood traumas and being present. Growing up in an unconventional environment, Nitsa chronicles her first and only experience with Western Medicine as a result of unresolved metaphysical traumas. She imparts her wisdom of how pain can bring us to a threshold of what we think we know is right or wrong, and trusting in our intuitions. This trust can lead us into new territory, and new decision-making.
Listen now to peek into a genuine relationship of two people who have continued friendship while authentically being themselves!
To join Secular Sabbath membership, you can find us at secular-sabbath.com/membership. Joining grants you access to our Inner Circle community of sensory-exploring like-minded people, where you can gather with us locally in LA for monthly meet-up experiences, and pop-up events around the globe, and partake in our exclusive ambient online community.
Ready to dive into the dialogue deeper? Join us on our Discord channel.
See what we get up to at @secularsabbath.
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Soaking in an indoor bath on the cliffs of Big Sur with Emily Birmingham brings me into deep nostalgia and remembrance of the history of our home. Emily’s family has been calling Big Sur home for the past 4 generations, starting with her great grandparents migrating to Northern California before Highway 1 was even a road. Emily and I have known each other since we were children, growing up adjacent: with me at Esalen, while Emily was at Nepenthe.
Being from a small isolated island-like space, Emily and I discuss how there are unwritten rules of engagement that are autonomous to locals, and could be triggering to tourists. From my own experiences with bringing my new friends and family to Esalen and Big Sur, to Emily sharing her love for New York with her partner, we discuss unspoken social rules, and wherein they can be dismantled. Growing up in such a unique environment, we discuss the changes we experience as Big Sur evolves.
Emily’s family is known in Big Sur culture for having created the famous ocean-side restaurant with an amazing view: Nepenthe. Emily explains how having the opportunity of employment through her family is something she is grateful for, but feels that in order to graduate and continue she has chosen to explore life in her own outlets through working at Post Ranch. Emily explains how, as she continues her life in Big Sur, she makes concerted efforts to explore herself through new hobbies and personal interests, while conceptualizing how to preserve the culture and heritage that her family has stewarded.
Emily’s parents started The Big Sur Arts Initiative. Within the program was “Stage Kids,” a multi-week summer camp for the children of Big Sur to create stage performances. In essence, it was a theater camp. But it was so much more. Within Stage Kids, the kids were given a loose storyline such as “1001 Arabian Nights” and given a week to write their lines, create songs, build a set/costumes/structure, and perform at the local Grange on the weekend. Stage Kids existed as a means of creative expression and simultaneously developed a youth community in an environment where we were physically separated by mountains and sea. For Big Sur, similarly to what we have with Secular Sabbath, the community doesn’t need a physical space for people to share and collaborate. It just needs a shared activity. And Stage Kids is the heart of what Emily and I shared together as children.
The way Emily relates to living in Big Sur now is with quiet self-awareness. She shares examples of how pop culture and exploration of the world outside herself and Big Sur has always been important to her. She has even found a way to imbue pop culture elements into how she relates to Big Sur. For example, in her early 20’s, Emily popped up a tiny shop at Loma Vista where she and her cofounder would create knick knacks for passersbys and locals alike: little pieces of magic that tie in Big Sur to the rest of the world such as a hand-painted matchbox with a collage of Aaliyah on it that I bought from her all those years ago or candles with celebrity faces on them. There was an element of fun, an element of irony, of magic and a tie in with nature to the shop. Emily sees how meaningful experiences are vital to life, and creating meaningful experiences can come in all forms: the comforts of a great pair of socks fitting right, the event that helps to discover potential, or even a concert. Emily explains that in Big Sur, there can be a scarcity mentality - not enough people to date, dinners and concerts feel expensive, housing is limited. But she doesn’t adhere to that mentality. She embraces the things she has and enjoys life. In sharing about her home, the ways she spends money on things that bring her joy like good dinner and special moments, Emily shows us how to break free from self-created limitations or past conditioning. She leads by example, and gets us excited about what’s to come in Big Sur and her life as the road unfolds. Listen now to see through a window into my hometown through the lens of a fellow Big Sur local!
To join Secular Sabbath membership, you can find us at secular-sabbath.com/membership. Joining grants you access to our Inner Circle community of sensory-exploring like-minded people, where you can gather with us locally in LA for monthly meet-up experiences, and pop-up events around the globe, and partake in our exclusive ambient online community.
Ready to dive into the dialogue deeper? Join us on our Discord channel.
See what we get up to at @secularsabbath.
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This week we sit in a hot tub for the first time with musical composer and artist, Aska Matsumiya. Aska is at the end of her third trimester of pregnancy as we bathe. Her belly is full and ripe, and the baby is ready to come out any day. Aska shares her experience on approaching early motherhood for a second time, 20 years after the birth of her first and only daughter, Bebel. Immigrating from Japan to California with her family as a young lady, Aska remembers her experience of cultural and linguistic differences between the two nations from childhood through today. Since she was three, Aska’s relationship with composition and piano grew as her own language, an alternative method of expression when words and socializing did not come naturally.
Aska explains how her relationship with piano continued to blossom and guided her towards her dream of going to Julliard, landing her at American art schools in her early childhood education. However, when Aska was 15, she found authentic friendship in school with kids who were alternative, artistic, and exposed her to a foreign genre of music: Punk. Aska experienced her first punk concert that would bring her to drop out of high school, drop her dream of being a concert pianist, and join her own punk band with whom she would begin touring in a van. Yet, life quickly had a different plan: at 19, Aska was pregnant, inciting her to quit the band and embark on her next journey in life: motherhood.
As a young mother, Aska describes how she dove into the musical culture of Seattle, playing in indie bands in the Sub Pop era. Her love of variant genres of music and doing odd jobs like working for fashion magazines, consulting for brands, or even playing piano for ballet classes helped to develop the skills, and give her experiences that would weave together to make her better at scoring films now. People come to her because she knows the patterns of classical music and simultaneously knows how to break all of the rules. People come to her to score films when they want something different.
At 25 years old, Aska began her scoring journey through working with director Crystal Moselle, composing pieces for various fashion clips and then, her breakout film: The Wolfpack. ‘There Are Many Of Us’ was Aska’s first original song featured as the central theme song of Spike Jonze’s film, ‘I’m Here’. Spike told her she could make things and that could be her work. This nugget was mind blowing, and helped Aska to transition from taking on all of the odd jobs she was piecing together, to focusing in on composing scores full time.
Aska now incorporates her cultural identity with her Japan-based music production company: Black Cat White Cat Music, which she created with her brother. They curate musical artists from around the world to create original soundscapes and songs for Japanese commercials and productions. Aska explains cultural differences she has encountered in the Japanese business space. She explains that in Japan, trust comes from words. Whereas in America, everything is contracted. She describes how growing up in America has helped her and her brother create a bridge between Japanese culture and the world outside. Aska sees that the way people listen to music in Japan or Germany, resonates with the way that she likes to create music. She observes that Japanese culture is more comfortable with silence and space. She describes a Japanese word that doesn’t translate to English conceptually or lexically: “Kue-issho.” She couldn’t think of the word exactly in the bath, but later said that it is a Buddhist thought that means “you will eventually find yourself meeting up again with the one you wished for, in one place, and to keep that strength to seek the hope in destiny.”
Aska and I first met through our mutual close friend Desiree, who passed away in a tragic and shocking surfing accident in 2015. Our individual friendship began through our shared mourning and loss of someone we loved. Aska shares how she composed an album as an expression of her grief for Desiree, but she never released it. Simply the act of creating it was cathartic.
Surfing had been a passion that Desiree and Aska enjoyed together. Aska learned to surf from our collaborator and Tub Talks guest, Kassia Meador. Aska was scoring a surf film for Kassia, and it was in the experience of paying attentions to the details, the micromovements and how to play sound to the movement, that she became interested in experiencing it herself. When she asked Kassia about it, Kassia put all the necessary materials into her hands and took Aska into the water. Aska describes surfing as feeling like a child on a playground because it’s playful. She understands how fundamentally important it is to feel joy so simply. Adults can forget how to have fun. Surfing elicits that joy in Aska’s life. And this conversation inspires us to find these joys, and our passions, in ourselves. I hope you enjoy this deep soak with my friend in bloom, Aska Matsumiya!
To join Secular Sabbath membership, you can find us at secular-sabbath.com/membership. Joining grants you access to our Inner Circle community of sensory-exploring like-minded people, where you can gather with us locally in LA for monthly meet-up experiences, and pop-up events around the globe, and partake in our exclusive ambient online community.
Ready to dive into the dialogue deeper? Join us on our Discord channel.
See what we get up to at @secularsabbath.
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This week we soak with musician and newly inspired home ‘landscaper,’ Austin Bisnow. Austin and I have connected over taking walks with our dogs in the mountains. Today we spend time in the bath, where he shares his path to creating his band, Magic Giant and the magical story of meeting his life partner.
Austin grew up in Washington D.C. and now lives in Los Angeles. He made stops in New York and Boulder, CO along the way. However, it wasn't until living in Venice, CA where, as he describes it, “he discovered he could be himself and it was embraced.” Inspired by the life of artists like Benny Blanco, Jon Batiste and his friend Doug Akin (not to be confused with the fine artist Doug Aitken). Yet his biggest inspiration was his own brother Elliott Bisnow - founder of Summit. Austin explains how he wouldn’t self-describe as musically gifted - but that his work ethic and dedication to what he loves (writing and producing songs) is what drives his success as an artist. Before starting his own band, Austin produced and wrote songs for other musicians, including Listen by David Guetta that featured John Legend. Austin recounts how he manifested this collaboration before either of the two artists ever met each other.
As a firm believer in manifestation, Austin details how he called in his wife and life partner, Deena, through a series of manifestation exercises including a list of qualities and characteristics. Only a few months after completing the exercise, Austin would meet Deena. Austin traveled from California to New York and then to Montreal to “chase the women of his dreams.”
Throughout his career, Austin mainly focused on pop records, but after attending Lollapalooza in Chicago and seeing Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, he was inspired to start a folk-electronic band: thus, the birth of Magic Giant. He observed that not only did they create a full band, but the energy in the emitted was infectious to the crowd and created a community. Community is something he actively builds with Magic Giant now. Listen now to hear how drive and manifestation have created synchronistic moments in Austin’s life journey!
To join Secular Sabbath membership, you can find us at secular-sabbath.com/membership. Joining grants you access to our Inner Circle community of sensory-exploring like-minded people, where you can gather with us locally in LA for monthly meet-up experiences, and pop-up events around the globe, and partake in our exclusive ambient online community.
Ready to dive into the dialogue deeper? Join us on our Discord channel.
See what we get up to at @secularsabbath.
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This week we soak in the tub with Elena Stonaker, a long-time collaborator and multi-disciplinary artist whose artwork you may recognize from many of our Secular Sabbath environments, such as our giant green snake and larger-than-life mushrooms. Elena is a full-time ethereal artist, living in her whimsical inner landscape. A lot of her art is born out of her bedroom. In this episode, Elena and I reminisce on the earliest moments of our personal friendship through exploring an unconventional way of socializing that has come to define us both, and a live drawing class that would be imbued into the framework of Secular Sabbath.
Elena was inspired to host a live drawing class in her home after taking a figure drawing class in art school and painting on (her friend) Sarah Buckley’s body. Hosting a loosely-led class in the landscape of her soft sculptures was a way for Elena to hold space for others to be creative, while simultaneously and perhaps unintentionally, creating an unprecedented way for others to relax and hang out in Los Angeles.
Art and creativity ooze throughout Elena’s life, whether it is in the business or personal realm. Elena shares about the benefits and learning opportunities that exist in being a self-employed full-time artist. An example she describes is a commission from a friend - the opportunity to create a cat couch soft sculpture. She has learned from these experiences how to navigate expressing her own creative impetus, while collaborating with someone else’s vision and what they want as an end product. She compares commissions to giving birth to a child. And the metaphor sticks in our minds.
Coming from the lineage of creative resourceful parents, Elena was encouraged to explore an artistic life. Elena remembers a distinct adolescent moment when her surprise birthday party became a core memory, where her ethereal homelife clashed with her traditional assimilated school life. This led her into a melting pot of life in the inner and outer world coming together. Through working with beads in her art, Elena creates a meditative process which she describes as sowing prayers which originates from Southern American indigenous cultures. Beads became a staple in her art because she sees them as something small; when in a collective multitude, beads create something magnificent.
Elena strives to portray a childlike space to experience feelings. From her “Big Mama” to our Secular Sabbath snake and green mushrooms, Elena creates a place for community to be held. Listen now to take a glance into Elena’s ethereal inner landscape!
To join Secular Sabbath membership, you can find us at secular-sabbath.com/membership. Joining grants you access to our Inner Circle community of sensory-exploring like-minded people, where you can gather with us locally in LA for monthly meet-up experiences, and pop-up events around the globe, and partake in our exclusive ambient online community.
Ready to dive into the dialogue deeper? Join us on our Discord channel.
See what we get up to at @secularsabbath.
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This week on Tub Talks, we soak in with one of my Esalen and Big Sur elders, Vicki Topp. Vicki has practiced bodywork for many decades alongside our first Tub Talks guest, Deborah Anne Medow. Vicki shares her journey of landing in Big Sur, as well as her immersion into the world of bodywork (massage therapy and other practices). She even demonstrates her skill set on my body during the bath!
In the immediate aftermath of an eye injury the evening before our soak, Vicki opens the conversation with her original concept of something she calls ‘alternative futures’: a theory that guides her through encountering the possibilities of how to navigate life experiences, including the difficult ones.
Falling pregnant in college, Vicki dropped out of law school and found herself in Big Sur. From working with elementary school children at Pacific Valley School in the south coast of Big Sur to starting the massage program at Ventana in Big Sur, Vicki details how Big Sur has always “kept her.” She compares her life in Big Sur to a long term relationship, seeing how her dynamic has shifted and adapted over the years. She tells us about her relationship to learning, to housing, to dating, to boats. She talks about losing friends to death as a result of brainwashing in experimental groups in the 70’s. She talks about losing friends now, as she enters a different phase of life.
Vicki uses bodywork as her way of impacting society, teaching her technique across the world. Vicki’s experience of practicing bodywork is defined by working with a client, as opposed to working on someone. She describes bodywork metaphorically. She sees parallels to life through something she calls ‘reach patterns.’ Reach patterns are both physical and emotional. They can delineate the way we reach for our dreams, or expand the length of our arms from our body. Vicki claims to have grown reach patterns in her body, while being limited in her life goals. Vicki gives us permission to be unapologetically ourselves through her demonstration of how. Vicki paves the way by showing us how to be a strong, independent, intelligent woman. Her vulnerability and honesty about being lost in a nowness is permissive too. So soak in her wisdom, and learn a little bit more about Big Sur culture and the stewarding of the land through living as Vicki Topp!
To join Secular Sabbath membership, you can find us at secular-sabbath.com/membership. Joining grants you access to our Inner Circle community of sensory-exploring like-minded people, where you can gather with us locally in LA for monthly meet-up experiences, and pop-up events around the globe, and partake in our exclusive ambient online community.
Ready to dive into the dialogue deeper? Join us on our Discord channel.
See what we get up to at @secularsabbath.
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This week we soak in the bath with Lindsey Ross, the modern-day woman behind the lens of the 19th-century wet plate photography: The Alchemistress. Over the last few years, you may have encountered her unique style of photography at a few of our events where she is typically covered in her classic overalls with her mobile darkroom van parked nearby and her unique pop-up portrait studio within reach. With nature as a focal point for many of her subjects, Lindsey’s work brings a sense of wonder, curiosity, and intrigue especially as the images reveal themselves on the glass plates, changing before our very eyes. There is a sense of slowing down, of patience that comes with her process, something that resonates with what we too create in all of our sensory experiences. With her latest body of work, she has stepped into our dreamy world to play with us and has even brought a few of our own familiar faces to the moody dream world in her latest mushroom series.
In this episode, we learn all about her upbringing in Southern California and her discovery of this large-format style of photography. This field of photography had been traditionally dominated by men at the beginning. When she broke into the community of photographers who are still keeping this art form alive, she brought a unique passion for mixing the modern era with the classic lens to shape her own approach. We’ll sit in on her story around why she pursued this unique style, her personal discovery of learning how to master this time-consuming and laborious process, and how she is giving new life to this old-world art form. Lindsey creates tintype and ambrotype portraits and landscape images. Most recently, she has been working on a mushroom portrait series, where her subjects seem to be shrunken down to the world of insects lounging about in a mythological setting. You can even find some of our own inner circle members among the mix. Listen now to her artist’s journey or go see her large-scale glass photos in person at her studio next time you’re visiting the coast of Santa Barbara.
To join Secular Sabbath membership, you can find us at secular-sabbath.com/membership. Joining grants you access to our Inner Circle community of sensory-exploring like-minded people, where you can gather with us locally in LA for monthly meet-up experiences, and pop-up events around the globe, and partake in our exclusive ambient online community.
Ready to dive into the dialogue deeper? Join us on our Discord channel.
See what we get up to at @secularsabbath.
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This week, we sit in the tub with Mars: Secular Sabbath collaborator, folk herbalist and earth lover. Mars inspires us by outlining the path she went through on her journey in coming back to herself and her culture through herbal healing. As she went on to help others heal themselves through her Dose of Diosa community, she guides people through remembering, a term which carries bespoke meaning for Mars.
Through exposing the people around her to their states of remembering, Mars speaks to moments of sharing with women, bringing themselves back to nature through learning about the healing properties of everything the Earth has to offer us. Mars shares how powerful these rememberings have been in what she calls “shifting consciousness.”
Mars recounts her journey in reconnecting with her heritage of the indigenous people of El Salvador, starting with an intimate tea ceremony as an inspirational healing practice. The intuitive feeling that grew from this personal healing is what drove her to her purpose: plant healer and teacher. Starting out by attending events with her own blend of herbal teas, Mars spread her mission of guiding people to have safe spaces with nature from walks to plant medicine ceremonies. She learned entrepreneurship through trial and error, and in this conversation, she tells stories of where she has been (from working at an insurance company) to where she is going.
After discovering her passion for healing, Mars continues to explore new avenues in which she can further this self awareness by exploring her dreams. Referencing our own Secular Sabbath Book Club read, Dream Yoga, Mars explains how dreams can further this remembering, and dreams also express areas of her inner psyche. Spaces that are open for healing.
As Mars recounts her experience of living a conventional 9-to-5 life in hopes of changing and rewriting her indigenous history, she finds through her remembering that the Earth has always given her everything she needed. Listen now to be inspired to seek your own remembering!
To join Secular Sabbath membership, you can find us at secular-sabbath.com/membership. Joining grants you access to our Inner Circle community of sensory-exploring like-minded people, where you can gather with us locally in LA for monthly meet-up experiences, and pop-up events around the globe, and partake in our exclusive ambient online community.
Ready to dive into the dialogue deeper? Join us on our Discord channel.
See what we get up to at @secularsabbath.
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This week we sit in the tub with George Augusto, co-founder of fashion brand: STAUD, and Los Angeles restaurant and cafe: Kitchen Mouse. He met his two co-founders in the midst of a multitude of other ventures. Ventures that eventually failed, and whose failure led him to where he is today. George discusses how these experiences of failure gave him moments to discover his gifts and strong suits. Failure is a source of success.
George chronicles how getting a job as a production assistant on a commercial set was the moment that changed his life trajectory. He went from being arrested for deviant activities to leading creative endeavors. His entrepreneurial pursuits began with Dilettante: an enterprise George used to express his ADD ideas. From publishing books to releasing albums and hosting events, Dilettante gave George an avenue to connect with others. These meeting spaces are where George met two women who would become his current career partners, Erica Daking of Kitchen Mouse and Sara Staudinger of STAUD.
George discusses the balance between creative and corporate mentality in partnership, while learning to navigate leading teams as a result of scaling projects. George explains practices that his team introduced as they grew and the essential components that come into play when collaborating in space that considers another person’s livelihood.
As George recounts key moments of his path into adulthood, he shares with us the magic of fate and how falling flat on your face sparks creative inspiration. He shows us the full picture, when we can be so focused on tunnel vision moments. Listen now to be inspired to reconsider your vantage point of your path.
To join Secular Sabbath membership, you can find us at secular-sabbath.com/membership. Joining grants you access to our Inner Circle community of sensory-exploring like-minded people, where you can gather with us locally in LA for monthly meet-up experiences, and pop-up events around the globe, and partake in our exclusive ambient online community.
Ready to dive into the dialogue deeper? Join us on our Discord channel.
See what we get up to at @secularsabbath.
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This week we soak in the bath with our close friend and co-founder of FriendsWithYou,
Sam Borkson. He started the art project FriendsWithYou with Tury many years ago, in order to help people open their creative channels. He shares about how they use elements of fine art to bring cuteness and a smile to people’s faces. He sees art as a unifier: a way to impact others through storytelling. He creates art as love letters. In this episode, he does it all through even just this conversation. We will learn about his deep desire to save, touch and heal the world by using his influence as a writer and animator to alter the narrative of children’s stories in a way to promote unity for the planet. He exists in a nonstop pursuit of friendship, kindness, and art! Making stuff is not easy. It is perseverance that gets us through. Being stubborn and committed to doing is not to be taken for granted and Sam shares that wisdom with us.
Sharing all about his past, Sam was raised in a broken Florida home. His childhood was exploratory: both outdoors, playing in the wild landscape, and in his inner landscape, in which he was reading about worldwide mythology, psychology, and religions. Much of this deep dive into the human psyche and various belief systems, helped lead him to the positive outlook he has about the power of art. Art has the capacity to shift the modern world. And as Sam tells us about the forthcoming FriendsWithYou projects such as Happy World and Oceans, we begin to understand the purpose before we even can conceptualize the project. We’ll find that like many, his personal rituals such as deepening connections to friends, childhood memories, and staying true to his authentic self (even while surrounded by Hollywood chaos) - these are what’s keeping him grounded in his practice as an artist. Talking with Sam, a passionately playful individual, brought a smile to our faces, and we hope it brings just as much joy to you too. Listen now to discover how he harnesses a unique essence of happiness in everything he creates.
To join Secular Sabbath membership, you can find us at secular-sabbath.com/membership. Joining grants you access to our Inner Circle community of sensory-exploring like-minded people, where you can gather with us locally in LA for monthly meet-up experiences, and pop-up events around the globe, and partake in our exclusive ambient online community.
Ready to dive into the dialogue deeper? Join us on our Discord channel.
See what we get up to at @secularsabbath.
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This week on Tub Talks we revisit some of the most insightful conversations that we’ve had in the baths. Listen to our best moments with our first 11 guests as we look back on our favorite talks with Mia Moretti, Sophie Hawley-Weld, Austyn Weiner, B. Hayes, Loria Stern, Scout LaRue Willis, Krotchy, Mia Maestro, Kassia Meador, Niia Rocco, and my own mother Deborah Medow. Enjoy these little moments we’ve plucked from our deeper discussions, then dive into their full episodes next!
To join Secular Sabbath membership, you can find us at secular-sabbath.com/membership. Joining grants you access to our Inner Circle community of sensory-exploring like-minded people, where you can gather with us locally in LA for monthly meet-up experiences, and pop-up events around the globe, and partake in our exclusive ambient online community.
Ready to dive into the dialogue deeper? Join us on our Discord channel.
See what we get up to at
@secularsabbath
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This week we are joined under the oak tree for a soak with DJ and artist, Mia Moretti. A Bay Area native, Mia grew up in an alternative household in Northern California where creativity flowed. Her childhood was colored by her parents’ culture of freedom and exploration, encouraging Mia to follow her dreams of moving in the big city rhythm. In her childhood home, there was always music and jamming, but as someone who didn’t play instruments or sing, Mia had yet to find her place. Moving to LA at 18, Mia found herself fully immersed and comfortable in the music scene at clubs, where tracks ran wild into the night and she explored sound in her own way. This is where the story begins, as Mia thrust herself into the nightlife, absorbing the energy of the space and people around her. This is where she learned to embrace DJing as a means to transform people through the power of musical storytelling.
Starting to DJ at a young age in influential scenes, these opportunities pushed Mia to learn the art of vinyl. This acted as a form of training that would develop her own personal style and develop a niche sound, distinguishing her from others in the field. Mia tells us how her desire to become a curator in the music industry stemmed from her love of seeing the agency that DJs hold over an energetic group of people, and how the DJ’s role was to lead them on a specific journey through the night, guiding people in and out of moments of bliss. To ground herself in what can be a hectic part of the nightlife world, she takes action by writing poems (like she did during the pandemic), setting rituals for herself during long weeks, and wiping away fear by embracing her authentic self in her curation.
Music has become a way for Mia to transform the emotions, moods, and energies on the dance floor. We dive deep into her philosophy on the control DJs have over set and setting within the spaces they take over. With an inclusive mindset, Mia fosters community with her sound through beats that ask us to let loose, get outside of ourselves, and listen in to the quirky sounds that might pop into her mixes. As we discuss healing our childhood wounds through the modern-day experiences we create, we unveil how these moments of angst shaped the way Mia now approaches the world with a feeling of embodiment and forging her own path in life. As she continues to study, conceptualize, and experiment in her life, Mia invites us to drop into her poetic world of melodic tunes and learn about the backdrops of her life - the elements that influence her philosophies and artistic output. Mia reminds us that, at the core of her belief system, is a deep knowing that music and the earth have the power to connect us back together. Soak in these wisdoms now with our inspiring friend, Mia Moretti.
To join Secular Sabbath membership, you can find us at secular-sabbath.com/membership. Joining grants you access to our Inner Circle community of sensory-exploring like-minded people, where you can gather with us locally in LA for monthly meet-up experiences, and pop-up events around the globe, and partake in our exclusive ambient online community.
Ready to dive into the dialogue deeper? Join us on our Discord channel.
See what we get up to at @secularsabbath.
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This week we warm up in the tubs with our new friend Sophie Hawley-Weld. One-half of energetic and colorful duo Sofi Tukker, she’s a creative mind who interweaves culture, identity, and fun into her musical journey. On today’s episode, we dive in deep about our connection to community, mental health and rituals on the road, and the development that happens behind the scenes within her music projects. She is thankful for growing up with a life full of opportunities where she could mix and mingle with an international community. The expectation at school was always to become a diplomat or leader, so the concept of artistry as a form of giving back to the world was an eye-opening realization.
Initially pursuing academia at Brown University, Sophie was wavering in her passion after a big diversion: falling in love with Brazilian culture. She considered spurning it all, and moving to her heart home. It was in this love of Brazil, that she performed a Bossa Nova song at an event in providence where Tucker Halpern was also DJ’ing. It was there that the two began their musical and life collaboration.
However, music was always in her blood. As a child, she developed an interest in the Brazilian Bossa Nova genre from her exposure to a very international community, in which she found herself naturally drawn to the harmonious sound of the friends who spoke the Portuguese language. This draw would shape her world in more ways than one, as she explores language through words, music, lyrics and collaboration. In an embrace of beginner’s mind, Sophie isn’t afraid to explore the silly and playful side of writing songs, leaning into sound versus lyrical meaning. Now, she aims to get back to Brazil as much as possible to keep her creativity alive.
Using her stage performance as a form of expression, but also meditation, is a practice of presence for Sophie’s life. She tells us how she finds stepping onto the stage to be a way of letting all of her problems go. When she takes that first step in front of their audience, it is a time to be experimental, get silly, and share her most vibrant self to the world. The energy they get back from the audience is an even greater joy.
Loving the concept of what Sophie saw on Secular Sabbath from the internet, she was drawn to know more as her personality asks her always be curious, a trait that constantly guides her through wild experiences in her life. Realizing that this has been a key way to developing and opening up as an artist, she keeps this element of curiosity alive by saying yes to as many funky opportunities that present themselves. For her this is part of doing the work to stay fluid as an artist, keeping her work from being stagnant, and staying inspired to turn out new sounds under her project Sofi Tukker. So take a deep breathe with us as we settle into this inspiring conversation about managing creative passions and the balance of taking that to the professional level with Sophie Hawley-Weld.
To join Secular Sabbath membership, you can find us at secular-sabbath.com/membership. Joining grants you access to our Inner Circle community of sensory-exploring like-minded people, where you can gather with us locally in LA for monthly meet-up experiences, and pop-up events around the globe, and partake in our exclusive ambient online community.
Ready to dive into the dialogue deeper? Join us on our Discord channel.
See what we get up to at @secularsabbath.
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