Poema Podcast James Prescott

This week I begin a new series with my friend Amanda Held Opelt to discuss how grief is explored in superhero stories, and how they have become our modern mythology. 
Today we focus mainly on Batman, exploring his story sand how his grief transforms and initially controls him, with Batman an expression of his raw grief. We discuss some of the stories in prominent Batman movies, as Bruce Wayne processes his grief and eventually Batman becomes a symbol of hope. 
This episode explores how grief can control us if we let it, but if we allow ourselves to process it, it can transform us. 

This week Jenna DeWitt returns to the show for a conversation about Taylor Swift's recent album "Midnights" and the enneagram.
Jenna briefly introduces the enneagram and we talk a bit about Taylor's likely enneagram numbers 9 (3w4). Then we explore how this relates to the recent fallout with Ticketmaster regarding her tour.
Then we talk about how the album is reflective of Taylor's own personal and creative journey, her lived experiences and how she's often been perceived and treated by the media and those who aren't fans. 
We also discuss how many of the challenges she can face are typical of her enneagram number, and end by exploring how all of us, whatever our enneagram number can embrace our identities and move into growth and transformation. 

TW: Spiritual abuse, evangelicalism, toxic religion
 
Today I'm joined by Carissa (@carissaexplainsnothing) who courageously shares her story, including her deconstruction and experience of toxic religion.
She talks about her upbringing with evangelicalism, and a path she began to see as already pre-determined and inevitable.
Carissa shares some of the spiritual abuse she experienced, and the grief she experienced leaving evangelicalism behind, and at the end of her marriage. And then she tells us about her experience of deconstruction, the risks and the joys of creating a new life, and discovering who she's always been. 

This week I'm honoured to be joined by Candice Czubernat. She is a therapist (known as @lesbiantherapist on IG), and founder of The Christian Closet, an LGBTQ affirming counseling, coaching and spiritual direction organization. She is also the founder of Gloriously Queer a conference for LGBTQ people of faith developed by LGBTQ people of faith.
Today Candice shares her own story, talks about her work and her experiences as a therapist, particuarly focussing on grief.
We discuss our various experiences of grief, different types of grief - including loss of loved ones, relationships ending, and the grief of deconstruction - and how we can learn to respond to grief and process grief in healthy ways.

Today I'm joined by returning guests Trace Bell and Tina Olsen to discuss grief and the spirituality of dogs. 
Tina shares her experience of grief, and both her and Trace share their experiences with dogs, and learning and understanding their consciousness and building relationship with them, and how this can improve our mental health.
They discuss how dogs can be extra intuitive and aware of our emotions and needs almost before we are, and what this can teach us about learning to listen to our own intuition and our relationship with the earth.

In this week's episode author Amanda Held Opelt joins me to discuss the cultural and historical impact of the Black Death during the 1300's. 
We discuss the collective grief and trauma experienced by the countries impacted by the Black Death, and the longer term consequences for the church, culture and ultimately the history of western culture.
We explore the consequences of collective cultural grief and trauma, and talk about what the potential long term impact of COVID has and potentially will be for the world and our culture as a whole.