The soulnotskin Podcast with Jen SluMac

Jen SluMac
  • 5.0 (7)
  • Documentary

A podcast about the stories that shape us, connect us, and help us live with more honesty, compassion, and purpose. The soulnotskin Podcast shares honest human stories that help us see ourselves in each other. Through reflective conversations about childhood, identity, family, adversity, recovery, reinvention, and service, guests explore what shaped them, how they learned to cope, what those patterns protected or cost, and what helped them choose what came next. Listeners leave with greater recognition, compassion, and—when appropriate—a practical next step to explore. Real Stories. Real People. Real Insight. Becoming Who We Are. www.soulnotskin.com

  1. 17h ago

    The People We Fear May Be the Ones We Need

    Send us Fan Mail A red Winnebago, a box of ashes, and a woman who can’t outrun her guilt. That’s the emotional launch point for my conversation with author Leanne Walling, who published her debut novel *Salt and Light Express* at 69 and proves, in real time, that reinvention is not reserved for the young. We talk about the real-life pivot that got her there: the pandemic, a lingering regret, and an MFA that forced the work onto the page. From that foundation, we dig into what makes her story hit so hard: grief and healing after loss, the ache for community and belonging, and the surprising friendships that show up when you stop treating people like caricatures. If you’ve been worn down by polarization, echo chambers, and snap judgments, you’ll hear a different path forward here: curiosity, relationship, and humility. We also go into LGBTQ identity language across generations, why certain labels can feel accurate and still heavy, and how faith can be both a wound and a refuge. Leanne shares how spirituality threads through her novel, including the Sermon on the Mount roots of the title, and we wrestle with what Christianity even means in modern America when so much of it sounds like judgment. If you’re writing your own book, rebuilding after grief, or just trying to stay open-hearted in a tense world, you’ll leave with concrete encouragement and a few new questions worth sitting with. Subscribe, share this with a friend who needs hope, and leave a review so more people can find these stories. Lee Ann Walling on Substack: https://mfaandbeyond.substack.com Website: https://www.leeannwalling.com Resources & Workbooks: Book • Free Starter Guide • Heal What Raised You Workbook • Website © 2026 soulnotskin. All rights reserved.

    The People We Fear May Be the Ones We Need

  2. Sep 22

    You Cannot Earn Belonging By Giving Yourself Away

    Send us Fan Mail A life can look successful on paper while you are quietly starving for belonging. I sit down with Sunaina Mehta, founder of Design Your Next and former VP Global Head of Insights at HP, to unpack what happens when a high achieving woman realizes she has been living inside shapes set by culture, family, and workplaces rather than her own inner voice. Sunaina takes us from Dayton, Ohio to New Delhi at age 12, where she becomes an outsider in a familiar skin and learns to survive through perfectionism and relentless performance. We talk about the subtle brutality of chasing approval, the gendered rules that still decide who gets full validation, and the moment she recognizes a truth that changes everything: you cannot earn belonging by giving yourself away. From arranged marriage pressure to building a business just to buy her ticket out, her story offers a grounded look at agency, identity, and what it costs to keep fitting in. We also explore love and red flags, divorce and motherhood, and major career peaks, burnout, and a COVID era unraveling that forces a hard reset. Sunaina shares how she now reads body signals as real data, gets out of pure intellect, and builds a practice around what she calls Beautiful Power: not compliance, but co-design, creation, boundaries, and expansion. If you are navigating a career transition, rebuilding after betrayal, or trying to trust yourself again, you will take something practical from this conversation. Subscribe to Soul Not Skin, share this with a friend who needs a push toward agency, and leave a review so more listeners can find these stories. Link to Sunaina's website. Design Your Next is a strategic direction practice for enterprising women ready to author what's next. https://www.beautifulpower.studio Resources & Workbooks: Book • Free Starter Guide • Heal What Raised You Workbook • Website © 2026 soulnotskin. All rights reserved.

    You Cannot Earn Belonging By Giving Yourself Away

  3. Sep 7

    Jail to College: Why Willpower Isn’t the Missing Piece

    Send us Fan Mail You can’t “willpower” your way through reentry when the barriers are baked into vision care, literacy, trauma, and the way institutions respond to a record. I’m joined by Denise Richardson and Mildred McKinney, the founders of OpenGate Inc., an Oakland nonprofit that helps people move from incarceration into education, employment, leadership, and a new sense of possibility. Their work started with college readiness classes inside Santa Rita Jail and grew into one of the most practical, humane models I’ve seen for helping returning citizens land on campus and stay there. We talk about how AB 109 reshaped California’s reentry landscape, why the public’s worst fears didn’t come true, and what actually worked: job training, community college pathways, and consistent support. Denise and Mildred also unpack a huge hidden issue in education and workforce development for incarcerated students: undiagnosed learning differences and basic needs like glasses or hearing aids. When you add anxiety and near-universal PTSD to living in constant hypervigilance, “school failure” starts to look a lot like unmet needs. We get specific about DSPS accommodations that change outcomes fast, from extra time to quiet testing rooms to audiobooks and scribes. We also dig into the OG MACs model, where respected formerly incarcerated leaders mentor younger students, hold them accountable, and shift the culture through quiet, credible leadership. You’ll hear why “just get a job” is often disconnected from the reality of literacy, survival grooming, and the grief people carry back into the community, plus what OpenGate is building next with OG MAC Academy. If you care about reentry support, restorative justice, and real public safety solutions, listen through and share it with someone who needs a wider view, or needs support in their reentry. Then subscribe and leave a review on Apple Podcasts so more people can find these stories. https://oaklandliteracycoalition.org/open-gate-inc Resources & Workbooks: Book • Free Starter Guide • Heal What Raised You Workbook • Website © 2026 soulnotskin. All rights reserved.

    Jail to College: Why Willpower Isn’t the Missing Piece

  4. Sep 1

    Survivor’s Guilt After Leaving Prison - Chris Miner

    Send us Fan Mail You can believe in accountability and still question the way we punish. That tension is exactly where this conversation lives, and it gets real fast. I’m joined by Chris Miner, a mitigation specialist at the Champaign County Public Defender’s Office in Illinois who helps judges see the full human story behind a charge. Chris also brings lived experience: he’s been incarcerated, he’s been arrested many times, and he’s spent two decades building a life that proves people are more than their worst moment. We break down what mitigation actually means in the courtroom, how sentencing works, and why the state’s story often paints someone as a monster while the defense fights to add context like trauma history, untreated mental illness, addiction, foster care, homelessness, and poverty. We also talk about allocution, the moment when a defendant speaks, and how a few words can shape years of someone’s future. Along the way, we challenge the comforting myth that harsher punishment automatically produces safer communities, especially when prison offers little real rehabilitation and reentry support is full of barriers. The hardest part is also the most honest: Chris explains why “prison never really lets you leave,” and how survivor’s guilt and loss can turn this work into a kind of life sentence. If you care about criminal justice reform, restorative justice, public defender advocacy, reentry, or trauma informed approaches to safety, this one will sit with you. Subscribe so you don’t miss what’s next, share this with someone who still believes punishment is the whole answer, and please leave a review if the conversation inspires a new way of looking at things. ** Chris Miner is on Substack: https://chrisminer.substack.com Resources & Workbooks: Book • Free Starter Guide • Heal What Raised You Workbook • Website © 2026 soulnotskin. All rights reserved.

    Survivor’s Guilt After Leaving Prison - Chris Miner

  5. Aug 24

    Not In My Backyard, Until It’s My Nephew - Pr. Carlton

    Send us Fan Mail Eighty-five percent. That’s the success rate Pastor Carlton cites for a restorative justice model that helps people leave prison and stay out and it forces a bigger question: why do we accept cycles of reoffending as “normal” when support and accountability can work so well? We welcome Carlton, an ordained pastor and chaplain in Ontario, Canada, who has spent decades in prison ministry and now coordinates volunteer efforts across a large church network. He walks us through what he sees up close: the humanity most people miss, the impact of trauma and poverty, and the quiet damage incarceration does to children and partners who are left behind. We also unpack practical realities of the Canadian system, including the split between provincial and federal facilities and the policies that limit contact with families, creating an urgent need for community-based support. From GED programs and job training to the harsh wall of stigma after release, we talk about why reentry fails when housing, employment, and relationships are missing. Carlton shares a trust-based approach drawn from the life of Jesus: mingle, seek good, show sympathy, meet needs, build confidence, then invite change. We also dig into restorative justice and Circles of Support and Accountability, a structured “support plus accountability” model that has been adopted beyond Canada and challenges the idea that punishment alone creates safety. If you care about criminal justice reform, recidivism reduction, reentry, restorative justice, prison chaplaincy, or supporting families of incarcerated people, this conversation offers a clear, human roadmap. Subscribe, share this with someone who cares about second chances, and leave a review with your biggest takeaway. Resources & Workbooks: Book • Free Starter Guide • Heal What Raised You Workbook • Website © 2026 soulnotskin. All rights reserved.

    Not In My Backyard, Until It’s My Nephew - Pr. Carlton

  6. Aug 10

    Sincerely, America - Benjamin Lee

    Send us Fan Mail What would it feel like to hear your country look you in the eye and say, “I see you, and I’m sorry”? I’m joined by Benjamin John Lee, a retired military bomb squad technician turned professional life coach, to talk about his book Sincerely America, a collection of letters written in the voice of America that take accountability for the nation’s missteps and speak directly to the people who still carry the fallout. Benjamin shares the moment that cracked something open for him: watching the Afghanistan withdrawal unfold and feeling betrayal rise to the surface. That pain led to a surprising therapeutic practice, writing a letter to himself from the government, and discovering that the words still landed even when he knew he wrote them. From there we dig into why so many of us stay stuck in “yeah, but what about me?”, how fight or flight shapes our politics and our relationships, and why criticism can be an act of love, not disloyalty. Midway through, I read one of Benjamin’s most universal letters aloud, addressed to healthcare workers. We talk about burnout, grief, moral injury, and what happens when care becomes commodified in a for profit system. I also share a personal story from my mother’s end of life care and the invisible emotional labour that so many CNAs and nurses carry. Then we widen out into community, leadership, and practical ways to help: donate, volunteer, signal boost, do honest research, and simply acknowledge the human being in front of you. If you’ve been craving a conversation that holds both accountability and hope, press play. Subscribe, share this with a friend, and leave a review so more people can find these stories. Resources & Workbooks: Book • Free Starter Guide • Heal What Raised You Workbook • Website © 2026 soulnotskin. All rights reserved.

    Sincerely, America - Benjamin Lee

  7. Aug 5

    Susan Cottrell - God’s Love for LGBTQ+ People

    Send us Fan Mail A parent asks for spiritual support after their child comes out and gets a verdict instead: “It’s a sin and you can’t accept it.” That moment launches a raw, honest conversation with Susan Cottrell, an international speaker with a TEDx talk viewed millions of times and the founder of FreedHearts, a lifeline for families navigating LGBTQ identity and faith. Together, we sit in the tension between church tradition and the lived experience of queer and transgender people, and we refuse to skip the human cost.  We talk about church hurt, silence that teaches shame, and why fear-based theology often produces estrangement, depression, and dangerous self-hatred. Susan breaks down a common but damaging comparison, explaining why being LGBTQ is not like addiction and why “just don’t be gay” pushes people into the closet rather than toward health. We also dig into deconstruction, what happens when you realise the church may be wrong about something it treated as foundational, and how returning to the image of God can rebuild a faith that supports mental health and family connection.  The thread that ties it all together is practical: love well. We explore what it looks like to give parents permission to embrace their children, to grieve expectations without rejecting the person, and to stand with people on the margins the way Jesus models in the Good Samaritan. We also name the urgency of protecting transgender people under attack and putting attention where it belongs: injustice, oppression, and real harm.  If you felt seen, challenged, or comforted, subscribe for more conversations like this, share the episode with someone who needs it, and leave a review so more families can find it. Resources & Workbooks: Book • Free Starter Guide • Heal What Raised You Workbook • Website © 2026 soulnotskin. All rights reserved.

    Susan Cottrell - God’s Love for LGBTQ+ People

  8. Jul 29

    Kristin Crockett - Founder of Courageous Destiny

    Send us Fan Mail Your life can look “fine” on paper and still feel like a daily fight with your own mind. Jen SluMac reconnects with Kristin Crockett, CEO and founder of Courageous Destiny, for an honest conversation about what happens when survival mode becomes an identity and your inner voice starts writing the rules without your permission. Kristin shares how becoming a mom of triplets turned life into a constant “one, two, three” sprint, and how that pace quietly fed burnout, anxiety, resentment, and coping habits that never truly helped. The breakthrough comes when a coach reflects something she cannot see alone: the patterns are not proof that she is broken, they are evidence of unconscious beliefs running the show. We dig into a line that reframes everything: “You get in life what your unconscious mind believes you deserve,” and what it takes to challenge the stories that keep self-sabotage in place. From there we get practical. We talk about the ego as a survival mechanism, how to “put it in the backseat,” and how to use simple tools like curiosity, pattern interruption, and an “override button” to move through fear without turning every setback into shame. Kristin also shares client journeys around entrepreneurship, career transitions, and monetizing skills faster by changing mindset, actions, and timelines. If you’re searching for mindset coaching, subconscious reprogramming, personal growth tools, or a real-world way to stop repeating the same loop, pull up a chair with us. Subscribe, share this with a friend who feels stuck, and leave a review with the belief you’re ready to question next. Resources & Workbooks: Book • Free Starter Guide • Heal What Raised You Workbook • Website © 2026 soulnotskin. All rights reserved.

    Kristin Crockett - Founder of Courageous Destiny
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About

A podcast about the stories that shape us, connect us, and help us live with more honesty, compassion, and purpose. The soulnotskin Podcast shares honest human stories that help us see ourselves in each other. Through reflective conversations about childhood, identity, family, adversity, recovery, reinvention, and service, guests explore what shaped them, how they learned to cope, what those patterns protected or cost, and what helped them choose what came next. Listeners leave with greater recognition, compassion, and—when appropriate—a practical next step to explore. Real Stories. Real People. Real Insight. Becoming Who We Are. www.soulnotskin.com

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