And Now Love Podcast

Cynthia Marks
  • 5.0 (6)
  • Mental Health
  • Updated Monthly

New episodes of And Now Love arrive every Friday at 9:00 AM PST. Each week, Cynthia Marks carries forward the work of Dr. Bernard Bail — exploring dreams, the unconscious, and the imprint we carry — while also shining a light on the nonprofits and wellness organizations across Los Angeles that lead with love. Follow the show so a new conversation reaches you every Friday. Listen to your dreams and live from your heart.

  1. 4d ago ·  Video

    No One Is Defined by the Worst Thing They've Done: Rebecca Weiker on Restorative Justice and Healing

    Our legal system asks three questions: what law was broken, who did it, and how do we punish them. Restorative justice asks an entirely different set: who was harmed, what do they need, and whose job is it to meet that need. In this moving episode, Cynthia Marks sits down with Rebecca Weiker, co-founder of Mend Collaborative, a Los Angeles restorative justice organization that brings survivors and incarcerated people together for the kind of dialog, accountability, and healing the criminal legal system was never built to provide. Rebecca's conviction is hard-won. In 1992 her beloved older sister Wendy, a mental health provider, was killed at the clinic where she worked, and that loss eventually led Rebecca into a world she knew nothing about and a belief she holds to this day, that no one is defined by the worst thing that has happened to them or the worst thing they have done. Rebecca walks Cynthia through how this work actually happens: the carefully prepared victim offender dialogs that can take six months to a year, the surrogate dialogs where a survivor sits with a circle of incarcerated people, and the Days of Healing where people dance, make art, and remember their own humanity. She is honest about what she has never once failed to find, which is trauma sitting underneath the harm a person caused, and about the ripple effect that moves outward when even one person is finally heard. They talk about the skill set people build during decades inside, the quiet work of caring for the facilitators who carry these stories, and why a reform that changes a sentence still leaves the deeper needs unmet. It all circles back to the heart of this show, the idea that when we see each other with love, and refuse to reduce anyone to their worst moment, real healing becomes possible. This is And Now Love. Listen to your dreams and live from your heart. Please follow, rate, and share the podcast, and pass this episode along to someone who might need it.

    No One Is Defined by the Worst Thing They've Done: Rebecca Weiker on Restorative Justice and Healing

  2. Oct 16 ·  Video

    Why We Love the Way We Do: Dr. Loren Weiner on the Imprint and Romantic Love

    Romantic love might be the thing humans chase hardest and understand least. In this episode, Cynthia Marks welcomes back Dr. Loren Weiner, the show's in-house expert on the work of Dr. Bernard Bail, to look honestly at why love goes the way it does, and why so much of it runs on a definition we inherited before we could speak. Loren makes a direct case: the "type" you're drawn to, the chemistry you can't explain, the person everyone says is perfect but somehow leaves you cold, all of it traces back to the imprint, the unconscious ball of a mother's own pain and limitation that gets passed to a child in the womb. If the love we first knew did not quite feel like love, that becomes the blueprint we carry out into the world looking for more of the same. The conversation works through real patient dreams that show the pattern in motion: a woman who pictures herself eight months pregnant with a man who cannot show up on time, a dream that asks "am I a gold digger" and turns out to be about the riches of love rather than money, and a victory parade that signals she has finally found something that feels calm and good. Loren and Cynthia talk about proceeding slowly enough to feel what a person actually stirs in you, the difference between forgiveness and spiritual bypass, and the larger idea at the heart of Bail's work, that we arrive carrying a memory of pure love and spend our lives trying to find our way back to it. The hopeful part: when you dismantle enough of the imprint and discover who you really are beneath it, love has somewhere to land. This is And Now Love. Listen to your dreams and live from your heart. Please follow, rate, and share the podcast, and pass this episode along to someone who might need it.

    Why We Love the Way We Do: Dr. Loren Weiner on the Imprint and Romantic Love

  3. Oct 9 ·  Video

    From Gang Life to Healing Educational Communities: Carlos Alvarez on the Brain Science of Connection

    Los Angeles Institute for Right Brain Practices: www.lairp.org What does it actually take to heal a community and change the way we handle conflict? In this powerful episode, Cynthia Marks sits down with Carlos Alvarez, founder of LAIRP — the Los Angeles Institute for Right Brain Practices — whose own journey is as remarkable as the work he does. Carlos grew up in southeast LA surrounded by gangs, was pulled into that life young, and, by his own account, watched most of the friends he came up with end up in prison or gone. What made the difference for him was connection: a strong early foundation, an inner "witness," and a teacher who reestablished his sense of safety when he'd lost it. Today, Carlos uses the science of how our brains process emotion to redesign school discipline, interrupt community violence, and help people truly connect. Carlos and Cynthia explore the neuroscience of dysregulation and "synchrony" — why we need another regulated human being to help us find our way out of survival — and how that understanding transforms the way we treat so-called "highly spirited" kids. He shares the restorative systems he built inside schools, the difference between misbehavior and stress behavior, the heavy and sometimes dangerous reality of gang-intervention work, and why real change has to come from within. Woven all the way through is the theme at the heart of this show: Dr. Bail's emphasis on the right brain, the feminine, early attachment, and the belief that it's connection and love — not punishment — that actually heal us. This is And Now Love. Listen to your dreams and live from your heart. Please follow, rate, and share the podcast, and pass this episode along to someone who might need it.

    From Gang Life to Healing Educational Communities: Carlos Alvarez on the Brain Science of Connection

  4. Oct 2 ·  Video

    Building Better Humans in the Age of AI: Dr. Vivienne Ming on Hybrid Intelligence, Curiosity, and Your Unique Voice

    As AI reshapes the world at a dizzying pace, the most important question might not be what machines can do — but what stays irreplaceably human. In this fascinating episode, Cynthia Marks sits down with Dr. Vivienne Ming, a theoretical neuroscientist, serial entrepreneur, and self-described "professional mad scientist" whose work spans using machine learning to reunite refugee families and inventing AI to help manage her own son's diabetes. Drawing on her book Robot Proof: When Machines Have All the Answers, Build Better People, Vivienne makes a hopeful, deeply human case: the goal isn't artificial intelligence on its own, but hybrid intelligence — people and AI together, with the human firmly in the lead. Vivienne shares what decades of research reveal about the traits that actually predict a good life — curiosity, resilience, intellectual humility, and the courage to be wrong — and why those "foundation skills" matter more than ever now that the right answers are free in everyone's pocket. She and Cynthia explore how to use AI to make yourself sharper rather than lazier, the quiet cost of over-reliance, and why, in this moment in history, it's your unique voice that makes you valuable. Vivienne also shares her own remarkable story — from a childhood weighed down by impossible expectations to years of hardship, and the hard-won decision to build a life of meaning by making other people's lives better. It's a conversation that lands right at the heart of this show: that discovering and honoring who we truly are is how we thrive, in any age. This is And Now Love. Listen to your dreams and live from your heart. Please follow, rate, and share the podcast, and pass this episode along to someone who might need it.

    Building Better Humans in the Age of AI: Dr. Vivienne Ming on Hybrid Intelligence, Curiosity, and Your Unique Voice

  5. Sep 25 ·  Video

    Rewriting the Stories of Our Wounded Warriors: Dr. Madison on UCLA Operation Mend and Healing the Invisible Wounds of War

    What does profound healing look like in the real world? In this uplifting episode, Cynthia Marks sits down with Dr. Madison, an occupational therapist with UCLA Health's Operation Mend — a program providing life-changing, holistic care to our nation's wounded warriors and their caregivers, entirely free of charge. Madison works on the front lines of the brain-injury treatment program, helping veterans recover from both the visible and invisible wounds of war, including traumatic brain injury and PTSD. What makes Operation Mend so special is that it treats the whole person, not a medical checklist. Madison shares how her teaching kitchen becomes a "classroom for the brain," how the program uniquely cares for caregivers too, and how a multidisciplinary team, buddy volunteers, and an intensive two-week model help warriors rebuild trust in their own abilities and rediscover who they are beneath the trauma. Woven throughout is a theme close to this show's heart: that with respect, love, and community, people can move through even the deepest trauma and rewrite their stories. It's a moving, hopeful look at healing in action — and a reminder to thank those who've served. This is And Now Love. Listen to your dreams and live from your heart. Please follow, rate, and share the podcast, and pass this episode along to someone who might need it. To learn more, support the mission, or donate, visit the UCLA Operation Mend website, and explore the Wounded Warrior Project's Warrior Care Network to learn about their partner sites. Dr. Madison appears in a personal capacity. This episode is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or produced in partnership with UCLA Health or Operation Mend.

    Rewriting the Stories of Our Wounded Warriors: Dr. Madison on UCLA Operation Mend and Healing the Invisible Wounds of War

  6. Sep 18 ·  Video

    From the Doors to the CEO's Chair: Christina Simos on Friendly House, Women's Recovery, and Healing as Liberation

    Twenty years ago, a life-saving scholarship brought Christina Simos through the doors of Friendly House — the first all-women's recovery home in the country. Today, she runs the whole place as CEO. In this powerful episode, Cynthia Marks sits down with Christina for a conversation about lived experience, radical equity, and reinventing what recovery can look like when it's built on love instead of rules. Christina shares her story with striking honesty — growing up inside the family disease of alcoholism, carrying generational trauma and the weight of being the "parental child," and the long, hard road that eventually led her, terrified, through the doors of the house that would change her life. Together, she and Cynthia explore why real healing can't happen on a 28-day clock, how community and sisterhood become the ground people rebuild on, and the belief at the center of Christina's work: my healing is your liberation, and your healing is mine. They talk about the remarkable 75-year legacy of Friendly House — just four executive directors across three-quarters of a century — meeting each woman exactly where she is, and the joy Christina has reclaimed in her music, her son, and yes, even championship dodgeball. It's a story of coming full circle, and a living example of what it means to lead with love. This is And Now Love. Listen to your dreams and live from your heart. Please follow, rate, and share the podcast, and pass this episode along to someone who might need it. To learn more, donate, volunteer, or find help, visit Friendly House LA online. Friendly House's 75th Anniversary Celebration takes place Saturday, October 17th at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel. This episode includes candid discussion of addiction and past suicidal thoughts, shared in the spirit of recovery and hope. If you or someone you love is struggling, the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline is available 24/7 by call or text at 988, and the SAMHSA National Helpline is at 1-800-662-4357.

    From the Doors to the CEO's Chair: Christina Simos on Friendly House, Women's Recovery, and Healing as Liberation

  7. Sep 11 ·  Video

    Finding the Soul of the City: Street Photographer Suitcase Joe on Skid Row, Dignity, and Seeing Every Person

    Book link: https://www.burnbarrelpress.com/product/grey-flowers-by-suitcase-joe Website: https://www.suitcasejoe.com/ For over a decade, the anonymous Los Angeles street photographer known only as Suitcase Joe has walked Skid Row and the fringes of the city, photographing the people the rest of the world tends to look past. In this moving episode, Cynthia Marks sits down with Joe to talk about what he's learned in that time — not just about the community he's come to love, but about himself. What began as a project to document Skid Row "for historical purposes" slowly became something far more personal, as strangers became friends, encampments started to feel like homes, and Joe's own hardwired assumptions about people quietly fell away. Joe shares stories from the streets, including his close friendship with a man named Cricket and the complicated reality of what happens after someone finally gets housing. He reflects on the "birth lottery" that shapes so much of our lives, how following his passion pulled him out of his own darkest chapter, and the freedom he found by letting go of what society told him he was supposed to be. It's a conversation that lands, again and again, on the theme at the heart of this show: that beneath our circumstances and our trauma, we are far more alike than different — and that seeing another person with compassion can change everything. Joe's new book, City and Soul, continues that work, honoring the people who give the city its real soul. This is And Now Love. Listen to your dreams and live from your heart. Please follow, rate, and share the podcast, and pass this episode along to someone who might need it. You can find Suitcase Joe on Instagram @suitcasejoe and at his website, and look for his forthcoming book City and Soul, published by Beyond the Streets. This episode includes a candid discussion of depression and past suicidal thoughts, shared in the spirit of hope and healing. If you or someone you love is struggling, the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline is available 24/7 by call or text at 988.

    Finding the Soul of the City: Street Photographer Suitcase Joe on Skid Row, Dignity, and Seeing Every Person

  8. Sep 4 ·  Video

    Rebuilding From Nothing: Rabbi Amy Bernstein on Loss, Post-Traumatic Growth, and Holding Life a Little Lighter

    What happens when everything you built your sense of security on is taken overnight? In this profoundly moving episode, Cynthia Marks welcomes Rabbi Amy Bernstein, who has weathered an extraordinarily heavy couple of years — losing her home in the Palisades Fire alongside many of her congregants, and facing a cancer diagnosis and chemotherapy soon after. As a spiritual mother to a community of hundreds of families, Amy found herself holding others through the very catastrophe she was living herself. Drawing on Dr. Bernard Bail's idea of the mother's imprint — the unconscious blueprint we inherit before we have words — she and Cynthia explore what it means when a crisis shatters that blueprint and forces us to rebuild from scratch. At the heart of the conversation is post-traumatic growth: the surprising, science-backed truth that trauma can lead not only to suffering but to profound transformation, when we intentionally reframe the story we tell about how the world works. Amy shares what she learned traveling to Lahaina to sit with fire survivors further down the road, why community and connection became her new ground when her possessions were gone, how she's learning to hold everything more loosely, and why our culture so badly needs to honor pain — and aging — as rich and meaningful parts of being human. It's a testament to resilience, love, and the unexpected freedom that can come when we stop grasping so tightly. This is And Now Love. Listen to your dreams and live from your heart. Please follow, rate, and share the podcast, and pass this episode along to someone who might need it. You can find Rabbi Amy Bernstein's weekly Torah study wherever you get your podcasts, and learn more about the organization After the Fire, which supports communities recovering from wildfire.

    Rebuilding From Nothing: Rabbi Amy Bernstein on Loss, Post-Traumatic Growth, and Holding Life a Little Lighter
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Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
6 Ratings

About

New episodes of And Now Love arrive every Friday at 9:00 AM PST. Each week, Cynthia Marks carries forward the work of Dr. Bernard Bail — exploring dreams, the unconscious, and the imprint we carry — while also shining a light on the nonprofits and wellness organizations across Los Angeles that lead with love. Follow the show so a new conversation reaches you every Friday. Listen to your dreams and live from your heart.

Information

  • Creator
    Cynthia Marks
  • Years Active
    2024 - 2026
  • Episodes
    87
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Copyright 2023 All rights reserved.
  • Show Website
    And Now Love Podcast

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