Open Heart with Lu Leslan

Lu Leslan
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Join musician and filmmaker Lu as she shares intimate stories about finding unexpected connections in life. From exploring identity through names to navigating between cultures, from creative breakthroughs to encounters with nature - each episode digs into moments of genuine human experience. Through vulnerable storytelling and reflection, Lu invites listeners to discover their own surprising connections in everyday life. Send your questions and stories - let's explore these connections together.

  1. 6d ago

    The Border

    Every border we live inside — we inherited. Episode 5 of Open Heart Season 3 asks what it cost in human lives — and tells the story of one woman alone in a motel room with yellowish curtains in Tijuana in 1979 — who crossed a border she wasn't supposed to cross. And a woodcarver on the Victoria Falls Bridge who crosses one every day just to feed his family. SHOW NOTES EPISODE 5 — THE BORDER The border between nations is the history of human suffering. It will take curiosity and humility to understand the ground we are standing on. This episode asks: Do we know we inherited the border between nations without knowing the human suffering?Do we have a choice to pick a side to stand on?Do we abandon rules when our livelihood is at stake?IN THIS EPISODE: The inherited border — drawn before we arrivedTijuana 1979 — alone in a motel room with yellowish curtainsThe vase — the small plane — the pounding heartThe naturalization question I didn't understand but answered anywayThe friend who drove me — who later became my husbandHonor and pride go out the window when survival is the only thing that mattersThe woodcarver on the Victoria Falls Bridge crossing the Zambezi RiverThe randomness of the cards handed down to us — the absurdity of life itselfTHE EPISODE IN ONE LINE: "The randomness of the cards handed down to us makes who we become who we are — it is the absurdity of life itself." NEXT EPISODE: Forgiveness. What it costs. What it frees. And whether we can forgive what we never fully understood. SHARE YOUR STORY: lu@leslancreativestudio.com CONNECT WITH OPEN HEART PODCAST: 🌐 Website: leslancreativestudio.com🎧 Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/open-heart-with-lu-leslan/id1861169448🎵 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2duSwoSJVHFG8wn7SsC1F9▶️ YouTube: https://youtu.be/C47yEyI19CMOpen Heart with Lu Leslan is for anyone who aspires to understand themselves and the world more deeply. Through honest personal stories, philosophical insights, and practical wisdom, each episode invites you to live with more clarity, courage, and compassion. Subscribe and share with someone ready to open their heart. RESOURCES MENTIONED: Lu's first documentary: Take a Bow: The Ingrid Clarfield Story (2011)

  2. Jul 2

    Superiority vs. Dignity

    Where does superiority come from — and what does it cost us? Episode 4 of Open Heart Season 3 traces the origins of superiority from a ten year old girl winning a woodwind competition to the labels we use to divide ourselves. And then shows what dignity looks like in the faces of people who never needed a stage to prove their worth. SHOW NOTES EPISODE 4 — SUPERIORITY VS. DIGNITY Superiority needs a stage to show off. Dignity is a quiet recognition of mutual respect. This episode asks: Do we know where our superiority originates?Do we question our own superiority?Do we need superiority to survive?IN THIS EPISODE: The woodwind competition at age ten — where pride became the seed of arroganceThe Golden Rule — superiority disguised as empathyProgressive language — superiority disguised as sensitivityThe onion — is it necessary to name every layer?At the core of our existence — just a human beingRene — eleven years old — whose favorite subjects are math and scienceBeauty — camp director at the Okavango — fifteen years of quiet leadershipMC — whose patience and kindness never waveredRespect is the soil for dignity to flourishTHE EPISODE IN ONE LINE: "At the core of our existence — there is no label, no color, no category. Just a human being." NEXT EPISODE: The Border. We inherited it. We live inside it. And sometimes — survival demands we cross it without permission. SHARE YOUR STORY: lu@leslancreativestudio.com CONNECT WITH OPEN HEART PODCAST: 🌐 Website: leslancreativestudio.com🎧 Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/open-heart-with-lu-leslan/id1861169448🎵 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2duSwoSJVHFG8wn7SsC1F9▶️ YouTube: https://youtu.be/C47yEyI19CMOpen Heart with Lu Leslan is for anyone who aspires to understand themselves and the world more deeply. Through honest personal stories, philosophical insights, and practical wisdom, each episode invites you to live with more clarity, courage, and compassion. Subscribe and share with someone ready to open their heart. RESOURCES MENTIONED: Lu's first documentary: Take a Bow: The Ingrid Clarfield Story (2011)

  3. Jun 25

    The Why Question

    Why do we want what we want? Why do we stop asking the most important question — and fill the silence with consumption, shortcuts and masks? Episode 3 of Open Heart Season 3 traces the why question from the first human who looked up at the sky — to the hunger for dignity that drives everything we do. SHOW NOTES EPISODE 3 — THE WHY QUESTION Why is not just a question. It is how the human story begins. This episode asks: Why do we hold on to our feelings when we know they are only the stories we tell ourselves?Why do we choose wants over needs when dignity is what we truly seek?Why do we want human experiences when we know they will become fragmented memories of the past?IN THIS EPISODE: The first human-like being who looked up at the sky and asked why before language existedFrom fire to space stations — humans never stopped asking whyWe cannot stop inventing — but we stop asking whyDignity — the one thing above all else that a human being truly wantsThe piano practice room — countless hours in search of respectThe breaking point — we act not from courage but from necessityOur dignity is the foundation of a civilized worldTHE EPISODE IN ONE LINE: "Desire creates the need for dignity. But first — we have to understand what we truly want." NEXT EPISODE: Superiority vs. Dignity. Dignity stands on the ground. Superiority stands on the stage. SHARE YOUR STORY: lu@leslancreativestudio.com CONNECT WITH OPEN HEART PODCAST: 🌐 Website: leslancreativestudio.com🎧 Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/open-heart-with-lu-leslan/id1861169448🎵 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2duSwoSJVHFG8wn7SsC1F9▶️ YouTube: https://youtu.be/C47yEyI19CMOpen Heart with Lu Leslan is for anyone who aspires to understand themselves and the world more deeply. Through honest personal stories, philosophical insights, and practical wisdom, each episode invites you to live with more clarity, courage, and compassion. Subscribe and share with someone ready to open their heart. RESOURCES MENTIONED: Lu's first documentary: Take a Bow: The Ingrid Clarfield Story (2011)

  4. Jun 18

    State of Mind

    EPISODE 2 — STATE OF MIND SHOW NOTES The mind is not a fixed address. It is transient yet powerful — a state of storming weather followed by peaceful calm. No clues for where it is heading or where it will land. This episode asks: How do we feel about ourselves when we look up at the skyscraper?What would happen if we had a different way to communicate without words?Does the mind enjoy playing the game of deception just for fun?THE EPISODE IN ONE LINE: The perfect human mind is like a mirror. It reflects but does not hold, it expects nothing, it takes nothing. IN THIS EPISODE: Music as a natural extension — not a goal but a way to liveLiving inside the creator's mind — the practice room as a worldThe questions that follow us across every decade and every countrySolitude as the whisper from the heartThe mind as a fairy godmother — messing with us and leaving without noticeNEXT EPISODE: The Why Question — It is how the human species has been able to survive and thrive on planet earth. SHARE YOUR STORY: lu@leslancreativestudio.com CONNECT WITH OPEN HEART PODCAST: 🌐 Website: leslancreativestudio.com🎧 Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/open-heart-with-lu-leslan/id1861169448🎵 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2duSwoSJVHFG8wn7SsC1F9▶️ YouTube: https://youtu.be/C47yEyI19CMOpen Heart with Lu Leslan is for anyone who aspires to understand themselves and the world more deeply. Through honest personal stories, philosophical insights, and practical wisdom, each episode invites you to live with more clarity, courage, and compassion. Subscribe and share with someone ready to open their heart. RESOURCES MENTIONED: Lu's first documentary: Take a Bow: The Ingrid Clarfield Story (2011)

  5. Jun 11

    Demons in Ourselves

    EPISODE 1 — DEMONS IN OURSELVES SHOW NOTES We all carry something dark. Something inherited. Something we didn't choose. This episode asks the hardest questions: Where do our demons come from — our genes or our experience?Why do our closest relationships bring out our sharpest edges?Is there honor when survival is at stake?What does a collective demon look like across 8 billion humans?Can we kill the demon — or do we need it to survive?THE EPISODE IN ONE LINE: The demon isn't our enemy. It is the part of us that hasn't been listened to yet. IN THIS EPISODE: The inheritance of darkness — genes, memory, and the faces we carryRelationships as mirrors — uncomfortable to be comfortableThere is no honor in hunger120 million displaced people — the collective demon of humanityEmptiness, suffering, impermanence — seeds for future episodesNEXT EPISODE: State of Mind — Transient yet powerful. No clues for where it is heading or where it will land. SHARE YOUR STORY: lu@leslancreativestudio.com CONNECT WITH OPEN HEART PODCAST: 🌐 Website: leslancreativestudio.com🎧 Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/open-heart-with-lu-leslan/id1861169448🎵 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2duSwoSJVHFG8wn7SsC1F9▶️ YouTube: https://youtu.be/C47yEyI19CMOpen Heart with Lu Leslan is for anyone who aspires to understand themselves and the world more deeply. Through honest personal stories, philosophical insights, and practical wisdom, each episode invites you to live with more clarity, courage, and compassion. Subscribe and share with someone ready to open their heart. RESOURCES MENTIONED: Lu's first documentary: Take a Bow: The Ingrid Clarfield Story (2011)

  6. Season 3 Trailer

    Season 3 Trailer

    Season 3 of Open Heart arrives June 11th. Hosted by pianist and philosopher Lu Leslan, this season moves inward — through demons, borders, forgiveness, paradox, and the words we repeat without ever questioning them. Not a self-help guide. Not a lecture. A journey through the hardest questions of being human — with company. SHOW NOTES Drifting shadow ghost Laying head on my pillow Humming lullaby SEASON 3 — WHAT TO EXPECT: A ten-episode hero's journey — moving inward through three acts and a finaleHonest questions about who we are, how we became this way, and what we do nextThe demons we inherited — from bloodlines, cultures, languages, and historiesThe words handed to us before we were old enough to refuse themThe borders we draw — geographic, linguistic, emotionalA philosophy for living. Not borrowed. Not inherited. Earned.THE QUESTION RUNNING THROUGH IT ALL: What does it mean to be a better human? SEASON 3 PREMIERE: Open Heart Season 3 begins June 11, 2026. Episode 1 — Demons in Ourselves. Please join me. I'm Lu Leslan. SHARE YOUR STORY: lu@leslancreativestudio.com CONNECT WITH OPEN HEART PODCAST: 🌐 Website: leslancreativestudio.com🎧 Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/open-heart-with-lu-leslan/id1861169448🎵 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2duSwoSJVHFG8wn7SsC1F9▶️ YouTube: https://youtu.be/C47yEyI19CMOpen Heart with Lu Leslan is for anyone who aspires to understand themselves and the world more deeply. Through honest personal stories, philosophical insights, and practical wisdom, each episode invites you to live with more clarity, courage, and compassion. Subscribe and share with someone ready to open their heart. RESOURCES MENTIONED: Lu's first documentary: Take a Bow: The Ingrid Clarfield Story (2011)

  7. May 21

    Break Free

    What truth remains when you dare to let go of everything that was never truly yours? In this Season 2 finale, Lu explores what it means to break free—not from life or people, but from the accumulated weight of traditions, rules, conventions, and noise inherited through the generations. She shares a deeply personal story about choosing solitude over convention, the Stoic wisdom of releasing what we cannot control, and a meditation on being the wave rather than riding it. This is Open Heart at its most honest—an invitation to ask what is truly yours and have the courage to live by that answer. SHOW NOTES: IN THIS EPISODE: Breaking free from traditions, rules, conventions and noise inherited through generationsThe burden of belonging and the echo chambers that define usPersonal story: choosing solitude as salvationThe Stoics on suffering and releasing what was never ours to holdNavigating life's conditions by seeing the big pictureWe are simply passengers sharing the same journey, sky, stars and breathThe wave passage: a meditation on peaceful surrender to life's natural cycleQUOTE: "Peace doesn't lie. And solitude—real, chosen solitude—is my salvation." SEASON 3 ANNOUNCEMENT: Open Heart Season 3 begins June 11, 2026. A brand new season exploring our world from a different perspective. Stay tuned. SHARE YOUR STORY: lu@leslancreativestudio.com Connect with Open Heart Podcast: Website: leslancreativestudio.comApple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/open-heart-with-lu-leslan/id1861169448Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2duSwoSJVHFG8wn7SsC1F9YouTube: https://youtu.be/C47yEyI19CMOpen Heart with Lu Leslan is for anyone who aspires to understand themselves and the world more deeply. Through honest personal stories, philosophical insights, and practical wisdom, each episode invites you to live with more clarity, courage, and compassion. Subscribe and share with someone ready to open their heart.  RESOURCES MENTIONED: Lu's first documentary: Take a Bow: The Ingrid Clarfield Story (2011)

  8. May 14

    Metamorphosis

    What if transformation isn't something you choose? In this episode, Lu explores metamorphosis as a magical, unstoppable and risky process happening in all of us—visible and invisible, in darkness and in light. She shares the butterfly's secret (complete dissolution before emergence), a deeply personal story about bringing a premature infant into the world, and why our tears are the seeds of transformation. Three profound questions anchor the episode: Does anyone know another person completely? Does it matter what my children think of me as a human being? Can humans trust each other enough to make something greater than themselves? SHOW NOTES: IN THIS EPISODE: Metamorphosis defined: meta meaning change, morphe meaning formThe butterfly's secret: complete dissolution before emergenceThe real risk: a fetus and womb—neither knows what the other will becomePersonal story: bringing a premature infant into the worldTears as seeds of transformation—our yearning for more humanityThree questions: knowing others, children's perceptions, collective trustThe transformation process needs no approval, no permission—only trustThe practice: noticing dissolution, sitting in not-knowingQUOTE: "The caterpillar doesn't cry. But we do." SHARE YOUR STORY: lu@leslancreativestudio.com NEXT EPISODE: Break Free – The Season 2 finale. Connect with Open Heart Podcast: Website: leslancreativestudio.comApple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/open-heart-with-lu-leslan/id1861169448Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2duSwoSJVHFG8wn7SsC1F9YouTube: https://youtu.be/C47yEyI19CMThank you for joining this journey of openness and self-discovery. If this episode resonated, please consider subscribing and sharing with someone who might also benefit from my personal stories and insights. RESOURCES MENTIONED: Lu's first documentary: Take a Bow: The Ingrid Clarfield Story (2011)

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About

Join musician and filmmaker Lu as she shares intimate stories about finding unexpected connections in life. From exploring identity through names to navigating between cultures, from creative breakthroughs to encounters with nature - each episode digs into moments of genuine human experience. Through vulnerable storytelling and reflection, Lu invites listeners to discover their own surprising connections in everyday life. Send your questions and stories - let's explore these connections together.

Information

  • Creator
    Lu Leslan
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    27
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Open Heart with Lu Leslan
  • Show Website
    Open Heart with Lu Leslan