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. 3d ago

    Take Time to Reflect

    Season 4, Episode 8: Take Time to Reflect Tick tock hear the clock Wake me up and say good night Kiss my salty tears DESCRIPTION Lu spent a weekend at Doctober, the documentary film festival in Bellingham, camping by Lake Samish with time to reflect between films. In this episode she shares three very different films: a Seattle Powwow, a film about human composting, and one about the memories of Holocaust survivors and Palestinians. They raised questions about home, about how memory is used and abused, and about the scars we inherit without witnessing their cause. From there she turns to the Taoist idea of effortless action, a new Open Heart Circle in her home, and the end of a five-episode arc, which finally reveals the word it spells. SHOW NOTES This episode asks: Can we really separate ourselves from our work, or is our work part of the life we want?When we remember suffering without reflecting on it, do “equality” and “dignity” become slogans without a cause?What kind of world do we want to live in?CHAPTERS Introduction: Lu the wanderer. How the daily grind detaches us from the natural world, and why connecting with it is itself an act of reflection. Act 1: A Doctober weekend. A Powwow at the Daybreak Star Indian Cultural Center, and The Life We Leave, a film about human composting and the company Return Home. Why the name puzzles Lu: we never left home. Act 2: Landscapes of Memory. How memory is used and abused, Germany’s contradiction, the scars Lu inherited from the Japanese invasion of China, and why grasping at memory is futile. Act 3: Right action without force. Starting an Open Heart Circle with neighbors, the Taoist idea of effortless action (be like water), and trust as soft power. Closing: A reflection on the last five episodes and the word they spell, why that word matters, and the trade-off at the heart of every choice. SHARE YOUR STORY                                                                                                                           How do you take time to reflect? Do you carry memories that began before you were born? Send your thoughts, stories, and questions to lu@leslancreativestudio.com. CONNECT 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/C47yEyI19CM Open 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. Oct 15

    Surrender to Humanity

    EPISODE 7 — SURRENDER TO HUMANITY Tick tock hear the clock Wake me up and say good night Kiss my salty tears DESCRIPTION Every day, we trust people we will never meet. Lu grew up in the sixties riding the bus alone and walking to piano lessons at night, never afraid of strangers. Today, a generation raised on fear and the 24-hour news cycle struggles to trust at all. Yet from the seafood in an Asian grocery store to the cotton we wear and the coffee we drink, our lives rest on the work of people whose names we’ll never know. Walking the shores of Puget Sound, Lu finds “No Trespassing” signs and asks what we lose when convenience and ownership make us forget one another. She also shares a personal turning point: accepting that she would never be the pianist she dreamed of, and finding a fuller life as a teacher. Surrender to humanity, she suggests, is trust without proof. SHOW NOTES EPISODE 7 — SURRENDER TO HUMANITY This episode asks: How much of our daily lives depends on people we will never meet?What does modern convenience cost us in human connection?What does it mean to trust without proof?CHAPTERS: Introduction — Trust Without Proof Growing up in the sixties, Lu was taught to trust people outside her family. Today’s generation is shaped by distrust. Yet food, clothing, shelter, and transportation all come from strangers we trust without thinking. Act 1 — The Grocery Store Holding a package of seafood, Lu thinks about the fishermen, the factory workers, and all the people whose job titles she’ll never know. She’ll never meet them, and still she trusts them. Act 2 — Signs on the Shore The hidden cost of convenience is the erosion of humanity: when all we see are price tags, we forget the people who did the work. On the tidal shores of Puget Sound, “No Trespassing” signs raise the question of who the beach belongs to. Lu suggests that strangers are not a threat to our existence. Act 3 — Circles of Trust Trade builds trust over time, turning buyers and sellers into neighbors. From the cotton fields came the spirituals and the blues, the irony that so much of what sustains us was born from suffering. Lu shares her own turning point: accepting that she would never be the pianist she dreamed of, and finding a lifetime of teaching instead. Closing — From Strangers to Family A wish for the new generation: trust is the beginning of any relationship, turning strangers into friends, allies, and brothers and sisters. NEXT EPISODE: Open Heart returns next week with a new episode. 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/C47yEyI19CM Open 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. Oct 8

    Use Words With Care

    EPISODE 6 — USE WORDS WITH CARE Tick tock hear the clock  Wake me up and say good night  Kiss my salty tears DESCRIPTION Words can lift us up or wear us down, and most of the time we don't notice which. In this episode, Lu goes back to a childhood home where yelling was simply called discipline. She also remembers how a parent's compliment could make her want to do better, and how music gave her a way to say what words could not. Drawing on Chuang Tse, she looks at how flattery and false civility pull us away from the truth. Then she questions words we reach for without thinking: self-esteem, identity, trigger, shame, closure, and pride. Care, she suggests, isn't only about speaking less. It means choosing words well, knowing when to stay silent, having the courage to say "I don't know," and offering compassion, to others and to ourselves. SHOW NOTES EPISODE 6 — USE WORDS WITH CARE This episode asks: What did we absorb from the words we heard growing up?When does a kind word become flattery, and politeness become a lie?Which words do we use without asking what they really mean?CHAPTERS: Introduction — Two Ears, One Mouth Language is what sets us apart. It shapes who we are and how we relate to each other. Using words with care means knowing the risk, practicing restraint, being honest, and offering compassion. Act 1 — The Words We Absorb Children imitate what they hear. Lu remembers careless everyday words, a house loud enough to feel like it sat beside railroad tracks, and the encouragement that still built her confidence. Music became the language she could trust. Act 2 — Flattery and False Civility Gossip fills the gaps we don't understand about each other. Drawing on Chuang Tse, Lu reflects on how flattery leads to deception. She explains why she meets compliments about her looks and talent with gratitude and humility, and why fear of hurting feelings so often leads to false civility. Act 3 — Words We Latch Onto Self-esteem, identity, trigger, shame, closure, and pride: Lu asks what lies beneath words we use without thinking. She also explores the right word at the right time, the courage to say "I don't know," and the kindness of compassionate self-talk. Closing — Words That Bring Music to Life Lu once sought teachers whose words revealed the feeling inside the music. Now she chooses her own words carefully with her students. Mistakes will happen, and that's part of being human. NEXT EPISODE: Open Heart returns next week with a new episode. 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/C47yEyI19CM Open 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. Oct 1

    Remember Lessons Learned

    EPISODE 5 — REMEMBER LESSONS LEARNED Tick tock hear the clock Wake me up and say good night Kiss my salty tears DESCRIPTION What do we actually inherit from the past we never lived through? In this episode, Lu traces the lessons passed down through her own family — a grandmother in Beijing who never learned to read, who raised six children alone, who taught frugality simply by living it — alongside a history she didn't choose but has had to carry: the political fractures of Taiwan, the UN's 1971 recognition of the People's Republic of China, and the long shadow of the Vietnam War. But remembering isn't only personal. Turning to the history of her adopted home, Lu confronts the near-destruction of Indigenous nations, the slave trade and its unfinished reckoning, and the troubling origins of how we came to categorize human beings by race at all. This episode asks what it really means to remember — not just what happened, but what it demands of us now. SHOW NOTES EPISODE 5 — REMEMBER LESSONS LEARNED This episode asks: What do we inherit from the people who came before us — the good, the bad, and the ugly alike?Is there a difference between history we lived and history we only learned?Can a nation — or a person — truly move forward without first remembering what it would rather forget?CHAPTERS: Introduction — What We Inherit Before we're born, before we choose anything, we inherit the past — wisdom, shame, and cruelty alike. This episode opens with what it means to stay open to the history we didn't know. Act 1 — My Grandmother, My Taiwan A portrait of Lu's maternal grandmother — illiterate, widowed young, raising six children alone in Beijing — alongside Lu's own coming-of-age in Taiwan amid the UN's 1971 recognition of the PRC and the end of the Vietnam War. Becoming an American citizen, Lu realizes just how little she knew of this country's history, and how little it knows of hers. Act 2 — A History Not Mine, But Home The devastation European colonization brought to Indigenous nations, the slave trade and the century of oppression that outlived the Civil War, and a closer look at where the very idea of "people of color" came from — a Swedish botanist's flawed science, three centuries ago. Act 3 — Bridging the Divide Four decades in America, through administrations of every stripe, convince Lu that the country's people remain fundamentally good — even as political pressure pulls from every direction. Her proposal: real exchange between people of different walks of life, as the path toward something healthier. Closing Luck alone never built anything. Remembering the lessons of those who came before is how we build the fire — and maybe lead others toward a more equal, more grateful world. NEXT EPISODE: Open Heart returns next week with a new episode. 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/C47yEyI19CM Open 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. Sep 24

    Take A Wider View

    EPISODE 4 — TAKE A WIDER VIEW Tick tock hear the clock Wake me up and say good night Kiss my salty tears DESCRIPTION What does it actually take to see beyond what's right in front of you? In this episode, Lu traces how her own view widened — first at eleven, on a school orchestra trip that put her on a plane for the first time, then across a life shaped by political upheaval, immigration, and decades of solo travel. But a wide view doesn't automatically lead to right action. Reflecting on the near-extinction of the American bison and its deliberate connection to the destruction of Indigenous nations, Lu confronts a harder truth: sometimes the problem isn't that people fail to see the consequences of their choices — it's that they see clearly, and choose harm anyway. This episode asks what's actually required, once you've seen the whole picture, to do something about it. SHOW NOTES EPISODE 4 — TAKE A WIDER VIEW This episode asks: What does wonder actually require of us?Does seeing something clearly guarantee we'll act on it rightly?When a wide view isn't enough on its own, what is?CHAPTERS: Introduction — Wonder A lifelong pull toward learning — geology, astronomy, biology, and everything in between — as the foundation for what it means to take a wider view at all. Act 1 — My First Flight At eleven, a school orchestra trip to Guam becomes Lu's first experience of leaving home, and the beginning of a lifelong restlessness. Act 2 — Entering Another World Growing up amid political tension between Taiwan and Mainland China, immigrating to the U.S. in 1978, and years later, solo travels through South Korea, Nepal, India, and South America in search of a fuller sense of self. Act 3 — What a Wide View Costs, and What It Demands The near-extinction of the American bison and its deliberate tie to the destruction of Indigenous nations reveal a hard truth: it wasn't ignorance. It was cruelty — full awareness of the consequence, pursued anyway. Closing A wide view isn't enough by itself. Real change requires real human connection — finding the people who already care, and acting together with intention. NEXT EPISODE: Open Heart returns next week with a new episode. 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/C47yEyI19CM Open 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. Sep 17

    The Invisible Thread Part 2

    EPISODE 3 — THE INVISIBLE THREAD (PART 2) Tick tock hear the clock Wake me up and say good night Kiss my salty tears DESCRIPTION What if the boundary you feel between yourself and the natural world was never really there? In Part 2 of The Invisible Thread, Lu turns from the connections between people to the connection underneath all of them — nature itself. From the bamboo breath of an ancient Chinese instrument to a childhood at the piano, from a night spent kayaking through bioluminescent water to a poem about a fish, this episode traces one long unbroken line: the sky, the earth, a human mind, all made whole by the same unity. Nature doesn't just surround us. It moves through us, breath by breath, meal by meal, until the line between what's "natural" and what's human disappears completely. SHOW NOTES EPISODE 3 — THE INVISIBLE THREAD (PART 2) This episode asks: Is there really a boundary between ourselves and the natural world, or only the illusion of one?What does it mean to trust a process we can't control?How much are we shaped — and sustained — by what we can't fully see or sense?CHAPTERS: Introduction — A Simple Belief of Trust A childhood phrase offered to a worried mother — the boat straightened itself when it is docked — becomes a lifelong belief in trusting the natural process. From there, a wider claim: everything that exists becomes whole through the same unity, the same invisible thread. Act 1 — The Extension Learning to play the Sheng, an ancient Chinese woodwind instrument made from bamboo, as a doorway into hearing "the dialogue of nature." Breath, freedom, and the instinct — shared by humans across every culture and era — to turn nature into music. Act 2 — The Piano A second instrument, a second road to the same freedom. How piano opened the door to history, culture, and a lifetime of teaching that arrived "without making a conscious choice" — and the ongoing mystery of whether we follow the invisible thread, or it follows us. Act 3 — What We Breathe, What We Eat A night kayaking trip through bioluminescent water on Hood Canal becomes a meditation on breath, death, and nourishment — culminating in a reflection on Mary Oliver's poem The Fish, and the realization that every living thing we take in becomes part of our own story. Closing — Grace and Abundance Nature as a mother's love — selfless, unconditional, always there. A closing reflection on what it means to give something back to the world that sustains us. NEXT EPISODE: Open Heart returns next week with a new episode. 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/C47yEyI19CM Open 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. Sep 10

    The Invisible Thread Part 1

    EPISODE 2 — THE INVISIBLE THREAD (PART 1) Tick tock hear the clock Wake me up and say good night Kiss my salty tears DESCRIPTION What connects a woman in Kent, Washington to a country singer in Tennessee, a folk artist in Nova Scotia, and a plumber who showed up on the worst day of her week? In Part 1 of The Invisible Thread, Lu explores the pull that moves through time and distance without asking permission — through Dolly Parton's passing and the songs she left behind, a visit to Maud Lewis's home preserved in a Halifax museum, and an ordinary afternoon spent fixing a clogged sewer line. This episode asks whether time really moves in one direction, whether anything we do ever truly disappears, and what it means to follow the thread when it shows up — without needing proof, and without needing permission. SHOW NOTES EPISODE 2 — THE INVISIBLE THREAD (PART 1) This episode asks: Is time actually linear — or just how our senses are built to perceive it?If the past never fully leaves, what does that mean for every act of care, and every act of harm?What is the invisible thread inside you that already knows what you're here to do?CHAPTERS: Opening — What Is the Thread An introduction to the invisible thread — the pull that connects us across time, generations, oceans, and people from every walk of life. Act 1 — The Thread in Others Reflections on Dolly Parton's passing and her biopic Here I Am, a visit to Maud Lewis's home now preserved in a Halifax gallery, and the feeling of connection Lu carries as a musician entering a concert hall. Act 2 — The Thread Across Time A philosophical turn: what if time isn't linear at all? What if nothing that ever existed is truly gone — only out of our sensory range? And what does that mean for the weight of every word we speak to one another? Act 3 — The Thread in You The invisible thread isn't only something outside of us — it's inside us too. A story about a sewer line blockage, a technician named Jeff, and the moment Lu realized how much we all need each other. Closing — Three Questions Do I show my appreciation for others? Do I listen to the invisible thread when it's talking to me? Do I value my time on this planet? NEXT EPISODE: Open Heart returns next week with Episode 3 — The Invisible Thread, Part 2, exploring Lu's relationship with nature. 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/C47yEyI19CM Open 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. Sep 3

    An Organism on This Planet

    DESCRIPTION What if the most honest conversation you can have begins with how your body will be disposed of? In the Season 4 premiere of Open Heart, Lu walks into a small meeting hosted by a company called Smart Cremation and walks out seeing everything more clearly. Not with grand ambition. Not with urgent purpose. With the sharp, quiet focus that comes when you stop pretending you have forever.  This is where Season 4 begins — not with an answer, but with an admission. We are organisms on this planet, carrying consciousness we didn't ask for and inherited dung we didn't choose. Season 4 brings our mortality into focus and asks what happens when we show up for each other. SHOW NOTES EPISODE 1 — AN ORGANISM ON THIS PLANET This episode asks: What does all of this human activity mean at the end?Do we keep searching for an answer — or do we simply live?What does it take to look honestly at our own flaws without shame?IN THIS EPISODE: Opening — The Turn Outward Season 4 begins with a question about how we connect to another person's world. Before we can talk about others, we have to be honest about what we're willing to risk, give, and share. Act 1 — The Room A meeting with Smart Cremation brings death into focus as something real. Each of us leaves this planet as we arrived. Choosing how to dispose of our remains becomes a thoughtful final gift to the people we love. Act 2 — The Clock Humans move around as if nothing changes — like ants doing exactly what they are made to do. Two thinkers from opposite ends of the world, Camus and Lao Tse, reached the same conclusion 2,500 years apart. Freedom comes from acceptance. The clock is not the tragedy. The clock is the invitation. Act 3 — The Dung The flaw that belongs to all of us — we are unpredictable beings who cannot perceive cause and effect rationally. That unpredictability is our flaw and our beauty at the same time. Like the dung beetle, we are purposeful, unglamorous, and completely necessary to the ecosystem we live in. Closing — The Admission Not who will remember me — but what I do and say matters to how they will remember me. We are temporary beings, reaching toward other temporary beings who are doing exactly what we are doing. THE EPISODE IN ONE LINE: "Death wakes us up to what matters in the present moment." NEXT EPISODE: Open Heart returns next week with Episode 2 — the invisible thread that connects us across everything. 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://www.youtube.com/@luleslan 📧 lu@leslancreativestudio.com Open 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)

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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.

Information

  • Creator
    Lu Leslan
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    41
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Open Heart with Lu Leslan
  • Show Website
    Open Heart with Lu Leslan