Not Small Things Dara Obbard and Kristin James

Last week we looked back to the movies and female characters who helped shaped the way we see the world women inhabit…and could inhabit. It was a great reminder that pop culture can play a significant role in influencing people’s lives. So is it crazy to think the reverse is possible - that the recipients of such influence could turn around and be creators? We don’t think so. If you’re an avid listener you might have noticed that every once in a while we pitch ideas into the universe - things...

Awards season is officially behind us, and while both of us did a lousy job of keeping up this past year, we couldn’t help but stop and ponder the role movies have played in each of our lives. During our formative years we were lucky to see women portrayed as adventurers, saviors, leaders, risk-takers, barrier-breakers, and survivors. We saw ourselves as the funniest of friends, the nurturing mother, the fed up wife, a different kind of boss, a cool rider, young girls searching for home, or a...

In part one, we covered the mind-body connection through lots of angles with the help of Dr. Dan Ratner, a psychologist who specializes in the alleviation of physical symptoms deriving from, or exacerbated by, psychological causes. In part two, we expand on the variety emotional circumstances that can create physical illness - from childhood experiences through generational and collective trauma. We also spend some time talking about the signs you might be experiencing physical pa...

For the first episode of our “Not All in Your Head” series, we each shared the many ways our anxiety, trauma and physical health keeps crashing into the other. While our individual sources of emotional pain may be different, we’ve both experienced the same type of physical manifestation as a result. We heard from many of you that this episode hit a nerve and meant a lot to you. So in this episode we even dig deeper into the science behind the mind-body connection - what’s the biggest misconce...

We’ve all had this experience - sitting in a room, listening to another person share their personal story and being emotionally moved. Words matter. They can create deep empathy, inspire action, or speak directly to a part of us that has been hidden but is begging to be acknowledged. And when each of us finds a way to tell those hidden stories, or say the hardest things, we give others the gift of knowing none of us is alone. The journey of finding and then actually using your voice though? T...

A wise philosopher (okay Madonna) once sang it best…music makes the people come together. Inspired by a recent social media questionnaire, Dara’s love of list making and a desire to create a series of superlative episodes, in this episode we spend some time reminiscing about our favorite live music performances of the past, the cringeworthy, the nostalgic, and what we can’t wait to see in the future. We talk about the Not Small Thing of remembering our parents through their music, connecting ...