Being Human

Being Community Care Providers....in this late stage capitalism hellscape

Hey Humans! I believe I say more than enough in the intro to this one and so this will be brief. All I want to say is, I love you, I see you, You Are VALID!!! Their laws can't define us and we will never be erased because we are Human!!!! Anyone who would take the freedom of thought and expression away from any other living creature is inhuman.

Being Bebe Birds in a REAL red state

Hey humans! It's official. Welcome to Season 2 of Being Human! In this our second episode of the season, we get to revisit the human experience explored in season 1 episode, Being Beautiful. On that episode we heard from my amazing hair artist Lisa Anderson about the concept and the commercialism of beauty. Today we hear from her amazing Bebe Birds! Three fantastic humans who are also badass hair artists. Enjoy!

Being Birthing Humans is Hard!

Hey Humans! This episode is for all you humans out there who have either birthed, adopted or had to be the full time caregiver to a human bebe at any point in the first, let's say, 0-3 years of their life. Parenting is hard! It is made even harder by Daddy Capitalism, of course, but also by the terrible idea white supremist came up with called, the Nuclear family. My ancestors said, why have a whole community of big humans and small humans working together to support each other when you can have just one dude and one lady care for 2.5 kiddos and a dog/cat?! Face palm emoji here. I invited my friend, neighbor and fellow social worker, Jessie Gutierrez, on to talk all things bringing humans into this world. Jessie is a LIMPH and specializes in perinatal mental health. Jessie and I both identify as humans who birthed humans who like to use the term, mom or mama, for ourselves. Therefore, we do navigate this conversation using the labels we identify with, but want to make sure anyone who listens knows, this label isn't for everyone who birthed a human or adopted or care gives for one. So when you hear the word, mom, mother, mama, in this episode, know we are including anyone who can share these experiences. Milk Workshttps://milkworks.org [https://milkworks.org/] Postpartum Support International (PSI) is a wonderful resource for maternal mental health.  PSI has a Nebraska chapter that can help link moms and families with perinatal providers.  * https://psichapters.com/ne/ [https://psichapters.com/ne/] * PSI also has many free online support groups. . https://www.postpartum.net/get-help/psi-online-support-meetings/ [https://www.postpartum.net/get-help/psi-online-support-meetings/] Division of Labor  The documentary I mentioned is FairPlay by Eve Rodsky. (Also she has a book and podcast). It was streaming on Hulu but here is a link for info.  https://www.fairplaylife.com/documentary [https://www.fairplaylife.com/documentary]

Being Secure in an insecure world

Hey Humans, this is another super special episode with another super special guest. Being adopted gave me this special gift of being able to naturally and intuitively understand that humans can connect in deep and personal ways. Some call this family, some love and I now would call it community. I speak to every human in my life about building a community of care. To me, this means, understanding that all relationships for which I am involved with another human should involve some aspect of care in order to help cultivate community bonds. These are built when we take care in simple interactions such as being pleasant to the cashier at the store or trying to breath through our stress when stuck in traffic or learning to zipper merge, but having patience for those who haven't. This also means going on vibes when it comes to services you value. Plenty of humans have the skills, you should get things like; medical/dental/any health care, hair stylists, food, emotional support and cultivate joy with humans whom you trust and value. Like I always say, you gotta like your therapist or it isn't gonna work no matter how "qualified" they are. Cultivating a community of care takes a different kind of process than most of us have been taught through our capitalistic colonial systems. I am grateful for my adoption history, my loving family biological and chosen and the many amazing women and men of color and LGBTQ's in my life who have shown me in so many ways what care means, what community means and how important it is to our sense of security in this wild ass world.

Being Nurtured

Hey Humans! We are back with another one. This episode is special in a lot of ways, but to find out you have to listen. Enjoy another deep talk with a surprise guest on the theme of the ever so annoying debate of whether it is our nature or our nurture that matters most.....and we solved it folks, the answer is NURTURE!!!!! It is always how we nurture our nature that is the most important thing we can do for ourselves and others.