tHE ARTichoke Podcast

Episode 38 | He Does.

What happens when a man carries everything, quietly, for years, without a place to lay it down? This episode honors the inner life men are rarely given permission to tend to, examining the cost of emotional suppression while offering grounded, practical ways to restore internal regulation without performance or pretense.It offers a rare pause where a man’s inner world is held as worthy of care, respect, and sustained attention.

Quieting the Inner Chaos | Part 21 | Contamination

This episode breaks down the quiet ways emotional unwellness seeps into our lives and begins to reshape how we think, work, love, and connect. With a clinically warm, no-nonsense tone, T.D. Montena helps listeners recognize the early signs of emotional spillover, understand where it comes from, and learn real skills to stop the spread. A powerful bonus segment speaks directly to spiritually rooted listeners, revealing how emotional contamination can signal spiritual elevation and reconnecting the message with scripture. A necessary episode for anyone ready to notice the leak, name the cause, and begin the cleanup. Contamination is never the end — it is the announcement that your next level has already begun. Reference List Van der Kolk, B. A. (2014). The body keeps the score: Brain, mind, and body in the healing of trauma. Viking.

Episode 37 | Unlearning the Inheritance

You didn’t choose the patterns you inherited however, you decide if they stay. This episode digs into how family traits, survival habits, and old wiring quietly script who we think we are. It’s time to interrupt the cycle. Your brain can rewrite the story. You’re not your conditioning, you’re the one creating what comes next. Inspired by research on neuroplasticity (Davidson & McEwen, 2012, Nature Neuroscience).

Quieting the Inner Chaos | Part 20 | Recur, A Continuum of Wellness Check-Ins

This episode invites you to quiet the inner noise and step into a space of honest reflection. Inspired by Martin Seligman’s 1998 foundation of Positive Psychology, these check-ins cultivate self-honesty and resiliency by encouraging authenticity without judgment, perfectionism, or unrealistic expectations. Here, you are free to acknowledge how you are truly doing, and to choose wellness again and again. Reference Seligman, M. E. P., & Csikszentmihalyi, M. (2000). Positive psychology: An introduction. American Psychologist, 55(1), 5–14. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.55.1.5

Episode 36 | "Until When" with Crystal Stone

In this unfiltered exchange, Crystal Stone — poet, educator, and TEDx speaker — revisits the years when cultural roles and financial security seemed safer than living authentically. With striking honesty, she reflects on the tension between who she was expected to be and who she truly is, uncovering the fear, cost, and eventual freedom of naming herself openly as a lesbian. This conversation lingers between vulnerability and liberation, leaving us with the haunting question: until when? ✨ Watch Crystal Stone’s TEDx Talk The Transformative Power of Poetry here: https://youtu.be/quOciizfhIc [https://youtu.be/quOciizfhIc] 🌐 Stay connected and support her journey: https://www.crystalbstone.com/ [https://www.crystalbstone.com/?utm_source=chatgpt.com]