Rachel Krantz is the author of Open: An Uncensored Memoir of Love, Liberation, and Non-Monogamy. She is also one of the founding co-editors of Bustle, and a recipeint of the Peabody Award. Rachel and I discuss the complicated and overwhelming process of finding safety and authenticity within the world of unconventional relationships. While being careful not to dismiss non-monogamy outright, we do our best to lend some much needed nuance to the topic. We discuss power dynamics, discernment, abuse, safety, trust and intuition, among many other things. Rachel’s book is incredibly courageous, vulnerable and nuanced, and I was honored to discuss it with her in this conversation.

Find Rachel at RachelJKrantz.com and on Twitter

Songs featured: “River” by Bishop Briggs and “Invocation (Chaitanya Mantra)” by The Hanumen

How to support the show:

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Join the Substack community and get access to newsletters, exclusive articles, and a private Discord server just for listeners of the show, which you can join by clicking this link – https://discord.gg/4EaBb3FE (This Discord link expires in 7 days from the episode date. If it no longer works, send me an email and I will send you a new one – anyakaats@gmail.com)

Join the Lunar Circle waitlist – AnyaKaats.com/LunarCircle

Visit my website – AnyaKaats.com & Find me on Instagram

My friend Jenny Kellogg returns to the podcast, this time to speak about the Akashic Records. Early scientists said that there was a fifth element beyond fire, air, earth, and water. It was called “ether.” The information field of the universe could also be called ether, and this information field is what the Akashic Records are said to contain – a dynamic, neutral reservoir of information including every thought, emotion, experience, and intention of your soul through all lifetimes. Jenny and I discuss the difference between accessing the Akashic Records vs. psychic/past life regression readings, and, in true form, we bring a hefty portion of discernment, nuance and groundedness to yet another extremely complex spiritual topic!

Jenny’s Book Recommendations: Science and the Akashic Field by Ervin Laszlo and Journey of Your Soul by Shepard Hoodwin

Find Jenny at Amalthea.guide and on Instagram

Songs featured: “A Spark, A Beginning” by Corre and “Spinning Away” by Brian Eno and John Cale

How to support the show:

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Support my work on Patreon and get access to perks like an exclusive Discord Server, a book club just for patrons, shirts + stickers, playlists, and curated workshops led by myself, fellow Patrons and former guests of the podcast.

Visit my website – AnyaKaats.com & Find me on Instagram

This week, I bring you a conversation with my Grandma Barbara. From cleverly cheating on a vision test in order to become an airplane stewardess, to becoming a psychotherapist, sex and relationship therapist, and a Jungian therapist, to buying land in Colorado and building a cabin in the mountains, to raising her son (my Dad) and embracing his homosexuality from a young age, my Grandmother has lived her life with an open heart and open mind. We speak about her life, the lessons she’s learned and how she’s embracing the inevitability of death. If you’ve heard my Dad on the podcast (episode 21 and episode 73), this conversation will certainly add some depth and insight.

Song featured: “Good Woman” by the Staves and “Virginia in the Rain” by the Dave Matthews Band

How to support the show:

Rate, review and subscribe to the podcast on iTunes!

Support my work on Patreon and get access to perks like an exclusive Discord Server, a book club just for patrons, shirts + stickers, playlists, and curated workshops led by myself, fellow Patrons and former guests of the podcast.

Visit my website – AnyaKaats.com & Find me on Instagram

“If you asked her to identify the moment she knew she was lying to herself, she could tell you…”

This week, I decided to take a break from my regularly scheduled programming to read you a story. From unrequited love, to hero complexes, codependency, the erotic energy between teachers and students, eros, fantasy and delusion… I think you’ll find this story relatable.

Song featured: “Show Me Love” by Hundred Waters

How to support the show:

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Support my work on Patreon and get access to perks like an exclusive Discord Server, a book club just for patrons, shirts + stickers, playlists, and curated workshops led by myself, fellow Patrons and former guests of the podcast.

Visit my website – AnyaKaats.com & Find me on Instagram

Orleatha Smith, M.Ed is a serial entrepreneur, biologist and certified holistic lifestyle coach. Both of us spent years in the paleo/ancestral health world, had paleo food blogs, adhered to a strict paleo diet and worked in the wellness industry. We also both developed orthorexia and an extremely antagonistic relationship toward food and our bodies in the process. We discuss the complexities of our individual journeys and what it took to re-prioritize happiness, pleasure, and a fiercely honest, stress-free and individual approach to health and wellness.

Find Orleatha on Instagram

Orleatha’s Book Recommendations: The High-Five Habit by Mel Robbins, Health at Every Size by Linda Bacon and the Biology of Belief by Bruce Lipton

Songs featured: “Rise” by Dominique Fils-Aimé and “Enough” by Aisha Badru

How to support the show:

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Support my work on Patreon and get access to perks like an exclusive Discord Server, a book club just for patrons, shirts + stickers, playlists, and curated workshops led by myself, fellow Patrons and former guests of the podcast.

Visit my website – AnyaKaats.com & Find me on Instagram

Timo and I have too many things in common to list. From an obsession with Tony Kushner’s Angels in America, to the importance of recognizing and building personal mythologies, to neo-tribalism and the importance of community, we spent two months in Antigua, Guatemala philosophizing late into the night about all our favorite subjects. Timo was raised in Mormonism and had a successful career in political consulting before focusing on a project around a return to tribal living, where small groups of people live in committed community that gives equal weight to both the individual and the community. If you’re interested in spirituality, mythology, tribe, community and belonging, this episode is not to missed.

Find Timo on Instagram, at storyofexistence.com or email him tim@theunknown.be

Timo’s Book Recommendation: Tribe by Sebastian Junger

Sign up for Whitney and my Retrograde with Intention course by clicking here. Enrollment ends December 8th and space is limited!

Songs featured: “The Truth About the World” by Andrea Marie, “Bethesda Fountain” and “More Life” from Angels in America and “MANGO” by KAMAUU feat. Adeline

How to support the show:

Rate, review and subscribe to the podcast on iTunes!

Support my work on Patreon and get access to perks like an exclusive Discord Server, a book club just for patrons, shirts + stickers, playlists, and curated workshops led by myself, fellow Patrons and former guests of the podcast.

Visit my website – AnyaKaats.com & Find me on Instagram

 

Whitney Will is a psychological astrologer and writer. She has a B.A. in the History of Math and completed her M.A. in Counseling Psychology with a focus on Jungian and Archetypal Studies at Pacifica. Whitney returns to the podcast, this time to chat with me about planetary retrogrades. We discuss what’s really happening in the sky when a planet “goes retrograde”, dispel false narratives about what retrogrades mean and delve into the archetype and mythology behind Mercury, Mars and Venus. We also expand on what it means to be born during a planetary retrograde and to have a retrograde planet in your natal chart. Lastly, we discuss our upcoming course “Retrograde with Intention” where we will be helping participants track the upcoming Venus retrograde in Capricorn through their charts and creating community and ritual around the transit, honoring Venus the best way we know how.

Find Whitney at at StarHearthAstrology.com, Youtube and Instagram.

Sign up for our Retrograde with Intention course by clicking here. Enrollment ends December 8th and space is limited!

Songs featured: “Love Like a Sunset, pt. 2” by Phoenix and “Southern Star” by Gregory Alan Isakov

How to support the show:

Rate, review and subscribe to the podcast on iTunes!

Support my work on Patreon and get access to perks like an exclusive Discord Server, a book club just for patrons, shirts + stickers, playlists, and curated workshops led by myself, fellow Patrons and former guests of the podcast.

Visit my website – AnyaKaats.com & Find me on Instagram

Chris is a Spiritual Mentor and Master Energy Worker. He has extensive education in Traditional Chinese Medicine, Acupuncture, Medical QiGong, Reiki, Pranic Healing, & Sexual Alchemy. We discuss our shared experience of identifying as spiritual and yet feeling alienated by most spiritual communities and unpack why that is. We also do a deep dive into Feminine and Masculine Polarity, how they exist within each of our us and how we enact this energy balance and exchange within relationships. We talk about the physical and psychological effects of trying to neutralize and deny the natural flow of energy in our bodies, and how when yin & yang are in disharmony, true vitality and health can never be fully established. We also speak about the ways both men and women can step up to the plate support each other in this process.

Find Chris on Instagram and at AwakenedIntent.com

Chris’ book recommendation: Tantric Orgasms for Women and Tantric Sex for Men by Diana Richardson

Songs featured: “Can’t Help But Fly” by Climbing PoeTree, be steadwell & Luqman Frank and “Medicine Man” by Dorothy

How to support the show:

Rate, review and subscribe to the podcast on iTunes!

Support my work on Patreon and get access to perks like an exclusive Discord Server, a book club just for patrons, shirts + stickers, playlists, and curated workshops led by myself, fellow Patrons and former guests of the podcast.

Visit my website – AnyaKaats.com & Find me on Instagram

I met Rehan at the beginning of Covid on a ranch in Santa Fe. After mentioning that my podcast features taboo conversations about a variety of topics, he asked if I’d ever discussed terrorism and the War on Terror & started talking about how bizarre he thought it was that the US had waged an entire war against what he described as “local gangsters”. I was intrigued, to say the least, and a year and a half later, we sat down to talk about it. Rehan grew up in Pakistan, but came to the US for college, and has lived here ever since. He’s a journalist, writer and a playwright, currently working on a project for Frontline/PBS about majoritarianism. We speak about the fallacies surrounding the War on Terror (of which there are many), and unpack how on a grand scale, the US effectively fabricated an enemy, and constructed and proliferated a war based on misguided judgement and vastly overblown risk.

Rehan’s book recommendation: The War At the End of the World by Mario Vargas Llosa

Songs featured: “Masters of War” by Vieux Farka Touré and Julia Easterlin and “War” by Edwin Starr

How to support the show:

Rate, review and subscribe to the podcast on iTunes!

Support my work on Patreon and get access to perks like an exclusive Discord Server, a book club just for patrons, shirts + stickers, playlists, and curated workshops led by myself, fellow Patrons and former guests of the podcast.

Visit my website – AnyaKaats.com & Find me on Instagram

Tzeporah is a Canadian environmental activist, campaigner and writer. She has worked in environmentalism for 30 years, is the co-founder and International Program Director at Stand.Earth and the Chair of the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative. From being arrested at the front lines of forest conservation initiatives, to speaking directly with the CEOs of fossil fuel corporations, Tzeporah has seen it all. We speak about regulation as it relates to both consumption and production, the difference between being a citizen vs. being a consumer, and we dissect the complexities of locating “responsibility” for ending the climate crisis. We discuss how humans are not separate from nature, but a part of nature itself, the unknown long-term effects of clearcutting and reforestation, and how to create hope in a seemingly hopeless situation.

Find Tzeporah and support her work by visiting Stand.earth and FossilFuelTreaty.org

Tzeporah’s book recommendation: The Day the World Stops Shopping by J.B. Mackinnon

Songs featured: “My City Was Gone” by The Pretenders and “Green Mountain State” by Trevor Hall

How to support the show:

Rate, review and subscribe to the podcast on iTunes!

Support my work on Patreon and get access to perks like an exclusive Discord Server, a book club just for patrons, shirts + stickers, playlists, and curated workshops led by myself, fellow Patrons and former guests of the podcast.

Visit my website – AnyaKaats.com & Find me on Instagram