Surpassing Labels
Surpassing Labels is a space for honest reflection, emotional awareness, and quiet transformation. Created within The Spiral Current, this podcast explores what lives beneath survival mode, performance, and the roles we’ve learned to carry. Here, we move beyond surface-level conversations into the undercurrents shaping our lives — not to fix ourselves, but to understand ourselves more fully. Alongside solo reflections, Surpassing Circles (bonus episodes) offers a space for people who have felt unseen, unheard, or unheld to share their stories in their own words. This is a space to breathe. To reflect. To remember who you are beneath the labels.
Episodes
There’s a difference between what feels urgent…
and what is actually true.
For many people, urgency is familiar.
It moves quickly.
It sounds convincing.
It creates the sense that something needs to be figured out… right now.
But there’s another kind of knowing.
Quieter.
Steadier.
Not trying to prove anything.
In this episode, we explore what it can feel like
to begin noticing the difference between the two—
and what becomes possible
when you do...
A soft reflection on clarity…
and why it doesn’t hold in the way we sometimes expect it to.
There can be moments where everything feels clear…
and then, just as naturally, that clarity shifts.
Not because something is wrong—
but because things are still moving.
This is a reflection on what changes
when that movement is allowed…
instead of held onto.
A reflection on the moment you turn outward
instead of staying with what’s already there.
It can feel small… almost unnoticeable—
reaching for what someone else would do,
what someone else might say.
And how easy it is, in those moments,
to move away from your own sense of what’s true.
Just a gentle noticing of what happens
when you come back to yourself instead.
A closer look at where intuition actually begins.
Not as a voice or a clear thought…
but as something more subtle—
a feeling, a shift, a response in the body.
Often so quick… it’s missed.
This is a reflection on what changes
when you start noticing that first moment—
before it turns into something you try to explain.
A reflection on what “getting quiet” actually feels like…
and how it doesn’t come from trying to stop your thoughts.
Sometimes it shows up in more ordinary moments—
when your body is moving…
when your attention softens…
when you’re not gripping your mind the same way.
Not something you force.
Just something that can happen…
when there’s a little more space.
A noticing around intuition…
and how it doesn’t seem to begin with questions the way we’re often told.
There’s something that can be felt before that—
before the mind starts searching or trying to figure it out.
Something already there…
subtle, easy to move past.
This is just a reflection on what happens
when you pause long enough to notice that.
The shift doesn’t happen all at once.
It happens in small moments—
when you notice something
and don’t move past it.
This is where something begins to change.
Forcing doesn’t always look like force.
Sometimes it looks like discipline.
Like effort.
Like doing everything “right.”
This reflection explores what might be underneath that.
You can do all the work…
and still be moving away from yourself while doing it.
This reflection explores the quiet difference between doing…
and actually being with what’s real.
There’s a moment that doesn’t always look like change…
but feels like it.
It’s quiet.
Subtle.
Easy to move past.
Nothing has fully shifted yet…
but something doesn’t feel the same anymore.
In this episode, we explore that in-between space
the place where what’s familiar no longer fully fits,
but what’s next hasn’t fully formed.
Not as something to figure out.
Not as something to rush.
But as something to notice.
Because sometimes…
that edge isn’...
There’s a quiet moment that happens…
when something you’ve always agreed with
doesn’t fully land the same way anymore.
Not enough to argue.
Not enough to explain.
Just enough to pause.
In this episode, we explore what it feels like
to begin thinking for yourself…
not as an idea,
but as something you can feel happening in real time.
This isn’t about changing your mind.
It’s about noticing
what’s already there.
If you’ve ever felt that subtle hes...
There are patterns many of us live inside without ever fully noticing.
Ways of thinking, responding, and holding ourselves that feel normal—simply because they’ve been there for so long.
In this episode, we begin to gently look beneath the surface at those undercurrents.
Not to fix them.
Not to change them.
Just to see them clearly.
Because sometimes the first shift doesn’t come from doing anything differently…
It comes from finally recog...
In this opening reflection, we step outside the pressure to fix, improve, or become something else — and instead turn toward what has already been quietly present.
There’s a way of being that doesn’t come from effort.
A way of listening that doesn’t come from trying.
This episode introduces the space of Surpassing Labels — not as a method, but as an invitation.
To slow down.
To notice.
To begin hearing yourself again.
Nothing needs to be ...
Today's episode is unlike any other.
It features the radiant Breanna Sprenger—a Good Life Ambassador, disability advocate, and beautiful soul who left a mark on everyone she met.
Breanna lived with spina bifida, but that was never what defined her.
What stood out was her warmth, her insight, her quiet strength, and the joy she carried into every room she entered.
Her heart for advocacy and inclusion was fierce, and her belief in a ...
Today's guest is living proof that survival is just the beginning.
Meet Karyssa Kestranek—a traumatic brain injury survivor, motivational speaker, and Good Life Ambassador with the Cuyahoga County Board of Developmental Disabilities.
After a devastating motorcycle crash left her in a month-long coma and given only a 1% chance to live, Karyssa didn't just recover—she rewrote her entire story.
Now, nearly 15 years later, she's using ...
Today on Surpassing Circles, we're celebrating unstoppable spirit, unapologetic advocacy, and the beauty of living life on your own terms.
Meet Shaye Taylor—Special Olympics Ohio athlete, LGBTQ+ advocate, cashier, sister, speaker, and all-around force of nature.
Born and raised in Cleveland's West Park neighborhood, Shaye has never fit into a box—and she's never tried to. Whether she's gliding across the ice in a figure skating r...
If choosing rest, setting boundaries, or saying no makes you "selfish"—then maybe selfish isn't such a bad thing.
In this powerful episode of Surpassing Labels, we're reclaiming the word that's been used for too long to keep women small, overextended, and soul-tired. Felicia invites you to flip the script, speak your truth, and take up space—without apology.
✨ Inside this episode:
-
Why "selfish" is often code for "no longer ab...
Welcome to Part 1 of The Good Life Voices!
This is where we shine the light on voices that are shifting culture, breaking barriers, and redefining what's possible.
I'm so excited to introduce you to Grace Blatt—an autistic self-advocate, educator, and all-around truth-teller who is living the good life on her own terms.
Grace holds a Master's in Psychological Sciences and teaches upper-division neuroscience courses at Cleveland Sta...
Welcome to the Surpassing Circles Spotlight Series—a sacred space within the Surpassing Labels Podcast devoted to honoring the voices, stories, and resources from the special needs and disability community.
This isn't a pivot. It's a return.
Because while this podcast has grown to include women's healing, identity, and emotional freedom… it was born from advocacy, caregiving, and the quiet strength of those navigating life in syste...
They don't see the mental tabs you keep open.
The reminders, the meal planning, the birthday cards, the calming down, the checking in.
They don't see the emotional labor—because you make it look effortless.
But just because it's invisible doesn't mean it isn't heavy.
In this episode of Surpassing Labels, we're naming the unseen, unthanked, and often unshared load so many women carry quietly—every single day. This is for the woman w...
Popular Podcasts
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
The Clifford Show with Clifford Taylor IV blends humor, culture, and behind-the-scenes sports talk with real conversations featuring athletes, creators, and personalities—spotlighting the grind, the growth, and the opportunities shaping the next generation of sports and culture.
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.
Saskia Inwood woke up one morning, knowing her life would never be the same. The night before, she learned the unimaginable – that the husband she knew in the light of day was a different person after dark. This season unpacks Saskia’s discovery of her husband’s secret life and her fight to bring him to justice. Along the way, we expose a crime that is just coming to light. This is also a story about the myth of the “perfect victim:” who gets believed, who gets doubted, and why. We follow Saskia as she works to reclaim her body, her voice, and her life. If you would like to reach out to the Betrayal Team, email us at betrayalpod@gmail.com. Follow us on Instagram @betrayalpod and @glasspodcasts. Please join our Substack for additional exclusive content, curated book recommendations, and community discussions. Sign up FREE by clicking this link Beyond Betrayal Substack. Join our community dedicated to truth, resilience, and healing. Your voice matters! Be a part of our Betrayal journey on Substack.