Ducking Realitea
Ducking Realitea Casual Conversations About Serious Sh*t. Real Stories. Raw Moments. Big Joy. Hosted by Siobhan Welcome to Ducking Realitea, the podcast where we spill truth like tea and dive into the gritty, hilarious, and healing parts of being human. Hosted by Siobhan, this show is all about casual conversations with real people who’ve lived through some serious sh*t and came out the other side with stories worth sharing. From trauma to transformation, heartbreak to humor, we explore what it means to rebuild your life, trust your gut, and find joy even in the mess. These are the stories behind the strength, raw, unfiltered, and deeply human. If you're craving connection, curious about how others have healed, or just need a reminder that you’re not alone, this pod’s for you. Grab your beverage of choice (or roll one up), and join us each week for soulful storytelling with a side of sass. Let’s rebel against the noise, talk about what actually matters, and maybe even laugh our way through the chaos. Because here at Ducking Realitea, we believe: Your story matters. Vulnerability is power. And joy is always worth chasing.
Episodes
Billy Ribak turned one kid’s request for drum lessons into 3 O’Clock Rock, a hands-on music program where young musicians start bands, write songs, make records, play real shows, and go on tour.
Billy joins Siobhan to talk about growing up playing music with his brother Marc, building community through rock ’n’ roll, and teaching kids the communication, collaboration, and follow-through that b...
Chamaine Wofford has been building things since she was a teenager, but opening Vinyl Wine Bar & Shop may be the hardest thing she’s ever done.
She joins Siobhan to talk about growing up gifted and ambitious in South Carolina, spending 12 years in speech therapy, raising children as a single mom, developing her palate through travel, and bootstrapping a destination wine bar at Alameda Point.
They dig into be...
Shawnte didn’t set out to become a yoga teacher or a community healer, she just knew she couldn’t keep living the way she was. In this episode, she sits down with Siobhan to trace her journey from social work and wilderness programs with deeply traumatized youth, to remote-care burnout, to finding an unexpected lifeline in yoga and community.
They talk about moving from Virginia to Florida to Alameda, the...
Music doesn't put food on the table, but it feeds something just as important.
This week, Siobhan welcomes Dr. Margaret "Marge" Jones, classical guitarist, rock frontwoman of M. Jones and the Melee, teacher, and lifelong student of music, for a conversation that starts with microphones and somehow ends with the meaning of art.
They talk about earning a PhD in music, touring in a minivan, teaching nearly 50 students, s...
It’s episode 10 of Touch of the Tism and your favorite tired bartenders are back: Siobhan, Holly, and Dani. What starts as a delirious catch-up about sleep deprivation, weird days off, and bar bathroom emergencies quickly opens into a deeper conversation about Juneteenth, white supremacy, policing, and why education, not “wokeness”, is the real threat to people in power.
The crew unpacks mispronounc...
Alicia—aka Big New Energy—is a Bay Area storyteller, single mom, and content creator who somehow makes history nerdy, small businesses, and quiet streets feel cinematic. She’s helped local shops hit their best sales in years, turned hidden corners of Richmond into destinations, and built a community off the strength of her voice and curiosity.
In this episode, we dive into how she got here: growing ...
Some friendships change your life. Others change the lives of everyone around you.
Karen Beckles returns to Ducking Realitea for her third appearance, this time joined by her longtime friend, collaborator, and "chum," Leia Mitchell. What started as conversations between two roommates during COVID slowly evolved into a partnership built on trust, personal growth, and a shared passion for helping people reconnect, with...
In this episode of Ducking Reality Presents: Touch of the Tism, Siobhan, Holly, and Danielle take you from sticky bar floors to heavy-hearted truth in under two hours.
They start with pure chaos: flip flops in dive bars, near-death toe incidents, and why melty cheese might be the only thing holding us together. Quickly, the tone shifts into something deeper—navigating parents’ depression, estate planning,...
This episode starts with Brian photographing 25 bands in 48 hours and somehow ends with swinger hotels, Japanese punk bands, AI, strip club playlists, and one of my favorite conversations we've had about creativity.
Brian Paine and Johnny Dismal join me to pull back the curtain on what it's like to document a music scene from both sides of the stage. Brian talks about the obsessive post-production that helps him reme...
Well, Touch of the Tism is two weeks late.
Before anybody asks... no, none of us are pregnant. 😂
Honestly, we've just been busy being adults, which frankly feels like a design flaw. Between BottleRock, gallery resets, work, chronic pain, family stuff, and trying to remember where we left our keys, this episode took a little longer to make it out into the world.
This one starts with us catching up and quickly devolves ...
Charles was born in Manila, raised in West Oakland, and shaped by a journey that includes skipping grades, rave days, a suicide attempt, paranoid schizophrenia, and two hospitalizations. Today, he’s a therapist serving school-age kids on Medi-Cal, bringing both clinical training and lived experience into the room.
In this conversation, we talk about what psychosis actually feels like, why medication is lifesavi...
This week I'm joined by Ilona Campbell, the creator behind Campbell Sells the Bay, for a conversation that goes far beyond real estate.
Born in Ukraine and raised in San Francisco, Ilona shares her journey through Burning Man culture, opening one of Brooklyn's first vape shops, world travel, motherhood, and eventually becoming one of the Bay Area's favorite local history storytellers.
We talk about Oakland history, Ea...
How the Canvas Became My Church with Jo Anne Yada
Jo Anne Yada joined me in the studio to talk about art, creativity, and teaching kids through music and self-expression. What I didn't expect was a conversation that would take us through growing up Mormon, leaving a high-demand religion, questioning long-held beliefs, and learning how to build a life that actually feels like your own.
We talk about purity culture, fam...
Jason Buckley drops into the pond for a conversation about punk rock, rent control, women-led music festivals, labor activism, and the weird ways community forms when life gets hard.
Siobhan first met Jason at the She Shreds Music Fest, where he was running stage sound while helping his band Star Strut pull off an ambitious women-in-music festival that almost unraveled from pure chaos and exhaustion… but someh...
What happens when a chef and a mixologist start finishing each other’s…flavors?
Proof & Pairing happens, cocktail-first creations, wild creativity, and the most joyful culinary chaos you’ve ever heard.
In this episode of Ducking Realitea, I sit down with Todd and Chef Lamont of Proof & Pairing, a Bay Area-based cocktail-first food pairing experience that flips traditional food and drink ...
The tea has been spiltz… and in this case, it’s hot. Like sauna hot.
This week I’m sitting down with my friend Chris—one of my favorite humans from Archimedes Banya—and we get into how a shy college kid going to nude beaches in Humboldt somehow turned into a 40+ year love affair with naturism, sauna culture, and one very specific kind of community you don’t really find anywhere el...
This live episode of Ducking Realitea presents: Touch of the Tism drops you right into Fireside in Alameda, where Siobhan, Holly, and Danielle bring their studio to the stage for Episode 7. What starts as a nerves-and-negronis kind of night quickly turns into a hilarious, heartfelt group therapy session with a bar full of friends, listeners, and a few unsuspecting new fans.
The trio share how the pod was born out of ...
A culty childhood. A goat ranch. Face scars. Suspension hooks.
And somehow… one of the most grounded people you’ll ever meet.
In this episode of Ducking Realitea, Siobhan sits down with Gage for a conversation that starts with first impressions, and quickly turns into something much deeper.
Gage shares what it was like growing up in a strict religious environment, navigating family instability, and eventua...
This one goes everywhere, in the best way.
Siobhan sits down with Dr. Misha Brodsky: Soviet-born mathematician, UC Berkeley researcher, university administrator… and the man behind one of the most iconic banyas in the U.S.
From growing up in the Soviet Union—where travel was restricted and careers were essentially pre-determined—to being told “you can go, but you go forever,” Misha share...
This episode is not light… but it’s important.
From being coached to lie to CPS at four years old to ending up on a psych ward as a teaching case, Tracy has survived more than most people can imagine, and somehow built a life full of love, art, and zero tolerance for bullshit.
Siobhan sits down with Tracy of Black Widow Bottles for a raw, unfiltered conversation about what it actually takes to rebuild you...
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