Between the Covers Podcast

Let's talk about using our voices. It's been quite the journey for me to get to a place where I'm comfortable to use my voice. How easy is it for you to speak up for your needs, wants, and desires? Do you find your words getting stuck in your throat before you can even speak them? As someone who has wrestled with the value of his voice, I want to assure you that your voice matters. People need to hear what you have to say.

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For this month's hero's study, I interview my good friend Ben Gibson! He's the one who introduced me to Dungeons and Dragons, created a safe space for me to ask questions during my faith deconstruction, and is a devout Christian who loves people, play, and laughter! He has some great nuggets to share in this interview.

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Let's talk about hypocrisy. I grew up hearing this term a lot in my Christian upbringing and it's something that is showing up more and more these days with the rise of white Christian nationalism. What is hypocrisy? According to Jesus, it's focusing on cleaning the outside than the inside, or making ourselves look good when our character doesn't match what we present. It comes from actors putting on masks in order to play other ch...

Let's talk about one of my all time favorite TV shows: Corner Gas. It's a Canadian sitcom that takes place in the fictional, rural town of Dog River, Saskatchewan. Zaniness ensues, I laugh a lot, and many of the characters have qualities that resonate with me. We're going to look at what some of the quirks are, how they resonate with me, and hopefully you can join me on a trip down memory lane of such a fun show.

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Let's talk about guilty pleasures. Actually, let's talk about pleasure in general. Namely, why does pleasure need to be guilty? Do you have something (or multiple things) that you would define as a guilty pleasure? Why is that? Turns out, many of us have been raised with societal norms that pleasure is a bad thing, maybe even sinful if you grew up Christian like I did. I encourage you to challenge these thoughts. Why does pleasure ...

Let's talk about another hero. This one is a friend of mine, Dan Fredrickson. A nerdy guy, happily homosexual and engaged to his partner, John. He struggles with imposter syndrome and low self-esteem. He's one of my dear gay friends who manages a movie theater chain and I've had the pleasure of getting to know him since 2020 in our D&D group. We talk about politics, life, and dynamics of heroes.

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Let's talk about empathy and how many powerful and vocal people are calling it a sin these days. As an empath, I disagree with this sentiment. The biggest thing for me is that being empathetic is something that has helped me change my views. It helps me connect with other people. It opens my eyes to the plights of others. It's something that makes me love others on a much deeper level. Removing empathy makes it so that these people...

Let's talk about our appearance and how we often want to control our appearance to others. Thanks to Benji Faye and Tori Douglass of the White Homework podcast for inspiring this idea in their work sharing about their struggles with racial justice. We do A LOT to appear a specific way to others and often are trying to hide the suffering we're going through. With many conversations I have with clients, this is almost universal. Let'...

Let's talk about making our own decisions. With so many influences on what we should do, say, believe, and how to live our lives, it's more important than ever for us to make the best decisions for ourselves. I have conversations with people often where they are asking me for advice on how to handle certain life decisions and the best thing I can do is to ask questions to get them to decide for themselves. Whether it's because we d...

For this month's hero's study we are looking at one of the protagonists in the book series The Seven Realms: Princess Raisa ana'Marianna of Fellsmarch. I love how this character is one who displays dogged determination, grit, and wrestles with the complexities of court decorum and political intrigue, while also allowing herself to be the badass princess she is. She's not afraid to love, fight, and argue, and she stands up for herse...

Let's talk about focusing on ourselves. With many conversations I have with family, friends, and even clients, many of us are raised to focus on others and to give of ourselves. Naturally, we're raised to share toys and space with others, yet there's also a deeper, more nefarious teaching at play that it's selfish to invest in ourselves. Where do we get the resources to give to others if we're not investing in ourselves?

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Today, let's talk about the concept of garbage in, garbage out. It's something I've heard from both the mental and physical health departments of this concept. We are capable of producing what we put in. Want to get healthier physically? Eating overly processed foods isn't going to help with that. Finding yourself in a negative mindset all the time? There's a good chance your taking in a ton of negativity.

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Let's talk about the difference between reacting and responding. They are synonymous if you look at the definitions of them, yet I want to hypothesize that there is a difference between them. The key difference, reacting is unconscious where responding is conscious. I explore this concept based on my experiences and conversations I've had with others.

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For this month's hero's study, I bring on a very special guest: my partner! I mention her so much in previous episodes. Once I decided to interview people for these episodes, I wanted to bring her on to share her story. She's been through so much and tells about her struggles with mental health and the support she's found. I hope you find inspiration from her story, and she gives a great metaphor of a snow globe that I love to use ...

Let's talk about believing in ourselves. I don't know about you, but this is something that I wrestled with all the time. I have more thoughts about how I'm failing in life than pointing out the good I'm doing. This is because I've struggled to believe in myself for years. It's not something I can point my finger at and blame a few key people. This is from society, my churches growing up, experiences in schools, comments made by fa...

Let's talk about insecurity, a very old friend of mine. I could even go so far as to say it's a bedfellow since I was a child. There isn't anyone I know who doesn't struggle insecurity in some form or fashion. Whether we're talking with our bodies or image, intellect or knowledge, work experience, parenting, the myriad hobbies out there...need I go on? I think it's a universal human experience to struggle with insecurities. Let's s...

Let's talk about purity culture today. This is something that I grew up when it was thriving, and it's still around today, but it's name has changed. If you experienced abstinence only sex education, are familiar with promise rings, have heard that men are more sexually active than women, that men are more visually stimulated than women, that you must remain a virgin until your married, that sex before marriage is one of the worst ...

Let's talk about one of my favorite philosophies on life: don't yuck someone else's yum. It's something I've heard from several sources now, but my first experience was around 2010 when I was working through the backlog of Stuff You Should Know episodes where the podcast hosts Josh and Chuck shared this idea. This is a life philosophy that I operate with that has given me so much freedom and joy compared to what I learned growing u...

Let's talk about another hero! This time, it's one of my favorite: Himura Kenshin. He's t he protagonist in the Rurouni Kenshin manga and anime and has been a favorite character of mine since I learned about him. What makes him an iconic hero in my eyes? Listen in to find out!

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Website: https://www.betweenthecoverscoaching.com/

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