Soul + Practice: Raw Conversations & Real Practices with Kathy Escobar & Phyllis Mathis

We feel so thankful for the amazing people who come hang out with us and we are also amazed by how much happens in such a short time. As we looked back on where we started in Februrary and what's happened in the world, our worlds, this semester, it's kind of wild. And points to why we need resourcing and support so badly! In this episode, we look back on all of the conversations we've had since February and considered what space we want to make for Summer. We'll be back this Fall. Until then, let's keep letting our soul lead and #keeppracticing

Connect with Will at wildsoulcollective.org "The soul is like a wild animal — tough, resilient, savvy, self-sufficient, and yet exceedingly shy… When we catch sight of the soul, we can become healers in a wounded world” - Parker Palmer  Learn more about All Souls Boulder at allsoulsboulder.org The Courage and Renewal Center - couragernewal.org  Book both Phyllis and Will referred to - Centering: In Pottery, Poetry, and the Person" by M. C. Richards.  

angiefadel.com    

Connect with Linsey at https://re-conn-tore.com/

Learn more about Keely's work at keelytaylor.com 

More on Tent of Nations at tentofnations.com  More on The Refuge at therefugeonline.org Replay of 79th Annual Easter Sunrise Service at Red Rocks:  https://www.youtube.com/live/Zj49Uw2gIYw?si=Ol3n08EPqCYD39GU

We loved this conversation with Janel Apps Ramsey, Co-Director of Brew Theology, Doctoral student, climate justice advocate, and a vulnerable leader who is learning how to own her body and live into it--no small task in this world and the systems that want us to be small, disembodied, and compliant. We could feel this conversation in our bodies and hope that you find what you need out of it, too! More on Janel's work at brewtheology.org

Names of poems and links:  - Poetry of Presence: An Anthology of Mindfulness Poems, editors Phyllis Cole-Dai and Ruby R Wilson | "Trees" by Howard Nemerov - Poetry of Presence II: An Anthology of Mindfulness Poems, editors Phyllis Cole-Dai and Ruby R Wilson - Almond Blossoms & Beyond by Mahmoud Darwish | "This of Others" - Rosemerry WahtolaTrommer | "Today's Headline" (wordwoman.com) - "Try to Praise the Mutilated World " by Adam Zagajewski - Poetry Unbound with Padraig O'Tuama -All the Honey by Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer | "For When People Ask" -"still life with flying bird" by Maya Stein -Anoint This Threshhold by John Roedel | "Are you ready for things to get back to normal?" -Book of Hours: Love Poems to God by Rainier Maria Rilke | "Go to the limits of your longing" 

Our friend Melvin Bray's newest book is here, yeah! UnLEARN InEQUITY: An Invitation to Truth and Transformation is a gift to the world and we're so thankful to get to hang out and process what's happening in the world right now through this lens. Equity is a life-long practice that must be done in community. Learn more about Melvin's work at unlearninequity.melvinbray.com

Phyllis turned 70 this weekend, woo hoo! In this episode we process aging well, embracing reality, and leaning into hard-won wisdom. Plus a cameo with Kelli Skoog, here in Denver celebrating this weekend, yay.

It's been a tough weekend, friends, with US and Israel waging war on Iran. We dream for better leadership. We dream of circles of connection and wisdom not towers of unhealthy power and destructive practices. We dream for a more just society not just for ourselves but for our future. Strap in, this one's raw, but that's what Soul + Practice is all about--raw conversations and real practices. Let's keep practicing together.

After we finished recording our last episode Phyllis and Kathy talked to BJ Skoog or a bit and we realized we wanted to process more about how all of this has affected spirituality and relationships, too. That's where we went in this second episode, recorded a week later from Minnesota an Denver, navigating what happens when we have such divergent values with people we once deeply connected to and how to wrestle with the pain and dissonance of this reality.

Oh, we feel so grateful for this conversation with BJ Skoog, a long-time friend of Phyllis and a person of hope in these hard times. BJ founded the Richfield Leadership Network in Minneapolis, which is dedicated to strengthening community connectedness. The power of these relationships are being illuminated so strongly in the current situation with ICE occupation in their city and the reality of what's needed to care for their most vulnerable neighbors. We felt so inspired and also reminded of how important it is to stay healthy and resourced for the amount of trauma communities are experiencing together. More on RLN at https://www.richfieldleadershipnetwork.com.

Well, we needed the Super Bowl this year folks! In this episode we process why it helps us so much and how embodying our values despite the resistance is everything.

After a 6 week break, we're back for Season 9 with a check in, some small signs of hope, bald eagles, poetry, and hopefully a sense of being in this hard stuff together and staying as healthy and connected as we can.

Sorry for the technical difficulties if you listened to two wrong files before we finally got this right one up! But yes, this one starts our weird, too, ha! #practicing. We loved looking back on this past season September-December 2025 and all of the incredible kindreds who came and shared with us. We learned so much together, gathered some resourcing, and felt a little more grounded in the middle of so much uncertainty. We hope you did, too. We are so thankful to our guests who come and play with us and would love to hear what parts of this season resonated with you. We'll be back in 2026!

Phyllis' son Justin Mathis rocks and we're so thankful that we got to hang out with him for a truly lovely conversation about peer to peer support, mental health, and the beauty and power of being alongside other humans offering presence and connection and receiving it, too. Also, the most simple practices make a big difference in stability and healing. Enjoy!

In a world (and season) obsessed with material goods, we decided to focus on some of our favorite things that aren't stuff--simple practices, actions, spaces, places that help us regulate our nervous system and feel more solid and connected to our souls in a destabilizing world. They aren't complex--they're simple. And often so underrated. We had fun and hope you can lean into your favorite things, too, in freedom.

We love stories of the long road of freedom and how we find themes and gems of truth in others' journeys, too. In this episode we hang out with our friend Karen Poland, who is a therapist in TX with the Christian Closet, which offers therapy, coaching, and spiritual support services for the LGBTQ+ community around the country and beyond. This conversation about the intersection of faith and sexuality and honoring our truest true was so good for our souls! Learn more about the Christian Closet resources at thechristiancloset.com as well as Affirming Therapy, a non-profit that offers therapy scholarships to meet this crucial need.

We've been wanting to have this conversation for while, and we finally did it! Our friend Hannah Wong, a college professor and leader who is passionate about learning, human development, and things of the soul helped us engage with the realities of AI and how it's changing our minds and our culture in powerful and scary ways.

We feel so grateful to get to play with kindreds and gather some extra goodness in the middle of so much hard! We loved hanging out with John Pavlovitz, writer, activist, storyteller, and friend for a little bit this week. He helped us remember how important it is to stay human in a dehumanizing world. It's a gift to be alongside long-term advocates who keep saying stuff that needs to be said and dream for a better more equitable world despite so many obstacles. You can find all of John's work at johnpavlovitz.com.

Oh, grief! It's a part of life, yet most of us have a very complicated relationship with it. This conversation is about metabolizing grief, learning to integrate it into the human experience alongside others who are trying to be honest about it, too.

We love the Enneagram, and in this episode we thought it would be fun to process what different Enneagram types might be feeling and experiencing in these wild times and offer some possible practices for support and resourcing. We had fun, and the truth is, no matter our type, there's always something we can learn and draw from.

We loved our conversation with Hugh Hollowell, writer, advocate, seeker of beauty, and pastor of Open Door Mennonite Church in Jackson Mississippi. It's exactly the kind of reminders we need right now in what he calls "The Circumstances" the US finds itself in. Learn more about his work in the world at hughhollowell.org and gather some beauty and hope today.

This conversation with Rev. Rob Jerger, who is the Vicar at St. Clare's Episcopal Church in Tyler, Texas (the only LGBTQ+ affirming community out of the 392 churches in that town), made both of us cry. It embodies such a beautiful example of what church is supposed to be - a little pocket of love, safety, freedom, and hope in the middle of this hard and harsh world. No matter what you believe, there's so much to glean from this conversation, and it is what our souls needed today. More on St. Clare's at scectyler.org

Beyond all the basic talking about left brain being logical and the right brain being creative is an expansive body of work that can help us also better understand what's happening not only in our own stories and experience but also in the wider one that's imploding right now. In this episode we process some of the ideas in the neuroscience book (600 pages!) by Ian McGilchrist called The Master and His Emissary and how we might be able to integrate some of the simplest ideas into our real lives and practices.

It's been a rough week in the USA and even though we pretty much say that every week we record, this past week has been extra bad with assassinations, school shootings, and social media awful. This episode we share what we needed most this morning--getting back to basic skills and guiding principles that will help us survive these really rough times. We felt better when we finished and hope you do, too.

We’re back! We always take a break in the Summer and re-group, decide if we’re going to keep on keeping on or not, and in these wild times, the answer is YES! This space helps us and we hope it helps anyone listening in whatever ways are needed. This episode is just a look-back at the Summer and what’s sustaining us right now. Looking forward to the season ahead!

It’s a wrap, friends! We had a great run of guests and topics from February-May centered on resourcing during these extra tumultuous times, and now it’s time for a Summer break! We loved looking back at our conversations and amazing friends who offered their time and wisdom to be part of Soul + Practice. We love having out with you each week and will look forward to being back in the Fall. Meanwhile, take good care of yourselves this Summer and know we’re with you in the human-ing in these hard times.

Julie-Anne Malette-Mauno is a French Canadian settler living on Treaty 9 territory in Northeastern Ontario, Canada with her family. She has 7 children. She writes poetry and her love for the boreal forest is reflected in her writing. She is a Registered Social Worker and is working as a therapist and researcher. Her work centers on perinatal mental health and wellbeing, and grief and loss. She is committed to her evolving decolonial practice and her calling to embody midwifery paradigms in her work and life. Though she is not working as a clinical midwife, she carries that calling into her poetry, social work practice, life, and relationships. 

The Subversive Soul: The Gentle Revolution Every Soul Needs—Phyllis’ new book-- is coming out July 22nd! In this episode we process some of the key ideas in the book and are reminded on why soul and practice go together so well. Published by Quoir Publishing, this book is going to help so many discover, honor, and live into what’s already in us. More at phyllismathis.com

It’s always fun to learn from new friends and realize how connected we all are in different ways. David Artman is a retired minister, author, podcaster, and a leading voice in Christian Universalism over the years. With the rise of this 2.0 administration, he’s sharing more about the dangerous reality we’re living in as we slide toward fascism, with evangelicals locked in on this kind of leadership. We left our conversation grateful for his courage and committed to building relationships with kindreds that remind us of our values. More on David’s work at davidartman.net.

Oh, we needed this! Spending time with Dr. Lisa Pettit--who has been a student of Thich Nhat Hanh for 20+ years and is a kindred and community leader in the Compassionate Dharma Cloud Monastery in Morrison, Colorado,—is always so good for our souls. There are countless beautiful gems in this episode to draw back on, along with tangible ways to keep practicing human-ing both personally and together. Soak it in! More on Compassionate Dharma Cloud Monastery at compassionatedharmacloudmonastery.org.

In this episode, Kathy’s awesome husband, Jose joins us to share a little bit about his life as a pilot, military lawyer, and pro-bono attorney at a legal aid clinic during these wild times—what helps, what’s hard, and the power of seeking joy (and McDonalds). We had fun in the middle of so much hard. More about the incredible work of the Justice and Mercy Legal Aid Center at jamlac.org.

We loved our conversation with our friend Melvin Bray—Atlanta-based author, educator, dad, husband, and creator of the 12 Steps Truth and Transformation Model that are modified 12 steps for equity work in community. Melvin’s work in untangling from supremacist logic and the life-long practice of equity has helped us in more ways than we can say, and his reminder of our need for simple and meaningful human connection right now is everything. Check out Melvin’s work at collabyrinthconsulting.com and look for his newest books/tools in June 2025 centered on unlearning inequity at knowledgefam.com.

Weaving webs of community, healing, mutual aid, earth wisdom, and other practices that help us make it in this harsh world are needed now more than ever. Angie Fadel joins us this week, sharing some of what she’s learning and practicing in this season of her story and how small contributions—what can feel like just a drop—matter. Angie’s based in Portland and is a spiritual director, meditative archer, and cultivator of healing spaces in nature. More at angiefadel.com

We love making new friends, and Amanda Udis-Kessler, author, former sociology professor, songwriter, and anti-oppression trainer, helped us gain some clarity and hope around living out ethics of flourishing despite the complete lack of ethics at the highest level of our land right now. With practical, honest, and clear ways to stay connected to our truest values and live them out despite the pull to go low, Amanda is a voice we need in the world right now! More at her website at amandaudiskessler.com.

There’s so much more going on in the sky than most of us are aware of! In this fun and eye-opening episode our friend Polly Baker, who’s a spiritual director who integrates astrology in an incredibly unique and grounding way, brings some incredible knowledge to the forces at work in the sky right now that we’re feeling collectively while also offering some clear and tangible practices to consider as we navigate this season of our nation’s and world’s history. Learn more about Polly’s cosmic direction work at polly-baker.com.

In this check-in episode, we process how we can stay grounded and clear when we’re constantly being gaslit with alternate facts and realities. While this is happening on a national level right now, many of us have experienced it in relationship with others, too; yeah, it’s exhausting.

When we were thinking about this season and what we needed, one of the first people that came to mind was our friend Nikki Kennedy. A trauma-therapist and community builder, she is a wise kindred and leader and we loved this conversation so much. So many gems for how we navigate these wild times, own the reality of this story, and grow in our capacity to care for ourselves and one another in simple accessible ways.

100 Episodes of Soul + Practice, what?!? What better way to honor it than with an amazing conversation with our friend Tara Taylor, who is a volunteer docent at Armstrong Woods in Northern California and incredible nature-based facilitator and guide. As we center this season on resourcing, there’s so much we can learn from the redwoods and we hope everyone listening grabs something we need right now. They are incredible teachers.

Whoa, can you say 2025 and what unhealthy unchecked destructive power looks like in action? What we are experiencing right now in the US is an age-old story but it is illuminated in new and horridly painful ways. In this episode, Kathy shares a little bit about her newest book “Turning Over Tables: A Lenten Call to Disrupting Power” that released a week before the Inauguration and we process some things about power together.

We need all the help we can get and some consistent, clear practices for our mental health really matter right now. In this episode, Phyllis fleshes out some of what she wrote in a recent substack, and it’s packed with all kinds of tangible and much-needed practices and reminders.

Well, we're back. A lot of horrid has happened since we were last together at the end of 2024 and we feel clear we need as much resourcing as we can. In this episode we process something Phyllis wrote on her Substack about the Existential Flu, a reality that can overtake us in these unprecedented, tumultuous, traumatic times. So many gems in there! Looking forward to being together more as we tend to our soul and practice our way forward, together.

Our last episode of 2024 is about 2024! Remembering, celebrating, grieving, laughing through 6 simple questions we both reflect on and hope that others maybe consider, too! It's good to pause and look back before moving forward.

The world sure feels weary right now and in this episode we process through some of the main themes in Kathy's book "A Weary World: Reflection for a Blue Christmas"--Honoring Reality, Practicing Honesty, Embracing Paradox, and Borrowing Hope--for 2024. We hope it's nourishing somehow--we realized how much we needed it when we were done recording it!

Well, folks, here are--a second Trump presidency is coming and so many of us are reeling. In this episode we try to honestly acknowledge what we're up against and how we need to be careful of not feeding the futile that will keep us spinning and weakened and instead consider tangible practices that will help us be as healthy and connected as we can in the weeks and months to come.

Well, it's been a terrible ride, and here we are--the day before one of the most crucial elections in our lifetimes so far. We are holding everyone close in our hearts and know that no matter the outcome, it's a bumpy ride today. In this episode we process some things to remember as we tend to our souls and embody our values in tangible ways.

The fallacy of false equivalencies and "whataboutisms" can really mess with us when it comes to not only the US election but so many other areas of our lives. In this episode we explore that a little more (or, um, ramble about it) along with the importance of "breaking up with knowing" and a false sense of control that comes with trying to predict outcomes and find a way to perceived safety. Oh, and occasionally we make screaming goat sounds.

In Traditional Chinese Medicine, there are 5 seasons, not 4. This fifth season is "Late Summer", which starts in mid-August and goes through Fall Equinox and is a place to pause, ground, celebrate, and honor the energy and fruits of Summer intentionally before just barreling into Fall. In the wild season we're living in right now with US politics and the wider world--combined with our own personal realities--it feels so wise to consider what we can learn and apply from this season and that's what we ramble about on this episode!