Twice 5 Miles Radio with James Navé

From a pandemic elegy for three billion lost birds to a villanelle written live on air, Lorrie Wolfe on grief, precision, and the discipline of fourteen lines.Welcome to Twice 5 Miles Radio. I'm your host James Navé.This week, poet Lorrie Wolfe joins me to talk about the discipline behind the spark — how a stray line overheard on the radio, or a friend's invented word, becomes a finished poem. Wolfe, author of "The Language of Crows," explains why she works in sonnets and other tight forms, trusting fourteen lines to force clarity rather than sprawl, and why editing, not inspiration, is where precision actually happens.We talk through her elegy for a friend lost in a hang-gliding accident, written in dialogue with Elizabeth Bishop's "The Fish," and her pandemic-era poem "How Many Birds Are Enough," which asks what we owe the dead, human and otherwise, by simply speaking their names.Navé traces his own path from performing storytellers' ballads at festivals in the 1980s to writing verse today. Wolfe and Navé both discuss how poetry is a cousin to country music. Wolfe quotes Emily Dickinson, tell the truth, but tell it slant. This is a conversation about form as freedom, and why brevity, done right, is its own kind of generosity.

Welcome to Twice 5 Miles Radio. I'm your host James Navé. This week I sit down with singer-songwriter Lisa Carver, who goes by her last name, in a conversation that moves from Music Row to a remote Alaskan commune and back again. Carver spent years chasing hit songs in Nashville, signed to Sony, before realizing the tailgates-and-Daisy-Dukes formula was quietly erasing the writer raised on gospel, Hank Williams, Tom Waits, and Leonard Cohen. She walked away.Now, after a long hiatus, she's stepping back onstage, guitar in hand, ready to write from places she's always circled but never named, including a childhood spent in a religious cult that shaped her into the storyteller she is today. We talk about her ferocious story-songs, like "Whiskey and a Gun" and "Bullet," the guitar she lost to an airline and clawed back nine months later, and what she calls "the gift," that unteachable thing that lets a performer catch fire with an audience. It's a conversation about reclaiming a voice after years of writing for other people.

Welcome to Twice 5 Miles Radio. I'm your host, James Navé.This week I'm flying solo, recording on a smoke-hazed midsummer morning in Arroyo Seco, New Mexico, and turning my unscripted, wandering style toward a single subject: improvisation.I argue improvisation isn't a rare stage skill reserved for the bold, but a birthright I've practiced since infancy, present in every drive down a country road, every job interview, every fumbled pickup line.Drawing on a half-remembered public-speaking class from 1970, a stumbled recitation of Casey at the Bat, and the surprisingly precise calculus of a squirrel darting across traffic, I build a working framework of four elements: narrative, agency, voice, and ease.Along the way, I offer concrete practices- holding silence, flipping open a random book for improvisational free-association, moving my body without a plan- to help you loosen your own instincts under pressure.Equal parts memoir, philosophy, and performance coaching, this episode is my meditation on trusting the present moment, wherever it takes you. Tune in, and see where the conversation leads.

Welcome to Twice 5 Miles Radio. I'm your host, James Navé. In this solo episode, I pull poems from decades-old notebooks and read them aloud: old highway verses, a bawdy e.e. cummings romp, and originals from my cancer-recovery collection, while explaining why I trust what bubbles up.Recorded outdoors in Taos with birdsong and a distant tractor as backdrop, it doubles as a meditation on memory: I argue that journals endure where digital files vanish, and I offer a simple writing trick. Start sentences with "I don't remember”,  to unlock buried recollections.I script poems into two-voice dialogues, give Little Miss Muffet the slapstick treatment, and let my index fingers argue with each other. Along the way I revisit Charles Wright's ode to Appalachian kudzu and riff on the "imaginative storm" behind my creative process.Threaded through are stories of the Old Saluda grade and a friend I lost this week to cancer. It's part craft talk, part front-porch storytelling, and part gentle argument that everything we write, remember, and imagine becomes part of the landscape we carry inside us.

James Navé here.I put together this eight-minute music track for a writing workshop I'm teaching at the Estelle Center in La Veta, Colorado.Here's the invitation. Play the music and keep moving for the entire eight minutes. There are no rules. Walk, stretch, sway, dance, or simply move in whatever way feels natural.When the music ends, sit down with a blank sheet of paper and a pen. Begin writing with the words, "I am aware..." Then keep writing for ten minutes without stopping.See what happens.

Welcome to Twice 5 Miles Radio. I'm your host, James Navé.What can acting teach us about poetry and living a more authentic life?In this solo episode, I explore acting not as a profession but as a way of understanding ourselves. Drawing on decades of performing memorized poetry, studying theater, and learning from master acting teacher Susan Batson, I reflect on what it really means to create a believable character—and why the hardest character we ever play may be ourselves.Along the way, I unpack Robert Frost's Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening, examine the difference between performance and performativity, discuss public and private personas, and share lessons from a New York acting studio that continue to shape my work today.Whether you're an actor, writer, speaker, teacher, or simply someone curious about creativity, this episode offers practical ways to deepen your relationship with language, imagination, and everyday life.Because in the end, acting isn't about pretending to be someone else.It's about discovering how to become more fully yourself.

In this solo episode, I explore what it means to Live Life Like a Festival, inspired by Jennifer Pickering's vision for the LEAF Festival and our upcoming book of the same title.Along the way, I reflect on my thirty years with the LEAF Festival, William Carlos Williams' poem The Dance, my visit with my friend John Van Hasselt as he navigates Parkinson's disease in Paris, producing a surprise birthday party for my grandmother, and what spider webs, orange peels, butterflies, blackbirds, and even a bug can teach us about paying attention.Perhaps there isn't much difference between a festival sensibility and a poetic sensibility. Perhaps joy and sorrow, celebration and tragedy, all belong to the same human gathering.Join me for an hour of stories, poems, memories, and improvisation as we explore the possibility that the festival surrounds us—that life itself is the festival we've been living in all along. 

A Paris lunch. One decision. Six books later.What happens when a coach decides to write a book and discovers she has no idea what she's doing?In this conversation, I sit down with my longtime friend and collaborator, Lynn Burney, to explore her remarkable journey from writing for herself to becoming the author of six self-published books.We begin in Paris at Le Train Bleu, the legendary restaurant inside Gare de Lyon, where Lynn first announced her intention to write a book on coaching. What followed was not the book she expected to write.Instead, she discovered the power of story, memoir, and eventually fiction. Along the way, she learned hard lessons about memory, truth, self-publishing, audience, and the difference between writing for yourself and writing for a reader.Together, we explore pilgrimage, grief, creativity, aging, memoir, fiction, and the surprising freedom that comes from taking responsibility for your own publishing journey.A conversation about books, friendship, and what happens when curiosity becomes a lifelong creative practice.

What if creativity isn't a talent reserved for artists, writers, and musicians? What if it's something far more fundamental—something woven into human nature itself?In this conversation, Allegra Huston and I explore a concept that has become central to our work over the last several years: Imaginative Intelligence. We discuss why creativity may be less about making products and more about participating in a vast field of possibilities that every human being is born into.Along the way, we talk about writing, intuition, mathematics, evolution, imagination, personal power, and the surprising ways people transform when they stop worrying about whether they're creative and begin practicing creativity as a way of life.Drawing on more than twenty years of teaching together and five years of weekly Imaginative Storm gatherings, we examine how a simple ten-minute writing practice can awaken confidence, reveal hidden possibilities, and help people reconnect with their own imaginative lives.This conversation is an invitation to reconsider what creativity really is—and to discover why "I don't know" may be one of the most powerful places a human being can stand.

Welcome to Twice 5 Miles Radio. I'm your host, James Navé.In this solo episode, I take you along on a twenty-two-hour journey from Paris to Taos, New Mexico—a trip that begins with coffee, oatmeal, a forgotten iPhone, and a ride on the Paris Metro, then winds through Charles de Gaulle Airport, a transatlantic flight, immigration in Salt Lake City, and a rain-soaked drive home through New Mexico.On the journey, I reflect on storytelling, travel, friendship, memory, artificial intelligence, poetry, and the surprising drama hidden inside everyday life.What begins as a simple travel narrative gradually becomes an exploration of how stories are formed, not through grand events, but through observation, movement, and attention to the world around us.I also share Alfred Noyes' classic narrative poem, The Highwayman, recited from memory while standing in an airport boarding line.

Welcome to Twice 5 Miles Radio. I’m your host, James Navé. Today my guest is Jay Hill, whose TEDx Asheville talk may be one of the funniest and most unexpectedly thought-provoking presentations I’ve encountered in years. Jay’s subject? Men sitting down to pee. Yes, really.What begins as a provocative comic premise quickly opens into a larger conversation about responsibility, habit, fairness, emotional honesty, rehearsal, public speaking, and the strange vulnerability of standing on a TEDx stage revealing something deeply personal and surprisingly universal.In this conversation, Jay and I revisit the rehearsal process at the old Black Mountain College barn at Lake Eden, explore improvisation, audience psychology, and the tension between structure and spontaneity. We also discuss why certain ideas stick in the mind long after the laughter fades.Part performance theory, part social observation, part comedy routine, this episode moves from splash physics and “fluid dynamics” to existential questions about the messes human beings leave behind—and who winds up cleaning them up.

Welcome to Twice 5 Miles Radio. I’m your host, James Navé. Today, my guest is Diana Gustafson.Recorded in Taos, New Mexico, following the Imaginative Storm Writing Workshop, this conversation moves through memoir, creativity, spirituality, storytelling, wholeness, poetry, meditation, and the mysterious force that drives us to write.Diana reflects on leaving Washington, D.C., after years serving as an Episcopal priest, rediscovering her creative life, and exploring memoir and creative nonfiction as pathways toward deeper human connection. Together, we examine the nature of talent, artistic permission, the “volcano” beneath the writer’s voice, and the search for wholeness through art, literature, and spiritual practice.The conversation ranges from Homer and Tennyson to Adam and Eve, Tibetan meditation, sermons, storytelling, imagination, and the role of creativity in helping us understand ourselves and the world around us. Thoughtful, searching, and deeply human, this episode explores how writing can become both a creative practice and a spiritual quest.Perfect for listeners interested in memoir writing, creativity, spirituality, poetry, philosophy, meditation, imaginative intelligence, and the deeper currents beneath artistic life.Run of Show — Adam and Eve Ate the Apple — Thank God00:00 — Introduction 01:10 — Diana Gustafson on Leaving Washington, D.C. and Beginning Again 04:20 — Writing, Memoir, and the Search for Voice 08:15 — Talent vs. Permission 11:00 — “Find the Volcano, Not the Voice” 14:20 — God, Divinity, and Creative Power 19:10 — Washington Power vs. Spiritual Power 24:30 — Tibetan Meditation, Oneness, and Writing 28:40 — Sermons, Storytelling, and the Human Need for Meaning 33:00 — Adam and Eve, Shame, Desire, and Consciousness 38:15 — “Thank God They Ate the Apple.” 42:30 — Sin, Wholeness, and Missing the Mark 46:20 — Poetry, Tennyson, Homer, and the Quest for Wholeness 52:00 — Conclusion Begins 56:00 — End

Welcome to Twice 5 Miles Radio. I’m your host, James Navé.Today’s conversation unfolds in a sunlit adobe room in Taos, New Mexico, where writer Rebecca Jarmas, also known by her pen name Alice W Meadows, joins me to explore the deep intersection of creativity, community, and resilience.Rebecca shares her journey from a successful career in finance into the uncertain, demanding, and ultimately liberating world of writing. At the heart of our conversation is her lifelong experience with migraine disease—an often invisible, debilitating condition that has shaped both her life and her work. Out of that challenge, she’s created a children’s book designed to help young readers understand and communicate what they’re going through—something she never had as a child.We talk about the power of writing as medicine, the role of community in overcoming creative paralysis, and how vulnerability becomes a gateway to authentic expression. Rebecca also opens up about starting a Substack, finding her voice later in life, and learning how to quiet the inner critic long enough to let the imagination speak.This is a conversation about honoring the dreams we made as children, finding courage in the face of chronic struggle, and discovering that sometimes the very thing that holds us back becomes the source of our greatest creative offering.

Narrative. Authority. Voice. Ease. Four elements shape everything you do.Welcome to Twice 5 Miles Radio. I'm your host, James Navé.  In this solo episode, I explore the living framework of narrative, authority, voice, and ease—not as abstract ideas, but as practical forces shaping how we move through the world. From a two-day drive out of Asheville to a quiet morning on a sun porch in Saint Louis, I track how small strategic choices create either stress or ease in real time.Along the way, I reflect on storytelling as a lived experience, not just something performed on stage. I look at writing through dictation, the publishing world through Planet Money, and the reality of building creative work without chasing scale or spectacle.This episode moves through travel, intuition, community radio, and the deeper question: why do we tell stories at all?At its core, this is about learning to trust your own narrative, stand in your authority, recognize your voice, and allow ease to emerge—even in uncertain conditions.Run of Show — Your Life Is the Narrative—Now What Do You Do With It?00:00 — Opening: Storytelling vs Living Your Story Moving from stage storytelling to life as narrative03:00 — The Framework Narrative, Authority, Voice, Ease explained07:00 — Voice and Ease Voice as identity Ease as the result of alignment11:00 — Life as Narrative Every choice shapes the story Control vs improvisation15:00 — When Life Gets Hard Illness, struggle, and delayed ease19:00 — Strategy and Ego Blind spots Choosing better options23:00 — The Drive Example Asheville to Saint Louis Two narratives: stress vs ease27:00 — Choosing Ease Route decision Slowing down vs rushing31:00 — Ease in Action Avoiding stress and speeding Presence and environment34:00 — Rest and Rhythm Sleeping in the car Repeating successful patterns37:00 — Intuition Truck stop decision Listening to internal signals40:00 — Turning Story into Writing Dictation vs writing Speaking to create text43:00 — Planet Money and Publishing How books get made Audience, scale, and authority47:00 — Scale and Reality Numbers matter Knowing your range50:00 — Why I Do This Work Imaginative Storm Helping people express their voice53:00 — Living Your Narrative Identity, daily life, poetic awareness55:00 — Closing + Poems Final reflections Ogden Nash

 Welcome to Twice 5 Miles Radio. I’m your host, James Navé. Today I’m going solo—reflecting on time, memory, and the places that shape us. From spring mornings in western North Carolina to long walks in the south of France, this episode moves through poetry, travel, and friendships that hold across decades.At the center is Fern Hill by Dylan Thomas—a poem I memorized years ago that continues to echo through my life. Along the way, I reconnect with an old friend in Paris and reflect on the song Those Were the Days.This is a meditation on aging, creativity, and what remains—ending with an original poem and an invitation to consider your own creative life.

Math, Poetry, and the Calculations of Everyday LifeWelcome to Twice 5 Miles Radio. I’m your host, James Navé.This week I’m going solo from Lake Eden, looking out at early spring and thinking about something I once believed I couldn’t do—math.For most of my life, I thought I was “bad at math.” What I didn’t understand is that I’ve been doing math all along—estimating distance, time, sound, movement, decisions—every single day.In this episode, I follow a shift in perspective sparked by a simple conversation: there’s math in school, and there’s math in life. And the math of life is something we all practice intuitively.From the rhythm of airplanes overhead to the unfolding of spring in the mountains, from Fibonacci patterns in wildflowers to the structure of poetry, I explore how calculation and imagination are not separate—they’re deeply connected.Along the way, I move through Wallace Stevens, T.S. Eliot’s Prufrock, and into improvisation—where language, instinct, and form begin to emerge in real time.This is an episode about perception, belief, and learning to trust the intelligence you already have.Topics include:Everyday “life math” vs academic math Intuition as a form of calculation Fibonacci patterns and natural design Poetry as structured mathematics Belief vs proof — where math ends and imagination begins T.S. Eliot’s Prufrock and the idea of “spareness” Imaginative improvisation as a creative practiceTIMESTAMPS00:00 Introduction — Going solo from Lake Eden 02:00 Everyday calculations (coffee, planes, seasons) 06:30 “I’m bad at math” — a false story 10:00 Normandy conversation — math in life vs school 15:30 Intuition and subconscious calculation 20:00 Nature, patterns, and Fibonacci sequence 26:30 Poetry, belief, and what can’t be proven 34:00 Wallace Stevens — sensing beyond logic 40:00 Politics, perception, and miscalculation 46:00 T.S. Eliot — Prufrock and identity 01:05:00 Imagination and improvisation exercise 01:15:00 Closing reflections — trusting your own intelligence

Welcome to Twice 5 Miles Radio. I’m your host, James Navé.This episode traces a prostate cancer diagnosis, surgery, and 100 days of writing through recovery.Fifteen years ago, I had surgery for prostate cancer. The next morning, I started writing—one piece a day for 100 days.I’m recording this at Lake Eden in Western North Carolina, and today I’m going solo.The first piece was just a report from the day. I didn’t call it a poem. I just needed something to do while I recovered. So I did it again the next day. And the next.It turned into 100 days of writing—one piece a day while I was healing.In this episode, I walk back through that time—the diagnosis, the surgery, the fear, the help I received, and the daily practice that kept me connected to my life while everything slowed down.I wasn’t writing about cancer every day. I was writing about whatever showed up—friends, places, memories, small details. But underneath it all, the experience was shaping the work.If you’ve ever been through something that stopped you in your tracks, this is simple: pay attention, keep going, and make something from where you are.Topics include:Prostate cancer diagnosis and surgical decision-makingWriting as a daily recovery practice100 poems in 100 days (process over perfection)Creativity as a stabilizing force during traumaFriendship, community, and asking for helpLife after surgery—physically and artistically A hospital bed. A recorder. One small goal. That’s how 100 days of writing began.00:00 Introduction — Going solo01:10 Cancer diagnosis (2011)04:30 Fear, secrecy, and first steps08:45 Meeting the urologist / treatment options13:20 Decision to have surgery18:10 Surgery day — March 3121:00 First poem after surgery24:30 Writing as recovery practice30:00 Help from friends / community36:40 Day 7 — cancer clear42:00 Expanding to 100 poems48:30 Taos, travel, and returning to life55:00 New York — nearing 100 days01:02:00 Finishing the 100 poems01:06:00 What the experience taught me01:10:00 Closing reflections

Welcome to Twice 5 Miles—fertile ground for conversations worth listening to and remembering. I’m your host, James Navé, going solo today.This episode is an improvisational field recording of a question I’ve been invited to answer onstage in six minutes: how do we unlabel words like death? A friend, Dr. Aditi Sethi, nudged me toward the idea that many of us carry rigid definitions of death—definitions shaped by fear, habit, and inherited language. So I start by listening to the way we casually toss death around in everyday speech, then follow the thread into story and poetry: E. E. Cummings’ “Mister Death,” Langston Hughes’ quiet disappearance, Sara Teasdale’s wartime spring, Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s love after death, and Tennyson’s Ulysses sailing “beyond the sunset.”Along the way, I tell a few dog stories—classroom dogs, my own dog Traveler—and I look at the “little deaths” we live through all the time. This is a meditation on death, yes, but also on love, attention, and the language that shapes what we can bear.

Welcome to Twice 5 Miles Radio. I’m your host, James Navé.Today, my guest is Megan O’Malley—coach, speaker, and soon-to-be TEDx Asheville presenter—whose work explores our cultural addiction to certainty, control, and the subtle ways “should” shapes our livesIn this wide-ranging conversation, Megan reflects on what it means to surrender without collapsing, to choose agency over fear, and to cultivate wisdom in an age of information overload. We talk about verification, intuition, and the messy middle of creativity—where innovation actually begins. Megan candidly shares her own journey through divorce, career shifts, and personal loss, and how those experiences are shaping her upcoming TED Talk on unhooking from certainty so we can access deeper creativity and connection.Along the way, we wrestle with big questions: How do we know what to believe? What’s the difference between control and agency? Is “should” a tyrant—or a tool? And what does it really mean to embrace the mess?This is a thoughtful, soulful conversation about creative evolution, spiritual intelligence, and the courage to stand in not-knowing long enough for something new to emerge.

To Tell or Not to Tell with James NavéTelling a poem is different than performing it. It’s closer to telling a story than delivering a text.Welcome to Twice 5 Miles Radio. I’m your host, James Navé. Today I’m going solo once again, spending time with a subject that’s been close to me for many years: how we read, perform, recite—or, as I prefer to say, tell—a piece of literature.I’ve earned my living doing this work. I’ve stood on stages, read into microphones, memorized poems, improvised, stumbled, and kept going. And even now, after all these years, I’m still not completely satisfied. I say that with a bit of tongue-in-cheek—I'm fairly happy—but I’m always curious about how to go deeper and stay honest.In this episode, I explore what happens when reading aloud becomes a way of editing, listening, and emotional connection. I talk about voice, mess, and presence; about community radio as a place to experiment; and about telling a poem the way you’d tell a story. This isn’t about getting it right. It’s about letting the words live in the room.

Welcome to Twice 5 Miles Radio, I’m your host, James Navé. In this episode, I step out from behind the interview microphone and into a solo exploration of memory, storytelling, and the uneasy work of writing a memoir. What begins with a terrible improvised hot dog poem—captured on camera during the 1996 National Poetry Slam Championships—opens into a deeper inquiry: how stories choose us, how tension gives them shape, and why the moments we’re least proud of often carry the most meaning.Along the way, I reflect on failure, ethical discomfort, transformation, and the quiet power of scenes that raise their hand and ask to be included. I read from Write What You Don’t Know, explore the idea of “disturbance of equilibrium,” revisit a morally complicated moment from my twenties, and consider how small, honest reckonings may be all the transformation we ever get.This episode isn’t a polished memoir—it’s a search. A wandering. An inventory in progress. If you’ve ever wondered where stories begin, what to trust, or how much truth you’re willing to tell, this conversation is for you.

Welcome to Twice 5 Miles Radio. I’m your host, James Navé, and today my guest is Sekou Coleman. Sekou Coleman is a community historian, cultural organizer, and one of the speakers appearing on the TEDxAsheville stage in March 2026. For more than three decades, he has worked alongside communities to protect memory, strengthen local decision-making, and resist the quiet erasure that often accompanies development and policy change.In this conversation, we explore Asheville’s Southside—a historically Black neighborhood shaped by resilience, loss, and renewal—and the invisible victories that happen when communities choose repair over extraction. Sekou reflects on Urban Renewal, generational disruption, and what it means to speak with a community rather than for it.At the heart of this conversation is a question that reaches far beyond Asheville: What kind of legacy do you want to be attached to?This episode is about place, authority, and attention—about seeing what we’ve been driving past, and about how telling the right story at the right moment can quietly change everything.

Welcome to provocative conversations from Twice 5 Miles Radio. I’m your host, James Navé, and today my guest is Asheville’s David Huff—one of the twelve TEDxAsheville speakers taking the stage at the Diana Wortham Theatre on March 20, 2026.David is a business consultant and environmentalist, an outdoor explorer, and a mythopoetic thinker who believes the antidote to cynicism isn’t another opinion—it’s action. We talk about Hurricane Helene and what Asheville learned in the aftermath: the shock, the loss, the long weeks without basic resources, and the way people showed up for one another anyway.At the heart of David’s TEDx talk is a trail-born idea he calls “trail magic”—the simple, practical, human act of giving and receiving help with no strings attached. He traces how that ethic lives on the Appalachian Trail, in volunteer trail crews like the 102-year-old Carolina Mountain Club, and in everyday community life where loneliness, technology, and isolation pull us apart.This conversation is about choice, belonging, and the kind of magic that only exists when we practice it.

Welcome to Provocative Conversations from Twice 5 Miles Radio. I’m your host James Navé. In this episode, I sit down with Lisa Raleigh, Executive Director of RiverLink in Asheville—and one of the twelve speakers taking the TEDxAsheville stage on March 20, 2026 at the Diana Wortham Theater, under the theme Messy. Lisa was on site in Black Mountain when Hurricane Helene hit, and she helps us understand what “flow” really means: the gentle Swannanoa and French Broad we float on in summer, and the same rivers turning biblical when rain, terrain, and history collide. We talk watershed scale, precursor rains, and why a two-foot river can become twenty-three feet deep. We also talk about what humans do to riverbanks—what happens when riparian buffers are stripped away, and why places that kept them, like parts of the Biltmore frontage, fared differently. From Chimney Rock and Lake Lure to Marshall and the River Arts District, Lisa makes the case for calculated risk, shared responsibility, and floodplain realism—without denial and without despair. I close with a personal river memory from Brevard Road, a grandfather smoking Tampa cigars, and the old foam-dark French Broad—then pivot to Manila, where waterways still carry the cost of city life. Rivers remember. The question is: will we?

Welcome to provocative conversations from Twice 5 Miles Radio. I’m your host, James Navé. In this episode, I record on location in Taipei, Taiwan, tracing a single day as it unfolds—from morning rain and quiet memorial grounds to crowded streets, shared meals, and a luminous night market. What emerges is a listening-based travelogue: part reportage, part reflection, part improvisation. The episode moves through the scale and symbolism of the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial, galleries dedicated to art, democracy, and human rights, and parks where qigong, tai chi, birds, and water slow the pace of the day. Along the way, ordinary moments take on meaning: standing in line for noodles, watching a heron fish, noticing alleyways, scooters, fabric, sound, and gesture. As evening arrives, the city gathers in the night market—dense, bright, kinetic—before the day closes in a quiet listening room and a hotel window overlooking the turn from 2025 to 2026. Throughout the episode, questions surface about disruption and order, impermanence and continuity, attention and belonging. This is not a guidebook or a debate. It’s an invitation to listen closely—to place, to movement, and to the way meaning forms when we slow down enough to notice what’s already there.

In this episode, I sit down with George Hope Johnson, a TEDx Asheville speaker whose upcoming talk explores transgender identity through lived experience, clarity, and deep human insight. George is a thoughtful, articulate young man with years of public speaking experience, and he brings both courage and nuance to a subject that is often reduced to headlines and sound bites. Our conversation moves through George’s personal journey—from coming out at a young age, to navigating identity, perception, and belonging, to preparing an eleven-minute TEDx talk designed to reach people who are curious, uncertain, or quietly searching for understanding. We talk about fear, empathy, masculinity, storytelling, and what it means to be seen as human rather than labeled. This is not a debate. It’s a conversation rooted in listening, emotional honesty, and lived reality. If you’re interested in how stories change hearts, how identity evolves, and how thoughtful dialogue can soften fear, this episode is well worth your time.

What if creativity isn’t something you learn—but something you remember? Welcome to Provocative Conversations from Twice 5 Miles Radio. I’m your host, James Navé, and today poet and educator Laura Hope Gill joins us for a far-reaching exploration of creativity as a vital human intelligence—one that is biological, emotional, and deeply spiritual. Laura challenges the idea that poetry is ornamental or academic. Instead, she speaks of it as a form of natural intelligence that helps us metabolize grief, restore connection, and re-enter community in a fractured world. Drawing from her work with doctors, surgeons, counselors, and lifelong learners, she shares stories of people who turned to writing not to become poets, but to survive, heal, and feel again. We explore why metaphor matters, how creative reasoning differs from analytical thinking, and what happens when a culture loses its relationship to imagination. Along the way, Laura weaves together quantum physics, Romantic poetry, neuroscience, and lived experience to show how writing can guide us through disruption and back to ourselves. This episode is for anyone who feels the pull to write, create, or make sense of their inner life—and wonders why it feels so urgent now.

I wrote this poem during our Imaginative Storm Writing Prompt of the Week session. We meet every Saturday, 12-1 PM Eastern Time. It's a terrific gathering of writers. It's free. Join us sometime, won't you? www.imaginativestorm.com It’s Raining in Georgia written and performed by James Navé To whisper requires grace beyond secrets, beyond tender hearts. We've all lost love, dropped into black holes, called out late in the night, “Love me mama.” Warm memories arrive with mosaic questions. I’ve lost love and gain love. Someone wrote a country song once. Sad thing with a small stream running by an old house where two people lived out their lives, no longer bright. Those two were Wilma and Sam along the road that goes to town, where a few stoplights dangle, and an ice cream shop sits beside a newsstand. This couple belongs in a country song. Yes, grace matters, and so do Friday night football games. Wars in the distant past that made the men who live in this town now older than they should be, when they came home young and hoped for love. If you write a country song, include me; add my story to your roster. Make me a small part of something larger, No clowns please. The whispers you hear when you dream belong in this song. Your lost loves belong in this song. Too many times we've wandered alone without the night to call our own, far away from where we belong. Too many times we wandered alone. Include me in your country song. Make a place at the table. When I knock, let me in. By the way, it’s raining in Georgia.

Dust of Snow by Robert Frost was a terrific poem to perform for students in grades K-3, alongside other short poems like I'm Nobody by Emily Dickinson. Both poems work well for children; that said, both have serious adult themes, such as identity and loneliness, which thread through many lives today.

Welcome to provocative conversations from Twice 5 Miles Radio. I'm your host, James Navé. Today I'm going solo. In this hour-long wandering through memory, poetry, and place, I invite you into a journey that begins in Manila—fifteen million people, dense layers, and a heat that never quits—and circles outward into the deeper weather patterns of a poetic life. From Robert Frost's Dust of Snow to John Keats' On the Grasshopper and the Cricket, we explore how the natural world awakens our inherent poetic disposition, whether we realize it or not. I take you back to my early days, hitchhiking across America, discovering the cold, haunted power of the Pacific Ocean, and then finding my younger self mirrored in Robert Frost's "Once by the Pacific." I talk about what it was like to co-found Poetry Alive in the 1980s—performing poems in gymnasiums, bringing playfulness to classrooms, and teaching thousands of students that the little things matter just as much as the big ones. We dip into thought-beats, memorization, and why Emily Dickinson's "I'm Nobody! Who are you?" works for five-year-olds and grown-ups alike. And we venture into heavier terrain with Sharon Olds' The Food Thief, asking what poetry demands of us in a serious, complicated world. I also read new work generated during Imaginative Storm writing sessions—pieces like Rip Curled Edge and Ivory in the Night Sky—and reflect on time passing, aging, and the themes that keep returning. Enjoy this hour of poetry, memory, travel, performance, and the ever-present possibility that something is going to happen.

Welcome to Provocative Conversations from Twice 5 Miles Radio. I’m your host, James Navé, and today you’re in for something rare — a conversation where music, mastery, presence, and spiritual curiosity meet in one sweeping arc. My guest is Deborah Domanski, the internationally acclaimed mezzo-soprano praised by The New York Times for her “luscious sound and lyrical refinement.” I met Deborah at the 2025 LEAF Festival in North Carolina, where — by pure serendipity — she ended up onstage with guitarist and longtime friend, Walter Parks. What unfolded that night was more than a performance. It was an act of instant creative communion, two artists from different worlds dropping into a shared field of presence, improvisation, and trust. In this conversation, Deborah talks openly about what it takes to reach that level of effortless mastery — the thousands of hours of training, yes, but also the deeper practice of getting out of your own way, listening for what wants to come through, and letting the art work on you as much as you work on it. We talk about creativity, collaboration, Monteverdi, meditation, belonging, grief, loneliness, home, and that rare moment when an artist dissolves into something larger than themselves — and brings an audience with them. Settle in. Enjoy.

In this episode, I sit down with Santa Fe entrepreneur and creative strategist David Lamb. From his family’s 150-year-old timber business in the Pacific Northwest to his work supporting Navajo weavers in New Mexico, David has spent a lifetime asking one essential question: How can we succeed in business without losing our soul? David’s answer comes down to three deceptively simple words—Have Fun. Make Money. Do Right. Together, we explore how those principles have shaped his leadership, his philanthropy, and his sense of identity as a “Western man.” David shares stories of rebuilding after bankruptcy, of learning humility through humor, and of finding clarity by listening to what he calls the voice of the organization. We also talk about creativity, community, and the hidden business acumen of Navajo grandmothers who run their weaving enterprises from sheep to finished rug. David reveals why he believes laughter is the foundation of resilience, why solvency is an act of stewardship, and why doing right—whether in commerce or art—is the truest measure of wealth. This conversation is both practical and philosophical, rooted in the belief that joy, prosperity, and integrity are not separate goals but parts of a single practice.

Welcome to Provocative Conversations from Twice Five Miles Radio. I’m your host, James Navé. Unlike many podcast hosts who book their guests weeks in advance, I choose mine from the people I meet as I travel through my days. The only requirement for a provocative conversation is— you guessed it— they enjoy talking about what they love: gardening, writing poetry, tracking down underground criminals in the Philippines, circling 14,000-foot Colorado peaks in a glider, singing in New York jazz clubs, self-compassion, playing the blues, and consciousness—living and dying. So when I met my guest today, storyteller Lo Ziv, at the National Storytelling Festival in Jonesborough, Tennessee, and she told me she was a religious scholar, a progressive storyteller, and a software engineer, I unpacked my microphones and invited her to sit down and tell me about God, HTML coding, and why Artificial Intelligence will never replace our species-imperative superpower—Imaginative Intelligence. Lo Ziv’s story is one of transformation—from ancient languages and sacred texts to the wild dance of storytelling and code. She grew up in a white evangelical military family and somehow found her way through centuries of scripture, dead languages, and a few living contradictions. Along the way, she taught in prisons in the United States and Romania, worked with children in villages, and stood in pulpits she could not yet claim. What fascinates me most is how she carries the sacred into the everyday—how a theologian, dancer, and software engineer can look at a line of HTML or a verse of scripture and see the same divine syntax. For Lo, the imagination itself is a spiritual act, a way of remembering that the wind—like the Spirit—blows wherever it pleases.

Art in Times of Beauty and Chaos with Parks & Navé by James Navé

Let's Say Goodbye performed by James Navé When the world rounds along mud bound lines Small trees speak. They tell long, determined stories. Can you hear them in the days you inhabit? Wild days. Tame days. Hot and cold days. Sometimes I'm rich and other times I count the last leaves on the thin stems hanging above strangers coming and going to work or from love or into days of hope that demands a small pay now. Moments of flesh or motorcycle dreams or the pull and push of memories hang round the world as the world spins. As it always spins. I live on the long side of time miles away from Las Vegas miles away from the Q train crossing the long bridge. =Miles away from my father's grave. These days the soul is silent in the buried violence of bronze memories. Love comes and goes. Yes, shoes fit and so do shirts and small earrings fashioned by dreamers from New Orleans under the green sun. After the invisible wizards were gone out, names they gave in the last storm were remembered by those who could remember. I was there that day, near the Mud bound lines under the wedding trees. Can you make a wish? A small one. Let's make one together. Touch the prayers of blackbirds. Forget snow. Remember why you long for those distant songs. Why do mysteries forget what you try to remember. I have my keys. I have my dreams. I'll leave soon. Come walk with me to the door, and let's say goodbye.

Welcome to Provocative Conversations from Twice 5 Miles Radio. I’m your host, James Navé. Today, we venture into the soul of community, tradition, and joyful expression through the lens of contra dancing, sound, and the magic of gathering. In this episode, I sit down with Ed and Tami Howe—two deeply rooted contributors to the contra dance movement and the LEAF Festival. Design, Dance, and LEAF Love From Ed’s beginnings as a fiddler in Maine to his rise as a creative force behind the band Perpetual e-Motion, his story is steeped in sound, stagecraft, and communal uplift. Tami shares how a search for connection led her to the contra dance floor, where eye contact and shared rhythm transformed her sense of belonging. We dive into Brookside, the epicenter of LEAF’s dance scene—a pavilion filled with movement, music, and intentional design that fosters joy and inclusiveness. We explore the art of building the dance floor, the evolving language of tradition, and the metaphorical power of crafting space where everyone feels welcome. It’s about design meeting passion. Movement meeting grace. Mistakes becoming invitations. From the roots of Nelson, New Hampshire, to the inclusive pulse of modern festivals, contra dance has become more than a pastime—it’s a way of life. Stay with us. This episode is a celebration of artistry, culture, resilience, and the kind of dance that brings people home to themselves.

What the Wind Whispers —James Navé Forever and without trouble, I start now. No force or struggle, swimming along, no knots. I tap at your door. Will you join me? Let's go down the willow path, past the old trees that understand, troubled yesterdays When the dance comes in time, without the will of fierce wind, I will tell you about the secret that visits me often coming through the window. Here's what the wind whispers. “fire will do when you crack the young flowers open in the blue whale rain that falls from days gone by.” When will I be able to say I belong to the rain? Who will check on me, kiss me when spring comes after the long cold? Take me to the first party before the sky goes white like old bones left alone on the side of a hill where cougars roam and stars pop out at dusk. I wish I had more time to tell you about what I did this morning, when I rose early, still dark, no sound—late stars in the sky. I walked to the kitchen, made a coffee, then sat down, alone like some small blue whale floating in the air.

Welcome to Provocative Conversations from Twice 5 Miles Radio; I’m your host, James Navé. In this episode, I speak with Schree Chavdarov, Global Engagement Director of LEAF Global Arts, about solidarity, resilience, and the healing power of culture. From the devastation of Hurricane Helene in Western North Carolina to grassroots programs across El Salvador, Rwanda, and Kenya, Schree shows how art keeps communities alive when everything else is broken. She shares her own extraordinary story of surviving a rare, life-threatening parasite—an experience that deepened her understanding of resilience and solidarity. We also discuss how drumming, storytelling, and preserving languages become pathways to healing, hope, and identity for young people worldwide. Together, we reflect on what it means to live fully in challenging times: to welcome others, to share culture, to keep creating even when resources are scarce. This conversation reminds us that art is not a luxury—it is a lifeline.

Welcome to Provocative Conversations from Twice 5 Miles Radio; I’m your host, James Navé. What happens when a bullied 12-year-old finds her voice through a school talent show poem—and never looks back? In this powerful episode of Twice 5 Miles Radio, I sit down with Alabama-born poet E. Bailey, a rising star in the national slam poetry scene, who will be competing at this year’s LEAF Poetry Slam Championships. Over 40 minutes, E. Bailey walks us through her poetic journey—from being mentored by a traveling poetry dad to self-publishing her first book at 15, to discovering the raw intimacy of slam poetry. Baileydoesn’t just write poems—she does poetry. She performs it, embodies it, lives it. Her stories are vulnerable, electric, and deeply human: navigating trauma, small-town isolation, early grief, and ultimately, transformation. Whether she’s reading her two-part piece “Bad Girl / Bad Girl Becomes Woman” or reflecting on slam as a spiritual awakening, E. Bailey speaks forcefully, without hesitation. The second half of the episode includes I reflect on my own poetic evolution—growing into the craft later in life, the origins of the LEAF Slam, and what it means to say something true on the page and on the stage. This is a show about poetry as survival, as connection, and as reclamation. Whether you’re 13 or 97, a seasoned poet or someone just starting out, this episode is an invitation to step through the door and speak your truth. Tune in, take a breath, and let E. Bailey catch yo with your guard down.

Welcome to Provocative Conversations from Twice 5 Miles Radio. I’m your host, James Navé. Today’s guest is PJ Ewing—a longtime friend, brilliant digital marketer, skilled podcast host of Lester the Nightfly, and one of the most thoughtful audio engineers I know. This wide-ranging conversation explores the evolving intersection of sound, artificial intelligence, and American culture. From podcasting to tech ethics, it’s a deep dive into our digital future. PJ and I dig into what makes good audio, the shifting podcasting landscape, how media influences identity, and whether we as a species can survive the next 400 years. From the 1960’s Gunsmoke TV series to AI, from Alaska community radio to Malcolm Gladwell’s take on gun culture, we examine the deep questions—and share a few laughs along the way. You’ll come away with fresh insights on creativity, society, and the risks we’re all taking to build whatever’s next. Key Topics Covered in the Interview The importance of high-quality audio in podcasting Tips and gear for DIY podcasting (mics, software, editing tools) Niche podcasting vs. general interviews Podcast recommendations (including 20,000Hz, Pivot, Hard Fork, StarTalk) PJ’s shift away from political media Malcolm Gladwell and the cultural influence of Gunsmoke Personal reflections on American gun culture Local community resilience post-Hurricane Helene The case for city-states over large national governments Speculative futures: AI, gene editing, alien contact Cultural evolution and the crisis of masculinity Whether humanity can survive the next 400 years The dual nature of capitalism as destructive and innovative

Welcome to Twice 5 Miles Radio. I'm your host, James Navé. Today, I'm joined by Juliet Ewing, a dynamic jazz vocalist whose journey from Broadway stages to intimate New York jazz clubs is as lyrical as the songs she sings. ' A classically trained musical theater performer, Juliet speaks candidly about creativity, joy, and the art of telling the truth through song. We dive deep into her transformation from touring musicals like Crazy for You and Footloose to developing her sold-out cabaret "Rise Up Singing: The Music of George Gershwin," now culminating in her upcoming album Simply'S Wonderful. Juliet unpacks the layers of perfectionism, the power of storytelling in music, and how Gershwin's lyrics still break hearts a century later. We talk rehearsal, spontaneity, roses, and the jazz of living well. Juliet's voice—clear, radiant, intelligent—carries more than a tune. Her voice carries a lifetime of artistic devotion, grit, and joy. If you've ever wondered where the magic lives in a song, this conversation will bring you home.

Welcome to Twice 5 Miles Radio. I'm your host, James Navé. On today's show, I'm joined by Michelle Vandepas, founder of GracePoint Publishing, TEDx speaker, and book coach to bestselling authors such as Brian Tracy and Jack Canfield. Michelle has published over a thousand books, but what sets her apart is her deep belief in the transformative power of creativity and voice. In this rich conversation, we dive into the mechanics and mysteries of publishing—what it means to shape your story, find your voice, and deliver a book with soul. Michelle pulls back the curtain on the publishing industry, revealing common pitfalls and how to avoid them, and she shares her philosophy on how authenticity, strategy, and—yes—even impatience can become your greatest creative assets. After our conversation, I read an excerpt from my memoir-in-progress, written by hand in my Taos studio, a reflection that loops together moonlight, country music, and marble statues from the Louvre. If you've ever wondered how your voice becomes a book—or how a memory becomes meaning—you'll want to settle in for this one. Twice 5 Miles Radio—original, curious, and always on the road to somewhere.

Today on the show, I'm pleased to welcome Donald Graham, an internationally acclaimed photographer whose portraits, landscapes, and stories span the globe—from high fashion in Paris to mountain lions prowling the wilds of Taos, New Mexico. Don's work is housed in collections at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the International Center of Photography, and his black-and-white portrait book "One of a Kind" has garnered over 40 international awards. We met by chance at an after-party in Taos and found ourselves deep in conversation about photography, light, and the animals that roam his high desert land. That moment led to this interview. In our conversation, Don takes us from the glamour of Vogue shoots in Paris to the quiet solitude of waiting for a bear to appear on a trail cam. We discuss photography as an act of presence, empathy, and uncovering stories behind the eyes of a subject. He offers technical insights, soulful reflections, and a few hard-earned truths about making a life in the arts. So pour a cup of coffee, settle in, and join me for this intimate and far-reaching conversation with a man who's spent his life pointing a lens at the world—and seeing what most of us miss.

Welcome to Twice 5 Miles Radio, I’m your host, James Navé. In this episode, we begin with Leandro Reyes, Manila’s dynamic “Basyang Kid”—a spoken-word artist who channels a century-old literary legacy into powerful performances, poetic craft, and cultural community-building. From open mic stages across Makati to the pages of Postscript Magazine, Leandro honors the legacy of his great-grandfather, Severino “Lola Basyang” Reyes—the iconic playwright and “Father of Tagalog Zarzuela”—while forging his own bold new path. His debut poem, “Sugarcoats,” contemplates loss with quiet precision, and his work in theater and advocacy reveals a deep devotion to Filipino artistry and imagination. Then we travel from Manila to Taos for a conversation I recorded a few years ago with Ocean Vuong, bestselling author of On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous and his current novel, The Emperor of Gladness, published on May 13, 2025. Ocean was in Northern New Mexico for the Taos Poetry Festival, and we sat down to talk about poetry, language, loss, and what it means to carry beauty and grief in the same breath. To close the show, I offer a short writing workshop—an invitation called “A Long Look at Yourself.” It’s a simple, powerful practice in awareness and emotional truth, designed to help you connect with your voice and see your own story in a fresh light. Whether you're a writer, a listener, or someone simply curious about the human spirit, I hope this episode offers you something to carry with you.

The Slow Burn of a Beautiful Dream with Jennifer Peterson Welcome to Twice 5 Miles Radio. I’m your host, James Navé. In this episode, I speak with Jennifer Peterson, founder of the Estelle Center for Creative Arts in La Veta, Colorado (https://estellecreativearts.com/). Jennifer shares how a dream seeded by her grandmother's artistic spirit evolved into a vibrant retreat center for women to explore creativity, build community, and work with their hands. We talk about the emotional power of quilting, the quiet transformation that happens during a five-day retreat, and how making art becomes a way to live with more grace, connection, and resilience. Jennifer’s story is a masterclass in patience, purpose, and creative leadership. Whether you’re a fiber artist, a retreat leader, or someone yearning to carve out creative time in a busy life, you’ll find inspiration here. Jennifer reminds us: you don’t have to know exactly how your dream will unfold—you just have to let it live long enough to find its form. Listen in and discover how one woman’s quiet dream turned into a movement of creative restoration.

Three 10-minute pieces of writing generated by James Navé at an Imaginative Storm Writing Retreat at the Estelle Retreat Center in La Vita, Colorado,

Welcome to Twice 5 Miles Radio. I’m your host, James Navé. In this episode, I speak with musician, educator, and LEAF Global Arts programming director Melissa McKinney, who shares the remarkable story of how music has shaped every corner of her life. From running a music school in West Virginia to starting over in Asheville, and her involvement with LEAF Global Art. Melissa’s journey is one of courage, reinvention, and the power of community. We discuss her daughter’s band, The Change, and how their 2016 performance at LEAF led to a deep involvement with the organization. Melissa reflects on the challenges of leaving a conservative environment, rediscovering her voice, and building new roots through music and mentorship. She shares stories of Kinsey, a beloved student whose life and song, “Laugh, Love, Live,” continue to inspire children across Buncombe County—and Melissa’s creative path. We also explore what it means to “step into your power,” honor your voice and lead through authenticity. Tune in for a moving conversation about creativity, healing, and living a life in tune with your deepest values.

Welcome to Twice 5 Miles Radio. I’m your host, James Navé. Today, I sit down with my longtime friend Walter Parks for a wide-ranging conversation about art, politics, messaging, community, and the future of civic discourse in America. Recorded in the solarium of the historic Mountain Stream lodge at Lake Eden Retreat—once the administrative heart of Black Mountain College—our conversation unfolds in the spirit of that legendary institution: curious, fearless, and open-hearted. Walter and I explore how liberal and conservative ideologies have drifted so far apart—and how we might begin to bridge that divide through artful messaging, shared values, and the courage to claim common ground. Together, we ask: What if patriotism belonged to everyone, not just one side? What if inclusion could be framed not as a threat but as a strength? Can we rethink “woke” not as a weaponized label but as a declaration of creative aliveness? From the symbolic power of flags to the manipulative genius of Edward Bernays, the father of public relations, and the role of creativity as a survival tool, we delve into the roots of narrative, perception, and identity. We envision a new kind of gathering at Lake Eden Retreat in Swannanoa, NC —one that welcomes all voices, resists tribalism, and fosters deep, productive conversations. Join us.

Q: Who Would Envy You? A: Bruce Springsteen Last month, I had coffee with my friend Gareth Higgins at Recess Coffee in Black Mountain, North Carolina. As we settled in, I mentioned I’d been exploring ChatGPT. Gareth smiled and said, “Let me show you something ChatGPT can do that’ll surprise you.” Then he leaned into his phone and dictated: List 10 notable writers or poets who would be envious of James Navé and explain why. If you’ve ever used ChatGPT, you know what happened next—within seconds, it generated the list along with a paragraph for each one. While a few responses were predictable, the overall experience was oddly fascinating. It got me thinking about the lens of self-worth, creative admiration, and the power of imaginative comparison. Yesterday, I tried Gareth’s idea out as a prompt during our Thursday Imaginative Storm Zoom workshops. List 5 to 10 people you admire. Then, write for 10 minutes about why they would envy you. Give it a spin. I chose Bruce Springsteen. Here’s what I wrote. Bruce Springsteen, you envy me because I can be invisible whenever and wherever I want, wherever I go, walking through the promised land across the Rainbow Bridge. Bruce, I like the way you look straight out. You envy me because I can see the edges. I dwell in the fall from grace as much as the rise from grace. I'm not troubled with old sheep wandering in dry pastures. I have a voice that calls my mama from the grave. No, I'm no karmic child, nor am I a fleeting-moments Buddhist. I am oil and dusty windows. Bruce, you envy me because unlike you, I'm from the rugged south, down in the heartland where rocks have accents and children grow up to sing in Nashville. Bruce, you are from New Jersey—Land of steel, forest, factories, and “made-men” on corners in Jersey City. I am a creature of things that crawl in old gold heat. I know the runners that pull the cargo up the inland waterway and fly twin-engine planes out of Cuba, or they used to. Bruce, I know you know people, too. Do I envy you? Sure, I envy you. I've heard you weep over your piano. You envy me because nobody expects me to weep over my piano. Those who know me expect me to rise up like magic wind. Bruce, you envy me because I can talk to age, and time, and the coming years. I belong to the invisible Bruce. I can call up sometime, anytime I want. You can call me sometime, too. Let's meet in Virginia, south on I-95 just below Washington, DC. How about it, Bruce?

In this episode of Twice 5 Miles Radio, I speak with Rev. Barbara Lane, author of Broken Water, a memoir of childhood trauma, foster care, and reunion with the sisters she was separated from at age three. Barbara’s story is both heartbreaking and healing—a journey through abandonment and abuse into the power of love, memory, and inner resilience. We talk about how the light of the divine lives in each of us, even in the darkest moments. Barbara shares how the Grovian coaching method and symbolic metaphor can open new paths to healing. Her work is grounded in the belief that you're not what happened to you—you are the story you choose to live now. If you've ever felt weighed down by the past, this conversation offers „a way through. A reminder that even if the water breaks, it still flows—and you’re still here. Learn more about Barbara's work at www.barbaralane.info. here