Join me for what is sure to be an inspiring, beautiful conversation with executive coach, meditation teacher and author, Sura, about living in the flow. Sura brings a gentle exuberance to living deeply and fully, and engaging consciously with creative energies. In this episode we will hear some of Sura’s own story and her journey to and through this life of flow. Sura will speak about meditation, prayer, synchronicity and creativity, and what they all bring to the party!

How do we revitalize our communities? How do we create communities that support all of its inhabitants? Join me as I speak with the extraordinary Social Artist and Cultural Creative, Shel Kimen. Shel has many irons in the fire, but one of her current undertakings is Collision Works, a hybrid profit / non-profit social enterprise in Detroit, designed to connect people through their personal stories. Shel’s initiatives have brought her into the realms of placemaking, urban resilience, community-first design, architecture, entrepreneurialism, and healing through the power of story. We all have stories, and Shel believes more than anything that we all have something valuable to contribute, and has made it her mission to cultivate that

What is it like to lead life constantly calling on the powers of transformation? What are the gifts and the trials of such a path? This week I speak with a fairly new acquaintance, Austin Szelkowski. I am intrigued by the little slices of Austin’s story I’ve been exposed to, and I have been impressed with his level of awareness and integrity in our interactions. I hope you’ll join me in getting to know Austin a little better too, and perhaps in the process we can learn from an up and coming artist of transformation!

When we think about changes that are needed in our world, I often think about the financial systems that are not set up to truly support and sustain all humans. Here is an area ripe for transformation. And like many of our other conversations on this show, we look at the personal within the context of the culture and systems. Regardless of your financial situation, how financially literate are you? Do you know how the financial systems work, do you know what your money is doing? Join me as I speak with Angela Barbash, founder of Reconsider, an impact economy research and development firm, co-founder of Revalue, a registered investment advisory firm and she co-launched the Detroit Regional Chapter of the Social Enterprise Alliance. Angela is passionate about empowering people through knowledge and she is a thought leader in financial education, local investing, social impact investing, and creating ways to serve values-driven investors.

The world is changing at a high rate of speed. The information and digital age we are co-creating, is shaping and transforming how we think and learn, and how we share and obtain knowledge. Join me as I chat with Dr. Peggy Liggit, Director of Eastern Michigan University’s Faculty Development Center, who is passionate about these changes, and in pioneering the shifts needed in our approach to teaching and learning in higher education.

Too many people hate going to work. But what if your work and your workplace brought you great Joy? This episode we chat with CEO, Chief Storyteller, and Joy, Inc. author, Rich Sheridan. Rich’s company, Menlo Innovations are experts at transformation and the world has noticed. This little software design and development company in Ann Arbor, MI has elicited Six Inc. magazine revenue growth awards, invitations to the White House, speaking engagements around the world, numerous articles and culture awards, and so much interest that they have come to doing a tour a day of their Menlo Software Factory™. Join us to hear how Rich and his company have transformed their culture and workplace into one of joy and great innovation.

Sacred Sexual Healer & Transformational Guide, Leslie Blackburn, speaks with us this week about sacred sexuality as a path of transformation. We will learn about this powerful path, hear about Leslie’s personal journey and developing this work, and explore the deep gifts of this practice.

Today we speak with amazing grief coach, life coach and author, Tamara Sutton! Tamara will lead us through 3 key stages of life awareness and how we can transform through life’s challenges, especially the highest challenge found in the death of a loved one. Tamara helps us move through the initial suffering and fear, to using our experience to broaden and deepen our Soul and Heart of compassion, and even beyond to a freedom that allows full participation in the rising vibration of the cosmos and the planet, for harmony and balance within and throughout. Join us for an intimate conversation and an opportunity to examine your own life and path for an exercise in flexibility.

Mara speaks with Barry Lipscomb, a true thought-leader and innovator in the realm of helping business and organizations evolve to serve a higher purpose. We’ll talk with Barry about what he and other thought leaders see as an evolutionary path for business. In order to change the world, we have to change very basic underlying assumptions, and we need to create systems and processes to support the new assumptions. This impacts how and why we do business, and also can really impact the culture of a workplace. Join Mara and Barry to look beyond even the triple bottom line!

This week, we discuss the art of writing as a vehicle for many types of transformation. Guest Jeanne Ballew, book coach and owner of Edit Prose, shines a light on the long, challenging, sometimes terrifying, but ultimately exhilarating process of bringing a book to life. We will discuss the transformative power of this process on the writer and those close to the writer, the coach, the readers and ultimately the transformation of the idea itself that is trying to come alive in the world.

This week's guest, Sandra Finkel, is a life coach and owner of Intentional Balance, LLC, a human development company that is dedicated to unlocking potential and cultivating flourishing lives through heart and wisdom based generative practices. Sandy will share with us her insights about personal transformation, and the power we each have to consciously choose.

This episode, we turn the tables and your host Mara Evenstar is interviewed by dear friend and colleague, Sandra Finkel. Mara will provide a glimpse into her work, and way of life, which is in developing and practicing what she calls transformational arts. She will tell stories from her own spiral dance, and of what wisdom she has gained about the fundamentals, mechanics, and beauty of living an evolutionary life.

Mara and guest Cal Loo of Intentional Legacies explore ways to navigate life’s biggest transitions with intention and grace. Some transitions are a natural part of the lifespan like birth, puberty and death. Others are cultural, and made important by our society or spiritual community, such as marriage, graduation, coming of age, spiritual or religious initiation, and even endings like divorce. All of these transitions, when marked intentionally, can help ease the way into releasing a previous stage, and preparing for the new roles, identity, or responsibilities that come with the new stage. It is especially powerful if these transitions can be marked in community, strengthening our ties and sense of belonging. We will discuss why rites of passage are especially relevant and important in today’s world and not just hold-over traditions from the long past. Cal will also share some of his personal journey in coming to his work of helping people traverse these life transitions.