Hey folks! Donnell and I are back with another "Thoughts While High". This time we are talking about women's basketball and how race-gender-and the state come into play; music and these so call rap battles; and what it means to create community where we can actually breathe and live. This is a good one! Donnell McLachlan is a writer, theologian, and social justice advocate working to create a more empathetic and inclusive society through writing, research, and storytelling. His research centers on black faith and life, including liberation theologies, womanist theology, and the spiritual and sociohistorical dimensions of hip-hop music and culture. In addition to his academic pursuits, McLachlan has a popular TikTok page with over 315,000 followers, where he shares insights on religious history, discusses religious deconstruction and decolonization, and offers social commentary. He was born and raised in Chicago, Illinois. You can find Donnell @donnellwrites on ⁠IG⁠. ⁠Tik Tok ⁠ and ⁠YouTube Ways to support and work with me: ⁠⁠My ⁠⁠⁠⁠Website⁠⁠⁠⁠ to book me for ⁠⁠⁠Speaking Engagements⁠⁠⁠, Executive coaching, consulting, astrology readings, and more! ⁠⁠⁠⁠Patreon⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠Substack⁠⁠⁠⁠ $drnicoletruedell (Cashapp and Venmo), [email protected] (Paypal and Zelle) --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/dr-nicole-truesdell/support

Welcome back folks! Alright, this episode is a Sip & Chat with my friend and collaborator Forest Brooks. Forest is a songwriter, producer and artist, with a background as an educator in both the public and corporate sector and as a publicist in the entertainment industry. Aside from that, he's a foodie with a penchant for intellectualizing and sometimes overanalyzing pop culture. This time around we are talking about what it means to be 42 and recreating our lives cause we believe our experiences. As we both are in the midst of our Uranus Opposition astrologically, meaning we are in middle age, this is a time when things really do get weird. So how then does one take that energy and create the life that makes sense for you? And why do we keep saying the youth will save us when it is up to all us to save ourselves and one another? What is the role of those in our 40s and beyond in the new world building we say we want? Forest and I get into this, dating, and daring to create through our pleasures. Ways to support and work with me: ⁠⁠The "Believe Your Reality" Black Women Leaders Executive Coaching Cohort Program ⁠⁠⁠ My ⁠⁠⁠Website⁠⁠⁠ to book me for ⁠⁠Speaking Engagements⁠⁠, Executive coaching, consulting, astrology readings, and more! ⁠⁠⁠Patreon⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠Substack⁠⁠⁠ --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/dr-nicole-truesdell/support

Hey folks! This episode I am in conversation with Alafia Stewart. An Oakland California native, Alafia is a social activist, DEI consultant, and ATR Spiritual safety educator. When not community organizing, she can most likely be found singing karaoke and/or trying all the amazing food anywhere she lands. Alafia lives by the motto: “2+2=4, but so does 3+1. There is almost never just one way to solve a problem so diversity in perspective is vital.” Here we are talking about what it means to be "in" an African Traditional Religion (ATR) as Black folks and how not to get got in these spiritual streets. For Alafia's courses please see her website. You can Alafia on IG, Tik Tok, X, and YouTube. Ways to support and work with me: ⁠The "Believe Your Reality" Black Women Leaders Executive Coaching Cohort Program ⁠⁠ My ⁠⁠Website⁠⁠ to book me for ⁠Speaking Engagements⁠, Executive coaching, consulting, astrology readings, and more! ⁠⁠Patreon⁠⁠ ⁠⁠Substack⁠⁠ --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/dr-nicole-truesdell/support

Welcome back folks! This time I am in conversation with two friends of mine, Tina & Krista, about the Gay Curriculum Tina started for me when I came out a couple of years ago. Tina hails  from Louisville, Kentucky, and is your soon-to-be favorite rich lesbiauntie. A double Scorpio with a dark and brooding mood and fierce loyalty to those she allows into her queendom, she lives life on her own terms. She is a pop culture enthusiast and an unflappable cynic. In her professional life, she manages crisis, curates inclusion, and holds court with her subjects. Krista McQueeney is a sociologist, meditator, grammar nerd, a Gemini with fairy energy, and a lesbiauntie. She is an award-winning professor, a published writer, and a professional editor who loves to help people of all ages discover their passions and connect through writing. She is working on a book about white womanhood where she does the painful but necessary healing work of trying to unlearn white supremacy from the inside out. Here we discuss all kinds of things - from my coming out process and all the emotions attached to it, to them reflecting on their own coming out stories and the histories of queer and lesbian culture, to the impact music has had on all of us coming more into ourselves. This is a conversation you will want to come back more than once because of the richness of queer history given here. For the full unedited 2 hours please go to my Patreon. Sources mentioned in the episode: Music/Musicians: Tracy Chapman; Meshell Ndegeocello (albums "Bitter", "Cookie: The Anthropological Mixtapes", and "Comfort Woman") TV Shows and Movie: "A Luv's Tale" (both show and movie), "L Word"; Black Mirror episode "San junipero". Books: "Does Your Mama Know: An Anthology of Black Lesbian Coming Out Stories"  by Lisa C. Moore; "If Memory Serves: Gay Men, AIDS, and the Promise of the Queer Past" by Christopher Castiglia & Christopher Reed  Ways to support and work with me: The "Believe Your Reality" Black Women Leaders Executive Coaching Cohort Program ⁠ My ⁠Website⁠ to book me for Speaking Engagements, Executive coaching, consulting, astrology readings, and more! ⁠Patreon⁠ ⁠Substack⁠ --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/dr-nicole-truesdell/support

Welcome back ya'll! This episode I am talking with Donnell A. McLaughlin, AKA @donnellwrites on Tik Tok and IG. This time around we smoked up and had a conversation while elevated about music, hip-hop and the Diddy lawsuits, community, the present moment, and why we have to dream now of the types of communities we WANT instead of focusing on what we don't. What happens if we break repetitive public conversations that keep us in the same discursive loops? And what does the smoke help us make space for so that we can create the realities we say we want? All that and more this episode! You can find Donnell @donnellwrites on IG. Tik Tok and YouTube The "Believe Your Reality" Black Women Leaders Executive Coaching Cohort Program My Website for coaching, consulting, astrology readings, and more! Patreon Substack --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/dr-nicole-truesdell/support

Hey folks! Well this is a different episode than when I had initially recorded and intended to publish. The Tik Tok Live conversation I had with Robert Peoples on the 15th of the month won't upload properly for either for us, so while I get that sorted I have a different focus this time around. This episode I talk about spiritual work by telling the story of what happened when I decided that I needed to move some energy around to open my roads and in doing so did some working at the crossroads that ended up working me in ways I hadn't anticipated. Again the ancestors are smart, and they work with what they got to help us come into ourselves and living. So lessons were and continue to be learned from those actions, and I share with you all this episode those lessons and more! I am now enrolling applicants for my Black Women's Cohort Coaching Executive Leadership Program! If you want to work with me and also in a group setting with other Black women leaders, then my program may be for you. Starting April 8th, enrollment is open so sign up today as there are only 6 spots! For more ways to work with me please see my ⁠Patreon⁠, ⁠Substack⁠, and ⁠website⁠ where you can book an ⁠astrology reading⁠ and ⁠executive coaching sessions⁠ along with other ways to book me for ⁠organizational consulting ⁠and/or ⁠speaking engagements. ⁠ I also accept donations via Cashapp ($drnicoletruesdell), Venmo (drnicoletruesdell), Zelle and Paypal ([email protected]). --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/dr-nicole-truesdell/support

I am back! Welcome to Season 2 of "Abolitionist Dreamscapes". This season I am delving more into what it means to dream in the present as we all face the crossroads of our life and society. And to kick this off I am talking with Tracie D. Hall about the "Rootwork of the Crossroads" as she is someone who works with the sacred and mundane in her own liberatory work. Tracie D. Hall is an artist, curator, librarian, cultural worker and founder of Rootwork Gallery (2015-2019). A native of Los Angeles and the first generation in her family to be born outside the rural South, she has lived and worked in Chicago for nearly two decades. In 2023, her lifelong commitment to the right to read and advocacy for intellectual freedom and literacy resulted in Hall being named to both the TIME100 list of the most influential people of 2023 and her being selected to receive the Medal for Freedom of Speech and Free Expression from the Franklin D. Roosevelt Institute, an honor previously bestowed on Representative John Lewis. Hall is currently a visiting scholar at the University of London.  You can find Tracie D. Hall via The Rootwork Gallery on IG and FB! For more ways to work with me please see my Patreon, Substack, and website where you can book an astrology reading and executive coaching sessions along with other ways to book me for organizational consulting and/or speaking engagements. I also accept donations via Cashapp ($drnicoletruesdell), Venmo (drnicoletruesdell), Zelle and Paypal ([email protected]). --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/dr-nicole-truesdell/support

Hey folks! This is the final episode of Season 1 and this time I do some reflecting on what this first season has taught me about what it means to actually live. And in doing so I know I will be back for a season 2 because this has been a fun ride. Below are ways to connect with me and support my work. - ⁠Linkedtree⁠ - To support my work I accept donations through ⁠Cashapp⁠ ($drnicoletruesdell); Zelle and Paypal ([email protected]), and ⁠Venmo⁠ (drnicoletruesdell) - ⁠Virtual Salon Conversation Dec 10th for Black Women, Queer, and Nonbinary folks on "Justice for the Ancestors"⁠. - ⁠⁠Patreon⁠ - ⁠Substack⁠ - Follow me on ⁠⁠Tik Tok⁠⁠, ⁠YouTube⁠, and ⁠⁠IG⁠⁠! - To book me for speaking engagements, consulting, astrology readings, or 1-on-1 coaching please see my ⁠⁠website⁠ --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/dr-nicole-truesdell/support

Hey folks! This episode is a long, but good one. This time I am conversation with Laura Chung from the "Awaken and Align" Podcast and we talk all things astrology and abolition. In this present moment we need to look to different reference points to help us make sense of the violence we are seeing and experiencing that is being fed back to us as what is needed for "freedom and democracy". What happens if we reject that? What happens if we allow our humanity to come forward instead of allowing these nation-states to dictate our next moves? The stars, planets, and zodiacs can help us with this. Below are ways to connect with me and support my work. - Linkedtree - To support my work I accept donations through Cashapp ($drnicoletruesdell); Zelle and Paypal ([email protected]), and Venmo (drnicoletruesdell) - Virtual Salon Conversation Dec 10th for Black Women, Queer, and Nonbinary folks on "Justice for the Ancestors". - ⁠Patreon - Substack - Follow me on ⁠Tik Tok⁠, YouTube, and ⁠IG⁠! - To book me for speaking engagements, consulting, astrology readings, or 1-on-1 coaching please see my ⁠website⁠ --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/dr-nicole-truesdell/support

Welcome back ya'll! Thanks for your patience for the latest episode. In this episode I ask the question "What is justice for our ancestors?" This is a real flow of consciousness this time around as my body, soul, and mind come to a place of acceptance of what is and focus on what possibilities we can dream and conjure to create new worlds. This is where the ancestors come in, as they have been screaming at us to believe ourselves and come back to other ways of knowing and being. And as we all bear witness to the genocide being enacted in Palestine, the Congo, and Sudan (and there are even more), the reality that we are all living within the colonial project is front and center. So then, what does justice look like for our ancestors who were also suppressed? Because justice for them is justice for us as well. NOTE: I edited the transcript and it seems to not have taken any of my edits. I am my own host, editor and producer so bare with me ya'll as I learn new skills while I go. My goal is to be able to hire an editor and sound engineer in the future so your support is greatly appreciated! Below are ways to connect with me and support my work. - To support my work I accept donations through CA ($drnicoletruesdell); Zelle and Paypal ([email protected]), and Venmo (drnicoletruesdell) - Salon Conversation: ⁠Details coming November 1st - Substack: https://drnicoletruesdell.substack.com/ - For my Patreon: ⁠https://www.patreon.com/drnicoletruesdell - Follow me on Tik Tok and IG! - To book me for speaking engagements, consulting, astrology readings, or 1-on-1 coaching please see my website #podcast #ancestors #astrology --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/dr-nicole-truesdell/support