Claim OwnershipPoema Podcast
Subscribed: 56Played: 4,629
Subscribe
© Copyright 2024 James Prescott. All rights reserved.
Description
Poema is a Greek word which speaks of our lives as divine works of art. The Poema Podcast, hosted by James Prescott, seeks to explore the intersections between spirituality, creativity & identity. It’s a space to host conversations about the our spiritual journeys, mental & emotional health, grief and story. It’s a space to reclaim the lost art of conversation, a space for anyone looking to explore their creativity, discover their true identity, and who desire to live a life of purpose & meaning.
400 Episodes
Reverse
(Trigger Warning: Spiritual Abuse)
Today is the 400th episode of the Poema Podcast! In September 2015 I began this show out of pure curiosity to explore a new creative medium. 10 years and a name change later, I've interviewed many many people on all sorts of topics ranging from grief, movies, music, death, mental health, spirituality, demisexuality and more.
Today, in an extended anniversary episode, my beloved friend MJ Weissenberger interviews me about the origins of the podcast, why I chose the name, the numerology around 4 and 400, as well as my creative journey.
I also share my story of spiritual abuse with YWAM for the first time publicly, and how this impacted my life & was impacted by grief.
It's been a wild ride to 400 episodes, and there's more to come! This is the last episode of 2025, but there's new episodes coming in 2026.
Trigger Warning: Narcissistic abuse.
This week, qualified counsellor and therapist Aly Rae joins me to discuss behaviours related to autism, and to narcissism. From their own lived experience of narcissistic abuse, and professional experience of working with autistic people, they share what the lived experience of autism can be like, and how some autistic traits can be confused with narcissism.
They also explain the difference between narcissism and narcissistic behaviours or traits, which can be displayed by certain personality types separately from an actual diagnosis of narcissism.
Finally, Aly provides helpful tools for autistic people - like her, myself and many others - to navigate the world we all live in, and a system which is not designed for us.
Author Alice Hewson returns to the podcast today to go deeper into exploring and discussing our lived experiences as autistic people and with rejection sensitive dysphoria (RSD).
Today we go deeper into RSD, something common in autistic people. We talk about what it is, and our lived experiences of it, and how we have learned to live with it, and even find joy in the midst of all the challenges it and being autistic can bring.
This week my friend Jenna returns to the show and in this episode we discuss the most recent series of Doctor Who, and the show as a whole.
Jenna and I explore the themes of grief, fear and power which come up in the recent series and the 15th Doctor's journey.
We also talk about how we've seen these themes come up in the show with previous Doctors and how they impact the Doctor's overall story. And how seeing the Doctor experience these things inspires and encourages us on our journey.
We then move on to share the reasons we love the show and what it means to us and to many others, and our hopes for its future.
This week we're talking James Gunn's "Superman" with my friend, podcaster Mario Francesco Robles, host of the "Superman on Film" podcast.
We talk about the themes of hope, identity, and being human which Superman embodies and are explored in the movie. We also discuss our own experiences of the movie, how it inspired us & where it stands in the echelon of Superman movies. This was such good fun!
My friend Jonathan Bregel is a filmmaker and creator. He's recently shot a documentary on a retreat designed solely to help people grieve, which he's hoping to release soon. He's also made a short film about grief about 18 months ago.
Today we discuss his experiences making these films, and his own experiences of grief. Jonathan shares what he has learned about grieving and death, and how its impacted him and his own journey, and relationships with others. This episode is a moving insight into one man's personal journey of grief.
*****
You can support the movie and see the trailer here.
Author and friend Jim Woods returns to the podcast today, to discuss his latest work, the creative process, power of story and what he's learned as an author coach.
We talk about the challenges which every creative person faces, with Jim sharing some of his own story, why these happen, and how to overcome them. We also explore the dangers of pursuing our art and how we can keep our integrity whilst still creating great art to share with the world.
He shares his inpsiration for his recent series of novels and how the research and writing of these books changed him.
This was such a fun conversation, and I'm sure you're going to love it.
___________
You can find Jim's books on Amazon, and access to all his work at JimWoodsWrites.com
Jim's books, including several nove are all available on Amazon
Today my friend Justin return to the podcast. In this episode they talk about their advocacy and lived experiences as a bi and ace racialised person and how the developments in the USA have impacted their lived experience.
We both share stories about how healthy community can help us survive through difficult times, in a world of prejudice and hate, and what healthy community should - and can - look like.
Justin is a person who inspires hope in me, and I'm sure they will in you too. Check out their work here:
Medium: jancheta25.medium.com
Bluesky: @jancheta25.bsky.social
Website: www.justinanchetawriter.com
My beloved friend Brandan Robertson returns to the podcast today to talk about his latest book, "Queer & Christian: Reclaiming the Bible, Our Faith, and Our Place at the Table".
We talk about how Brandan revisited the scriptures and discovered there are several Queer saints within it, more than you'd expect. He also explored the usual "clobber" verses used against LGBTQIA community and unpacked their true contextual meaning.
He shares his vision of a Biblically supported, fully inclusive, loving joyful Christian faith, and its very compelling.
This week Jenna DeWitt is back on the podcast, this time we discuss the MCU movie "The Marvels", the sequel to Captain Marvel, the MCU's leading female superhero currently.
Jenna shares how this movie and the journey of the lead
characters in it, have been really impact for her as a queer, asexual woman. She also talks about how the movie covers themes of grief and loss, something often found in these type of movies, and identity.
This was such a fun conversation, hope you enjoy it.
*****
You can find more of Jenna's work at invisiblecakesociety.com
This week my dear friend MJ joins us to share the story of her autism diagnosis, how she first realised she may be autistic, the process of getting her diagnosis, and how her life has changed since.
This is a powerful, challenging and encouraging story.
Today I'm joined by author and speaker Alice Hewson to discuss autism in the work place. Alice talks about the challenges of being neurodivergent in the world we live in, which isn't set up for neurodivergent people, and how this can often translate into the work place.
She shares her own experiences and also offers some practical ideas for both employers and neurodivergent people themselves, for how neurodivergent people can feel safe and protected in the work place. She also shares some thoughts and examples of how neurodivergent people can build structures and processes which will help them thrive in the work place rather than be overwhelmed, and to avoid potential meltdowns
You can read more about this in her book "Neurodiversity in the Workplace" which is available wherever books are sold.
This week, as part of a new series, Dr Amy Maschall PsyD returns to the podcast to talk about people's lived experiences with autism and in particular the experience of justice sensitivity.
Dr Amy is autistic herself, and works with autistic people on a regular basis, and a qualified expert, so has a lot of both lived experience and academic knowledge of autism. She shares this with us, and talks about how autistic people can be more sensitive about injusitces, big and small, and feel them more acutely, often seeing injustice and how to stop it in a binary way.
I myself share my experiences of this as an autistic person too, and we explore how autistic people can navigate the challenges this bring, and how it impacts our day to day lives.
Dr Amy has so much knowledge and insight on this subject, this is well worth a listen.
____
Find more of Dr Amy's work, including her many books on neurodiversity on her website here.
**Trigger warning: Spiritual abuse, toxic evangelicalism, conversion therapy stories**
This week I'm joined by author and activist Lucas Wilson, to discuss stories of conversion therapy, the damage done by it, and the toxic evangelical culture which gave rise to it.
We talk about some of the stories shared by people in Lucas' new book "Shame Sex Attraction", their grief, trauma and how they healed from those experiences.
We also discuss toxic evangelical culture, and the harm its done to the LGBTQIA community as a whole & how we can support people who've experienced spiritual abuse, and how many of them have healed and moved into healthier lives embracing & being accepted for who they really are.
Today my beloved friend, embodiment coach, writer and podcaster Jamie Lee Finch returns to the show.
We talk all sorts in this episode, from connectedness with our bodies, intuition and how this all connects to a wider spirituality, to grief and how we build healthy relationships with our bodies and build resilience. We also explore how the system we all rigged, in, is simply not built for the thriving of human bodies.
We had such fun recording this, make sure you check it out.
The podcast returns for 2025 with a new interview with the ever inspiring author and speaker Rob Bell.
Recorded just before the US election of 2024, Rob joins me to talk about his latest novel, "There's Only One Noon Yeah", the second in his new series of novels.
We talk about the themes and inspirations behind the novel, how it shows us the world we live in a fresh way, and delve into grief, transitions, transformation and awareness, as well as finding joy in the creative process. It was such a fun and interesting conversation.
In this final episode of 2024, fellow Whovian Jenna DeWitt returns to the podcast to talk about a character we both love, The Doctor.
In particular, we talk about a recurring theme in the show, and on this show, grief. The grief of losing companions, of people he is trying to save sometimes dying or sacrificing themselves, and above all, of him having to grieve his own death, every time he regrenerates.
Even if you don't know the show, there's a lot here which can relate to various experiences of grief we can have, death, loss of friends, loss of community, moving on from our past selves, and how all of this can relate to us in the deconstruction community, and personal growth generally.
Today my dear friend Cat Dean joins me to talk about astrological energy, and in particular the phenomenon of mercury retrogade, the most recent of which (at time of release) began November 25th, 2024.
Cat tells us exactly what mercury retrogade is, when it happens and why, and how it impact both us and our world. We both share our own experiences of mercury retrogade and Cat explains the power and influence of astrological energy itself.
Trigger warning: Suicide, suicidal ideation, depression
______
Today I'm joined by author and advocate Chris Morris. He shares his story about his experiences of depression, suicidal ideation.
He shares his powerful and raw story of his depression and various suicide attempts. He talks about his experience in a psych ward, and how he did the work of healing, and the battles he still has. He also talks about the challenges of talking about mental health in Christian circles.
Chris is a courageous, powerful advocate for mental health and his story is both discomforting and ultimately, inspiring.
In this new episode, recorded pre-election 2024, Amanda Held Opelt joins me again, this time for a conversation about some major events in history & their impact on how our culture processes grief.
We talk at length about the two World Wars, and how different outcomes for different nations impacted how their cultures responded to them, and how it changed their culture. We explore how one bad response from WWI may have led to WWII and how the outcomes of both may have contributed to where we are now.
We also look at Queen Victoria, a monarch who experienced deep grief, which changed her life, her behaviour and relationships with others.
This episode is a fascinating insight into how grief shapes us individually and culturally.
Comments
Download from Google Play
Download from App Store
United States