Claim OwnershipSoul + Practice: Raw Conversations & Real Practices with Kathy Escobar & Phyllis Mathis
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Soul + Practice: Raw Conversations, Real Practices, is hosted by Kathy Escobar and Phyllis Mathis. It’s centered on raw conversations about our crazy world, and real practices that keep us grounded deep in our souls. Kathy Escobar and Phyllis Mathis write, speak, pastor, and counsel, and are dedicated to creating spaces that foster healing and change. Keep listening to your soul. Keep practicing.
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Phyllis turned 70 this weekend, woo hoo! In this episode we process aging well, embracing reality, and leaning into hard-won wisdom. Plus a cameo with Kelli Skoog, here in Denver celebrating this weekend, yay.
It's been a tough weekend, friends, with US and Israel waging war on Iran. We dream for better leadership. We dream of circles of connection and wisdom not towers of unhealthy power and destructive practices. We dream for a more just society not just for ourselves but for our future. Strap in, this one's raw, but that's what Soul + Practice is all about--raw conversations and real practices. Let's keep practicing together.
After we finished recording our last episode Phyllis and Kathy talked to BJ Skoog or a bit and we realized we wanted to process more about how all of this has affected spirituality and relationships, too. That's where we went in this second episode, recorded a week later from Minnesota an Denver, navigating what happens when we have such divergent values with people we once deeply connected to and how to wrestle with the pain and dissonance of this reality.
Oh, we feel so grateful for this conversation with BJ Skoog, a long-time friend of Phyllis and a person of hope in these hard times. BJ founded the Richfield Leadership Network in Minneapolis, which is dedicated to strengthening community connectedness. The power of these relationships are being illuminated so strongly in the current situation with ICE occupation in their city and the reality of what's needed to care for their most vulnerable neighbors. We felt so inspired and also reminded of how important it is to stay healthy and resourced for the amount of trauma communities are experiencing together. More on RLN at https://www.richfieldleadershipnetwork.com.
Well, we needed the Super Bowl this year folks! In this episode we process why it helps us so much and how embodying our values despite the resistance is everything.
After a 6 week break, we're back for Season 9 with a check in, some small signs of hope, bald eagles, poetry, and hopefully a sense of being in this hard stuff together and staying as healthy and connected as we can.
Sorry for the technical difficulties if you listened to two wrong files before we finally got this right one up! But yes, this one starts our weird, too, ha! #practicing. We loved looking back on this past season September-December 2025 and all of the incredible kindreds who came and shared with us. We learned so much together, gathered some resourcing, and felt a little more grounded in the middle of so much uncertainty. We hope you did, too. We are so thankful to our guests who come and play with us and would love to hear what parts of this season resonated with you. We'll be back in 2026!
Phyllis' son Justin Mathis rocks and we're so thankful that we got to hang out with him for a truly lovely conversation about peer to peer support, mental health, and the beauty and power of being alongside other humans offering presence and connection and receiving it, too. Also, the most simple practices make a big difference in stability and healing. Enjoy!
In a world (and season) obsessed with material goods, we decided to focus on some of our favorite things that aren't stuff--simple practices, actions, spaces, places that help us regulate our nervous system and feel more solid and connected to our souls in a destabilizing world. They aren't complex--they're simple. And often so underrated. We had fun and hope you can lean into your favorite things, too, in freedom.
We love stories of the long road of freedom and how we find themes and gems of truth in others' journeys, too. In this episode we hang out with our friend Karen Poland, who is a therapist in TX with the Christian Closet, which offers therapy, coaching, and spiritual support services for the LGBTQ+ community around the country and beyond. This conversation about the intersection of faith and sexuality and honoring our truest true was so good for our souls! Learn more about the Christian Closet resources at thechristiancloset.com as well as Affirming Therapy, a non-profit that offers therapy scholarships to meet this crucial need.
We've been wanting to have this conversation for while, and we finally did it! Our friend Hannah Wong, a college professor and leader who is passionate about learning, human development, and things of the soul helped us engage with the realities of AI and how it's changing our minds and our culture in powerful and scary ways.
We feel so grateful to get to play with kindreds and gather some extra goodness in the middle of so much hard! We loved hanging out with John Pavlovitz, writer, activist, storyteller, and friend for a little bit this week. He helped us remember how important it is to stay human in a dehumanizing world. It's a gift to be alongside long-term advocates who keep saying stuff that needs to be said and dream for a better more equitable world despite so many obstacles. You can find all of John's work at johnpavlovitz.com.
Oh, grief! It's a part of life, yet most of us have a very complicated relationship with it. This conversation is about metabolizing grief, learning to integrate it into the human experience alongside others who are trying to be honest about it, too.
We love the Enneagram, and in this episode we thought it would be fun to process what different Enneagram types might be feeling and experiencing in these wild times and offer some possible practices for support and resourcing. We had fun, and the truth is, no matter our type, there's always something we can learn and draw from.
We loved our conversation with Hugh Hollowell, writer, advocate, seeker of beauty, and pastor of Open Door Mennonite Church in Jackson Mississippi. It's exactly the kind of reminders we need right now in what he calls "The Circumstances" the US finds itself in. Learn more about his work in the world at hughhollowell.org and gather some beauty and hope today.
This conversation with Rev. Rob Jerger, who is the Vicar at St. Clare's Episcopal Church in Tyler, Texas (the only LGBTQ+ affirming community out of the 392 churches in that town), made both of us cry. It embodies such a beautiful example of what church is supposed to be - a little pocket of love, safety, freedom, and hope in the middle of this hard and harsh world. No matter what you believe, there's so much to glean from this conversation, and it is what our souls needed today. More on St. Clare's at scectyler.org
Beyond all the basic talking about left brain being logical and the right brain being creative is an expansive body of work that can help us also better understand what's happening not only in our own stories and experience but also in the wider one that's imploding right now. In this episode we process some of the ideas in the neuroscience book (600 pages!) by Ian McGilchrist called The Master and His Emissary and how we might be able to integrate some of the simplest ideas into our real lives and practices.
It's been a rough week in the USA and even though we pretty much say that every week we record, this past week has been extra bad with assassinations, school shootings, and social media awful. This episode we share what we needed most this morning--getting back to basic skills and guiding principles that will help us survive these really rough times. We felt better when we finished and hope you do, too.
We’re back! We always take a break in the Summer and re-group, decide if we’re going to keep on keeping on or not, and in these wild times, the answer is YES! This space helps us and we hope it helps anyone listening in whatever ways are needed. This episode is just a look-back at the Summer and what’s sustaining us right now. Looking forward to the season ahead!
It’s a wrap, friends! We had a great run of guests and topics from February-May centered on resourcing during these extra tumultuous times, and now it’s time for a Summer break! We loved looking back at our conversations and amazing friends who offered their time and wisdom to be part of Soul + Practice. We love having out with you each week and will look forward to being back in the Fall. Meanwhile, take good care of yourselves this Summer and know we’re with you in the human-ing in these hard times.
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