The Queer Spirit

Nick Venegoni, TanyaMarck Oviedo

The Queer Spirit podcast has conversations with artists, healers and activists who enliven, heal and empower the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Gender Queer+ communities. Each episode we'll be interviewing a different guest who does work in the world to nourish the Queer Spirit in us all - authors, coaches, teachers, body workers, mystics, creatives, ritualists, diviners and MORE. We'll dive deep into sexuality, spirituality, yoga, energy work, shamanism, healing trauma, relationships, art, activism, gender identity, tarot, astrology, and magic. Hear how other queer folks have healed themselves and be inspired to continue your path to wholeness. Hosted by Nick Venegoni (hethey) & TanyaMarck Oviedo (they/them) read less
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Episodios

The Magic of Enough with Amanda Yates Garcia
25-09-2024
The Magic of Enough with Amanda Yates Garcia
Amanda Yates Garcia (she/her) is a writer, witch, and the Oracle of Los Angeles. Her work has been featured in The New York Times, The LA Times, The SF Chronicle, The London Times, CNN, BRAVO, as well as a viral appearance on FOX. She has led rituals, classes and workshops on magic and witchcraft at UCLA, UC Irvine, MOCA, The Hammer Museum, LACMA, The Getty and many other venues. Amanda hosts monthly moon rituals online, and the popular Between the Worlds podcast, which looks at the Western Mystery traditions through a mythopoetic lens. Her book, Initiated: Memoir of a Witch, received a starred review from Kirkus and Publisher's Weekly and has been translated into six languages. To find out more about her work become a member of her Mystery Cult on Substack. Episode Highlights Welcome to our third cross-pollination episode, where we share space with other queer podcasters and creators. Amanda is the host of "Between the Worlds" podcast. We are so grateful to have Amanda Yates Garcia share some time with us. Join us for a queerly witchy saunter and exploration of the medicine of enough. Amanda gets us started and casts a delicious, magic circle, and then we dive in and explore.We get curious about our “enough’s” and spend some time both in the light and shadowy aspects, while being between the worlds. We get cozy naming our “enough’s” which takes us into our queer + witchy stories, potently connecting some dots. We close by sending a care spell out to our collective past and future selves.  Web links Find Amanda online at OracleOfLosAngeles.comYou can also connect with her on Instagram @oracleoflaListen to Between the Worlds podcast here Join the private Queer Spirit Community to continue the conversation and connect with other listeners.  Join us for FREE meditation + chanting + breath work circles online.   And follow us on Instagram!  Join our mailing list  to get news and podcast updates sent directly to you.
Queer Books Save Lives with J.P. Der Boghossian
23-04-2024
Queer Books Save Lives with J.P. Der Boghossian
J.P. DerBoghossian (he/they) is the founder of the Queer Armenian Library - the world's first library devoted to literature, film, and television by, about, and for Queer Armenians. He serves on the Board of the International Armenian Literary Alliance and is a past President of the Armenian Cultural Organization of Minnesota. He hosts the podcast This Queer Book Saved My LIfe which is a 2024 GLAAD Media Award nominee for Outstanding Podcast. He is a Lambda Literary Fellow and his essays have appeared in We Are All Armenian (University of Texas Press), The Sun Isn't Out Long Enough (Anamot Press), and Emerge (Lambda Literary). He started his career in television broadcasting and then transitioned to a ten-year career in higher education where he ultimately served as the Chief Diversity Officer for Normandale Community College and Saint Paul College. With This Queer Book Saved My Life he returns to his broadcasting roots, as he additionally hosts The Gaily Show for AM950-KTNF in Minneapolis. He holds a Master of Public Affairs degree from the University of Minnesota. He resides with his partners, splitting their time between Minneapolis, MN and Barronett, WI.   Episode Highlights Season 7 premieres with our first cross-pollination episode, where we share space with other queer podcasters and creators. We start by floating into a round of: I will share mine (show you mine), if you share yours (if you show me yours) - a lovely space where we each share books/authors that have impacted our queerness.We reflect and share about the books and the aspects of our queerness that are awakened.TanyaMarck & Nick get into some queer spirit medicine and drop into some breathwork + movement + toning with the intentions of bringing and sharing all of theses beautifully awakened frequencies with our bodies and systems sprinkling it all with gratitude.Thank you to books and their authors: Home at the End of the World, by Michael Cunnigham; The Velvet Rage, by Alan Downs; The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty, by Ann Rice writing as A.N. Roquelaure; & Tales of The City, by Armistead Maupin. Web links Find J.P. online at ThisQueerBook.comYou can also connect with them on Instagram @thisqueerbook   Join the private Queer Spirit Community to continue the conversation and connect with other listeners.  Join us for FREE meditation + chanting + breath work circles online.   And follow us on Instagram!  Join our mailing list  to get news and podcast updates sent directly to you.
The Green Wisdom of Herbalism with Rekara Gage
06-09-2023
The Green Wisdom of Herbalism with Rekara Gage
*Audio Note: Volume and clarity varies during some parts of this interview. Rekara Gage (she/her) is an herbalist who focuses on the importance of ritual, safety and community when it comes to personal healing and growth. Her approach to wellness is based in food medicine and spirituality, emphasizing new ways to add plant medicine to the routines that you already have in place. She loves helping people reconnect with their intuition and do things with meaning, making everyday feel special. In her practice, it's important to provide access and information to the public so that they can make the best health choices for themselves. Rekara is a student of Traditional Western Herbalism with Julie James at Green Wisdom Apothecary and School of Herbal Studies in Long Beach. Episode Highlights Thank you to our grounding plant medicines and their energies: dandelion root (clarity), mullein (lung support + moisture), tulsi ( aids with stress + clear headed + relaxation) , and elecampane (breathwork).Rekara shares with us about her healing journey and how the medicines and magic of storytelling, food, movement, plants, family, community and curiosity play active roles in finding herself and herbalism.We learn about the medicines of ritual and practice that Rekara partakes in throughout her personal herbalism journey, and how they are connected to her culture.We learn what herbalism is: understanding plant medicine (the chemistry), how we can benefit from plants being here, how we can learn from them, and how they support us.Rekara reminds us that when working spiritually with herbs and plants, important aspects to explore and consider include: connection, intention and being open to answering the call to mindfully interact and work with them.Rekara drops an herbal tea recipe that will nourish our queer hearts, bodies, spirits , and souls.  Thank you to these plants  for sharing their medicine and energies:Rose (color + reminder of boundaries + protection + safety) Tulsi (aids with stress + clears the mind) Damiana (spicy + sassy + libido + reminds us who we are)Cinnamon (unsung hero that moistens us + grounding + supportive)   Web links Find Rekara online at Re-ngage.comYou can also connect with her on Instagram @rekaraneal & @rootedherbalcollectiveFind Green Wisdom Herbal Studies & Apothercary & IG @greenwisdom   Join the private Queer Spirit Community to continue the conversation and connect with other listeners.  Join us for First Saturday's FREE meditation & breath work circles online.  Grab your FREE Mini-Course: The Self-Confident Queer - start here. And follow us on Instagram!  Join our mailing list  to get news and podcast updates sent directly to you.
Creating Dreams out of Chaos with Crystal Mason & Jason Wyman
16-08-2023
Creating Dreams out of Chaos with Crystal Mason & Jason Wyman
Crystal Mason (they/them) is an artist, activist, dreamer, consultant and coach. They believe in the power of community and necessity of hope. Jason Wyman (they/them) is Queerly Complex. Using appreciative inquiry, deep listening, and creative conjuring, Wyman taps the Cosmic Mysteries in all to reveal moments of Chaos Poetry. They live, love, and create on Yelamu / San Francisco, and share a home and family with their husband and pride of house and feral cats. Episode Highlights Crystal + Jason share their personal queer-stories and drop some queer wisdom nuggetsSweetness alert: We get cozy + comfy while Jason + Crystal take us for a saunter and share about how they met and their connection.We learn about the medicine + magic of dreaming in public and how sharing those dreams with others can lead to co creation and action.Crystal leads Nick + TanyaMarck through a dream practice that includes a share/reflection of what we experienced.Behind the scenes and during our shared time, Jason has been alchemizing some chaos poetry which they share with us; it’s very queer + yummy.We learn about the offerings and practices that both Jason + Crystal share with our collective. Jason's chaos poetry from our collective dreaming practice lead by Crystal: Take  a deep breath... Take a deep breath & soften your gaze... Take a deep breath & flow... Flow like a river as it snakes its way through the jungles...        through the forests...       through the deserts...       through the valleys...       through the mountains...       through the prairies...       through the lands of your ancestors & ancestors of these lands, including those unnamed & unknown... Listen for the birds, the animals, the critters, the wind blowing from the Southwest, from the energies of dreams & wishes... Smell the flowers & the lush green flora thriving all over this world... Flow on this river & arrive in queer paradise... Where the water glistens & glitters... And queer beings of all bodies--        clothed & naked...       serene & making love...       joyous & free...       alone & in community-- Celebrate completely... "I do not want to leave..."  "Me neither..."  Remember...  This dream is within you always & in all ways... You can come back here... Take a deep breath... Lay in your hammock... Dream queer dreams... Here we will always be free.    Web links Find Crystal online at CrystalMason.net & on Instagram @ham_job1Find Jason at QueerlyComplex.com & on Instagram @queerlycomplexAnd their collective work at TreeOfChange.net    Join the private Queer Spirit Community to continue the conversation and connect with other listeners.  Join us for First Saturday's FREE meditation & breath work circles online.  Grab your FREE Mini-Course: The Self-Confident Queer - start here. And follow us on Instagram!  Join our mailing list  to get news and podcast updates sent directly to you.
The Magic of Gender Exploration with Rae McDaniel
21-06-2023
The Magic of Gender Exploration with Rae McDaniel
Rae McDaniel (they/them) is a non-binary speaker, author, therapist, Certified Sex Therapist, coach and Transgender Diversity & Inclusion Educator. Rae helps audiences gain the sheer audacity to be themselves in the world through play, pleasure, and possibility. Their book Gender Magic is a first-of-its-kind practical guide to achieving gender freedom with joy, curiosity, and pleasure for transgender and non-binary individuals, gender explorers, and those who love them. Rae is also the founder and CEO of Practical Audacity, a Gender & Sex Therapy practice in Chicago, serving over 300 clients yearly. Episode Highlights During our shared time we explore what it means to be in flow with the unfolding journey of gender.Rae shares that coming out to their family took a couple of years - they were blessed and lucky to have built a supportive strong queer community prior to coming out.They share with us  how pandemic quarantine removed a lot of the external barriers trans people navigate on the daily. During this time, Rae honored their trans identity by getting top surgery and working more deeply with testosterone injections. Rae drops some queer wisdom nuggets: How do we connect to ourselves, to each other? How do we bring more pleasure + joy + play into our lives right now even while holding all the heavy stuff?In their new book, Gender Magic, Rae poses that we position gender exploration and transition as just another part of self growth. Rae shares an excerpt from their book with us and it’s filled with such yummy nuggets of queer wisdom. Pleasure + Joy + Play remain integral ingredients of their growth. Web links Find Rae online at campsite.bio/theraemcdanielConnect with Rae on Instagram   Join the private Queer Spirit Community to continue the conversation and connect with other listeners.  Join us for First Saturday's FREE meditation & breath work circles online.  Grab your FREE Mini-Course: The Self-Confident Queer - start here. And follow us on Instagram: - Nick Venegoni, he>they - TanyaMarck Oviedo, they/them  Join our mailing list  to get news and podcast updates sent directly to you.
The Science, Magic & Folklore of Crystals with Nicholas Pearson
27-03-2023
The Science, Magic & Folklore of Crystals with Nicholas Pearson
Welcome to Season 6 of the show!  Nicholas Pearson (he/him) has been immersed in all aspects of the mineral kingdom for nearly 30 years. As one of the leading voices in crystal healing today, he offers a unique blend of science and spirituality alongside a grounded, practical approach to working with crystals. The author of several books, including Crystal Basics, he lives in Orlando, Florida. Episode Highlights We learn about Nicholas’ journey and connections with science, stones, energy, folklore, animals.Nicholas shares about what stones he is currently drawn to and working with & how he is embodying them into his daily navigation, practices and work.We receive some medicine about how to choose, care for, sit with and let go of crystals.Nicholas shares with us  how to explore, be curious and embody all the aspects of stones.We receive Nicholas’s recommendations of what stones could be included in our magic tool-kits that support our queer liberation.Thank you Tongva, Ohlone, Seminole lands; essences and energies of magnolia tree, limestone, moonstone, emerald, opal, aegirine & animals. Web links Find Nicholas online at linktr.ee/theLuminousPearlConnect with him on Instagram   Join the private Queer Spirit Community to continue the conversation and connect with other listeners.  Join us for First Saturday's FREE meditation & breath work circles online.  Grab your FREE Mini-Course: The Self-Confident Queer - start here. And follow us on Instagram: - Nick Venegoni, he>they - TanyaMarck Oviedo, they/them  Join our mailing list  to get news and podcast updates sent directly to you.
Breath & Spirit with TanyaMarck Oviedo
14-11-2022
Breath & Spirit with TanyaMarck Oviedo
TanyaMarck Oviedo (they/them) identifies as a non binary, queer, native indigenous person of color who resides on Tongva + Kizh + Chumash land (colonially known as Long Beach, Ca). They currently are of service to their communities as a mentor + wellness facilitator. They are creator of Vamonos a healing arts practice rooted in and with well + being + of service. Vamanos builds community to explore and embody wellness via breath work + energy + mindful movement + mentoring + space holding. Episode Highlights We discuss how TanyaMarck first learned about the power of connecting to the breath from their baseball coach as a child.We learn about their current breath work practice helping clients to release stuck energy and activating new insights.Nick and TanyaMarck share stories about discovering magic and spirituality through candles at church and connecting to the elements of nature, wind and fog.They talk about learning to be of service to family and community, and cultivating that service as a spiritual practice.They share about their connection with food as medicine and why they feel called to work with food magic. Web links Find TanyaMarck's offerings here - linktr.ee/tanyamarckvamonosConnect with them on Instagram Join the private Queer Spirit Community to continue the conversation and connect with other listeners. Grab your FREE Mini-Course: The Self-Confident Queer - start here. And follow us on Instagram!  Join our mailing list  to get news and podcast updates sent directly to you.
Bridging the Binaries with Brandi Stanley
31-10-2022
Bridging the Binaries with Brandi Stanley
Brandi Stanley (she/her) makes a living out of making connections—science and art, fermenting and theology, permaculture and social movements, neuroscience and dance. If creativity is the ability to connect the seemingly un-connectable, that’s the art she practices. In love with the space between things—the intersections and the paradoxes—she's constantly looking for what insights can be gained when we mash the unexpected together and the growth that happens when we learn to hold complexity. These days, she does that by running a podcast and writing a newsletter, both under the name This Plus That, where she's interviewed guests like authors David Epstein & Charles Eisenstein, and well-known artists like Ashley Eliza Williams and Tyler Thrasher. When she's not working on the pod, though, you can find her obsessing over great food and fermenting everything in sight. Episode Highlights Brandi shares how she left the world of marketing and branding, listened to her heart, and started her podcast and newsletter.We explore the practice of finding balance, connection, and opposites.She talks about her own healing journey of opposing forces in her body and how she cultivates balance in herself today.We discuss the gift of queerness in that we bridge the binaries and help others see connections between poles.We talk about the concept of holding opposites within ourselves and being capable of holding one side without having to jettison the other.Brandi shares her insight that the root of many emotional and physical ailments is inflammation, both in a material and immaterial sense. Web links Find Brandi online at ThisPlusThat.comConnect with him on Instagram, Twitter & YouTube Join the private Queer Spirit Community to continue the conversation and connect with other listeners. Grab your FREE Mini-Course: The Self-Confident Queer - start here.  And follow us on Instagram!  Join our mailing list  to get news and podcast updates sent directly to you.
Drag & Spirituality with Bonnie Violet
19-09-2022
Drag & Spirituality with Bonnie Violet
Bonnie Violet is a trans femme genderqueer spiritual drag artist, identity doula and digital chaplain; YouTuber, Twitcher & Host of A Queer Chaplain podcast with such series as Drag & Spirituality, TranSpirit & Faith Leaders. Co-host of Splintered Grace with her conservative christian aunt, and At the Castro Country Club recovery podcast. Director of 1st Annual Drag & Spirituality Summit to take place in Chicago in October 2022. Bonnie Violet shares her experience of strength and hope with HIV, recovering from drugs, alcohol, and sexual assault in classrooms, community centers, churches, online and anywhere else she is invited. As a queer chaplain she is present with people in death and dying to self by helping to lace one’s narrative with a spiritual thread to remind them of their resilience, strengthen faith in self and create serenity in the now. Episode Highlights Bonnie shares about her personal journey with drag and her trans identity being a result of a spiritual awakening.She talks about her work as a queer chaplain and identity doula to helps others through all transitions of life.We learn about Bonnie’s connection to her spirituality through sobriety.Bonnie talks about their work with death and dying. Web links Find Bonnie online at www.aqueerchaplain.orgAnd follow her on Instagram, TikTok & YouTube Join the private Queer Spirit Community to continue the conversation and connect with other listeners.  Grab your FREE Mini-Course: The Self-Confident Queer - start here. And follow us on Instagram! Join our mailing list  to get news and podcast updates sent directly to you.
Reviving the Legacy of Queer Ancestors with Seth Eisen
05-09-2022
Reviving the Legacy of Queer Ancestors with Seth Eisen
Seth Eisen is a San Francisco-based artist, writer, director, dramaturg, archivist, and educator who engages LGBTQIA+ history as a living, breathing dialogue by researching lost legacies. His transdisciplinary aesthetic combines physical theater, dance, ritual, puppetry, drag, circus, installation, and video art. Blurring the edge between art, research, and activism, the work is a hybrid of visual art and immersive live theater. For 25 years Seth has staged performance pieces, original plays, street spectacles and installations and has curated and appeared in numerous collaborative projects created with other Bay Area artists. In 2007, he founded the ensemble-based theater company Eye Zen Presents that unearths and elevates the lost and hidden histories of queer ancestors so that we can better understand our lineages and ourselves. The company’s mission is to share queer cultural legacies with the general public and provides space for our local QTBIPOC and LGBTQIA+ communities to gather and be in creative relationship with each other. Eye Zen creates multidisciplinary community-building events in traditional and alternative theater spaces, private homes, gardens, schools and community centers. Eye Zen’s most recent multi-year project OUT of Site, is a series of performance-driven queer history tours make the connection between the people and the sites where histories took place, bringing them to life in immersive, educational, and entertaining events around San Francisco. FabLab queer history program provides community members opportunities to learn queer history while developing creative interdisciplinary projects specifically focused on queer ancestors of color. Episode Highlights Seth shares his path of creativity through his youth to becoming a performer and producer.We talk about why he began focusing his work on queer ancestors and how he brings these histories alive in the present day.We explore Seth’s simultaneous connection with spirit and his creative work, beginning in childhood.Seth talks about the art of puppetry and his work through that medium.He shares about the experience of caring for his brother, who passed from cancer, and how it transformed and inspired his life & work.We discuss the power of place when bringing queer history alive, in particular queer BIPOC ancestors Web links Find Seth online at www.eyezen.orgAnd follow him on Instagram & Facebook Join the private Queer Spirit Community to continue the conversation and connect with other listeners.  Grab your FREE Mini-Course: The Self-Confident Queer - start here. And follow us on Instagram! Join our mailing list  to get news and podcast updates sent directly to you.
Mapping Sensitivities with Mike Iamele
13-06-2022
Mapping Sensitivities with Mike Iamele
For nearly a decade, Mike Iamele has helped hundreds of GBTQ+ men to integrate shame and figure out what they subconsciously do every time they’re successful –– through a process called Sacred Branding®. In 2014, Mike accidentally came out to millions when he wrote an article about falling in love with a man after identifying as straight––and 100,000 people shared it overnight. He's also the author of Enough Already: Create Success on Your Own Terms (Conari Press 2015). Mike's shared his provocative and vulnerable take on sexuality + shame in hundreds of magazines and podcasts, including NPR, CBS, and Huffington Post. Episode Highlights Mikes shares about his unique work with clients with mapping sensitivities and performs a live demonstration with Nick.We talk about how this practice can help you discover your superpowers in all aspects of your life from sex and relationships to having a better experience on the job.We explore the meaning of “sensitive” and how that connects to being alive.Mike illustrates how his work is about reclaiming who we are and releasing the shame around stamping out who we’re supposed to be.Mike shares about his own journey to find his purpose. Web links Find him online at MikeIamele.comAnd follow him on Instagram @mikeiamele   Join the private Queer Spirit Community to continue the conversation and connect with other listeners.  Grab your FREE Mini-Course: The Self-Confident Queer - start here.  And follow us on Instagram!  Join our mailing list  to get news and podcast updates sent directly to you.
Soul Speaking & Spiritual Freedom with Coach K Josephs
30-05-2022
Soul Speaking & Spiritual Freedom with Coach K Josephs
Kalyela J (she/her) is a Queer Spirituality Coach whose desire is to help the LGBTQ community experience love and peace with their spirituality and sexuality. She is considered a “Soulspeaker'' helping people heal their limiting beliefs so they can live into their purpose. Through first-hand experience she knows the journey and challenges that a Queer person faces. For over 20 years as a gay woman she struggled with religious trauma, lack of acceptance from family, and internalized homophobia. As she encountered a spiritual awakening she found peace and inner knowing that being LGBTQ is a divine gift. Her soul purpose is to help you receive the same so that you can live a life of purpose love and freedom. Kalyela resides in Charlotte, North Carolina, where in her free time she loves to read, spend time with her family and her fur baby. Her life’s mantra "Live Life with Intentionality.” Episode Highlights Coach K shares her story of struggling with her queer identity while growing up in a conservative Christian community and how she eventually reconciled her faith and identity.We learn how she shares her work with her clients and how she became a soul speaker.We discuss religious trauma and its impact.Coach K describes her spiritual coaching work and its empowering effect on her clients’ lives.Coach K describes her definition of Soul Speaker. Web links Find Coach K online at Kalyelaj.comAnd follow her on Instagram @queeronpurpose    Sign up for the "Needs, Boundaries & Self-care" virtual workshop, June 11 & 12. Join the private Queer Spirit Community to continue the conversation and connect with other listeners.  Grab your FREE Mini-Course: The Self-Confident Queer - start here.  And follow us on Instagram!  Join our mailing list  to get news and podcast updates sent directly to you.
Drama Therapy & Theatre as Activism with Anna Winget
16-05-2022
Drama Therapy & Theatre as Activism with Anna Winget
Anna Renée Winget (they/them - currently living on Tongva land) is an artist, activist, scholar and educator. They currently serve as Affiliated Scholar at the University of California Humanities Research Institute (UCHRI) where they are collaborating on Crossing Pride: a transnational digital healing storytelling project and archive by/ for/ with queer and trans refugees. They hold a doctorate in drama and theatre from the University of California at Irvine (UCI) and at San Diego (UCSD) where they completed their dissertation, "Performing Possibilities: Trans-Healing in Activist Performance" and received their MFA in Playwriting from Boston University. Anna teaches theatre and writing in communities and universities and develops new collaborative performances with communities toward decolonizing and healing. They have developed the Newcomers Performance Project which focuses this work on empowerment for queer and trans refugees. With Tina Rosenberg and Sandra D'Urso, they are co-editor and contributor in the newly published textbook, "Palgrave Handbook of Queer and Trans Feminisms in Contemporary Performance." Episode Highlights We learn about how Anna found a place in theater to express and find their true identity. Anna shares how they explored the therapeutic and social justice aspects of theater and how they traveled internationally helping queer refugees tell their own stories.Anna talks about how theater and film can be tools for conscious raising and healing.They talk about their journey towards becoming a drama therapist. We discuss the healing power of sharing stories with each other. Web links Find them online at AnnaWinget.comAnd follow them on Instagram @2queernheal  Join the private Queer Spirit Community to continue the conversation and connect with other listeners.  Grab your FREE Mini-Course: The Self-Confident Queer - start here.  And follow us on Instagram!  Join our mailing list  to get news and podcast updates sent directly to you.