Whether we’re talking about trauma, goal setting, the attainment of happiness, or any part of the human experience, we’re not forever stuck with the residue of what’s happened to us, partly because our imagination is limitless. This episode dives into transmutation as a creative process and a metaphor for personal growth. Through alchemy, visual art, and the written and performed word, we're here to ask key questions: What are the perceived limits in finding your magnum opus? What process have you found for discovering your philosopher’s stone? And are you ready to double in size?

Featured Guests

Ranier Amiel Wood is a visual artist and movement teacher based in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Her highly intimate artwork series, Vulveré, which she has also lectured on, has been shown in NYC, Big Sur, Santa Fe, and Amsterdam. She has been painting women through a process she calls "witnessing" for over ten years worldwide. Her movement method, YesTiger, is an empowering culmination of 22 years of experience teaching movement. She leads art and movement-based retreats and workshops titled Blood+Honey.

Carl Johan Bridge is a Massachusetts-based artist and teacher who applies alchemy to the creative process of making puppets and masks for immersive theater.

Author M. Leona Godin is the founder of Aromatica Poetica, an arts and culture laboratory for the advancement of smell and taste. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times, Literary Hub, and Catapult. As a New York Public Library Diamonstein-Spielvogel Fellow, she’s working on a series of essays about photography, blindness, and image description.

Tony Furtado is a singer, wide-ranging songwriter, and virtuoso multi-instrumentalist adept on banjo, cello-banjo, slide guitar, and baritone ukulele. Tony has recorded many critically acclaimed albums, collaborating with master musicians such as Alison Krauss, Jerry Douglas, Tim O’Brien, Stuart Duncan, Kelly Joe Phelps, and Mike Marshall.

Mina Lebitz has an enthusiasm for science and a talent for simplifying complex subjects, making her a sought-after educator. After deep engagement in a PhD program, she began teaching high school and college biology and chemistry and became a premier tutor. Mina is a published author of two Advanced Placement biology and chemistry test preparation books.

Chocolate George, reading "The Poetry of Alchemy: Distillation, Transmutation and Shakespeare's Sonnet 33" by Leona Godin, is an accomplished singer, songwriter, and musician whose purpose and gifts are making music and entertaining people.