We Can Return Again is a powerful episode that explores the critical work of Survival International, an organization dedicated to protecting indigenous and uncontacted peoples worldwide. Hal Russell, Asia and Pacific Research and Advocacy Officer with Survival, joins host Jef Szi to guide us through the many threats indigenous and uncontacted communities face.

Along the way, we come to understand the extreme vulnerability and survival pressures these communities have. Whether it is illegal logging, deforestation, nickel mining, drug traffickers, governmental indifference, or self-centered influencers, each of these forces is putting our contemporaries, who have chosen a self-sufficient lifestyle to avoid the historical and ongoing traumas of colonialism, into real danger.

With great facility and immense dedication, Hal walks us through the serious challenges while also offering a powerful ethos and meaningful obligation, inviting us to recognize these communities' fundamental rights to continue to exist and what we can do individually and collectively to support them.

This conversation helps us wake up to an unpublicized tragedy, the irreplaceable loss of people, their cultures rich with long-held knowledge. At the heart of the show, we come to find the best guardians for the land and the people who depend on healthy ecosystems for their well-being. The episode concludes by looking at the work of Paul Rosolie, an increasingly popular advocate for the people of the Amazon.

About Survival International: Founded in 1969, Survival International is a global movement campaigning for the rights of indigenous and uncontacted peoples. They advocate for the fundamental right of these communities to be "different and free," prioritizing land rights as the most critical factor for their survival. The organization challenges destructive practices that displace indigenous peoples from their lands. Survival stands in solidarity with indigenous peoples, ensuring their voices are heard and their ancestral territories are protected for generations to come.

Resources and Links:

Survival International Website (Join and Donate!)

Read the PDF: Uncontacted Indigenous Peoples: At the Edge of Survival

Video Report documenting nickel mining on Hongana Manyawa lands.

More on Uncontacted Peoples

Chris Burris is a Senior Lead IFS Trainer and a clinical consultant with decades of experience in mental health and group work. Chris is based in North Carolina and leads training for the IFS Institute and his Creating Healing Circles work worldwide.

Last month, Chris joined Jef Szi for an in-depth conversation that illuminates the power, purpose, and benefits of healing with others. Along the way, we get to know the variety of influences and the backstory to Chris's group work, including a need to help his clients have real spaces to work on their social challenges, and Chris's interest in finding new models of authenticity that don't require being hijacked by reactive emotions.

With tremendous kindness and boatloads of reference points, Chris helps us understand why healing circles are an essential tool for healing from traumas and for offsetting the hyper-individualism found in most personal-growth work.

Chris teaches us that most traumas arise in relationships and are also healed through supportive, non-threatening contexts where participants can experience others as advocates and allies. He also shows us that well-run Healing Circles can allow participants to test new ways of being that are more cohesive and less isolating.

Throughout Healing with Others, Chris offers his grounded perspectives; whether it's on the Internal Family Systems model, the pros and cons of Men's work in the 1980's and 1990's, or how nature is another kind of healing force, we are well instructed by Chris and his extensive knowledge on group work and the healing process.

Perhaps the heart of Chris's teaching is the Internal Family Systems (IFS) model. In this conversation, he breaks down the model, showing how IFS is a constraint-and-release model whose core notion of an innate Self is characterized by calmness, curiosity, and compassion, and how the various "parts" play a role in protecting the Self. We also learn from Chris and kind way of thinking about our parts, and how these protective and often reactive voices within us frequently eclipse our core energy, leading us to relate to ourselves and others in harsh or critical ways.

With Chris, we take another step forward in imagining what it takes to be more cohesive as a society. In this case, the path forward is to challenge our assumptions about the do-it-alone approach. Instead, we are encouraged towards the chance to be with others, dropping in deeply, where trauma and social connections can be transformed as a community. Few are better positioned to show what this path looks like than the heart-centered and wise Chris Burris.

Thank you for being on the show, Chris!

About Chris Burris: Chris is a Clinical Consultant and Senior Lead Trainer for the Center for Self Leadership. Chris has been a psychotherapist since 1989, working with diverse populations in community agencies, intensive residential centers, institutions of higher learning, and in private practice.

He began training in the Internal Family Systems model in 1999 and is currently a Senior Lead Trainer for the Internal Family Systems Institute, where he teaches Level 1, Level II, and Level III trainings and serves as a trainer and mentor for new IFS training staff.

Resources:

Episode Summary:

Recent events in America from Minneapolis to Washington D.C., show us that unapologetic postures and political strategies are attractive to some who are interested in power.

In this special bonus episode, Jef Szi shares his recent essay about this unapologetic trend on full display not just in the terrible shootings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, but in the Trump administrations response to those events.

Jef show us how empathy and social care are essential tools as we aim to stay human in inhumane times. An important reminder that our feelings are not just difficult, but part of the solution.

Finally, Jef shares his most recent poem. It imagines Adam apologizing to Eve in The Garden of Eden.

East Forest joins the How Humans Work Podcast for a special Winter Solstice episode.

With a generous mind and grounded heart, East walks us through how his Music For Mushrooms Documentary was birthed, as well as the creative gifts and challenges that came along with that project.

Special Note: WATCH it FOR FREE ON YOUTUBE 12-21-2025 to 12-31-2025

Additionally, this conversation explores East's connection to ceremony, elders, influential indigenous traditions, and his subtle nuances and commitments it takes to honor the creative process.

Finally, this show weaves bits of East Forest's remarkable music as he reminds us to remember the power of intention, of community, of retreat, of simple presence, and that curating spaces to listen to our soul are gifts that allow us to find the smile inside our soul.

#eastforest #musicformushrooms #psychedelicmedicines #music #ambient #courtjohnson #ramdass #lorraineweiss #ceremony #ayahuasca #esalen #bigsur #healing #humannature #jefszi #howhumanswork

Episode Summary

Landscape Architect Nina Chase, sits down with Jef Szi for a terrific exploration of her work imagining and designing public spaces. Nina’s easy and honest expertise deepens our view on what fosters Social Cohesion. She helps surface the amazing, often understated, network of relationships connected to an everyday discipline shaping our lives.

With an abundance of talent and inspiration, Nina teaches us the important role architects of public spaces play in our history and our future. With her unique understanding of cities and communities across Middle-America, she exemplifies the powerful capacity landscape architecture has to subtly re-imagine and redefine the common spaces that anchor us.

What we ultimately find in Nina’s work are the seeds for better-connected communities, healthier and more well-adjusted humans, and a closer connection with the natural world—especially the crucial role of trees.

In It’s Not For You, we find a refreshing power in good-hearted folks like Nina, and her colleagues, who are endeavoring to shape what comes next, designing with clear-eyed care for the web of life and a sensible commitment to the needs of future generations.

We find a sober reminder, our role is to plan and plant for a future that will carry on beyond our us.

About Nina Chase:

Nina Chase is a landscape architect and Founding Principal of Merritt Chase. Her work focuses on creating meaningful, public spaces across Middle America. Born and raised in West Virginia, Nina graduated from West Virginia University and Harvard’s Graduate School of Design. She spent her early career in Boston designing and planning notable public parks and open spaces. Today, Nina leads Merritt Chase’s urban work, planning and designing public parks, plazas, waterfronts, and cultural districts. Nina is dedicated to the design community through teaching, writing, and advocacy. She frequently lectures and serves as a design critic nationally and internationally. Nina is formerly an adjunct faculty member at Carnegie Mellon's School of Architecture and an emeritus board member of the Landscape Architecture Foundation. Nina is currently the Co-Chair of the Harvard Graduate School of Design Alumni Council and a member of the Harvard Alumni Association Board.

Episode Summary

Dance artists Mele Estrella and Damara Vita Ganley join show host Jef Szi and the How Humans Work Podcast for an illuminating conversation that explores the rich terrain of their artistic work.

Throughout this remarkable episode, we learn about Mele and Damara’s intensive creative ethics, efforts to engender trust, dedication to playfulness, and deep curiosity about the hidden stories around them.

As dedicated movement artists, they are a powerful example of how attuning with one’s body, relationships, and the performance spaces acts as a cohesive force. Their craft and their commitment to the process of art is the foundation for their dance, and we are well-instructed by listening to them.

In particular, we hear the fascinating backstory to their recent project, Flock. Flock intertwines animal and human migration stories with ecological awareness, showing the importance of belonging through the metaphor of “flocking.”

The Dance of Belonging also explores their “Vertical Dance” Bandaloop Project. Using rope and harnesses to dance on the sides of massive objects, like granite faces or skyscrapers, this innovative dance form is a uniquely stunning display of how art can inspire wonder in all of us.

Naturally, we discuss the teachings that come with encountering fear as part of the artistic path. We come to find how Mele and Damara use fear as a guide for deeper connection and support, finding confidence in creative belonging.

Many thanks to Mele and Damara for helping us see Social Cohesion in action. Through their creative efforts and commitment to authentic connection, we find that social cohesion is not so much a product of external forces but instead begins with our connection to our own bodies and the group of people we create the story of our lives with.

About Melecio “Mele” Estrella:

Mele Estrella is a director, choreographer, and educator who has been with BANDALOOP since 2002. As Artistic Director, Mele brings 2 decades of practice weaving vertical dance, dance theater, somatic facilitation. and ecological belonging to BANDALOOP’s dance making. Mele’s work bridges the everyday personal/social body with the dream body, proposing expanded possibility and awe in our time of poly-crisis.

Mele also co-directs Fog Beast, a cross-disciplinary group that affirms ecological connectedness in landscape, live arts and education. He is a longtime member of the Joe Goode Performance Group. Passionate about creating space and sustainability for artists, Mele serves on the advisory boards for the Artists Space Trust and for Arts in California State Parks. He was a Cultural Space Ambassador for the Community Arts Stabilization Trust (CAST), a Leadership Fellow for the Association of Performing Arts Professionals (APAP), and is currently a Lucas Artes Fellow at the Montalvo Center for the Arts.

About Damara Vita Ganley:

About Damara Vita Ganley:

Damara Vita Ganley (she/they) is a movement artist and embodiment guide dedicated to alchemical creativity and connection practices.

She meets her work in the world with deep humility, curiosity and a verdant lostness while drawing on extensive national and international creation, performance and teaching experience.

She bows in profound gratitude for her long time creative collaborations with Melecio Estrella,...

Episode Summary

In episode #51, wisdom keeper and astrologer Chris Skidmore, joins the podcast for a profound conversation exploring the intersection of myth, astrology, and social cohesion.

Chris and podcast host, Jef Szi, delve into the the 12 House System of Astrology as a "mythic language" and ancient teaching device that can provide guidance for exploring human nature and our social realities.

After framing astrology not so much as a predictive tool or literal science, but rather as a rich, symbolic framework for understanding the human condition, Chris and Jef discuss the organization and significance of the 12 house system. Along the way they highlight various features of this "medicine wheel" as an archetypal ally for personal and social development.

From there, the conversation homes in on the critical axis of the Fifth and Eleventh houses. Jef and Chris connect this house-system polarity to Jef's recent experience at the Grateful Dead's (Dead and Company) 60th anniversary shows in San Francisco. The performer-audience relationship become the metaphor they use to examine the dynamics between our "individual fire" (the Fifth House's focus on creative self-expression) to "collective connection" (the Eleventh House's domain of community and social contribution).

Later on, Jef and Chris call upon a rarely mentioned Greek Olympian God, Hephaestus, to further illuminate to the 5th/11th House axis. Hephaestus is a figure of both woundedness and masterful craftsmanship and lore surrounding his disfigurements.

Both The Dead and the Hephaestus become pertinent tales through which the various connections and tensions that occur between the creative soul and social responsibilities can be known—how our personal struggles and creative passions of doing what we love can be supported or troubled by mass, social pressures of our times.

What Chris and Jef land on is these matters of love, creativity, shame, and community are not isolated, but are integral to how we navigate our human condition. Ultimately, there's a consequential dance taking place between a life that finds its real loves and pleasures and finding our place and contribution to society.

In the beginning, middle, and end, The Astrology of Self-Love, & Society masterfully links personal emotional experiences to a broader, archetypal framework, offering a new way to view our creative lives and the pressures of mass society.

I hope you enjoy this conversation and it’s implications as much as I did getting to interview Chris.

About Chris Skidmore:

Chris Skidmore is the host of On The Soul's Terms Podcast. He is also a practicing psychotherapist, astrologer, biodynamic cranial-sacral therapist who currently resides in Bali. Be sure to drop into Chris's podcast to follow his work on the 12 Houses, or call upon him for an astrology reading.

Episode Summary

Dr. Arielle Schwartz, Ph.D, is a clinical psychologist, internationally respected teacher, and leading voice in the healing of PTSD and complex trauma. For more than twenty years, Dr. Schwartz has guided therapists in the how-tos of trauma treatments—including EMDR, somatic psychology, parts work therapy, and applied polyvagal theory in yoga and other embodiment practices.

In How We Heal, Dr. Schwartz brings her rich expertise of trauma and healing to the podcast. With equal portions of precision and compassion, she provides essential insights into the nervous system, the kinds of stress that drive trauma, and orientations we can embody in the face of today’s social divisiveness.

In particular Arielle talks us through Dan Siegel’s “Window of Tolerance” and how we can use awareness of our nervous system tone to improve our mental health. She shows us how isolation is both a source and consequence of trauma, and provides multiple, nuanced distinctions that clarify matters like developmental trauma in childhood, Big T trauma, complex trauma, and the “trauma time” of PTSD.

Consider yourself invited to listen-in, as Dr. Schwartz gracefully illuminates the intersection where trauma and society meet. With her wisdom, we come find how trauma-informed communities can foster the heart of goodness, allowing us to mend the frays of our social fabric.

• The Complex PTSD Treatment Manual
• The Polyvagal Theory Workbook for Trauma
• Somatic Oriented Therapies: Embodiment, Trauma, and Polyvagal Perspectives
• Applied Polyvagal Theory for Yoga

Find a full list of books, trainings, and more at her website.

Follow Dr. Schwartz on IG * FB