S5E4: 🌑♐️ Writer’s Group Ch 4: Characters Companioning us to Feel & Build Empathy w/ Matt

Note: This Writers Group episode is more of a diary entry documenting our creative process rather than a well-researched audio essay about a theme or an outlined interview. Transitions may feel jarring or confusing since the priority is consent and privacy over elements of our work. If you have a pressing question, feel free to ask on substack! (These conversations occurred in September 2025)

Today’s episode is about the responsibility of writers to leave their readers feeling empathy for others and empowerment to go against the grain of the tendencies Empire tries to condition us into.

You can find Matt here and here

Follow the podcast on Substack or Instagram!

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Grateful for all the learning and inspiration alluded to in today’s episode:

Jeanna Kadlec: “Embrace the Cringe” and “No new stories”

People’s Oracle, Dayna Lynn Nuckolls “Liberation is Collective Imagination”

Trancework with Carmen Spagnola on The Numinous Network

Thanks to Sophie Strand for “Compost Heap” and the substack I cannot find that implores Sci-Fi writers to not fuel the future billionaires of the world with their ideas of horrific technologies.

Resources in the “Compost Heap”: Stranger than Fiction (2006 movie)

Liberation with Rev. angel Kyodo williams

As always:----------------------------------

Thankful for the musical inspiration for the theme song:

Hadestown by Anais Mitchell, specifically “Our Lady of the Underground” and Orpheus’ Song

“Hedwig’s Theme” by John Williams

Shout out for the artistic assistance of:

Matt Schubbe (Logo)

Kevin Carlow (Music)