In this episode, I welcome my dear aunt, Cristina Carbonell, to discuss what is occurring in Venezuela. Often omitted from major news outlets, the crisis in Venezuela is ever-present and ever-growing and there’s no end in sight. Awareness from the international community is KEY to change related to the situation in Venezuela.

I hope you’ll enjoy this long conversation and this knowledge on how Venezuela got to where it is today.

Below is a comprehensive list of resources & links on topics that were mentioned during this conversation:

• Ana Milagros Parra: https://x.com/amilagrosparra/status/1818055235681792279

• Political prisoners: https://foropenal.com/presos-politicos/
• Follow on IG @foropenal @OlnarOrtizBare

• Fake Christmas: https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/sep/03/venezuela-Nicolas-maduro-christmas

• Increasing political violence and gross Human Rights violations: https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2024/10/un-international-mission-reveals Gross-human-rights-violations-venezuela

• Evelyne Laurent Perrault Ph.D., Assistant Professor at New York University (NYU): https://www.history.ucsb.edu/faculty/evelyne-laurent-perrault/

• Dalencourt, F., & Mamami, P. (2013). Bolívar y Haití: Alexandre Pétion frente a lahumanidad. Guaraguao, 18(44), 99–122: http://www.jstor.org/stable/43487961

• Orinoco Mining Arc – Information https://sosorinoco.org/en/

• Plan de Gobierno de María Corina Machado – Privatización de PDVSA: https://conmariacorina.com/es/programa-de-gobierno (see page 11)

• Observatorio de Ecología Política de Venezuela: https://ecopoliticavenezuela.org/

• Interviews with Emiliano Terán Mantovani
  • https://canalguardabosques.com/2018/10/18/emiliano-teran-mantovani-el-arco-minero-es-hoy-una-politica-de-ajuste/ (in Spanish)
  • https://www.epohi.gr/article/49939/emiliano-teran-mantovani-h-kyvernhsh-ton-hpa-protima-na-ehei-sth-venezoyela-mia-kyvernhsh-poly-pio-d (in Greek)

• Carbon Majors Study 2017: https://cdn.cdp.net/cdp-production/cms/reports/documents/000/002/327/original/Carbon-Majors-Report-2017.pdf?1501833772 ;

• News article about PDVSA’s role in carbon emissions: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/oct/09/revealed-20-firms-third-Carbon-emissions

• Carbonell Betancourt, Cristina Margarita; Scarpellini, Marcela (2021). Venezuela, Oil and Climate Change: Overcoming Nostalgia. In: Leal Filho, W., Luetz, J., Ayal, D. (eds) Handbook of Climate Change Management. Springer, Cham.: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-22759-3_242-1

This week, I have the honor and privilege of sitting with Ihab and Ora Balha, a married couple from the Holy Land whose love crosses numerous divides to model a new possibility for union, courage, and reconciliation.

In this episode, Ihab tells the beautiful story of his past, starting with his father being the only one of his siblings to stay in Jaffa after the Nakba in 1948. He shares how he released the hate in his heart and ultimately found the love of his life.

Ora shares about the profound work that has come from wanting to raise their kids in a culture of peace and in an environment that values our shared humanity. She also lets us know how we can get involved in their growing movement.

Ihab and Ora’s love is a transcendent one – it bridges families, religions, lands, cultures, languages… and their non-profit, The Orchard of Abraham’s Children, was birthed out of this strong intention for peace in the Holy Land.

Today, the Orchard of Abraham’s Children is a growing network of nine bilingual kindergartens, an elementary school, a community center, and an interfaith spiritual home, that serves over 20,000 families and community members across the region and beyond.

You can learn more about the organization here: https://www.orchardofabrahamschildren.org/.

There is a link to donate on their website, and this link will take you directly to the donation page: https://www.orchardofabrahamschildren.org/copy-of-support-us

If this conversation impacted you, please share it with your friends and family!

You don’t want to miss this exciting conversation with Whitney Woodcock, an Austin-based crypto mentor for women who want financial empowerment, to shift their relationship to money and to build lasting freedom.

She escaped her corporate engineering career in 2020, withdrew her 401k, invested it in crypto, and turned it into a value of half a million dollars which has allowed her over the past 3 years to travel the world, enjoy life without having to work and live a fulfilling life.

Now, as the crypto market is heating up, she helps women replicate her results on their own, and welcomes them into the crypto world — the aligned and simplified way. Whitney’s vision is for more women to live life on their own terms, and shift big wealth into the hearts of the good.

In this conversation, we dive deeper into:

• If crypto is spiritual and what that means
• How Whitney learned (& now teaches) many spiritual lessons through money
• What crypto teaches us about reality
• What it means to align to the future
• How to take care of our nervous systems through volatility
• How the last 4 years have been a time of big awakening
• & so much more!!

If you’d like to connect deeper with Whitney, check out: www.queenofmillions.com/start-here

And get free crypto tips here: www.queenofmillions.com/signup

Say hi to her on Instagram: www.instagram.com/whitney.magic.crypto

And finally, here are some folks she mentioned during the podcast:

Anthony “Pomp” Pompliano: www.youtube.com/@AnthonyPompliano

Naval: www.twitter.com/naval

Tim Ferriss: www.youtube.com/@timferriss

If you love this podcast and want to support it, you can donate below. We love and appreciate your support!

Donation Link: https://bit.ly/voicesofwisdompodcast

On this week’s episode, we welcome back my Topanga neighbor and friend, Edward Sczudlo. Not only is Edward one of my favorite neighbors, but he’s a Dharma friend. Having met through the local yoga studio, Edward is one of those favorite friends that brings me views of the world that help me to see things more clearly.

The inspiration for this show came unexpectedly. Drinking tea one afternoon, I asked Edward to share about the Buddhist perspective on what I see as horrible things in the world. The conversation that followed moved me and shifted things in such a way that it helped me to digest what I’m seeing in the world. A profound and visceral sense of responsibility for what is being manifested on this planet was born out of that conversation with Edward, so I’m sharing it with you in case it is useful to understand the Buddhist perspective.

In this episode, we discuss:

• The 3 levels of interdependence
• The nature of mind
• The importance of practicing ethics
• How practicing ethics can evolve our consciousness
• New ways to think about the crisis’ we are seeing
• & so much more!
  

To learn more about Edward’s non-profit, check out The Maitri Project here: www.themaitriproject.com.

I’m just SO excited to share this conversation with all of you. When Sheira Kahn and I get together to record a podcast, magic happens! It’s truly special.

Back in the Spring of 2022, Sheira and I got together to talk about how to work with the inner critic in a powerful way. This is somethign we can all resonate with – the perennial question of, “how do we work with the chatty, sometimes intense inner critical voice inside?”

In this conversation, we take things one layer deeper by entering into the realm of the ‘Id.’ This is the primal, animal part of ourselves…but as you’ll hear, we have not been fair to this part of the human psyche. We have discarded it, and cast it into the shadows. In doing so, we have robbed ourselves of a much-need connection to the vital, life-force energy.

In this episode, we’ll dive into:

• Why it’s important to get to know our “Id”, our animal, instinctual nature
• What we weren’t taught in school about the “Id”
• How the “Id” interacts with the Superego and the Ego
• What the possibilities are for your life by interacting with the “Id” – magic can happen!
• Which parts of the psyche correspond to life force energy
• Why we’re so afraid of our “Id”
• How the Wizard of Oz is a tale of integrating shadow
• And so much more!
  
  

If you want to work with or find out more about Sheira Kahn, I could not recommend more that you check out her website: https://sheirakahn.com/

As mentioned in the podcast, Sheira Kahn’s upcoming class on disordered eating + the healing available is called “Eat In Peace”

This week’s guest, Diana Zaheer, has been guiding people through their inner journey’s for 30 years. Diana’s healing work combines teachings and practices from many different traditions and cultures, and has a distinctive mothering style — as you’ll see.

Following in the footsteps of many of her teachers, Diana has done most of her work out of the public eye, supporting thousands of people through her virtual and in-person groups and sessions for individuals, couples, and families.

But in response to the great need for support during the COVID pandemic, she began designing public teachings, including the spoken word musical collaboration with Lincoln Parish called Over the Counter Meditations.

She is currently working on several writing projects, and in 2022 she launched a podcast called two wise women talking, with her longtime friend, and marriage and family therapist colleague, Shiera Kahn.

In this episode, we talk about:

• Learning to feel and sense the flow of the life force
• The different flavors of mothering energy
• What happens when we realize we don’t know what we’re doing on this planet
• And so much more!

If you’d like to find out more about Diana or get in touch with her, check out her website:

https://innerharborteachings.com/

And if you’d like to listen to her podcast, Two Wise Women with Sheira Kahn, you can listen now here:

https://open.spotify.com/show/7uEAbd5D9bw1B5GajYZzAT?nd=1&si=zGJ9nV7MRJu8gHuIMyPBLQ

In this episode, Cameron and I introduce our new initiative, Ancestral Erotic… as well as the first course inside of this new world: The Elements of Intimacy.

Per the West African Dagara cosmology we work with, Cameron is a fire being and I’m a water. This will come as a surprise to no one! In this episode, you’ll hear our respective fiery and flowy nature.

We share about why we launched this course, what it means to us, and why we believe a course like this is needed at this time.

Enjoy, and we hope you’ll join us for The Elements of Intimacy.

To sign up, visit www.ancestralerotic.com.