The Nativist

Upbeat Synergy with DJ Adrian Smart: Empowering Yourself and Others

Get ready to feel inspired and heartened. In this moving episode, Adrian Smart shares his story for the first time. It’s an incredible story of hope, resilience, grit, love, determination, and humanity. Adrian tells us the personal challenges and tragedies he experienced growing up in Tanzania and South Africa, and how he made his way to the US (it’s a breathtaking story).

If you know/follow Adrian, you see how he infuses positivity into every post/interaction. While his positivity is genuine and authentic, this episode shows a different dimension of Adrian, which makes me appreciate and admire him even more.

This episode gives us what we need to empower ourselves and others. Among the powers we discuss are:

• controlling what we can

• listening to understand

• aligning your energy

• respecting yourself and others

• feeling seen and heard

• seeing and hearing others

• helping in direct and indirect ways

• living mindfully

• acknowledging your good fortune

• connecting to yourself and others

The power of you.

Don’t get me wrong, this is a feel-good episode, but it’s so much more than that. It’s life- and soul-affirming.

You can find/support Adrian:

• through his DJ Facebook page: LP&H Entertainment and email lphentertainmentbusiness@gmail.com

• through his business, Synergy Efficiency, which specializes in upgrading attic and garage insulation: : synergyefficiencyidaho.com; wearesynergy208@gmail.com

You can support the cause to create safe, long-term housing for abuse victims by purchasing a bear at https://babybearsclub.com/

Connect with me on Facebook and Instagram @the_nativist

How to Handle Tension

Tension can be uncomfortable, but it can also be valuable. In this episode, I offer ways to re-frame tension, points to consider, and tips for handling it.

In addition to sharing examples from my own life, I also suggest questions to ask yourself to help you know when to speak up and when to stay silent.

Connect with me on Facebook and Instagram @the_nativist

Visit https://clearstem.com/?ref=eubxjtws and use code WHITNEYRICHARDS for 15% off!

Methods Not Politics: How to Become Informed and Not Misled (by Others and Yourself)

In this timely and informative episode, Rhetoric Rob [Watkins] advises not on what to think, but how to think.

We also cover:

• How to detect bias in information sources and hidden agendas

• How to avoid common fallacies

• How and why our brains are wired to reject certain truths (and how to override that)

• Why changing your mind is a source of intelligence and maturity

• How to avoid common fallacies

• How to prevent closed-mindedness

• How to equip your kids to be comfortable with divergent views, form and communicate their opinions, spot fake news, and identify argument gaps in a way that’s effective and fun

Dr. Watkins is a professor of rhetoric and Idaho State University. Find more helpful insight and tips on his Instagram page, @rhetoric_rob

Connect with me on Facebook and Instagram @the_nativist

Visit https://clearstem.com/?ref=eubxjtws and use code WHITNEYRICHARDS for 15% off!

Politics Schmolitics: Seeking Perspective, Balance, Critical Thinking, and Hope

Having majored in political science and minored in psychology, I am particularly interested in politics and human dynamics. I am also continuously committed to learning, growing, and connecting - as you likely are, too.

In this solo episode, I approach politics through the lens of balance and nuance. I offer insight on:

• prioritizing truth over ideology

• avoiding common misconceptions

• recognizing politicians’ manipulative tactics

• identifying red flags

• finding common ground and discussing politics maturely and constructively

• evaluating political ideas and policies

• sourcing credible information

• maintaining perspective

• balancing between apathy and burnout

• doing your part to improve the world

• preserving hope

I hope you finish feeling informed, grounded, discerning, and inspired.

I hope this opens your eyes, mind, and heart.

I hope you feel even more connected to yourself and to others.

Thank you for listening.

Visit https://clearstem.com/?ref=eubxjtws and use code WHITNEYRICHARDS for 15% off!

Cultivating Connection, Community, Partnership, Support, and Intimacy

My vibrant friend Vera Marcinko is this episode’s guest of honor. As a doula, Vera is a birth and postpartum mentor who shares her own postpartum journey, and its effect on her health, her marriage, and her identity. There’s something in this episode for everyone, as we go wide and deep, covering:

+Why community is crucial for humans, especially in pivotal life moments

+What you can do if you feel unsupported as a partner, a parent, a friend - or just a human in general

+How to connect with yourself and others

+How to navigate intimacy as new parents

+What constitutes true intimacy

+What to do when you feel stuck/powerless/alone

+How approaching partnership, parenthood, and life from a place of understanding changes everything

+How to fill your own cup, especially as a caregiver

+Why you should prioritize patterns over perfection

 

A very meaningful and helpful episode.

 

Find Vera on Instagram @thespanglishdoula or @dlnvera

Connect with me on Facebook and Instagram @the_nativist

Visit https://clearstem.com/?ref=eubxjtws and use code WHITNEYRICHARDS for 15% off!

Resources mentioned in the podcast:

+We Can Do Hard Things Podcast: Find Healing In Your Partnership and Balance Inequality in Your Home with Kate Mangino

+The Breathing Cure: Develop New Habits for a Healthier, Happier, and Longer Life

+@theteachermomma on Instagram

Empowered: Making Your Mess Your Message

In this hard-hitting yet cozy episode, I sit down with the SheEO herself: Sheena Daniels. Sheena is a podcast host, businesswoman, yoga instructor, and female empowerer. She shares tough lessons she’s learned upon getting a divorce and leaving the LDS church.  We also get into:

• how to connect with yourself and your kids
• how to empower yourself and your kids
• how to reduce shame and guilt
• how to learn to trust yourself
• how to use your body as a healing tool 
• the power of the pause and the necessity of stillness
• how your mistakes are your entry points for connection
• how to make your mess your message

It’s good. Oh, so good. 

Find Sheena on Instagram @shelyfe, and listen to her on Pivot and Pursue, the podcast she hosts with Britney Neibaur

Connect with me on Facebook and Instagram @the_nativist

Visit https://clearstem.com/?ref=eubxjtws and use code WHITNEYRICHARDS for 15% off! 

Why Both Giving and Taking Are Crucial for True Connection

I identify a certain blind spot you might have that’s interfering with your  friendships, relationships, and social interactions, and how to address it. I explain  why giving and taking are equally important. 

I suggest what to do if you find yourself imbalanced on either side. I guide you on how to tell if you dominate conversations.

I also share a tip for preserving your battery if you find yourself depleted during social interactions.

It’s a short - but important - episode.

Thanks for listening,

w

Connect with me on Facebook and Instagram @the_nativist

Visit https://clearstem.com/?ref=eubxjtws and use code WHITNEYRICHARDS for 15% off!

Off Brand: Choosing Connection Over Commodification and Authenticity Over Algorithm

I start this free-flowing solo episode with no set topic or structure. In this age of personal branding, formulaic creating, and calculated sharing, I discuss prioritizing connection over commodification. I tell how after extensively researching and studying the best marketing practices, I opted for authenticity over algorithm. I note where I think social media is heading, and suggest what to do about it. 

 

What comes forth ultimately coalesces into a theme of reclamation: of self, of creativity, of privacy, of time, of authenticity, of soul, of passion, of balance, of LIFE. Whether you have a personal brand or not, this episode touches on something we can all relate to: choosing how we show up in the world, and how we individually and collectively shape that world. 

 

We’re all in it together. 

Connect with me on Facebook and Instagram @the_nativist

 

Visit https://clearstem.com/?ref=eubxjtws and use code WHITNEYRICHARDS for 15% off! 

Self Investment: Maintaining Your Sense of Style and Self Amid Life's Shifts

I somehow got my long-time friend Amanda Frost to agree to come on, and I think you’ll be glad I did. In this light-hearted - yet substantive - conversation, we cover quite a bit of ground. After revealing our real  reasons for posting outfits of the day on social media, we continue on to chat about the importance of:

• immunizing yourself against shifting trends and opinions by determining what works for you
• identifying what works for you and what doesn’t, from your personal aesthetic to your ideology to your lifestyle 
• allowing flexibility in your perspectives and routines
• investing continually in your self and your craft
• communicating directly
• discovering it’s less about looking good, and more about feeling good
• recognizing and appreciating beauty in everyone

As Amanda framed it, this was simply a play date - and you’re invited.

Follow Amanda on Instagram @amandafrostbeauty

Connect with me on Facebook and Instagram @the_nativist

Visit https://clearstem.com/?ref=eubxjtws and use code WHITNEYRICHARDS for 15% off! 

 

Re-branding Weirdness: Why Daring to Be Different Makes You Successful

It’s nice - even preferred - to feel special, right? To feel exceptional? However, to be special and exceptional requires being different. So why do we disparage weirdness? Why do we actively criticize/avoid it?

I get into why.

I also get into why we shouldn’t; why our oddities should be celebrated and even cultivated. I share some of my own weirdo tendencies, and offer a pretty strong argument on letting your freak flag fly (whatever that means to you).

Be you. Be awesome.

xx,

w

Connect with me on Facebook and Instagram @the_nativist

Visit https://clearstem.com/?ref=eubxjtws and use code WHITNEYRICHARDS for 15% off!