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Hello and welcome to the Inspired Insights podcast with me, Soren Peterson and Chris
McLaughlin.
Hi Soren.
Hi.
Happy holidays.
Happy holidays to you as well.
Been a lot of holidays going on.
Yes, yes.
Visiting with family, lots of festivities.
Lots of festivities.
And this is our last episode.
This is the final episode of the second season.
I know, kind of poetic that we wrap it up with the year.
It is actually perfect timing where, as if we almost planned it, that we would tie this
one to be right after New Year's.
Yes.
Perfection.
Let's stop that shit.
We have a lot to get into today.
This is true.
But I'm curious, as we've been doing all season long, inspired insight for the week.
Yes.
My inspired insight for today.
As you know, we've been experiencing a holiday season.
A delightful and cheery time to lead us into winter.
And I just want to reflect on this idea of family and what we're gathering for.
Right?
Oftentimes I feel as though family is sort of an arbitrary group of individuals, which
you're not necessarily tied to or wouldn't interact with typically.
But you kind of have to.
And I think in those moments, a very unique bond forms.
It is one of necessity and obligation, but also one of deep love and care.
And I think because you, to some extent, don't have a choice, it fosters a sense of true
unconditional love.
You're attached to these people.
And because of that, it is your responsibility to protect.
And if you don't always enjoy them, be with them in difficult times.
And in festive times, like the holiday season.
Yeah.
You know, I love that.
I love that insight.
And it's very closely connected to mine.
Oftentimes at the holidays, and this one has been no different, I reflect on this concept
of chosen family versus family of origin.
And as we both know in the LGBTQ plus community, this idea of chosen family is a huge concept.
And you know, I got to thinking, especially this holiday season, isn't it cool when your
chosen family also happens to be your family of origin, when those two circles are so overlapped?
And there were certainly times in my life where I didn't feel as close with my family
of origin or cousins.
You have a lot of cousins that you see over the holiday.
I have cousins I haven't physically seen in a very long time.
For no reason, just life and getting older.
And everyone now has families of their own and they've spread out all over New England
at this point.
But I just think it's so cool when the people, the family I would choose to spend time with
also happens to be my family of origin.
And I think that sort of speaks to the bond that I was talking about.
Like the intimacy which is fostered by that obligation.
And how it turns from obligation into something you look forward to.
Into desire.
Yeah, that's cool.
That's really cool.
Happy holidays to you.
Happy holidays to your family and our listeners.
So for this final episode of the season, we wanted to do a couple things.
We wanted to reflect on the season that was and kind of get into some of our favorite
moments of season two.
Reflect on the fall season that we've had just here in life.
And start thinking about New Year and what's coming ahead.
And I'm curious, I've never asked you this before.
Are you a New Year's resolution kind of person?
I feel like if you want to do something and you need like a moment of collapse to do it,
then it's a means through which you procrastinate.
I can't say that I'm super big on New Year's resolutions.
I'd rather just when I want to do something, do it.
I think we're similar.
Somebody might ask like what's your resolution and I'll have some canned rattle off.
But for me, I live, if I'm committed to something, I don't want to put it off for a certain
day on the calendar.
And I feel like depending on what the resolution is, for many people it's a setup.
And if you're truly not ready to make a change or to do something different with our lives,
you're probably not going to do it.
And a couple weeks go by and it's not done and it's just a way to feel bad about yourself.
But also anybody who is using New Year's resolutions as a way to create positive change in their
life, that's fantastic as well.
Do it.
Yeah.
And I actually have some.
I have some new ones that maybe we'll have some time to get into some of the new ones
I've been thinking about.
But I do, I will say I love the idea of this calendar switch and it gives us an opportunity
to reflect and think about the person we want to be going forward as well.
Yeah, totally.
And it kind of fits in also with our, some of our podcast taglines that we've shared
with listeners over now two full seasons around this idea that better days are ahead, that
we're all works in progress, that our best self is still yet to come.
Yes.
Right.
So I'm excited about this.
Let's start with our retrospective.
So thinking about season two, what are some of your favorite memories you've had doing
this season?
Season two was really, really fun for me because we had the opportunity to bring on guests,
which we didn't do in season one.
And I'm so glad that I, as a lowly child, had the opportunity to have discussions with
a lot of these fantastic adults.
And of course with Chris.
One of my favorite episodes, although it might not have been other people's, was our episode
with Greg Music Bridges.
I knew you were going to say that.
And I think it was really refreshing for me as someone who doesn't really have the opportunity
to have similar style conversations on matters like theology and philosophy.
It was really liberating and validating to have a conversation with him about that.
You were in your element.
Was that the Keanu Reeves episode where you were talking about Constantine?
Yeah.
Yes.
And I learned a lot on that episode.
Greg's brilliant.
And Greg, I'm lucky to call Greg a colleague and a friend for many years now.
And every time I'm in Greg's presence, I learn new stuff.
And it was actually fun watching you shine in that episode too, being able to really
nerd out, geek out.
And I know we had some debate this season about what's the difference between nerding
and geeking.
Semantics.
But you really got to play in that sandbox that you love to be in.
That's true.
Yeah.
That was a cool episode.
I agree with you, Sorin.
Every single one of our guest episodes, I loved.
I loved being sort of outside too.
Yeah.
It was very nice.
And being in that space outside of a studio.
Yeah.
I think some of my favorite moments of season two were spent in the company of other people.
And so I think about spending time with our younger brothers.
Yeah.
With our friend Dominic Barney.
Yes.
Talking about drag and theater.
And you were in your element talking about theater.
That was a really fun episode too.
And I think that you shined as well on that one.
Yeah, I loved that one.
It was a really nice episode.
I loved talking.
We had episodes with some other queer folks.
So we had our friend Paul and Frank come representing four different generations.
Explored deeper into that generation.
That was really cool.
And Frank is also a mentor of mine.
And hearing Frank talk about his experience in the 80s.
With the AIDS crisis and watching friends die.
That was a moving episode.
We had some teacher friends come out.
The teacher episode was, in my eyes, one of the most feel good episodes that we made in
the season.
That was really nice.
And you shined there as well as one of the teachers was a former teacher of yours.
That's true.
And being able to talk about the experience in the classroom and books that you shared
and liked.
Yeah, I think our guest episodes were just phenomenal.
They were my favorite.
Across the board, I feel.
It's just so nice to have the opportunity to talk with these wiser, older people and
get their knowledge imparted to me.
Yeah.
And have them also truly and genuinely be interested in what you are thinking and what
you have to say.
Like there's something I think so validating when adults are able to share their knowledge,
but also are genuinely interested in what younger generations are thinking and feeling.
I think too, I'm really glad that we are able to and have created a public forum for these
voices to be shared.
I think that everybody that we had on this season needs to be heard.
And I am so pleased that we had the opportunity to allow them to speak.
Yeah.
And you know what also was cool about season two is our listeners also started chiming
in a bit.
And so I'm remembering after Dominic's episode, people were really moved when Dominic shared
his tagline from his Priscilla Poppycocks where he says, make sure you don't save a
little love for yourself.
Yeah.
Don't give it all away.
That was really meaningful.
I heard from several listeners that that tagline stuck with them, especially getting into
the holiday season and making sure to save some love for yourself.
We had listeners that really were moved by Greg and the talk about the intersectionality
of queer identities and religion.
I think that was really special too.
To hear from listeners.
I love that too.
Yeah.
So we'd like to thank everybody who came on and everybody who listened.
But moving forth.
Yeah.
So what's...
I have an idea.
Before we talk about what's ahead.
So we unpacked more of the episodes, but our world had a lot of other things going on during
the...
As the season was unfolding, we had some other pretty significant national events.
And I had an election that continues to echo and reverb over a lot of what you and I do
every day and the conversations we're having with our friends and loved ones.
So that election piece has also been huge.
And that also got me thinking as I'm talking about it, one of the episodes this season
that was actually filmed before the election results was around finding your voice and
advocacy.
That was just you and I in the studio talking about that.
And I think it's going to be really interesting to now go back and re-listen to that episode
since...
Now we have to implement it even harder.
Yeah.
So tell me a little bit about what you're thinking, what you and your friend group are
thinking about.
I just remember on the morning after election night, I walked into school and two of my
female friends were crying because they were so anxious about reproductive rights.
And as teenagers who are a significant portion of the demographic interested in getting an
abortion and in need of getting abortion sometimes, they felt very scared.
And it was very saddening to see that.
What about...I totally agree with you.
What about some of your friends who identify in the queer community?
Are they feeling that same level of anxiety?
I think that a lot of my trans friends that I've talked to, they just felt dejected.
It's yet to become a complete political blow yet as certain people have not entered the
executive branch yet.
But they just felt like their country had wholesale rejected them.
And 74 million Americans voted directly against their interests.
And on a platform that those 74 million American voters voted of hate and viewing trans people
as inhuman.
Yeah.
Misinformation, fear.
Yeah.
But you know, Sorin, I'm connected with a lot of queer youth in the different hats that
I wear and similar to your, what you were saying, that in the days following the election
results, genuine anxiety and genuine fear of what does this mean?
I have college students that I'm connected with in different ways and it's being felt
a lot there as well, both from folks of color and folks who identify as something other
than straight or cisgender.
And so that it's been spent a lot of times just sitting with folks and letting them feel
what they need to feel.
And another interesting thing that has come out of this, which may be my second inspired
insight for this week's episode is thinking about what you just said about our advocacy
episode, like how do we put into practice those things that we've been thinking about?
And I've kind of been playing around with this new idea of how do we be part of both
the resistance and the resilience?
Because I think it's going to take both.
It's going to take resistance to giving into fear and hate and resilience.
There are going to be different communities of people who are going to need support and
unconditional positive regard and love and allyship.
It requires not only action, but perseverance.
Working in America is not necessarily choosing who you would want, at least on the federal
level, but in my eyes, it's choosing who you would rather push for what you want.
Like who's your spokesperson?
Yes.
Who do you think is more easy to sway towards your point of view?
And the reality is that going into office is a very obstinate, immature, foolish, egotistical,
can go on and on man that does not like to listen.
And as people who are in communities that will be directly harmed by his presidency,
we need to make him listen.
We need to make the people under him listen and we need to continue fighting for all four
years of this next presidency.
And that was exactly, again, to your point, what our episode this season on advocacy was
really about finding your voice and what you do once you've found it.
And at both the local and federal levels.
So we are we are lucky enough right now to be living in a state that maintained sort
of that perfect trifecta of two more years of a Democratic governor maintained, although
we got chipped away, but we maintained our Democratic Democrat lead in both the House
and the Senate here in Maine, which for me is a real call to both courage and action
of what can we do here in the state of Maine to continue to protect, to enshrine basic
human rights.
So that's being part of the resistance.
And then this idea of being part of the resilience is the resistance is the action piece.
The resilience is the protection, the self protection.
How do we keep going?
Yeah, it's going to take fight.
Hopefully I am not going to be here.
Yeah, we're going to get into that news.
You know, the other thing I just wanted to say to put another maybe a human face to what
we're talking about.
I don't think I've told you this yet.
I not this part, the next part.
So randomly, I happen to be a notary.
And in the state of Maine, the law changed where notaries used to be able to do perform
wedding ceremonies and then no longer.
But they grandfathered all the current notaries into what this new title of wedding officiant.
So I happened to by default to now also be a notary and a wedding officiant.
And so soon after the election results, I had a social media friend reach out to me
to introduce me to a friend of hers who is trans and needed some paperwork signed because
of the results of the election needed to really get some documents updated with proper gender
and gender markers.
And some of those documents require a notarized signature.
So I traveled about 45 minutes away to meet that person who was scared and really committed
to doing what they needed to do to get their IDs to match their gender expression and have
everything just be aligned.
But did it but doing it out of fear.
Yeah.
And then I also got the opportunity to marry two men, a friend of mine and his now husband,
who up until the election that wasn't really that interested in sort of the institution
of the heterosexual definition of marriage.
And it's the legal protections that come with that piece of paper.
And so got to see firsthand both this idea of being part of the resistance, the action,
marrying people, getting documentation updated and the resilience of doing.
Yeah.
Being part of both of those characteristics of what to your point, what it's going to
take to move forward in a healthy, safe way.
So yeah, we would have been remiss to not just acknowledge this election happened and
it really happened and there are some real impacts being felt already.
Keep your guard up and fingers crossed.
Yeah.
Be part of the resistance and the resilience.
And you have some news to share that you just referenced that I am ecstatic about.
But what's going on for you after your senior year in high school this June?
As most people who know me already know, I have been planning on going to school in the
UK or British Isles for a few years now.
And I applied to schools this September and I got into my top two choices, University
of Glasgow and University of Edinburgh.
And I'll probably be going to Glasgow next September.
That's awesome.
Congratulations.
I'm very excited.
I could not be happier for you and your family.
And you have worked so hard for this.
I think it was season one where we did a recording as you were just getting back from some overseas
visits with your mom.
Yes.
Long time in the making.
Long time in the making and it is a testament to your both your academic success and your
desire to just see the world and be part of the global this global community.
I am so excited because now I feel like by having transcontinental mobility, I'm going
to have so much more social and political mobility.
Yeah.
And be able to shape the world around me to my liking.
Like we are all the play dough in Soren's hands.
Not necessarily.
I don't mean.
Yeah.
But I think it's very fun.
And as a child, I'm finally now getting the opportunity to have agency over everything
in my life.
And that's scary, but it's also really exciting.
Really cool.
Congratulations.
You have a small feat getting into any college, let alone two of the best schools in the UK.
So I'm and I selfishly am excited for maybe a inspired insights podcast road trip, maybe
some remote remote sessions.
I can't wait.
I'm so excited.
I'm so excited for you just to experience that next stage of your career.
Yeah.
As am I, fingers crossed it goes well.
There's no doubt in my mind.
Fingers crossed that the seat rest you can get through the rest of your senior year as
planned.
That's that's actually what we're crossing.
Yeah.
Staying motivated is tough.
But as the school year transitions away, I'm going to have less and less hours.
I'll be able to put more effort into this podcast and things that I like doing.
Yeah.
And gearing up to be at least a semi adult.
Yeah.
And you're going to have some other experiences as you come back into the second half of your
senior year.
You will have some other experiences to update us on some time in another another foreign
country you're spending some time at.
So I'm excited.
I'm excited for everything that this represents for you.
It's a real achievement.
Thank you.
I'm excited.
I'm excited about.
Is there anything else in as if you need anything else?
Is there anything else in twenty five that you are looking forward to?
I am going to Brazil in January and going to hike Machu Picchu.
I was.
Yeah.
That's the other big.
Yeah.
And I think your hike is a family.
All four of you are going and a few family friends.
So we're going to hike into Machu Picchu.
It should be fun.
It's see Peru.
It'll be at that point my second time in South America.
We should do we should do an episode where we do like a PowerPoint photo album of how
I spent my winter vacation.
I don't know if the audience would enjoy me gloating about my various trips.
I love it.
I have zero interest in hiking period.
Hiking Machu Picchu is it's so freeing.
You don't like bathing in nature, letting it seep into your bones.
Zero percent chance.
The people that know me well are laughing right now because they know there is zero
percent chance.
I run when being chased.
That is the only outside activity that I'm going to get.
Yeah.
And so I don't even know.
So I've got a big thing that's going to kick off in the first of the new year, too, that
I don't even know if you know yet.
Now what do you have?
I made a bit of a I was going to say spontaneous.
It wasn't spontaneous.
It certainly wasn't as planned as long as some of your recent news has been planned,
but was was given some encouragement to do something.
And I decided to do it and see what happens and then it happened very quickly.
So middle of January, I in a couple of weeks, actually, I will be starting a doctoral of
social work program.
Oh, my.
That's really exciting.
Yeah.
To get my DSW.
That's awesome.
Good for you.
Yeah.
Which is not something I had thought a whole lot about doing.
But the University of New England here in Maine started a brand new a brand new online
DSW program.
And I was invited to be one of the few folks going through this first cohort just to kind
of kick the tires of this new program.
And so it's it's easily going to be a two and a half.
I'm aiming for three years.
If I can get it done in three years, that would feel awesome.
So sometime in the twenty twenty eight world.
But to be a doctoral doctor of social work.
Awesome.
Yeah.
Do you have something that you're planning on focusing on?
Yeah, that's a great question.
So this particular program really focuses on intercollaborational leadership.
So it's really designed for folks who are in leadership positions.
And then there's a couple of tracks.
There's a clinical track or a track for teaching.
So for a professorship.
And so I decided to go the clinical track, given that I'm still like I've got feet solidly
planted in that direct service world still.
And so you have to do what's called a capstone.
So over the course of your program, you're kind of working towards this thing, this project.
And so I don't quite know what that thing is, but maybe bringing this conversation full
circle with being part of resistance and resilience.
My proposal I put forth is really continuing to evolve affirming practices for working
with LGBTQ plus citizens, community members and whether that is a focus on youth, whether
that's a focus on across the age span, I don't know.
But I absolutely think as we talked about that it is going to be more important than
ever before to ensure that people coming into the behavioral health workforce have the skill
set they need to effectively partner with, collaborate with, treat, enter into some treatment
relationships with queer folks.
So something along that vein of inspiring others to serve the community better.
That's really awesome.
That's so cool.
I don't know what that's going to look like, but UNE seemed to think it was cool.
So I was invited to, yeah.
So what's also kind of cool is that you and I will kind of be starting this next phase
of our academic journeys kind of together.
That's really cool.
Yeah.
Wow, I didn't know that.
Yeah.
What a shock.
So I'm excited.
I'm excited.
We both have this kind of new academic venture coming in the year ahead.
Yeah, it'll be fun to kind of compare some notes.
Yeah, I think it's kind of amusing that we started the episode to some extent, disagreeing
with New Year's changes.
Yeah.
As then we're wrapping it up with...
And then we just tripled down on all of it.
Massive changes happening in the new year.
Yeah.
Yeah, you've got some huge travel.
You've got some huge starting your academic, your post high school academic career.
I don't think I'm doing a whole lot of travel.
Although I am traveling next year, I've been invited to do some presentations in other
states.
Oh, that's really fun.
So we're actually...
Yeah.
Amping up that career.
Yeah.
So I'm going to be doing a keynote for a conference happening in Ohio later this spring on Queer
Joy, which is something we've talked about.
And actually, I think that episode is kind of what got folks thinking about, we need
pediatric social workers to be embracing this idea.
And then I'll be presenting and being an exhibitor at the School Social Work Association of America
conference, which is going to be in Atlanta this spring.
So I'll be there for three or four days, rubbing elbows with other school social work folks
and leaders in social work and talking about allyship to queer youth.
That's awesome.
At that.
So we're going to have some really kind of cool adventures to bring folks into in the
new year ahead.
Yes.
Very exciting season.
I think optimistic, looking forward, wrapping it up, looking forward to doing more episodes
for you guys.
Maybe inspire a broader audience next season.
Yeah.
Invite some more guests.
I think you and I both agree that we shine when we're allowing other people to shine.
Yes.
And that kind of shine contagion is happening.
I want to invite our listeners to continue to reach out to Soren and I.
Our email, inspiredinsights at inspiredcg.com.
We'll put that link on all these videos.
But we want to hear from listeners, what and who might our listeners want us to dig into
a little bit more in season three.
Yeah.
This is all about you guys after all.
Yeah.
So share.
Please feel free to share with us.
Thank you.
I know speaking for both of us, but certainly don't need to speak for you.
And so incredibly grateful to our listeners and to our inspired insights team, your mom,
my husband, our friend Elizabeth, who have truly been part of making this podcast happen,
encouraging us to keep doing this podcast.
And I just I'm so grateful for you, Soren, to be sitting here with me, letting my being
with this boomer guy to share your thoughts and share your vision of what you'd like to
see the world be as you start entering it as an adult.
So thank you.
Thank you for being part of this ride.
Well, I feel honored as well.
And I would like to thank you as well.
I think it's just so beautiful and it fills me with hope that people are interested in
hearing other voices and that maybe me and Chris could make a difference.
Yeah.
Well, I think we are.
I know you are.
And I know the world is just beginning to see your your true shine.
Just going to get ready.
So on behalf of the Inspired Insights podcast and our team, thank you all so much for being
on the season two journey with us.
We will see you all later this spring with some season three adventures and big downloads.
So I am Chris McLaughlin.
I'm Soren Peterson.
Thank you so much and have a lovely rest of your week from the Inspired Insights podcast.
Thanks all.
The Inspired Insights podcast has been brought to you by Inspired Consulting Group LLC.
Edited and produced by Amanda Seidel and Derek Carter.
Support for the Inspired Insights podcast by Elizabeth Keenan.
Music by Derek Carter.
Please visit www.inspiredcg.com to learn more.
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