(This episode assumes listeners have already watched season 1 of Heated Rivalry and contains only spoilers and no synopsis.)

Why are we so consumed by Heated Rivalry, really? What does it mean to have a source of corrective experience with no threat of betrayal? How can romance offer us a reparative experience to resource us for collective liberation? When power mapping between two prince charmings, can we see to it that community wins over capitalism in real life, too? Who knew that a tuna melt could evoke so many feelings?

Kristyn with a Why uses the three questions she learned from teacher and mentor Carmen Spagnola on the Numinous Network to engage in a trauma-informed and attachment-oriented friendly chat with her BFF Jamie to settle their nervous systems as they shared their reactions to #HeatedRivalry season 1, featuring guest appearances from Carmen Spagnola.

Follow the Stoner Story Witch podcast on Substack!

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

Carmen Spagnola’s Numinous Network, article on the Anxious/Avoidant Trap, & Numinous Podcast

Esther Perel’s Reel

Bitches Gotta Eat Substack

Zawn Villines: “If he wanted to, he would.”

Spring Up Liberatory Education

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

adrienne maree brown “Visionary fiction”

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)

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! (This conversation occurred in September 2025)

Much of this conversation was omitted to protect details of our writings in progress, but in this conversation we discussed elements from our own “Sexy Inventory” for our projects- from the competent protector relationship between daemons and humans from His Dark Materials, to the men in service of powerful women like the Warders to Aes Sedai in Wheel of Time, to the Indigenous Sovereignty in the Empyrean Series, we love it all.

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”

Thanks to Sophie Strand for “Compost Heap” and “Sexy Inventory” on Substack

Resources in the “Compost Heap”: #WheelofTime, #HisDarkMaterials (#GoldenCompass) , #TheEmpyreanSeries, and Bodhisattva

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)

Today’s episode revisits two conversations “From the Archives,” in particular, the Full Moon in Aries in 2025 with Jeanna Kadlec and the New Moon in Sagittarius in 2024 with Carmen Spagnola.

Today’s episode is all about how romance, desire, and eros is at its core about helping us find and orient to our destiny, Amor Fati- the love of our fate. At the end of this short and sweet episode, I share a rough draft of a song integrating this concept as a somatic practice to overcome perfectionism as I keep trudging along writing my book.

Follow the Stoner Story Witch podcast on Substack or Instagram!

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

Carmen Spagnola’s Numinous Network

Jeanna Kadlec’s substack astrology for writers

Audrey Lourde “Uses of the Erotic”

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)

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)

Last year, Kristyn recorded a podcast with her partner/co-parent Kevin titled “Discord Mode.” This conversation is effectively a part 2 of that conversation, and a public offering of repair after a public rupture event.

How can cis/het white women compassionately offer grace (the same grace Black women have given us) to our men in order to invite them into liberation while also not tolerating abusive fragility? How can pivoting a relational framework from “husband” to “friend” create spaciousness for secure attachment to (finally) flourish? Why does patriarchy have to be such a fucking sinister villain?

If you like Reality TV- especially fraught emotional predicaments based on historical abandonment wounds and attachment patterns, you may really enjoy this “Reality Podcast.”

Please tend to your nervous system and listen with caution, while moving/tasking, and/or taking many breaks, or even consider skipping this episode altogether. Be kind and compassionate to yourself.

#attachment #liberation #couplestherapy #realityTV

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

Carmen Spagnola's podcast marriage miniseries, courses on Secure attachment and Contact Nutrition on The Numinous Network

Zawn Villines’ podcast with Desiree Stephens

Desiree Stephens’ substack about extending grace

Desiree Stephens’ substack on interrupting fragility during repair

Hospicing Modernity (Book)

Ani Difranco: “If more people were screaming then I could relax”

Roadmap to 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 and sound editing)

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 push and pull between Pantsing (ie: writing by the seat of your pants) vs Plotting (ie: outlining the story ahead of time. Kristyn shares a cute anecdote about how her opening was inspired by ideas shared on a fandom’s reddit page. Matt relieves some of Kristyn’s anguish by reminding her that “the bud is not the mistake before the flower” and the emotional intentions of editing. (She still kinda hates it, though)

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”

Sarah Faith Gottesdiener ‘s Moon Studio & Moonbeaming Podcast

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

Thanks to Sophie Strand for “Compost Heap”

Resources in the “Compost Heap”: Zawn Villines’ Low Value Men

For more deconstructing fundamentalist Christianity, check out Tia Leving’s Instagram and Substack and Jeanna Kadlec’s “Heretic: A Queer Revolt Against Evangelicalism, Empire, and the Lies we are Sold”

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)

Remember, Remember the 5th of November! The movie V for Vendetta is now 20 years old, and it is clear from looking around that the dystopia has arrived!

Why is it important to listen to and follow native Voices in the reVolution? How can we all be a little more mischieVous in how we disrupt the status quo? What is it that makes Costa Rica a Blue Zone anyway? Just how many layers of symbolism are there to the Guy Fawkes mask in the 2005 movie {V for Vendetta} anyway?

Kristyn with a why chats with Adri Leiton about the importance of being in solidarity with indigenous people everywhere, the importance of community and mutual aid with the iGuana Collective, historical and cultural insights about Costa Rica (specifically the Guanacaste province), and grappling with power and privilege, all through the lens of the story {V for Vendetta}.

Follow La Colectiva de La iGuana on Instagram and Facebook

Follow the podcast on Substack and Instagram!

#vforvendetta #rememberrememberthe5thofnovember #guyfawkes #PuraVida #costarica #colectivadelaiguana

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

Desiree Stephen’s Substack: No Kings, just Kinship: From March to Momentum

“Disruption leads to Risk”

For more on protecting yourself from the Empire's mass surveillance, YK Hong’s Liberation Toolbox is a must!

Timothy Snyder’s Book: On Tyranny

“Do not obey in advance”

The Flag that Adri mentions from the scene he watched on TikTok

Carmen Spagnola’s Numinous Network for practicing grappling with settler identities and land acknowledgments

Cosmic Anarchy is a great substack to follow, like this piece on revolution and mutual aid

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)

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!

Today’s episode is about Kristyn’s attachment issues that came up as she is diving into a journey alongside her friend Matt (to see the Wizard of Oz? Deliver the ring to Mordor? For Kristyn, it is finishing and publishing a fanfiction!) and what it looks like to create a corrective experience as we confront the wounds of being earnestly creative in a capitalistic system that would rather us be numbed out cogs.

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:

Little Women: Scene where Jo shares her work with Friedrich

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

Sarah Faith Gottesdiener ‘s Moon Studio & Moonbeaming Podcast

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

Thanks to Sophie Strand for “Compost Heap”

Books in the “Compost Heap”: Dracula and The Dispossessed

For more deconstructing fundamentalist Christianity, check out Tia Leving’s Instagram and Substack and Jeanna Kadlec’s “Heretic: A Queer Revolt Against Evangelicalism, Empire, and the Lies we are Sold”

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)