In this episode of Where Are We Heading?, Kim and Dan walk with Zoë Carassik, CEO of Pie Factory Music.

Zoë reflects on her own journey through youth arts spaces and how those early experiences shaped her confidence, creativity, and sense of belonging. What starts as a conversation about music soon opens out into a wider discussion about youth work, community, and why spaces that centre creativity and care matter more than ever - especially at a time when youth services across the UK continue to disappear.

As we walk, Zoë shares what it’s really like to lead a charity in the current climate, and why she believes joy, playfulness, and silliness aren’t distractions from the work, but essential to sustaining it. We talk openly about responsibility, burnout, and how creativity can exist alongside leadership and accountability without losing its humanity.

This episode is a reminder that creativity isn’t a luxury - it’s infrastructure. That small moments of validation can stay with a young person for life. And that community is built not through grand gestures, but through consistency, care, and shared creative experiences.

Zoë Carassik is CEO of Pie Factory Music, a music and youth work charity based in a busy youth centre in Ramsgate, East Kent. With a background in community music engagement and music education, Zoë’s work has predominantly focused on supporting social justice causes and has taken her from immigration removal centres, women’s refuges and community centres to world-class cultural institutions and strategic charitable organisations.

Zoë is a passionate advocate for young people’s rights, ensuring young people are front and centre of the cultural regeneration of Thanet and other areas of high deprivation.

https://piefactorymusic.com/

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Credits

Hosts: Kim and Dan

Logo Design: Jane Hogan Illustrates

Music & Production: Kim

Recorded in: Margate, UK

A Christmas Day walk-and-talk reflecting on burnout, grief, ADHD, alcohol, ambition, and learning to live more gently. This special episode of Where Are We Heading? is a quiet, honest reflection on the year that’s been — and how to move forward without burning out.

Dan and Kim talk about grief, first Christmases after loss, sobriety, ADHD, anxiety, burnout, and the pressure we put on ourselves to “be further along.” Instead of setting big resolutions, they explore what it looks like to slow down, listen to the body, and let life be enough — even when things aren’t perfect.

Kim shares how burnout has reshaped her relationship with work, ambition, and self-worth, and how practices like meditation, exercise, and compassion have become essential tools rather than optional extras. Dan reflects on grief, reflection without regret, and finding meaning in presence rather than productivity.

As always, the conversation unfolds while walking, grounded in the landscape, the moment, and the reality that none of us have it figured out.

This episode is for anyone ending the year feeling tired, reflective, or quietly hopeful and for those who want to enter the next chapter with more kindness and less force.

Key Takeaways

• Letting go of New Year’s resolutions in favour of compassion

• Burnout as a turning point, not a failure

• ADHD, anxiety, and the body’s memory of trauma

• Grief and first Christmases after loss

• Sobriety, alcohol, and changing relationships with celebration

• Meditation and exercise as regulation, not optimisation

• Learning to say no without guilt

• Measuring life by presence, not productivity

• Why slowing down can actually create space for better things

  
  

  Join the journey ⁠https://linktr.ee/whereareweheadingpod⁠

  Credits

  Hosts: Kim and Dan

  Podcast: Where Are We Heading?

  Logo Design: Jane Hogan Illustrates

  Music & Production: Kim

  Recorded in: Margate, UK

In this episode, we walk with sound artist and producer Brian d’Souza to explore the power of deep listening, nature, and sound as tools for creativity and healing. Brian shares the story behind his work with bio-sonification, field recording and Ambient Flo, and opens up about losing his father during lockdown. A grounded, thoughtful conversation about sound, grief and how nature helps us reconnect.

In this reflective walk through London’s Alexandra Palace grounds, we’re joined by Brian d’Souza — award-winning sound artist, DJ and founder of A State Of Flo and Ambient Flo.

Together, we explore how nature, sound and creative practice can become lifelines during overwhelming moments in life.

Brian shares:

• How lockdown shifted his awareness of the seasons, soundscapes and the natural world

• The origins of Ambient Flo, and why listening became essential during a time of global uncertainty

• How field recording and “deep listening” changed his relationship with creativity and presence

• The science and art behind bio-sonification — turning the electrical signals of plants into music

• What nature teaches us about interconnectedness, sound, and attention

• His experience of losing his father during lockdown, and how walking and nature became part of navigating grief

• The role of responsibility, lineage and “stepping up” after loss

This episode beautifully weaves together creativity, sound, ecology, grief and healing — all through the lens of a walk outside.

KEY THEMES / TAKEAWAYS

• Nature as lifeline: How walking and open space helped Brian through lockdown and loss.

• Deep listening: Using attention and presence to reconnect with the natural world.

• Soundscapes & ecology: Understanding the layers of sound — geological, biological, human — and their impact on wellbeing.

• Bio-sonification: Turning plant bioelectricity into musical expression.

• Grief & responsibility: Processing the death of a parent through nature, movement and reflection.

• Creativity & healing: How sound, attention and ritual connect us to ourselves.

Brian d’Souza is an award-winning sound artist, DJ, producer and live performer known for blending field recording, global influences and electro-acoustic techniques. Through his work as Auntie Flo, A State Of Flo and Ambient Flo, Brian explores the psychological, ecological and healing potential of sound. His innovative work has been featured by the BBC, Tate Modern, Glastonbury, New Scientist, The Guardian and more.

http://www.briandsouza.in/

http://www.astateofflo.com

www.soniferous.app

https://www.instagram.com/auntie._.flo/

https://auntieflo.bandcamp.com/

Join the journey https://linktr.ee/whereareweheadingpod

Credits

Hosts: Kim and Dan

Guest: Brian d’Souza

Podcast: Where Are We Heading?

Logo Design: Jane Hogan Illustrates

Music & Production: Kim

Recorded in: Alexandra Palace, UK