Why This Matters to Me

The description of “This Plus That” is “a show about connecting the seemingly un-connectable and why it matters.” Most episodes will center on the combination of two seemingly unrelated things, where I'll interview guests about how they've built lives at the center of all their wild interests, but I wanted to start out with why this matters to me. It’s deeply personal.

So personal that a lot of the audio for this first episode was recorded in private messages I sent to friends, never expecting to make them public to the world. The rest happened knowing I'd be "in conversation" with you. But it's all uncut, entirely unscripted, and recorded in moments of clarity and excitement.

Some of what I discuss:

• A run-down of my last couple of years and how I wound up here, including wanting to become an astronaut at age 36.
• My love paradox in others, but not as much in myself.
• A running family story that told me I didn’t “belong in the sciences.”
• What quantum physics started to teach me about holding my own complexities.
• Our struggle to hold conflict in the midst of queer and organizing communities.
• The way we build new “religions” after leaving the dogma of oppressive environments.
• And, how contradictions are the nature of the universe.

If even a little bit of it resonates with you, I'm so glad you're here.

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Music: The in-house musicians at Slip.stream
Audio Engineering: The team at Upfire Digital