In this deeply embodied conversation, I speak with Jen Pastiloff - bestselling author of On Being Human, creator of the Shame Loss Movement, and a radically honest voice in the world of healing and presence. Jen brings her whole self to the mic: her deafness, her grief, her humanness, and her fierce belief in truth-telling as a path to freedom.

In Part One of our conversation, we trace Jen’s journey through early loss, chronic self-doubt, and the internalized belief that she had to hide or perform her way through life. We explore the beauty and brutality of becoming present in a body, and what it means to bear witness to others without fixing or fleeing.

This episode is for anyone learning to stay. To grieve. To listen. And to belong.

• (02:10) Jen’s experience growing up with hearing loss and how it shaped her worldview
• (06:35) Why she calls herself a “listener” instead of a teacher
• (13:12) Her early grief after losing her father and how it shaped her longing
• (19:45) The origins of the Shame Loss Movement and the audacity to take up space
• (27:20) Her writing and workshop work as acts of presence and permission

Jen invites us into the sacred messiness of being human, reminding us that shame cannot survive being spoken, and that our bodies are wise, worthy places to come home to.

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