A Joyful Rebellion

Most people move through the world without thinking about how they move through the world. The door opens. The bathroom fits. The seat is reachable. For Jenna Udenberg, none of that has ever been a given.  And after nearly four decades navigating life from a wheelchair, she has stopped waiting for the world to catch up — and started educating it.

Jenna is an...

Most of us spend our careers trying to become important. We perform, we climb, we accumulate — and somewhere along the way we confuse being needed with actually being useful. Chip Scholz has spent decades coaching leaders through exactly that confusion, and he'll tell you plainly: the freedom you're looking for is on the other side of not needing to matter quite so much.

Chip is a leadership coach, author of Every Dog Has Its...

What if the only way to save the planet was to kidnap the world's billionaires and dose them with psychedelics? That's not a joke — that's Diana Colleen's debut novel. But here's what makes it more than just a wild premise. Diana is a trained psychedelic facilitator. She's lived through the kind of trauma these medicines are designed to help heal. And she genuinely believes billionaireism is a pathology — not a success ...

After spending decades performing at the highest levels of classical music, Kate Kayaian did something almost unthinkable in her industry: she walked away.

In this episode of A Joyful Rebellion, Kate shares the deeply personal process of untangling herself from an identity she had carried since childhood and learning how to build a life that actually reflected who she was becoming — not just who people expected her to be.

We ...

At 20 years old, Kenneth Kunken broke his neck during a college football game at Cornell University and was told he likely wouldn’t survive the week. Doctors warned his family that even if he lived, he’d spend the rest of his life in a nursing home with little hope for independence.

They were wrong.

In this episode of A Joyful Rebellion, Ken shares the long road from catastrophic spinal cord injury to earning multiple g...

Most people think they need a new idea to make more money—but what if they’re just overlooking what’s already there?

Bart Merrell helps people create financial security by monetizing what they already know, already do, and often completely ignore.

From building a DJ business at 15 to working internationally and turning everyday skills into income streams, Bart’s built his life around one simple question: can...

Why do so many people say they want change—but keep repeating the same patterns? In this episode of A Joyful Rebellion, James sits down with Kristan Swan to unpack the uncomfortable truth behind personal growth, identity, and self-awareness.

Kristan shares her journey from business coaching entrepreneurs to helping people reconnect with themselves through journaling, group conversations, and spiritual autobiography work. Toge...

What kind of conviction does it take to begin a nearly 2,200-mile Appalachian Trail hike at 72 years old?

For Rand Timmerman, the answer is layered in grief, sobriety, brotherhood, faith, and unfinished business.

A Vietnam veteran, longtime attorney, and recovery advocate, Rand set out on the Appalachian Trail with his brother shortly after overcoming alcoholism and while processing decades of emotional weight—including war t...

Burnout doesn’t show up when it’s convenient. It shows up when you can least afford to slow down.

In this episode, Garrett Wood breaks down what burnout actually looks like—not the Instagram version, but the real, physiological, day-to-day experience of it. From sleep disruption and irritability to chronic pain and identity collapse, Garrett walks us through the five stages of burnout and why high achievers are es...

A joyful rebellion isn’t reckless—it’s intentional.

In this conversation, novelist Cinda Gault breaks down a truth most people avoid: the hardest part of living on your own terms isn’t courage—it’s clarity. Because if you don’t know what you actually want, every decision becomes harder.

Cinda’s path wasn’t linear. She helped start a women’s crisis center in the 1970s, work...

What happens when the system meant to protect you becomes the thing that wears you down? In this powerful episode of A Joyful Rebellion, James sits down with Lisa Johnson — educator, author, and co-founder of Been There Got Out — to talk about surviving legal abuse, reclaiming identity, and rebuilding life after a high-conflict divorce.

Lisa shares her deeply personal journey through a decade-long legal ...

In the early 1990s, college soccer coach Scott Martin walked into an emergency room with flu-like symptoms. A month later, he woke from a coma to learn he had contracted necrotizing fasciitis — and that his mother and brother had been forced to choose between letting him die or amputating both hands and parts of his feet.

What followed wasn’t a cinematic comeback. It was 30+ years of pivots, depression, ...

Some people rebel by getting louder. Carrie Birde rebelled by getting gentler.

After years of writing in secret—carrying shame, creative fear, and a persistent who am I to do this?—Carrie finished A Small Tale of Uncommon Grace, a novel that intentionally pushes back against a culture saturated with noise and dystopia. Instead of resistance, the book is driven by acceptance. Instead of spectacle, it offe...

Creatives are often told business has to be rigid, serious, and exhausting — spreadsheets, rules, and hustle until you lose the joy that got you started. But what if the real rebellion is treating your business like a game instead of a grind? In this energizing conversation, James sits down with Paul Pape, creator of Gamify Business and the beloved “Santa for Nerds,” to explore how game mechanics c...

In this deeply resonant episode of A Joyful Rebellion, James sits down with choreographer, director, educator, and somatic movement analyst Alexandra Beller to explore the profound intersection of art, healing, embodiment, and authenticity. Alexandra has spent over 25 years helping artists unlock body-based creativity, cultivate rigor without harm, and create work rooted in truth rather than performance pressu...

What if aging wasn’t something to fear… but something to design? In this empowering conversation, bestselling author and leadership expert Erika Andersen introduces the radical idea at the heart of her new book The New Old: that your “third act” can be your most vibrant chapter yet.

Drawing from research, decades of coaching experience, and her own personal reinvention, Erika breaks down the...

In this episode of A Joyful Rebellion, James sits down with writer, programmer, photographer, stand-up comedian, and self-described “professional dabbler” Matt Savino to unpack the winding path behind his debut book A Land Without a Continent. What starts as a practical decision to drive his Toyota FJ Cruiser through Central America turns into a life-shifting adventure spanning border crossings, un...

Leadership isn’t about titles, charisma, or being the loudest voice in the room. According to Dr. Matt Kutz — professor, Fulbright scholar, organizational coach, and author of Becoming Epic — leadership begins with learning to lead yourself.

In this raw, energizing conversation, Matt challenges the watered-down pop-culture version of “everyone’s a leader” and explains why true lea...

Award-winning journalist and novelist John DeDakis joins A Joyful Rebellion to talk about the craft—and catharsis—of writing. From getting tear-gassed in the middle of an anti-war riot during his college days to serving two decades as a White House correspondent and CNN senior editor, John’s 45-year journalism career shaped both his worldview and his fiction. Now, as the author of six political thr...