A Joyful Rebellion

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, unexpected friendsh...

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 leadership demands excellence, contextu...

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 thrillers and a writi...

When his marriage ended and his life unraveled, Melbourne-based entrepreneur Wes Towers found himself sleeping under his desk—emotionally exhausted and completely untethered. What followed wasn’t an overnight transformation but a two-year process of unlearning, rebuilding, and rediscovering what joy actually feels like.

In this raw and human conversation, Wes and James unpack what it means to remove the masks we wea...

Creativity isn’t a lightning strike—it’s a practice. In this candid conversation, songwriter–novelist–systems thinker Mark Firehammer unpacks why creativity is a habit you can train, and how treating it like a system beats waiting for the muse. We get the backstory of his new novel The Echo and the Voice (published under a pen name that honors his mother’s Swedish family), and the companion album he produced with AI...

We’re taught to chase the feeling of love, then panic when the feeling fades. In this wide-open conversation, Christian de la Huerta—spiritual teacher, TEDx speaker, and author of Conscious Love—draws a clean line between worldly (ego) power and soulful (inner) power, and why confusing the two makes us abandon ourselves in relationships. We unpack how early conditioning around power and emotions trains us to say “y...

Most people try to fix money with tactics—budgets, scripts, spreadsheets. Morgana Rae argues the real block isn’t financial; it’s emotional. In this conversation, Morgana shares how a 2003 rock-bottom moment led her to personify money as a “monster”—then destroy it and build a new, loving relationship with “Money Honey.” That shift turned a lifetime of doing “all the right things” with no results into a repeatable f...

Baker by day, medium by night, Kate Branagh treats the spirit world like a conversation—not a performance. From a first dorm-room visitation in New York to a Massachusetts guesthouse where an enslaved woman kept shouting “Get out,” Kate shares how she learned to listen, set boundaries, and deliver what people need—not always what they want. Her prep is practical and protective: Epsom-salt baths, a spoken filter (“me...

Former Fortune 100 exec turned award-winning thriller author Guy Morris writes high-octane fiction that doubles as a field guide to the near future. After leaving home at 13, working his way from janitor to software architect, and spending decades at the edge of enterprise tech, Guy now uses story to connect dots most people never see—across AI, geopolitics, and faith. His “Snow Chronicle” series grew from a real AP...

When a study showed that only 3.4% of children’s books feature a disabled protagonist, psychiatric nurse and educator T.L. McCoy realized the story her granddaughter needed didn’t exist—and decided to write it. Her middle-grade fantasy, Delilah vs. the Ghastly Grim, follows a 12-year-old with a life-threatening seizure disorder who’s pulled through an “indigo door” into a parallel world mid-seizure—then trapped ther...

At 17, Susan Snow’s father—a Los Angeles robbery–homicide detective—was assassinated while picking up her younger brother from school. Overnight, her life became sirens, cameras, and a brave face that hid years of panic and hyper-vigilance. The first therapist told her she was “fine.” She wasn’t. A decade later, the Columbine shooting triggered flashbacks and a spiral that finally led to a trauma-informed clinician ...

What if the voice that saves your life is your own? In this deeply human conversation, writer and coach David Alan Brown traces the slow erosion of self that came from always being “the good one”—the supportive partner, the present dad, the dependable friend—until one pandemic night he drove in circles, ideating, and realized he needed help. Therapy, awareness, and a surprising validation—“anger is the appropriate r...

In middle school, Laura Bratton looked up at the blackboard and the words had disappeared. A rare retinal disease began taking her sight piece by piece—with no timeline, no roadmap, and no way to “prepare.” What followed was denial, panic attacks, and a daily apprenticeship in grit. With parents who refused to lower the bar (see the now-famous dishwasher story), Laura learned to take life inch by inch: get up, get d...

What if the feeling you can’t explain is actually the clearest voice you have? In this episode of A Joyful Rebellion, intuition coach and speaker Anna Quigley breaks down how to recognize, trust, and train your inner guidance—especially in midlife. Anna shares the surprising “shopping test” that convinced her intuition was real (complete with a last-minute nudge to “just ask”), the freeway vs. back-road detour that ...

What happens when the identity you built your life around falls apart overnight? In this raw interview, Dean Patrick—Stanford dropout, former crypto fund manager, and now author of God Money: Lost and Found in the Crypto Wilderness—traces the arc from early “prodigy” ambition to addiction, collapse, and a near-suicide on a 30th-floor balcony in Manhattan. Family pulled him into recovery in 2018. The years that follo...

Former Marine officer and bestselling author David Richards shares how a life built on momentum—and other people’s expectations—finally hit a wall. From a childhood head injury and constant relocation to 15 years in the Marines, two divorces, and a pandemic-era low point, David explains how he began taking radical accountability and rebuilt his life from the inside out. The shift started with a simple but potent ref...

What if talk therapy isn’t enough—because your trauma lives in your body? In this episode of A Joyful Rebellion, world-record tap dancer turned trauma recovery coach Heather-Ann Ferri shares the raw story behind her work: childhood abuse, brain-level injury, and the long road from “performer with a mask” to a woman who uses her voice without apology. Heather-Ann explains why many survivors don’t remember early traum...

What happens when the secret holding you back is one you’ve been keeping from yourself? In this raw, unguarded conversation, writer–producer Alan Katz (HBO’s Tales from the Crypt) traces the arc from early Hollywood wins to a two-decade spiral—then the moment truth became non-negotiable. We dig into the creative birth of the Crypt Keeper, how Tales helped change HBO’s culture, and the studio politics that turned a t...

Jack Kammer has spent over four decades asking the uncomfortable questions about gender, power, and fairness—and he’s not done yet. In this episode, the former social worker, parole officer, and longtime advocate for men’s issues joins A Joyful Rebellion to unpack what he calls a “Vitamin M deficiency” in modern life.

From stories of fatherlessness and male dropout to the overlooked emotional needs of boys, Kammer ...