The soulnotskin Podcast with Jen SluMac
A podcast about the stories that shape us, connect us, and help us live with more honesty, compassion, and purpose.
The soulnotskin Podcast shares honest human stories that help us see ourselves in each other. Through reflective conversations about childhood, identity, family, adversity, recovery, reinvention, and service, guests explore what shaped them, how they learned to cope, what those patterns protected or cost, and what helped them choose what came next.
Listeners leave with greater recognition, compassion, and—when appropriate—a practical next step to explore.
Real Stories. Real People. Real Insight. Becoming Who We Are.
www.soulnotskin.com
Episodes
19 episodes
The People We Fear May Be the Ones We Need
A red Winnebago, a box of ashes, and a woman who can’t outrun her guilt. That’s the emotional launch point for my conversation with author Leanne Walling, who published her debut novel *Salt and Light Express* at 69 and proves, in real time, th...
You Cannot Earn Belonging By Giving Yourself Away
A life can look successful on paper while you are quietly starving for belonging. I sit down with Sunaina Mehta, founder of Design Your Next and former VP Global Head of Insights at HP, to unpack what happens when a high achieving woma...
Jail to College: Why Willpower Isn’t the Missing Piece
You can’t “willpower” your way through reentry when the barriers are baked into vision care, literacy, trauma, and the way institutions respond to a record. I’m joined by Denise Richardson and Mildred McKinney, the founders of OpenGate Inc., an...
Survivor’s Guilt After Leaving Prison - Chris Miner
You can believe in accountability and still question the way we punish. That tension is exactly where this conversation lives, and it gets real fast. I’m joined by Chris Miner, a mitigation specialist at the Champaign County Public Defender’s O...
Not In My Backyard, Until It’s My Nephew - Pr. Carlton
Eighty-five percent. That’s the success rate Pastor Carlton cites for a restorative justice model that helps people leave prison and stay out and it forces a bigger question: why do we accept cycles of reoffending as “normal” when support and a...
Sincerely, America - Benjamin Lee
What would it feel like to hear your country look you in the eye and say, “I see you, and I’m sorry”? I’m joined by Benjamin John Lee, a retired military bomb squad technician turned professional life coach, to talk about his book Sincerely Ame...
Susan Cottrell - God’s Love for LGBTQ+ People
A parent asks for spiritual support after their child comes out and gets a verdict instead: “It’s a sin and you can’t accept it.” That moment launches a raw, honest conversation with Susan Cottrell, an international speaker with a TEDx talk vie...
Kristin Crockett - Founder of Courageous Destiny
Your life can look “fine” on paper and still feel like a daily fight with your own mind. Jen SluMac reconnects with Kristin Crockett, CEO and founder of Courageous Destiny, for an honest conversation about what happens when survival mode become...
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Grief: The Body Knows Before You Do
Your body can tell the truth long before your brain is ready to say it out loud.In this episode, I share a moment from a conversation with Papa Bill and my mom when I was hit with a gut-level clarity: the situation was not “turning aroun...
Darron Charles - The Speed of the Leader
Somebody tells you “be realistic” and suddenly your dream feels embarrassing. We wanted to name that moment and push back on it with something stronger: belief, spoken out loud, practiced daily, and backed by service.Jen sits down with ...
Falling Through the Ice - Jolene Janke
Addiction changes a person, but it also reshapes everyone who loves them. We’re joined by Jolene, a business owner and mom from Canada we met in the most unexpected place, and we talk about what it means to grow up in an alcoholic family, take ...
Shelia Bruno - PICS: Post-Incarceration Syndrome
Freedom is not the same thing as release and families learn that the hard way. Jen SluMac sits down with Shelia Bruno, founder of Wife After Prison, to unpack what happens when a loved one comes home after years or decades incarcerated a...
Grief Changes The Relationship
A moment with your host, Jen SluMac - one-off episodes I'll publish to share thoughts or learnings as I go through my life.We sit with the raw reality of losing a mother and the strange ways grief can sharpen focus, stir creativit...
Tom - Unhoused to Executive Director & Servant
Ten years living under a freeway can teach you things most of us never have to learn: how fast addiction strips away options, how “freedom” can become a trap, and how easy it is for the rest of the world to look away. We sit down with Tom Gorha...
Kazu - Fierce Vulnerability in a Fractured World
This Episode:A young man sits in a county jail on the edge of tears and says the words so many of us wish we heard more often: “I want to apologize.” Then the system shuts him down. That moment opens a bigger question we can’t ignore...
Thomas - Vietnam Vet & PTSD
This Episode:PTSD can live quietly for decades, hiding behind work, marriages, anger, and a proud habit of “soldiering up.” We sit outside with Thomas, a Vietnam veteran, and let him tell the truth about what post-traumatic stress di...
Martin - ADHD & Bipolar Superpowers
This Episode:Some people don’t fall apart because they’re weak. They fall apart because they’ve been carrying too much for too long without answers. That’s where Martin Perez starts: a childhood shaped by caregiving, grief, and the k...
Sheree - Cancer and Two-Way Prayer
This Episode:She hears the words “You have breast cancer” while standing on a packed BART train in San Francisco, and the world tilts. Sheree takes us from that surreal phone call to the small but life-changing moment where she refus...
