A Part of Something
Exploring music, near-death experiences, their intersections, and pretty much everything else.
Episodes
10 episodes
The Three Basic Responses to Hearing an NDE Story
In this solo episode, Daniel considers three different ways people respond to near-death experiences: belief, skepticism, and the idea that an experience may be real while still being deceptive or misleading.Along the way, he reflects on...
Dead for 47 Minutes: What Vinney Tolman Learned About Life
At age 25, Vinney Tolman was found dead in a restaurant bathroom, placed in a body bag, and later resuscitated by a rookie paramedic. In this wide-ranging conversation, the author of The Light After Death recounts his journey beyond th...
Solo: A Prelude to the Mystery of Melody
In this short solo episode, Daniel begins with the human voice—perhaps our oldest melodic instrument—and wonders where melody comes from. Is our response to melody simply a byproduct of the brain’s machinery for processing speech, a kind of “au...
Warren Hanson: A Life of Words, Pictures, and Songs
In this warm, wide-ranging conversation, author, illustrator, and songwriter Warren Hanson shares the winding creative path that led from advertising art to a career making beloved books. Warren reads from A Cup of Christmas Tea, T...
Solo Episode: Just a Few Thoughts About Everything
In this solo episode, Daniel wanders through the differences between light and sound, the human voice, ancient bone flutes, hunting bows, the origins of music, mathematical proof, an overenthusiastic interpretation of Kurt Gödel, lucid dreaming...
Headed Toward Higher Consciousness with Gary Wimmer
In 1977, musician, author, and psychic Gary Wimmer had an extraordinary experience that changed the way he understood life, consciousness, and death.In this conversation, Gary recounts the days leading up to that experience, when ...
Neil Salsich's Work Is Never Done
Neil Salsich has built a wide-ranging musical life—fronting The Mighty Pines, appearing on The Voice, collaborating across projects, and now hosting his own podcast, Meet Me in Music.I...
The Many Musical Worlds of Sebastian Buhts
Conductor, percussionist, educator, and former college marching band director Sebastian Buhts has followed his musical curiosity from a family tradition of marimba playing to orchestral percussion, conducting, and the study of North Indi...
Solo: Housekeeping Notes
It's launch day!In this brief solo episode, I share a couple of updates before we dive into the first interviews. I explain why I decided to replace my planned Substack read-aloud, why I'm intentionally keeping the production simple for ...
Solo: Why I'm Talking to Musicians and Near-Death Experiencers
Welcome to the very first episode of A Part of Something.Why does music matter? What can near-death experiences teach us about creativity, purpose, and the human experience?In this introductory episode, host Daniel Trura...