In this episode, I’m joined by my friend Adam Lucas, a screenwriter who specializes in adaptations, to explore the word imposter — not as a diagnosis, but as a question.

Why do so many of us feel like frauds in spaces we’ve earned the right to occupy? Whether pitching creative work to powerful decision-makers or stepping into parenthood for the first time, the doubt can feel immediate and disorienting.

Adam reflects on navigating high-stakes creative rooms while still questioning his legitimacy. He also speaks candidly about early parenthood — and the subtle pressure to feel joy instantly, even in the midst of uncertainty and adjustment.

But what if the doubt isn’t internal at all?

What if it’s environmental?

From pitch rooms to parenting, we examine how expectation, masculinity, and cultural conditioning shape our sense of legitimacy — and whether “imposter syndrome” is less about lacking skill and more about navigating other people’s egos, judgments, insecurities, and fears in spaces that quietly question our value.

Production Team

Host/Creator - Carl James

Lead Engineer - Josh Wilcox

Editor - Walter Nordquist

Logo Design - Stephanie Cardenas

Music - Yennaedo Balloo

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

"Witness" is a continuation of "Reckoning"—but this time, the work moves from accounting to presence.

In this episode, I take you to Rwanda, a country forever shaped by the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi. Walking through memorials, listening to survivors’ stories, and sitting with the weight of what happened here demands a different kind of attention—one that cannot rush, explain away, or turn suffering into abstraction.

To witness history is not simply to learn it. It is to allow the truth of what happened to stand—without flinching, without turning away, and without placing distance between “then” and “now.”

As I try to navigate Rwanda's history with both care and honesty, I’m confronted with the ways I’ve avoided being a full witness to my own story—the parts I’ve minimized, softened, or left unnamed. This episode explores what it means to stay present with truth, even when it’s uncomfortable, and how bearing witness—collectively and personally—becomes an act of responsibility rather than observation.

This is not a travelogue.

It’s about the moment witnessing history makes avoiding your own impossible.

Production Team

Host/Creator - Carl James

Lead Engineer - Josh Wilcox

Editor - Walter Nordquist

Logo Design - Stephanie Cardenas

Music - Yennaedo Balloo

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

I used to believe you could control what parts of yourself were allowed to change. That growth could be selective, strategic, and contained. For most of my life, I knew how to keep things separate and still succeed. But then it stopped working.

When you begin to explore yourself - your beliefs, your norms, what you inherited versus what you're choosing - eventually everything becomes fair game. There comes a moment when avoiding parts of yourself is no longer a viable way to live.

This is Part 1 of a two-part story - two episodes, two words - tracking what happens when the life you've carefully separated starts demanding to be integrated. The realization that compartmentalization isn't protection - it's postponement. Unfortunately, you rarely get the luxury of feeling "ready" before the walls come down.

Sometimes you have to cross borders - literally and figuratively - to learn it's time to settle the accounts within your own life. And in Part 2, a second word takes the story somewhere I didn't expect.

Production Team

Host/Creator - Carl James

Lead Engineer - Josh Wilcox

Editor - Walter Nordquist

Logo Design - Stephanie Cardenas

Music - Yennaedo Balloo

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.