🎙️ What happens when people gather to listen deeply across histories, cultures, and lived experience?

In this special conversation on Lead with Storytelling, we sit down with Shirley N. Hager, Willow Anderson, and Barb Martin to reflect on The Gatherings — a powerful exploration of relationship-building, truth-telling, healing, and Indigenous-settler dialogue.

Together, they discuss:

🌿 The importance of listening across difference

🌿 Community, memory, and reconciliation

🌿 What meaningful gathering looks like in practice

🌿 The emotional labour of storytelling and social change

🌿 How stories can help reshape the future of relationships in Canada

This is a reflective and deeply human conversation about what it means to come together with honesty, humility, and care.

🎧 Watch the full conversation here: [Insert YouTube Link]

⏱️ SHOW NOTES

00:00 – Introduction

03:12 – What inspired The Gatherings

10:25 – Building relationships across communities

18:47 – The role of listening in reconciliation

28:10 – Storytelling as healing and witness

39:45 – Indigenous knowledge and community care

50:20 – What gathering means today

58:34 – Final reflections

📘 Book Website: https://www.thegatheringsbook.com/

🎧 Get the Audiobook:

https://www.audible.com/pd/The-Gatherings-Audiobook/B0D9WJ2GF7

📚 Download the Teacher’s Guide:

https://www.thegatheringsbook.com/teachers-guide

#LeadWithStorytelling #TheGatherings #Storytelling #Reconciliation #CommunityDialogue #IndigenousVoices #SocialJustice #Podcast

In this episode of Lead with Storytelling, I sit down with Karina Fabian—a multi-genre writer whose work spans science fiction, fantasy, devotional writing, and comedic storytelling. From dragons and nuns in space to the discipline of writing through doubt, Karina shares how stories become a form of connection, meaning, and even joy.

We explore how humor sharpens storytelling, how speculative fiction opens up deeper moral questions, and why writing might just be a conversation—across time—with your reader.

✨ Episode Highlights

🐉 How a dragon detective was born from improv comedy

🎭 The surprising link between stand-up comedy and storytelling craft

🌌 Writing “nuns in space” and building believable speculative worlds

✍🏽 Why writing is really about communication and connection

📚 Turning writing workshops into practical, accessible books

💡 Finding meaning in the stories we tell—and the ones we almost don’t share

🔗 Show Notes & Links

🌐 Karina Fabian’s Website

👉 https://karinafabian.com

📖 The Writer Boost Series

👉 https://karinafabian.com/writeboost

📘 Persevere in Your Writing (Book 1 – out March 2)

Part of the Writer Boost series focused on staying consistent and overcoming doubt.

🎓 Live Class: Publishing on Amazon (KDP Demo)

👉 https://www.bigmarker.com/catholic-writers-conferences/ask-an-expert-kdp-with-karina-fabian

💲 $25 | FREE for Catholic Writers Guild members (check #member-bennies for coupon)

🖊️ Catholic Writers Guild

👉 https://catholicwritersguild.com

#LeadWithStorytelling #KarinaFabian #WritersLife #Storytelling #SciFi #Fantasy #WritingTips #CreativeProcess #CatholicWritersGuild #AuthorInterview

In this episode of Lead with Storytelling, I sit down with Rufina Ajalie to talk about her beautiful and expansive book, Open Roads, Open Hearts.

This conversation explores what it means to travel not just across geography, but across identity, memory, and belonging. Rufina shares the deeper story behind the book — the moments of uncertainty, discovery, and human connection that shaped its pages.

We talk about:

• The emotional landscape of movement and migration

• How travel changes the stories we tell about ourselves

• The courage it takes to remain open in unfamiliar places

• Writing as a practice of reflection and return

Open Roads, Open Hearts is ultimately about curiosity — about meeting the world (and ourselves) with attention and generosity.

If you’ve ever felt transformed by a place, a journey, or a conversation with a stranger, this episode will resonate.

—

📖 About the Book

Open Roads, Open Hearts is a deeply reflective exploration of travel, connection, and the stories we carry with us. Rufina invites readers to see movement not as escape, but as encounter — with landscapes, cultures, and the inner self.

What do our myths remember that history forgets?

In this powerful and expansive conversation, I’m joined by Helen Nde—researcher, writer, cultural historian, and the brilliant mind behind Mythological Africans, one of the most respected platforms devoted to African folklore, mythology, and cultural memory.

Born in Cameroon and now based in Atlanta, Helen brings both personal experience and deep scholarship to her work. Her upcoming book, The Watkins Book of African Folklore, is a sweeping, beautifully curated tapestry of creation stories, trickster tales, ancestral memory, moral wisdom, and the rich diversity of Africa’s oral traditions.

Together, we explore:

🌍 Why African folklore matters now more than ever

🔍 How oral traditions preserve identity, history, and possibility

✨ The role of trickster figures as moral teachers and mirrors of human complexity

🔥 How colonial interpretations distorted many African myths—and what reclamation looks like today

💭 Folklore as history, knowledge, resistance, and prophecy

🎭 What the unseen world (spirits, ancestors, divination) reveals about our shared humanity

📖 How myths continue to shape imagination, belonging, and the African future

This episode is a feast for anyone curious about culture, spirituality, identity, storytelling, and heritage.

❤️ If you enjoyed this conversation…

🔔 Subscribe for more episodes on storytelling, memory, creativity, and cultural imagination.

👍 Like this video to support the channel.

💬 Share a comment: Which African myth or folktale has shaped your imagination?

📌 Listen on Spotify:

https://open.spotify.com/show/6c10NeL5nPg3fEgDoDhLT5

📌 Follow Helen Nde & Mythological Africans:

https://www.helennde.com/projects

What if the secret to better leadership — and better storytelling — lies not in having all the answers, but in asking the right questions?

In this episode of Lead with Storytelling, I’m joined by J.R. Briggs, founder of Kairos Partnerships, coach, consultant, and author of The Art of Asking Better Questions. Together, we explore how curiosity shapes our conversations, our leadership, and even the stories we tell about ourselves and others.

With warmth and wisdom, J.R. shares practical ways to cultivate a questioning mindset, why good questions build trust and transformation, and how leaders can rediscover wonder in their everyday work.

✨ In this episode, we talk about:

✅ Why asking better questions makes us better listeners and leaders

✅ How curiosity strengthens communication and storytelling

✅ The difference between “fixing” questions and “forming” questions

✅ How to foster open dialogue in teams and communities

✅ The spiritual discipline of curiosity and not knowing

If you’ve ever wondered how to create space for authentic connection, deep reflection, and better conversations — this episode will leave you inspired to lead with curiosity.

🔗 Get J.R. Briggs’ book The Art of Asking Better Questions → https://www.ivpress.com/the-art-of-asking-better-questions

What happens when sacred stories are retold through the rhythm, language, and worldview of Indigenous peoples?

In this deeply moving conversation, Terry M. Wildman—lead translator, general editor, and project manager of the First Nations Version and the newly released First Nations Psalms and Proverbs—joins Lead with Storytelling to explore how translation and storytelling can become acts of healing, reconciliation, and revelation.

Terry, who is of Ojibwe and Yaqui heritage, shares the decades-long journey behind the First Nations Version—a translation of Scripture that reflects the beauty, humility, and relational worldview of Native oral traditions. From his early years serving among the Hopi to leading a diverse translation council, Terry’s story reveals how faith and culture can meet in harmony rather than conflict.

Together, we explore:

🌿 The spiritual and cultural roots of the First Nations Version

🌿 The power of language to shape identity and deepen understanding

🌿 The humility and responsibility of translating sacred texts

🌿 How Indigenous storytelling reimagines Scripture as living story

🌿 Gender, harmony, and the balance of Creator’s attributes

🌿 Creation stories, wisdom traditions, and shared truths across cultures

🌿 Why translation is not just about words—but about listening, honoring, and relationship

Terry also reflects on what it means to approach translation as a sacred calling—one that invites readers to see God’s story alive in every culture, tongue, and people.

This episode is for storytellers, translators, theologians, and anyone who has ever wondered how the divine speaks through language, heritage, and imagination.

🎧 Listen and watch now to rediscover the beauty of story as sacred bridge.

—

📖 Explore the First Nations Version: https://www.ivpress.com/first-nations-version

🎧 Listen to the Lead with Storytelling Podcast on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6c10NeL5nPg3fEgDoDhLT5?si=Zzk9DlKhRMeX7gy0-lPJPw

📸 Follow on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sochiazuh

#TerryWildman #FirstNationsVersion #StorytellingMatters #LeadWithStorytelling #IndigenousWisdom #FaithAndCulture #TranslationAsArt #BiblicalTranslation #SpiritualFormation

In this episode of Lead with Storytelling, I’m joined by Sr. Allison Regina Gliot, FSP—editor at Pauline Books & Media and author of The Curse He Chose, the first installment of the In Aeternum trilogy.

A lifelong lover of stories, Sr. Allison has combined her passion for fantasy with her faith, weaving a gripping narrative of vampires, spiritual battles, and the transformative power of grace. We talk about her journey as a storyteller, her life as a Daughter of St. Paul, and the deeper themes of redemption, faith, and love that run through her work.

✨ What You’ll Hear in This Episode:

✅ How Sr. Allison fell in love with both Jesus and storytelling

✅ The inspiration behind The Curse He Chose

✅ Bringing faith into genres like fantasy and YA

✅ What vampires can teach us about sin, grace, and redemption

✅ Why stories of light and darkness matter for young readers today

📖 About the Book

The Curse He Chose introduces Elizabeth, who stumbles into a battle between vampires and is forced on the run with Christopher, a troubled vampire outcast. As danger closes in, Elizabeth must rely on her faith—and Christopher’s choice to protect her—to survive. But can she help save him, too?

This riveting, genre-bending story blends urban fantasy with the Christian drama of sin, grace, and redemption.

🔗 Order The Curse He Chose: https://gliot.pauline.org/the-curse-he-chose/

🔗 Discover Sr. Allison's other books: https://gliot.pauline.org/sister-allison-books/

🔗 See what Sr. Allison is up to on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sister_allison/?hl=en

🔗 Publish with Pauline Books & Media: https://pauline.org/publishing/

🎧 Listen & Subscribe

Spotify → https://open.spotify.com/show/6c10NeL5nPg3fEgDoDhLT5?si=Zzk9DlKhRMeX7gy0-lPJPw

Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/sochiazuh

#SrAllisonGilot #TheCurseHeChose #InAeternumTrilogy #LeadWithStorytelling #ChristianFantasy #FaithAndFiction #StorytellingMatters

In this episode of Lead with Storytelling, I’m joined by Iniobong Oluwatobi Alade (Tobi Alade) — Business Analyst, Fraud-Risk Strategist, Event Matchmaker, and host of the IINFUSE podcast. Tobi’s unique storytelling approach is rooted in self-awareness and authenticity, offering listeners raw, unfiltered conversations about the things we often keep hidden.

Together, we explore:

✨ How storytelling can create space for honesty and healing

✨ The role of self-awareness in shaping authentic narratives

✨ Lessons Tobi has learned from his guests on IINFUSE

✨ Why vulnerability connects us more than polish ever could

✨ And the surprising intersections of his professional career, creative platform, and personal voice

Tobi’s podcast motto is simple: “No jargon. Just real talk.” And this conversation lives up to that promise.

🎧 Listen to more episodes of Lead with Storytelling:

Spotify → https://open.spotify.com/show/6c10NeL5nPg3fEgDoDhLT5?si=Zzk9DlKhRMeX7gy0-lPJPw

📺 Subscribe for new conversations on storytelling: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL9GWHs0T9C9jt-qX2qlaIQ7K1fouzZpNk

📸 Follow on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sochiazuh

🌐 Learn more about Tobi and the IINFUSE podcast:https://iinfuse.substack.com/p/curiosity-is-it-worth-the-uncertainty

#LeadWithStorytelling #IINFUSEPodcast #StorytellingMatters #Authenticity #TobiAlade