Episode 10

About

As they wrap up Season 2, Chris and Soren reflect on the amazing conversations held these past 10 weeks with guests sharing personal stories, experiences, expertise, and lots of Inspired Insights. With 2025 upon us, both Chris and Soren have BIG plans for the year ahead!

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*Please note that this episode contains sensitive behavioral health topics such as suicide and substance use. If you are experiencing a behavioral health crisis, please contact the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline by calling 988 or visiting www.988lifeline.org.

**This podcast is for information and entertainment purposes only and should not be considered health advice. This podcast is not intended to replace professional medical advice.

Transcript

The Inspired Insights podcast is for informational and entertainment purposes only and should not be considered health advice. This podcast is not intended to replace professional medical advice.

Please note that this podcast may contain discussions on sensitive topics such as mental illness, suicide and substance use. If you are experiencing a behavior health crisis or need support, please contact the 988-SUICIDE-AND-CRISIS-LIFELINE by calling 988 or visiting www.988-LIFELINE.ORG.

Soren:
Hello and welcome to the Inspired Insights podcast with me, Soren Peterson and…

Chris:
Chris McLaughlin.

Hi, Soren. Hi. Happy holidays.

Soren:
Happy holidays to you as well.

Chris:
Been a lot of holidays going on.

Soren:
Yes, yes.

Visiting with family, lots of festivities.

Chris:
Lots of festivities. And this is our last episode. This is the final episode of the second season.

Soren:
I know. Kind of poetic that we wrap it up with the year.

Chris:
It is actually perfect timing where, as if we almost planned it, that we would time this one to be right after New Year’s.

Soren:
Yes. Perfection. Perfection.

Chris:
We have a lot to get into today. That’s true. I’m curious, as we’ve been doing all season long, Inspired Insight for the week.

Soren:
Yes. My Inspired Insight for today. As you know, we’ve been experiencing a holiday season, a delightful and cheery time to lead us into winter.

And I just want to reflect on this idea of family and what we’re gathering for. Right?

Oftentimes, I feel as though family is sort of an arbitrary group of individuals, which you’re not necessarily tied to or wouldn’t interact with typically. But you kind of have to. And I think in those moments, a very unique bond forms.

It is one of necessity and obligation, but also one of deep love and care, right? And I think because you, to some extent, don’t have a choice, it fosters a sense of true unconditional love. You’re attached to these people.

And because of that, it is your responsibility to protect and, if you don’t always enjoy them, be with them in difficult times. And in festive times, like the holiday season.

Chris:
You know, I love that.

I love that insight, and it’s very closely connected to mine. Oftentimes at the holidays, and this one has been no different, I reflect on this concept of chosen family versus family of origin. And as we both know, in the LGBTQ plus community, this idea of chosen family is a huge concept.

And you know, I got to thinking, especially this holiday season, isn’t it cool when your chosen family also happens to be your family of origin? When those two circles are so overlapped? And there were certainly times in my life where I didn’t feel as close with my family of origin or cousins.

You have a lot of cousins that you see over the holiday. I have cousins I haven’t physically seen in a very long time. For no reason, just life.

And getting older, and everyone now has families of their own, and they’ve spread out all over New England at this point. But I just think it’s so cool when the people, the family I would choose to spend time with also happens to be my family of origin.

Soren:
And I think that sort of speaks to the bond that I was talking about, right? Like the intimacy which is fostered by that obligation.

Chris:
And how it turns from obligation into something you look forward to.

Soren:
Into desire.

Chris:
Yeah, that’s cool.

That’s really cool. That’s really cool. Well, again, happy holidays to you.

Happy holidays to your family and our listeners. So for this final episode of the season, we wanted to do a couple things. We wanted to reflect on the season that was, and kind of get into some of our favorite moments of season two.

Reflect on the fall season that we’ve had just here in life. And start thinking about New Year and what’s coming ahead. And I’m curious, I’ve never asked you this before.

Are you a New Year’s resolution kind of person?

Soren:
I feel like if you want to do something and you need a moment of collapse to do it, then it’s a means through which you procrastinate. I can’t say that I’m super big on New Year’s resolutions. I’d rather just, when I want to do something, do it.

Chris:
I think we’re similar.

Somebody might ask what’s your resolution and I’ll have some canned rattle off. But for me, I live, if I’m committed to something, I don’t want to put it off for a certain day on the calendar. And I feel like depending on what the resolution is, for many people, it’s a setup.

And if you’re truly not ready to make a change or to do something different with our lives, you’re probably not going to do it. And a couple weeks go by and it’s not done and it’s just a way to feel bad about yourself.

Soren:
But also, anybody who is using New Year’s resolutions as a way to create positive change in their life, that’s fantastic as well.

Chris:
Yeah, do it. And I actually have some. I have some new ones that maybe we’ll have some time to get into.

Some of the new ones I’ve been thinking about. But I will say I love the idea of this calendar switch and it gives us an opportunity to reflect and think about the person we want to be going forward as well. Yeah, totally.

And it kind of fits in also with some of our podcast taglines that we’ve shared with listeners over now two full seasons around this idea that better days are ahead, that we’re all works in progress, that our best self is still yet to come. So I’m excited about this. Let’s start with our retrospective.

So thinking about season two, what are some of your favorite memories you’ve had doing this season?

Soren:
Season two was really, really fun for me because we had the opportunity to bring on guests, which we didn’t do in season one. And I’m so glad that I, as a lowly child, had the opportunity to have discussions with a lot of these fantastic adults and, of course, with Chris. One of my favorite episodes, although it might not have been other people’s, was our episode with Greg Music Bridges.

I knew you were going to say that. And I think it was really refreshing for me as someone who doesn’t really have the opportunity to have similar style conversations on matters like theology and philosophy. It was really liberating and validating to have a conversation with him about that.

Chris:
Yeah, you were in your element. That was, was that the Keanu Reeves episode where you were talking about Constantine?

Soren:
Yeah, yeah. Yes.

Chris:
And I learned a lot on that episode. Greg’s brilliant. And Greg, I’m lucky to call Greg a colleague and a friend for many years now.

And every time I’m in Greg’s presence, I learn new stuff. And it was actually fun watching you shine in that episode, too, being able to really nerd out, geek out. I know we had some debate this season about what’s the difference between nerding and geeking.

Soren:
Semantics. Semantics.

Chris:
But you really got to play in that sandbox. Yeah. You love to be in.

That’s true. Yeah. That was a cool episode.

I agree with you, Soren. Every single one of our guest episodes, I loved. I loved being sort of outside, too, and being in that space outside of a studio.

Yeah, I think some of my favorite moments of season two were spent in the company of other people. And so I think about spending time with our younger brothers, about with our friend Dominic Barney, talking about drag and theater. And you were in your element talking about theater.

Soren:
That was a really fun episode, too. And I think that you shined as well on that one.

Chris:
Yeah, I loved that one. It was a really nice episode. We had episodes with some other queer folks.

So we had our friend Paul and Frank come, representing four different generations.

Soren:
Explored deeper into that generation.

Chris:
That was really cool. And Frank is also a mentor of mine. And hearing Frank talk about his experience in the 80s with the AIDS crisis and watching friends die.

That was a moving episode. We had some teacher friends come out.

Soren:
Yes. I think the teacher episode was, in my eyes, one of the most feel-good episodes that we had in the season.

Chris:
I thought so, too. It was really nice. And you shined there as well as one of the teachers was a former teacher of yours.

Soren:
That’s true.

Chris:
And you were able to talk about the experience in the classroom and books that you shared and liked. Yeah, I think our guest episodes were just phenomenal across the board, I feel.

Soren:
It’s just so nice to have the opportunity to talk with these wiser, older people and get their knowledge imparted to me.

Chris:
And have them also truly and genuinely be interested in what you are thinking and what you have to say. There’s something, I think, so validating when adults are able to share their knowledge but also are genuinely interested in what younger generations are thinking and feeling.

Soren:
I think, too, I’m really glad that we are able to and have created a public forum for these voices to be shared. I think that everybody that we had on this season needs to be heard. And I am so pleased that we had the opportunity to allow them to speak.

Chris:
Yeah.

And you know what also was cool about season two is our listeners also started chiming in a bit. And so I’m remembering after Dominic’s episode, people were really moved when Dominic shared his tagline from his Priscilla Poppycocks where he says, make sure you don’t, save a little love for yourself, don’t give it all away. That was really meaningful.

I heard from several listeners that that tagline stuck with them, especially getting into the holiday season and making sure to save some love for yourself. We had listeners that really were moved by Greg and the talk about the intersectionality of queer identities and religion.

Soren:
Yeah.

Chris:
That was really special to hear from listeners. I love that, too.

Soren:
Yeah. So yeah, we’d like to thank everybody who came on and everybody who listened. But moving forth.

Chris:
Yeah. So what’s… I have an idea.

Before we talk about what’s ahead. So we unpacked more of the episodes, but our world had a lot of other things going on during the, as the season was unfolding. We had some other pretty significant national events.

And I know we had an election that has, continues to kind of echo and reverb over a lot of what you and I do every day and the conversations we’re having with our friends and loved ones. So that election piece has also been huge. And that also got me thinking, as I’m talking about it, one of our episodes this season that was actually filmed before the election results was around finding your voice in advocacy.

That was just you and I in the studio talking about that. And I think it’s going to be really interesting to now go back and relisten to that episode since…

Soren:
Now we have to implement it even harder.

Chris:
Yeah. So tell me a little bit about what you’re thinking, what you and your friend group are thinking about.

Soren:
I just remember on the morning after election night, I walked into school and two of my female friends were crying because they were so anxious about reproductive rights. And as teenagers who are a significant portion of the demographic interested in getting an abortion and in need of getting abortion sometimes, they felt very scared. And it was very saddening to see that.

Chris:
Yeah. What about… I totally agree with you.

What about some of your friends who identify in the queer community? Are they feeling that same level of anxiety?

Soren:
I think that a lot of my trans friends that I’ve talked to, they just felt dejected. It’s yet to become a complete political blow yet as certain people have not entered the executive branch yet. But they just felt like their country had wholesale rejected them.

And 74 million Americans voted directly against their interests. And on a platform that those 74 million American voters voted of hate and viewing trans people as inhuman. Yeah.

Chris:
Misinformation, fear. Yeah. You know, Soren, I’m connected with a lot of queer youth and the different hats that I wear.

And similar to what you were saying that in the days following the election results, genuine anxiety and genuine fear of what does this mean? I have college students that I’m connected with in different ways and it’s being felt a lot there as well, both from folks of color and folks who identify as something other than straight or cisgender. And so that it’s been spent a lot of times just sitting with folks and letting them feel what they need to feel.

And another interesting thing that has come out of this, which may be my second inspired insight for this week’s episode, is thinking about what you just said about our advocacy episode. Like how do we put into practice those things that we’ve been thinking about? And I’ve kind of been playing around with this new idea of how do we be part of both the resistance and the resilience?

Because I think it’s going to take both. It’s going to take resistance to giving in to fear and hate and resilience. There are going to be different communities of people who are going to need support and unconditional positive regard and love and allyship.

Soren:
It requires not only action, but perseverance. Voting in America is not necessarily choosing who you would want, at least on the federal level. But in my eyes, it’s choosing who you would rather push for what you want.

Chris:
Like who’s your spokesperson?

Soren:
Yes. Who do you think is more easy to sway towards your point of view? And the reality is that going into office is a very obstinate, immature, foolish, egotistical can go on and on man that does not like to listen.

And as people who are in communities that will be directly harmed by his presidency, we need to make him listen. We need to make the people under him listen. And we need to continue fighting for all four years of this next presidency.

Chris:
And that was exactly, again, to your point, what our episode this season on advocacy was really about finding your voice and what you do once you’ve found it. And at both the local and federal levels. So we are lucky enough right now to be living in a state that maintained sort of that perfect trifecta of two more years of a Democratic governor, maintained, although it got chipped away, but we maintained our Democrat lead in both the House and the Senate here in Maine, which for me is a real call to both courage and action of what can we do here in the state of Maine to continue to protect and enshrine basic human rights. So that’s being part of the resistance, right? And then this idea of being part of the resilience is the resistance is the action piece.

The resilience is the protection, the self-protection. How do we keep going?

Soren:
Yeah, it’s going to take fight. Luckily, I am not going to be here.

Chris:
Yeah, we’re going to get into that news. You know, the other thing I just wanted to say to put another maybe a human face to what we’re talking about, I don’t think I’ve told you this yet. I not this part, the next part.

So randomly, I happen to be a notary. And in the state of Maine, the law changed where notaries used to be able to do perform wedding ceremonies and then no longer. But they grandfathered all the current notaries into what this new title of wedding officiant.

So I happen to by default to now also be a notary and a wedding officiant. And so soon after the election results, I had a social media friend reach out to me to introduce me to a friend of hers who is trans and needed some paperwork signed because of the results of the election needed to really get some documents updated with proper gender markers. And some of those documents require a notarized signature.

So I traveled about 45 minutes away to meet that person who was scared and really committed to doing what they needed to do to get their IDs to match their gender expression and have everything just be aligned, but doing it out of fear. And then I also got the opportunity to marry two men, a friend of mine and his now husband, who up until the election wasn’t really that interested in sort of the institution of the heterosexual definition of marriage. And it’s the legal protections that come with that piece of paper.

And so got to see firsthand both this idea of being part of the resistance, the action, marrying people, getting documentation updated, and the resilience of those people. Being part of both of those characteristics of what, to your point, what it’s going to take to move forward in a healthy, safe way. So, yeah, we would have been remiss to not just acknowledge this election happened and it really happened.

And there are some real impacts being felt already.

Soren:
Keep your guard up and fingers crossed.

Chris:
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Be part of the resistance and the resilience. And you have some news to share that you just referenced that I am ecstatic about. But what’s going on for you after your senior year in high school this June?

Soren:
As most people who know me already know, I have been planning on going to school in the UK or British Isles for a few years now. And I applied to schools this September and I got into my top two choices, University of Glasgow and University of Edinburgh. And I’ll probably be going to Glasgow next September.

Chris:
That’s awesome. Congratulations.

I could not be happier for you and your family. And you have worked so hard for this. I think it was, I think it was season one where we did a recording as you were just getting back from some overseas visits with your mom.

Soren:
Yes, yes. Yeah, long time in the making

Chris:
Long time in the making and it it is a testament to your both your academic Success and your Desire to just see the world and be part of the global this global community.

Soren:
I am so excited because now I feel like by having a Transcontinental mobility. Yeah, I’m going to have so much more social and political mobility. Yeah, and Be able to shape the world around me to my liking.

Chris:
Hi Like we are all the play-doh in Soren’s hand Not necessarily.

Soren:
I don’t mean yeah, but I think it’s very fun and as a Child, I’m finally now getting the opportunity to have Agency over everything in my hair and that’s scary, but it’s also really excitedly cool.

Chris:
Really cool Well, congratulations. It is not a small feat getting into any College let alone two of the best schools in the UK. So I’m and I selfishly am Excited for maybe a inspired insights podcast road trip.

Maybe some remote Remote sessions. Oh, I can’t wait. I’m so excited.

I’m so excited for you just to experience that next stage of your Career.

Soren:
Yeah, as am I fingers crossed it goes well

Chris:
It’s there’s no doubt in my mind Well figures cross that the seat rest you can get through the rest of your senior year as plans

Soren:
And that’s that’s actually what we’re causing.

Chris:
Yeah staying motivated is tough

Soren:
But as the school year Transitions away. I’m going to have less and less hours I’ll be able to put more effort into this podcast and things that I like doing. Yeah, and Gearing up to be at least a semi adult.

Chris:
Yeah Yeah, and you’re gonna have some other experiences as you come back into you the second half of your Senior year you will have some other experiences to update us on Yeah on some time in another another foreign country. You’re spending some time at so I’m excited. I’m excited for everything that this Represents for you.

It’s a real achievement. Thank you. I’m excited that Is there anything else in as if you need anything else?

Is there anything else in 25 that you are looking forward to?

Soren:
I am going to Brazil In January and Going to hike Machu Picchu.

Chris:
I was yet. That’s the other big.

Soren:
Uh, yeah

Chris:
And I think Your hike is a family all four. Yeah. Yeah going and a few family friends.

Soren:
So we’re going to hike into Machu Picchu Should be fun. You have to see Peru

It’ll be at that point my second time in South America

Chris:
We should do we should do an episode where we do like a PowerPoint photo album of like how I spent my winter vacation

Soren:
I don’t know if the audience would enjoy me gloating about my various trips, but love it

Chris:
I have zero interest in hiking period hiking Machu Picchu is

Soren:
It’s so freeing you don’t like bathing in nature letting it seep into your bones

Chris:
0% chance the people that know me Well are laughing right now because they know there is zero percent chance I I run when being chased that is the only outside activity that I’m gonna get Yeah, and so I don’t even know so I’ve got a big thing That’s gonna kick off in the first of the new year to that. I don’t even know if you know yet No, what do you have?

Um, I? made a bit of a I Was gonna say spontaneous it wasn’t spontaneous It certainly wasn’t as planned as long as some of your recent news has been planned but was was given some encouragement to do something and I Decided to do it and see what happens and then it happened very quickly. So Middle of January I in a couple weeks actually, I will be Starting a doctoral of social work program.

Soren:
Oh my that’s really

Chris:
yeah to get my DSW.

Soren:
That’s awesome Good for you.

Chris:
Yeah, which is not something I had thought a whole lot about doing But the University of New England here in Maine started a brand new a brand new online DSW program and I was invited to be One of the few folks going through this first cohort just to kind of kick the tires of this new program I’m fine.

And so it’s it’s easily gonna be a two and a half I’m aiming for three years if I can get it done in three years that would feel awesome, so sometime in the 2028 world but to be a doctoral a doctor of social work awesome.

Soren:
Yeah Do you have something that you’re planning on focusing?

Chris:
Oh yeah, that’s a great question.

So this particular program really focuses on intercollaborational leadership, so it’s really designed for folks who are in leadership positions and then There’s a couple tracks. There’s a clinical track or a track for Teaching so for a professorship and so I decided to go the clinical track given that I’m still like I’ve got feet solidly planted in that direct service world still and So you have to do what’s called a capstone? So over the course of your program, you’re kind of working towards this thing this project And so I don’t quite know what that thing is But maybe bringing this conversation full circle with being part of resistance and resilience My the proposal I have put forth is really continuing to evolve affirming practices for working with LGBTQ plus citizens community members And whether that is a focus on youth whether that’s a focus on Across the age span. I don’t know but I Absolutely think as we talked about that it is going to be more important than ever before To ensure that people coming into the behavioral health workforce Have the skill set they need to effectively partner with collaborate with treat Enter into some treatment relationships with queer folks.

Yeah, so something along that along that vein of inspiring others to Serve the community better Yeah, that’s so cool. And I don’t know what that’s gonna look like But you any seem to think it was cool. So I was invited to yeah So what’s also kind of cool is that you and I will kind of be starting this next phase of our academic journeys Kind of together.

Soren:
That’s that’s really cool.

Chris:
Yeah.

Soren:
Oh, I didn’t know that. Yeah. Yeah.

What a shock.

Chris:
So I’m excited.

I’m excited We both have this kind of new academic venture coming in the year ahead Yeah, it’ll be fun to kind of compare some notes, yeah,

Soren:
I think it’s kind of amusing that we started the episode to some extent Disagreeing with New Year’s changes. Yeah as then we’re wrapping it

Chris:
and then we just

Soren:
Yeah down on all of massive changes happening in the new year. Yeah.

Chris:
Yeah, you’ve got some huge travel You’ve got some huge Starting your academic your post high school academic career might I don’t think I’m doing a whole lot of travel Although I am traveling next year. I’ve been invited to do some presentations in other states Oh, that’s really fun.

Soren:
So I’m actually yeah, I’m pin up that career

Chris:
Yeah, so I’m I’m going to be doing a keynote for a conference happening in Ohio later this spring on Queer joy, which is something we’ve talked about and actually I think that episode is kind of what got folks thinking about we need We need pediatric social workers to be embracing this idea and then I’ll be presenting and Being an exhibitor at the School Social Work Association of America conference, which is going to be in Atlanta this spring So I’ll be there for three or four days rubbing elbows with other school social work Folks and leaders in social work and talking about allyship to queer youth.

That’s awesome at that. Yeah, so we’re gonna have some Really kind of cool adventures to bring folks into in the new year ahead.

Soren:
Yes A very exciting season and I think optimistic looking forward Wrapping it up looking forward to doing more episodes for you guys. Yeah Maybe inspire a broader audience.

Chris:
Yeah. Yeah invite some more guests I think yeah, I both agree that we shine we shine when we’re allowing other people to shine Yeah, that kind of shine contagion is happening I want to invite our listeners to continue to reach out to Soren and I our email inspired insights at inspired CG comm We’ll put that link on all these videos, but we want to hear from listeners What and who might our listeners want us to dig into a little bit more in the in season three?

Soren:
Yeah, this is all about you guys after all.

Chris:
Yeah, share, please. Feel free to share with us.

Thank you I’m I know speaking for both of us, but certainly don’t need to speak for you and so incredibly grateful to our listeners and to our inspired insights team your mom my husband our friend Elizabeth who have Truly been part of making this podcast happen Encouraging us to keep doing this podcast And I just I’m so grateful for you Soren to be sitting here with me letting my Being with this boomer guy Share your thoughts and share your vision of what you’d like to see the world be as you start entering it as an adult So, thank you.

Thank you for being part of this ride.

Soren:
Well, I feel honored as well and I would like to thank you as well, I think it’s just so beautiful and it fills me with hope that People are interested in hearing other voices. Yeah, and That maybe me and Chris could make a difference. Yeah.

Yeah.

Chris:
Well, I think we are I know you are and I know the world is just beginning to see your your true shine I’m just gonna get ready. So on behalf of the inspired insights podcast and our team Thank you all so much for being on this season to journey with us We will see you all later this spring with some season 3 adventures and some big downloads So I am Chris McClellan.

Soren:
I’m Soren Peterson. Thank you so much and have a lovely rest of your week from the inspired insights podcast

Chris:
Thanks all

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