The Side Woo's Top 10 most-streamed episodes to date
A woo woo playlist of fan favorites over the past two years
Because it’s the end of the year, and more or less the mark of the two-year anniversary of The Side Woo, I wanted to share a list of the Top 10 fan favorites over the past 2 years. Perfect for listening to on an end-of-the-year road trip or during some extra time in the studio.
These episodes cover a range of woo woo and mental health issues, but the through lines being the power of art on our hearts and minds, as well as being open to the mystery of what life holds next as a way to weather any storm.
The episodes below are listed in order of most-streamed, which does not factor in the amount of time they have been live or how important the conversations were to me. It is never clear why certain episodes do better than others, but I trust that the conversations that needed to reach people did, and will continue to as we expand our audience in the coming years. Do you have a favorite that you don’t see listed here? Let me know.
10. Freddie Mercury and Other Ghost Celebrities with Shannon Taggart
We have occult scholar and photographer,
, on for a second time specifically to talk about Spiritualist seances and the popularity of certain celebrity ghosts that are invited to them. We talk about ghost visitations from Elvis, and Michael Jackson. But there is of course a special emphasis on Freddie Mercury, the Patron Saint of The Side Woo.9. Tarot is F'ing Cool with Amelia Whitehouse of the Carnelian Keep
Liz and I talk with Amelia, an English tarot reader living in the very haunted Edinburgh, Scotland. I met Amelia when she gave me a tarot reading that predicted a residency I would attend in the spring of 2020 and have since taken classes and done readings with her. She gives us each a tarot reading and talks about the best uses and limitations of tarot.
8. Folk Magic and the Occult Humanities Conference with Jesse Bransford
Liz and I talk with
, an artist and professor at NYU. We loved this conversation because Jesse’s background occupies the sweet spot between woo woo, art, and academia. He talks about his experiences with psychedelia and the paranormal, as well as the annual get-together he hosts called the Occult Humanities Conference. Plus lots of witchy Iceland content.7. Goodbye To All That (Art World Edition) with Artist Delia Brown
LA-based painter
rose to art world fame right after graduate school, but has since had a rocky road that has left her unfulfilled with the professionalization of her art practice. She and I talk in an in-person interview in San Francisco about why she is moving into a new role as a psychedelic therapist and is hoping to leave the art world behind.
6. Tarot & The Collective Unconscious with Shannon Knight of The Tarot Diagnosis Podcast
In this episode, I speak with Shannon Knight, a psycho-therapist who uses her professional training and her love of tarot to unpack mental health and wellness topics on her own podcast, The Tarot Diagnosis. For months Shannon and I had been experiencing sychronicities including losing our co-hosts around the same time, so I invited her to come on the podcast so we could compare notes and nerd out about tarot.
5. Overcoming Loss & Addiction with Artist Rema Ghuloum
LA-based artist Rema Ghuloum joined Liz and I to talk about how she made it through addiction recovery in her early 20s and then in her 30s processing the grief of losing her two sisters to mental health battles. This is a heavy episode, but it shows how art and mindfulness tools like meditation can make miracles happen.
4. Carissa Potter Of People I've Loved On The Never-Ending Quest For Meaning
Liz and I talk with Bay Area artist, illustrator, and prolific Substack-er
of to muse on why bad things happen to good people, and how to deal with feelings of jealousy when your peers have success. In the end, we decide there are no answers, only the journey and the friendships we gain along the way.3. On Building An Art Career After Bankruptcy With Artist Kelly Lynn Jones + A Ghost Story
In this episode, artist Kelly Lynn Jones shares with Liz and me how she went bankrupt running a brick-and-mortar retail business in San Francisco, prompting her to move back to her hometown of Los Angeles. After her financial reset, she dove into art-making and ultimately sold out her first solo show in LA in one night. Plus at the end, she tells a story that reminds us why ouija boards are bad.
2. Artist Libby Black on Learning to Stay Present with Addiction, Lesbian Visibility, and Swimming The Rock
In this most-streamed episode of 2023, artist and professor Libby Black joins me in my first in-person episode recorded at The Space Program in San Francisco to talk about the benefits of being sober for her art, her family life, and her health. We discuss the lack of lesbian representation in film, media and art, as well as her swim to Alcatraz that changed her life.
1. Energetic Boundaries for Empaths with Small Spells Founder Rachel Howe
Rachel Howe wrote a little book called Witch Ethics that I picked up from a holiday market last year and was inspired by the way she spoke about the importance of managing energy and honing your psychic abilities - not just for the physical and mental health benefits, but also the ethics around what it means to read other people’s energies. With great power comes responsibility. Our fans agree because this has remained the most-streamed episode since it was released in early 2022.
The best way to support my podcasting efforts, and get discounts on live events and workshops coming up in the next year is by subscribing to my Substack.
Subscriptions are now $10/month or $100/year and include access to:
Tarot Quickie weekly readings for your creative life. (Also available on the podcast and YouTube)
Wheel of the Year readings, eclipse readings and other tarot goodies focused on creativity and career themes for subscribers only
Access to Substack paid threads and comment discussions about art, tarot and creativity
Discounts on workshops both in-person and online
Free access to weekly plein air painting meet-ups on Saturdays here in LA. BYO supplies (materials are an additional $25 a session). The next one is Jan 6 in Frogtown!
Access to all other regular content, aka fun personal essays and studio updates