Expansion Zone - Monday, June 22, 2026

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3. 90.7 FM, KPFK, Los Angeles.
4. The program that you're about to hear is a rebroadcast and has previously aired here on KPFK.
5. Everyone's saying there's more than this
6. Everyone wants to follow their own beliefs
7. Talking about one love, one blood
8. On the Expansion Zone, we examine life and our quest to understand who and what we are
9. and of the vastness of human potentials.
10. We explore the making of our world from quantum physics to parapsychology, health, sociology and philosophy, along with practical living.
11. You are reminded of the possibilities in creating personal change.
12. So for an hour, we'll stimulate and expand the mind.
13. to wake up to a brighter day
14. Realize that love is a way
15. Well, welcome once again to the Expansion Zone.
16. I am your host, Sonia Barrett, and I am delighted to be here on this Monday.
17. And as always, I thank you for tuning in to 90.7 FM on your radio dial.
18. And of course, if you are in your car, if you're whatever you're doing and you happen to be before a dial that you were able to turn to or to stream it, if you're on the computer at kpfk.org, it is most appreciated.
19. Thank you so much for being here.
20. And let's see what we're going to get into today.
21. It's all about expansion, as we know.
22. It's the journey. The expansion zone is what we're doing all the time. Even when we don't think we're doing that, the journey is just all about expanding. And I like to say that everything that we do with a conversation with a friend of mine today, and I said, you know, there really are no mistakes.
23. We were talking about relationships and, you know, being with the wrong person.
24. And I said, you know, honestly, there is no wrong person.
25. There is the story.
26. There is a story that we are choosing to tell in that time when we are engaged with different people.
27. It really makes a difference.
28. So, yes, that's expansion.
29. That's all about growth.
30. So today guest and topic of course is its author Julie Wignall and she let me know if I pronounced her name correctly in a little bit and her book The Extraordinary Power of Fireflies How to Shine Your Light Brighter and Transform the World
31. It's known basically as an inspiring and powerful guide for anyone who knows they have a compelling
32. purpose in life, but can't get off the launch pad and want to play bigger or are hindered by
33. self-doubt. Those are very important subject matters as so many people, you know, can relate
34. to that at one time or the other in their life. So a short bit about our guest, Julie Wignall is
35. living proof of the power of unconventional choices, showing there are many paths that
36. lead to happiness and success. At just 14, she left high school to attend an experimental
37. alternative school in the 1970s, a daring decision that foreshadowed her trailblazing approach
38. to life and work. While many doubted her path, Julie defied expectations, carving out an
39. extraordinary career spanning national politics, international business, the arts, environmental
40. conversation, and visionary leadership. All right, so we could go on and on. That's, you know,
41. extraordinary looks like a whole lot, you know, it's adventurous people. So I want to welcome you,
42. Julie to the Expansion Zone. Good to have you here. Thanks. It's an honor, actually, to be here.
43. I'm a huge fan of yours. Wow. I did not expect that. See, I didn't know that.
44. I'll take any fans I can get. So, all right. You know, there's a lot of things here,
45. I think, to explore with you. I'm going to say, I'm going to go ahead and I'm going to
46. address that first question. Normally that would not have been, but I think the idea of someone
47. saying, I'm going to leave high school at this time at 14 and I'm going to do something different.
48. so you you can either dive into talking about that that specific thing or maybe
49. a little bit about who you were or who you saw yourself to be because it all
50. has led into who you are today who you were to lead you to trust yourself that
51. much to make that choice well you know you were just talking about there's no
52. such thing as bad relationships and sometimes that's what we need to grow
53. Things have to get so bad or the pressure needs to be so strong that it pushes you to make a choice to say, I need to choose something different.
54. And I, you know, went through a tough time in school.
55. I probably would have been in that yearbook as the kid most likely not to to graduate.
56. And I thought I hated learning.
57. And the truth was, when I left, what I learned was, is that I loved learning. I didn't like the standard, the administrative side, the all of those conventional, you need to do this, you need to do this this way.
58. And I actually ended up going from that experimental school to college before I ever graduated high school saying that I just I want to learn I want to keep learning And here I am so many years later and I have to tell you I still attend
59. I think I've attended 12 colleges, universities.
60. I still take classes today because there's still always new things to learn.
61. But the biggest thing that it taught me was what can happen if you break out of those confines
62. of what our culture and our society tell us that we are supposed to do.
63. And years later, after an unconventional background of many, many different careers,
64. I realized that a lot of the people who make it to the top aren't always who you think that they are,
65. or they don't always have the background that you think that they have.
66. How many times do you hear from someone going, oh, I would love to do this.
67. This is my life's passion, but I can't do it because I never graduated with a university degree.
68. Or, oh, gee, I graduated with a university degree, but it was the wrong one.
69. So I can't move forward.
70. We come up with excuses why we can't do what we want to do.
71. And, you know, I think bottom line is we live in a society where we have these dreams and hopes and desires when we're little,
72. when we're young, which happens to be a time where we're closer to that source energy.
73. And we live in a culture that says to us when we're in elementary school, you can grow up and
74. be anything that you want to be. And then somehow we become teenagers and adults now start approaching
75. this completely different. That's not really what you want to be. How are you going to make a living
76. doing this. You need to be practical. You need to come up with a different game plan.
77. And we fall into that trap. And we fall into a trap of thinking we're not good enough. We're
78. not worthy. We're not deserving. And we stop trying and people walk around being pretty
79. unhappy. And I don't believe that they need to be. And I began looking around going, okay,
80. people who've made it to these different positions or people who are out changing the world and
81. unconventional like me, what are they? And I came up with a concept that they're fireflies.
82. And I think back in terms of fireflies, anyone who's ever seen a firefly growing up,
83. it's usually an experience that you saw as a kid, maybe in your backyard, something lining up. And
84. And this is, we're talking a tiny little beetle that is no bigger than the size of your thumb.
85. But they're filled with magic.
86. They're filled with wonder.
87. When I talk about the extraordinary power of fireflies, people just light up and they go,
88. ah, they're enchanting.
89. They're magical.
90. I remember that.
91. And my purpose and concept is to try to get people to remember, just like those fireflies
92. are magic, so are you.
93. And we all have that magic and that power inside of us.
94. We just need to kind of remember it.
95. So I define a firefly of the human sort as someone who sees beyond what is to what can be, and they take steps to create a better reality.
96. And so in my book, I not only talk about different lessons that I've learned in terms of moving forward.
97. at the end of every chapter I actually give an exercise because I don't think
98. it enough to inspire people I want to move you to the next level and let you take it from the pages into your life So each chapter ends with an exercise But I also wanted to show that it not just me who doing this in an unconventional way and moving forward
99. There are people all over the world that are doing this.
100. And I highlight in my book 20 different people in groups around the world that are truly fireflies in just about every field that you can imagine, from health care to the arts, social justice, environment, business, to show that everything really is connected and that there are many ways.
101. We're all trying to get up to the top of the mountain.
102. There are many ways to do this.
103. It's like the person who writes the diet book that says, this is the only way that you're ever going to lose weight, my way or the highway.
104. Or someone else says, no, this is the way to make your first million dollars.
105. And I believe that there are many different paths and that everybody can find their own.
106. It's not just one way.
107. If one way doesn't work for you, let's be creative and let's pivot and find another way.
108. Oh, yes.
109. All right. Well, yes, everything you said does give insight into how you would actually have made those decisions.
110. And I certainly can relate if only we had that kind of time to talk of my insanities.
111. But I mean, it's just trying, you know, it's it's the fearless, I think.
112. and there's an adventurous and curious spirit in people like that that you're describing
113. where they can try different things.
114. And I know for me, I used to always try to explain that to other people and my kids.
115. I get an idea and I want to do it.
116. I never think about how if it's going to fail.
117. I never think about it.
118. Now I'll go and I'll try it. And then in the midst of it, because now the excitement of the idea is not there.
119. You know, we don't like the details. We like to come up with stuff.
120. Now you're in the throes of it. And now you realize what you've taken on. Right.
121. You can relate that. That's how that's why I can relate. Right.
122. So now you're in the midst of this thing. You can't go back, but you've got to go forward. But forward requires more. So there's lots that you said that I want to bring up that people are good with safe things.
123. there's safety, it's security, which is why they don't often just launch off and do things. And
124. then the idea of being irresponsible. So there's that program there is, you know, you're being
125. irresponsible. And depending on how a person, you know, their upbringing and the fear of their
126. family and the fear, like you said, of how it's going to look and how their family is going to
127. view them or other people they don't want to seem irresponsible um unfortunately well fortunately
128. for people like you and myself we just apparently we probably looked irresponsible to a lot of people
129. and we do it anyway we do it anyway but um and and the idea you said of be you know you can be
130. anything you want to be. And when you said that, I thought, yeah, you can be it.
131. anything with some boundaries. That's really what you get. You can do anything you want to be.
132. Oh, okay. But you have to do it within these boundaries. So that's another thing. And then
133. possibilities was what you mentioned. The idea of just knowing that there's all you have are
134. all these possibilities and potentials. So I really resonate with all that you were sharing.
135. And I think that's important for somebody out there who is a young person, older person, right?
136. Doesn't matter.
137. Absolutely.
138. And actually, I am a huge proponent and I write about this.
139. Projects that I work on and projects that most of the people I've written about work on are completely multigenerational.
140. And I think one of the mistakes that we've made in our society is, you know, take a look around.
141. We've got youth-led movements and we've got senior-led movements.
142. We don't have a lot of human-led movements.
143. I really think that we need seniors and people in their 70s and 80s sharing the world from their perspective, along with people in their 40s and 50s and then 20s to 40s.
144. We also need that 10-year-old that reminds us to play and reminds us of those values that we started out with, that we go, oh, I'm not sure, maybe I should shift.
145. No, you never did that.
146. Um, yeah. And, you know, we need to be across generations. Um, but in part of the way that I
147. work, I start with, you know, people thinking about, you know, everybody gets really bogged
148. down. What is my purpose? I've done so many different things. It's like your purpose can
149. change. Your purpose is to grow. And I always start with your human being. Your purpose is to
150. help evolve the human race and to grow. And how you do that can change. It doesn't have to be
151. just one thing. I'm glad you mentioned that. I'm glad you meant because that's a big one.
152. Purpose. I hear that so much. You know, I'm trying to find my purpose and I'm like,
153. everything that you've lived has been your purpose. And, you know, you go on to new levels
154. of purpose. But you know, you disqualify your whole life if you're still looking for your
155. purpose, right? Each new purpose guides you to yet something maybe more, something bigger.
156. Like you're saying something bigger, and maybe you find that you become more invested in this
157. current level of purposeful experience. But yes, there's a lot of limitations in there. And the
158. imagination of a child i love that you're reminding us about that because that's what we lose
159. and i see that in my my granddaughter who is 11 and i love i love watching her because she's
160. such a go-getter they call her they call her little sonia because she's so similar she you
161. know she just goes after and she does but the imagination we should never lose that we should
162. should never lose that. It changes everything. It changes how we think. It changes how we approach
163. things. And let's face it, we need new ways to move forward in the world. And we need a paradigm
164. shift because following these old worn out belief systems really isn't working. And you know, when
165. you did your film in the business of disease, what you talked about in terms of health and the
166. mind connection with the world that we have to do what we can to make changes ourselves instead of waiting instead of waiting for a system to do something for us And that where I pull together fireflies and fireflies everywhere
167. because we got to stop waiting for and a firefly doesn't wait. They don't wait for permission to
168. shine their light. They just do. And as human beings, we don't need permission to shine.
169. We don't need permission to follow what's going to make us happy in our hearts.
170. We just need to get out there and we need to shine and we need to find new ways to rise
171. in what I call those spaces between.
172. And, you know, whether you want to talk about it through quantum physics, metaphysics, the
173. field, you can call it anything that you want.
174. But when everybody's screaming about what's going on today, let them scream.
175. We got stuff to do and we don't have time.
176. That's how I feel.
177. But it's a wonderful opportunity to say, let's maneuver in the spaces between and let's get stuff done.
178. Let's just move forward and do what we need to know.
179. Stop waiting for a system to fix something and start looking at things differently.
180. One of the examples that I used in my book, you know, one of the big issues, of course, that you hear about today is environmental conservation.
181. And it's become this turn where we make everybody feel badly about what they do.
182. You know, an average person goes into a grocery store and they go, they make this decision, this conscious decision.
183. They say, I'm going to eat healthy this week.
184. so you go and you pick up all these fruits and vegetables and they go they get into the
185. refrigerator they sit on the counter and somehow life happens and a week 10 days later you're now
186. growing science experiments every place with the lettuce that hasn't been eaten in this and
187. from this environmental conservation community we bully the person who's gone shopping oh you're
188. the bad guy do you know much food is is wasted food is like one of the number one things in
189. in landfills. But what if we step back and we do a paradigm shift? One of the people that I've
190. written about, Layla Ajaralu, is a designer. And she came up and said, you know, what if we stop
191. badgering people for the behavior that we were doing? And let's go and let's research what our
192. refrigerator is like. What if we had refrigerators that could keep that food so that it lasted longer
193. and stop beating up people and making them feel really badly for trying to be healthy,
194. for making choices.
195. And let's design things better, make things easier.
196. Let's come at it from a completely different point of view.
197. And when you can do that and step back, you start seeing new answers and new solutions.
198. And if you're looking at following the things that make you happy, you find new opportunities
199. to be able to live that life that you want to live.
200. Oh, yes.
201. Oh, yes, absolutely.
202. You said a mouthful there.
203. And yes, necessity truly is the mother of invention.
204. And you're speaking my language because, yes, that is my motto.
205. Stop waiting on the system and all these people to make sure that, you know,
206. your life is this particular way.
207. I think that it's momentum.
208. That how I look at it This moment in time as we had all these different moments in time whether politically you know it just we just had a lot of these very similar moments And I think
209. it's about what am I going to do for myself? And that's what you're saying.
210. What do I want to do? Because in the end, it is you, you are the owner of you.
211. That's right. And, you know, I tell people, let's pivot. And instead of just focusing on
212. your purpose. Let's put that aside. Your purpose is to be here to be human.
213. And I turn around and I ask people instead, what makes you happy? And interestingly enough,
214. a number of years ago, I had the opportunity to work with what they were considered at-risk boys.
215. They were all in trouble, 14, 15, 16 years old. Parents didn't know what to do with them. They
216. sent them away to an area. They were getting therapy and this and that, but I got the
217. opportunity to work with them outside nature, environmental conservation, to make sure that
218. while they were sent away that they still got these school credits. And after the second day
219. of working with these kids, I looked at these boys and I said, you know what, you're carrying a lot
220. of anger around and I get it and you're frustrated. But I said, if I were your fairy godmother and I
221. came and I knocked on your door and said, okay, your wish is my command. What would you ask for?
222. What would you wish for?
223. What would make you happy?
224. And of course, dealing with 14 to 16 year old boys, I expected that they were going
225. to come back and say, well, I need a million dollars and I need to be a rap star and I
226. need to be a this and that.
227. And they all stared at me with blank looks.
228. And one of the boys said to me, you know, no one has ever asked that before.
229. And I haven't thought about that since I was really little.
230. And over the next couple of days, little things came out from these kids who were, like I said, labeled as troublemakers.
231. They were probably some of the brightest kids that I've worked with.
232. But they came back to me one at a time.
233. And I was like, you know what?
234. I was thinking about it.
235. And the thing that really makes me happy are Sunday mornings, my dad and I get up and we make pancakes together for the family.
236. Another kid came out and was like, we have a dog.
237. Sometimes it's just me and the dog taking a walk.
238. And I really like that.
239. And it turned out, as the weeks went by, there were little moments.
240. And when I think about what makes me happy, what makes most people happy, it's those moments of connection.
241. It's not the, oh, I got my degree.
242. It's not the, oh, I accomplished this.
243. and like you mentioned we say oh it's it's the journey right we say that but we only give lip
244. service to that absolutely because oh it's the journey but I still I will I will celebrate I
245. will relax I will have a good time I will appreciate everything once I reach this milestone
246. and what we forget is is when we reach that milestone come on what do we do first of all
247. we sit around and we reminisce about all the ridiculous things that happened along the journey,
248. along the way. Oh my gosh, do you remember this and this and this? And we sit down and we pat
249. ourselves on the back for about 30 seconds. We've made it to the top of this mountain.
250. And then we start looking around and go, oh, there's another mountain and there's another
251. mountain. And maybe, maybe this is going to be the next, the next milestone, the next goal. There's
252. always going to be a next goal. What I'm going to do right now, I'm going to have you stick a pin
253. in that because we going to take a quick station break And when we return we will continue this wonderful conversation with Julie Stay tuned and we be right back Hi everyone I know you heard our fundraisers and likely thought
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265. Experts have said that the case has little chance of success at the Supreme Court,
266. Much like the numerous other GOP election lawsuits that are pending in battleground states.
267. But then again, those experts, they are just guessing.
268. They are hoping.
269. With your host, Brad Friedman, and producer Desi Doyen.
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271. Correct. You are, as usual, correct, Desi Doyen.
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282. And we are back.
283. Of course, we're coming to you from KPFK 90.7 FM in Southern California
284. and streaming live at kpfk.org.
285. You are listening to The Expansion Zone with Sonia Barrett.
286. And that's me, your host.
287. And, of course, my guest today is author Julie Wagnall and her new book,
288. of course, The Extraordinary Power of Fireflies.
289. I love the analogy, the comparison of the firefly, because we really are these little light beings that don't remember that we light up.
290. you're right and when I tell people when you think that gee I'm just one person
291. how much of an impact can I have I'll say remember the size of a tiny firefly and the impact that it
292. has on you and I'll tell you something a lot of people don't know there are two areas that we know
293. of today in the world of what we call synchronous fireflies. So imagine this, many people have
294. experienced seeing fireflies in their backyards, but we have in the Smoky Mountains in Tennessee
295. and in Malaysia, in the forests of Malaysia are areas where they have synchronous fireflies.
296. These are fireflies that flash as a group. There can be hundreds. They light up the entire
297. forest at night. It is a once in a lifetime thing that everybody I think should experience.
298. If you've forgotten to believe in magic, you cannot possibly walk away from that and not say
299. the world is full of miracles and is incredible. But the synchronous fireflies, they light up the
300. forest. And so it's, imagine if every person starts shining their lights brighter. And as we
301. start doing it together as a community of people who support one another, people who encourage one
302. another, we become like those synchronous fireflies. And you can be in a forest that is so
303. dark at night, you can barely see the fingers at the end of your hands, but you look up and there
304. are shining lights everywhere. Oh, I love that. I love that. That is, I would love to go and see
305. that um first of all put it on your bucket list i just i just wrote it i call it my to-do list i
306. don't i don't keep a bucket list um at all i'm right there with you yeah yeah it's my to-do list
307. so um yeah and a couple of other things you you mentioned you happen to mention my film and
308. because of everything we're talking about uh i want to say that that was one of the most difficult
309. things I'd ever done because I'd never done it before is to produce that film.
310. But I want to say how amazing it is. And that's what makes you a firefly. We don't stop. People
311. will go, oh, I can't do this because I'm not a filmmaker. I've produced a number of television
312. shows without that background. But why? And it's like, what gave me, you know, what in the world
313. What made you think that you can do this?
314. Well, because you have something that you want to say.
315. Right.
316. And you have this brilliant idea.
317. I've got to get this out.
318. I've got something I want to say.
319. And that's one of those experiences, like you said, that you're halfway through this and went, oh, I didn't know.
320. I didn't know.
321. What was I thinking?
322. But you're so right because I have, you know, I ran into other people that, you know, they're waiting on funding.
323. So those are some of the things.
324. And I'm not really good at waiting on things like other people.
325. I believe in starting.
326. I start and I don't know how I'm going to do it, but I'm going to start.
327. So that film, in my mind, was going to be like a little YouTube video.
328. It turned into this 77-minute feature film.
329. Yeah, and when you begin, money, things happen to allow you to finish.
330. But if you don start then yeah if you don put that out there if you don allow yourself if you don give yourself permission then there no reason for anything the support that you would need to be
331. there. Exactly. And you bring up a really good point because we get down and dirty to that money
332. issue. Oh, I would do this if, but I can't afford it. And I don't, I don't have the money. We forget
333. That money is just an exchange of energy.
334. And you don't go, I need money to create a film.
335. You go, because money doesn't make a film.
336. You go, I need people that are going to be interviewed on my film.
337. I need people who are going to film it.
338. I need people who know about editing.
339. Well, I haven't mentioned that term money once.
340. And somehow when you focus on the energy of what you need, the rest of this comes through back and forth.
341. Absolutely.
342. And another thing too, Julie, is that I point this out to people.
343. They don't have the money.
344. But if there's an emergency, somehow they find it.
345. In an emergency.
346. So we're used to waiting for survival, things that are very survival related and urgent to find the resources.
347. And it doesn't always necessarily need to come in this currency, in that format.
348. So, yeah, the emergency is something that people out there, everybody, just think about it.
349. You'll find a way if there's an emergency.
350. But if it's not and it's something that you want and something that you're thinking about, like you said earlier, there's a distraction and there's a hiding.
351. We find ways to hide behind a reason.
352. We have to give ourselves reasons, right, to not proceed.
353. Right.
354. Then money is generally the scapegoat.
355. Exactly.
356. I don't have the money.
357. I don't have the resources.
358. I don't know the right people.
359. But it usually gets down to I don't have the money.
360. yeah I don't and then it's like okay somewhere in the back of your mind it's like oh good I
361. found a reason okay that's what it is there's always an excuse I tell stories sometimes I
362. had a woman that I worked with who said oh it's the same thing listen to what you're saying
363. she said I really need to make friends and I need to get out and I said well here's a group
364. You said that you were interested in local community things.
365. Here's a group that you can join.
366. She said, oh, well, I have to work during the day.
367. I can't go.
368. And I said, and I hadn't said anything.
369. I said, well, they don't meet during the days when you work.
370. Oh, but I can't drive at night.
371. Oh, but I didn't say that it was, there are no meetings at night.
372. And it was like every excuse.
373. And I said, you know, this is a group that meets in the afternoon on Saturdays.
374. There is no reason why you couldn't.
375. But you've already come up with every excuse.
376. So the thing is, is do you want to do this or don't you?
377. And, you know, and that's where I get down to.
378. I start with let's find what makes you happy.
379. I think that today one of the things we don't pay enough attention to is our code of values.
380. When you know what makes you happy, now let's go.
381. What are the values that you want to live by?
382. Because we're losing a lot of those today.
383. integrity, honesty, transparency.
384. When you have this code of values that impacts the choices that you make I dealt with too many people go oh why am I in this situation Well because you had a code of values and you left them behind
385. So when someone said, oh, this is an easy way, it's not quite so legal to do this. You went,
386. okay, I'm going to go in that direction. You forgot your values.
387. Yeah, yeah, that's true.
388. The values become very important dealing with our fear.
389. Fear is universal.
390. We all have fear in terms of moving forward.
391. You just have to get, like you said, so excited about something that you kind of take that fear with you and you don't hide it.
392. But it just kind of comes along for the jump and you don't let it stop you to let you move forward.
393. And then, you know, because I talk about moving in the spaces between, I think the other thing that becomes important is working with people to help develop their intuition.
394. Everybody who has, you know, found a way and made it at the top, you know, how did you do this?
395. Well, I followed my intuition.
396. And how do you do that and where does that start?
397. And that starts with becoming very aware, self-aware, aware of yourself from that head to toe, your mind, body, relationship, health, now connecting to the world around us.
398. One of the biggest lessons with a background in biology is that everything is connected.
399. But when we talk about that with biology, we're only talking about all the plants, the trees, the you, the me.
400. no, let's get bigger and let's get bigger and let's get bigger because everything is connected.
401. And once we start becoming more aware of ourselves, then it becomes time to take the
402. next step and start becoming more aware of other people. I actually have on my website a free
403. download called Flying Lessons for Fireflies just to get started. Five simple exercises you can do
404. to start shining brighter right now. And one of the exercises in there is just what I call
405. the grocery store exercise. I mean, it's something as simple as that. Someone says,
406. oh, if I'm going to increase my intuition, I have to start downloading information from the ethers,
407. and I have to do this, and I have to do that. And it's like, let's start with you.
408. And let's start with how you maneuver through a grocery store. You know, are you aware of what's
409. going on in that grocery store? Do you see all the different products? What do you do if somebody has
410. left their cart in the middle of the aisle? Do you push it to the side? Do you say, excuse me? Do you
411. find another way around? How aware of all the other people in the grocery store are you? Would you know
412. if somebody at the end of an aisle needs help reaching something from a top shelf? Do you stop
413. and talk to the cashier as you're checking out? You know, the more we become aware on a daily basis
414. and become mindful of our lives and living in the moment,
415. the more we increase that intuition to also become more aware
416. of all the opportunities that are out there for us to move forward.
417. Yes, yes, yes.
418. And, yeah, I like to also refer to it as being available to the moment.
419. Are you available right now?
420. And that's what happens.
421. Most times people are unavailable, so they're on auto.
422. So I understand that Now I wanted to ask you about your website Would you mention your website Would you also speak about anything that you offer You know I don know if you do workshops if you work with people one on one
423. anything that you would like to share with anybody listening that might need that kind of support as
424. well? Yes, you know, I speak, I do workshops for associations and organizations and companies.
425. I also do coaching and workshops with people in individuals, even on individual basis, on a group basis.
426. But what I have on my website that I would like anybody who's listening, who wants to shine brighter and wants to get moving, I have a free download that are flying lessons for fireflies.
427. It's just five exercises to get you started.
428. It is totally free.
429. And the bigger thing is, is what it does is, is you, by downloading it, you join my mailing list, which is once a week, a small tidbit that comes to your inbox with just a note of inspiration or encouragement, because I think that's what we all need.
430. I mean, it's no sales, it's no gimmicks, it's no sign up with me. It's just, I believe that we need to start creating more community of more like-minded and kindred spirits that are doing all kinds of things. And I think everybody needs just a little piece of encouragement and inspiration every year. And that's what people get for that.
431. If somebody wanted to know what it was like to even work with a coach, like many other coaches, I have an area on my website where anybody can book a free 30-minute discovery session.
432. The purpose of that is not to sell anybody on anything.
433. I collect background information and try and work with people to help them gain a little bit more clarity, to help them take the next big step.
434. and the purpose of it and why I do it for free,
435. why other coaches do it for free
436. is because nobody makes it to that destination
437. they're trying to reach by themselves.
438. Everybody needs help
439. and it's to give people an idea
440. of what that should look like,
441. whether it's from a coach, a therapist,
442. a friend, a mentor.
443. If you're surrounded by a bunch of naysayers
444. and you're trying to do the impossible,
445. you're going to have a hard time moving forward so it's the concept of saying you know whether
446. it's something you want to do now or in the future just know this is the kind of support you should
447. be looking for at all times and these are the you know the type of things you should be surrounding
448. yourselves with because we all need cheerleaders yeah yeah that's that's absolutely true um because
449. so many people are feeling they need some assistance with direction and focus. And
450. because, you know, we're in a time of necessary upheaval, let's say, and we have people who say,
451. you know, they don't like their jobs and, you know, they want to leave it or they want to
452. start a business. But then, yes, when the upheaval comes, unplanned, all of that goes out
453. the door because there's a fear because you don't know how you're going to move forward or how
454. things are going to turn out. And yeah, as you said in the earlier part of our talk, sometimes
455. we just have to get pushed and that push happens. And when it happens, we have to just go, okay,
456. okay, I see what, you know, I'm here. But
457. One little humorous thing.
458. Did you used to watch Saturday Night Live?
459. Always.
460. Okay.
461. So you remember that skit, The Liar, the skit where he would, you would say something,
462. he'd go, yeah, that's a ticket.
463. Yeah, that's a ticket.
464. Yeah, yeah.
465. Well, when you were talking about people and the excuses, you know, it was like, yeah,
466. that's a ticket.
467. That's it right there.
468. no money no money right right or or yeah oh yeah that's right uh i have to go out of town i mean
469. you know it's just yes any reason to come back to the the validations for qualifying
470. not moving forward well and i use saturday nightlife too to with people who say but i'm
471. trying everything i do everything that i'm told to do and i'm following this guru and this guru
472. and I'm manifesting and I am meditating and I'm this and that and nothing is happening.
473. And I keep joking that I need to do a course called Manifesting for the Rest of Us.
474. And I would talk about the Saturday Night Live skit where they've all been visited by aliens.
475. And there's Kate McKinnon who goes, well, my experience wasn't quite like that.
476. You know, the meditating didn't quite work that way for me.
477. And that's the concept of us each finding our own path to the top of that mountain.
478. I've spent many, many years studying and working with Jungian psychology.
479. And Carl Jung once said, if the path before you is clear, you're probably on somebody else's.
480. And it's like, you got to remember that.
481. But there are many of us, you, me, countless other people, we keep talking about, yes, this is a time of upheaval.
482. It's a time of change.
483. but for positive things. And we have to transcend, we have to rise in those spaces between
484. to make things happen, not wait for governments and institutions to create things for us.
485. And it's a great concept that we all have, and we do that. But when people are working on their own,
486. you go, I've got to remember that, I've got to remember that. Or when it's a bad day,
487. or some other news headline comes out, you go, oh, I've forgotten that because now I'm going down the rabbit hole and something else.
488. And that's one of the reasons why I do the weekly, just a small note of inspiration, just to say, let's reconnect you.
489. And let's remind you that, yes, you know what we're saying, we've all got this vision and we're going to work as a community in all different areas to get that vision to become reality.
490. Yeah, it is very, it's very easy for people to get thrown off because it's every day. It's every day. If you're getting up every day and you're listening to the news, you know, obviously, you know, they have to keep it exciting. So it's, you know, it's all that stuff.
491. I guess today when I came home, there was a car chase going on.
492. And I'm like, what's going on in the matrix right now?
493. So it's this constant part of, what should I call it?
494. It's this constant entertainment to somebody.
495. And even though we looking at horrific situations we also have to look at how people are drawn into this addiction of listening to the horrific information information at five o and then six and then 10 And it like okay how many times can you listen to that
496. But then it pulls people down too.
497. Right.
498. Yeah.
499. And I was just reading and I thought this was absolutely fabulous.
500. In Europe, I think they've gone in Spain and Amsterdam and Australia and a number of countries.
501. countries, it's just to go like internet free for periods of time. And they're doing things
502. where just to bring people and put down your phone, don't bring it in. We're not paying
503. attention. We're going offline and we're just going to spend time. Maybe you'll have a cup of
504. tea. Maybe you'll read a book. Maybe you'll do a craft session, but maybe you'll do anything that
505. you feel like maybe to lay down and look at the clouds um but to get back to connecting with
506. people you know when we were dealing with covid everyone was like oh this is so horrible and you
507. know we don't have that connection with people anymore well here we are coming out of that and
508. what are we doing to make those connections with other people you know it's a movement i certainly
509. help comes here to the United States, but to say, you know, let's put this down and let's start
510. working with people and creating community one-on-one. Absolutely. Well, I think people became
511. fearful and really mistrustful or distrustful of each other because they weren't sure,
512. oh, are you going to, you know, infect me? Are you going to? So everybody went into this sort
513. of survival um mode a very primal survival mode so everybody it was there was suspicion um with
514. everyone so so you're right i think that coming out of that and that does something obviously yes
515. to our brain so how we're wired to how we end up functioning so that's you know that's a that's a
516. whole other um show in terms of in terms of of of that situation but yes absolutely julie it it it
517. is time for people to realize this is going to be about me in the end doesn't matter okay i get it
518. with the laws and whatever it is that's going on but in the end again comes back to always keeps
519. coming back to you because everywhere you go there you are you you can't get away from yourself
520. right yeah yeah and today i think in terms of seeing change for the future and taking those
521. big quantum steps, I don't think it's going to come from on top. I think it's going to come from
522. a grassroots community level of people and human beings with human beings. And like I said, rising
523. in those spaces in between. Absolutely, absolutely. Waiting on the system. I always say the system
524. is what it is and been like that for such a long time,
525. any kind of system, governing system.
526. So therefore, you have to build something new.
527. And you build something new in the manner that you're speaking about.
528. Gradually, new things are being formed in terms of health,
529. what we like to call alternative health,
530. which is really not alternative, but anyway.
531. Yeah, so it's looking at it from that standpoint in building something else, not going to war with that because that doesn't work.
532. No, exactly.
533. And that why I use the term you know unconventional unconventional even over alternative because when we all do the quote unquote unconventional over a period of time it becomes conventional You know when I left high school and attended a college as a teenager it wasn because I was brilliant which because I wanted to learn
534. And that was unconventional.
535. But today, how many teenagers across the United States are graduating from high school with a two-year degree from a community college?
536. It's conventional now.
537. I was actually adopted at a time when it was considered very, very unconventional.
538. My original adoption papers were actually from the Humane Society of the United States, if you can imagine that, the ones that take care of dogs and cats.
539. but it was today it's not unconventional it is it is more conventional we still it's the norm
540. it's the norm and we still have a far way to go on everything but when we take those alternative
541. and unconventional paths um we're connecting with other like-minded spirits who are kind of doing
542. the same thing and over time that unconventional becomes conventional that's right that's right and
543. And that's, well, that's how nature works.
544. This is the law of adaptation.
545. This is how we are, who we are today as human beings is all the adaptations that have happened
546. and the changes and the desire for new things and new ways to operate.
547. And we are the result of that.
548. so that yeah it's in every every area of our lives utilizing that same you know that same concept
549. every area of our lives so we only have about well actually we're down to like a minute or so
550. left so any anything any quick thing you want to say anything else my only quick thing i would want
551. to say to anybody that's listening is is that this isn't time to wait that the world needs you now
552. We need your light.
553. We need your light to shine brighter.
554. And you don't have to wait.
555. You don't have to wait another minute.
556. That's why you're here.
557. Honor the commitment that you made before you were born, when you were little, and move forward and make your dreams come true.
558. Because when you're happy, it makes everybody else happy.
559. That changes the world.
560. Oh, absolutely.
561. I definitely, I high-fived that completely.
562. But anyway, I want to thank you so much, Julie Wagnall, for being on the show,
563. and I look forward to having you back.
564. Thanks so much.
565. And I also thank my listening audience and our board engineer.
566. And please be sure to visit TheExpansionZone.com for the archive of all shows,
567. including this one and also subscribe to our newsletter to remain updated and to find out
568. more about my work please visit therealsonyabarrett.com and also neuroradical.com
569. as always i remind you to live life to its fullest but do question everything
570. and live life to its fullest so until next time see you then
571. Everybody's talking about consciousness.
572. Everybody wants that eternal kiss.
573. Everyone saying there more than this Everyone wants to follow their own bliss Talkin bout one love one blood one life in everyone
574. One life for each other, we are sisters and brothers
575. We sing oh shanty, shanty, shanty, shanty
576. I can be the change
577. From shanty, shanty, shanty, shanty
578. Won't see no war
579. From shanty, shanty, shanty, shanty
580. It's time to wake up
581. To a bright day
582. Realize that
583. Love is a way
584. Shanti, shanti, shanti, shanti
585. Let's do it again
586. Shanti, shanti, shanti, shanti
587. Time to rise up
588. The program that you just heard was a rebroadcast.
589. It previously aired here on KPFK.
590. I'm going down, down, down, down.
591. Down, down, down I'm going down
592. I'm going down down, down, down
593. I'm going down
594. Hey, papa, hey, papa good job
595. ¶¶
596. Coming up this week on L.A. TheatreWorks.
597. Adam and Luke are long-term partners with very different views on salvation.
598. He's afraid I'll die before I get a chance to accept Christ,
599. and then we won't be able to be in the afterlife together.
600. Next fall by Jeffrey Naufs.
601. Next time on L.A. TheatreWorks.
602. That's this Sunday evening from 10 p.m. until midnight.
603. L.A. TheatreWorks, right here on KPFK.
604. Thank you.
605. National LGBTQ Radio Magazine.
606. My National LGBTQ Radio Magazine.