Nitsa Citrine shares her journey of transforming her path from living in a state of survival mode to turning her creative projects and passions into work on this episode of Tub Talks. Nitsa chronicles her experience of building an herbal supplement brand: from landing the first organic market accounts to growing a social media presence and direct-to-consumer business. She enlightens us to how life and death cycles are all a part of growing businesses and ourselves. Nitsa is also my earliest friend and the first inspirational feminine entrepreneur and creative director I looked up to. So please, take a seat in the bath with Nitsa Citrine and me, and our stories of Esalen childhood.
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In the fourth generation of a Big Sur family, Emily Birmingham knows her experience of growing up in Big Sur deeply and, specifically the culture of Nepenthe, the iconic oceanside restaurant and shop that her great grandmother created so many years ago. We discuss the Big Sur Arts Initiative (her parent’s program), within which ‘Stage Kids’ was born. We talk about how Stage Kids provided a shared environment for our creativity and childhood interactions, and I discover how Stage Kids was an inspiration for what is now Secular Sabbath. Emily details her passion for exploring Big Sur in her own way, experiencing life to its fullest potential, while preserving Big Sur culture and her family’s heritage.
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Aska Matsumiya is a celebrated composer, known for film scores such as After Yang, I’m Your Woman, Bruised, Skate Kitchen and Spike Jonze’s, ‘I’m Here’. However, her journey through music, motherhood, mixed cultural identity and friendship, is what has inspired me to get her in the tub at nearly 9 months pregnant, and talk. Raised as a classical pianist in a Japanese household, Aska has been expressing herself musically across a vast landscape of genres: from punk to indie rock, classical, and electronic. Aska became a mother for the first time as a nineteen year old, and embarks on her next motherhood journey within weeks of this episode airing. Finding her voice through film composition, motherhood, and trusting in her intuition, Aska forges her own path into a life well-lived – inspiring us to follow the clues, and do the same.
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Lead singer of the band Magic Giant, Austin Bisnow shares how manifestation has created monumental moments in his life: meeting his life partner, creating a band, and even writing a pop song for one of his biggest inspirations. From chasing his future wife Dina around the world in pursuit of ‘the one,’ to stumbling upon a performance of a band at a music festival that made him realize the need to build his own band, Austin seems to be “in the right place at the right time.” He takes moments of inspiration and runs with them in order to pursue the things he wants in the world. Austin details how drive, dedication and inspiration are the motivating forces through which he engages with life, and his ultimate success of being truly happy show us that his recipe works.
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Secular Sabbath collaborator and multi-disciplinary artist, Elena Stonaker shares her process of expressing her whimsical inner landscape through her many modalities of artwork from making paintings, drawings, to sewing clothing, and her signature large soft sculptures of ‘big mamas.’ Through creating art in various mediums, Elena strives to portray a childlike space where we can experience feelings tangibly. Elena recounts a live drawing class she hosted in her home that would later go on to be an inspirational part of Secular Sabbath. Elena details how flow and cycles are a definitive part of nature, life and her creative process. Tune in to learn from Elena and her inner world, externalized.
Esalen and Big Sur elder Vicki Topp shares her experiences as a bodywork teacher and practitioner, while highlighting the metaphorical parallels of the practice to life. Vicki details her life in Big Sur and beyond: from being the first women to be offered housing at Esalen and working with Stan Grof, to navigating natural disasters and rattlesnakes. Vicki explains how bodywork is her way of touching and reaching the world. In this episode, Vicki shows us how to live in a state of presence, take in our surroundings, and touch others from that state. Her wisdom and creativity permeates this conversation in the bath.
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Lindsey Ross, also known as, The Achemistress shares her journey into a photography career through an antiquated technique: 19th Century Tintype Photography. Lindsey details the specific process, in which she revives a fading art form. Tintype is a sensory experience that allows her and the subject to be reminded of patience, as she captures a moment in time.
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Our friend and collaborator Mars, of Dose of Diosa, shares how sickness and healing from the Earth, led her back to her heritage. Outlining her journey on becoming an herbalist, Mars explains how coming back to her inner landscape and remembering, has helped her become whole again. Mars discusses how she creates community through cacao, tea and plant medicine ceremonies, while bringing others into states of consciousness and awareness.
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This week we sit in the tub with George Augusto, co-founder of fashion brand: STAUD, and Los Angeles restaurant and cafe: Kitchen Mouse. He met his two co-founders in the midst of a multitude of other ventures. Ventures that eventually failed, and whose failure led him to where he is today. George discusses how these experiences of failure gave him moments to discover his gifts and strong suits. Failure is a source of success.
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This week we soak in the bath with our close friend and co-founder of FriendsWithYou,
Sam Borkson. He started the art project FriendsWithYou with Tury many years ago, in order to help people open their creative channels. He shares about how they use elements of fine art to bring cuteness and a smile to people’s faces. He sees art as a unifier: a way to impact others through storytelling. He creates art as love letters. In this episode, he does it all through even just this conversation. We will learn about his deep desire to save, touch and heal the world by using his influence as a writer and animator to alter the narrative of children’s stories in a way to promote unity for the planet. He exists in a nonstop pursuit of friendship, kindness, and art! Making stuff is not easy. It is perseverance that gets us through. Being stubborn and committed to doing is not to be taken for granted and Sam shares that wisdom with us.
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This week we are joined under the oak tree for a soak with DJ and artist, Mia Moretti. A Bay Area native, Mia grew up in an alternative household in Northern California where creativity flowed. Her childhood was colored by her parents’ culture of freedom and exploration, encouraging Mia to follow her dreams of moving in the big city rhythm. In her childhood home, there was always music and jamming, but as someone who didn’t play instruments or sing, Mia had yet to find her place. Moving to LA at 18, Mia found herself fully immersed and comfortable in the music scene at clubs, where tracks ran wild into the night and she explored sound in her own way. This is where the story begins, as Mia thrust herself into the nightlife, absorbing the energy of the space and people around her. This is where she learned to embrace DJing as a means to transform people through the power of musical storytelling.
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This week we are joined under the oak tree for a soak with DJ and artist, Mia Moretti. A Bay Area native, Mia grew up in an alternative household in Northern California where creativity flowed. Her childhood was colored by her parents’ culture of freedom and exploration, encouraging Mia to follow her dreams of moving in the big city rhythm. In her childhood home, there was always music and jamming, but as someone who didn’t play instruments or sing, Mia had yet to find her place. Moving to LA at 18, Mia found herself fully immersed and comfortable in the music scene at clubs, where tracks ran wild into the night and she explored sound in her own way. This is where the story begins, as Mia thrust herself into the nightlife, absorbing the energy of the space and people around her. This is where she learned to embrace DJing as a means to transform people through the power of musical storytelling.
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This week we warm up in the tubs with our new friend Sophie Hawley-Weld. One-half of energetic and colorful duo Sofi Tukker, she’s a creative mind who interweaves culture, identity, and fun into her musical journey. On today’s episode, we dive in deep about our connection to community, mental health and rituals on the road, and the development that happens behind the scenes within her music projects. She is thankful for growing up with a life full of opportunities where she could mix and mingle with an international community. The expectation at school was always to become a diplomat or leader, so the concept of artistry as a form of giving back to the world was an eye-opening realization.
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