Navigating the waters of the crystal hippy people

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Since launching The Skeptical Shaman podcast, I’ve received dozens of incredibly meaningful, thoughtful comments and messages from you lovely, lovely people. Thank you for trusting me with your reactions, insights, and personal epiphanies episode-by-episode as we navigate this woo world, skeptically, together!

I received one such messages today that really slapped hard. In the best way.

It made my day. My week. My month. Possibly even my year.

My very nice client sent me this screenshot (immediately above) on Instagram. It detailed a chat with her friend about our podcast, The Skeptical Shaman, and I literally LOL’d when I read: “…navigating the waters of the hippy crystal people.”

I have never felt more seen or heard.

In one instant, all of the work and money and time that has gone into making our new podcast the niche, in-between space for the skeptical but curious felt like it was worth it— in a really deep and profound way.

Thank you, “AJ”, for sharing and for agreeing to let me share this more broadly. This is the kind of win that makes even my dead, cold, black heart spark up just a little;)

And I know that this will come as no shock to most of you that know me personally, but I want to state it for the record: I am not an extrovert. I do not like personal or professional attention. I do not like being onscreen or hosting in-person events or networking or going to team-building events or being onstage.

In my time in corporate, I was (in)famous for never attending the team dinner after a day (or days) of intense meetings. This was such a pronounced and frustrating trend that one of my bosses quite literally physically came to my hotel room to bang on my door, insisting on escorting me to the restaurant himself to make sure I got there.

Like I was being transferred to a prison by a U.S. Marshall or something.

What am I trying to say here? Well, I guess it’s just that doing a podcast isn’t necessarily the most natural fit for me. I’m not naturally very social or braggadocious or, to be blunt about it, thirsty for attention or likes or followers.

All of that stuff kind of bums me out.

So, you might be wondering, why the hell am I doing it?

Simply put: because I think these conversations are important.

At TOTEM, our mission is to democratize spirituality. When I went on my podcast tour and started looking into the world of “woo” podcasts last year, I came away from the experience deeply disappointed in the intention behind and quality of available spiritual content.

I immediately saw a big gap: a place for real, authentic dialogue that balanced spirituality with a healthy dose of skepticism. A podcast that went full weird but not in a stereotypical, “hippy crystal people” way. A format for spiritual dialogue that didn’t knee jerk with toxic positivity or spiritual bypassing or mantras or mudras or manifestation tricks that would solve all of our problems.

A “show” that didn’t require full glam or a camera crew or brand agency because it was just a meaty dialogue between two authentic individuals that wanted to land the plane on some larger, more meaningful truth through the art of conversation.

What’s more: so many podcasts I listened to as a part of the research for the tour just sounded like elaborate infomercials to me: buy my scented candle, sign up for my retreat, contact me for coaching info. Trust me: I get it. I paid a podcast agent and wanted my podcast tour to be good for my business, too. I’m not a rube.

But I also wanted to have— and hear— genuine conversations between people that aren’t worried about their sales funnel or sticking to a script or not getting into trouble with their client base for being *gasp* an actual human being. I wanted some real spiritual content. To have my curiosity sparked. To learn about something new and exciting that expanded my existing view of the universe. And, what’s more, I wanted to hear from people with opposing and diverse points of view from myself.

Otherwise, we’re just in an echo chamber circle jerk from informercial platitude hell.

So, I made a podcast. I invite on guests that I find personally interesting and who know about stuff that I don’t know about….because…drumroll please…that’s how we learn.

I did not want to do any video for The Skeptical Shaman, understanding that I was killing my engagement numbers before we even got started. But keeping our podcast audio only is very intentional: I want to stimulate your imagination, accompany you on dog walks or days in the garden as you stay active, and activate the other parts of your brain that have atrophied in a society riddled with screen addiction and an over-emphasis on the sense of sight.

We understand and learn things differently when we hear them and are forced to generate the images in that sacrosanct chamber of our minds: our imaginations.

So , fuck the numbers for now. Anything worth doing is worth doing right. And there are literally thousands of video podcasts and Youtube videos out there with hosts sitting at microphones.

Might as well differentiate.

My best friend and fellow practitioner, Roger Oney, produces and edits The Skeptical Shaman. The whole team is literally just the two of us, and I was an English and Psych major…so it’s kind of actually just him doing the technical stuff. There are no pipeline or advertising meetings. We don’t pitch anything to anyone. And I just talk to people about stuff that matters.

How do I determine who to have on? I just think of it and ask them like a person.

And I knew that the way I was going about creating this podcast wasn’t ever going to convert to quick wins. I knew that I was in this for realsies, and that I would take some hits for not focusing on cynical business metrics or guests “with reach” in lieu of simply asking myself: “Who do I want to talk to?”

But our whole world is ruled over by reductionist bullshit, and if I’m going to complain about that— and how culture is flattened and dead and personalities have been replaced by identities— I need to start walking the talk.

Thank you all for listening so far. If you want to help us make this podcast a real, long-term thing, please review, rate, like, share and subscribe. The more you copy and paste those incredible notes you send my way and put them out in public, the more we get elevated in the rankings and the easier we are to find.

Every little bit helps, so please take a moment this week to share your honest thoughts on The Skeptical Shaman on Google, Apple or Spotify.

And we’re actively doing another Review Raffle— and folks are already submitting their reviews for products, services and more— so bear this in mind and shoot me any review or rating of the podcast to get entered to win a pretty primo prize.

THANK YOU IN ADVANCE FOR SUPPORTING THE SKEPTICAL SHAMAN WITH YOUR REVIEWS AND RATINGS!

And, in the spirit of full transparency, I do want to leave you with a confession: I actually love crystals. I microdose every day. I meditate and I’m super weird and stuff.

I’m just not a “hippy crystal person”.

It’s an archetype. A performative pantomime of what someone thinks spirituality looks like. A costume. A character. A flattened meme that used to be a person.

And we’ve already done that, haven’t we? Let’s start demanding better of our woo people. Hell, I am.

-Rachel