In 2024, around 44,000 people died of gun-related injuries in the United States, which includes both homicides and suicides. Spencer Cantrell, JD, co-lead of the National ERPO Resource Center at the Center for Gun Violence Solutions within Johns Hopkins University’s Bloomberg School of Public Health, is working to reduce that number.

In this Ready Living Podcast episode, she explains how extreme risk protection orders (ERPOs), often called red flag laws, are civil legal tools that can help protect people from gun violence by intervening before tragedy occurs.

ERPOs enable a petitioner to ask a court to temporarily remove firearms from someone who is making threats or engaging in threatening behavior, and to bar that person from legally obtaining firearms for the duration of the order.

Twenty-two states, the District of Columbia, and the U.S. Virgin Islands currently have ERPO laws on the books, covering more than half of the country’s population.

Spencer walks through the ERPO process, from the initial filing to the final hearing where all parties have the opportunity to present evidence. She addresses how due process is included at every stage and the factors courts consider when deciding whether to grant or deny an ERPO.

She also explains how ERPOs can work in conjunction with traditional domestic violence protection orders. ERPOs focus solely on firearms, while domestic violence protection orders carry broader relief. Knowing what each tool does and when to use them can make a critical difference for survivors seeking safety.

This episode is essential listening for survivors, advocates, attorneys, and anyone who wants to understand how the law can step in to protect people at risk.

The interview is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube.

Born in Madagascar, Liva RJ’s early years were marked by tragedy, instability, and frequent moves between countries, languages, and socioeconomic realities. Hypervigilance became a way to survive and adapt.

Later, her career took her inside some of the world’s most influential institutions, from working as a journalist at Bloomberg and the Financial Times to sitting down with leaders at the World Economic Forum at Davos, before spending five years as a Malagasy diplomat heading international communications for the office of the president. At close range, she’s seen how power operates.

After surviving 9/11, she started asking what a life aligned with her deepest values, one oriented around inner peace rather than hustle-culture achievement, could look like. The answer involved a derelict 16th-century farmhouse in France’s Loire Valley that she began restoring seven years ago.

Today she hosts retreats for women who’ve lost themselves in overachievement or survival mode and realize something needs to change. The Joy Oasis offers a restorative environment without phones, social media, or the need to perform.

In this Ready Living Podcast episode, she shares how regulating one’s nervous system means having the internal resources to meet difficulty without being consumed by it. Liva describes it as “the ultimate act of rebellion.”

The interview is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube.

Church Labyrinth.

Is the law doing enough to keep pace with the internet and technology? Attorney and political columnist Bennet Kelley, founder of the Internet Law Center, has seen what happens when tech moves fast but the legal system moves slowly.

In this Ready Living Podcast episode, he talks about a wide range of issues, from the shielding of online platforms from legal liability, the absence of a federal anti-doxing law, and AI research companies’ use of artists’ work without their permission, to social media’s impact on children and teenagers.

Underneath it all is the question: just because we can build something, does that mean we should?

He shares the personal experience that shaped why he believes so strongly in standing up against the misuse of power, and why that matters now more than ever.

Bennet’s boutique firm offers legal and policy solutions to entrepreneurial businesses. He’s advised the Justice Department on technology-facilitated abuse, and fought for victims of online harassment. He’s also a five time winner of the LA Press Club’s Southern California Journalism Award. He has a Bachelor’s degree in Political Science from American University, and a Juris Doctor from Georgetown University.

The interview is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube.

People are feeling a lot of stress and insecurity around work these days, says award-winning workplace mental health expert Ken Dolan-Del Vecchio, and it’s fundamentally because too often they’re treated not as valued members of an organization in their own right, but merely as something from which to extract productivity.

With 30 years of experience, including nearly two decades overseeing behavioral health at a Fortune 500 company, he has seen workplace culture at both its best and worst. The worst includes employees who feel undervalued and disposable, supervisors who are promoted without being adequately prepared to lead, and senior leaders quietly planning the next round of layoffs while publicly claiming people are their greatest asset. The best, he argues, starts with something simpler than most organizations realize, namely a good immediate supervisor who understands that workplace health spans physical, emotional, social, spiritual, and financial wellbeing.

He takes a clear-eyed look at why somewhere between 50% and 85% of Americans report being unhappy at work, and warns against tying one’s identity too closely to a particular job or title.

He’s sharply critical of layoffs as a standard corporate response to financial pressure, referencing Stanford professor Jeffrey Pfeffer, author of Dying for a Paycheck, whose research shows that mass layoffs generally don’t improve stock prices, hurt productivity, destroy institutional knowledge, and damage those who remain.

Drawing on his own experience of being laid off from a position he loved, he shares the importance of focusing equally on three things: the job you’re contracted for, the ongoing work of stewarding your own career, and the managing of your personal finances. The last of the three, he notes, is especially critical in the United States, where the absence of a strong social safety net can quickly escalate financial vulnerability.

How power is viewed is also fundamental to workplace health. Ken draws a distinction between “power over,” namely domination, ranking, and punishment, and “power with,” which rests on shared responsibility, collaboration, and the belief that different perspectives make organizations stronger rather than harder to control. Leaders and organizations that operate from the second model tend to grow their collective strength, he argues.

Ken earned his bachelor’s degree in bio-psychology at Cornell University and his master’s degree in social work at Hunter College of the City University of New York. He completed a three year intensive post-graduate program in family therapy at The Multicultural Family Institute in Highland Park, New Jersey. 

The interview is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube.

Buttercups in the Meadow.

How embedded is Christian nationalism in American politics and culture?

In this Ready Living Podcast episode, Robert P. Jones, PhD, founder and president of Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI), explains where Christian nationalism is most concentrated and what it means for American democracy.

The numbers are striking. Drawing on PRRI’s landmark study based on more than 22,000 interviews across all 50 states, roughly one in ten Americans agrees with all five markers of Christian nationalist belief, and about three in ten qualify as adherents or sympathizers. He also traces the relationship between Christian nationalism and far-right media, explaining how the two reinforce each other in what he calls an “ideological doom loop.”

The conversation explains Christian nationalism’s historical roots, from 15th-century papal bulls and the Doctrine of Discovery to the Lost Cause ideology after the Civil War and into modern politics today. He also reflects on his own Southern Baptist upbringing and the shocking discovery of an ancestor’s estate settlement that recorded four enslaved people by name and dollar amount.

Pointing to the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, he argues the United States is headed toward a defining argument about what it wants to be for the next 250 years. Encouraging everyone to take a stand, he praises individuals and religious institutions that have already drawn clear lines against Christian nationalism. 

Robert has a PhD in Religion from Emory University and a Master’s in Divinity from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, and is the author of the acclaimed books The End of White Christian America, White Too Long: the Legacy of White Supremacy in American Christianity, and The Hidden Roots of White Supremacy: and the Path to a Shared American Future. His new book, Backslide: Reclaiming a Faith and a Nation after the Christian Turn Against Democracy, arrives September 2026.

The interview is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube.

In this Ready Living Podcast episode, veterinarian and animal death doula Dr. Ken Gorczyca talks about the profound work of helping families honor, release, and grieve their beloved animal companions with intention, ritual, and love.

As the founder of A Beloved Farewell, a mobile in-home end-of-life care practice, he weaves together medical expertise, spiritual practice, and heartfelt storytelling to transform the end-of-life process into one of life’s most meaningful moments.

He offers practical guidance for recognizing when illness or old age signal that the most loving act is letting go, and why having a plan before a crisis arrives is one of the greatest gifts we can give our animals.

He supports people in finding the courage to be present in a beloved companion’s last moments, and describes what an in-home euthanasia with a death doula looks like, from asking people to share the full love story of their animal’s life to the closing ritual after which families offer their final farewell.

He reminds us that our animal companions teach us both how to love deeply and how to release with love.

The interview is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube.

In this Ready Living Podcast episode, internationally renowned facial profiler and body language expert Joseph McGuire argues that communication is far more complex than language alone. He reveals how noticing tiny signals can help us uncover people’s character and true intentions, transforming the way we negotiate, hire, and even date.

With over three decades experience as a holistic therapist and now trusted advisor to organizations and senior leaders, he shares how facial expressions, tonal changes, posture shifts, and micro-reactions help us to discover who we can trust or should distrust. 

He recommends forming an impression based on fine-tuned observation tested against evidence. When we slow down, observe carefully, and tune into both our intuition and the evidence in front of us, we become better at discerning authenticity.

A facial read, for example, begins with looking at the eyes and paying attention to whether they show warmth, neutrality, or coldness. He also explains how people under pressure often ‘leak’ messages that signal discomfort or vulnerability.

He argues that reading people accurately is a skill everyone can learn with enough curiosity and self-awareness. His insights reveal the powerful clues that are hiding in plain sight.

The interview is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube.

Handcrafted Ceramic Vase from Taizé, France.