Episode 1: An Introduction

In this cozy little pilot episode, we’re introducing ourselves, sharing how this whole Spirit-Led Podcast thing came to be, and giving you a taste of what to expect in future episodes. If you’re a soul-curious human who loves magical convos, heart-first musings, and a little bit of weird, you’re in the right place. Grab your tea and come hang with us!

EPISODE TRANSCRIPT:

(upbeat music) - Welcome to the Spirit-led podcast, where the conversations are unscripted, a little unhinged, and totally tuned in. I'm Xan. - And I'm Dez. - And we're two besties living beyond the boundaries of normal sanity and loving every second of it. - This is a podcast for you if you're ready to leap down the rabbit hole and experience what it's like being weird. - Before each episode, we pull cards and chat with our spirit teams to spark inspo for the day's discussion. Then we let the conversation flow wherever it's meant to go. - It's like Tarot meets a talk show with a sprinkle of magic and a whole lot of heart. - If that's your vibe, grab a cup of something cozy, meet us on the virtual couch, and let's dive into this week's Spirit-led conversation. (upbeat music) - Hello, everyone. Welcome to the pilot episode of the Spirit-led podcast. I am your host, Zan. - And I'm Des. - And we're so, so excited to be launching this podcast. This has been something that's lived inside of my brain at least for quite a while, and I'm really, really, really ready to just get out there and see what comes from it. So we thought it would be a good idea to start this first episode by letting you get to know who we are. So, Des, do you wanna tell us a little bit about yourself? - Let's see, I am an artist and a Tarot reader, living in Dallas. I'm a single mom to a five-year-old who I keep saying is a four-year-old and he corrects me every time. And it's been a long winding road to get to where I am now because my background is in journalism, but I, since the pandemic took a career change, but it feels like this is where I was supposed to be all along. - Isn't that the way life often goes? - Indeed it is. - I love it. I'm really happy with where you're at right now, specifically sitting right in front of me doing this podcast. - Writing alongside. (laughing) - Yep. - Yeah, that's awesome. Yeah, and Des and I have been friends since 2022. We had a magical meeting at a bachelorette party in Broken Boat, Oklahoma, and basically decided that our souls were intertwined from that moment forward. So we're just a pair of besties, a pair of weird, witchy, wild besties bringing forth the voice of our hearts and letting the spirits guide the conversation wherever it's gonna go. So a little bit about me, Zan, speaking. - Yeah, who are you? That's a loaded question. I am also a creative, really someone who's very wild at heart, although I've lived in a cage for so much of my life, but in the last few years I've been finding myself, I too had a bit of a journey to get here. I started in corporate America, started doing all the things I thought I needed to do to be successful in life only to find out when I got there that I wasn't happy and I wasn't fulfilled. So since 2022, I'm not saying meeting Des was a catalyst for this, but I think it might have been. Since 2022, I have been unraveling and I, through that unraveling, spent a year traveling abroad in New Zealand. I spent a year living in Austin and now I'm back in Dallas, trying to figure out what lights my soul up and how I can offer that to the world in a meaningful way. And I really think that's all you need to know about me for right now, but I'm sure over the course of this podcast, I'll eventually just spill the tea and be willing to get a little bit more vulnerable. - Or onions, there's so many layers. - Ain't that the truth. Yeah, and so it does. Let's talk a little bit about how the idea for this podcast came to be. And if you're okay with it, I'm gonna kick us off because you're the inspiration. - Oh, am I? (laughs) - So y'all, I've been watching Des for the last year or two, get really deep into her cards. She's a tarot reader, an incredible tarot reader. And she does this thing where she carries her deck around with her, she speaks to her spirits through the cards when she needs help making a decision. If she pulls a card that's upright, it's yes. If she pulls a card that's upside down, it's a no. So I'm watching this person ask these cards, ask these spirits these questions and abide by what the response is. And I'm seeing how her life has shifted in really meaningful, powerful ways. So that was the inspiration that planted the seed for the Spirit Let podcast. So Des, I'd love it if you tell the listeners a little bit about how we're going to use that in the setting of this podcast to determine what we talk about. - So I do love the unscripted nature of this whole podcast because I am still a student, always a student as much as I am a teacher and learning every day to be more brave about surrendering to what comes from the cards and what I'm told. And so I think that it's nice to be able to take an audience on the ride with us and see how a couple people just deal with unfamiliar territory, being uncomfortable, being pushed in ways that you may not have otherwise been pushed, all within the context of it being self-motivated because tarot is a self-help tool and it's something that you voluntarily choose to pick up and use as self-growth. - That was beautiful. - Thank you. - And quite poetic if I do say so myself. - I appreciate that. I mean, just speaking from the heart because that's indeed what we're trying to do every day. And I didn't realize I was the inspiration for a podcast but you know, here we are. I mean, so we're just gonna see where it takes us and take the audience along with us, you know? - Yeah, and I don't know about y'all but I have a tendency to try to do things perfectly the first time I ever do them. So this really keeps me from ever actually starting anything because I feel like I have to know every single thing there is and I have to be as prepared as possible before I can put something out there that's worthy of being received by those around me. And this podcast is something totally different. It is maybe the first time ever that I am allowing myself to be seen in this very vulnerable, kind of uncomfortable circumstance but like Des said, the unscripted nature of the podcast just felt so necessary as we both dive deep into learning how to live in true surrender. And I'm excited because I have no idea where this is going to go. And I'll also say we're recording this introduction and who knows, like five episodes down the road this introduction might not even apply because maybe the whole system-- - Might be a completely different show. - Yeah, maybe the whole system's changed. - It's so funny because like the way that I feel like in the same way that you feel me pulling cards is a natural progression of life. You sitting in front of a microphone feels like a natural progression of life to me. Like, I don't know what you've been doing this whole time but you were definitely supposed to be doing something like this, I don't know why we're pretending like this. (laughing) Knew it some way, sure before. So I guess that's, you know, today and no one sees you the way you see you, right? Because that's part of the beauty of I guess being a spiritual person and sharing that gift with people is that like I see something and it seems so very obvious and so point blank and blunt that like it's like, how do you not see this? And people don't even realize that unless you tell them, you know, and you have to be able to get to a place where it's like, no, like let me help you see how bright you are because it just seems so very obvious to me. (laughing) - Well, hey, I will receive that, thank you. And you know, I think over time that I will feel more natural, more comfortable in this setting because I can already tell that my moon in Leo is kind of low key loving this. - Yes, it was coming for you. And you know, we're all a little nervous when we start something. I was nervous when I started reading tarot for other people for the first time. Yeah, it's like you start with friends and family, you start with friends. So we sit here as friends, just letting ourselves get comfortable in the uncomfortableness in hopes that, you know, it becomes something more someday. But by then it's, we're comfortable being uncomfortable. - Yeah, story of our lives to be honest. And this podcast is really a good way to like, speak aloud the things that maybe we haven't been comfortable or felt ready to say to our family, to our friends, to the people we come into contact with as we move through the world. And the basis for the podcast is that every episode, maybe before this could change throughout the episodes, but right now before each episode, we are pulling cards. And Dez is connecting with a spirit, a deity or I am connecting with the spirit or a plant because my plants be coming through, I'm big into plant medicine. And we are using questions much in the yes, no fashion to determine what the inquiry for the episode is going to be. So it's really hard for us to say what you can expect from this podcast. - So surprise. - Yeah, it's a surprise. - I'm a Gemini, Gemini's love surprises. - Exactly, so, you know, keep coming back every week and let's see how this evolves. I'm sure that our conversations are gonna be weird, a little bit mystical, expansive, perspective altering, vulnerable, you name it. Nothing's off the table. (laughing) - Nothing's off the table that won't get edited out later. But I'm here for it, yes. We're gonna try to confront everything that comes up in the cards, just like you would have everything come up in the cards and hopefully us walking the path helps you walk the path too. - Yeah, yeah, exactly. So that's a little bit about our process and a little bit about what to expect, you know? You never know what to expect. It's unscripted, we are showing up as raw as possible, trying to live authentically and express from our souls and just let the rest kind of flow. It could be messy, it could be cringe and you know what? That's okay because I think there's way too many people putting themselves out there as perfect and it's maybe like high time that there's some mess and some cringe. - I'm pretty sure I'm just always cringe. (laughing) - Okay, what else do we need to tell people about our podcast? - Well, Dez, I think the last thing I wanted to ask is, why are you doing this? And what do you hope the listeners take away from this podcast? - Oh, I'm doing this 'cause you're a crazy person and I support crazy. (laughing) But... (laughing) - I think that was like a crazy person's laugh too. (laughing) But I mean, really though, I am just like walking forward into whatever is set in front of me because I would not have ever put myself in a place to be in a podcast. That's not a thing I wanted to do or had on my bucket list or... - Thank you for doing this with me. - I had never considered it. Yeah, no, so and I mean, a long time ago, I used to really enjoy doing guest spots on the radio. So it's kind of giving me some radio flashbacks, which is kind of nice, but maybe that was foreshadowing to here we are now because this is just a thing I never thought I would do, but I am here for the adventure. And I love that I'm probably gonna end up learning something as I go always. Every experience teaches you something. So I think it's just like a whole pile of lessons I didn't even think up before. - Oh man, that's a good friend right there, y'all. I didn't realize, although looking back on it, I've been bugging Dez about the podcast for a while and spirits have been getting really loud about the podcast for a while. So that makes sense. And I'm so glad that you're here doing this with me, Dez. I just don't think I could talk to myself in a podcast episode and have it ring as true or be as authentic as if I'm talking to one of my best friends. So I'm really, really glad that you're here and I'm excited for what's to come. - Me too, happy to be here. - Epic. And as for me, I just couldn't get the bug out of my ear. Like I kept hearing do a podcast, do a podcast, put your voice out there. And it does make sense. I love writing, I love poetry. I like to play my ukulele and sing songs. And I discovered how much I enjoy being on stage and sharing my voice. And this is a way to do that in a way that also challenges me to meet the edges of my comfort zone. So that's why I'm doing this. And it's also because I just think our voices need to be out there. People who can speak from love, who are coming from a different perspective than the majority who are kind of living on the fringes of what's socially acceptable in society. We need to be putting our voices out there. We need to make ourselves seen. And that is why I'm doing this. And I hope that through doing this, you out there listening will feel inspired to just be more of who you are. Because who you are is the greatest gift. It is the greatest thing you can give to the world to live authentically and to just put yourself out there in the most true form. So that's what I hope you get. And I also hope that you leave with a little bit of an expanded perspective of what's possible in life and that it brightens your day just listening to me and does chat away. - You know, I always say when people sit at my table for tarot readings, my goal is that when you get up from the table, you feel like you can do it again. And like, if I can help you feel encouraged and like you can make it for another day, then my job is done. So if that's the only thing people get out of listening to this, then I think we've done good. - Yeah, I would definitely agree. Well, y'all, I think that brings our first episode to a close, but if you're interested, if this sounds like some weird kind of wacky journey that you're ready to dive into, I hope that you will continue to join us and even follow or subscribe wherever you listen to your podcasts and we'll see you in the next episode. (laughing)