"Discovering Authentic Presence" with Ash Adamson
Ash Adamson
Ash Adamson is a Senior Product Designer, serial entrepreneur, and transformational life coach. She is a brilliant and thoughtful being, who applies her wisdom and life experience to help us all reflect on how we each get to design our own lives. You can find out more information about Ash on her website ashadamson.com. She recommends you follow her on Instagram @ashtronaut09, where she is more present.
Ash and I met last summer serendipitously at Lightning in a Bottle and, as you will hear in this episode, we quickly got our life stories bound up with one another's.
Ash triumphantly waving the famed rainbow flag.
In this episode, we talk about the value of continually uprooting our assumptions about life and who we are, and instead focusing on being in the present moment so we can open to the world unfolding around us. We talk about how our sense of "self" is only an idea, and how we can continually assess and revise the idea of who we are. We talk about her journey of transitioning through genders, identities, and her own sense of self; and about the nuances of the current trans inclusion movement and the importance of not replicating experiences of exclusion as we craft a world for all of us.
In this episode we talk about how Ash and I met. She recorded her telling of the story at an intimate gathering. You can listen to Ash's “Rainbow Story” here.
My flag was made by Toni Tone, founder of Giant Puppets Save the World, and creator of Giant Silk Flags. Buy your own flag at her Etsy.
Trans-Inclusion Resources
Here's a great video (also on the right) on how to be a great trans ally and get used to using new pronouns and names: “Teaching Trans: Pronouns!” by Trystan
Still struggling with they? Grammar concerns? Listen to the podcast listed below.
(NOTE: Ash uses “she and her,” and used a plural “they” for awhile. She's the only one I know who has used all plural pronouns “we/y’all/they/us”, and you have to listen to the episode to understand what she meant with that identity.)
On the right, you can watch a Trans-inclusion video that I find particularly touching. It was produced by the Trans United Fund: “Meet My Child: Parents of Transgender Kids Speak Out”
Want even more information about Transgender issues, making safe workplaces and how to create an awesome world for all genders? Check out these great sites:
Other Podcasts
During this episode we talk about this On Being Podcast interview with Leonard Mlodinow "Randomness and Choice" It's a conversation about free will and living in a deterministic universe and how the deepest scientific realities are hidden from human senses and often defy our best intuition.
For those who are still struggling with using “They” as a 3rd person singular pronoun, I recommend this podcast episode with linguist, John H. McWhorter, on Slate's Lexicon Valley: "The Rise of They:English pronouns are evolving, and it’s time to embrace it."
Music
“Flight From the City” by Johann Johannsson
In this episode, Ash chose a piece of by the late composer Johann Johannsson called “Flight from the City”. I want to personally thank the Johannsson estate for giving me the permission to share this beautiful piece with you.
Listen to Ash Adamson
In an earlier version of herself Ash was at a DJ. Here is her SoundCloud where you can listen to some of her tracks: