What happens if you conspire for joy? Joy’s a huge part of improv—and hopefully, a huge part of life. On Monster Baby #65, Ted and Lisa explore the ins and outs of this delicious emotion. They start with a laugh-worthy warm-up game of “Convergence” (2:03) and a recap of Lisa’s great day (7:55). Ted [more…]
Monster Baby #62 The Uniqueness Paradox
You are truly special. As is everyone else. Once more, the Monster Baby Podcast shows its affinity for paradox, this time diving into the topic of uniqueness. Ted and Lisa open with a check-in: Ted’s got lottery tickets for Hamilton and the pair struggles for Greek mythological references to describe their state of being (2:26) [more…]
Monster Baby #61 Parenthood without Partnership? Lisa considers motherhood on her own
Some family stories are unconventional from the start. Stepping into a vulnerable arena, Lisa shares her consideration of having a child on her own. Ted and Lisa start with an insight about improv and love from Lisa’s recent class (1:59) and note the ways that our environments help shape who and how we are (8:07). [more…]
Monster Baby #58 Ted’s Harrowing Tale
Nothing like a near-disaster experience to get you thinking. Lisa and Ted return to the ambient sounds of the Stanford University campus to share Ted’s frightening story of almost taking his friend Dan’s life (3:15). Our intrepid pair again dive into the topic of vulnerability, especially as amplified when we’re stepping out into the world [more…]
Monster Baby #43 Let’s Get Physical
There’s wisdom in them thar’ bodies—so it’s time to get physical! Lisa and Ted open Episode #43 with an audacious shot at a free slot in their upcoming Mindful Play, Playful Mind retreat (3:37) and a bit of a juicy story (6:31). Lisa wonders if mindfulness can ever be robustly physical (8:58) and if it, [more…]
Monster Baby #42 Beyond Beliefs
Limiting beliefs get into us from a young age—how the heck can we undo or at least disarm them? In this Monster Baby episode, Ted and Lisa play with some tools and generate some hacks from the worlds of mindfulness and improvisation. The episode begins with a check-in from Lisa’s recent junket to Singapore (1:39) [more…]
Monster Baby #19: The Monster Baby Mailbag!
In the inaugural Monster Baby Mailbag episode, Ted and Lisa (and Lisa’s cats) take questions from a few loyal listeners. They wonder whether Monster Baby friendships are different from other connections (3:49), explore the tension between discovery and invention in both improv and mindfulness (15:32), celebrate an adventurous attitude for choices both large and small (25:28), and marvel [more…]
Unleash the Hounds!!! (Part 1 of 2 in a series on How to Evaluate Choices Without Shutting Down the Creative Muse)
In many ways, the spontaneity of improvisational theatre compares with letting a pent-up dog off-leash. For one, there’s a risk involved—no matter how well the dog has been trained, you’re simply not sure what’s going to happen. Even if your dog tends to stay nearby on its walk, you always have the uneasy sense you’ll [more…]
Pause (a new poem)
Practicing mindfulness has taught me that taking time to pause–in a moment, with a decision, for a life transition–draws out wisdom that remains unavailable when I scurry around with self-declared important busywork. I started working on this poem–or it started working on me–when on a silent meditation retreat, itself a valuable window of observation. Pause [more…]
Slide 3 Anima: life-affirming way to learn
Anima: a life-affirming way to learn.
