Choosing Your Story: Heartbreak, Sexuality, and Creativity
A Dialogue with Lea Roth, Nastassja Schmiedt and Travis Newbill
OR, to see which videos are still freely available, click here.
What You’ll Learn:
- Hear Lea and Nastassja’s talk about how heartbreak isn’t separate from their love story
- Explore the ways community, connection, and collaboration affect our relationships
- Navigate the creative process of relationships (and learn a practice to help)
About Nastassja and Lea
Nastassja Schmiedt and Lea Roth are cultivating an evolution in millennial consciousness. The couple use their book Millennial Sex (Education) to facilitate story-based consent, gender, and sexuality education. Their social enterprise Spring Up offers narrative-based leadership development and organizational consulting in diversity, inclusion, and coalition building. They have given two TEDx talks: “Cultivating a Culture of Consent,” and “Millennials On The Brink,” and appeared on stage with Lady Gaga at the 2016 Oscars. Their activism and personal stories are featured in the moving anthology “We Believe You: Survivors of Campus Sexual Assault Speak Out,” the award-winning 2015 documentary “The Hunting Ground” and the forthcoming “Silent U.”
Learn more about Nastassja & Lea and participate in their free 5-day Consent Challenge by visiting their website here. Check out their TEDx talk here and get a copy of Millennial Sex! The youth educational version of their book is currently available for free download. You can join Nastassja & Lea’s community on Patreon to get advance access to their latest creative projects!
About Travis Newbill
Travis Newbill is a student of Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche in the Shambhala Buddhist tradition, an MFA student in the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics at Naropa University, and a student of Ikebana under Alexandra Shenpen, Sensei in both the Kalapa and Sogetsu schools. Singer-songwriter, poet/writer, and fan of the band Phish, Travis resides in Boulder, CO with his partner Heather.
You can check out his website here.
wow, hearing and seeing you two in conversation with Travis really motivated me to want more time with you. I am listening to a few of the Summit sessions during the last days of preparing for the wedding of dear friends…and our youngest son will marry in August,. Nastassja and Lea, your truth and the way that you honestly and courageously and joyfully share moves me so much. A deep bow to you! And thank you for your callings and offerings to our world community. You both rock and together, lightening in wonderful ways. After your invitation, I may write my first story about your wedding (oh maybe someone similar to you, not me, of course, I am already married many years)
awesome girls! thank you so much for your work – so important!
This is great information and these women truly have something to offer. I love the idea of writing from different perspectives and writing my story/fantasies from different perspectives. This can open many avenues of understanding. I would strongly encourage practicing speaking without “um”; it’s very distracting from the real message. Many thanks!
So grateful to have the opportunity to view this! I am a bit older than these presenters, and they are speaking directly to issues and questions that have been challenging and isolating me since my earliest memories. I am experiencing revelation after revelation listening to them…such a variety of emotional responses as they unpack the story of my stories in ways I’ve either not had language to, or lacked the security of community to share in. It can be quite difficult for some folks to grasp how much has changed in five decades unless they have lived through it…this discussion feels like a visual and intellectual bridge over 45 years of troubled water. I am very happy for them, and much more hopeful for myself creatively, emotionally, socially, and romantically. Thank you, thank you.
Had to turn it off when every third word was “Um.’
I apologize for this comment. These women are brave and opening doors with sharing their stories and insights. I leaned from them and appreciated their wisdom.
thank you for returning here with an apology, Donna!
love the idea of writing from the perspective of another gender. looking forward to reading your book. peace.
Thank you for generously sharing your perspectives. I find your inquiries, insights, and work inviting and thought-provoking in many ways, on many levels, regardless of how I might identify myself on the spectrum. I appreciate all the good that you are doing for yourselves, for each other, and for all beings! .
This is so inspiring!
So great! Thank you!
Thank you so much for watching our interview – we had a great time chatting with Travis and are grateful to the Awake Network and Shambhala Mountain Center for hosting! Feel free to ask us any questions here in the comments https://youtu.be/qHmK_OuWjH4
We also just posted a new video over on youtube to introduce our consent challenge where we debunk 5 common myths about consent. Check out the youtube link above if you are ready to learn more! 🙂