Sonic Road Trip emerged from my desire to share the music that's helping me get by in the midst of *waves hands* all this. Looking around, we can find so many reasons to despair. It’s natural to avoid pain and try to push away challenging emotions.

I find that listening to music is the most reliable way for me to drop into my feelings and resist the urge to numb out.

However, we can’t selectively numb our feelings. When we try to shut out grief, rage, fear, and shame, we also shut down our capacity for joy, love, belonging, and creativity.

More than ever, I believe we need to seek out practices that help us stay connected to our humanity.

I make these mixtapes to shift stuck feelings in my body and tell the stories that are hard to put into words.

I choose to host Sonic Road Trip on Mixcloud because they are licensed with all major music labels and publishers as well as over 250 independent labels, and they pay the artists and songwriters fairly for their work. In fact, 65% of your monthly subscription fee goes to support the artists you are listening to. Unfortunately, that is far from true for streaming platforms like Spotify.

Living in unprecedented times, we can find so many reasons to despair. It’s natural to avoid pain and try to push away challenging emotions. However, we can’t selectively numb our feelings. When we try to shut out grief, rage, fear, and shame, we also shut down our capacity for joy, love, belonging, and creativity.

In this state of numbness and disconnection, both our individual and collective well-being suffer. Overwhelm from the 24/7 news cycle and escalating crises fuels a destructive feedback loop. If we want to respond constructively to the huge challenges we’re facing as a society, we need to seek out practices that cultivate presence, compassion, and resilience. We practice feeling our feelings so we can stay connected to our humanity.

For me, listening to music has reliably been the most accessible way to drop into my feelings. I started making playlists in my teens to capture a particular mood or memory. Over time, sharing music with friends and family has become a love language.

Sonic Road Trip emerged from my desire to share these musical care packages with a broader audience. My goal is to give us simple, accessible tools for navigating the terrain of our emotional landscapes.

I make playlists to:

• tell the stories that are hard to put into words

• show loved ones that I see them in their struggle

• shift stuck feelings in my own body

• celebrate joyful moments with my community

With each playlist, I’ll share the stories behind the music and the personal connections that made these songs come to life together for me. I’ll also share tidbits I come across that help me to anchor in deep presence.

This is a very personal project — an expression of my own feelings, experiences, and process.

Curious about the kind of music I play? Head over to the Listen Now page where I’ve shared a set of three sample playlists to give you a feel for my style.