Gordon Smith: Welcome to Existential Tether Ball. We are a podcast that serves to examine and interrogate how we interpret our realities. We enter each episode through a portal, a word or a concept, our tether. Take it away, Rachel.

Rachel Fell: Yeah, yeah, a doorway, an invitation. ⁓ We've recorded some episodes so far. Words have included neurodiversity, pilgrimage, ⁓ story. But really saturated in this meta-sensibility of starting from a shared word or a tether, we jump in to explore depth meaning together. Our embodied subjective experiences are absolute treasure troves of connections,

Gordon Smith: Mm.

Rachel Fell: and associations and meaning and being able to co-create ⁓ from that place, from a deeper place of shared meaning is a really powerful way to relate and move in the world. So we're really excited to be ⁓ creating a space for that.

Gordon Smith: That's right. And it becomes an extension of the work that we need to do. I'm Gordon Smith. I'm a counselor and a coach and a creative facilitator working with gifted and otherwise neurodivergent adolescents and adults at Gifted and Growing. I've been a therapist for 26 years and been with neurodivergent populations for nine plus now as the only work that I'm doing. And that work directly informs what existential tetherball is going to

Rachel Fell: Absolutely. And I'm Rachel Fell. Hi. ⁓ Gordon and I do very similar but different work in the world. So like Gordon, I also work with gifted neurodivergent, sensitive, intense and complex ⁓ individuals and teams, even organizations sometimes, but really focusing on this space of, you know, sort of neurodiversity as a doorway to understanding and exploring what is possible when it comes to living human intelligence. Living in human intelligence is a really interesting space that knocks right on the door of consciousness. And we are really standing at the precipice of the pragmatism of exploring this in earnest. Far from navel gazey, right? In the age of artificial intelligence, what do we mean by intelligence? How does living intelligence work? ⁓ What do we know? What don't we know? What can we learn or unlearn? So, ⁓ Gordon and I have very similar but different practices and ⁓ like we're really just keen to bring some of these more existential ways of exploring that we often do with our clients ⁓ into a broader conversation, into some broader visibility.

Gordon Smith: That's right to piggyback there, Rachel, that we're nurturing these essential skills in people that are more relevant now than ever as we're amidst the polycrisis, that nurturing an openness to exploration is critical. Being able to hold multiple truths simultaneously is another essential piece.

Rachel Fell: Mm-hmm.

Gordon Smith: Allowing for depth and complexity doing away with assumptions These are skills that we get to nurture and through the conversations here at existential tetherball That's what we're intending

Rachel Fell: Yes, absolutely. This touches into a place that really honors phenomenology. It honors the living being as a receiver and synthesizer of information that we are swimming in. This takes an approach that's predicated on the aliveness of data, the aliveness of relationships. the co-creative nature of reality. you if I wanted to get really nerdy, we could talk about, you know, science and spirituality coming from the same place and reciprocity and interplay of ⁓ form and essence. ⁓ I'll stop myself there for now.

Gordon Smith: Well, it's funny, like, you said, if I wanted to get nerdy, as though that wasn't the starting place, you know?

Rachel Fell: There's the nerdiness of the spectrum. Existential nerdiness is definitely a spectrum. ⁓ You know, meta.

Gordon Smith: It is, it is. And that's the invitation is like all you existential nerd spectrum folk, no matter where you are in that scatter graph are absolutely invited to come and co-create with us and to ask questions and to ⁓ bring your own ⁓ intention to nurture these skills in yourself.

Rachel Fell: I'm here. Hmm.

Gordon Smith: to ⁓ what we're hoping we're gonna be able to do. Sometimes it'll be me and Rachel, sometimes it'll be me and Rachel and a guest. Who knows, it might be several guests. Some weeks it might just be Rachel. I don't know. I don't know exactly how it's all gonna play out. ⁓ But just know that you're welcome.

Rachel Fell: Yeah. And I love how you're sharing, you know, this set of, let's say, essential skills that really deepens and strengthens human connection, allows for honoring that uniqueness, that difference, that distinction, but also sameness at the same time. And this takes us right into the neurodiversity paradigm as a foundational way of seeing and exploring that we bring to this party. ⁓ But that, you know,

Gordon Smith: Hmm.

Rachel Fell: to really model these skills, to have these conversations, to be both playful about them, but also with serious stuff, right? Like how do we come together stronger, unified, honoring distinction? Like these are important questions that, you know, the timeliness of whatever's going on out there is really asking us to ⁓ explore and play with. So yeah, these essential skills, modeling these, playing around, having a good time, and yeah, challenging your own assumptions.

Gordon Smith: Mm-hmm

Rachel Fell: noticing your own ⁓ interests and orientations in these conversations. Maybe a specific tether episode speaks to you a little bit more than another. ⁓ Maybe some of these questions become journaling prompts in your own process and say, you know. Yeah.

Gordon Smith: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah. You just made me think of like listening parties, you know, to be able to bring people together. ⁓ So what you'll see at Existential Tetherball is we're going to come on, we're going to introduce our tether for that week, whatever that idea or concept is. And through that aperture are then going to engage all of the skills that we just described to you. ⁓ Yeah, I hope and what I've seen so far is that we get to really inhabit these spaces where we don't know exactly where it's going to go. And then it's that spirit of curiosity and exploration that carries the episode.

Rachel Fell: Absolutely. And I also love, we've talked a little bit behind the scenes about wanting this to be very authentic. How much polish, how much does this feel like our guest is being interviewed? We're asking questions. ⁓ Yes, all of that and inhabiting our authentic selves as professional neurodivergent guides and two folks in the world that are really living that. of being seen and also expressing, right? And so I want to say in like one episode we recorded recently, I was trying to form a question and instead of forming a question, I basically gave our guest like a charcuterie board of ideas for her to play with, right? And so there is this element too of just sort of like the reciprocity and interplay of these shapes and forms and ideas that are being co-created in real time. And so, yeah, it's just trying to show up as real as we can be.

Gordon Smith: I'm sorry. 100 and that's you're invited to do the same We it's Fall goes well. We can begin to extend a community Throughout neurodivergent spaces and throughout ⁓ Existentially minded spaces as well So you're absolutely invited We would love for you to click like click subscribe or follow to let people know that we're here because these explorations will be able to get deeper and broader the more people we can bring into the fold.

Rachel Fell: Absolutely. Meaning is pragmatic. ⁓ To be able to explore and to be open to exploring your own meaning, to explore that meaning with others, again, just so ⁓ important always and this time. So we're super stoked to be doing this. And yeah, really excited to see how this all unfolds.

Gordon Smith: Thanks for being here. We'll see you on the existential tetherball court.

Rachel Fell: Beautiful. Thanks, Gordon.