The Lesson is Love

It’s OK to Not Know (Yet) | Justin Farren

Episode 2: It’s Ok to Not Know (Yet), with Justin Farren
SHOW NOTES:
“I felt like I was out of control and I didn’t want anybody else to think I was out of control. So that was just young Justin not being comfortable with: 'I don’t know.' Just being comfortable with, 'this dog sometimes does stupid stuff and it’s not my fault, it’s something we should be working through together.'" -Justin Farren
Join us for the second episode of The Lesson is Love as I speak with Justin Farren, a singer-songwriter, husband, father and dog lover based in Sacramento, California. In this episode we explore the parallels in nurturing dogs and children, the insatiable nature of money as a reinforcer and ways to help his dog Clara become more comfortable with people. As always, we also talk about dogs. Topics in this episode range from leaning in to saying, “I don’t know,” to making space for ourselves (and our children) to imagine new realities. Justin also plays one of my favorite songs of his, Two Wheel Drive and Japanese. I hope this conversation resonates and gives you practical ways to live into your best case scenario. 
 
About the Host, Grisha Stewart, MA, CPDT-KA, KPACTP: 
Grisha Stewart is an author, international speaker, dog trainer, and online dog school facilitator based in Oregon, USA, who specializes in dog reactivity and canine empowerment. She’s been training dogs since 2003. Her two most recent books are Behavior Adjustment Training 2.0: New Practical Techniques for Fear, Frustration, and Aggression in Dogs and The Official Ahimsa Dog Training Manual: A Practical, Force-Free Guide to Problem Solving and Manners. She's invented the Leash Belay, a way to walk dogs with rock climbing techniques. Grisha presents dog training and behavior seminars around the world and lessons online. In 2023, she released Intro to BAT 3.0 (BAT 2.0 is still the best book on the subject and the upcoming 3.0 book will just add to it). There are over 100 different courses in her innovative, collaborative online dog training school, with more coming every few weeks from a variety of instructors, including Grisha. 
In addition to her professional pursuits and projects, Grisha is a musician, meditator, budding artist, and an avid conversationalist. She delights in exploring topics of connection, love, communication, and interspecies community.  
About the Guest, Justin Farren: 
Justin Farren was born and raised in Sacramento, where he lives in a house built with his own two hands - or as he likes to refer to it, "a living museum of my own mistakes". Justin's twin brother is yellow truck named Yellow. In the last few years he's won a bevy of awards including the Kerrville New Folk Competition, Songwriter Serenade, and Wildflower. He's shared the stage with David Wilcox, Anna Tivel, Sam Baker, Matt Costa, Pierce Pettis, and many other outstanding performers. He is way more likely to toilet paper a house now than he ever was as a kid.
Justin's fourth Full Length album, Pretty Free, was released on October 23rd, 2020. It's a homespun masterpiece featuring 11 original songs crafted and recorded in a shed in Justin's own backyard. The majority of the songs on the record have won awards In various songwriting competitions around the country, and the album features some of the finest musicians on the planet, Including Brian Chris Rogers, Anna Tivel and Andre Fylling among others. He plays a cheap guitar, but everyone always asks him about his tone and how to get it. They don't know that the sound they're hearing is in his fingers. It's in his playing - a combination of unboxed fluidity, unbridled creativity and muted space. The only way to get Justin Farren's tone or to write songs like him is to be him. He can write a song about anything. 
Links:
Grisha Stewart’s website
Justin Farren’s website
The Grisha Stewart Academy
The Lesson is Love Podcast Webpage 
Justin’s latest album, Pretty Free
Pretty Free on Spotify
Justin’s Bandcamp
Microsigns Webinar on the Grisha Stewart Academy
BAT Empowerment Series on the Grisha Stewart Academy
Social Media:
Justin’s Instagram
Grisha’s Instagram
Grisha Stewart Academy / Empowered Animals Facebook
The Lesson is Love Facebook 

Emotional Balance is as Easy as Riding a Unicycle | David Wilcox

“I love songs that will give me the emotional reality of something I want to live into, so that I can feel it present tense and anchor that experience…and hold that experience as irrefutable proof of: ‘it’s possible to be there. It’s possible to get there.’” -David Wilcox
Join us for the very first episode of The Lesson is Love as I speak with David Wilcox, a transformative folk singer-songwriter and lifelong learner. In this episode we explore the power songwriting and music-making has in teaching us to access presence and creating space for possibility to flourish. As always, we also talk about dogs. Topics ranged from reactivity (“barking”  in both dogs and humans) to the richness of our dog-human relationships. So much magic is created when people come together who love music, love dogs and love love. I hope this conversation resonates and gives you practical ways to live into your best case scenario.
 
Show Notes: 
 
About the Host, Grisha Stewart: 
Grisha Stewart is an author, international speaker, dog trainer, and online dog school facilitator based in Oregon, USA, who specializes in dog reactivity and canine empowerment. She’s been  training dogs since 2003. Her two most recent books are Behavior Adjustment Training 2.0: New Practical Techniques for Fear, Frustration, and Aggression in Dogs and The Official Ahimsa Dog Training Manual: A Practical, Force-Free Guide to Problem Solving and Manners. In 2022, she revealed the update to BAT 3.0 (BAT 2.0 is still the best book on the subject). She presents dog training and behavior seminars around the world and lessons online.  There are over 100 different courses in her innovative online dog training school, with more coming every few weeks from a variety of instructors, including Grisha. In addition to her professional pursuits and projects, Grisha is an avid conversationalist and enjoys exploring topics of connection, love, communication, and interspecies community.  
 
About the Guest, David Wilcox: 
More than three decades into his career, singer/songwriter David Wilcox continues to push himself, just as he always has. Wilcox, by so many measures, is a quintessential folk singer, telling stories full of heart, humor, and hope, substance, searching, and style. His innate sense of adventure and authenticity is why critics and colleagues, alike, have always praised not just his artistry, but his humanity, as well. In the 30 years and more than 20 records since — whether with a major label, an indie company, or his own imprint — Wilcox has continued to hone his craft, pairing thoughtful insights with his warm baritone, open tunings, and deft technique. He's also kept up a brisk and thorough tour itinerary, performing 80 to 100 shows a year throughout the U.S., and regularly deploying his talents by improvising a “Musical Medicine” song for an audience member in need.
 
Links:
Grisha Stewart’s website
David Wilcox’s website
The Grisha Stewart Academy
The Lesson is Love Podcast Webpage 
From the Episode: 
David’s Song “We Make the Way by Walking”:
Official Video on Youtube
On Spotify
David’s Most Recent Album, The View From the Edge (Spotify)
David’s Musical Medicine offerings
Talk With Me, a course offered through the Grisha Stewart Academy on learning to interpret your dog’s behavior to cultivate empathy and understanding
 
Social Media:
David’s Instagram
Grisha’s InstagramGrisha’s Facebook