Ep6 On Music as a Second Language: regulation, expression, and connection

This episode moves through the places where music has helped me reach my inner world and translate it into something I could share. You’ll hear the first song I ever wrote, and we’ll revisit a 20-year-old playlist, early musical memories, and the ways sound has helped me regulate emotions long before I understood it.

I open up about my middle school choir songs — the ones that alienated me from singing — and I share Sumeyya’s voice note about growing up with similar experiences on the other side of the planet.

I also look at how music supported me in the aftermath of October 2023: the drummers at Berlin demos whose rhythms steady my body, the resistance songs that opened a whole world of connection for me, and the quiet ways music continues to translate experiences that words can’t hold.

This episode is a reflection on how music has carried me, clarified me, and stayed with me across time.

Many thanks to TorGado for composing the music just for this podcast. Art from my sketchbook. 

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