Podcast Alert! Vancouver’s Full Bloom Pod Inspires Community for Season 2

By Taylor Neal

During these rainy winter months here in Vancouver, fostering community and connection are essential to our well-being, especially in the midst of a third wave of restrictions and isolations due to the ongoing pandemic reality we are currently facing. As we all navigate yet another series of “stay at home” warnings, finding avenues to remain inspired and engaged both in ourselves and our communities proves to be increasingly challenging, and yet it is as essential to our survival as is clean air to breathe.

Many of us have found this need for connection driving us toward online engagements and spaces, where we may interact with likeminded folks both local and far from the comfort of our homes. In alignment with this fostering of community, I would like to present to you, What’s On readers, Vancouver’s own Full Bloom Podcast.

Hosted by Emma Mutch and myself, Taylor Neal, the Full Bloom Pod aims to provide a space for anyone in search of a safe and supportive community to lean on as they step into the fullest, most expansive version of their self. We want to see you grow and expand in whatever way you desire, and we want to offer all of the resources and connection, and most of all cheerleading, you need in order for you to release fear and embrace all that you are and all that you dream to be. With our podcast, we are committed to unpacking and airing out all of the most intimate, juicy, often kept private parts of women's and gender-diverse realities as they confront the healthcare system, sexuality, pleasure, and other varying structures which make-up North American society. Because the personal is damn political after all, we strive to create community, generate conversation, and help folks feel seen in whatever stage they're at on their personal development journey. Think of our podcast as a safe container in which you may completely unravel, unpack, spread out, and come back together into the most authentic, vibrant version of you – into your fullest bloom.

Roommates and best friends, we found ourselves growing and expanding as individuals and together in ways we never had before, simply because we had created a space for ourselves where we could come together at the end of a day or week and engage in lengthy, honest, winding conversations about the ins and outs of navigating the fluctuations of women’s realities and what it means to move through that sticky space of feeling like, as Britney says, “not a girl not yet a woman.” Platonic intimacy is really all it is, such a sacred though often taken-for-granted aspect of our lives. We want to remind you of how much love lives here, after all where really would we be without our friends?

We realized along the way that, if we were getting so much from these types of conversations with one another, that there must be others out there talking about this stuff in the safety and privacy of their homes with their close circles. Why then, we started to wonder, do these chats always seem to be kept so private? Here, Full Bloom Pod was born.

We want to invite you to join us on our bloom journey, which began officially almost exactly a year ago in January 2021, but really began the moment we decided to release all that the world has told us we are supposed to be and instead made the commitment to discovering all of the messy, raw, imperfection of who we are. As Season One unfolded throughout 2021 we had the privilege of engaging with several inspirational guests and dove deep into topics such as sexuality, gender, birthwork, menstrual health and cycle awareness, astrology, spirituality, dance and performance, and so much more. Now, with a new year has come a new season of our pod, and we’re so excited to continue unraveling it all together.

A lot can happen in a year, and we are committed to transparency and authenticity as we move through our own lives alongside the creation of this podcast. As we expand, we continue to advocate for pleasure-centered embodiment practices, the decolonization of sex and pleasure and confrontation of the internalized misogyny we all experience when exploring our sexuality. With this new season, we hope to generate more resources, connect with more inspirational folks, and offer a more interactive space to our Bloom Squad. In general, we want to build community! If there is a topic, a question, or a conversation you’re just dying to have in the context of a safe, femme-founded circle, we want to hear from you! We’re really just chatting, with each other, with you, trying to figure it all out together.

Find us as Full Bloom Pod on Spotify and Apple Music, @fullbloom_pod on Instagram, or send us an email at fullbloompodcast@gmail.com, and watch out for new episode releases with the new moon each month.

We see you! You’re doing great! Let’s talk about it!

Full Bloom Pod on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/46n3RZnEK0aWaX9FJTA5EX?si=0f602c11b2e740b4

Apple Music: https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/full-bloom-pod/id1551278629

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fullbloom_pod/