Spirit Talk Show - Bedtime Stories for Grown Ups

There are people you meet in life who remind you that you are more than the story you have been telling about yourself. Wil Fisher is one of those people.

This week on Spirit Talk Show, Doyle gets deeply personal. He opens by sharing something that happened to him at a retreat he nearly did not attend, a weekend where he cried not once but three times, not from sadness, but from something rarer and harder to name: recognition. The relief of finally being seen.

The man responsible for creating that room is Wil Fisher, life coach, retreat leader, applied theater practitioner, hypnotherapist, NLP Master Practitioner, Reiki practitioner, founder of Willfully Living, and host of the podcast Queerly Beloved. Wil grew up in a home marked by addiction, alcoholism, and abuse. As a gay kid who also navigated bullying, safety was never something he got to take for granted. For years afterward he found himself in patterns that will feel familiar to many listeners: people pleasing, self-sabotage, chasing success that looked right on the outside but felt hollow on the inside.

What changed everything was an unexpected role at Easton Mountain, an LGBTQ retreat center in upstate New York, where he eventually became Executive Director and immersed himself in healing work every single day, sitting at the feet of shamans, coaches, and spiritual guides from around the world. He did not just witness transformation. He let it in.

In this episode, Wil and Doyle talk about what it actually means to be fully seen, why receiving a compliment can be one of the most terrifying things a person can do, how theater and improv unlock truths that the thinking mind cannot reach, what cacao ceremony is and what it is not, the inner child work that left Doyle speechless, how the retreat served men who showed up skeptical and left lighter than they had felt in years, and what it looks like to build a new neural pathway that tells you it is safe to be yourself.

Wil also shares about his one-on-one immersive retreat work in Encinitas, California, a place he calls high-vibrational and a couple of blocks from the ocean. And if something in this episode stirs something in you, here is what is coming up: Wil is hosting a retreat in Lake Arrowhead, California from Thursday, October 8th through Sunday, October 11th. It is the kind of weekend that changes things. Full details and registration are at https://www.wil-fullyliving.com/events. He is also offering a week-long Costa Rica retreat over New Year's, and the possibility of a Northern California event is on the horizon as well.

The episode closes with Doyle reading the tribute story he wrote for Wil, which brought both of them close to tears, and Wil reading an achingly beautiful poem about joy that just might stay with you for days.

If any part of you has been waiting a long time to exhale, this episode is for you.

Connect with Wil Fisher: Website: https://www.wil-fullyliving.com/ Upcoming Events: https://www.wil-fullyliving.com/events Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wilfish99/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WillfullyLiving Podcast: Queerly Beloved: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/queerly-beloved/id1647431399

 

Spirit Talk Show – Bedtime Stories for Grown-Ups
Hosted by Doyle

Follow Spirit Talk Show on social media:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/spirittalkshow
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/doylespirittalkshow/
X: https://x.com/doylespirittalk 
Tumblr: https://www.tumblr.com/blog/spirittalkshow 

www.spirittalkshow.info 

If this episode resonated with you, please subscribe, rate, and share it with someone who might need it.

Sponsored by Incogni — they remove your personal data from broker sites automatically so strangers cannot buy your information. Get protected: https://deal.incogni.io/spirittalkshow

This is a special episode of Spirit Talk Show.

In one of the most personal and emotionally revealing conversations of the season, Doyle sits down with Eldra DeBarge Jr. for a powerful conversation about family legacy, music, fatherhood, pain, purpose, and the courage it takes to become yourself when the world thinks it already knows who you are.

As the son of a legendary musical bloodline, Eldra has lived with the weight of expectation, comparison, and assumption for most of his life. But this conversation goes far deeper than fame. With honesty, vulnerability, and remarkable grace, he opens up about what it was really like growing up near greatness, longing for connection, searching for validation, fighting to protect the people he loved, and slowly learning that he could not build his life by chasing someone else’s shadow.

Together, Doyle and Eldra talk about what it means to carry a famous name while still needing to earn your own peace, your own truth, and your own place in the world. They explore the tension between legacy and identity, the pain of family fracture, the longing to be seen fully, the redemption that comes through fatherhood, and the spiritual work of choosing love over ego, truth over image, and purpose over performance.

The conversation also turns toward Eldra’s new music and the heart behind his single “Trading Lust for Love,” a song that reflects where he is now as an artist and a man. More than a release, it becomes part of the larger story—one of growth, healing, and choosing soul over spectacle.

This is an episode about inheritance, heartbreak, healing, and the kind of self-discovery that does not come easy—but comes honestly.

A deeply human conversation for anyone who has ever tried to become their own person while carrying the weight of family, history, or expectation.

Listen, follow, and support Eldra DeBarge Jr. and his single “Trading Lust for Love” at: https://www.eldebargejr.com/ 

Spirit Talk Show – Bedtime Stories for Grown-Ups
Hosted by Doyle

Follow Spirit Talk Show on social media:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/spirittalkshow
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/doylespirittalkshow/
X: https://x.com/doylespirittalk 
Tumblr: https://www.tumblr.com/blog/spirittalkshow 

www.spirittalkshow.info 

If this episode resonated with you, please subscribe, rate, and share it with someone who might need it.

Sponsored by Incogni — they remove your personal data from broker sites automatically so strangers cannot buy your information. Get protected: https://deal.incogni.io/spirittalkshow

In this powerful episode of Spirit Talk Show, Doyle sits down with Josh Tomeoni for an honest, deeply personal conversation about masculinity, divorce, identity collapse, addiction, failure, and the long road back to yourself.

Josh opens up about the moment his life cracked open—when shame, loss, and the collapse of the life he thought he had forced him to confront who he really was underneath the roles of husband, father, provider, and “good man.” What follows is a raw and thoughtful exploration of what happens when the white-picket-fence dream falls apart and a man has to decide whether he will keep hiding or finally face himself.

Together, Doyle and Josh talk about modern masculinity, self-worth versus self-esteem, addiction as escape, the pressure men feel to be useful at all costs, and why so many men suffer in silence rather than reach for help. Josh also shares insights from his book, The Gospel of an Ex-Derelict: Fight, Fail, Rebuild, offering a grounded and compassionate framework for what rebuilding can actually look like.

This is a conversation about pain, responsibility, identity, and the courage to stop performing strength and start becoming real.

A moving episode for anyone who has lost the life they thought they were supposed to have and is trying to build something truer in its place.

Learn more about Josh Tomeoni:
http://exderelict.com/

Spirit Talk Show – Bedtime Stories for Grown-Ups
Hosted by Doyle

Follow Spirit Talk Show on social media:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/spirittalkshow
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/doylespirittalkshow/
X: https://x.com/doylespirittalk 
Tumblr: https://www.tumblr.com/blog/spirittalkshow 

www.spirittalkshow.info 

If this episode resonated with you, please subscribe, rate, and share it with someone who might need it.

Sponsored by Incogni — they remove your personal data from broker sites automatically so strangers cannot buy your information. Get protected: https://deal.incogni.io/spirittalkshow

What happens when the person behind the camera becomes part of the story?

In this episode of Spirit Talk Show, Doyle sits down with novelist and crisis communications expert John David, author of the award-winning thriller The Bystander.

Inspired by a real-life active shooter intervention, the novel follows TV reporter Pete LeMaster, who captures the moment a bystander stops a shooter. The footage goes viral — and his career changes overnight. But as John says, “all is not as it seems.”

spirit-talk-show-studio_john-da…

With more than 30 years in public relations and crisis communication, John explores:

• How viral clips distort context
• The moral weight of witnessing
• The tension between fame and tragedy
• The brutal reality of traditional publishing
• Why nuance still matters in a polarized world

We also talk about rejection, reputation, redemption, and what it means to stand just outside the blast radius — until you’re pulled in.

The Bystander is available everywhere books are sold.
The audiobook releases in April.
Book two in the series, The Pawn, releases May 13.

Learn more about John and his work:
https://byjohndavid.substack.com/

A conversation about crisis, consequence, and the space between the lens and the hand.

Spirit Talk Show – Bedtime Stories for Grown-Ups
Hosted by Doyle

Follow Spirit Talk Show on social media:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/spirittalkshow
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/doylespirittalkshow/
X: https://x.com/doylespirittalk 
Tumblr: https://www.tumblr.com/blog/spirittalkshow 

www.spirittalkshow.info 

If this episode resonated with you, please subscribe, rate, and share it with someone who might need it.

Sponsored by Incogni — they remove your personal data from broker sites automatically so strangers cannot buy your information. Get protected: https://deal.incogni.io/spirittalkshow

There is a quiet memory many of us carry — even if we don’t have language for it.

A sense that life was once gentler.
That cooperation came before competition.
That learning once meant becoming more human, not more efficient.

In this reflective episode of Spirit Talk Show: Bedtime Stories for Grown-Ups, Doyle sits down with psychotherapist, yoga philosophy teacher, and author Catya Batalha to explore what it means to remember who we were before the world told us who to be.

Drawing from her book Echoes of the Timeless, Catya shares a vision of a civilization rooted in reciprocity rather than dominance — a world where spirit and nature were not separate, and where children were guided toward authenticity rather than comparison.

Together, they explore:

• The nervous system impact of prolonged competition and stress
• Why so many children enter school expecting kindness — and leave disillusioned
• Trauma as part of a larger soul journey
• The balance between “shadow work” and “light work” in healing
• How education might change if personal development came first
• The idea that remembering together may be the most revolutionary act of all

Catya speaks candidly about her own journey — from anger and despair to spiritual awakening — and how she now integrates Western psychotherapy with Eastern wisdom traditions in her healing work.

This conversation is not about fixing yourself.

It is about remembering.

If something in this episode feels familiar in a way you can’t quite name, stay with it. The ache may not be sadness alone. It may be recognition.

Learn more about Catya’s work, her book, and her offerings at:
https://catiabatalha.org/

And if you’re listening and thinking, “I thought it was just me,” it never was.

There are more stories to remember.

Spirit Talk Show – Bedtime Stories for Grown-Ups
Hosted by Doyle

Follow Spirit Talk Show on social media:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/spirittalkshow
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/doylespirittalkshow/
X: https://x.com/doylespirittalk 
Tumblr: https://www.tumblr.com/blog/spirittalkshow 

www.spirittalkshow.info 

If this episode resonated with you, please subscribe, rate, and share it with someone who might need it.

Sponsored by Incogni — they remove your personal data from broker sites automatically so strangers cannot buy your information. Get protected: https://deal.incogni.io/spirittalkshow