Donald Watts had everything going for him as one of the best high school basketball players ever to come out of Washington State. Just as his NBA dreams were about to be realized, Donald felt that something was not right. He was suffering from Chronic Fatigue syndrome, a debilitating and complex disorder characterized by profound fatigue that is not improved by rest.

Unwilling to forfeit his dreams, Donald began a new journey that allowed him to leverage his leadership skills, competitive spirit, and brilliant mind for the good of others. In this episode, we'll take a walk in the shoes of not just a tremendous basketball player, but get to know the organization he's built from the ground up that uses basketball as a vehicle for personal growth and what he calls “game changers for life.”

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Some guys arm themselves with guitars. Some women wield a mighty pen. Other folks always just seem to be holding. Lance Mercer’s path to the stage was a camera. Lance has tangled with some King Hell adversaries and emerged not only intact— but often stronger, wiser and more complete. Join us for an intimate conversation with Lance recorded at his West Seattle home, during which he reveals the secrets of his success, what it was like to be present for Seattle music’s finest moments, and how despite all of life’s unpredictable challenges, he manages to keep everything in focus.

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This week we want to change it up a little and bring you some shorter clips from interviews we did that we thought were really great, but because we really weren’t thinking about doing a podcast at the time, they were either too short, super casual, or just recorded in really noisy locations. We still wanted to showcase these individuals though, and get them into the time capsule that is this first season.

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Gretchen Baer is a master at synthesizing negatives into positives. So much so that she has internalized this synthesis into a practice that guides her entire life. Take her Border Bedazzlers project as an example…she saw an ugly and divisive border wall and created a project to turn it into an art canvas, that amazingly evolved into her Mariposa art and music school for under-served kids in the Mexican border town of Naco.

I really learned a lot from Gretchen about how to create a holistic approach to living a creative life. I hope you get as much out of our chat as I did.

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I’ll Tell You My Story is an organization that formed in a very unconventional way, when a writer named Spring Sutter, a filmmaker named Zippy Kumundu, and a photographer Emily Rieman very simply decided to do something seemingly unfathomable. Relying primarily on positive thinking and the modest personal resources they had on hand, these phenomenal women created a storytelling workshop for refugee girls who were fleeing conflict in Eastern Africa. What began as a single week-long workshop in Nairobi continues as an annual program, and has expanded into a second set of workshops in Uganda.

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When I sat down and listened to Skate Like a Girl’s leadership interview each other, I was only just beginning the PMA journey. The idea to interview my friends Kristin Ebeling and Nancy Chang was an almost simultaneous occurrence with the notion to start this magazine. When Kristin shocked me by showing me her PMA tattoo, I took it as as sign from the universe that I was on the right path and must do this.

Listen to these two incredible women discuss the genesis of their organization, how they found their way into serving others, and how community-building and leadership can evolve into living your very best life.

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