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Can human design and acting help you connect in a better way with other people?
In this episode, I sit down with Yerasimos Stilianessis. He was raised in New Jersey by Greek immigrant parents and grew up inside a culture shaped by hard work, responsibility, and resilience. Rather than following the expected path, he chose a different direction, one marked by travel, acting and theater training, and decades of personal development work rooted in self-honesty.
Acting and performance became unexpected entry points into parts work, emotional awareness, and a more nuanced relationship with the inner world. Over time, truth seeking shifted from external confrontation to internal regulation, especially in the aftermath of years spent immersed in activism.
Somatic awareness, masculine embodiment, and the challenge of holding autonomy alongside connection run throughout the conversation, particularly in the context of relationships strained by opposing worldviews. Stories from growing up around Greek diners in New Jersey ground these themes in culture, lineage, and lived experience.
This episode is for listeners who feel less called to persuade, and more called to live in alignment with what they know.
You’ll Learn:
[
04:20] How Greek diners in New Jersey shaped early identity and relational awareness
[
10:45] What breaking from the expected success path unlocked internally
[
18:30] How acting training revealed parts work and psychological depth
[
27:15] Why questioning health narratives became a catalyst for truth seeking
[
36:40] What the body exposes when speaking publicly under pressure
[
45:10] Why post-2020 burnout reshaped views on activism and attention
[
53:25] How masculine embodiment shifts from persuasion to lived values
[
01:01:10] Why peace and presence emerge as mature expressions of truth
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Resources Mentioned:
Dancing Naked in the Minefield by Dr. Kary Mullis |
BookVoice Dialogue/Psychology of Selves |
Website
Connect with Yerasimos:
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What is Reclamation Radio with Kelly Brogan MD?
It hurts to have unmet needs. And it sucks to scurry after crumbs when you’re starving. Join Kelly Brogan MD, as she teaches us how our pain points are portals. She’ll help you discover a world where every seeming challenge is a new chapter in your most audacious story. Plot twists, body symptoms, and heartbreak each represent an opportunity to own ourselves and learn to better wield the power of choice. Kelly will take you on a reclamation journey from the battlefield of victim consciousness to the sovereignty of self-devoted pleasure and expose every surprising place you’ve given your power away. Explore the tools you’ll need to find out what you want, how to ask for it and how to stand in fierce alignment with yourself.Kelly Brogan is a soul alchemist and threshold guardian devoted to the transformation of collective consciousness. As a young know-it-all atheist, candy-addict, straight-A MIT neuroscience major and Ivy-league trained psychiatrist, she specialized in feeding women, herself included, straight into the mouth of the medicated beast. After a Hashimoto’s healing journey inspired her to sound the alarm on the bait-and-switch of big pharma, she became a renegade activist—authoring the New York Times bestseller, A Mind of Your Own, and its follow-up, Own Your Self; co-editing the landmark textbook, Integrative Therapies for Depression; and eventually becoming an honorary member of the Disinformation Dozen. She is the creatrix of Vital Mind Reset, the online health reclamation program, and the membership community Vital Life Project. She’s a human, cat, and chicken mom.