I AM SOULFIRE Podcast

I want to disclose that what I am doing here—writing, telling stories, exposing patterns—is not easy work for me. But I do it with good intentions, hoping that one day the right audience finds my voice and that it helps them live whole, without the burdens of people who treat them poorly.

It is not easy to realize who and what people are. It is also usually heartbreaking to consider how they got to be that way. I am not trained to deal with these types of people—and yet, I was most definitely trained to dea...

🎭 ABOUT THE PERFORMANCEI AM SOULFIRE is performance storytelling. These videos are performed readings of the stories published on Substack. The spoken performances may vary from the written versions to accommodate delivery, timing, humor, and dramatic effect.For the full SOULFIRE experience, watch or listen to the performance.

I AM SOULFIRE — DISPATCH 6

AN EMERGENCY BROADCAST — THREE STRIKES, YOU’RE OUT

01 — THE REMINDERS

In Dispatch 5, Part 1, I talk about my ’90s talk show addiction. I had to put Post-it notes on my television screen and on the cable box because I needed a reminder not...

Dispatch 5, Bonus, Part 2, The Comments and the Decoder. A special, by request, I AM SOULFIRE Dispatch. Welcome back. In Part 1, I read Dr. Setter’s post and gave you my take before reading the comments.

IAS Confession

This week’s IAS Confession. In seventh grade English class, I could not keep fiction and nonfiction straight. This makes sense to me now. I mean, why I was confused. Fiction and nonfiction terms are still stupid to me.

There was this jock, as we called them back then, in my class. He was on the foot...

🎭 ABOUT THE PERFORMANCEI AM SOULFIRE is performance storytelling. These videos are performed readings of the stories published on Substack. The spoken performances may vary from the written versions to accommodate delivery, timing, humor, and dramatic effect.

Welcome to a special, by-request I AM SOULFIRE Narco-DeTector & DeCoder Dispatch.

A listener DM’d asking if IAS could recognize N-ZONER traits in people OTHER than Bro. Could I show others how I see what I now see?

Well, I came across a Reddit post over a month ago, and this guy had my attention in the FIRST...

🎭 ABOUT THE PERFORMANCE I AM SOULFIRE is performance storytelling. These videos are performed readings of the stories published on Substack. The spoken performances may vary from the written versions to accommodate delivery, timing, humor, and dramatic effect.

⚠️ WARNING: DR — The Doctor, The Author, and Narrator has had a potty mouth since she was about eight years old.

I finally decided to embrace my potty mouth as a superpower and use my natural gifts to help change the world — one heart, one soul, and one family at a time.

So if your ears are too delicat...

🎭 ABOUT THE PERFORMANCEI AM SOULFIRE is performance storytelling. These videos are performed readings of the stories published on Substack. The spoken performances may vary from the written versions to accommodate delivery, timing, humor, and dramatic effect.Welcome back to Part 2 of THE TEXT. Today’s confessions:

⚠️ WARNING - DR — The Doctor, The Author, and narrator — is a late bloomer, has a slow processor, and has had a potty mouth since she was about eight years old. ⚠️

Allegedly, there is a thing called taboo-word fluency — so maybe this potty mouth is not a character flaw after all and perhaps it...

🎭 ABOUT THE PERFORMANCEI AM SOULFIRE is performance storytelling. These videos are performed readings of the stories published on Substack. The spoken performances may vary from the written versions to accommodate delivery, timing, humor, and dramatic effect.

⚠️ WARNING — I AM SOULFIRE has a potty mouth, so if that is not your cup of tea, please scroll on to something better suited for your taste, please. ⚠️When I was under 5 my grandmother, G, gave me a General Electric record player which was my world. Looking back it is such a HUGE part of my childhood. Where little DJ SOULFIRE got her start...

🎭 ABOUT THE PERFORMANCEI AM SOULFIRE is performance storytelling. These videos are performed readings of the stories published on Substack. The spoken performances may vary from the written versions to accommodate delivery, timing, humor, and dramatic effect.⚠️ WARNING — I AM SOULFIRE has the mouth of a truck-driving sailor in this Dispatch, so if that is not your cup of tea, please scroll on to something better suited for your taste, please.

“We are strong.Heartache to heartache we stand.No promises, no demands.Love is a battlefield.”

— Pat Benatar, 1983

01 — BUT THEY’RE FAMILY

What do people me...

🎭 ABOUT THE PERFORMANCEI AM SOULFIRE is performance storytelling. These videos are performed readings of the stories published on Substack. The spoken performances may vary from the written versions to accommodate delivery, timing, humor, and dramatic effect.

Imagine, if you will, that it is amateur fireside storytelling night at your favorite little coffeehouse.

The lights are low. You’re comfortable, something warm nearby, waiting for the next story to begin.

Then, from somewhere over the speaker system, you hear...

Testing... testing...

Is this thing on?

You look around.

...

WELCOME TO I AM SOULFIRE

THE SMOKE BEFORE THE FIRE

The Prologue, if we must call it something.

I’ve also created video versions — if you like a little visual with your storytelling.

After 55 years of life on the planet, in March 2025, I had a text exchange with my undiagnosed, narcissist-trending brother that changed my life as I knew it.

For the first time, I didn’t swear, or cry, or call him names, or... any of the things I would normally do.

It was an exc...