On the eve of Father’s Day, I went to sleep thinking of how my dad used to sing to me when I was a young boy. The one song I remember him singing, that I still can call back to feeling him singing, was Edelweiss, from the Rodgers and Hammerstein Read more…
Everyday my kids go to school and we don’t know if they’ll come home. Because that’s who we all are. That’s what we allow and enable and vote for and avoid uncomfortable conversations about. My 12-year-old son said to me one morning sometime during this school year, “You guys tell Read more…
Overview: In this episode (ep 136), Adam Williams weaves stories of his two young sons throwing head locks and left hooks, and finding confidence amid their tears and rage, with his own challenges as a boy raised to never fight.(Released on podcast on Feb. 11, 2023) Also on Apple, Spotify, Pandora, Stitcher, YouTube, Google and other players. EP Read more…
My eight-year-old son, J, beat me at a game of G-L-A-C-I-E-R the other day (it’s H-O-R-S-E but we like to choose a different word each time we play). It was his first victory over me in, I think, anything. And of all things, basketball? For decades, that has been my Read more…
I have not figured out if we are being punished to live during this time in history or if we are fortunate for the opportunity to be here now, to know it, feel it, live it, respond to it and tell it firsthand. History always has been an interesting subject Read more…
Overview: Adam Williams, creator of Humanitou, gets into a topic that he’s really not comfortable talking about: love. In this solo episode, he starts with an odd little story that finally got him to speak on this issue he’s got with love. He explores why he’s not comfortable having this talk with you today, Read more…
On a clipboard marked “Adam Williams 1-B,” I have a stack of poetry I wrote years ago. The prose poem below digs into a mystery, reflecting on moments of father-son catch in the backyard gone by and forgotten. Decades have passed. Now, I have sons. One of them, at six Read more…
A guitar hangs on the wall, and another leans into a corner in Xanthe Alexis’ living room. Poetry books are neatly stacked on the coffee table. An abundance of morning light and the art placed here and there fills out the vibe of creativity, comfort and quiet joy. Xanthe, 38, Read more…
Found: conversation about life, death, curiosity, respect, the sacred. I love to see my sons‘ curiosity and little can stir that like the encounter of death in a creature they don’t otherwise get their hands on. In that gentle exploration — spreading fins, peeking under gills, prying open the mouth Read more…
I’ve talked twice recently with longstanding professional artists about legacy. Floyd Tunson and Mark Wong both shook off the idea of their work in that longest view. They work for themselves, their visions, and let the rest play out as it will. In recent months, I’ve transitioned from the workaday Read more…
Travis Mauzy describes himself as a simple guy. He laughs and smiles readily. He’s easy to have a conversation with, even as a client looking for relief. The no-frills approach at his Manitou Chiropractic is an extension of his personal demeanor. When Travis, 36, sat down with Humanitou, we talked Read more…
Many weeks ago, my two young sons asked to be part of Humanitou. They often have seen me working on Humanitou conversations at our table, transcribing, editing, preparing photos, publishing. They wanted me to interview them. So I did. In this experiment, I got to test my abilities as an Read more…
The childhood rite of passage that is a lemonade stand in summer is one I never passed as a child. Recently, at 41, I was part of my first stand. It was my boys’. It had been an idea that kept rearing its head since last summer, one I wouldn’t Read more…