2026 Season: Episode 6 with John Halcyon Styn
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What is ours to do in a world that feels more overwhelming by the day?
In this intimate episode, host Lisa Littlebird turns the microphone toward the person who knows her best — her partner, baritone, behind-the-scenes producer, and unsung hero of Wholehearted Chorus: John Halcyon Styn.
In a tender, personal, funny, and genuinely honest conversation, John and Lisa talk about the places where both of them are still figuring it out.
Together they explore why our evolutionary brains were never built for the rate of change we're living through, the difference between a circle of concern and a circle of impact, and why direction, not distance might be the most liberating framework for showing up in a broken world.
John shares how he lives these ideas daily — through morning gratitude broadcasts, a 1st Saturdays houseless outreach program, stopping to greet every person on a morning walk — and introduces the concept of the "Optimism Tax": the price we sometimes pay for staying open-hearted, and why it's almost always worth it.
Lisa, in turn, reflects on her edge as a visionary leader: the tension between structure and spontaneity, between serving a group and tending herself, and what it looks like to let vulnerability participate in leadership without becoming a performance of it.
The season's two closing songs anchor the conversation: Through Your Hands by John Hiatt — a reminder that it's our actions, not our thoughts, that move mountains — and Alicia Keys' Underdog, reframed as a love song to the small, singular moments of human connection that quietly change everything.
Come in. This one's personal.
John Halcyon Styn: https://lifestudent.com
A Song For All Of Us: asongforallofus.org
Wholehearted Chorus: wholeheartedchorus.org
Wholehearted Chorus October Concert Tickets: wholeheartedchorus.org/tickets
Live well. Sing more.
