Supplemental Tracks and Select Excerpts from Cultivating Change: The Transformative Power of Care Farming
Adam & Lacey Ingrao Supplemental Track
In this special supplement to Episode 14: Cultivating Change: The Transformative Power of Care Farming, Jessica speaks with Lacey and Adam Ingrao of Bee Wise Farms in Michigan, where beekeeping and mindfulness come together to support wellness and community—particularly with veterans and their families. Portions of this conversation appear in the full episode; this track features the complete, largely unedited interview.
From the role of honey bees in our food system to apitherapy traditions in Slovenia and their research-backed practices with the VA, Lacey and Adam share how bees can calm the nervous system, deepen presence, and bring families and communities closer.
In this supplemental conversation, you’ll hear:
An overview of Bee Wise Farms: honey, lavender, wellness, and apitherapy (sound, air, and venom therapies).
How sensory-rich beekeeping cultivates mindfulness—and why it’s counterintuitively calming.
Global roots: beehouses and apitherapy traditions that inspired their work.
The Bee Calm Bee Well program with the VA (10 practices; research showing 30% drops in anxiety/depression).
Veterans and family connection: why learning together in the apiary opens the door to honest conversations.
Accessibility in the apiary: hive designs and adaptive setups that make beekeeping possible for more people.
Why joining the Care Farming Network matters for sharing methods, resources, and momentum.
Shawn Hayden Supplemental Track
In this special supplement to Episode 14: Cultivating Change: The Transformative Power of Care Farming, Jessica sits down with Shawn Hayden, CEO of GAAMHA, to explore how a “happy accident” grew into a licensed care‑farming treatment program. Portions of this conversation appear in the full episode; this track features the complete, largely unedited interview.
Shawn shares his path from entering GAAMHA’s Pathway House for treatment in 2009 to becoming CEO in 2024—and how that recovery journey shapes every decision he makes today. He explains the model at the Carl E. Dahl House at Evergreen Grove—a 16‑bed, residential program that weaves daily animal care and equine‑assisted learning into clinical treatment—and why purpose, dignity, and nonjudgmental relationships with animals can change the arc of recovery.
In this supplemental conversation, you’ll hear:
The program’s origin story—and why “accidental” insights stuck.
What care farming adds on day one (identity, purpose, belonging).
A powerful transformation story - and the community that rallied around one of its own.
Early outcomes and research (higher completion, longer stays—and even healthier goats).
Why the Care Farming Network matters for sharing practices and momentum.
Selected Excerpts from Building Connection & Hope Through the Universal Expression of Dance
Special Supplemental Background Track: Hope Is Not Silent: Forging the Path to a Trans-Inclusive Workplace with Jess Skaare
Discovering Jess: A Story of Transition & Transformation
In this supplemental background track to the podcast, Hope Is Not Silent: Forging the Path to a Trans-Inclusive Workplace, Jessica is joined by Jess Skaare, who shares her personal experience grappling with her gender identity. Jess provides a raw account of the many years she spent believing that she was "unknowably broken" - knowing that something was "off" but not realizing that it was related to her gender. From the disappointment she felt when she saw herself in the mirror dressed as a woman for the first time, to the years of self-sabotaging her personal relationships to avoid the rejection she assumed was inevitable, to the one-woman intervention that served as the wake-up call she so desperately needed, Jess provides an extraordinarily candid and moving account of what she calls her journey to self-acceptance. Since coming out as transgender in August 2023, Jess has been sharing her personal story as part of her broader missions to promote greater awareness and understanding of the trans experience, and to fight for the dignity and validity of members of the trans community.
