Liv Von Oehlreich: Director / Actor / Photographer / Psych Student / Masseuse / Moto Babe

01/28/24 • 84 min

The scene:

We are in Ladera Heights, Los Angeles, CA on a warm day in Liv’s backyard sitting on lawn chairs drinking tea. This sounds like we live gentle lives; yesterday we fixed her garage door by lifting it together and also road motorcycles all over LA. This is our normal. Our friendship has weathered many journeys and many miles on motorcycles. Join us in the garden for curiosity, laughter, and pre-psychotherapy.

Highlights:

A Swede from Alabama
Difficulty making female friends
Babes Ride Out
Clicking together quickly and easefully
Seeking adventures together
Attacking the stressor immediately = non-procrastination
Being in the world, being curious, being in action
The importance of having purpose
Currently in her Masters of Psych at Pepperdine
Massaging is a lot of alone time with your own thoughts
The body communicating different messages than the mind
Rocking the body to see where the tension is holding on
Being present with others
Why do they scrub you wearing black granny panties at Korean spas?
Near-death experiences that are hilarious
Helping others transform their lives
Weaving in experiences of acting, psychology, and massage
Creating your life around physical freedom
Seeing a wide horizon in your life
Choosing newness to avoid stagnation
Minimizing “making wrong”, blame, being fearful of the future
Avoiding rejection by not proceeding
Being 100% committed, AND detached from the outcome
The Race to Alaska documentary
The Women Riders World Relay
Filming 12 women on motorcycles riding through Pakistan
Transitioning from doing everything yourself to leaning into others
Viewing your life as many projects
Appreciation of others and listening
“You lose intention when you lose punctuation.”

A taste:
“Through the physical comes the emotional.”

“Sometimes I don’t move forward with things because I like the idea of what is possible with the idea and if I move forward with it, perhaps it’s not going to work out the way I wanted it.”

Favorite sayings:

“God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.” (The Serenity Prayer)

“The health of the eye seems to demand a horizon. We are never tired, so long as we can see far enough.” - Emerson

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Love, Sagewolf xoxo

@livvonoelreich

The scene:

Highlights:

A Swede from Alabama
Difficulty making female friends
Babes Ride Out
Clicking together quickly and easefully
Seeking adventures together
Attacking the stressor immediately = non-procrastination
Being in the world, being curious, being in action
The importance of having purpose
Currently in her Masters of Psych at Pepperdine
Massaging is a lot of alone time with your own thoughts
The body communicating different messages than the mind
Rocking the body to see where the tension is holding on
Being present with others
Why do they scrub you wearing black granny panties at Korean spas?
Near-death experiences that are hilarious
Helping others transform their lives
Weaving in experiences of acting, psychology, and massage
Creating your life around physical freedom
Seeing a wide horizon in your life
Choosing newness to avoid stagnation
Minimizing “making wrong”, blame, being fearful of the future
Avoiding rejection by not proceeding
Being 100% committed, AND detached from the outcome
The Race to Alaska documentary
The Women Riders World Relay
Filming 12 women on motorcycles riding through Pakistan
Transitioning from doing everything yourself to leaning into others
Viewing your life as many projects
Appreciation of others and listening
“You lose intention when you lose punctuation.”

A taste:
“Through the physical comes the emotional.”

“Sometimes I don’t move forward with things because I like the idea of what is possible with the idea and if I move forward with it, perhaps it’s not going to work out the way I wanted it.”

Favorite sayings:

“God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.” (The Serenity Prayer)

“The health of the eye seems to demand a horizon. We are never tired, so long as we can see far enough.” - Emerson

Support the show

Thank you for listening!
Please subscribe to support this project.
Love, Sagewolf xoxo

Previous Episode

Aris Janigian: Author / Yogi / Book Collector / Potluck Hoster

@arisjanigian
arisjanigian.com

The scene:
We are sitting in the sun on a chilly Spring day just outside Aris’ living space, which is attached to his private library of 1 billion books (actually 5,000 ish). Aris begins the interview a bit withdrawn, perhaps shy, perhaps melancholic - like any truly great writer is expected to be - but warms up throughout and by the end is truly lively. It has taken me a moment to return to editing and releasing interviews. I saw Aris in yoga the other day and we shared that we had such fond memories of what a great interview it was, it is. Join us as we explore the human condition and how it is captured with words.

Highlights:

Bestselling author of “Waiting for Lipchitz at Chateau Marmont”
Moved to Fresno from LA eight years ago
Began writing in the 5th grade. First book: “The Adventures of Hallelujah Harry”
What makes a “gifted” writer?
Two novels by the age of 25
Writing because you have to write...you have something to say
Began writing regularly his junior year of college, as a medicine
Using writing to harness a self-destructive energy
Why publish? > ego, being noticed, being seen, vanity, loving people
Wanting others to feel the richness of their internal life
Helping others find themselves
Connection is the root of many creative endeavors
Suffering is a character trait that serves writers well
Patience/a long view is important when writing one book over many years
Maturing out of immediate gratification
Tragic humor and satire
Embracing one’s own madness, coupled with self-compassion
“Essentially we’re scripting our own lives continuously”
No one can define great art, it has a transcendent quality
Relying on the judgement of others to measure you
Trusting informed readers for feedback
We would be nothing without the love of other people
Community makes you feel at home in the world
Observing others as they journey through the world
Conflict > Friction > Fire > Life, warmth, light...
Writing “aggressive”, “racist”, “sexist” books
Uncomfortability creates an opportunity to elevate consciousness
The world is not static, we must constantly revise our approach
“One should be happy to be confronted with a genuinely authentic new perspective”
Yearning to be confronted by someone with your own flaw or bias
We identify too much with our own thoughts and opinions
Trained as a scientist - PhD in Research Psychology, specifically Social Cognition
Taught college psych for 23 years
Research him on Google scholar for his papers on human studies
Advice to younger self: “Get help sooner.” (meds, therapy, yoga/meditation)
19 year yogi
Play more
Grieving when you can’t write
Longest writing “slump”: current, 1 1/2 years...
Novel writing comes from a different place, it’s like a puzzle

A taste:

“We view our selves as western expansion does, an American cultural egotism that creates dynamism.”
“Most of our rhetoric, our language, is oriented towards youth.”
“The novelist mind requires that you see everything when you write one sentence.”

Favorite saying:
(He can’t remember. Ask his friends for the notes they take of the funny things he says.)

Support the show

Thank you for listening!
Please subscribe to support this project.
Love, Sagewolf xoxo

Next Episode

Dr. Asia Rose Matthews, PhD: Mathematician / Mother / Recreational Pianist / Grower of Many Jade Plants

The Scene:

We are in Powell River, BC, Canada in Asia’s home, somewhere between the sewing machine in the living room and the Instapot in the kitchen. This interview required three different recordings to be spliced together, and another bajillion (technical math term) edits for its’ equation to sum up to its’ solution. (I probably misused those terms and it’s making Asia cringe :). She was born in a trailer in my driveway and became a female PhD Mathematician (pretty good odds). Join us for the way conversations go when you’re a family of four...plus one cousin.

Highlights:

Quilting to teach students about math patterns
Questioning everything - “to be a mathematician is to be skeptical”
Scientific theories are falsifiable, mathematics is verifiable - “Truthiness”
“Bajillion” is a technical term
Equations are very little of theoretical math
Equals is a very powerful operation
Formulas are a description of a pattern
Math is abstract, imaginary, creative and explores boundaries
Being a Mathematician makes you a good communicator - you must convince others that what you say is true
Mathematician in residence at an all-girls school in Victoria
Mathematics Association of America Grant
Crocheting hyperbolic surfaces
Using your hands to understand what is happening
Paper chains to understand Mobius strips
The war between precision and wabi-sabi
Consciously creating less structure
The problem with North American Puritanical roots
Seeking patterns and order as a child, loving algorithms
Seeing that math needed to be taught differently
When you’re afraid of being wrong, you can’t learn
Teaching at a liberal arts college in Squamish - classes of no more than 20
Being passionate about how math is communicated between people
Exciting the non math-oriented
Wanting to teach teachers in order to make the biggest difference
Using the word “exponential” incorrectly
Please don’t say “square the circle”
Mathematics is “the best” science
There is a strong connection between mind and heart
The same trait helping professionally and harming personally
Fast brains, spitballing through conversation
We take on what we’re already good at (and forget to develop the rest)
Putting yourself in unfamiliar situations to observe the reaction
Adaptability and resilience
Being curious and able to find joy in whatever you’re doing
Mathematicians can get by with not great memory
Forgetting how to be independent when you partner up
Do you have to be any different than you are right now in order to be completely lovable?
Do not say “1000 %” around mathematicians
Square dancing with “the olds” (the perfect mathematical sport)
Universal educational design
Casually running a witch’s coven
It is impossible to put yourself in someone else’s shoes
We interact with the world based on the values we were taught
Optimism in inclusively teaching different kinds of minds
Cohabitation of ideas
If time was linear...
“Ah, interesting...”
Anarchist math
“Also: relax.”

A taste:

“I don’t quite believe that I’m worthy without having to prove it. I certainly can prove that I’m worthy, but I’m not sure I believe it without that proof."

Favorite line from a song:

“I was playing my guitar, lying underneath the stars, just thanking the lord for my fingers.” - Paul Simon

Support the show

Thank you for listening!
Please subscribe to support this project.
Love, Sagewolf xoxo