Welcome back to Here, Now, Human.In today’s episode, we’re exploring something we all feel, often quietly and often harshly: judgment.Not just the judgment we place on others — but the judgment that keeps us small, silent, and afraid to be who we really are.For so much of my life, judgment kept me from creating. I didn’t want to be “like the coaches,” “like the influencers,” “like the podcasters.” I didn’t realize that beneath that resistance was something softer — fear, longing, and old stories I hadn’t yet met.In this conversation, we slow down enough to feel where judgment comes from, how it lives in the body, and how it softens when we get curious instead of critical. We talk about shame, discernment, and the simple but profound shift of meeting ourselves — and others — with compassion.✨ The judgments that keep us from expressing who we are✨ Seeing others as mirrors for our own desires and fears✨ The body’s wisdom in telling judgment from discernment✨ Befriending the inner “judger” instead of fighting it✨ Replacing judgment with curiosity and tendernessThis episode is an invitation to release the stories that limit you…and to return, gently, to your own heart.Connect with me:Website: www.manuelawelton.comInstagram: @manuelaweltonSubstack: @manuelawelton

Welcome back to Here, Now, Human.In today’s episode, I’m sharing a realization that has quietly transformed the way I see my relationships — and myself.For years, without even noticing it, I had been freezing people in time. Holding them in the moment they hurt me. Keeping them locked in an old version of themselves, long after they had grown… and long after I had grown, too.In this conversation, I explore what it means to release those frozen images, to meet people as they are today, and to forgive not just with the mind, but through the body — through anger, sadness, and the deep inner work that invites us back to compassion.This is a tender episode — an invitation to unburden your heart, soften your stories, and reconnect with the humanity in the people you love… and the humanity within yourself.✨ Realizing how we freeze people in moments of hurt✨ Unlearning old stories and meeting others as they are now✨ Understanding anger as a doorway to sadness, truth, and release✨ Somatic practices for moving stored emotion through the body✨ Forgiving others by first forgiving the parts of ourselves that ache✨ Creating space for reconnection — or closure — with compassionThis episode is a conversation with the versions of ourselves that stayed behind — the ones holding grudges, the ones holding grief, the ones waiting to be seen.And it’s an invitation for you to thaw what’s been frozen, and meet your life, here and now, with an open heart.Connect with me:Website: www.manuelawelton.comInstagram: @manuelaweltonSubstack: @manuelawelton

Welcome back to Here, Now, Human.

Today’s episode is a tender one — a conversation about empathy, courage, and what becomes possible when we choose to meet each other beyond our stories.

I’m joined by Brandon and Darrel, co-founders of Tambor.AI, whose work centers on understanding what people truly feel and need. But what moved me most wasn’t the technology — it was their hearts. Their willingness to sit in complexity, to listen, and to see the human being in front of them, even in places where compassion isn’t expected.

Darrell M. Blocker is a board director, senior corporate director, and a former member of the Central Intelligence Agency’s Directorate of Operations Leadership Team.  He founded his firm in 2018 and currently serves as an Independent Board Director for Rendeavour, Africa's largest urban land developer, focusing on building new cities across Sub-Saharan Africa; as an Advisor to the Black Professionals in International Affairs’ Leadership Council, a nonprofit with mission to increase involvement of African-Americans and African descent in international affairs; as Board Member and Advisor to Hunter Baron, a financial services business development firm; and as a Nonresident Fellow at the University of Georgia’s Center for International Trade and Security.  He is a 2025 recipient of the Ellis Island Medal of Honor for “exemplary commitment to national security, global stability, mentorship, humanitarian work, and advocacy for diversity in national security.”

Brandon is a community builder, investor, and producer. He is co-founder of The Social Good Club, an award-winning digital media studio that uses the world’s most influential voices to inspire and guide audiences in solving today’s most pressing issues. The brand reaches over 500 million people with partners and clients including UN Women, Global Citizen, Discovery Channel and more.

We explore identity, conflict, perception, activism, grief, and the quiet bravery it takes to stay open in a divided world.

Darrel speaks about his time in the CIA and how kindness changed encounters he never imagined.

Brandon shares his experience navigating conversations about Judaism, ancestry, and belonging during an emotionally charged moment in history. Together, they remind us:

Connection is still possible — even when it feels impossible.

✨ In this episode, we explore:

The longing we all share to be seen and understood

How story and perception shape the way we relate

The courage of softening instead of defending

Meeting people beyond the assumptions we carry

Small practices that build trust and presence

How empathy can shift conversations we fear having

Finding common ground in places of deep difference

This conversation is an invitation to look again — gently.

To remember that behind every belief, every wound, every barrier,

there is a human being wanting to be met.

I’d love to hear from you:

Where are you learning to listen more deeply?

And where are you choosing to stay open, even when it’s hard?

Connect with Brandon:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brandon-kaufer-11112b4/Connect with

Darrel:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/darrell-m-blocker-3492a4b/

Connect with me:

Website: www.manuelawelton.com

Instagram: @manuelawelton

Substack: @manuelawelton

Welcome back to Here, Now, Human.In today’s episode, I’m exploring something tender, universal, and often unspoken: the fear of death — not just physical death, but the countless metaphorical deaths that shape who we become.Over the last few months, I’ve been moving through a deep internal death of my own. One that felt physical, visceral, and profoundly confronting. It showed me how much the fear of dying — or the fear of losing control, identity, relationships, or old versions of myself — had been keeping me from fully living.This conversation is an invitation into that journey.I share about survival patterns passed down through ancestry, the grief of losing my parents young, the cycles of birth and death that live inside the body, and the ways we resist the expansion we’re actually longing for.We also explore how grief moves in waves, how control masquerades as safety, and why meeting ourselves with presence is one of the most healing practices available to us.More than anything, this episode asks a simple but transformative question:Where are you afraid to die — and how is that fear keeping you from living?✨ In this episode, we explore:The fear of physical and metaphorical deathHow ancestral survival patterns shape the way we live todayMy personal experience of “dying and being born” within the bodyLoops, patterns, and the fear of stepping into the unknownGrief as a cyclical, wave-like teacherControl as a form of safety — and what happens when we let goCrossing from maiden to mother, and the deaths that come with life’s transitionsIntegration, presence, and the medicine of slowing downWhat it means to shed old identities in a year of completionHow to gently expand into the fullest expression of who you’re here to beThis episode is an offering, a contemplation, and a reminder that even in times of collective grief and personal transformation, presence heals, and death — in all its forms — can be the doorway to deeper freedom.I’d love to hear from you:What are you shedding?Where are you showing up more fully?And what small step can you take toward the life you’re ready to live?Connect with me:Website: www.manuelawelton.comInstagram: @manuelaweltonSubstack: @manuelawelton

Welcome to the very first episode of Here, Now, Human.

I’m your host, Manuela Welton, and in this debut episode, I’m sharing something deeply personal — my own origin story.

I was born in Colombia, in a family of artists and dreamers, and from an early age, my world was painted with creativity, courage, and love. But that world shifted quickly — political unrest, displacement, and profound loss shaped much of my early life.

In this episode, I share how those experiences — both beautiful and painful — became the foundation of my work today. This story is the beginning of why Here, Now, Human exists: to remind us of our shared humanity, the resilience of the heart, and the healing power of storytelling.

✨ Growing up surrounded by art, activism, and creativity

✨ Fleeing Colombia and learning to find belonging in new places

✨ Experiencing loss and grief — and the awakening of intuition

✨ Rediscovering purpose and the strength to live fully again

This episode is a conversation with my younger self — and an invitation for you to meet me, here, now, as human as I am.

Links:

Website: www.manuelawelton.com

Instagram: @manuelawelton

Substack: @manuelawelton