Writer, designer, and cultural strategist Van Neumann joins Olivia and Tori to explore what it takes to feel safe enough to be honest — online, offline, and within ourselves. From their shift from creative strategist to screenwriter, to leaving the U.S. in pursuit of safety and presence, Van shares how identity, digital infrastructure, and community intertwine. Together they unpack the limits of platform-based belonging, the difference between friendship and organized community, and how creative evolution can be both public and private. This episode invites listeners to slow down, ask why more often, and imagine smaller, more human ways of staying connected in a system that’s always asking for more.

In this Double Tap episode, therapist and author Minaa B. helps us reimagine healing beyond hustle and hyper-independence. Together, we unpack how perfectionism, productivity, and pressure to “have it together” distort what it means to be well — and why joy, connection, and community are just as essential as self-awareness. Minaa shares how to redefine “good” mental health as function rather than flawlessness, how to build self-advocacy in systems that dismiss our experiences, and why healing isn’t about fixing what’s wrong — it’s about expanding our capacity to live, connect, and find joy, even when life feels heavy.

In the debut episode of Self-Centered, hosts Tori Lazar and Olivia Owens explore what support really looks like when productivity culture turns self-care into performance and rest into another metric to optimize. Together with Van Newman and Minaa B., they unpack how healing, resilience, and wellbeing have been co-opted by the systems that made us unwell—and what it takes to reclaim peace on our own terms.

Welcome to Self-Centered, a podcast where centering the self challenges the systems around us. Hosted by Olivia Owens and Tori Lazar, each episode explores the ongoing negotiation between self and system — and what it means to stay whole in a world that rewards fragmentation. This short trailer introduces what’s coming: honest conversations, cultural analysis, and stories that bring the personal and the collective together. Follow Self-Centered wherever you listen to podcasts and join the conversation on Instagram @selfcenteredpod .