"We Will Know a Tree by its Fruits" Artwork

Live Well. Be Wise

Deepening the well-being conversation---the podcast that finds the Gold in your stories of hardship and the connection to Wise action and lived Wellness!

Hosted by Kari Lyons-Price & Dorrinda Carlson

"Hey Dorrinda, let's do lunch."

"Ok, any special occasion?"

"Nope, just wanna connect and feast in your presence." (oh and I also have an idea for a podcast?!)

I waited until lunch was settling into our bellies before hitting Dorrinda with the idea. She was in! The brainstorm began and while we both work in the field, we quickly ruled out a Wellness podcast because of how overdone they already are. Besides we felt they were only skimming the surface with the repeat loop of ''expert" advice, gimmicks and trends. We wanted to go deeper.

What's the real story I wondered, "how do some people manage to be well amidst all kinds of hardship and others with every resource known to humankind, can't even catch the tail of wellness."

All my life I've been fascinated by thoughts, beliefs, mental states and the general power of the mind (also because I'm a trained therapist)! Especially in its relationship to our health and well-being.

What is that thing within us that motivates us to be well? We're not talking about a health goal or a number, a state that is achieved. We're talking about wellness as a state of mind; contentedness, balance, or an optimal state of being.

And then the vision fully landed...

Here at Live Well. Be Wise, we are on a mission to engage with people beneath the "doing" and the products, to find out how wellness is a living, breathing, personal thing that gets shaped through life itself!

Told directly to you by the individuals who have lived it. No experts, no products, and no judgment. Raw, powerful, real life stories told by everyday people about how they met the challenges and hardships of life and came out the other side.

At Live Well. Be Wise we answer the questions:

how do we learn and grow through the storms of life?
what is the wisdom process? how do we cultivate it on purpose?
And...how does our wisdom process inform our wellness?

Live Well. Be Wise is based in North Central Washington State and is a community-based podcast. This is a place to hear the stories of your neighbors. To celebrate diversity in all ways and to bridge the divide between us; culturally, economically, politically and personally.

Value Driven:

We feel our most profound learning is from one another and that we are not alone on this human journey. We are fueled by that belief and the deep desire to reconnect the divide within us and between us. Seeds of wisdom are inside every one of us, and when we share that learning out, it expands, sparking inspiration and possibility for us all.

Through the shared human experience called, "story" we hope to connect each of us to one another. To recognize parts of ourselves in our neighbors story. And to allow this shared humanity to be an anchor for building connection, community and goodness, one day at a time.

Reach out, share your story, be inspired to cultivate your own wisdom path through hard things. We are 100% in this together!

Kari & Dorrinda

All Episodes

Live Well. Be Wise

"We Will Know a Tree by its Fruits"

November 29, 2025 • Season 1 • Episode 10

In episode 10, we sit down with community member Zoe Jaspers to talk about the very real intersection in his life between Christian faith and being transgender (someone whose gender is different than the gender they were assumed to be at birth).

Just as a trans-Atlantic journey crosses the Atlantic Ocean, the trans-gender journey crosses gender (from that assigned at birth). How can we navigate understanding in these waters with grace and curiosity instead of judgment and fear?

With incredible depth and clarity, Zoe tells us the story of how he walked into the Christian faith and how it became the safe and supportive community that allowed him to explore his faithful journey through gender.

Zoe shows us what it means to be curious, even with fear, and move forward anyway. He shares...

what it means to have lived as a woman but to never feel at home in his body as such.
the difference between performing gender norms versus knowing with authenticity who you are.
how femininity continues to play a role in his life as a man and how he embodies both.
how he intentionally approached his medical transition and how hormone treatment has brought him clarity and peace of body, mind, and spirit.

Zoe walks us through multiple pathways to understanding: in terms of Christian scripture and theology, as well as simply through his lived experience. He unpacks concepts around co-creation, resurrection, “knowing a tree by its fruits,” and more.

If there is someone out there who can humbly be in service to connecting the people inside the trans experience and those outside of it--it is Zoe Jaspers.

Please join us friends and neighbors, as we cross this bridge with compassion and understanding —together.

Bio: Zoe Jaspers (he/they) serves as a Christian minister in the Wenatchee Valley, focused especially at the intersection of justice history, contemplative spirituality, and collective liberation. Outside of their work in direct ministry, Zoe loves reading on topics of all sorts (recent topics of note include speleology and mycology), learning various fibercrafts like knitting and embroidery, sipping iced coffee at the farmer’s market, and befriending all cats.

Resources:

1. Sunnyslope Church: https://www.sunnyslopechurch.org/

2. Interfaith Justice Coalition: interfaithncw@gmail.com