Episode 060 | You Get to Decide What's Right for You with Susan Ruth
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This episode is all about using storytelling, in many ways, to work toward a self awareness that helps you stand your ground in your truth while still holding space for others and nurturing the human connection that’s there.
You get inspiration to be yourself, know yourself, and to have necessary difficult conversations with others. You also get storytelling medicine from Susan as she recounts a time when discouragement with humanity was interrupted by what she calls a “kiss from God.” You’ll not only hear about her reminder that there’s more beauty in the world than darkness, but you’ll learn about Susan’s courageous, creative life where taking leaps rather than shrinking in fear is the norm. Some of Susan’s leaps involve being a singer/songwriter in Nashville and Los Angeles, but also being seen and heard in poetry, art, film writing, podcasting, and more.
Susan says she started her podcast because she needed a way she could somehow show humanity that we’re all connected. But, I think she does that in everything she does through self awareness and her innate understanding of human nature. She got there through lifetimes of growth.
Episode Highlights
Getting to know Susan Ruth with rapid fire questions
Advice on being seen and heard
Susan’s past life regression
Speak up, speak out
The Hey Human podcast - what inspired it and how it’s evolved
A kiss from God
The importance of listening
Interviewing a grand dragon of the KKK - shining a light on and soul searching about racism
Being a singer/songwriter in Nashville and Los Angeles
Being a fine artist
What it was like to have COVID-19
Mind over matter
When it’s time for self reflection (Hint: anger is a trigger)
About Susan
Credit: Photo by Dan Kirk.
Susan Ruth began her career as a performing artist and songwriter in Seattle, Washington, where she garnered multiple performance and writing awards for her albums how to say goodbye and Surfacing to Breathe, and served on the NARAS (Recording Academy - The Grammy people) Board of Governors as Songwriter Governor. In 2006, she moved to Nashville, Tennessee, penning songs in multiple genres, including: pop, country, rock, AC and Euro dance for artists such as Reba, Lonestar, Erdem Kinay, O’Shea and The United, among others. In 2014, she released her album All I Ever Wanted Was Everything. Susan’s songs have been featured in motion pictures, including Life on the Line and After Life, as well as in the television series MTVs Road Rules and Real World.
In July of 2016, Susan founded and began hosting the human interest, purpose driven, Hey Human podcast. It has since gained momentum and world-wide attention for its open-minded conversations ranging in topics from science, technology, religion, art, economics and politics to humanism, philosophy, gender and race. In 2018, Susan received the 2018 Valerie J. Hoffman Award for her work with the show.
Susan is an accomplished abstract painter. Her work is sought-after by collectors and the majority of her paintings are commissions acquired in advance. Self-taught, she is the third generation grandniece of painter Carl Gutherz, notable member of the American Symbolist movement of the late nineteenth century, whose works hang all over the world. A recent graduate of the acclaimed Conservatory program at The Second City, in Los Angeles, Susan is currently writing sketch comedy, as well as feature film (in comedy and thriller genres).
Susan has paneled on topics of creativity, crowd-funding, empowerment, communication, independent music, story, humanism, adversity, and finding one’s voice for; Act Like a Girrrl, New Millennium Music Conference, FEMMUSIC, Union College, Seattle Film Summit, the Tennessee Higher Education Initiative, MusiCares, RADD, Pujols Family Foundation, and Sunrise Children Services.
Susan Ruth currently resides in Los Angeles, California.
AWARDS
Seattle Area Music Awards (Seattle, Washington):
Album of the Year - How To Say Goodbye
Pop/Rock Album of the Year - How To Say Goodbye
Female Vocalist of the Year – Susan Ruth
Nominated: Contemporary Songwriter of the Year, Artist of the Year
XM (now SiriusXM) DIY Awards (Los Angeles):
Album of the Year - How To Say Goodbye
FEMMUSIC.com - Artist of the Year
USA Songwriting Competition:
Finalist – Rock category – “Everything You/Everything Me”
7th annual CMT/NSAI Song Contest:
Top 10 finalist - “The Fall Back Inn”
Multiple ASCAP Achievement Awards
2018 Valerie J. Hoffman award: Hey Human podcast
Links
Contact
info @ susan ruth . com (without the spaces)
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Credits: Intro and outro music by ryan sauls. Sound effects from zapsplat.com. Graphics by brandi fleck.
