Every human life is a work in progress – literally. We are all making something: our days, our relationships, our stories, our selves. Season 3 of Goodpain asks what happens when we stop treating our lives as things that happen to us and start treating them as things we are actively making. Through conversations with makers of every kind – celebrated and unknown, professional and purely passionate – we explore what it means to live Artfully. It is a season about what Art, Creative Expression, and Making reveal about being human: what it costs to develop the fluency to say the thing inside, what it means to risk putting it on the table, and what it asks of us to receive someone else’s offering not as consumers but as witnesses.

Season 3 does not treat Art as a category requiring membership. Its subject is the compulsion to express – the interior pressure that builds until something has to come out, and the fact that what comes out is not a translation of experience but a continuation of it. Language is one medium. Art, craft, and making are what happen when language hits its ceiling.

In this episode, we take a final sprint around the track that is Season 2. Jeremy and Tyler share their brief reflections on the topic of Mature & Immature Masculinity, how it served the candid conversation for the last four months, and how it surprised them in their own personal growth. With two seasons – two dots of data – Goodpain now has a trend line, and the co-hosts consider how Goodpain is developing a clearer perspective on its role, with each season represented a "genre" of the human condition, a perspective on dancing with life challenges.

The episode concludes with a trailer for Season 3, which will be released in late-July/early-August and is titled The Artful Life: A season About Making

This just ain't working for us...and it does not have to be this way.

Today, our guest, Relando Thompkins-Jones of Social Justice Origin Stories and I explore how power shapes our world. We often say "just" to avoid seeing deeper truths. But maturity requires looking at the actual impact we have. We discuss who gets to set the terms of engagement. This episode explores historical design decisions and systemic harm.

These topics are pointed and may spark internal resistance. Invite your objections to come along for the ride. Do not let them close your ears to the message. You are strong enough to lead with your humanity. We must name what is broken to find collective hope. Let’s engage these difficult questions together.

Relando Thompkins-Jones is a macro social worker, social justice educator, strategist, and storyteller who uses media and education to advance equity and social justice within people, organizations, and communities. For more than a decade, he has worked across higher education, nonprofit, public, and private sectors, planning and implementing experiential activities and projects that advance diversity, inclusion, equity, and social justice.

He is also the Founder & Director of Narrative Strategy and Learning Ecosystem at Social Justice Origin Stories, a multimedia storytelling project that explores the personal experiences, defining moments, and influences that inspire people and organizations to pursue social justice. Through conversations with activists, educators, organizers, scholars, and everyday changemakers, the project seeks to reduce isolation among justice-seekers, preserve community wisdom, and help listeners discover their own place in the work.

The phrase "If we can change how we think, we can change what we do" is central to Relando's approach, and he finds fulfillment in engaging with others using the liberatory power of storytelling, education, and authentic human connection to co-create the conditions for collective thriving.

Website: Social Justice Origin Stories | YouTube Channel | Audio Podlink

Media Mentions

Becoming the People Podcast Episode: Grief is the Medicine

Danger of the Single Story TED Talk by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

The Sum of Us by Heather McGhee