What happens when the person, place, and life that once felt like home no longer exist?

Roger Vaughn, known as Lightning in the Burning Man world, found himself asking that question after losing Lydia, his wife and partner of 18 years.

Roger is a full-time digital nomad living in an RV and traveling with his motorcycle. He is the CEO of SwiftCloud.ai, the founder of Mycelia Monastery, a former professional animator, and a lifelong creative working across media, fine art, music, technology, and community.

Joining Aya from Montreal, Roger opens up about grief, presence, belonging, creative rebirth, and the journey of rebuilding a life after profound loss. Together, they explore how our environments shape us, why feeling safe allows us to play a bigger game, and whether home is a place, a person, a community, or something we learn to carry within ourselves.

Roger also shares how grief led him back to music, resulting in two albums created within 18 months. His song “Carry Me Home” captures the evolution at the heart of this conversation: longing for the home that was lost, then realizing we can build shelter, create warmth, and become home for the people we love.

This is an honest conversation about losing home, searching for belonging, and discovering that a new chapter can grow from the ashes of the life we once knew.

Follow Rise + Rebel and share this episode with someone navigating grief, reinvention, or the search for home.

Content note: This episode includes candid discussions of death, grief, suicidal thoughts, and mental health.

In this episode of Rise + Rebel Podcast, Aya Hojadova sits down with Doug Hamilton, founder of CharlestonHacks, for a conversation about AI, hackathons, creative experimentation, community-building, and the future of Charleston’s tech ecosystem.

Doug shares why CharlestonHacks exists, what makes hackathons such powerful spaces for learning and connection, and why Charleston has a unique opportunity to become a place where builders, creatives, entrepreneurs, developers, and curious people can come together to create.

Together, Aya and Doug explore the rise of AI, how it is changing what it means to build, why human fundamentals still matter, and how low-pressure spaces like show-and-tell events can help people externalize ideas, receive honest feedback, and take the first step.

This conversation is for anyone who has an idea, feels intimidated by technology, or wants to understand how community, creativity, and AI can work together to help people build what they are here to create.

Subscribe to Rise + Rebel Podcast for conversations on creativity, entrepreneurship, identity, technology, transformation, visibility, and becoming who you were always meant to be.

Join the Rise + Rebel world:
risewithaya.com/start-here

Learn more about CharlestonHacks:
www.CharlestonHacks.com

Connect with Doug Hamilton:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/doug-hamilton-61517b2b/

In this solo episode of Rise + Rebel Podcast, Aya Hoja reflects on how AI has helped her organize her creativity, build faster, and turn scattered ideas into real execution across podcasting, newsletters, commercial real estate, Rise + Rebel Shop, brand strategy, content, and business planning.

This is not an episode about AI replacing the human voice. It is about using AI as a thinking partner while staying connected to your intuition, taste, lived experience, relationships, and creative source.

Because AI can help build the bridge, but the human still has to walk across it.

Subscribe to Rise + Rebel Podcast for conversations on creativity, entrepreneurship, identity, personal growth, visibility, intuition, and becoming who you were always meant to be.

Join the Rise + Rebel world:
risewithaya.com/start-here

In this episode of Rise + Rebel Podcast, Aya sits down with Woody Harris to talk about Welcome Home Burn, burn culture, integration, ritual, music, community, shadow work, play, and what it means to come back to yourself after stepping outside of the default world.

Woody is a therapist, clinical supervisor, podcaster, music lover, geek enthusiast, Deadhead, gamer, and now, a burner. With over 35 years of studying psychology and almost 20 years as a therapist, Woody brings a thoughtful, deeply human lens to the burn experience.

Together, Aya and Woody reflect on what it feels like to enter a temporary community, how each burn carries its own medicine, and why these spaces can become mirrors for our boundaries, joy, discomfort, grief, freedom, and personal growth.

We talk about Welcome Home Burn, the effigy burn, integration, enchantment withdrawal, volunteering, radical inclusion, gifting, play, the power of music, and the difference between consuming an experience and helping co-create it.

Woody also shares a powerful reflection on the burn as an experiment in community, ritual, alchemy, and reconnection. We explore what it means to bring the lessons of the burn back into the default world, rather than leaving them behind when the event ends.

This episode is for anyone who has ever felt changed by a temporary space, a powerful community, a ritual, a dance floor, a fire, or a moment that reminded them who they really are.

In this episode, we talk about:

• Welcome Home Burn and burn culture
• What integration feels like after a burn
• Enchantment withdrawal and returning to the default world
• Burns as medicine, mirrors, and rituals
• The effigy burn and releasing what no longer serves
• Shadow work, boundaries, authenticity, and personal growth
• Music, dancing, play, and emotional alchemy
• Volunteering, gifting, and co-creating community
• Radical inclusion, participation, and open-heartedness
• How to bring the burn back into everyday life

To connect and learn more about Woody Harris, check out his website here: https://dafostherapy.com/

Subscribe to Rise + Rebel Podcast for conversations on identity, creativity, transformation, courage, community, and becoming who you were always meant to be.

In this episode of Rise + Rebel Podcast, Aya sits down with Michelle Doan, founder of Emani Vegan Cosmetics, for a conversation about beauty, intuition, sensitive skin, self-advocacy, and the courage it takes to build something from lived experience.

Michelle shares her story of leaving Vietnam as a child, spending time in a Thai refugee camp, growing up as an immigrant, and eventually creating a beauty brand after years of struggling with painful cystic acne and sensitive skin.

What began as a personal need became a clean beauty brand rooted in skin health, ingredient education, and helping women feel more confident in their own skin.

But this conversation goes far beyond skincare.

Michelle and Aya talk about trusting the “little whispers,” learning when to say yes and when to say no, building a business as a woman, overcoming shame, stepping out from behind the scenes, learning how to receive, and becoming your own advocate through every season of life.

We also explore practical beauty wisdom for sensitive skin, hormones, aging, menopause, skincare ingredients, and why self-care does not have to be complicated to be powerful.

This episode is for the woman learning to trust herself, advocate for herself, receive what is meant for her, and rise into the version of herself she used to hide.

In this episode, we talk about:

• Michelle’s journey from Vietnam to North America
• How cystic acne led her into clean beauty
• The birth of Emani Vegan Cosmetics
• Trusting intuition and the “little whispers”
• Saying yes, saying no, and taking the leap
• Women, shame, visibility, and learning to receive
• Why business mirrors back who you are
• Sensitive skin, acne, aging, hormones, and menopause
• The three P’s of skincare: potency, penetration, and proven results
• Becoming your own advocate in beauty, business, and life

Learn more about Michelle Doan and Emani Vegan Cosmetics here:
https://linktr.ee/emanicosmeticsofficial?utm_source=linktree_profile_share

Explore Emani, follow Michelle’s work, and support the brand she built from lived experience, sensitive skin wisdom, and a deep desire to help women feel confident in their own skin.

Subscribe to Rise + Rebel Podcast for conversations on creativity, entrepreneurship, identity, personal growth, and becoming who you were always meant to be.

What happens when the role you were praised for is no longer the role you are meant to play?

In this episode of Rise + Rebel Podcast, Aya sits down with comedian, podcaster, and creative Andrew Ginsberg — someone she first met years ago in the San Francisco corporate days.

Back then, Andrew was already funny, magnetic, and able to command a room. But behind the corporate role, the benchmarks, the praise, and the external validation, there was another question starting to rise:

Is this really who I am meant to be?

This conversation goes far beyond comedy.

Andrew and Aya talk about leaving the corporate script, finding your voice when there is no clear role to play, dealing with rejection, learning how to believe in yourself without applause, choosing love over fear, and trusting the creative ideas that are trying to move through you.

We also talk about entrepreneurship, manifestation, curiosity, the muse, the power of showing up, and how one unexpected idea turned into Andrew’s side project, Cannabis Curious Seniors.

This episode is for anyone who has ever felt successful on paper but quietly wondered if there was something more honest, creative, free, and alive waiting underneath.

In this episode, we talk about:

• Leaving corporate life and stepping into comedy
• What happens when there is no script anymore
• Rejection, failure, and building emotional stamina
• Why external validation can keep us trapped in a role
• Manifestation, creativity, and following curiosity
• Becoming a vessel for creative ideas
• Why the journey matters more than the outcome
• Learning to trust the role that already lives inside you

Subscribe if you’re becoming who you were always meant to be.

Listen + follow Rise + Rebel Podcast on YouTube and all podcast platforms.

Start here:
risewithaya.com/start-here

Guest links:
Andrew Ginsberg: AndrewGinsberg.com
Instagram: @thisisginsberg
Cannabis Curious Seniors: CannabisCuriousSeniors.com

What if courage is not the absence of fear, but the decision to keep walking anyway?

In this episode of Rise + Rebel, Aya sits down with Carol Reid — speaker, coach, educator, caregiver, model, and contributing author of The Courage to Begin — for a powerful conversation about courage, healing, self-doubt, transformation, and what it means to begin from within.

Carol’s chapter in The Courage to Begin is titled Beginning From Within, and in this conversation, she shares what those words mean to her now. She opens up about finally telling her story, feeling exposed in the process, and discovering freedom on the other side of being honest.

We talk about fear, courage, caregiving, 12-step healing, learning to love the little girl within, claiming your space, and the moment Carol said yes to modeling at 70 — even though she was afraid.

This episode is a reminder that you do not have to feel fully ready to begin.

You can be afraid and still take the next right action.
You can carry doubt and still claim your space.
You can begin again from within.

In this episode, we talk about:

• What Beginning From Within means to Carol now
• How courage carried her through fear and self-doubt
• Why sharing her story felt both frightening and freeing
• Her journey through caregiving, healing, and 12-step recovery
• How she learned to see her own beauty from the inside out
• Saying yes to modeling at 70
• Why safe spaces matter
• The power of boundaries, support, and resourcefulness
• What it means to take the next right action

Subscribe if you’re becoming who you were always meant to be.

Join Aya’s Inner Circle:
risewithaya.com/start-here

Learn more about Carol at http://www.CarolReidSpeaks.com

Schedule a Complimentary Consult: http://calendly.com/carolreid

Connect with Carol Reid on LinkedIn: http://linkedin.com/in/reidempowermentllc

In this episode of Rise + Rebel, Aya sits down with Keisha Brooks, producer, actor, writer, creative, and founder of Helping Hands Productions, for a real conversation about creativity, resourcefulness, boundaries, and building your own world.

Keisha shares how her father taught her to get things done, how her mother modeled service and helping others, and how both shaped the woman she is today: generous, direct, resourceful, and deeply committed to creating a life on her own terms.

This conversation moves through acting, modeling, production, veganism, success, self-worth, asking for help, bartering, follow-through, and the moment you realize your time is not free.

At its core, this episode is about not waiting to be chosen. It is about using what you have, asking the right questions, protecting your energy, and creating the opportunities you wish existed.

Subscribe if you’re becoming who you were always meant to be.

Learn More and Connect with Keisha Brooks:

linktr.ee/Helpinghandsproductions

Join Aya’s Inner Circle:
risewithaya.com/start-here