Spill The Spirituality
Set sail for an unforgettable conversation! Spill The Spirituality, brought to you by Hope & Anchor, is the podcast that's not afraid to dive deep into the stories and issues that matter most. It's fun. It's vibrant. It's honest. Truthfully? It's a space where nothing is off-limits and where everyone is included.
Hosted by Trey Hall and Jaz Ampaw-Farr, it's a space for honesty, authenticity, and a healthy dose of humour along the way. Inclusive to everyone – whether you're a person of faith, spirituality, no faith, or somewhere in between.
If you're enjoying the show, make sure you connect with us and join the community at https://www.hopeandanchor.io/podcast or search for "spillthespirituality" on Instagram & TikTok.
Spill The Spirituality
Lost in Translation: Poet Jaspreet Kaur on Poetry as Therapy, Sikh Feminism, and Finding Spirituality in the Unexpected
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
Hey Y'all,
In this episode, Trey Hall sits down with poet, author, and educator Jaspreet Kaur - also known as Behind the Netra - for a rich, wide-ranging conversation about identity, faith, creativity, and what it means to go deeper than the surface of things.
Jaspreet opens with a stunning reading of her poem Lost in Translation, a tribute to her mother and the experience of navigating intersectional identity as a British South Asian woman. From there, the conversation weaves through the healing power of poetry, the feminist roots of the Sikh faith, the book Brown Girl Like Me, and a deeply personal account of finding spirituality not in a place of worship — but in a library, a research project, and a girls' home in Punjab.
Timestamps:
- 2:29 — Introducing guest Jaspreet Kaur / Behind the Netra; reading of Lost in Translation
- 5:07 — Why do people love or hate poetry? How it was introduced in schools
- 6:50 — Rediscovering poetry through the Sikh faith: scripture written entirely in poetic form
- 7:31 — Poetry as therapy: using writing to manage anxiety at age 13
- 8:28 — The stigma around mental health in South Asian (and wider) communities
- 9:06 — Anxiety attacks at 13, the journal she still has today, and the move from free writing to poetry
- 9:46 — Pen to paper vs. typing: why handwriting feels therapeutic
- 13:13 — What spirituality looks like in everyday life; lessons from a toddler noticing a snail
- 16:14 — Brown Girl Like Me: writing the book, interviewing 150 Asian women, and why it was therapy
- 22:44 — Spirituality and Sikh heritage: growing up in a Sikh household
- 23:59 — The difference between practice and truly feeling faith
- 25:39 — A master's in gender studies and researching son preference in South Asian communities
- 26:24 — Finding spirituality through feminist research: the Sikh faith's founding principle of gender equality
- 26:52 — Why Sikh women keep the name Kaur; removing caste through naming
- 30:54 — Trey shares his own story: coming out as gay through scripture and direct experience of God
- 32:09 — When faith and culture conflict: a shared challenge across all traditions
- 33:23 — "Don't worry, next time you'll have a boy" — the rage of hearing that after a daughter's birth
- 34:11 — Channelling holy rage into writing and advocacy
- 39:18 — What does God feel like? Sun on your eyelids — a poetic description of the divine
- 41:17 — Trey shares his 12-step recovery journey and experiencing God in the rooms of recovery
- 41:59 — Powerlessness and surrender: the first steps and why a powerful God matters
- 45:04 — Can you be a feminist and surrender to God? Yes — we are contradictions
- 47:22 — Names for God that take energy and alertness to say; divine names across traditions
Guest: Jaspreet Kaur — poet, author, educator
Find her: Instagram, X, YouTube, Facebook — @BehindtheNetra
Book: Brown Girl Like Me
Spill the Spirituality is a project of the Methodist Church in Britain. Produced by John Ryan and Rachel Matthews. Hosted by Trey Hall.
Join the Spill the Spirituality community, follow the show and reach out to the hosts - we'd love to hear your thoughts, stories and feedback!
.png)
