This weeks guest: Rachel Lamont (Winner of SURVIVOR 47)

What does it take to chase a dream for seven years, get sent to Fiji as an alternate, come home without playing, and still return to win it all? We sit down with Survivor 47 champion and Detroit designer Rachel Lamont for a candid, energizing conversation about grit, design thinking, and how to turn fear into fuel when everything is on the line.

Rachel traces her path from art school and agency work to corporate UX at General Motors, where progress felt flat and curiosity kept tugging. Survivor changed the trajectory, but not the way you might expect. She talks about the strange limbo of being an on-site alternate, the pressure-cooker clarity of living without a phone for five weeks, and how therapy and presence gave her a steadier mind under fire. When it mattered most—at final five—she reframed nerves into intention, locked in, and won the challenge that kept her torch alive.

We also dig into the power and limits of manifestation. Rachel’s take is refreshingly grounded: set a specific intention, then let it shape your behavior. That shift carried her from a million-dollar win to launching Puzzle Hungry Umami Rush, a competitive puzzle game that exploded on Kickstarter and is now in manufacturing. She unpacks product design choices, community support, and why creative reinvention works best when you treat it like a series of solvable problems.

There’s a rich behind-the-scenes look at Jeff Probst’s craft, the edit-versus-reality gap, and how gendered expectations show up at Final Tribal. Rachel shares how to argue without overreaching, why adaptability beats a perfect plan, and how to hold “refined indifference to the result”—pour your best into the work, accept what you can’t control, and keep moving. If you care about resilience, high-pressure performance, and building something you wish existed, this one will land.

Subscribe, share with a friend who needs a spark, and leave a review to help more listeners find the show. Then tell us: what bold risk are you taking this week?

If you want to be considered as a guest, please contact us: michael@silverheartproductions.com

Jan 21, 2026

This weeks Guest - Jacques Paisner

What if a regional film festival could be the most practical break you get all year? We sit down with Jacques Paisner, artistic director and founding member of the Santa Fe International Film Festival, to unpack how smart curation, real funding, and a thriving local scene can move a filmmaker from first short to sustained momentum. From early U.S. premieres to Academy-qualifying shorts, we dig into the mechanics that place great films in the right rooms and create conversations that stick long after the credits roll.

Jacques shares how his team scouts Sundance and Berlin, balances associate programmers, and champions Indigenous films curated by Gary Farmer. We talk about the power of panels and mixers that actually connect people, plus the Santa Fe Film Institute’s grants—up to $10,000 for New Mexico creators—that close the gap between an ambitious script and a finished cut. We also explore the wider ecosystem: the Santa Fe Railyard’s cultural hub, direct flights to LA, 300 days of sun, and the grounded lifestyle that lets artists focus, collaborate, and ship work.

We dive into recent standouts across narrative and documentary, the logic behind selecting lifetime achievement honorees like Edward James Olmos and Bryan Cranston, and what’s next on the calendar: March’s Oscar-nominated foreign film series and October’s festival dates. Jacques is also producing Heat Waves and Numbskull Revolution and co-hosts Film Talk Weekly, offering more ways to learn and plug into the community.

If you’re chasing your first festival slot, building a slate, or looking for a place where film culture feels alive and welcoming, this conversation maps the path and the people who can help you walk it.

Enjoyed the conversation? Follow, rate, and share the show with a filmmaker friend—and subscribe so you never miss a new story.

If you want to be considered as a guest, please contact us: michael@silverheartproductions.com

We sit down with Cardum Sage to explore how a pandemic pivot, Ghanaian partnerships, and a wellness practice turned sketches into a runway-bound, gender-fluid fashion brand.

Joy, craft, and community drive the journey from Oakland pop-ups to Dubai and New York Fashion Week.

• reclaiming the artist name and creative flow

• crafting masks that sparked a design path

• opening a home atelier and reading community demand

• partnering with Ghanaian tailors and adopting the Nkyinkyim symbol

• decolonizing sizing with Femme, Diva, Queen, Goddess

• designing boleros and cargos for gender fluidity

• sourcing Ankara and mud cloth with cultural intention

• manifesting a New York Fashion Week invitation

• launching Sacred Threads and Afro lux streetwear

• wellness roots and Sacred Naps for nervous system reset

• VIP in-atelier presentation and how to connect on Instagram

Don’t miss out on the next episode subscribe now on all streaming platforms in your area join us as we celebrate the extraordinary moments that shape our lives and I’m looking forward to hearing your story and your success.

Link to Cardum's fashion line:

https://da-af.com/media

If you want to be considered as a guest, please contact us: michael@silverheartproductions.com