Jeni Starr, the Library’s community specialists manager, has focused on health education – from health equity to weight-inclusive wellness – for over 20 years. 

Starr said Sondra Wallace from Jewish Family Services (JFS) reached out to the Library after hearing the pandemic-era podcast Anatomy of a Crisis: The Impact of Racism on Public Health in America, with another idea. 

“She thought it was a good intersection of mental health and what we do here at the Library in general,” Starr said. 

The new podcast Power of Words launched on April 25. Hosted by Starr and Wallace, it includes conversations with community leaders about “words that inspire” and “support positive relationships.” 

The episodes were recorded when Wallace was JFS’s director of mental health programs; she now serves as the director of community benefit at AdventHealth.

“What we know, in the world of mental health,” said Wallace in the podcast’s pilot episode, “is that a lot of times folks have to wait a little while before they can get professional counseling or therapy or services that they might need.” 

She added, “So the idea came about as a tool to give folks a place or a space or some ideas to do some thinking and reflecting and learning."

The podcast's guests, said Wallace, were invited “to share … their mental health journeys” and how “specific words have empowered, changed, encouraged, or strengthened their mental health or wellness.”

A new episode of Power of Words will be released every two weeks, highlighting books and poems, as well as quotations from cookbooks or films. The theme of creativity, said Starr, carries through “almost every single episode, every conversation that we had.”

In the pilot episode, Starr and Wallace shared writing that's had an impact on their own lives.

Starr referenced a children’s book called I’m in Charge of Celebrations by Byrd Baylor, which begins like this:

Sometimes people ask me,
“Aren't you lonely 
out there 
with just 
desert 
around you?”

I guess they mean 
the beargrass 
and the yuccas 
and the cactus 
and the rocks.

I guess they mean
the deep ravines 
and the hawk nests
in the cliffs 
and the coyote trails 
that wind 
across the hills.

“Lonely?”

I can't help 
laughing 
when they ask me 
that.

I always look at them…
surprised.

And I say, 
“How could I be lonely? I'm the one in charge of celebrations.”

For Starr, the story serves as “a reminder that no matter what life is throwing at you, that you can find something to celebrate, and you can be in charge of that. And I also think it's important to share the connection of nature.”

Wallace cited The Whole-Brain Child by Dan Seigel, M.D. and Tina Payne Bryson, Ph.D., and read this passage: 

"Imagine a peaceful river running through the countryside. That's your river of well-being. Whenever you're in the water, peacefully floating along in your canoe, you feel like you're generally in a good relationship with the world around you. You have a clear understanding of yourself, other people, and your life. You can be flexible and adjust when situations change. You’re stable at peace.”

“And everything about that," said Wallace, "was my moment."

Starr hopes that the new podcast Power of Words – and the words that their guests share – will inspire others. 

“We know that the world is a really hard place right now,” she said. “And we wanted to bring some positivity and some things to help people have more joy, and inspiration.”

Listen to Power of Words starting April 25, with new episodes dropping every two weeks. The Library’s Digital Branch produced the podcast in partnership with Jewish Family Services and with support from AmeriCorps.