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Thought Experiment Called Life, Colorado Springs, CO (2026)

09/03/2026

This week I’m excited to introduce you to a dear friend and fascinating human, Paul Landreth-Smith.

Paul spent 18 years in British policing, including time as a counterterrorism fi****ms instructor and operator, later became a paramedic, and now manages security for five hospitals in the Kansas City area. He’s also a martial artist, BJJ practitioner, rescue dog dad, husband, and a Brit turned American.

But what I’ve always appreciated most about Paul isn’t his impressive resume…it’s the compassion, curiosity, and humanity he brings to all of it. His life has revolved around service, and he has a unique perspective on what it means to stay calm, help people, understand different cultures, and live a good life.

In this episode, we talk about:

• British policing & counterterrorism
• Moving from the UK to America
• Becoming a paramedic
• Hospital security & crisis response
• Staying calm under pressure
• BJJ & martial arts
• Compassion and kindness
• British vs. American culture
• Religion, politics & common ground
• How our brains perceive reality
• Rescue animals & unconditional love
• Curiosity and questioning assumptions
• What it means to live a good life
• Leaving things better than you found them

I hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I did, and leave with a few new ideas, questions, and perspectives to carry with you.

Please share with someone who you think may benefit from this conversation.

xo,
Greta

As always, join me on Substack for more information, behind the scenes, and more: https://substack.com/

09/02/2026

This week I’m excited to introduce you to a dear friend and fascinating human, Paul Landreth-Smith.

Paul spent 18 years in British policing, including time as a counterterrorism fi****ms instructor and operator, later became a paramedic, and now manages security for five hospitals in the Kansas City area. He’s also a martial artist, BJJ practitioner, rescue dog dad, husband, and a Brit turned American.

But what I’ve always appreciated most about Paul isn’t his impressive resume. It’s the compassion, curiosity, and humanity he brings to all of it. His life has revolved around service, and he has a unique perspective on what it means to stay calm, help people, understand different cultures, and live a good life.

In this episode, we talk about:

• British policing & counterterrorism
• Moving from the UK to America
• Becoming a paramedic
• Hospital security & crisis response
• Staying calm under pressure
• BJJ & martial arts
• Compassion and kindness
• British vs. American culture
• Religion, politics & common ground
• How our brains perceive reality
• Rescue animals & unconditional love
• Curiosity and questioning assumptions
• What it means to live a good life
• Leaving things better than you found them

I hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I did, and leave with a few new ideas, questions, and perspectives to carry with you.

Please share with someone who you think may benefit from this conversation.

xo,
Greta

As always, join me on Substack for more information, behind the scenes, and more: https://substack.com/

08/28/2026

I grew up reading this poem, ‘Success’ who I thought was written by Ralph Waldo Emerson. My mom cross stitched it and it hung in our downstairs bathroom for as long as I can remember it. This poem stating ‘To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived… This is to have succeeded.’ and an Anne Frank quote ‘How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.” have been the pillars of which I try to live my life by and have since I was very young…mostly thanks to my incredible mom who shared them with me and lives these principles in her life.

I just learned today though that the original piece was written a woman, Bessie Anderson Stanley. She wrote the piece as an entry for a writing contest in Brown Book Magazine in 1904, answering the prompt ‘What is success?’ in 100 words or less. She won and received $250 for her beautiful words.

A year before she died though, a newspaper columnist published a rewritten, modern version of the text and claimed it was an abridged quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson. From that moment on, it was republished and continued to be attributed to Emerson, not Bessie.

I just found this out this morning while writing about this poem that has meant so much to me. True her original version is slightly different, but the core tenant remains, to be a force of love, of good, to be a safe place for those you encounter, to help bring light to this world one interaction at a time…this is to have succeeded.

I hope this lands in your heart wherever it finds you today and I hope you know that in the face of all the injustices in the world, you still have the power to make this world better, one loving moment at a time.

08/26/2026

Story telling is one of the biggest ways that we as humans express our creativity…we’ve been doing it as long we have gathered…around campfires, drawing on cave walls, passing along myths and fables and prophetic texts. As we embark on this age of artificial intelligence.

I have been really enjoying highlighting story tellers on my podcast recently as they are such an integral part of keeping the human spirit intact. This clip is from a really fun interview with film festival creator, screenwriter, and filmmaker, Brian Salay. He has devoted his life to celebrating filmmakers and giving them platforms to shine and share their unique perspectives. I performed at his film festival this weekend, at StoryMode Films SISFA, and was brought to tears, laughter, and left overall so incredibly inspired by the talented filmmakers he showcased. Some of them will be future guests and I cannot wait to share their remarkable stories with you all.

What does creativity mean to you? Whether you are a creative for your career or not is irrelevant…we all are creative in some way…it’s part of us…and I hope you fall in love with yours over and over again.

👉You can listen or watch anywhere you get your podcasts (and please share with someone who you think might also resonate).

08/21/2026

Cashew is here to remind you to congratulate yourself on all the ways that you keep showing up for yourself.

Take it from a rescue kitty who spent his whole life in shelters not knowing how to play, not feeling safe around other kitties, not feeling safe to be himself…now he is blossoming a little more each day just because he keeps allowing himself to be curious (and of course because he is now home 🥹).

I admire our new fur baby so much for just how loving and willing he is to try new things even though we know he has a lot of baggage to still work through. He is building his confidence and it’s inspiring me to continue to do the same…so I thought I would pass it along.

Here’s to all beings having something valuable to teach us. May be bow with love to them all.

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