Dripping in the Force featuring Kristine McPartlin

...Is Dripping in Black
Kristine here, host of Mind the Force Podcast and A Galaxy Far Far Away is Dripping in Black.

Dominic Lawson (00:02.316)
What's up good people all across the world. This is the Dripping in Black podcast. I am your guest host, Dominic Lawson, the multi award winning podcaster from Black is America and a few other shows across different genres. I like to highlight little known African-American figures and stories on Black is America. So make sure you go ahead and check that out. I always want to give a shout out to the man behind the glass, S Squared for this amazing opportunity to be with you.

to serve as guest host. Now, before we get into today's conversation, come on now, you know you see it, you know you see it, gotta get that drip, gotta get the merchandise, gotta sell some merchandise here. So if you wanna get some gear like this, make sure you go to dibkdripshop.com to get all of your dripping in black merchandise. Once again, is dibkdripshop.com. But first, but now let me go to the task at hand. She is a creator and host of Mind the Force.

podcast, a Star Wars themed mental health podcast. She combines her love for the galaxy far, far away with powerful conversations about mental health drawing from her own journey and insights from professionals. She is the amazing, the talented Kristine McPartland. How are you, Kristine?

Kristine McPartlin (01:13.274)
my goodness, Stalin, very well. I'm loving this introduction. I feel so special.

Dominic Lawson (01:17.954)
Hey, that is what we love to do here. Thank you so much for, for joining us and coming on the Dripping in Black Podcast. So first things first, I just want to know how's your day. I know when we talked in Baltimore, so no fool, fool, cards on the table, Dripping in Black family. met at the, after it was an audio podcast festival in Baltimore, had a wonderful time, down there in Baltimore and Kristine, we got the talking and you was telling me you had just moved.

Like a weekend before that or something,

Kristine McPartlin (01:48.318)
I did, I did. Me and my partner, just moved to Amityville, New York and, you know, somebody...

Dominic Lawson (01:52.558)
is that the Amityville? Okay. Okay.

Kristine McPartlin (01:57.614)
The very same. That's everyone's first question. Like the Amityville Horror House? Yes, the very same. We're about 15 minutes north of the house. And I haven't been down there since I was like a teenager. It is just a regular looking house. I feel pity for the people that live there because people probably pass by all the time. Funny story, my father is actually from the area. He grew up in Massapequa, about one town over.

Dominic Lawson (02:13.089)
Okay.

Dominic Lawson (02:17.856)
Of course.

Dominic Lawson (02:25.197)
Okay.

Kristine McPartlin (02:25.454)
And he knew the people who live next door to like the people who said they were haunted and everything. And he says it's bullshit.

Dominic Lawson (02:33.134)
Gotcha. It's funny how things like that tend to work out. Like, you know, it's all hyped up and this and the other than that has this lore and then you meet some of the locals. It's kind of like that didn't happen. It's like some of that happened, but like they just kind of put some extra shoojing on it. Right. So yeah.

Kristine McPartlin (02:42.494)
Exactly. No, none of that happened.

Kristine McPartlin (02:51.175)
Exactly. Whatever wrote a good screenplay. Like I'm sure somebody wrote it down a great movie, said this sounds fantastic, give it a few million dollars and we'll get it cracking.

Dominic Lawson (03:00.726)
Right and has since then never been back to Amityville ever again, right? Once they got, once they cashed in on the screenplay, right?

Kristine McPartlin (03:04.71)
Exactly.

Exactly. I will say the town gets really into Halloween and I do love that. They are really into Halloween. There's like a little spell book shop in town. It's very cute. It's a very cute town.

Dominic Lawson (03:11.293)
I bet! I bet.

Dominic Lawson (03:17.998)
I love it, I love it. Thank you for sharing that with us. So you know what? We're here to talk about you, not about that house in Amityville and stuff like that. I wanna know more about you. So who is Kristine McPartlin? What you all about? Let us know why you are Black Excellence Personified.

Kristine McPartlin (03:36.328)
Gosh. So I guess what brought me here, what brought us together is my particularly favorite passion project, which is Mind the Force podcast, which is a, I affectionately say a nerdy podcast about Star Wars and mental health. And essentially what we do is we're a character retrospective. So we look at a Star Wars character across the entire Star Wars IP, which is a huge universe. is...

gosh, over a dozen movies, countless TV shows, over 300 novels, decades worth of comic books and like just as many video games. And we examine a character across all these stories, connected, non-connected and examine their mental health, kind of through those experiences and traumas that may have come up or may not have come up. Sometimes we infer from like their experiences as an adult, how maybe that behavior came to be.

Dominic Lawson (04:33.806)
Mm-hmm.

Kristine McPartlin (04:35.076)
then we reflect back on our own mental health and kind of what we can see in those characters and how that might help us out in our own lives and kind of what that can say about us. Because it's really looking at our own mental health through the soft lens of fiction. Because it's quality storytelling and that's really what storytelling is doing is it's reflecting back on our own lives and

Dominic Lawson (04:54.188)
Right, right.

Dominic Lawson (04:59.436)
Mm-hmm.

Kristine McPartlin (05:03.962)
what we can learn about that can be so profound. We can see what a character did in a certain situation and it can then speak to maybe how we can reframe a situation or maybe how we shouldn't reframe a situation, because sometimes, know, characters do bad things. And it's looking at psychology and really the psychology behind escapism and just how...

Dominic Lawson (05:20.822)
Of course, of course.

Dominic Lawson (05:28.664)
Okay.

Kristine McPartlin (05:32.144)
Either grounding that can be or even what I've really been into lately was the psychology behind fandom is really like kind of the avenue that it's led me down. Cause I don't know if you've ever gone to like a Comic-Con, like a huge, it's quite a magical place. Regardless, it's essentially could be tens of thousands of people coming together and

Dominic Lawson (05:41.326)
Thank

Dominic Lawson (05:48.704)
Okay, no I have not, no.

Kristine McPartlin (06:00.744)
You don't know anything about these people. Like you don't know about their lives or what they do, or sometimes even what they believe, what they feel, but you know that they're into the thing that you're into. And it's just this, it's this instant connection. It's this instant sense of community, this sense of belonging. Like you can be cosplaying in a costume and you can see somebody else dressed in a costume from the same show or movie, and you have this instant connection and.

you don't know anything about this person, but you just know that they rock with the same thing you rock with and that they're just as passionate about it. And just that instant community is so, it's a warm feeling. And I feel like there's so few places in society where you can have that kind of instantaneous connection. And it's just a really, it can be a really beautiful thing, especially people who maybe don't feel that they,

Dominic Lawson (06:49.55)
Absolutely.

Kristine McPartlin (06:58.76)
connect with other people on certain levels. That channel through escapism, it's funny that it can take you away, but it can also bring you back in.

Dominic Lawson (07:01.207)
Right.

Dominic Lawson (07:09.248)
for sure. For sure. And to your point, I love how, you know, you really can just meet this random person, right? You know, and just have this instant connection. It just goes to the whole thing about when we talk about mental health, about how human connection is super important. And it's like the fascinating thing is, it's like through any other context, those two people would have never met, right? Like you could have been sitting in the diner with this person and like

Kristine McPartlin (07:31.516)
Exactly.

Dominic Lawson (07:35.884)
You like Star Wars? I like Star Wars too, right? But like that wouldn't happen, right? But in like Comic-Con like that, it fosters that connection piece. And so I definitely love that. I am curious though, because, you know, many of us will see Star Wars is like we see lightsabers, we see Millennium Falcon, we see the Death Star, right? We see those things. And Kristine saw it as like, you know what? This is a path to talk about mental health, right? Walk me through that part, Kristine, if you don't mind.

Kristine McPartlin (07:37.734)
Right?

Kristine McPartlin (08:05.758)
Of course, of course. Well, so when I personally became obsessed with Star Wars, it was actually not that long ago. And some more old school fans will be really surprised to hear that I only got into Star Wars during the pandemic. So it was about 2020 and I watched the show, The Mandalorian and loved it right away. The Mandalorian is a great show. Even if you don't watch Star Wars, it's a great place to start.

Dominic Lawson (08:12.078)
Mm-hmm.

Dominic Lawson (08:22.798)
Great.

Kristine McPartlin (08:36.086)
And then I'm sitting at home, I'm living in Brooklyn at the time with a roommate. And I was like, you know what? I finally have time to watch all those Star Wars movies I meant to sit down and check out. And sat down, watched all the movies, absolutely loved them. Then I started watching the television shows, but particularly the animated shows and just, I was gone. I was gone. I'm like, this is the greatest thing since sliced bread. I absolutely love this. I was already a big fandom person.

Like I loved world building, I loved a big franchise. Like you can see on the top shelf I have some Doctor Who figurines. That was my first fandom obsession, was Doctor Who for many years. so then I, the more that I watched the content, the more I wanted to engage with it, the more I wanted to talk about it. And a friend of mine ended up suggesting, he's like, you should start a podcast if you wanna talk about it all the time. And I was like, that's great idea, let's do that. Let's do that.

Dominic Lawson (09:04.951)
Okay.

Dominic Lawson (09:11.501)
Mm-hmm.

Dominic Lawson (09:33.102)
You

Kristine McPartlin (09:35.594)
But you can attest to this, Dom You're developing a podcast. You're thinking, what's something new I can bring to the table? And I knew I didn't want to just do what everyone else was doing. Because I'm like, there is a thousand Star Wars podcasts about people giving their opinions and reviewing new content and saying what they like and what they don't like. a lot of what they don't like. Star Wars fans are good at that. That's saying what they don't say, what they don't like.

Dominic Lawson (09:43.81)
For sure.

Dominic Lawson (10:01.344)
100%, 100%.

Kristine McPartlin (10:05.148)
bless all their souls, they're really good at that. And I thought about what I would want to listen to, like the kind of content I would want to hear. And my other favorite topic of conversation is mental health and holding space either for myself to express myself and my experiences or hold space for others to do the same. And just human sociology and psychology and

Dominic Lawson (10:07.756)
Great.

Dominic Lawson (10:13.88)
Okay.

Kristine McPartlin (10:33.618)
why we do what we do, why we think the way that we do, whether it's throughout history or through our own experiences. If I could go back to school and rack up more student debt, I would absolutely go for psychology. I think the study of the human mind and human experience is fascinating.

Dominic Lawson (10:44.878)
Hahaha

Dominic Lawson (10:49.131)
Okay.

Dominic Lawson (10:54.048)
No. No, go ahead.

Kristine McPartlin (10:55.614)
And I guess what kind of led me on that road was my own journey through therapy. know, I, so, gosh, what year is it? So back in 2011, I experienced an assault and that just led to years of anxiety and depression and dissociation and just a lot of destructive behavior until I realized about

Dominic Lawson (11:03.15)
Okay.

Kristine McPartlin (11:24.89)
eight or nine years in that if I didn't get some kind of help to deal with the trauma from that experience, that it was just going to take over everything as unsorted traumas can. And what I found that through my therapeutic journey, which was individual therapy as well as group therapy,

Dominic Lawson (11:41.464)
Right.

Kristine McPartlin (11:52.378)
which was absolutely life-changing. I really loved group therapy. The healing power of shared trauma cannot be understated. I found that being really open about what I was doing with others was extremely beneficial. Like I would meet up with friends and other people and they'd ask, what have you been up to? What have you been doing? And I would say, well,

I'm in therapy. I had this traumatic experience years ago and I'm in therapy and I'm dealing with it and I'm healing from it. particularly people in, particularly my black friends, communities of color, communities of women would say, you you're the first person I've ever known not only to go to therapy, then be so open about it. That it's like, it's not for crazy people, it's not for...

Dominic Lawson (12:42.894)
Mm-hmm.

Kristine McPartlin (12:47.656)
people having some sort of dramatic meltdown or like the very far end of the spectrum, I just didn't feel good. And I was able to kind of step back and realize like, I'm not handling this on my own. And I need to go get some tools in order to cope with what happened. And then they would...

kind of feel like a safe space, they would then open up and be like, I had this thing happen when I was a child and I never told anybody about it or I've never done anything about it. Or I've had all these negative repercussions from it. And it really showed me that there's a lot of power in conversation and just letting people know that this conversation is okay. That no one's going to judge you for it. That actually a lot of people

Dominic Lawson (13:31.726)
and just letting people know that this conversation is okay.

Kristine McPartlin (13:40.306)
probably have a really similar shared experience. And the first step is just opening up the door to that conversation. no, sorry. As a podcaster, I'm really good at just yammering.

Dominic Lawson (13:48.364)
Right. No, no, go ahead. I'm No, you're fine. You're fine. Go ahead. Totally good. No, it's totally good. No, I love. Thank you for sharing it. And I think what I hear and love that you highlight in that share is the fact that like in behavioral health and mental health, one of the things we talk about is the isolation, right? The isolation is

probably the biggest proponent of people getting worse off, right? You know, because they feel like, this thing happened to me. Nobody will understand. Nobody can relate. don't want to be, as my wife would say, here on the internet whining, right? Nobody wants to hear that, right? And then you step out on faith and then you share. And then your friend from the past 15 years says, you know what? I got a story. I got to share, right?

You know, I've never talked about this. I've never talked about this to anybody before. And so I think what your path and your journey highlights is that like, you know, the power of telling our story and owning our story, right? You know, because what I do know in the recovery community is that they say keep secrets, keep you sick. Right. And so not being able to share that, not necessarily like, you know, even with a mental health clinician.

Kristine McPartlin (14:53.394)
Mm-hmm.

Dominic Lawson (15:16.512)
not a committed health clinician with a friend or somebody with that, secrets keep you sick. And you can just, you know, go down this hole of like, you know, not doing so great. And so I appreciate what you do and your journey for sure. Of course.

Kristine McPartlin (15:27.539)
Right?

Kristine McPartlin (15:33.704)
Thank you. Yeah, I appreciate that. You know, it's, you know, and it's so, there's so much power behind giving voice to your experiences in that way. Cause not only does it then take away the power from abusers and from people who are the causers, the causation of that kind of trauma, but it, it holds space for others and it.

I guess my personal analogy for trauma is that any trauma is like an open wound. It's like a wound, it's a cut or a gash. And if you do nothing, you just let it sit and it festers and that can spread. And so suddenly this cut that was right here can spread all around your body and it can get infected and it can start to affect so many other parts of your life.

Dominic Lawson (16:09.922)
Mm-hmm.

Dominic Lawson (16:21.902)
100 %

Dominic Lawson (16:26.894)
100%. Are you, are you familiar with the book, the body keeps the score? It's a, it's a, it's a, I think it's sold like over 60 million copies around the world has been translated in like translated in like what 40 languages or something like that. I actually had the pleasure. I actually was a colleague of the author of that book in my work in behavioral health as a podcaster. and it's, it's, it's a phenomenal book. Everybody swears by it, but to your point,

Kristine McPartlin (16:31.485)
No.

Kristine McPartlin (16:38.29)
Ooh, I'm gonna write that down.

Kristine McPartlin (16:43.634)
Hmm.

Kristine McPartlin (16:51.24)
That's cool.

Dominic Lawson (16:56.514)
It exactly highlights just what you're just saying, right? Like the body never forgets, right? And I think a lot of times people think of trauma is like this big physical thing, right? But you know, and that's what we call big T trauma, but there's also small T trauma, right? You know, like the little small things that kind of eat that away to us, the little micro things that just add up exactly. So, you know, body keeps the score. no, definitely, I'm definitely, you know,

Kristine McPartlin (17:00.977)
Nope.

Kristine McPartlin (17:12.334)
Mm-hmm. Those little micro things, they add up. Mm-hmm.

Dominic Lawson (17:25.112)
Feel what you're saying on that for sure.

Kristine McPartlin (17:27.026)
Yeah, it's, know, I love the analogy of that title. I will look that up. But it's, but you know, but then if you get therapy, like if you get help, it's like, it's like ointment. It's like putting, it's like you're putting cream, you're tending to it. And you know what, you might have a little scar and it's never gonna go away. Like the, like I always tell people who maybe aren't used to the therapeutic process that like your trauma doesn't go away. Like it's always gonna be there.

Dominic Lawson (17:30.829)
Mm-hmm.

Dominic Lawson (17:38.734)
100%.

Kristine McPartlin (17:54.866)
but you've tended to it, you've kept it contained, you have coping mechanisms with which to treat it. Like you're learning how to react to triggers, you're learning how to like walk yourself back, how to calm yourself down, like, and you can catch yourself in those triggered moments. You can literally catch yourself, be like, okay, I'm gonna take a step back and reflect and use the tools that I've learned in order to keep my own life moving forward.

Dominic Lawson (18:21.87)
100%. 100%. And I think Kristine, in that share, it also highlights what you just saying that like, it's so important. And I think we're starting to come around to this as a society, right? It's so important to treat mental health challenges like we do physical ones, right? Like with the same sincerity, the same thought, right? Like, you know, just like how maybe you would get aspirin for a headache, you'll use those different modalities that you're talking about.

Kristine McPartlin (18:47.793)
Yeah.

Dominic Lawson (18:49.654)
for those different things. Like I'm feeling a little blue today. Let me try this to kind of work through that. You know, I'm feeling a little anxious today. Let me try this to work through that. So I think what you highlight is that it's very important to treat mental health challenges, you know, with the same sincerity as we do physical ones.

Kristine McPartlin (19:08.302)
Exactly. And I would even put it at 50 50 because you can have your mental health deteriorate to the point where it starts affecting your body. Stress is one of the number one killers. Like stress is going to affect your brain development and your heart and your stomach and like your even like your joints, your sad and don't get up and move. Yeah.

Dominic Lawson (19:11.886)
Mm-hmm.

Dominic Lawson (19:17.038)
100%.

Dominic Lawson (19:30.126)
Seven out of the 10 causes of death in this country have been attributed to trauma. Heart disease, RA, know, stuff like that. Seven out of 10 of those things have been attributed to trauma. So because to your point, it affects the physical body, right? You know, that when that, when that, you know, that when that fight or flight starts activating and it starts running through the body and all those things like that's a real thing. That's a real thing. So.

Kristine McPartlin (19:36.936)
Look at that.

Kristine McPartlin (19:43.442)
That does not surprise me.

Kristine McPartlin (19:48.432)
Mm-hmm.

Dominic Lawson (20:00.438)
No, I feel that but you were talking. I'm sorry about that.

Kristine McPartlin (20:04.09)
No, no, it's fine. We're having a conversation. We're vibing. We're rolling. It's all good.

Dominic Lawson (20:07.182)
No, I feel that. want to ask you this because like you said, going back to mind, the force and mental health, know one of the, you know, one of the things I love about Star Wars is that it's extremely quotable, right? It's extremely quotable. I think my favorite is only a Sith does an absolutes, right? And I think when you put it in a mental health context for me,

Kristine McPartlin (20:24.446)
It is.

Kristine McPartlin (20:28.862)
Mmm.

Dominic Lawson (20:35.182)
You can definitely attribute to a few things. One of them being like believing in extremes can be very detrimental. Right? So I'm curious for you, what are some good Star Wars quotes for you that just ring a bell as it relates to mental health? Are there anything that kind of ring out?

Kristine McPartlin (20:42.256)
Indeed it can.

Kristine McPartlin (20:53.511)
goodness, I wish I'd prepared something for that. Right? gosh. I mean, I don't know. I mean, I don't know if I have particularly any quotes, because I just, you know what? I find that I look at Star Wars, maybe like my different fandom franchises in such a deep.

Dominic Lawson (20:56.398)
We asked the hard-hitting questions at Dripping in Black. And if not, that's fine too. I have other questions.

Kristine McPartlin (21:18.268)
way that I'm looking at these characters like they're real people. Like I'm not just looking at like what I've seen on the screen or reading in a book. It's like, what is your overall life looking like? Like what did that experience make you feel? Like, okay, you're doing this as an adult. What happened as a kid that like may have caused you to then be that kind of person? Because also I think what I love about Star Wars the most

Dominic Lawson (21:19.224)
Yeah.

Dominic Lawson (21:26.391)
Right.

Dominic Lawson (21:32.599)
Mm-hmm.

Dominic Lawson (21:41.101)
Right.

Kristine McPartlin (21:47.942)
is that it touches on a little bit of everything. Like I haven't found a theme really that has not been represented in Star Wars content. Cause you have everything from religion to politics to relationships to like of course good versus evil to issues about like immigration, like things that we face in our own society of like us versus them, tribalism.

Dominic Lawson (22:15.512)
shame, anger, all the things, all the things, no for sure.

Kristine McPartlin (22:19.642)
all the things like you have childhood trauma, parental trauma, you have gaslighting and manipulation and it's just, my gosh, it's just everything you can find. You have war and like the traumas that come with war, everything from like adults down to children. basically, Padawans are like child soldiers that are being sent off to war with laser swords. Like it's great. And.

Dominic Lawson (22:22.755)
Mm-hmm.

Dominic Lawson (22:35.715)
Right.

Dominic Lawson (22:41.89)
Right.

Right.

Kristine McPartlin (22:47.622)
I just, and I think about even the characters who are like on the dark side, because I'm a self prescribed Sith from all of my stuff, you can see.

Dominic Lawson (22:56.032)
Listen, listen, let me me explain some to you. There are days I'm crossing over like there's days I feel a little sithy. Not even gonna lie, right?

Kristine McPartlin (23:06.396)
I mean, it's, you know what? I read the book, Darth Plagueis, which is like told from the point of view of like a very like powerful sith lord. And by the end of it, I was like, I feel that I understand.

Dominic Lawson (23:11.317)
Okay.

Dominic Lawson (23:19.01)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah, it's like you start the book and he's like, man, let me see what he talking about. Then at the end, like, he's slick spitting. Wait a minute, now. He kind of making some sense now.

Kristine McPartlin (23:28.03)
right. Right. I feel like that's so common too with a lot of bad guys nowadays as we have like more character development and more like nuanced storytelling, right? Very complex layered characters that you kind of come away being like, he's not wrong though. He's not wrong. Like, right. Like where did we, like, that's a good example, like Killmonger from,

Dominic Lawson (23:37.152)
Right.

Dominic Lawson (23:40.686)
Complexity right? Yeah

Right.

Dominic Lawson (23:47.95)
Right. I love the Yoda reference there. I got it.

Dominic Lawson (23:57.282)
Correct, 100%. Yeah. He wrong. He kind of spinning right now.

Kristine McPartlin (23:57.81)
from Black Panther, I think we all came out of that. Like, he not wrong though. This is not wrong. Right? Like maybe like the approach is a little iffy, but like the principles are there. The foundation's pretty solid.

Dominic Lawson (24:09.738)
Right. Right. For sure. For sure. No, I appreciate all of this. I had the pleasure of listening to your episode about Chewbacca. Phenomenal episode. You had on the voice actor HB, can't think of his last name right now, H.B. Gibson. And then you had the clinician on as well, Jules Christensen, I believe. Correct?

Kristine McPartlin (24:22.792)
Thank you.

Kristine McPartlin (24:28.05)
Yes, HB Gibson.

Kristine McPartlin (24:35.611)
Yes.

Dominic Lawson (24:36.15)
Yeah, and so she was dropping some gems, especially the one about the Death Star, right? Especially the one about the Death Star.

Kristine McPartlin (24:42.782)
Bro, that was like the best line I've gotten in the entire show. Like we...

Dominic Lawson (24:46.958)
Kind of share that one with us a little bit if you don't mind.

Kristine McPartlin (24:50.23)
my gosh, I wish I could remember verbatim what she said, but it was basically that we're all like a death star in that, especially we're talking about like the modern age of the internet. We're talking about the internet and how you can write anything on the internet. You can post anything, it can be scathing, it can be insulting, can be mean, and that you can kind of destroy someone from the other side of the world.

Dominic Lawson (24:57.759)
Mm-hmm.

Individualism. Right.

Dominic Lawson (25:17.719)
Right.

Kristine McPartlin (25:18.238)
and be so disassociated from it and so far removed and like so unfeeling about it. It's like any of us can be a death star. And sometimes that's how the internet, like while there are lot of pros to the internet, that's a big con in that you can, like you don't have to think about them as real people. Like whoever's on the other side of that comment or the other side of that screen, like you can just remove yourself because you never have to face that person.

Dominic Lawson (25:27.587)
Right.

Dominic Lawson (25:38.915)
Right.

Kristine McPartlin (25:48.016)
And I was just like, damn, steep.

Dominic Lawson (25:50.764)
No, for sure. It definitely speaks to, you know, when she was talking, I was like, man, did y'all record this today? Cause it felt so like, know, relevant to today because, you know, he was talking about the individual, individuality kind of mindset versus the collective mindset. And cause their question to her was about, you know, Chewbacca paying back this life debt to Han and having his own agency and

Kristine McPartlin (26:09.576)
Mm-hmm.

Dominic Lawson (26:17.918)
and things of that nature. And so I thought that was a fascinating conversation. And I was like, I'm always interested in how people weave in mental health to other things, but you do it masterfully. You do it masterfully. That is a great job on that end. Kind of, you know, I'm curious though, besides Chewbacca, and I know you featured other, you know, Star Wars characters and stuff like that. Which one to you is the most interesting as it relates to mental health for you?

Kristine McPartlin (26:28.038)
thank you.

Kristine McPartlin (26:38.526)
Mm-hmm.

Kristine McPartlin (26:45.886)
you

Dominic Lawson (26:47.192)
Chewbacca is a good one because I thought that was a really good. It was a really good one

Kristine McPartlin (26:48.84)
Chewbacca's, Chewbacca's, Chewbacca's a good one. I enjoyed that one too because there wasn't a lot of content out there on Chewbacca. Like the people, people do a lot of deep dives on a lot of different Star Wars characters, but I didn't find a lot on Chewbacca, which was then cool to kind of like start from zero. I'm a, I'm, right, right? I mean, he is an amazing character. He's a really amazing character. Doesn't get, doesn't get enough clout.

Dominic Lawson (26:56.386)
Fair enough, okay, I didn't realize that.

Dominic Lawson (27:03.479)
Okay.

Dominic Lawson (27:08.416)
Yeah, get Chewbacca some love. Get Chewbacca some love.

Right.

Kristine McPartlin (27:16.86)
But I I love your history podcast. I'm also a historian by trade. And so anything where I just get to deep dive on research is just, I love it. But if I had to pick, I mean, there's so many characters. There's so many. Like anyone who starts my podcast will know I have a six episode series on Anakin Skywalker alone, because he is a mess, a beautiful little mess. Yes.

Dominic Lawson (27:22.2)
I that.

Dominic Lawson (27:29.005)
hear that.

Dominic Lawson (27:33.774)
100%.

Dominic Lawson (27:40.526)
Mm-hmm. It's a whole beautiful mess.

Kristine McPartlin (27:46.15)
I mean, probably my favorite outside of like Anakin and Vader, because I think that one is self-explanatory. You can write an entire dissertation on Anakin and Vader. Would probably be Darth Maul. My little guy right here. He's my favorite character in the whole Star Wars universe. And he's immensely complex in that like.

Dominic Lawson (27:57.454)
100 %

Dominic Lawson (28:01.462)
Okay. Okay.

Kristine McPartlin (28:12.35)
He was given away as a child in, I guess, his mother's efforts to save him from essentially kind of like an enslavement. But then she gave him essentially to a sociopath who is Palpatine. And essentially gave him, said like, please save my son. He's going to be enslaved by the Nightsisters and he can be so much more than that. And he then go on to be raised by a sociopath who then.

Dominic Lawson (28:22.112)
Mm-hmm.

Kristine McPartlin (28:40.54)
raised him to be a dark side assassin, but then when he wasn't useful, essentially threw him away. And then he spent like the rest of his life trying to find like value in relationships, but also still like being bad. But then at one point during Clone Wars, he has like galaxy saving level intention. But then because he's already marked as a bad guy from people who are receiving him that way.

Dominic Lawson (29:10.015)
Interesting.

Kristine McPartlin (29:10.49)
that then he gets defeated and he's such a layered character right up until the very end because then he's living so many years for revenge against Obi-Wan Kenobi who cut him in half and threw him down that hole. And it's just so interesting. And the more I learn about this character now through, especially the novelizations, the more I'm just like, he's just so interesting.

Dominic Lawson (29:22.424)
Right. Right. Right.

Dominic Lawson (29:33.897)
Mm-hmm.

I don't know for sure. it's like, you know, a lot of people don't know is like, when it comes to like adoption, right? Like there's this thing called attachment trauma, right? That, that you kind of go through. And so right there, just by being, you know, giving away to somebody else, there's attachment trauma on top of being given away to a psychopath on top of all this other stuff. Right. And then there's that part where you was talking about where, you know,

Kristine McPartlin (29:58.372)
Exactly, like and

Dominic Lawson (30:04.322)
He wants to save the world or save the galaxy or whatever, but like I'm already this thing is like, many of us have been like, I want to be something else. I want to rebrand myself, but I'm already this thing, right? And so now there's definitely a lot of, you know, mental health teachings on that bone for sure. 100 % from a Darth Maul. That's extremely complex.

Kristine McPartlin (30:15.592)
Alright.

Kristine McPartlin (30:23.97)
my goodness, that's gonna be one of my favorite episode series. my God, I can't wait. I can't wait to plan that out. And right now I'm waiting. There's some characters I hold back on because I'm waiting to see if like Disney and Lucasfilm will make more content about them. Like I think that fans are screaming for the Darth Maul movie. They're like, why isn't there a Maul movie? Like he needs his own content.

Dominic Lawson (30:31.701)
Hahaha!

Dominic Lawson (30:38.286)
Yeah.

Dominic Lawson (30:43.778)
Fair enough.

Kristine McPartlin (30:53.182)
But that would probably be my favorite one, but there's, my God, there's a galaxy full. There's a galaxy full. Actually, I'm wrapping up a episode series on Grand Moff Woolf Tarkin. And that one's been really fun. That one's been really fun. Because most people from the original trilogy will just know him as like the general on the Death Star, like the skinny British guy.

Dominic Lawson (31:00.752)
for sure.

Dominic Lawson (31:08.246)
Okay.

Dominic Lawson (31:20.854)
Mm-hmm.

Kristine McPartlin (31:21.916)
But he's a huge character. He's a huge character, like in the TV shows and later novelizations and a lot in the comic books. my gosh, he has decades worth of comic books. And just to learn about like his childhood and it's, he's a mess. There's a lot of reasons why he does what he does. And I'm actually looking forward to interviewing a psychologist with a military background.

Dominic Lawson (31:49.944)
OK.

Kristine McPartlin (31:50.332)
particularly because he went on to be this mastermind on the military side of the Galactic Empire, and just very militant. That's how he was raised, and that's how he went through his education and his experience, and I think it speaks really strongly to his military experience, and I'd like to have somebody in our modern-day military, I think would be a really cool perspective to get. So I'm looking forward to that.

Dominic Lawson (32:15.052)
No, no, I agree. I think that would definitely be a fantastic, fantastic perspective for sure. Driven in black family. If you want to check out mind, the force, make sure you go to mind, the force.com. have a link there in the show notes and also you can check out mind the force on any of your major podcasts, platforms. Kristine, I want to ask you this question. What are some challenges you see, you know, with marginalized communities as it relates to mental health and does mind the force.

address those. I know you kind of talked about a little bit, but I was just curious if you go deeper with that part.

Kristine McPartlin (32:51.878)
definitely think that, I mean, I think Mind the Force has the power to speak particularly to marginalized communities because, I mean, one, it's such a big galaxy, but these issues aren't, like, they aren't just unique to these fictional characters. Like, it's things that are not only bringing true in our own lives, but I think the...

Dominic Lawson (33:04.28)
For sure.

Kristine McPartlin (33:18.974)
Like I said before, just starting the conversation. Just starting the conversation and also, I mean, being a woman of color, seeing somebody else who looks like you, you can then relate to that. That it's like, I mean, because the very common perception in marginalized communities is like, well, therapies for white people. Like, I don't know, like we don't talk about that kind of stuff. We don't assess that kind of stuff. Or...

Dominic Lawson (33:40.75)
Hmm

Dominic Lawson (33:44.6)
Right.

Kristine McPartlin (33:46.556)
or just accepting that, that's just the way things are. Like, well, that's what, well, this happened to this friend and to that family member and to my mom and my grandma and my dad, like, and to hopefully show that.

I kind want to phrase this, like that these things don't have to be accepted just because it's widespread, just because the entire galaxy is under the rule of the empire doesn't mean that what they're doing is right. It doesn't mean that those negative experiences and those traumas have to be accepted just because they're common. That if we start the conversations, maybe then...

Dominic Lawson (34:27.724)
Right.

Kristine McPartlin (34:34.008)
to start the conversations, maybe then we can see as a collective community that there needs to be change, that we can do better as a people, that we can take the power away from people who are taking from us, whether it's society as a whole or whether it's like individuals or bad actors who have bad intentions. And maybe we can, individuals and also as a people, take our power back.

Dominic Lawson (35:04.824)
Yeah, I feel that. And the reason I wanted to ask that question, because you said it at the top of the show, that like Star Wars fans are quick to point out what's wrong with something, right? You know, there was the big controversy with Jar Jar Binks back in the day. There was the big controversy with the Black woman in the Obi-Wan series, right? There was a whole controversy when it came to Rey in The Force Awakens, right? So it's like, you know, it's like as we become,

Kristine McPartlin (35:28.062)
Mm-hmm.

Dominic Lawson (35:33.782)
You know, as the, you know, as, you know, census reports in America, stuff like that are showing the what a friend of mine called the browning and the graying of America, right? You know, these stories and these and these storylines are going to become more prevalent, right? And so, and so I think a show like yours being led by you is definitely something that can help, you know, marginalized communities be seen. Does that make sense?

Kristine McPartlin (35:46.226)
Mm-hmm.

Kristine McPartlin (35:51.773)
Yeah.

Kristine McPartlin (36:02.846)
It absolutely does. I definitely understand, like I think it's always interesting, with something old like Star Wars, because you're not only giving people great content going forward and interesting characters for like the modern day in the future, but you also are, like you're taking something that people hold in such an old nostalgic place. Like you're going to, cause,

Dominic Lawson (36:12.93)
Mm-hmm.

Kristine McPartlin (36:31.836)
The people who are Star Wars fans now, they went and saw these movies when they were children. So you're taking that childhood memory and you're, and of course a lot of people can see you're progressing with it. You're telling these other stories. It's a really big galaxy and there's lots of different kinds of people and stories in these galaxies and there's room for all of it. And that's what I love is that it can hold all these stories because it's a universe and there's different,

Dominic Lawson (36:41.133)
Right.

Dominic Lawson (36:48.18)
Massive.

Dominic Lawson (36:53.859)
Right.

Kristine McPartlin (37:01.576)
people and experiences and species and planets and all of it. And I love that they're really exploring that there's more than like white blonde haired blue eyed people in the galaxy. there's like half these people are aliens. Like they're not even humans. But I mean, I loved like the Obi-Wan show. Like I loved that story. Do I think that character maybe

Dominic Lawson (37:08.003)
Right.

Dominic Lawson (37:22.648)
Great.

Dominic Lawson (37:28.929)
Mm-hmm.

Kristine McPartlin (37:30.558)
could have been placed somewhere else, because I didn't need to cut to her between the Obi-Wan Vader battle. I can see why that made people annoyed, because I'm like, stop cutting away, I'm watching this. But I also love that character. Actually, that's my favorite cosplay. I have cosplayed third sister several times at conventions, and it's my favorite cosplay. There's nothing more powerful than walking around with a cape and a red light saber. I can tell you.

Dominic Lawson (37:40.116)
Right. Right.

Dominic Lawson (37:49.057)
Okay.

Dominic Lawson (37:58.892)
Listen, I love it.

Kristine McPartlin (38:00.926)
unparalleled, people part the Red Sea, it's very powerful. And she's an incredible character. And actually from a mental health point of view, like she was a Padawan who survived Order 66, with Anakin slashing down children, hid under the bodies of her dead friend family and then got picked up.

Dominic Lawson (38:08.76)
Mm-hmm.

Dominic Lawson (38:21.143)
Right.

Dominic Lawson (38:26.743)
Right.

Kristine McPartlin (38:29.266)
to basically go be a dark side user for like Darth Vader's band of inquisitors, knowing the whole time that's Anakin Skywalker and I'm like planning to kill him. I'm gonna get next to him and I'm going to kill him. That's like 20 years of trauma plotting. I'm like, where's that novel? Where's that book? I would read that. But I think the fact that...

Dominic Lawson (38:40.749)
Right.

Dominic Lawson (38:46.421)
Correct.

For sure.

Kristine McPartlin (38:54.29)
She, her hair was in braids and this beautiful, strong, dark-skinned woman going toe-to-toe with Darth Vader. I'm like, that's the kind of representation that we need. And I also think that, I mean, and even seeing a character like that who had that kind of trauma and is moving forward and kind of goes on this journey arc where it's all about revenge and it's all about power and it's all about taking what she wants. And then at the end finds like this didn't get me anywhere.

Dominic Lawson (39:03.235)
Right.

Kristine McPartlin (39:23.282)
this didn't bring me any joy or any satisfaction. And then to see her release that at the end of the season is like, that was a powerful journey that she went on. whether it's like in fictional content or maybe in a storyline that's more set in our own world, I mean, that's something that someone would look for in escapism is a character who is

Dominic Lawson (39:44.12)
Mm-hmm

Kristine McPartlin (39:51.066)
going through a traumatic experience and to see them work through that. I think that so often, particularly in Hollywood, we can get these representations of the more negative sides of society, particularly for black and brown characters. mean, historically where the men are like cast as drug dealers or the women are cast in like all these like negative roles or being abused or making poor decisions or.

being crazy or whatever the stereotypical casting is. And there's no character development. There's no journey, there's no arc. They just stay at A, they never get to B. And so we never get to have that example of them learning more, of developing to more. And I think that what we're getting to see now is...

Dominic Lawson (40:20.492)
Right.

Kristine McPartlin (40:44.958)
really fleshed out female characters, really fleshed out black and brown characters where they're more layered. Like I'll even take a villain if they're layered, like if they have a little context to them. One, makes for better content overall, just for anybody who's enjoying it, whether they're relating to it on that level or not. It just makes for a better watch. And like, yes, we want to learn and we want to feel represented, but we also want to be entertained.

Dominic Lawson (40:53.46)
Right. For sure. For sure.

Dominic Lawson (41:09.71)
100 %

Dominic Lawson (41:15.63)
Absolutely. Quick follow-up, because you talked about cosplaying. I feel like that can be such a fun activity for adults, right? Because I think we live in a world where we have to be all buttoned up all the time and we have to be all whatever, like being kind of repressed, self-repressed, right? To kind of just be joyful and kidful and playful, right? Make the case for more cosplaying.

Kristine McPartlin (41:18.962)
Mm-hmm.

Kristine McPartlin (41:34.717)
Mm-hmm.

Kristine McPartlin (41:43.646)
every cosplay is the best. It's the best. You know what? It has so many levels to it. Like I spoke earlier about how there's a really great sense of community you can find at conventions, whether it's like a big, huge convention like New York Comic-Con or C &D Comic-Con, or if you have something more specific, like there's conventions that are for, there's like a Star Trek convention, or I know they probably have something like, I don't know, like a little

Dominic Lawson (42:02.679)
Mm-hmm.

Kristine McPartlin (42:12.91)
long order SVU convention or like there's like specific kinds of like meetups for different franchises. And cosplaying is just it's so fun. One, it's it's fun to get dressed up. It's like the same concept as Halloween. You like getting dressed up as a character. And if you're passionate about a fandom, you're like, I can't wait to dress up with this character, whether it's really simple or really elaborate, because my god can cosplay get elaborate like you.

Dominic Lawson (42:20.119)
Right?

Dominic Lawson (42:27.266)
Mm-hmm

Dominic Lawson (42:39.982)
I believe it.

Kristine McPartlin (42:40.806)
you think you are looking at this character in real life, or you have really like elaborate handmade costumes, or you have gigantic costumes, or you have giant props. either like if you're dressed up and you see someone else from your franchise, it's like Christmas morning, your eyes just light up and you're like, my God, like you're from that show that I love. And like you also love that show. And it's just this really great connection or.

I remember the first time I ever cosplayed, the very first time, almost 10 years ago, I was a very obscure costume from a Doctor Who episode. And maybe three people all day got the costume, but the endorphins that come from the moment someone recognizes your costume and is like, and like gives you that validation, that acknowledgement. my God, endorphins through the roof.

Dominic Lawson (43:13.582)
you

Dominic Lawson (43:18.808)
Okay.

Dominic Lawson (43:31.33)
Mm-hmm.

Right.

Kristine McPartlin (43:38.686)
absolutely through the roof. You get so excited, you're like, my God, thank you. I really appreciate that. People wanna take your picture and that makes you just feel really cool. People wanna see you dressed up as this character. And it's just, it's really gratifying. It's like, okay, I worked hard on this thing and people are recognizing that I worked hard or I'm meeting other people kind of in this very niche community who all I know about them is that they love the thing I love.

Dominic Lawson (43:47.661)
Right.

Kristine McPartlin (44:07.974)
And in that environment, that's enough. And that's wonderful. it's just a happy feeling. It's a joyful feeling. I feel like there's so few instances in this world where we get to feel that kind of really unfiltered joy. And it's such a simple thing, but it's such a profound thing.

Dominic Lawson (44:28.002)
Right, exactly.

Dominic Lawson (44:35.47)
Right. think it goes back to what we were saying earlier about Darth Maul, right? Like I have this galaxy saving like intention or whatever, but I'm already this bad person. And in this case, like I'm already this like, I don't want to say corporate shield or whatever they call it. Right. But like, I'm already like this thing. Like if I, if I don't, if I go in, want to go be, you know, a Gwagon or something for like an afternoon, how are people going to take me? How are people going to look at me? Am I going to be less respected? Right. And so.

Kristine McPartlin (44:49.852)
haha

Dominic Lawson (45:05.054)
Like sometimes you just gotta like just like let go and just like just go have some fun like loosen up, you know

Kristine McPartlin (45:09.636)
Exactly, exactly. It's just you get to, it's like you almost like you get to be a kid. You're just like, I just, I just get to nerd out for a while. Like I just want to go and play with lightsabers or read comic books or I don't know, be a giant dragon or whatever people, people say or whatever people do. And it's just fun. It's just a lot of fun. And it's just, it's, it's that like,

Dominic Lawson (45:14.476)
Yeah, exactly.

Dominic Lawson (45:21.144)
Right.

Kristine McPartlin (45:36.316)
It's that like escapism, like watching your favorite show, but like on a thousand. I think anybody who's never, like next year, you're, I guess in the New York area, get a ticket to New York Comic Con, go and have fun. I guarantee you there's something for everybody, especially like these, especially, I mean, they've gotten more commercialized over the years, but just these big pop culture conventions, there's something for everybody.

Dominic Lawson (45:39.49)
Right, for sure, 1000%.

Dominic Lawson (45:53.592)
For sure.

Dominic Lawson (46:01.038)
Yeah, for sure. No, I love all of that. I really do. I want to ask you this, Kristine. What has been the reception to Mind of the Force? What is some feedback people have given you about Mind of the Force? Has it helped them? Has it made them think about Star Wars or themselves in a different way? What has been some of that feedback for you?

Kristine McPartlin (46:09.694)
Hmm?

Kristine McPartlin (46:26.238)
It's been overwhelmingly positive, which has been really great. I've definitely had people say that they didn't, one that they hadn't thought about Star Wars in this context. And so they really enjoyed that, particularly, like it is a very deep lore podcast. So, I mean, I would recommend going and watching some Star Wars before you go listen to it. But it's been...

Dominic Lawson (46:28.546)
Okay?

Dominic Lawson (46:38.25)
Mm-hmm.

Dominic Lawson (46:43.651)
For sure.

Dominic Lawson (46:49.582)
Right, because you do great job of having that spoiler alert at the beginning, right? So, fair enough.

Kristine McPartlin (46:55.646)
I try, I try. I try because you know what? When I first started, I think I tried to kind of make it so anyone can listen to it and it was just, it was either gonna be too deep for people who weren't fans or like boring for people who were. And I'm like, nah, it's a fan podcast. You should be a fan. But I've had people say they really didn't, one that they either didn't know as much about the characters they did.

Dominic Lawson (47:10.723)
Yeah.

Right.

Dominic Lawson (47:16.856)
Correct.

Kristine McPartlin (47:24.798)
because it is a very deep dive on characters. So if you know surface level, you might not know some of like the, you might not have read the comic books, you might not have read the novels and like know some of the deeper story points of a character. But they said they never thought about it that way. And they like how we relate it back to real life and it's like take it out of the fiction and into our own reality. Because like, I didn't think about like,

Anakin's childhood trauma, like his relationship with Qui-Gon and like how that was damaging, how like his relationship with Obi-Wan, like it seems so like nice and warm in the movies, but to learn like that that had to grow and that had issues along the way and that that like that there was trauma there. They're like, I never thought about it that way. And it made then their relationship later on and like the downfall of that make more sense. They're like, not only did it

Dominic Lawson (48:10.296)
Yeah.

Kristine McPartlin (48:21.028)
make them reflect on themselves, it also made them understand the larger content more. And they're like, like now I see why that other thing happened because yeah, that would have been left over from that experience years before. Or even learning or even like you said, the Chewbacca episode, just to learn about like Wookie culture was interesting for a lot of people that they're like, I never thought about how they were such a collective culture and how these were their.

priorities and their principles and that really shaped Chewbacca as a person, which in tow shaped his relationship with Han and how he made decisions going through their adventures together. And so it's been a really positive feedback. Definitely from fans, definitely from people who aren't fans who are more on the psychology side. Which is probably my favorite part. A lot of my therapists have never watched any Star Wars.

Dominic Lawson (49:19.276)
Fair enough. Fair enough.

Kristine McPartlin (49:20.235)
And they come out of it just like, I didn't think I'd enjoy talking about this for an hour, but it's been a good time.

Dominic Lawson (49:26.062)
No, I love that I love that I want to ask this question going back to the cosplay really quickly Because s-squared had a question in the in the chat. He was curious. No, let's say somebody, you know It's cosplaying as Obi-Wan and another place and it's cosplaying as Darth Maul. Is it on site? Like does a fight break out? I mean I like a play one right but but like you break out the lightsabers and you go ahead Have you seen that before in cosplay? They're like comic new year comic-con

Kristine McPartlin (49:31.71)
Mm-hmm.

Kristine McPartlin (49:52.638)
have not, but that would be awesome. That would be so cool. That would be awesome.

Dominic Lawson (49:56.11)
That would be awesome. I know a friend of mine, he sent me a video on social media where somebody was cosplaying as I want to say as Obi-Wan and he'll just toss a lightsaber to anybody like walking. Yeah, and he's just on site. Like I love that. I love that.

Kristine McPartlin (50:09.84)
Mm-hmm. I saw that. I saw that.

Kristine McPartlin (50:17.434)
I've seen have you ever seen the one where somebody just goes up to someone to hands them a lightsaber and then walks away and then Darth Vader comes around the corner It's great because there's just like shit They square up though. They're like alright. I guess this is happening One guy one guy did run though. He ran. He was like no no

Dominic Lawson (50:25.198)
I haven't seen that one. I haven't seen that one. That's dope.

It's go time like this is happening like it's go time Listen if you see rogue one and the scene I would run to Real quick I have to share this with you So I'm in a fantasy football league right and for three years running I won the championship right and so

Kristine McPartlin (50:46.736)
I'd fucking run. I'd run.

Okay.

Mm-hmm.

Nice.

Dominic Lawson (51:00.334)
And so one year, it's like they were trying to take me down. like the beginning of that season, I did like that whole like, you know, at video editing thing, like me as Darth Vader and like their, their team names is like just, and so it was, it was, it was hilarious. It played really well. You know, they beat my ass that year, but it was worth it. It was so worth it. for sure. For sure. For sure.

Kristine McPartlin (51:11.184)
Ha!

Kristine McPartlin (51:17.534)
That's great. That's great. I mean, I think you won with that video. That sounds really cool. That sounds really cool.

Dominic Lawson (51:27.694)
Also driven in black families. You want to make sure I asked Kristine about reception because what you may not know is that mind the force is an award winning podcast. The 2024 winner of the black podcast and awards for best blurred podcast who beat some very formidable, you know, challenges for that. good friend of mine, Lisa will fork was in that category. So at least is having a great award season.

Kristine McPartlin (51:49.014)
my god.

Dominic Lawson (51:54.86)
right now so if you can snatch one from Lisa you're doing something with mind the force for sure. How did you feel when you got that win?

Kristine McPartlin (51:59.598)
my God. my God, one shout out Lisa. She's like my spirit animal. I wanna be her when I grow up. my gosh, I mean, it felt great. It felt really good. Vaguely Nerdy was another really strong, like stiff competition. It's very funny. was actually, was in a play at the time. So another.

Dominic Lawson (52:04.75)
1000 %

Dominic Lawson (52:18.19)
Mm-hmm.

Dominic Lawson (52:22.871)
Okay.

Kristine McPartlin (52:23.592)
So another fun thing about me is I like to do theater and musical theater. So I like to act and sing when I find the time. And I was backstage getting ready for a show and I like had my headphone in my ear listening to the show, to the word show. And I just never, I definitely, I was very humbled to win. I was very, humbled to win because now I listen to Lisa's podcast all the time.

I'm like, my background is fashion textile history. So her podcast is right up my alley. I listened to this. like, I'm not gonna beat this. I'm gonna listen to this. This is great. This is a great podcast. And the brother and sister do have a vaguely nerdy. They're so funny. my God. They're so funny. You know what? felt really validating. You know, when you have like a niche podcast like I do,

Dominic Lawson (52:56.91)
Right.

Dominic Lawson (53:07.324)
yeah.

Kristine McPartlin (53:18.91)
you kind of wonder, you're like, are people gonna listen? Are people gonna get this? Like, are they gonna see Star Wars and be like, that's not really my thing. Are they gonna, are Star Wars fans gonna see the mental health and be like, you're doing too much. And to get that recognition, particularly from the, particularly from the black community was really special. I mean, being a Star Wars nerd and doing a lot of musical theater and things like that, I do.

Dominic Lawson (53:21.806)
Right.

Kristine McPartlin (53:48.178)
find myself in spaces where you don't always see a lot of faces of color. And so to have that kind of validation from the Black Podcasting community that has just been like just, it's almost like a family community. shout out to Corey at Black Podcasting Association, shout out to Demetrius at Black Podcasting Awards. I just feel so welcomed into the community.

Dominic Lawson (54:06.936)
Right.

Kristine McPartlin (54:17.554)
And I think that's made a really big difference since I've started this and it's been really touching. And to get that kind of validation was just, it's really been unparalleled.

Dominic Lawson (54:29.344)
It's important. It's definitely important. And I am familiar with your theater background and attending FIT and stuff like that. actually had the pleasure of interviewing Elizabeth Way. Yeah, Lisa introduced me. I did an episode of Black is America on Anne Lowe. And so Elizabeth Way was very instrumental in helping me get that episode and putting some value in there. was...

Kristine McPartlin (54:43.708)
my gosh.

Kristine McPartlin (54:51.58)
Very cool.

Dominic Lawson (54:57.614)
a very dope collaboration. So I'm familiar with FIT a little bit.

Kristine McPartlin (55:01.182)
Yes, well my, you know, I know Elizabeth Way well. Well, she works at the museum, museum at FIT, and my graduate degree is, it's fashion and textile history. And so we work hand in hand with the museum all the time. And I also interned for that museum. Yeah, goodness, I'll make sure to send Elizabeth this. I haven't spoken to her in a while. That'll be nice to chat with her.

Dominic Lawson (55:05.112)
Figured you might, figured you might. Mm-hmm.

Dominic Lawson (55:15.659)
Okay.

Dominic Lawson (55:22.882)
Hey, look at there. Look at there.

Dominic Lawson (55:27.976)
Yeah, she was very instrumental in that Ann Lowe piece. I'm super grateful for that collaboration. Before I ask the last question, I just want to say thank you so much for coming on the Dripping in Black podcast. And before you go, S-squared is going to share something with you. Because you're about to be an alum of the Dripping in Black family. So we always like to leave you with something, just as a token as our

Kristine McPartlin (55:51.985)
you

Dominic Lawson (55:56.524)
token of our appreciation and say thanks and things of that nature. But once again, German black family, Mind the Force Podcast. Like again, it's an award winning podcast. If you want to find out more about the show, it is mind the force.com. And once again, you can find that on any of your major podcast platforms. And as this square gets that thing up there for you, I want to ask you this question. What do you hope is the legacy?

for yourself and Mind the Force Podcast. Cause I think you have, you have something that's extremely niche, which is super important in podcasts. And I think that's where you're definitely going to make your bread and butter. So what do you hope is the legacy for mind the force?

Kristine McPartlin (56:37.278)
I hope, I guess to answer the two parts of the questions. For Mind the Force, I would like for it to be a real resource for people, not only for, like I said, the study of fandom and like Star Wars as a whole, but also an examination of mental health and the human psyche and the connections that we can make between

between fiction and psychology and escapism and sociology and hopefully be a resource for people to look at our own mental health and see what the power of storytelling can really bring as a benefit to our own lives. For myself, as far as my own legacy, I think what I've really found through this experience is the desire to wanna tell my

tell my own story and have that story help others. To have it be a good lesson and a good guiding point to not only seek help but also seek community and seek the power in your own voice, in your own story. That you can take something horrible and maybe turn it into something that can help heal others as well.

Dominic Lawson (58:03.042)
I love that. I love that. Thank you for sharing that. And the reason I ask is because we want to help add to that legacy as what you do at Mind the Force. So S Squared is going to pull something up for you so you can kind of share. And it's just a token of our way of saying thank you for coming on the show, but also to help support because we don't believe in helping at Dripping in Black. We believe in supporting. And so we think that this gift from us to you is going to help

Kristine McPartlin (58:16.958)
Mm-mm.

Dominic Lawson (58:32.002)
do that and help amplify your legacy even more. Give us just a second here. okay. I guess we have a little technical difficulties, but that's cool though. But the reason I asked that question is because I don't know if we think about that enough, right? We think about the idea of a podcast, launching a podcast, starting a podcast, but I don't know if we think long-term about our podcast. I know for me, I wanted...

Kristine McPartlin (58:43.422)
It's okay.

Dominic Lawson (59:02.018)
for black is America for people to feel like, you know, affirmed and how they, you know, go about the United States in the country is for it's feeling like you are a part of this country because you are invested in it, right? You know, and things of that nature. So that's kind of why I love to have the legacy question. I love to have the legacy question.

Kristine McPartlin (59:14.088)
Mm-hmm.

Kristine McPartlin (59:22.332)
No, it's a wonderful question, especially I feel like there's so much content out there that to have people who are making content with intention and also with a long term plan. I think from the jump of developing this, I had a plan in place. knew I wanted to invest heavily and really go forward. I was really confident that I had a unique idea.

Dominic Lawson (59:28.771)
Mm-hmm.

Dominic Lawson (59:44.995)
Yeah.

Kristine McPartlin (59:50.23)
And I still feel very confident about that. So, you know, I incorporated early and really started like developing the message and the business plan early and all of that has been very much to my benefit.

Dominic Lawson (59:50.542)
100%. You shoot it.

Dominic Lawson (01:00:05.004)
love that. I love that. Let's see if S Squared is ready for us just yet, man. I bought you some time, brother. There it is. There it is. So this is a magazine cover for you because we wanted to help, again, help amplify the legacy of Kristine McPartland and the Mine and the Forest podcast. So in a few weeks, you will get this in the mail. Yes. And so, you know, if you don't want to put it up there with Darth Vader and stuff like that, we totally understand.

Kristine McPartlin (01:00:10.055)
you

Bye!

Stuv!

Kristine McPartlin (01:00:25.796)
Stop!

Dominic Lawson (01:00:32.002)
but maybe you can have it somewhere displayed for us. And we would say that you're an alum of the Dripping in Black family. Just wanted to say thank you so much for coming on the show.

Kristine McPartlin (01:00:32.106)
No, my gosh.

Kristine McPartlin (01:00:42.897)
my god, that's so cool! No, it's gonna get framed and get hung somewhere around here, I love that. thank you guys so much!

Dominic Lawson (01:00:47.822)
Absolutely. Of course, of course. So Kristine, if you would, if you want to share, I think I've hit everything. I'm the mind and the force.com and, the podcast or anything else you need to plug at this time.

Kristine McPartlin (01:01:01.778)
gosh, no, I think that hits the nail on the head. Yeah, no, go hit up mindtheforce.com, subscribe to the newsletter, hit up the socials, and of course go to all your favorite podcast streaming platforms and check out our latest episodes.

Dominic Lawson (01:01:20.046)
Absolutely. The award winning Mind the Forest podcast and its curator and host, Kristine McPartlin. Thank you so much, Kristine, for coming on the show. Again, make sure you check out Mind the Forest podcast, Dripping in Black Family. But also, if you want some of this drip, go to dibkdripshop.com. That is dibkdripshop.com for all your Dripping in Black merchandise. Thank you, S Squared, again, for letting me be the guest host.

And more importantly, thank you to the Dripping in Black family for allowing me to serve you in this role. Thank you for listening. Thank you for watching. Thank you for supporting. And thank you for subscribing. Until next time, be kind, be excellent on purpose, and above all else, keep it black. It's a choice. Peace. And that's it.

Kristine McPartlin (01:02:08.22)
That was fun. That was good.