Driftwood Conversations

About Driftwood Conversations

Driftwood Conversations is a weekly podcast hosted by journalist Hilary Sloane, sharing soulful conversations with artists, seekers, and everyday revolutionaries. Each episode offers stories that connect us to the world—and to each other—through truth, wisdom, and the grit of lived experience.

Publisher

Hilary Sloane

Category

society & culture

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

6 Apr 2025

Latest episode

21 Oct 2026

Latest episodes

68 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   21 Oct 2026

   An Ecology of Exchange residency

   An Ecology of Exchange, an artist residency in Joshua Tree. Artist E. Mark Gross became one of the first participants in a new Joshua Tree residency called An Ecology of Exchange, created by filmmaker and choreographer Jennifer Eurokus. Gross has followed an unusual path—from law and game design in New York to an art practice based partly in the Philippines. In the Mojave Desert, he found the landscape’s openness, color, negative space, and slower rhythms beginning to enter his abstract work. When Jennifer joins us in conversation, the discussion expands beyond art and residency programs into something deeper: the relationship between art and science, why curiosity matters, what creativity does for us, the importance of stillness, and our increasingly urgent need for genuine human connection. We also talk about story, nature, the body, the strange difficulty of knowing when a work of art is finished—and why Joshua Tree may reveal itself only to people willing to stay long enough to notice. Hosted by Hilary Sloane for Driftwood Conversations.

2. 

   30 Sept 2026

   C. Von Hassett - Writer and longtime meditation practitioner

   C. Von Hassett — Awareness, Death and the Practice of the Pause Writer and longtime meditation practitioner C. Von Hassett joins Hilary Sloane for a wide-ranging conversation about awareness, fear, death, meditation, and learning to be present in an increasingly distracted world. Hassett has practiced Dzogchen, a Tibetan contemplative tradition, for more than thirty-five years. From his home in Rimrock near Pioneertown, California, he now devotes much of his life to meditation and contemplative practice. The conversation moves through his childhood in the San Fernando Valley, his early love of literature, years in Los Angeles and New York, teaching, writing, and the books and teachers that eventually led him to Dzogchen. Chris and Hilary also explore what spiritual practice looks like in ordinary life: watching the mind, living with fear, finding stillness in a city, growing older, making room for death, and discovering the extraordinary possibilities contained in something as simple as a pause. They also discuss the practical side of choosing a contemplative life: Chris's decision to step away from much of contemporary media, his relationship with his wife, Rachel Reid Wilkie, and his writing on meditation and end-of-life practice. C. Von Hassett is the author of Entering the Mind, The Boundary Stone, and Awakening in the End. Links to the books are here. Driftwood Conversations is hosted by Hilary Sloane.

3. 

   10 Sept 2026

   Jeff Hafler - Beauty Bubble Salon and Museum

   Jeff Hafler has spent more than twenty years building an unusual life in California's high desert. He owns the Beauty Bubble Salon and Museum in Joshua Tree and is a musician, former yoga teacher, collector, husband, and father. He also believes deeply in synchronicity and in paying attention when life seems to point you in a particular direction. Jeff and I talk about leaving West Hollywood for Wonder Valley, raising a son with his husband Michael, building the Beauty Bubble, surviving the pandemic, becoming the subject of the documentary Inside the Beauty Bubble, and the strange coincidences that have shaped his life. We also talk about what happens when optimism meets a more difficult world—and why Jeff keeps returning to a simple piece of advice: Follow your bliss and keep showing up. https://insidethebeautybubble.com/ https://kinema.com/films/inside-the-beauty-bubble-ndm5aq Driftwood Conversations is hosted by Hilary Sloane.

Who has been a guest on Driftwood Conversations

Names identified in recent episode analyses. Showing up to five guests.

• Isha Marla
• Steven Cuden
• Charles Ftacek
• Charles Flack
• CHARLES WOOD

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

YouTube views

297

Score snapshot 15 Sept 2025

Apple Podcasts (US)

4.6 / 5

8 ratings

Spotify

5.0 / 5

2 ratings

Podcast Authority Score: 35 / 100

A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.

Quality

30

Social presence

0

YouTube

66

Engagement

32

Contact Driftwood Conversations

Guest appearances

Does not typically book guests

Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.

Questions about Driftwood Conversations