On the Oblivious Witness podcast, I talk to a new guest every week about the things they've witnessed while travelling around the world, and how those things have made them who they are.
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Alicia Cheung is a yoga teacher trainer and mindfulness practitioner, whose work takes her all over the world. After we met to have this beautiful conversation and to spend some time hanging out together with friends, she posted something on Instagram about the experience. What she wrote was so beautiful and so true to who she is, so I’m going to share those words here by way of introduction: “I consider myself blessed and extremely lucky to have the life that I’ve designed.It’s built on simplicity, adventure, ethics, optimal health and well being.Collectively, that feels sacred. Spiritual.”Tending to spirit in all the ways that light me up, beaming from the inside out is truly a life worth living.And then when you meet inspiring humans and dive right into fruitful conversation, it’s surely the serendipitous icing on the cake…deeply meaningful….conscious….authentic….connective….alive and awake.”
You can find out more about Alicia’s life, work and philosophy on her two Instagram accounts. Follow https://www.instagram.com/samdhana_mindful_living/ and https://www.instagram.com/the_metta_muse/
And I’d love to hear your stories too
If anything in this episode inspires you to see the world a little differently or to expand your own horizons in any way, I’d love to hear from you. Please drop a note in the comments or send me a message about a story you’d like to share. Every heart-squeeze and comment makes it more likely that someone else might happen upon a conversation that could just widen their world.
MUSIC: Defining Life, by Bill ConnPHOTOGRAPHY: Michelle Neeling
Written and produced by Michelle Neeling
Oblivious Witness is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
Get full access to Oblivious Witness at michelleneeling.substack.com/subscribe (https://michelleneeling.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4)
2 Oct 2026
Inua Ellams FRSL FRSA
In 2023, British-Nigerian poet, playwright and performer Inua Ellams was awarded an MBE for services to the arts. At first he didn’t want it. Given what he’d learned about the history of colonialism in Nigeria, accepting such an award felt like a betrayal.After consulting with some of his closest friends, however, Inua decided to accept the MBE so that he could be a signatory for other immigrants who needed someone to vouch for them. He also said to himself, “You’re always gonna create art that’s political, so you’re always gonna be viewed as a target by the establishment. You need to try and buttress yourself as much as possible, and an MBE might help.”Inua’s various invitations to Buckingham Palace in the years since his career as a poet, playwright and performer took off, have struck him as rather surreal, especially given that his journey to British citizenship took an incredible 26 years. With his family having been forced to flee Nigeria as a result of circumstances created by British colonisation, Inua says that such proximity to the heart of Empire is always an out-of-body experience. In this conversation, Inua tells us of his happy childhood in Nigeria, of his early years as a schoolboy in London, of the immigration debacle that forced his family to live in Dublin for three years, and of the sparkling literary career that began when he couldn’t afford to buy the art supplies he needed to fulfil his dream of becoming a visual artist.I hope you’ll enjoy this conversation with Inua Ellams as much as I did. For more about his incredible work and advocacy, go to his website (https://www.inuaellams.com/) or follow him on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/inuaellams/). And I’d love to hear your stories too
If anything in this episode inspires you to see the world a little differently or to expand your own horizons in any way, I’d love to hear from you. Please drop a note in the comments or send me a message about a story you’d like to share. Every heart-squeeze and comment makes it more likely that someone else might happen upon a conversation that could just widen their world.
MUSIC: Defining Life, by Bill ConnPHOTOGRAPHY: Michelle Neeling
Written and produced by Michelle Neeling
Oblivious Witness is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
Get full access to Oblivious Witness at michelleneeling.substack.com/subscribe (https://michelleneeling.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4)
21 Sept 2026
Janet de Neefe
The woman behind southeast Asia’s most prestigious literary event
When tragedy strikes in the world, whether it be through tyrannical governments, natural disasters or the acts of malevolent individuals, many of us shut down, thinking ourselves incapable of creating positive change. Today’s Oblivious Witness guest is a sparkling example of the opposite of that reaction. When the Bali bombings happened in 2002, Janet de Neefe, an Australian who had by then made Bali her home, responded by creating a human rights festival disguised as a writers festival. The Ubud Writers and Readers Festival (https://www.ubudwritersfestival.com/) is now in its 23rd year, and next month it will provide a stage for a host of extraordinary writers and thinkers, including UN Special Rapporteur on Palestine, Francesca Albanese, multiple award-winning Indian author Kiran Desai, and Indonesian journalist and film-maker Dandhy Laksono. In today’s conversation, Janet tells us about her first visit to Bali as a teenager, about a later trip to the island that changed the course of her life, about navigating cultural differences, about how it is travelling the world on a green passport instead of a blue one, and about running a literary festival that gives the world’s great thinkers a platform upon which to discuss the most pressing issues of our times.
And I’d love to hear your stories too
If anything in this episode inspires you to see the world a little differently or to expand your own horizons in any way, I’d love to hear from you. Please drop a note in the comments or send me a message about a story you’d like to share. Every heart-squeeze and comment makes it more likely that someone else might happen upon a conversation that could just widen their world.
MUSIC: Defining Life, by Bill Conn
Written and produced by Michelle Neeling
Oblivious Witness is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
Get full access to Oblivious Witness at michelleneeling.substack.com/subscribe (https://michelleneeling.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4)
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