On this week's episode of "The Smoke Break", we hung out with community activist, burlesque and drag performer Karla Marx.

We began with how we establish trust, how fragile trust can be when we're mistreated, and unshakeable trust can be when you really find your people.

Then we talked about hate—how strange this current timeline is, how effective hate is as a way to divide people if you want to wield it against folks, and connection and humanizing each other can sometimes help fix it.

And we ended with hope—because good god, what else is there if we don't have some hope. We dug deep to find what makes us hopeful when it doesn't feel easy—can you try and do the same? This conversation felt extra important. Thanks, Karla.

Episodes drop weekly when our own mental health lets us. Thanks for listeni ...