The Healing List is hosted by a team of talented audio journalists, writers, producers, designers, and connectors. If you are interested in working with us, please write to info@universaladmedia.com
MK Lani - (Season 3 Host)
The bold personality of Healing List host and spokesperson MK Lani makes her stand out in person and on social media. Her heartfelt honesty and fiery femininity are as inspiring as her story. As a young woman, she successfully managed to raise three children, work two jobs and complete a master’s degree with honors. She is also the first person in her family to attend and graduate from college. She later went on to thrive in the male-dominated legal world and help open a respectable law firm.
Anyone who talks with MK Lani can tell that her wisdom comes from much more than a university education. Her many life experiences give her insights that can help people in all walks of life. She always confronts hard truths in an empathetic yet constructive way, ensuring that those she consults with are able to lead better lives.
A proud Polynesian, MK Lani was born and raised in Hawaii, where she still lives to this day, and she’s filled with the aloha spirit. In many ways, she is the perfect representative of Hawaiian attitudes. She’s positive, calm and open while also being determined, resourceful and effective. Anyone looking for guidance from someone with these qualities can benefit thanks to her advice.
Through hosting the award-winning Healing List podcast, MK Lani has boosted her wellness acumen. This unique experience has allowed her to gain insights into a broad range of healing techniques. From the life-architect great-grandson of the man who introduced meditation into American society, to a woman who founded a thriving business after being diagnosed with a serious illness, MK Lani’s Healing List interview subjects have ensured that she has broad expertise with healing in the modern world.
Gloria Payoyo - (Season 2 Host)
Gloria Payoyo is a Transformational Life Coach, Mastermind Facilitator, Speaker, Digital Course Creator, and Self-Love Advocate. As an INFJ, she loves digging deep to truly understand people. As a transformational life coach, she loves healing in all forms. Both of these worlds came together when she was asked to Host and Associate Produce Season 2 of The Healing List Podcast.
Gloria came from a history of abuse and trauma, but “made it” and realized that while she had accomplished so much in her life, she was unfulfilled and no achievement would satisfy her. So she started her healing journey in 2017 by working with coaches, attending personal development workshops and retreats, going to therapy, and deepening her relationship with herself with a focus on healing her traumas.
She incorporated her background of creating and providing resiliency training for families and founded the Hot Empowered Mess Movement to help others find themselves, fall in love with themselves, then go after their dreams. She also produces community events targeting at-risk youth with the message that it doesn’t matter where you came from, where do you want to go? The Healing List Podcast gives her the opportunity to connect with other healers while bringing various healing modalities to a broader audience. She hopes The Healing List Podcast inspires people to take on their lives so they can build the life of their dreams. Because you deserve your dreams… And you’re going to give them to yourself!
Grace Abler - (Season 1 Host)
Grace Abler is an archivist. She loves to find the tiniest pieces of information that she can and then put them in her pocket, only to find them months later next to a crinkled up CVS receipt and a gum wrapper. Being the youngest in the family, Grace grew up trying to listen and take in as much information as possible in order to keep up with her older sisters and cousins.
As Grace grew older and began her own plunge into adulthood, she realized how much she had picked up just by observing how her friends and family dealt with various trials and tribulations. This realization is something that drove Grace deeper in her search for people’s stories. As a host and producer of The Healing List podcast, Grace continues to have conversations with people who can share personal perspectives full of nuance and unimaginable newness.
As a current student of Global Studies, Journalism, and Media Studies at The New School, Grace is able to pull together aspects of history, critique, and interpersonal curiosity into her podcasting work. Grace also works with The Butterfly Collective, a mutual aid organization based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin that provides mutual aid for trans people of color. Grace hosts and produces a podcast with The Butterfly Collective where they interview local queer artists, showcase their work, and make space for queer joy.
Julia Waldman - (Season 1 Host)
On my Spotify Year Wrap Up, I had the pleasure of being notified that I listened to nearly 50,000 minutes of podcasts in the year 2020.
I started listening to podcasts when I first moved to NYC in 2013. I was either on the subway commuting to my glamorous media internship or scanning papers and getting coffees at my glamorous media internship. I was spending so much time alone and my endless music playlists were getting old. Then I discovered podcasts and my life changed forever. All those hours I spent alone didn’t feel so lonely anymore. I could do my lil scans, plug my lil headphones in and listen to experts talk about seemingly anything. I felt like I was not only learning, but connecting with not only the hosts and guests, but their listeners as well. Whole communities were being created out of podcasts.
As I dove deeper into the world of podcasts, the world of podcasting continued to grow and the possibility of working in this field was beginning to become a reality. With a BFA in Film and Television from NYU Tisch and years of scanning papers, I felt I could translate my skills and expertise to the world of podcasting. I started to edit for shows like Take Me Out and Godzillavangelists and this summer I co-hosted a limited-series comedy book review podcast Midnight Sun Pod. After years of trying to figure out where I fit into the media ecosystem, I found my place in podcast production.
Now that I’m working with Universal Admedia to produce and host The Healing List, I’m so eager for the opportunity to bring to this podcast what originally made me fall in love with the medium in the first place. I want to have conversations with people who you might see in traditional media about topics you won’t find there either. I want my listeners to know that I’m with them on the journey of wellness. I don’t have everything figured out and I won’t pretend to.
I’m not a medical expert, but I am a storyteller. So let’s sit down, share stories, and build a community based on authenticity, vulnerability, and healing.