Welcome to Twice 5 Miles Radio! I'm your host, James Navé. Today, I am pleased to speak with the incredibly talented spoken word artist Jessica Chilton. I met Jessica at the LEAF Global Arts Retreat a few weeks ago, just after she wowed the audience with a captivating spoken word and music performance alongside her collaborator, Aditi Sethi. Her seamless blend of singing and improvisational artistry left a lasting impression on me, and I knew I had to invite her to join us on Twice 5 Miles Radio.

Jessica's journey is a testament to the transformative power of the arts. From a place of fear and powerlessness, she has emerged as a beacon of inspiration. Blending her 20 years of improvisational performing arts and 16 years as an expressive arts therapist and coach with her lifelong spiritual awakening journey, Jessica now leads Spirited Improv—known as the most radically loving and powerfully liberating place to try improv. Weaving together tender human authenticity, inspired creative expression, and full surrender into trust, Spirited Improv invites the full spectrum soul into the spotlight to play. Find out more at SpiritedImprov.com.

Through her Surrendered Visionary Coaching Program, Jessica is also passionate about supporting others to follow their heart through their own transformational cocoons of life’s big transitions. Jessica has supported thousands on the precipice of a new chapter who are asking: What’s ready to die? What is Spirit calling me to do next? What vision wants to come through me into the world? Who am I now? 

Join us as we explore possibilities for moving through fear into a liberated expression that embraces who we are in this present moment with Jessica Chilton on Twice 5 Miles Radio.

A Spirited Improv with spoken word artist Jessica Chilton

Provocative Conversations from Twice 5 Miles Radio is a podcast devoted to candid, often surprising exchanges with artists, thinkers, and cultural instigators who speak from the core. Each episode dives beneath the surface to explore the stories and questions that shape our lives.

I’m James Navé—poet, storyteller, educator, and longtime creative collaborator. With an MFA from Vermont College of Fine Arts and decades of teaching experience across the globe, I help writers and performers tap into their authentic voices through public speaking, creative writing, and the Imaginative Storm method, which I co-developed with Allegra Huston.

My most recent book, 100 Days: A Poetic Memoir After Cancer (3: A Taos Press), documents a hundred days of healing and poetic reckoning. I’m also co-author of Write What You Don’t Know and How to Read for an Audience—practical guides for anyone seeking to speak and write with more truth and power.

I’ve directed festivals, hosted literary salons, taught with Julia Cameron, and memorized over 600 poems. I still believe in the power of a well-told story, the light through stained glass, and the open road with nothing but a podcast and a windshield full of stars.

A Spirited Improv with spoken word artist Jessica Chilton

Twice Five Miles