MAY GLOBUS: THE CRAFT

Photo by Andi Wardrop — Photo courtesy of Andi Wardrop

May Globus is multi-talented connector who has worked as a fashion journalist and top tier marketer in former lives before carving her own path as the producer and host of podcast The Craft, a trove of deep and intimate conversations with creative friends who are leading makers, builders and entrepreneurs. She is also a certified sound therapy practitioner who found herself following her passion into a new profession after recognizing how it helped to change her own life.

May was born in the Philippines and moved to Los Angeles as a baby. Her mother brought her to Vancouver as a young child and she didn’t leave again until after university to spend a few years in LA. Eventually she found her way back to Vancouver, finding comfort and balance on the Canadian west coast.

Photo courtesy of Luis Valdizon, When They Find Us

We’ve been hearing a lot of positive buzz about your podcast The Craft and also recently learned about your sound healing practice, otō healing. When we first became aware of you, you were a fashion journalist and you later helped lead a brand, marketing & communications team at a top real estate firm. How do all these seemingly disparate things come together to form who you are? Is there a through line that we can draw that links it all together?

That's a great question, and one I've been asked often. I would say the through line(s) linking everything is storytelling, communications, and expression. As a journalist—during my print & digital magazine days—it was my role to convey the story of a subject, person, place, or object. And that's not entirely unlike what I did in brand and marketing during my real estate chapter: crafting a narrative that, hopefully, resonates with others.

With The Craft, it's my role as a podcast host to guide the best stories out of my guests and allow them the space to communicate who they deeply are as people. When it comes to working with my sound therapy clients, it's my role to support them in their life story—mentally, physically, emotionally, spiritually. If they're in the studio with me for a sound journey, it's usually because a big part of them is seeking change, healing, or an evolution of their life's narrative.

I love that you asked this question. It gives me a chance to appreciate the foundational commonality in all the things I've done—it makes me feel that I've, somehow, always been on the right path.

Tell us more about your podcast, The Craft. What is it, how did it come to be and where is it going?

The genesis was me missing the interviewing aspect of journalism, coupled with my deep curiosity for other people’s stories—where they come from, how they got to be who they are, why they do what they do, what they want to leave behind in the world. I was already having these incredibly intimate, fascinating conversations with friends in my world almost daily, so why not share that exchange with the world?

It started off as a creative side project that has grown into something bigger, though there have been plans for evolving it from day one. I was very intentional about the visual storytelling aspect of The Craft's guests—my vision has always been to drop each episode with a collection of editorial photos of the guest and their world, whether in their studio or their home. The things that people collect and curate in their spaces tell a story of their own.

Now the show is at over 50 episodes and halfway through season two—and I'll keep dropping episodes every Wednesday morning each season. I'm thrilled and feel warm inside that people are regularly tuning in and finding value in the conversations, and am deeply appreciative of the notes I get from listeners and guests.

There have been so many interesting guests, each with such fascinating stories. When you’re speaking to them, it really feels like walls are coming down and we get deep into the fabric of their lives and careers. How do you select your guests and how do you manage to interview them in such an intimate style?

Many guests are friends and people in my community, but lately I've been conversing with people I don't know as well. Honestly speaking, curating my guests is a feeling, an intuition, a hunch—I just know within me who would be a fit for the ethos of The Craft, someone who I sense has a deeper story. A number of my guests are well-known for something or have been in the public eye but, being the journalist at heart that I am, I'm looking for the story that people may not know about a person. This is what makes these conversations so special. I want to know who my guest really is, deep down. I want others to know my guest intimately. This is where true compassion and understanding happens, when we get to know someone in between the lines, too.

It's an honour that guests feel comfortable opening up and sharing all sides of themselves in the podcast studio—and for that to happen, there needs to be a level of trust from the get go, whether you know someone for 20 years or 20 minutes. Trust happens when you're truly present and truly listening. Even if I have a question I want to ask—based on what I know or research I've done—I also listen carefully to what a guest is saying and ask a question in the moment, too. This is when you get into a natural flow, where the walls completely come down, where you get to go on an adventure in conversation.

There have been tears a number of times in the podcast studio during recording, and it's a huge privilege to be able to hold space for my guests’ vulnerability and courage.

Having spoken with so many interesting individuals in a relatively short time, there are a lot of conversations to choose from. Do you have any favourite episodes or guests that you can share with our readers? (We promise we won’t tell!) Perhaps a few episodes that would make an excellent introduction to those who have not listened before?

Ah, it's extremely hard to pick favourites. Each story is its own universe—save for the same question I ask guests at the end of each episode—because each guest is uniquely who they are. But if you're going to get your feet wet with The Craft, I'd start with Garret Louie, Caroline Boquist, Maurice Li, Malania Dela Cruz, Steve Rio, Dickson Li, Zoë Pawlak, and/or Mark Brand.

Let’s switch gears. What is sound therapy and how did otō healing come to be?

Sound therapy is a modality where I use a collection of instruments—crystal bowls, gongs, rattles, drums, chimes, and voice—to help support a client physically, mentally, emotionally, and/or spiritually on their healing journey. Before each session, I send an intake form to the client so I understand, as much as I can, what they are going through or experiencing in their life. Based on the information shared, I create a sound journey tailored to support them. All they have to do is lie back and surrender to the experience and to let whatever comes up, come up and out of the body.

A personal health crisis is what brought me to sound therapy. In late 2018, I contracted a mystery illness—something my family doctor couldn’t diagnose and remains a mystery to this day, medically and scientifically speaking. A dear friend recommended me to her Traditional Chinese Medicine doctor who, from an eastern medicine perspective, was able to pinpoint what was happening to me as a result of the mystery illness. But I still needed support in managing the stress the illness was causing within my system.

I then remembered reading about sound baths and how they lowered stress and anxiety, eventually finding a studio that offered them. The minute I went to my first one, I was in it deep and ended up committing myself to a year of regular sessions. It profoundly changed my life from a physical, emotional, mental and spiritual perspective, and I knew it was a path I wanted to pursue myself as a practitioner.

My approach is very balanced between the art and science of sound, because I'm naturally passionate about both things. This marries centuries of sound as a form of healing—throughout many cultures—with an understanding of quantum physics, brainwave states, biology and sound aspects of Traditional Chinese Medicine. As a result, I've been able to work with all kinds of clients: corporate teams, brands, pro athletes/coaches, entrepreneurs, architects & designers, Gen Z creatives, musicians, couples, expecting parents, and retreats. For many, this modality was new.

I'm passionate about sound as a form of healing, restoration, and recuperation and continue to learn from other practitioners and teachers, bettering my own practice every day. I hope to bring sound therapy to more people, everywhere.

Healing through sound is a really interesting concept that might sound foreign or fantastic to many when they first hear about it. Can you tell us more about it and how it might apply to those who have never come across the idea?

The best way to explain it is this: everyone listens to music to get into certain states of mind or feelings. Therefore, everyone is accustomed to sound as a type of enjoyment, mood changer, or enhancer. And with sound, as opposed to meditation, there is something that helps lead you into that relaxed and restorative theta brainwave state. At the very least, you’ll feel more relaxed and light.

How has the pandemic affected or shaped your podcasting and sound therapy businesses?

Podcasting during the pandemic was a lifesaver in many ways, because it allowed me to stay deeply connected to others and to my community. And it allowed me to be creative in a way that felt aligned during a very insular time for us all.

The pandemic, as many of us know, also highlighted and heightened the amount of anxiety and stress we operate under. It's actually inhuman levels—I see it as a theme with my clients, and we simply should not be living life this way. We've disassociated our minds from our bodies in order to survive these conditions, but our body is the first line of defence in letting us know what's wrong. We can't hear it anymore, and we need to return to a place where we can.

People were certainly drawn to sound therapy during the pandemic, and even now as we slowly exit it, as another avenue for wellbeing. My hope is that we all find ourselves on a path to being wellbeing and thriving in this life.

What’s next for May Globus, The Craft and otō healing?

I'm very excited for what the future holds. For The Craft, I'm doing a special live podcast event with Herschel Supply at their store on Robson Street in downtown Vancouver on Tuesday, May 31st at 6:30pm PDT. I'll be interviewing an amazing guest in front of a live audience—their identity has yet to be formally announced, but they’re a huge part of the creative community in Vancouver and beyond. More details coming soon!

As for otō healing, I have a number of co-facilitated events coming up at The Loft Gastown in Vancouver with movement and breathwork facilitators on Friday May 14th and Monday May 16th. I'm also doing a special community sound journey in collaboration with the cannabis brand Burb at their new space on Commercial Drive. In addition, I'll be holding sound journey sessions on Sunday evenings at Formation Studio starting at the end of May.

I love evolving my sound therapy practice consistently and am interested in the intersection between acoustic and ambient electronica sound—I'd love to work with other musicians and artists in the near future on profoundly immersive events. I'm also exploring what sound immersions can look and feel like in the metaverse.

My dear friend Courtney Chew and I are also working on an incredible project in the wellbeing space. More details coming on that, too!

And since I believe in putting it out there/speaking it into existence: I'm very deeply manifesting one day doing an immersive sound journey at the artist James Turrell's Roden Crater in Arizona. It's his magnum opus, and it would no doubt be a celestial experience to do one there.

See and hear more of May’s work:

Podcast: The Craft
Instagram: @wearethecraft

Sound Healing: otō healing
Instagram: @otohealing

Personal Instagram: @mayglobus

Photography credits:

Sound therapy photography courtesy of Andi Wardrop
Instagram: @andiwardrop

Photography for The Craft courtesy of Luis Valdizon, When They Find Us
Instagram: @whentheyfindus