20 Questions for Lucia Capacchione & How This Series Came About
What Started as a Simple Way to Promote Podcast Episodes Became Another Podcast Altogether
In the spring of 2019, I launched a weekly long-form interview podcast called The Path to Authenticity. Not long into that project, someone who knows much more about generating traffic online than I do suggested I write a blog post to promote each episode.
As much as I love to write at times, the idea of writing 300 words or more every single week, in the interest of search engine optimization, did not interest me in the least. However, I recognized an opportunity to develop an idea I’d filed away some time before – to create my own version of The Proust Questionnaire.
So, I created 20 Questions and began sending them to each person who agreed to appear as a guest on the podcast. I thought I would post them, and link to the episode, on the birthday of each respective guest. I’m not sure how many clicks this generated, but the guests seemed to enjoy the exercise and to appreciate the group of questions I assembled. You can find 15 of these posts, with over 30 more to come, in the 20 Questions section of The Manifest.
In 2021, at the height of the pandemic, I began conducting live interviews on the Clubhouse app, posing these 20 questions to a different person each time. From those, I gleaned 14 episodes of what became the 20 Questions podcast. Those episodes are free, and available on all major podcast platforms, as well as here on Substack. Paid subscribers can hear the uncut interviews for those episodes, as well as the interviews for 10 unreleased episodes in The Vault.
Keep an eye out for many more text posts, and video podcast episodes of 20 Questions.
One of the great pleasures of my life was getting to know the inner child expert Lucia Capacchione.
She was the best-selling author of 26 books, including: Recovery of Your Inner Child, The Creative Journal, and The Power of Your Other Hand. She passed at 85 years old on November 28, 2022, one year to the day after my mom died.
I had the opportunity to attend one of her workshops around 2002. A few years later, she facilitated a workshop for the clients at a small program for men with substance abuse issues that I managed.
We became friends. She stayed at my house when she travelled to South Florida. We shared a love for jazz, and she turned me on the the pianist Keith Jarrett, giving me two of his records during one of her visits.
Lucia was as supportive a person as you could ever meet. A year or so prior to launching my podcast, The Path to Authenticity, I reached out to her, asking if she’d be willing to be on the show. Lucia was my first guest, appearing in episodes one, five, 40, and 57.
I’m so grateful for her encouragement and her participation in this project. In addition to the personal connection, the practices she developed in her work around the inner-family and journaling with the non-dominant hand have helped me heal in more ways than I know.
May she rest in peace, knowing she truly changed the world.
If your life were a novel, what would be the title?
Living from the Inside Out
Where were you born?
West Hollywood, CA
Where is the place you call home?
Cambria, California. The home of my spirit is Assisi, Italy, and of my heritage is the region of Puglia, Italy. Although my father was not from this particular town, Alberobello, is my favorite city in that province.
When you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up?
As I was growing up, I wanted to be a dancer/ ballerina. That route was cut off due to a slight heart murmur. In high school, a journalist, then an artist, then an actress (for awhile), then an artist again (which I did become).
What is your profession?
Art Therapist, Artist, Author, Trainer of mental health and education professionals. I also had a retail store for 10 years, a co-op art gallery, from 2009 to 2019. Previous careers as graphic and product designer, early childhood education and child development specialist (Montessori Method/Head Start).
What profession, other than your own, would you like to attempt?
I've pretty much done all the professions. I would like more time to do art again, but not necessarily professionally.
What is your favorite quote?
"I wish I could show you when you are lonely or in the darkness the astonishing light of your own being." Hafiz
What is your preferred form of creative expression?
Journaling with drawing (especially to music) and collage and writing, including my non-dominant hand.
What is your favorite movie, song, and work of art?
An American in Paris, Love is Here to Stay and Blackbird, anything by Van Gogh (especially his last painting of the birds in a field)
Who do you admire most?
The Parkland, Florida kids who turned grief into activism after the shooting at their school
Over the course of your life, what is an issue with which you have repeatedly struggled?
Health
In childhood, who was your celebrity crush?
Too many to recall. I was raised in the Hollywood film and tv industries. I guess the first was Glenn Ford.
What historical figure would you most like to meet?
Anais Nin
What natural gift or ability would you most like to possess?
Photographic memory
What do you consider your greatest achievement?
Three - my family (two daughters, four grandsons, and six great-grand kids), my books (26 and counting), my training program.
What quality do you admire most in a person?
Creativity and compassion
What is something you would like to learn about?
People I admire who have made a difference (their stories in biographies, autobiographies, films, etc.)
What do you wish more people knew about you?
The struggles and not just the accomplishments. In my books, I share some of the struggles that led to the work I do.
What is your idea of success?
Doing what you love and loving what you do for a living.
What would you like people to say about you when you’re gone?
Her methods changed my life for the better.
