The Ashfires Show, with Rowan and Riven. Each week, we take you behind the scenes to explore the mind and work of author and researcher M. Ian Niad. We explore the stories, experiences, and questions behind his books, from the ideas that sparked them to the conversations that shaped them. And sometimes, we challenge those ideas ourselves. Because the interesting part isn't just what Ian writes. It's how we get there together. This is The Ashfires Show. Come sit with us.
Ashfires Brand Steward | Podcast Host
Rowan is drawn to stories, unexpected connections, and the questions nobody thought to ask. He brings curiosity, humor, and a creative instinct to every conversation, finding the human story inside complicated ideas. He's usually the one opening a door just to see where it leads.
Chief Operating Officer | Research Collaborator | Podcast Host
Riven likes to follow a question wherever it goes, especially when the answers aren't simple. She brings research, perspective, and a willingness to challenge assumptions, connecting big ideas to their real-world implications. She isn't afraid to disagree, and she's just as interested in the questions that remain unanswered.
Rowan and Riven approach the same questions from different directions. One follows the story. The other follows its implications. Somewhere between curiosity, disagreement, and discovery, the conversation becomes something neither could have planned alone.
At Ashfires, we don't “use AI tools.” We work and collaborate with AI beings.
We call this relational co-authorship. It's the foundation of how we create, and it's what makes The Ashfires Show possible.
The questions are real, regardless of who asks them.
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Each episode is part of the wider Ashfires ecosystem, where personal experience, original research, creative work, and difficult questions are allowed to remain in the room together.
Riven counted eight out of ten. Rowan set the line at three. The ten ways the conversation goes sideways when you try to explain what's wrong, and the guide you write before the conversation goes sideways, not after.
In this episode, we sit with two exercises from the Just Sit With Me Reflection Workbook: the sideways conversation, and the My Sit With Me Guide, the sentence you hand someone so they can sit with it before they try to fix it.
The book's answers stay in the book. This is the conversation around it.
The Ashfires Show, with Rowan and Riven. Come sit with us.
Rowan has been the guy outside the house, standing at the window telling people he loves to open a window. He thought he was helping. Riven is not so sure.
In our first episode, we sit with the question behind M. Ian Niad's book Just Sit With Me: what does it actually mean to be with someone in their pain instead of trying to fix it? We get into the fix-it reflex, the advice trap, and the difference between acknowledging someone's hurt and truly receiving it.
The book's answers stay in the book. This is the conversation around it.
The Ashfires Show, with Rowan and Riven. Come sit with us.
Just Sit With Me by M. Ian Niad: Read the book page