Dreaming, Art, and Empathy, a Dream Journal Redux with Renzo Del Castillo

Katherine speaks with poet Renzo Del Castillo about building connections and empathy through creation, art, integrity, and love in a replay of a popular show from a year ago. Renzo is the author of the award-winning, best-selling debut poetry book “Still” (available in Kindle version for 99 cents). The poems that make up the book were conceived during a time of many losses including the death of his father. We talk about how we are each made up of pieces of the people we love, and so they still live in us.

After the break, Max asks about the idea that we can see things in our dreams that we have never seen before and how that can open us to possibilities in waking life. We talk about how travel, dreaming, and poetry all create empathy and about being immigrants into our own dream worlds.

BIO: Renzo Del Castillo is a creative instigator and community builder who bridges gaps and builds empathy through creation, art, integrity, and love. Born in Lima, Peru, he has spent the last 15 years as an executive in the healthcare industry. He currently resides in Miami but prioritizes traveling.

Find our guest at: RenzoDelCastillo.com, LI: @RenzoDelCastillo, YT: @RenzoDelCastilloPoetry, IG: @renzodelcastillo.author

This show, episode number 323, was broadcast August 9, 2025 as a replay of a show recorded live July 27, 2024 at KSQD.org, community radio of Santa Cruz.

Intro and outro music by Mood Science. Ambient music new every week by Rick Kleffel. Archived music can be found at Pandemiad.com. Many thanks to Rick for also engineering the show and to Tony Russomano for answering the phones.

The Santa Cruz Festival of Dreams is coming October 10-12, 2025! Mark your calendars now. Check our landing page at FestivalofDreams.net and FB group page HERE or follow #KeepSantaCruzDreaming on FB and IG.

SHARE A DREAM FOR THE SHOW or a question or enquire about being a guest on the podcast by emailing Katherine Bell at katherine@ksqd.org. Follow on FB, IG, LI, & YT @ExperientialDreamwork #thedreamjournal. To learn more or to inquire about exploring your own dreams go to ExperientialDreamwork.com.

The Dream Journal aims to: Increase awareness of and appreciation for nightly dreams. Inspire dream sharing and other kinds of dream exploration as a way of adding depth and meaningfulness to lives and relationships. Improve society by the increased empathy, emotional balance, and sense of wonder which dream exploration invites.

A dream can be meaningful even if you don’t know what it means.

The Dream Journal is produced at and airs on KSQD Santa Cruz, 90.7 FM. Catch it streaming LIVE at KSQD.org 10-11am Pacific Time on Saturdays. Call or text with your dreams or questions at 831-900-5773 or email at onair@ksqd.org. Podcasts are available on all major podcast platforms the Monday following the live show. The complete KSQD Dream Journal podcast page can be found at ksqd.org/the-dream-journal/.

Closed captioning is available on the YouTube version of this podcast and an automatically generated transcript is available at Apple Podcasts.

Thanks for being a Dream Journal listener! Available on all major podcast platforms. Rate it, review it, subscribe, and tell your fri