As a final thank you to the incredible #mentalhealth professionals saving lives (including Dave's) and making our communities better, to benefit COAST (Crisis Outreach And Support Team), we're raffling off THE VERY LAST of our (awesome) limited-edition Rejected Central mugs! Full details here: https://www.rejectedcentral.com/

Rejected Central has been a human podcast hosted by bestselling novelist Brent van Staalduinen and educator and life-embracer Dave Parkinson. Thanks for listening!

Rejected Central Links:

Podcast Official Website

Brent's Author Website

Dave's LinkedIn

RC on Instagram

RC on Facebook

RC on BlueSky

For the final episode of Rejected Central, Brent & Dave sit down with award-winning writer Andrew Forbes to talk about rejection, baseball, and the importance of perseverance and stubbornness in pursuit of life's most valuable things. Brent & Dave also reflect on their experiences with the podcast and thank the important humans who've helped make the Rejected Central podcast possible (including you!).

Rejected Central has been a human podcast hosted by bestselling novelist Brent van Staalduinen and educator and life-embracer Dave Parkinson. Thanks for listening!

Guest Links:

Andrew Forbes' Official Website

Rejected Central Links:

Podcast Official Website

Brent's Author Website

Dave's LinkedIn

RC on Instagram

RC on Facebook

RC on BlueSky

In the penultimate Rejected Central episode, we chat with actor, writer, musician, stand up comedian, and playwright Nicole Zylstra! She has faced rejection and risen above and considers herself "Canadian Famous" (and says we might be that, too) and opens up about a life in improv and the art and love of failing better.

Rejected Central is a human podcast hosted by bestselling novelist Brent van Staalduinen and educator and life-embracer Dave Parkinson. Listen wherever you get your podcasts, follow us online and social media, and let us know what you think. Thanks for listening!

Guest Link:

Nicole Zylstra's official website

Rejected Central Links:

Podcast Official Website

Brent's Author Website

Dave's LinkedIn

RC on Instagram

RC on Facebook

RC on BlueSky

Ron Monteiro is an author, life trainer, podcaster, accountant, entrepreneur, and proud askhole. Though grieving his team Arsenal's latest stumbles, he joins us to talk about what it means to transform oneself in the late summer of one's career and how a quiet life can inform even the most outgoing among us.

Rejected Central is a human podcast hosted by bestselling novelist Brent van Staalduinen and educator and life-embracer Dave Parkinson. Listen wherever you get your podcasts, follow us online and social media, and let us know what you think. Thanks for listening!

Guest Links:

Ron's LinkedIn

Ron's Book Page at Amazon

Ron's YouTube Channel

Rejected Central Links:

Podcast Official Website

Brent's Author Website

Dave's LinkedIn

RC on Instagram

RC on Facebook

RC on BlueSky

Brent and Dave chat with Chinese-Canadian author Su Chang about the tension between exploring today's truth and the cost it has for those who went before, as well as what it means to write in the inspired shadow of a father who is a great writer himself. Su's journey reminds us that for Chinese emigrants, maintaining relationships with people still in China — as well as with China itself — is delicate, but is also a story worth telling.

Rejected Central is a human podcast hosted by bestselling novelist Brent van Staalduinen and educator and life-embracer Dave Parkinson. Listen wherever you get your podcasts, follow us online and social media, and let us know what you think. Thanks for listening!

Guest Links:

Su Chang's author website

The Immortal Woman's publisher page

Rejected Central Links:

Podcast Official Website

Brent's Author Website

Dave's LinkedIn

RC on Instagram

RC on Facebook

RC on BlueSky

Elizabeth Mateer is a former professional dancer and actor who now writes poetry as a diversion from her work as a fellow in neuropsychology at Harvard University. We chat about the inevitable rejections in the artistic life, what it's like to be a research-focused doctoral fellow in Trump's America, and how reject is about learning, or in her words, "failing upwards." Her book of poetry Searching for Home is titled after a poem she calls a "love letter to a friend."

Rejected Central is a human podcast hosted by bestselling novelist Brent van Staalduinen and educator and life-embracer Dave Parkinson. Listen wherever you get your podcasts, follow us online and social media, and let us know what you think. Thanks for listening!

The death of Pope Francis at the age of 88 has predictably generated a tsunami of emotions rushing in from around the globe. Looking past the shiny progressive tributes, flowery words, Vatican-generated propaganda, and wasn't-he-fabulous refrains, Brent & Dave pause for a moment to suggest that his work isn't nearly finished, and the Church still hasn't answered for an awful lot of horrors it has inflicted on the vulnerable and marginalized.

Rejected Central is a human podcast hosted by bestselling novelist Brent van Staalduinen and educator and life-embracer Dave Parkinson. Listen wherever you get your podcasts, follow us online and social media, and let us know what you think. Thanks for listening!

Aamir Hussain is a writer, political advocate, TTRPGer, and all-round interesting guy. He joins us to talk about the disappointments and rejections that have brought him to today, where he's releasing a book into the world. He also talks about election disappointments, life as a Muslim who really believes in listening to others, and how writing about a speculative matriarchal society in his novel Under the Crescent Moon can challenge us all.

Rejected Central is a human podcast hosted by bestselling novelist Brent van Staalduinen and educator and life-embracer Dave Parkinson. Listen wherever you get your podcasts, follow us online and social media, and let us know what you think. Thanks for listening!