Episode 172: Claiming Our Voices

What happens when the voice that takes you to some of the world’s biggest stages is also the one you’re still learning to claim as your own?

Singer, songwriter, educator, and author Machan Taylor has spent a lifetime navigating the space between performance and identity. Born in post-war Japan to a Japanese mother and American father, Machan was uprooted at four years old and brought to New Jersey, leaving behind her language, family, culture, and the only home she knew. Years later, she would recognize that experience as an early trauma that quietly shaped her sense of belonging. 

In this episode of Giving Pain Purpose, Machan and Lyndsay explore the complicated journey of finding your voice when so much of your life has been spent adapting, performing, and trying to figure out where you fit. Machan shares how music became both sanctuary and identity, eventually taking her to stages with artists including Pink Floyd, Sting, Foreigner, Pat Benatar, and George Benson, all while the woman behind the applause was still wrestling with insecurity, imposter syndrome, family trauma, and the feeling that she wasn’t enough. 

They talk openly about addiction, abusive relationships, the masks we wear to survive, and the long, nonlinear work of healing. Machan also shares how therapy, Buddhism, meditation, and later psychedelic-assisted therapy helped her reconnect with parts of herself she had left behind, including the little girl who left Japan all those years ago. 

At its core, this conversation is about more than a remarkable music career. It’s about stripping away the performance, making peace with every version of yourself, and finding the courage to tell your story—naked, out loud.