Why This Exists
Because transitions deserve tenderness.
Imaginal Goo was born from a deep need: to create space for what happens in the middle — not just the before and after. We live in a world obsessed with clarity, outcomes, and polished narratives. But transformation doesn’t happen in tidy bullet points. It happens in the mess, the pause, the swirling goo.
This podcast exists to name that space, honor it, and linger there — together. For anyone navigating reinvention, restarts, or remembering who they are, this is a soft landing and a soul nudge. Not to figure it all out, but to feel more at home in the in-between.
In biology, imaginal goo is the stage when a caterpillar dissolves into an unrecognizable mush inside the chrysalis before becoming a butterfly. It’s not cute — but it’s necessary.
When a caterpillar enters its chrysalis, it dissolves into a gooey substance — a literal cellular soup — before becoming a butterfly. Within that goo are imaginal cells, the tiny encoded blueprints of what the creature is meant to become.
The term imaginal cells was popularized in the book Hope for the Flowers by Trina Paulus — a modern fable about the courage it takes to become something new. That metaphor lived rent-free in Judith’s mind after hearing about it from a mentor and teacher of hers, Rachel Barker. Over time, it became a creative lens — a way to frame all the tender, shape-shifting seasons we try to rush past.
Now, it’s a podcast. A container. A creative rebellion against the pressure to be "figured out."
And a love letter and permission slip to every version of you that’s still becoming.
The Origins of the Goo
Your Host in the In-Between
Judith Martinez is a speaker, strategist, and founder reimagining what leadership looks and feels like in this generation. A proud first-generation daughter of immigrants, she’s spent the past decade bridging soulful impact with intentional strategy—founding grassroots movements, leading social impact and inclusion for global brands, and building new tables for a new wave of leaders as a cultural architect.
Named a Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree and recognized by Serena Williams and Stuart Weitzman for her cross-generational equity work, Judith has worked alongside global changemakers from the halls of the United Nations to classrooms, boardrooms, and beyond. Her leadership philosophy is what she brings to every Imaginal Goo conversation: to connect at the intersection of purpose, performance, and humanity.
Drawing from her experience as an entrepreneur, intrapreneur, and young woman of color, Judith engages each guest with a voice that holds both softness and precision.
She created Imaginal Goo as a space to say what often goes unsaid — to speak from the swirl, not just the solution — and to remind us that the in-between isn’t something to rush through. It’s sacred ground for what the world needs next.