Publish Not Perish

There’s a particular kind of grief that comes with deleting pages you fought to write. In this episode, I talk about why that feeling is so common when you’re turning a dissertation into a book and what it reveals about the shift from writing to be evaluated to writing in service of an argument and a reader. I reflect on why cutting isn’t a sign that something went wrong but an essential part of h...

If revising your dissertation for a book feels harder than you expected, there’s nothing wrong with you or your project. In this episode, I talk about why dissertation writing trains you into very specific habits—and why those habits can linger long after the degree is done. I reflect on the deeper shifts required when moving from dissertation to book, not just in structure or scope, but in how yo...

In today’s episode, I talk about a part of writing that academic training rarely asks us to examine: how writers actually move through their work. We’re taught to evaluate arguments, evidence, and outcomes—but much less attention is given to what happens between drafts, or how writers interpret difficulty as it arises. I share how coaching shifts attention from the finished product to the writer i...

Greetings, dear listeners! January has a way of making us feel like we should already have our writing plans figured out—clear goals, steady discipline, and a strong start. Sound familiar? In this episode, I want to gently interrupt that pressure. Instead of asking what you should produce this year, I invite you to consider a different starting point—one that’s quieter, more humane, and often more...

Today I’m sharing the story of “Fatima”—a composite of so many scholars I’ve worked with over the years (and, honestly, a little bit of me too). Her dissertation sprint “worked.” She finished, defended, and landed a faculty job. But once she stepped into life as a new professor, the same strategies that got her across the finish line suddenly stopped working altogether. I use her story to explore...

In this episode of PNP: The Podcast, we’re diving into the urgency trap. You know that feeling that everything needs your attention right now —the ping of an email at 9 PM, the “quick” request that derails your writing time, the sense that you’re always behind no matter how much you do? We’ll explore why academia runs on manufactured urgency, how it sucks energy from your important work and well-b...

Today’s episode is a little different from the rest of my “leaving academia” series—because instead of talking about what I left behind, I’m sharing what I moved toward: building a business as a scholarpreneur, specifically, a writing coach and developmental editor. I’ll walk you through how I found my way into academic-adjacent entrepreneurship, how I reconciled my skepticism about “business,” an...

In today’s episode, I want to talk about something that can feel tender, even somewhat disorienting—but also full of possibility. We’re talking about what it means to think beyond working in academia and how to understand the incredible set of skills your PhD gave you. Because yes, academia gave you expertise—but it also gave you other important skills: the ability to learn deeply, think criticall...

If you’ve ever opened an email from a journal only to see the words “After careful consideration, we regret to inform you ,” this episode is for you. In today’s conversation, I’m talking about what to do when your article gets rejected—and more importantly, why that rejection doesn’t mean the end of your project. I know firsthand how gut-punching those messages can feel, but I also know that rejec...

In this episode of Publish Not Perish: The Podcast , we’re tackling one of the most challenging questions in academic writing: why does your research actually matter? Not just within your subfield or to a handful of experts, but to the world beyond it. This episode is a continuation of the newsletter I sent out earlier this week: https://www.publishnotperish.net/p/why-should-anyone-care-about-your...

In this episode, I’m continuing the conversation I started in this week’s newsletter called “Writing Should Be Hard.” You can read the newsletter from Tuesday here: https://www.publishnotperish.net/p/writing-should-be-hard In this follow-up podcast, I go a little deeper into why writing feels so challenging and how we often slip into easier tasks that make us feel productive while sidestepping the...

When it comes to research and writing, many of us struggle to determine whether we're doing necessary intellectual work or simply procrastinating with more reading, thinking, and research. Don’t get me wrong. Reading, thinking, and researching are all essential parts of the process, and it can be difficult to determine how long we should spend in this phase, which I refer to as the discovery phase...

In this shorty episode, I’m unpacking the idea that many of us hold of balance as as a destination that one day we’ll arrive at. We often imagine it as equal time for research, teaching, family, and self-care every week—but real life doesn’t work that way. Balance is a practice that requires constant adjustment and recalibration for different seasons of life. I’ll share how this plays out in acade...

In this episode, I’m digging into why so many of us feel like we have to give 100% to everything—and why that mindset is especially hard to shake in academia. If you’ve read my recent newsletter , you know I’ve been talking about the “B+ mindset,” or the idea of strategically lowering your standards in certain areas so you can protect your best energy for the work that matters most. Today, I take...

In this episode, I’m digging into a question so many of us wrestle with: how do we make academic choices that actually reflect what we love and want, instead of squeezing ourselves into an institutionally sanctioned version of success? I share a bit of my own story—how I started out passionate about teaching but quickly learned the pressure to publish could push me in a different direction. Along...

Ever feel like every other scholar is writing faster, better, and with more ease than you while you’re stuck belly flopping into your draft? I’m here to reassure you that you’re definitely not doing it wrong. In this episode, I share the story of 7-year-old me spending eight determined hours trying to learn to dive and how that experience became a metaphor for building a resilient writing practice...

Note that I have an error in the episode; the Fall Writing Planning Workshops are Aug. 21 and 25 (not 26!). If you’ve ever felt like writing goal-setting only leaves you feeling behind, this episode is for you. I’m breaking down why so many traditional goal-setting methods fail academic writers—and what you can do instead. I share a framework I teach in my Flourish course called good, better, best...

What if the phrase “I need to find more time to write” is actually keeping you stuck? In this episode of Publish Not Perish: The Podcast , I challenge one of the most common beliefs about academic writing and explain why that phrase leads us into a scarcity mindset. I share a story from my time as junior faculty at a top research university, where I was constantly juggling research, teaching, and...

Have you ever sat down to write and immediately started second-guessing every sentence? Chances are that the problem isn’t your ideas. It’s the audience in your head. In this episode, I dive into the concept of imagined audience and how it can either support or sabotage your writing. Most academic writers don’t realize they’re writing for someone who’s not actually their reader. Instead, they writ...

In today’s episode, I’m talking about something we don’t discuss enough in academia: getting professional help with your writing. Whether you're working on a book manuscript or a journal article, there are times when writing groups and peer feedback just aren’t enough. That’s when editors and coaches can make a huge difference. I walk you through the different types of editing, from developmental...

In this episode, I’m talking about something that comes up all the time in my work with scholarly writers: the guilt that you’re not the “right” kind of academic writer. Maybe you don’t write every day, or maybe you only feel productive under deadline pressure. Whatever the case, you’ve internalized the idea that you’re doing it wrong. But here’s what I want you to know: you only need to change yo...

You probably didn’t become a scholar just to write for a handful of specialists. If you’ve ever felt the pull to share your work with a wider audience—to write something that’s both rigorous and resonant—this episode is for you. We’re talking about crossover books: academic books that travel beyond your department, speak across disciplines, and connect with curious readers beyond the university. I...

If you’ve ever ended the day feeling mentally wiped out with little real writing progress to show for it, this episode is for you. We’re diving into why that scattered, depleted feeling is so common—and what it tells us about the way we work. Drawing on Cal Newport’s idea of deep work , we’ll explore how academic writers can protect their focus and energy, even in the midst of full schedules and c...

You know that feeling when you finally sit down to write—tea brewed, document open—only to type a few sentences and think, What am I even trying to say? I feel you, friend! In this episode, I talk about a shift that’s helped me and so many of my clients: understanding the difference between writing to think and writing to communicate. We’ve been trained to believe writing should sound polished fro...

We often tell ourselves we need ideal conditions to write: a quiet morning, a clean desk, an empty inbox, or that magical four-hour block of time. But these “perfect” circumstances rarely arrive—and waiting for them often keeps us stuck. In this episode, I walk through three common excuses scholars use to delay writing and offer practical strategies for writing anyway. Whether you’re overwhelmed b...