For Real with Kimberly Stuart

Today we get into weeds that some of us have been conditioned to avoid. We are talking about how to have honest and awkward conversations about race. My guests are Adaeze and Chad Brinkman, and they are experts in this space. Their wisdom has come at no small cost, and I am so grateful they took the time to share what they know. If you have ever felt intimidated or anxious or weary when it comes t...

My guest today is Rachel Booth Smith. If you’ve ever read the Bible and wondered if your 21st-century self might be missing a few things, same! And we are! Rachel faces that question today with an eye on the very first pages of Scripture. Her new book is Rest Assured: What the Creation Story was Intended to Reveal about Trusting God , and it is so timely as we take a fresh look at what it means to...

Do you ever careen into the Christmas season? Maybe arrive at the Christmas Eve service sweaty? Saying to yourself, “Quick! Be peaceful and contemplative and remember what this season is all about!” Then this is the conversation for you (and for me). My guest today is Amanda Bible Williams. Yes, that is her real name and of course I sure did ask her about it. You might know Amanda for her beautifu...

This episode was like a deep breath for me. Sarah Clarkson joins me to talk about reclaiming quiet. This is an audacious goal in such a relentless and noisy world, right? Sarah definitely lives in that real world, as you will hear. She is not cloistered, though she does live in an actual vicarage in actual England. Obviously I trusted her immediately. What I loved about this conversation is that S...

Liz Bell Young is with me today for a conversation I didn’t know how much I needed. I messaged her afterward and asked that we always be friends, as I am not one to hold back my undying admiration and love. You will want to message her the same thing once you hear her talk about real, uncomplicated hospitality and how to create havens for the people around you. Liz is an artist, an author, an expe...

Hannah Brencher is on the other side of a fascinating experiment that helped her redefine what it means to be living in this time, this place, and what it really means to take good care of ourselves in this digital and depleting world. I’m coming out of a very intense work season, and I’m looking at the aftermath and wondering anew what it means to take good, deep care of ourselves and of each oth...

Happy summer and welcome to this special bonus episode of For Real! Today we are chatting about the glories of summer, most notably the State Fair! The Fair is a big deal around here, and it’s been that way for 170 years. Whether you are a Fair person or an air-conditioning-and-please-don’t-make-me-go-to-the-Fair person, I think you’ll love this behind-the scenes conversation about food competitio...

The perfect guest joins us for this final episode of the season. Myquillyn Smith, also known as the Cozy Minimalist, is a New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestselling author, podcaster, and interior design mentor to millions. Myquillyn and I got to chat about her new book, House Rules: How to Decorate for Every Home, Style, and Budget . If you have always wondered if making your home the pla...

For this episode I have two lovely guests in the studio with me. Laura Klynstra and Mumtaz Mustafa join me to talk about their very odd jobs as creative directors and book designers and to chat about their new beautiful cookbook, Gather and Graze: Globally Inspired Small Bites and Gorgeous Tablescapes For Every Occasion . These two have a combined four decades or so of experience in the publishing...

Katherine James is an award-winning author of fiction and nonfiction. She is an extraordinary writer, a visual artist, just an insanely creative person, and I was floored by her book A Prayer for Orion: A Son’s Addiction and A Mother’s Love . Addiction seems like one of those things that is hidden in plain sight, a reality, not just an idea, and something we are all hungry to put language around s...

We For Real types are the people who are curious to hear great stories, laugh together, and travel all roads, even the hairpin, pothole-filled ones, with the people we love. If you are any or all of these things, you are going to drink up this conversation with two women I deeply admire, love, and always want more time with, even when we are expiring in the Alabama humidity. Katherine Wolf and Ale...

Stephanie May Wilson hosts a wildly successful podcast, Girls Night, and is the author of a brand-new book titled Create A Life You Love: How to Quiet Outside Voices So You Can Finally Hear Your Own . This woman’s heart is for folks wading through what she calls The Everything Era. Between roughly the ages 25 to 35, we make so many formational and transformational decisions. The whole idea can get...

I’m happy to say we have a VIP guest for this episode. Marc Stuart is in the studio. I may have to encourage and persuade a tad bit more than my usual guest interactions, but he did it! And I loved it. Nobody knows me better, cheers for me harder, or can provide behind the scenes more diplomatically than Marc. It was a total joy to force him to talk into a microphone, and I’m pretty sure he still...

Dr. Nijay Gupta is my bright and thoughtful guest on this episode. Dr. Gupta is a professor at Northern Seminary, and he’s also the author of a book I drank in, marked up, and talked out loud to the entire time I was reading it. It’s that kind of book. Tell Her Story: How Women Led, Taught, and Ministered in the Early Church , made me wonder how I’ve read the names of real women in the Bible, some...

Today I am joined by a remarkable woman. Aundi Kolber is an author, speaker, and therapist, and her books Try Softer and Strong Like Wate r are insightful, kind, compassionate and so wise. Aundi is a trauma expert and a trauma survivor, and I trust her so profoundly to give sound counsel on a really difficult subject. This conversation is for you if you have been through or are going through traum...

I’m excited for you to eavesdrop on a conversation I had recently with Sarah Bragg. Sarah is a Tennessee girl, mom of two, and the host of the Surviving Sarah podcast. She’s also the author of a new book that tackles all the questions that keep us up at night, especially as we sally forth into midlife. Is Everyone Happier Than Me? gives solid counsel on what it means to stay curious with ourselves...

Boy, oh boy, do we have a super fun conversation for you on this episode! I made it exactly zero percent in before needing an inhaler for laughing so hard, if that gives you any indication. Taylor Hughes is making a repeat appearance on For Real, and there’s just something about talking about life with a close friend. Taylor does all sorts of fun things, like solo performing as a magician/storytel...

I’m telling you, this conversation was a buoy for my heart. Nick Connolly is a pastor and podcaster, he’s a church planter, and he is, as we will discuss, a statistic buster. He knows a lot about persistence, about pressing on, about taking God up on promises that can feel out of reach. I love the bravery of this conversation. You guys know I’m here for the real answers to real questions, and Nick...

In today’s episode, I’m delighted to bring you some fantastic ways to use all those bookstore gift cards burning holes in your pockets. My guest is Meagan Briggs of the Instagram bookstagrammer fame. First of all, I didn’t know bookstagrammer was a word, and second, Meagan is very good at her job. The woman has a busy life, three kids, a husband she loves, a strange affection for running marathons...

I’m so happy to introduce a return guest to the pod, my mom Patti. No one makes me laugh like my mom, no one has taught me more about faith and courage and pursuing crazy dreams with prayer and humility, and no one gives me more pushback to be a podcast guest like my mom. I love her and am grateful she not only said yes again this year but that she also brought with her Williams Sonoma hot chocola...

A couple of weeks ago, I was hearing over and over in my conversations with friends how much stress and confusion and YOWZA come with the holidays. I love this season. I’m probably baking something as you read these words. I’m in. AND I also know this season comes with its fair share of extra. Extra chaos, extra scramble, extra hosting, extra outpouring, even extra grief. So I asked a question onl...

Ashlee Gadd is probably best known for creating Coffee + Crumbs, a life-infusing, creative corner of the internet where moms write and make and share and grow. Ashlee has done this work herself and wrote this beautiful book (her own photography included) called Create Anyway: Creativity in the Margins of Motherhood . We talk about how to continue to create during full (or outright hysterical) seas...

Today I get the chance to chat with a woman who had a crazy idea that made a lot of people give her the side-eye, but she stuck with it and boy, did it work! Stephanie Nelson, known as the Coupon Mom, took her love of clipping coupons (I didn’t even know there was a love like that), and she turned it into millions of dollars worth of donated groceries and a lot of really happy people who saved mon...

Dr. Emily Smith is a rock star epidemiologist, a UN presenter, and an author, not just of scientific articles I cannot understand but also a new book that I CAN understand. Dr. Emily has done a deep dive into what it means to be a Good Samaritan in 2023, both within our local communities and as people of faith who know God so loves the world.  Emily Smith, Ph. D., is an assistant professor in the...

On this episode, we have the ridiculous joy of welcoming Sean Dietrich to the pod. Sean, who also writes under the name Sean of the South, is one of the most creative people I know. He writes long form, short story, fiction, memoir, narrative essay, some of the absolute best stuff on social media, and as of this fall, Kinfolk , one of my favorite novels of all time. I feel a little like a sloth wh...