I Used to Be Fun

My guest today is Kate Buckmeier — former neighbor, fellow quilter, and the mastermind behind something she calls The Grandma Project . Around her 49th birthday, the idea for the project arrived fully formed: twelve months, twelve activities pulled straight from the lives of her two grandmothers. Golf. Sauerkraut making. Contra dancing. Watching Days of Our Lives. We talk about why women are so qu...

Life gets busy. Responsibilities get loud. And somewhere along the way, many of us stop noticing the little things that make us smile. In this episode, we're exploring what happens when we get curious about fun again—and why rediscovering it doesn't have to mean making big changes. Sometimes it starts with a couple simple questions. Links:  https://annmarieboyle.com/the-wonder-project/ w...

If you've ever talked yourself out of the art class, the afternoon off, the thing that would genuinely make your life more beautiful — and told yourself it was about the money or the time — this one's for you. In this Nudge, I'm following a question that found me twice in less than a week: are you letting yourself have the things that bring you joy? Not the things you can justify. N...

You've heard a lot from me about reclaiming your right to play. But what does it look like from the other side — from the person in your corner who makes that space possible? Today I'm welcoming my husband of 26-plus years, known around here as Dr. J, to his very first Play Date. Paul (as people call him IRL) is a professor, an eternally optimistic human, a lover of the outdoors, and the...

When was the last time you genuinely felt sharp? Not caffeinated sharp — actually sharp? In this Nudge episode, Annmarie digs into why rest is not an earned reward, but a vital input -- and why play might be the most underrated form of rest there is. Show links: https://annmarieboyle.com/the-wonder-project/ www.annmarieboyle.com Music from Uppbeat ( https://uppbeat.io/t/soundroll/to-the-top ), Lic...

Kristen Tate is my book editor, a self-described introvert, and someone who has intentionally built play back into her life more than once. Which means this conversation felt a little like sitting down with someone who understands how easy it is to forget fun isn’t supposed to require a permission slip. We talk about why live music might secretly be the perfect introvert activity, how camping dram...

I built a podcast called I Used to Be Fun about reclaiming creativity, play, and joy. So you'd think I'd be great at actually choosing joy. You'd be wrong. In this episode, I get honest about the gap between knowing something and living it — and why "the responsible thing" is sometimes just fear wearing a sensible cardigan. usic from Uppbeat ( https://uppbeat.io/t/soundrol...

For the first Play Date episode of I Used to Be Fun, I brought in one of my besties (made it a little less scary that way!)— Kim Turcotte. Kim helps women reconnect with themselves through cyclical wisdom and intentional practice, which sounds like she has everything figured out. Spoiler: she doesn't. (Her words, not mine.) We talked about play, creativity, and what it actually means to recla...

What if you didn't lose the fun, playful version of yourself? What if you actually just got really good at editing her out? In this first episode, we explore the difference between something being lost vs. being tucked away, and make a case for why the weird, creative, slightly-too-much version of you might have been here all along. Plus: a five-minute challenge that might just crack somethin...

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