Notes From The Midwest

The final episode of the first season of Notes from the Midwest focuses on listeners' reflections on lessons they are contemplating as the year draws to an end. Katelyn and Nic share those lessons along with their own as they say goodbye to a hard year that was 2025. The meditation that begins the episode can be read here: https://pathwriter.wordpress.com/2012/01/02/all-fall-down-mark-nepo/

On this episode, Katelyn and Nic reflect on their own experiences of parenting little humans and recall similarities and differences to their childhoods. Nic ends the episode with this reading from Khalil Gibran titled "On Children": https://poets.org/poem/children-1 Please don't hesitate to reach out if you have thoughts, questions, or feedback (notesfromthemidwest@gmail.com). We ar...

After a week off due to professional commitments, we discuss some of the recent work conferences we've attended. Katelyn shares about her recent trip to learn and present at the Kentucky Counseling Association (https://www.kyca.org) and Nic shares about a ministers conference he attends called Prairie Group, in which he delivered a paper this year (https://prairiegroup.org). Thank you for your...

In this episode Katelyn and Nic recap the previous episode, where we covered topics such as seeing love as expansive and not transactional, metrics of success according to society and whether we should adopt them, understanding divorce as sometimes pro-relationship and not a failure, and arbitrary rules for partners/spouses. We then talk about the now what— What do we do with/about this? Some of t...

In this episode, Katelyn and Nic start with a check-in to discuss:     1.    How are we feeling so far     2.    Feedback and how to get it to us (notesfromthemidwest@gmail.com)     3.    A bit of a new structure: what, so what, and now what We then move into discussing a topic that has been of high interest and importance to Katelyn for quite some time: Love vs Ownership. In this conversation, we...

“‘Meet me in the middle,’ says the unjust man. You take a step toward him. He takes a step back. ‘Meet me in the middle,” says the unjust man. Beware of requests for compromise when you’re asking for justice and the other side is asking for consent to continue.” A. R. Moxon In this episode Katelyn and Nic discuss how it feels to be in the Midwest— in the middle of corn, of big cities, of where big...

A queer counselor and a minister make a podcast in a red state. In this episode, Nic and Katelyn discuss comedy and its role within our lives and discussions. How can we work joy and hope into a world that feels the opposite sometimes? Can laughing be revolutionary? Can comedy help us deal with hard things, and how much is appropriate? We discuss the comment section of this Chris Olsen reel: https...

The first episode of Notes From The Midwest tackles the What, Why, and How behind our starting this podcast. As we begin to share our perspectives from our notes and lived experiences in the Midwest, we hope you will share your thoughts with us. In these difficult times, we hope this episode will be the first of many to foster critical conversation and connection as we make sense and find our way...

We are excited and looking forward to begin releasing episodes weekly starting this Monday. Here's just a short clip that introduces you to the what, why, and how we hope will follow.