Talking With Friends, Sharing the Load Podcast

This is the first in what I hope will be a long series, collecting the stories people tell about significant first meetings in their lives. Two of the three are NOT what you may immediately think of. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit joannapiros.substack.com/subscribe

As International Women’s Day rolls around again I can’t help but think that announcing an International Men’s Day would be laughed out of the room. Do we really have to revisit gender equality over and over? Apparently, yes. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit joannapiros.substack.com/subscribe

What are friends for if not to explain the finer points of a gentleman’s massage? This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit joannapiros.substack.com/subscribe

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit joannapiros.substack.com/subscribe

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit joannapiros.substack.com/subscribe

We’ve all had those significant encounters with strangers, some go on to become lovers, some friends, some colleagues, and some make a mark on our lives and move on. Whatever your story is, we’d love to hear it. Message me and we’ll talk. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit joannapiros.substack.com/subscribe

We are drowning in an epidemic of shittiness, on which I’ve written before. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit joannapiros.substack.com/subscribe

I was peeling roasted beets this morning, as per a recipe in the delightful cookbook, Nothing Fancy , by Alison Roman . Wearing surgical gloves to prevent my hands from looking like a murderer’s, I began to slip the roasted skins off the beets and what came to mind was how very evocative! Something like the feeling of slipping off stockings. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this...

Amusing, frustrating and challenging my friends, I have always had a burning need to find or apply terms for things. All kinds of things like a term for the moment after catharsis. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit joannapiros.substack.com/subscribe

In some countries and cultures a death in the family is met with a full year of official mourning: black clothing, a dearth of celebration of birthdays, national and religious holidays, frequent visits to the gravesite and an obsessive devotion to the memory of the deceased. Candles are lit, flowers are replaced, graveside debris is swept away. Here in North America, it’s about 20 minutes. This is...

Apologies off the top to all those incredible, funny, insightful, bold, irreverent writers whose political commentaries I have followed for the past year plus. I have to mute you for a while, and I feel tremendously bad about it, but my mental health makes it imperative. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit joannapiro...

There’s a moment of weightless limbo when you move from one state to another, liquid to gaseous, for example. Or from independent adult to fatherless child. That moment came for me last Wednesday at 11:35 a.m. when my father died. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit joannapiros.substack.com/subscribe

Chances are good you recently tried to lift something, or jump off a rock wall, or go back to a sport you used to love. Please tell me you didn’t strap on the hockey pads after marinating them in the garage for a decade… This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit joannapiros.substack.com/subscribe

The man sitting next to me is a tightly wound bundle of energy, or ADD, hard to tell. He is in his 60s, lean and wiry like a crazed marathoner, and does everything quickly and with gusto. He stuffs a laptop and a book, Michael Lewis’ Premonition, into the seatback pocket and pulls out a large plastic bag which contains, as it turns out, multiple sandwiches and some blue cheese (for which he apolog...

My Friday morning yoga instructor announced today she was leaving and I became ridiculously sad and emotional even though I don’t know her all that well. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit joannapiros.substack.com/subscribe

Road work flag people fill me with impotent rage, simply by default. Occasionally one will warm my cold, cold heart and I will acknowledge them, regally, with a small, wrist-based wave. Why is this? Why this disproportionate anger toward strangers just out there doing the job? This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit joan...

When I travelled to El Salvador some years ago I was immediately struck by the glaring disparity of how people lived. Corrugated roof shacks surrounded by brick walls and topped with razor wire because, no matter how little you have, there’s someone wanting to take it from you. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit joa...

Shivering outside the hockey arena in the nighttime cold, the girls stamp their feet on the hard packed, icy snow, smoking Number 7s. They wear short bomber jackets that do little to cut the cold, and huddle together after the Junior B hockey game. Most of the players don’t smoke but you can immediately tell, on those breakaways, which ones do. High school. This is a public episode. If you'd like...

My father, whom I have written about previously , had a catastrophic motor vehicle accident three weeks ago and remains in an uncertain state in hospital. This piece is not about that sad story. It’s a strangely happy story that is related. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit joannapiros.substack.com/subscribe

You might remember when Adele first burst onto the music scene and how people were wowed. She was painfully young, a fabulous singer and lyricist, and she was chubby. When she lost weight and revealed her svelte self, the world went even more crazy. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit joannapiros.substack.com/subscri...

It’s baffling when a person you consider a close friend ghosts you or becomes an enemy overnight and never explains . You expect it would hurt but the confusion and anger get you over that quickly when you realize that anyone who doesn’t have the courage to explain is likely not someone you can trust anyway. Good to know, right? This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other su...

Recently, two young men whose lives are within the circle of my adult children, took their own lives within a couple weeks of each other. In both cases the same description applies: they had everything to live for, careers, friends, family, children. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit joannapiros.substack.com/subscr...

I caught an interesting piece from CBC news recently, which described a new-ish trend amongst young women (and men) who have chosen to remain celibate and, in many cases, forgo dating and that whole hot mess of online match-ups. It’s called “boysober” which I thought was pretty darned clever so I’ve adapted it to suit what I hear from my own demographic. This is a public episode. If you'd like to...

For the better part of a decade, I taught an executive development course in Persuasion, with the inimitable David McPhillips. We searched the world for the latest research into the art and science that makes up the body of knowledge of how people make decisions, and what triggers us to say yes. And yet…. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access...

When I was a kid, growing up in a small mountain town in the West Kootenays of BC, summer Sundays meant gardening and washing the concrete sidewalks. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit joannapiros.substack.com/subscribe