Nicole

The Fourth Floor

Society EN ↓ 8 episodes

Welcome to The Fourth Floor — where we don’t do midlife. We do just getting started. I’m Nicole, and I sit down with 40-something folks to talk about all the messy and magical moments and milestones of this decade. Together, we revisit Floors 1, 2, and 3 — the teens, 20s, and 30s — before landing on the Fourth, where experience might inform the next moves, but curiosity and creativity fuel the next steps. Press 4 and join us on The Fourth Floor.

Author

Nicole

Episodes

Episode 7 - George M. Johnson on Writing What Hadn’t Been Written, Navigating Truth, Trauma, and Identity, and Finding Space for Joy at 40 03.12.2025 54:44

Content Warning : This episode includes discussion of childhood violence, sexual assault, and molestation. Please take care while listening. Welcome to The Fourth Floor! Today’s guest is George M. Johnson , an important storyteller and voice whose work continues to shape national conversations around identity, truth, and community. George is the award-winning writer of All Boys Aren’t Blue , We Ar...

Episode 6 - Susana M. Morris on Discovering Octavia Butler at 15, Teaching at the Intersections of Media, Science Fiction and Literature, and Celebrating Her Positive Obsession at 45 19.11.2025 1:13:45

Welcome to The Fourth Floor! If you love Octavia Estelle Butler as much as I do, then you’re going to truly love our guest: Susana M. Morris. Not only is Susana the author of Positive Obsession —a stunning exploration of Octavia’s life and career—but she is also a professor, scholar, and Black feminist Afrofuturist. As an Associate Professor of Literature, Media, and Communication at Georgia Tech,...

Episode 5 – Eric & Katrina Brooks on Curating the Vibe at Black Pearl Books, Gearing Up for the Texas Book Festival, and Enjoying Life at 50 06.11.2025 45:25

Welcome to The Fourth Floor! For today’s episode, I invite you to join me at Black Pearl Books — where I had the privilege of chatting in person with owners Eric and Katrina Brooks. As always, I learned and laughed so much from these two incredible storytellers and booksellers. And just in time for the Texas Book Festival! Based in Austin, Black Pearl Books is a Black-owned independent bookstore t...

Episode 4 – Erin Carlson on Loving New York in the Fall, Having Tom Hanks as a Surrogate Father, and Loving Her Neck at 44 16.10.2025 44:17

Welcome to The Fourth Floor! Everything is copy according to the legend Nora Ephron and for national bestselling entertainment and culture journalist and author Erin Carlson...that is absolutely true. Her three books - I'll Have What She's Having, Queen Meryl and No Crying in Baseball are not only fabulous additions to your bookshelf but offer readers a fantastic deep dive into Hollywood h...

Episode 3 - Jennifer Keishin Armstrong on Growing Up on Pop Culture, Being A Full-Time Author and Enjoying Laughing and Living at 50 03.10.2025 52:05

Welcome to The Fourth Floor! Happy Mean Girls Day! To celebrate, we’re hanging out with Jennifer Keishin Armstrong — bestselling author of some of your favorite pop culture books, including So Fetch: The Making of Mean Girls (And Why We're Still So Obsessed with It), which came out last year for the film’s 20th anniversary. At 50, Jennifer has technically left the Fourth Floor, but we made an...

Episode 2 - Lucas Schaefer on Trading Boston for Austin, Creating a Sweaty Masterpiece and Celebrating Milestones at 43 17.09.2025 45:09

Welcome to The Fourth Floor! Today we’re hanging out with Lucas Schaefer — Boston-to-Austin transplant, former bellboy, Duke and UT-Austin alum, and the author of The Slip — one of the most anticipated books of 2025. At 43, Lucas is a certified Vibe Shaper on the Fourth Floor. In this episode, he takes us on a purposeful and humorous journey through his “floors”: -First Floor: Growing up in Newton...

Episode 1 – Jericho Brown on Growing Up in Shreveport, Bringing More Poetry Into Our Days, and Life in His 40s 03.09.2025 50:24

Welcome to The Fourth Floor ! For our premiere episode, we’re hanging out with Jericho Brown — Pulitzer Prize-winning poet, proud Louisianan, lifelong Diana Ross fan, and Director of the Creative Writing Program at Emory University. At 49, Jericho is a North Star on the Fourth Floor. For this episode, he takes us on a journey through his 'floors:' First Floor : growing up in Shreveport, Lo...

Welcome to The Fourth Floor 27.07.2025 1:03

Welcome to The Fourth Floor — a podcast all about the fourth decade. But around here, we don’t do midlife. We do just getting started. Because 40 is not the story. What comes next is. I'm Nicole and for each episode, I sit down with 40-something folks as they take us on a journey: starting on the First Floor (their teen years), up through the Second and Third Floors (their 20s and 30s), and fi...