The Other Side of Misery

This is the Croatia story. The one where a pixelated FaceTime call from my mom, a particular shade of Adriatic blue, and a curly hair business plan that was never really a business plan cracked something open in me and reoriented my life toward joy. Also: I jumped on a sea urchin. It did not deter me. This episode is about the moments that change us. How they usually don't announce themselves. How...

Who are you? It's a deceptively simple question and one that deserves more than a quick answer. In this episode, I finally introduce myself because after two episodes introducing the podcast, it felt like maybe I should tell you about the person behind it. I explore what it means to narrate yourself: how our brains build schemas and cognitive shortcuts to categorize people, why the labels we r...

What happens when you discover a power so profound at age 10 that it terrifies you into silence for two decades? In this episode, I share a story about a fourth-grade writing assignment that made someone cry—and changed everything. It's about stumbling onto the ability to make people  feel  through words, then spending 20 years too scared to try again. Why do we hide our creative powers? What...

What if the meaning of life isn't hiding in some grand revelation, but in your fuzzy white blanket on a Friday night? In this inaugural episode, Michelle lights a pine candle (literally and metaphorically) and asks: why are we so obsessed with happiness when pain is basically part of the package deal of being alive? Spoiler alert: This isn't a self-help show. Michelle doesn't have a 10...