The Rest of Us with Dana Tenille Weekes

How do you let stillness into your body as we live in an infinitely difficult world? In this Poetic Interlude, Remica Bingham-Risher shares her poem "In My Best Dreams They Are On The Water" (from her latest poetry collection, Room Swept Home ). Creative expression is a portal to rest as liberation. Creatives, including poets, show us how to embrace our humanity and act on our truths. We...

How do you deeply care for the land to ground your living self within the collective of all living things? In this Poetic Interlude, Mai-Linh Hong shares her poem "Harvest Moon with Wildfire" (from her forthcoming debut collection, Continental Drift ). Creative expression is a portal to rest as liberation. Creatives, including poets, show us how to embrace our humanity and act on our tru...

In this episode, "Calling All Leaders: Yes, It's You. You're Causing Your Team (and You) Unrest," host Dana Tenille Weekes talks about how work environments are breeding grounds for burnout and performative practices. Dana calls in (not out) leaders to assess how they show up and the impact they make by walking through five approaches leaders take that cause unrest within their...

What happens when our rest is tied up in someone else’s oppression? In this Poetic Interlude, Kira Tucker shares her poem “Off on Holiday” and a reflection prompt on rest.  Creative expression is a portal to rest as liberation. Creatives, including poets, show us how to embrace our humanity and act on our truths. We in The Rest of Us community view this as a deep connection to one’s own agency — o...

How has your lineage influenced how you rest? In this Poetic Interlude, Jasmine Vallejo-Love shares her poem “My Response When the Instructor Prompted Us to Craft a Poem About Flowers at a Time Like This” and a reflection prompt on rest.  Creative expression is a portal to rest as liberation. Creatives, including poets, show us how to embrace our humanity and act on our truths. We in The Rest of U...

In Part 2 of our "Let the World Catch Up" episode, host Dana Tenille Weekes dives into the remaining three of five mindsets to meet those moments in life when you feel like you’re onto something that you can see (but most people can’t see) or you understand (but most people can’t understand).  What You'll Settle Into The three remaining mindset shifts that are necessary to let the w...

The Rest of Us is doing something different for Season Two! Every other week, we will feature two of over 30 poets in a segment we call “Poetic Interlude,” launching during National Poetry Month. In this Poetic Interlude, Susan L. Leary shares her poem “Idle” and a reflection prompt on rest. Creative expression is a portal to rest as liberation. Creatives, including poets, show us how to embrace o...

The Rest of Us is doing something different for Season Two. Every other week, we will feature two of over 30 poets in a segment we call “Poetic Interlude,” launching during National Poetry Month. In this Poetic Interlude, Anastacia-Reneé shares their poem “Stem” and a reflection prompt on rest. Creative expression is a portal to rest as liberation. Creatives, including poets, show us how to embrac...

In the Season Two premiere of The Rest of Us podcast, host Dana Tenille Weekes makes the case for embracing the affirmation “let the world catch up” when people cannot see what we see or understand what we understand.  Dana opens this two-part episode by sharing that she struggled over the past few months to remain connected to her agency. She also acknowledges that many of us feel unrest in today...

It’s the Season 1 Finale of The Rest of Us!   But this episode isn’t just a wrap-up or a celebration of this milestone. Host Dana Tenille Weekes invites you to redefine what it means to celebrate yourself in ways that align with your truth, your joy, and your rest.   Dana walks through five realizations about what celebration now looks like for her after self-reflection on why she hasn't cele...

We use apps to save time, outsource errands, and even boil water in under a minute, yet we still claim we “don’t have time.” In this second-to-last episode of Season 1, Dana Tenille Weekes challenges our cultural addiction to speed, noise, and endless doing with a simple but powerful invitation: make time to do nothing .  Dana explores rest by reclaiming three undervalued states of being : Boredom...

Stop and ask yourself this question: What are the rules that I live by that actually do not serve me?   In this episode, host Dana Tenille Weekes invites us to question rules around us and our internal scripts that keep us tethered to unrest.   Dana shares three categories of rules for listeners to rethink or examine closely that may seem obvious to identify, but not always: (1) "this is how...

In this special live-recorded episode from the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation's 54th Annual Legislative Conference , host Dana Tenille Weekes sits with Nia Ariel Davis Sigona to explore the relationship between rest and reimagining.  Dana and Nia talk about the power and necessity of reimagining in adulthood. How reimagining is a way to world-build and live differently, especially when...

This episode is Part 2 of Dana Tenille Weekes ’ raw and resonant conversation with Sullivan Summer , a poet, essayist, literary critic, and dear friend of Dana's.  Picking up where they left off, Dana and Sullivan's conversation deepens on societal conditioning, particularly how feelings such as guilt can undermine rest as liberation. Sullivan also holds space for Dana to share the story...

In Part 1 of this two-part, intimate and thought-provoking conversation, Dana Tenille Weekes is joined by a dear friend and listener, Sullivan Summer , a poet, essayist, and literary critic. Together, they explore the layers of personal transformation, ancestral wisdom, and how societal and familial conditioning undermine the vivid details of who we truly are. Opening with the first two lines of A...

In this important episode, host Dana Tenille Weekes questions the non-stop exhaustion that we call ambition: What are you chasing, and is it even meant for you?  Through thoughtful reflection, storytelling, and three main points, Dana unpacks why so many of us are trapped in the "chase" (striving, following, and supporting - yes, even supporting ) that steals our agency to live a life of...

In this motivational episode, Dana Tenille Weekes speaks to the tension between knowing what you're meant to do and avoiding doing it. Her message? Just do the thing.   Whether you're stuck in the loop of overthinking, waiting on the perfect sign, drowning in comparisons, or buried under the weight of others' expectations, this episode calls you out (with love) and invites you to st...

In this episode, Dana Tenille Weekes challenges the commonly overlooked confusion between niceness and professionalism and how that confusion can create a work culture of unrest. Dana explores how avoiding the truth under the guise of being "polite" or “professional” leads to unrest for you and your colleagues. She offers a retake on the definition of professionalism: "Owning your r...

In this urgent episode, Dana Tenille Weekes speaks to the global unrest that is happening around us and what it means for rest as self-liberation. She talks directly to listeners who are opting to "rest" to avoid and disengage from the world's realities or those listeners who are refusing to rest for the "sake of the movement."  Dana continues to build on the past two epis...

In this thought-provoking follow-up to “A Love Letter - To Folks Afraid of Their Liberation,” host Dana Tenille Weekes challenges listeners to more closely examine the differences of living a life of comfort, peace, and liberation , and why mistaking one for the other may be holding us back from true rest. She defines comfort, peace, and liberation as: Comfort: your familiar that avoids, ignores,...

What if comfort is not meant to serve you? What if the life you’ve built is actually a quiet form of unrest? In this special episode, host Dana Tenille Weekes reads a deeply personal love letter, “To Folks Afraid of Their Liberation,” she has written to listeners. After witnessing loved ones and strangers alike disassociate from their agency and belonging during these times, Dana shares this lette...

In part two of this powerful episode, host Dana Tenille Weekes completes her conversation on the three mindset shifts that can reframe how we think about asking for help . Dana talks about the third and most actionable shift: “actually tell people how you want to be helped.” She calls in (not calls out) listeners to think about some of the default ways we navigate life “independently,” like assumi...

Do you struggle to ask for help, even when you're overwhelmed?  Do you find yourself quietly hoping others will understand what you need without ever having to say it out loud? In this powerful two-part episode of The Rest of Us podcast, host Dana Tenille Weekes opens up about her own journey from silent strength to unapologetic self-advocacy. She explores how independence, when misapplied, c...

In the second episode honoring National Poetry Month, host Dana Tenille Weekes shares the remaining two life lessons she’s learned from her poetry practice. These are lessons about life, not writing, that continue to shape how Dana defines rest, agency, and belonging.  The two lessons are: When You Confront a Constraint, Lean into Your Freedom. What are some constraints in your life that are reall...

In honor of National Poetry Month, host Dana Tenille Weekes shares three life lessons on self-liberation she’s learned from writing poetry .  In this two-part episode of The Rest of Us podcast, Dana opens up about her recent struggles with overthinking, overstimulation, and emotional exhaustion to make space for a grounding conversation about lessons from writing poetry that go beyond the page and...