Time & Other Thieves

Send us Fan Mail In this episode—the shortest one yet!—I talk a little bit about my recent experience of realizing (as a writer) how important and helpful editors are. I also discuss the sewing meditation retreat I did in February. But I didn't feel like going on and on about it or anything else, so I kept things brief. Just a little check-in! Maybe in April I'll have more to say. :)

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, I talk a bit about my tendency to have multiple projects going at once, and how that probably informs a recurring dream I have about never being able to get where I need to be. But mostly I explore some of the ideas put forth in the 1961 book On Becoming a Person , by Carl Rogers. We people are change, embodied. We are always in a state of becoming, so don't...

Send us Fan Mail Happy New Year! In this episode, I briefly discuss the difference between spirituality and religion, share the various challenges that life presented me with in the month of December ("man plans, God laughs"), and talk about the box of my late paternal grandparents' courtship love letters that I acquired over Christmas. I also revisit some of my thoughts and feeling...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, I talk about the obligatory gift-giving insanity that is Christmas (reminding you that you don't have to participate!), and I read an essay my husband recently wrote about climate change. I also share my experience of participating in National Novel Writing Month (a.k.a. NaNoWriMo) and of attending my first Buddhist lay minister ordination ceremony. Lastly, I...

Send us Fan Mail In this "bonus" episode, which originally aired in radio format on November 25th, 2021 (and which I've only just now converted to podcast format), I discuss Thanksgiving the holiday, as well as the practice of giving thanks. I explore the history of the holiday, which actually has very little to do with the meal shared by Pilgrims and Wampanoags in 1621. That was mo...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode I briefly discuss the bullshit that is war of any kind and I pay brief homage to Matthew Perry (R.I.P.) before reflecting on some favorite passages from Rainer Maria Rilke's Letters to a Young Poet and Mason Currey's Daily Rituals: How Artists Work . In reflecting on what Rilke calls "the happiness of being a beginner," I announce my intention t...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, I mostly talk about Luis Rubiales, whom I'd never even heard of prior to the infamous kiss he planted on the lips of Jenni Hermoso after Spain won the World Cup last month. I also talk about the books I've been reading (and listening to), and the recent epiphany I had (again) about meditation.

Send us Fan Mail Don't be fooled by the photo for this episode! I only talk about Make Your Schools Work for a few minutes near the end, but it's the only book I say much of anything about for this installment, and I needed something to take a picture of... I thought about snapping a shot of my bare belly, because I devote a good amount of time to exploring that topic here—women's b...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode I talk about my first freelance editing gig (and also my last, with this particular company); rant about ChapGPT and AI in general; rave about TOOL's 2001 album, Lateralus ; and of course address some ideas from stuff I've been reading, including Pema Chödrön's Start Where You Are . 

Send us Fan Mail In this episode I talk about my continuing interest in all things editing and my deepening passion and appreciation for books, both for the education and entertainment they provide and for the quiet and solitude implied by being able to read them. I discuss my ever-evolving relationship with writing, and the realization that just because one is good at something doesn't mean...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, I reflect on the living and learning that's happened in the past month in regards to my writing practice, which, as writing practices often do, is informing the rest of my life. Thanks to a book by Philip Gerard called Creative Nonfiction: Researching and Crafting Stories of Real Life , I've decided to incorporate more research into my writing. Two topic...

Send us Fan Mail In this second-ever podcast-only installment of the program, I catch you up on what I've been reading, writing, experiencing (including my first case of COVID), pondering, and witnessing over the last month. Along with continuing to immerse myself in the personal essay as a writing genre, I've been exploring literary editing as a possible new career, so HMU if you need s...

Send us Fan Mail In this first-ever podcast-only episode of Time & Other Thieves, I share some of my thoughts on Christmas (a.k.a. Guiltmas), New Year's fireworks (condoned aggression), New Year's resolutions (no, thanks), Bodhisattva vows, and what I've been up to since retiring the radio version of this show. I briefly (yay!) discuss some of the key ideas I've flagged so...

Send us Fan Mail This is the FINAL Time & Other Thieves episode that originally aired in radio format. Its broadcast date was December 1st, 2022. In it, I explore some of the ideas presented in Stephen Levine's 1982 book, Who Dies? An Investigation of Conscious Living and Conscious Dying.  Thank you for listening!

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, which originally aired in radio format on November 10th, 2022, I explore some of the ideas that C.S. Lewis presents in the first three books/sections of Mere Christianity (1952). How is the fact that human beings try to abide by a Moral Law proof of God's existence? Why would God create a species who regularly fails to uphold that law and in the process can d...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, which originally aired in radio format on November 3rd, 2022, I explore some of the ideas presented in Part One of "The Spirituality of Imperfection," first published in 1992. We humans are imperfect for a reason; our task as spiritual beings is not to strive for perfection, but to learn how to live with its opposite. In this episode I also talk about my...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, which originally aired in radio format on October 27th, 2022, I revisit the book Addiction to Perfection , by Marion Woodman. The episode I made in 2021 about the first half of this book has received more downloads than any other by a long shot, so I thought listeners might enjoy learning about the ideas that Woodman explores in the second half. I discuss how the...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, which originally aired in radio format on October 20th, 2022, I share a conversation I recently had with award-winning writer and former NC poet laureate, Joseph Bathanti. Mr. Bathanti also happens to be my all-time favorite college professor (he still teaches at App State) and one of my favorite humans in general. Here he  talks about writing as a habit, the role...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, which originally aired in radio format on June 30th, 2022, I explore some of the ideas presented in the book No Recipe: Cooking As Spiritual Practice , by Zen priest and chef (and author of The Tassajara Bread Book ) Edward Espe Brown. It might just inspire you to engage more fully with your life-force energy!

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, which originally aired in radio format on June 23rd, 2022, I continue talking about some of the ideas that Wendell Berry explores in his 2017 essay anthology, The World-Ending Fire . Topics  include but aren't  limited to: how we must change our individual ways of living if we wish to change the world; how we must stop being violent towards the earth if we wi...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, which originally aired in radio format on June 16th, 2022, and is the first of two installments on the writings of American novelist, poet, essayist, environmental activist, cultural critic, and farmer Wendell Berry, I also share parts of a conversation I had with KP Whaley and Ed Graves, co-owners of Tiny Bridge Farm in Hendersonville, NC. KP is also the General...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, which originally aired in radio format on June 9th, 2022, I explore some of the ideas presented in the first 100 pages of Jeanne de Salzmann's book, The Reality of Being: The Fourth Way of Gurdjieff. Such concepts include the "ordinary I" or "individual self," the relationship between information and intelligence, the perpetual oldness of...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, which originally aired in radio format on May 19th, 2022, I reflect on some of the ideas presented in the 1971 spiritual classic, Be Here Now , by Ram Dass. I especially focus on the notion of life as a drama (a game, a dance), on making everything we do a spiritual practice/sadhana, on the unparalleled importance of working on oneself, on conscious protest, and,...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, which originally aired in radio format on May 5th, 2022, I geek out on the more philosophical aspects of Seinfeld -- both the sitcom and the man himself. Along with drawing on the book, Seinfeld and Philosophy: A Book About Everything and Nothing , I  discuss Seinfeld's unique perspective on life as portrayed in various episodes of Comedians in Cars Getting C...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, which originally aired in radio format on April 28th, 2022, I share my conversation with chronic pain recovery coach Lily Oster. Together we  explore some of the concepts presented in the book The Way Out , by Alan Gordon, and Lily explains the phenomenon of neuroplastic pain (a.k.a. mind-body pain), how to determine if you have it (most chronic pain IS neuroplast...