Your Words Unleashed

Send us Fan Mail The academic job talk can make or break your chances of landing a position, but how do you create a talk that actually gets people excited about your work? In this episode, I’m joined by Dr. Tiffany Green, an economist, population health scientist, and public speaking coach who helps scholars become more effective scientific communicators. Tiffany shares why storytelling is essent...

Send us Fan Mail What if becoming more coachable is the most important thing scholars can do to avoid failure? Drawing on her experience coaching hundreds of academics, Leslie explores what it really means to be coachable—and why this skill can be especially challenging for academics. She breaks coachability down into three main qualities and also explores the danger of conflating one's perso...

Send us Fan Mail AI is changing academic writing in ways that are raising some big questions about academic honesty and what it means to be a scholar. In this episode, I talk with qualitative researcher and “free range scholar” Dr. Janet Salmons about how academic publishers are responding to generative AI and what their policies mean for researchers and writers. We dig into some of the gray areas...

Send us Fan Mail What happens when you love teaching but can’t make a sustainable living as an adjunct? In this episode, I talk with Caitlin Luetger-Schlewitt about her winding career journey through higher education and beyond. After eight years of “full-time adjuncting” at three colleges while juggling multiple other jobs, Caitlin eventually decided it was time for a change. She shares how she m...

Send us Fan Mail Academic leadership often comes with a job description that says “professor” but a reality that says “manager, mentor, conflict resolver, and people leader.” The problem? Most academics receive very little training for that second job. In this episode, I talk with Dr. Jen Heemstra, Chair and Professor of Chemistry at Washington University in St. Louis and author of Lab Work to Lea...

Send us Fan Mail Writing a conclusion can feel surprisingly difficult. By the time you reach the end of a book, you just want to be finished! But a conclusion is more than the final chapter—it's your opportunity to help readers understand what your work adds up to and why it matters. In this episode, I talk with developmental editor Dr. Katherine Wiley about what makes a strong conclusion and...

Send us Fan Mail Feeling the weight of the upcoming semester? You’re not alone. In this listener's choice episode, I explore why so many academics head into fall already exhausted—and how you can change that.  I share a simple but powerful three-step approach to reduce your teaching load without sacrificing student learning. You’ll hear why it’s essential to put your own priorities at the cen...

Send us Fan Mail Academic writing often asks us to keep ourselves out of the story. Memoir asks us to do the opposite. In this episode, I talk with sociologist and intersex scholar-activist Georgiann Davis about her new book, Five Star White Trash, a research-driven memoir that weaves together personal narrative and sociological analysis. We discuss what it means to write about deeply personal exp...

Send us Fan Mail Many academics postpone thinking seriously about money until they have a "real job." But the habits and systems you build long before that point can have a significant impact on the choices available to you later. In this episode, I talk with Dr. Emily Roberts, founder of Personal Finance for PhDs, about the financial challenges that graduate students and postdocs often...

Send us Fan Mail Many academics reach a point where they start wondering whether they can continue doing this work in the same way for the rest of their career. But even when those questions start surfacing, leaving academia can still feel almost impossible to imagine. In this episode, I talk with my friend Dr. Saher Selod about her transition from tenured professor and department chair to Directo...

Send us Fan Mail What helps some academic authors finish their books while others remain stuck for years? In this solo episode, Leslie explores the question she has been pondering throughout her coaching career: what truly creates writing success?  Drawing on her experience working with hundreds of scholarly authors, she challenges common assumptions about productivity, motivation, and time manage...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, I’m joined by Sarah Russo, founder of Page One Media, to talk through how these campaigns work and how they differ from what presses are able to do on their own. We discuss what publicity actually involves, how it connects to marketing and sales, and why the timeline and goals for a campaign matter so much. We also talk about how to think about platforms in a more...

Send us Fan Mail A lot of graduate students—especially those who are first-generation or come from underrepresented backgrounds—enter academia without really knowing how it works behind the scenes. So many expectations are unspoken and timelines can feel fuzzy. A lot of what shapes success is never clearly explained. In this episode, I’m talking with Dr. Yvette Martinez-Vu, the founder of Grad Sch...

Send us Fan Mail Turning a published article into a book chapter can feel daunting—but it’s also one of the smartest ways to build momentum on your manuscript. In this episode, I walk you through how to repurpose your existing work without simply copying and pasting. You’ll learn how to rethink your article as part of a larger narrative, clarify its role in your book’s overall argument, and shift...

Send us Fan Mail Many PhDs who are considering careers beyond academia struggle with a simple question: how do you explain what you do to people outside your field? In this episode, I talk with David Mendes, host of Beyond the Thesis with Papa PhD, about science communication, career transitions, and how PhDs can start telling clearer stories about their work and their skills. David shares how his...

Send us Fan Mail As political attacks on colleges and universities accelerate across the United States, what’s happening in higher education is increasingly a warning sign for democracy itself. In this episode, Leslie speaks with Alison Gash, Professor and Department Head of Political Science at the University of Oregon, about coordinated efforts to undermine academic freedom—from curriculum bans...

Send us Fan Mail Have you achieved a lot in your academic career — but something still feels off? In this episode, I explore the identity shifts that often hit academics in mid-career, especially around getting tenure. Drawing on Arthur Brooks' provocative Atlantic essay on professional change, I unpack why purpose naturally evolves over time — and why that's nothing to fear. I talk abou...

Send us Fan Mail Many women in academia are diagnosed with ADHD later in life, often after years of burnout, shame, and being told they’re “just anxious” or “not organized enough.” In this episode, you’ll hear why that experience is so common, and why it has far more to do with systems than with personal failure. I talk with Karen Costa, author of An Educator’s Guide to ADHD , about what ADHD actu...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, Leslie sits down with Jennifer Polk, PhD—career coach, educator, and founder of From PhD to Life—to talk about what it really takes to leave academia and build a fulfilling career beyond the tenure track. Jen shares why the hardest part of career transition often isn’t strategy, but mindset: the stories academics tell themselves about stability, meaningful work, a...

Send us Fan Mail In this milestone 100th episode of Your Words Unleashed , I reflect on my podcasting journey and share one of the most courageous pieces of writing I’ve ever published: “The Case for Radically Inclusive Writing.” After more than four years of podcasting—and major life and career transitions along the way—I look back on how using my voice consistently has shaped my values, my work,...

Send us Fan Mail Many academic authors have little sense of what happens once a book is finished, especially when it comes to publicity.  In this episode, I talk with Amanda Ice, a senior publicist at Harvard University Press, about what happens behind the scenes once a book is finished and why so much of that work is invisible to authors. We walk through the publicity timeline, what authors can r...

Send us Fan Mail Support the show Check out Leslie's website at www. YourWordsUnleashed.com ! The three ways Leslie can help you with coaching & developmental editing: #1: Six-month Your Words Unleashed signature book writing coaching program . Through 8 hour-long sessions tailored to your own needs and goals, we will pinpoint what’s keeping you stuck. We’ll figure out personalized soluti...

Send us Fan Mail As another intense year in academia comes to a close, you might be feeling equal parts relieved and completely wiped out.  In this episode, I’m reflecting on what 2025 looked like in my business and why I intentionally chose to do less —and felt better for it. Then I’ll walk you through a simple, low-pressure reflection that can help you figure out how to do just 10% less next sem...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, Leslie talks with Dr. Abbie E. Goldberg—Professor of Clinical Psychology at Clark University and a leading scholar on LGBTQ+ families—about writing, research, and staying motivated when academic life feels overwhelming. Abbie reflects on how she came to see research as a form of storytelling and why life transitions for more than two decades. They dive into the re...

Send us Fan Mail In this deeply moving conversation, Leslie talks with Dr. Katherine In-Young Lee, a higher ed coach and former tenured professor, about what happens when academic life and caregiving collide. After her father’s stroke, Katherine became a full-time caregiver for both her parents—a journey that reshaped her understanding of productivity and purpose.  Together, they discuss the emoti...