"Sometimes the best stories are the ones we don't set out to tell" Much has changed for Farrah Storr since the last time she joined me on the podcast. A former editor of Cosmopolitan magazine, and editor-in-chief of Elle, Farrah now writes "Things Worth Knowing" on Substack, a tech newsletter platform that she calls "A personal media channel for the individual." We had a wonderful conversation about storytelling, the return of long-form content, and the pleasures of writing in community, rather than one-way broadcasting. Farrah is also a wealth of information if you'd like to try Substack for yourself!
Full show notes to follow soon.
“Maybe being able to earn your goodness and your worth is the true delusion.” - Jamie Varon Jamie Varon is truly multi-hatted: she's a writer, designer, digital course creator, creative consultant, and author of the wonderfully-radical new book, Radically Content: being satisfied in an endlessly dissatisfied world. We had a fabulous, meaty conversation about the true things that drive us, where we find motivation, and the path to actual - rather than simply Instagrammable - contentment.
“When you’ve spent years valuing yourself, your brand and your value in the number of people who follow you or the size of your email list, making that shift to quality over quantity can be challenging. And yet when you do it, something magical gets unlocked.” - Gina Bianchini My guest today is Gina Bianchini, co-founder and CEO of Ning and more recently the founder of community-creation platform Mighty Networks. To let her contagious enthusiasm speak for itself, Gina is “passionate about how people come together in communities to master something important, together.”
"Minimalism and simplifying life comes down to learning how to use the word no" I'm so excited that we finally made this episode happen!! We recorded this episode just before Jess birthed her beautiful book Enough, which is out now. It's about learning to simplify life, let go and walk the path that is truly ours. It's a how-to/memoir, based on Jess' story about how she learnt to let go of mental and physical stuff Jess is a writer & lifestyle blogger based in the Peak District, in the UK who writes about simple, creative & intuitive living. She's also a part of the Insta Retreat Family!
"Your art is not saying anything about you as a person, you have to separate your art from your existence. " This week I welcome back Maria Wigge, an artist I met through my Insta Retreat class, who started sharing her work on Instagram and found it changed her life. Our last episode really resonated with so many of you, so I'm delighted to be able to share this episode with you. Maria lives in Sweden with her family and works full time as an artist, you can see her work over on her website, I think you'll agree it's phenomenal. In our last episode, she had just taken the leap and left her job to pursue her art, in this one we talk about how things have changed for her and the impact Instagram has had on her business and creativity
"Reaction is the point of writing. You’ve only failed as a writer if the reaction is silence." Natalie Morris dreamed of being a writer as a child, and is now firmly entrenched in her dream job. She’s the senior lifestyle writer at metro.co.uk, and author of the new book Mixed/Other: Explorations of Multiraciality in Modern Britain. Writing about race comes with its own suite of challenges and often elicits extreme reactions, but Natalie sees these as important, saying, “My job is to provoke discussion and promote new ways of thinking.” She’s also a fellow Mancunian, so let’s not overlook that!
" I struggle with a lot things but if there's something I really want to do, I'm going to do it." Rebecca Schiller is a wearer of many hats, all of them impressive. She’s a journalist and an author, as well as a doula, a smallholder, a campaigner for women’s rights, and a mother! We chat today about the process of writing her latest book Earthed, about living a life that is neurodiverse, about the joys and challenges of parenting small humans, and about the value of connecting with nature.
Listen in this week as I share a couple of recent conversations we’ve been having in our weekly calls as part of my Instagram class, The Insta Retreat. It starts with Instagram, but as you’ll hear, there’s a whole lot more to unpack once we start digging!
“Less of the specs… and more about ‘how can this fit into our lives?’” Becca Caddy is a science and technology journalist, and the author of the recently published book “Screen Time: How to Make peace with Your Devices and Find Your Techquilibrium.” In this conversation, we explore elements of the love-hate relationship that so many of us seem to have with technology, and with social media in particular, and Becca shares her thoughts on ways we can find balance. Please note: this episode contains some discussion around eating disorder recovery.