Today I'm talking with novelist Shawn Smucker in our series "lighten up about pop culture," about the books that have shaped us and what's influencing us now. He shares some of his favorite books and authors and what music he listens to while writing, and you guys I got a total scoop. Shawn revealed the title of his next book and what it's about, for the first time ever, to me on this very podcast. However, an addendum to that: I'm going to pull back the curtain on this here podcastery a bit and tell you that because of scheduling wonkiness with some of the guests for this series, Shawn and I recorded this approximately 47 years ago but I'm just now releasing it. Which is why I would never make a good reporter, on account of my lack of timeliness. Hey guys I got a big scoop for you that I kept to myself! The good news is his next book comes out in June and is available for preorder, so go check it out, but first, listen in and lighten up!
Today I'm kicking off a new series with my good friend Sarah Bragg, "lighten up about pop culture." To introduce this series, Sarah and I are unpacking some of our pop culture baggage from childhood, the scare tactics used on us from being raised in the 80s, the ooky danger of Dungeons and Dragons and evil Satan Smurfs. We talk Psalty the Singing Songbook, that devastating day when Amy Grant WENT SECULAR (gasp), and how we can relate to Lane on Gilmore Girls. (All in good fun, Mom and Dad. All in good fun.) Then we turn the tables on ourselves and talk about what we're protecting our own kids from and how we're trying to do things differently but also accidentally developed Sponge Bob phobia. Parenting is hard. Sarah is one of my very favorite people and we have a blast together, so listen in and lighten up!
Today I'm talking with Kelly Minter, Bible teacher and author of the beautiful new cookbook, A Place at the Table. Years ago I went to a group for moms where we went through Kelly's study of the book of Nehemiah, which was about this guy who goes back to his hometown to lead his people to rebuild their security wall that had fallen down. It's this ancient Hebrew scripture about leading a big group project and all the challenges along the way. And anyway, at the end of each chapter of this really cool book about leadership, Kelly shared a recipe. And they were good recipes, and pretty easy to pull off. So when her new cookbook landed on my desk, I got excited and knew I wanted to have her on the show to wrap up our series on hospitality. We are going to talk charcuterie boards, potlucks, and how cooking is the hope for community. As a single woman, Kelly gives great insight about how couples with or without kids can be inclusive for our single friends, so listen in and lighten up!
Today I'm talking with Polly Conner, who is half of the team of wizards over at Thriving Home. Polly and Rachel have a new cookbook out, From Freezer to Cooker, and today Polly is on the show to help us feed our people and the people our people bring home. Polly kicks us off with a hilarious recipe fail, then she gives us a ton of ideas to help us lighten up about hospitality. We chat about her go-to things for feeding big groups of teens and tweens, what she buys in bulk, how freezing meals has revolutionized how she preps for dinner, and how she uses her Instant Pot for hands-free meals. After talking with Polly, I have so many new ideas for meal planning and prepping, and I'll have links to everything she shares in the show notes, so grab a snack, kick back, listen in, and lighten up.
Links from the show:
I'm talking with my good friend Chantel Adams about practicing hospitality to our families. Chantel has four kids, some who are grown and some who are growing and she is chock full of practical, creative ways to show hospitality to the people we're raising. We chat about fun ideas for the family dinner table, how family time has changed as her kids have grown up, and our biggest struggles with showing hospitality to our kids. No matter how old your kids are, there's something for you in this episode, so listen in, and lighten up!
We're in the middle of our series, Lighten Up about Hospitality, and today I'm chatting with Melissa Camara Wilkins, author of Permission Granted: Be Who You Were Made to Be and Let Go of the Rest. She tells the story of the time she wore jeans to a yoga class and actually learned kind of a profound lesson through it. Melissa extends to us an invitation to soul-level simplicity, giving yourself permission to be who you really are. We chat about making life simpler and how we apply simplicity to hospitality. She shares her Three Breaths Rule, we talk about our go-to hacks for having people over, and as a bonus, I pick her brain about her number one practical piece of advice for launching kids to college, and it's a good one. Whether you're joining us from your commute or your treadmill, your laundry room or your kitchen, listen in and lighten up!
Melissa's book, Permission Granted: Be Who You Were Made to Be and Let Go of the Rest
Today I'm kicking off a new series, Lighten Up about Hospitality, with a conversation with Leslie Verner, the author of Invited: The Power of Hospitality in an Age of Loneliness. We talk about why we're lonely, how smartphones and our culture of independence are contributing to loneliness. Leslie lived in China and Uganda, studied the differences in culture, and talks about what she's learned from other cultures, like putting people above tasks. We chat about how we can cultivate a love of strangers and actively put ourselves in the path of strangers to meet. And then we talk practically about prepping before people come over, what doesn't matter to us when inviting people over, and how the practice of solitude is important for filling up in order to provide hospitality. Whether you love meeting people and practicing hospitality or would rather live deep in the woods by yourself surrounded by woodland animals, there's something here for everyone, so listen in and lighten up!
Links from the show: