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Lighten Up with Melanie Dale

Author Melanie Dale is perpetually trying to figure out how we can all calm the heck down about parenting, friendship, getting older, and the world around us. Each episode she chats with a friend about ways we can let go and lighten up.
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Now displaying: 2017

Lighten Up with Melanie Dale

I use laughter as a coping strategy for life’s messes and this podcast to externally process everything going on in my mind, from books to the zombie apocalypse. Each episode I invite a friend to join me and we discuss hot topics, relationships, faith, trends, books, movies, and the latest developments on important things like Netflix and Twitter. I ask them how they lighten up and how they’re sharing the light in their communities. My goal is for you to feel like you’re sitting in the room with us while we eat Nerds Ropes, cackle hysterically, and solve all the world’s problems.
Dec 12, 2017

Today, I’m talking with Sally Clarkson about her new book, The Lifegiving Table. I love Sally because she’s already raised her kids into fabulous, functioning adults with jobs and lives of their own and she gives me great hope that it’s possible to successfully raise decent human beings! Yay! Who else is super relieved to hear this today? She shares tons of ideas for getting our families around the dinner table and what a difference we can make with these small deposits of time over a lifetime. Also, Sally is giving away two copies of her book, so head over to my Instagram @UnexpectedMel to enter to win! No matter who is gathering around your table this year for the holidays, I know you’ll enjoy this conversation with Sally, so listen in and lighten up!

Links from the show:

Dec 5, 2017

Anne Watson hosts the Declare Conference podcast and we had a blast today. We start the conversation with undies and vomit, but I promise it goes up from there. Anne's story is riveting, from getting bullied in high school to finding God in her 30s through pop culture, and she shares how she recently quit trying to be holy. We talk about battling insecurity and learning how to be yourself, and then we share our Christmas fails. Guys, Anne is that fun friend you can talk with about anything, so listen in and lighten up!

http://unexpected.org 

Quotes from the Show:

"Can we bring back chain smoking...because I feel like that's calming."

"I'm so tired of trying to be holy and look holy so I'm just gonna let it all hang out."

"Whoever I am is just not a surprise to God."

"We need a freakjob support group."

Links from the Show:

Nov 28, 2017

This is my sixth annual Slave-Free Christmas Challenge, so it feels like the right time to change things up a bit. Every year I blog about my favorite companies that help and not hurt people in the world, and this year my annual blog post is leaping from the screen into your ears. Since apparently I podcast now, let's podcast the crap outta this thing. As always, I have some fabulous companies to which I want to introduce you, and  I've invited my friend Courtney DeFeo, author of In This House We Will Giggle, on the podcast to talk about them. We discuss our favorite products to give, what we're most excited about, and how giving gifts can brighten the lives of more than just the people receiving them. Courtney also shares great ideas to light up the people around you and inspire a heart for giving and service in our kids during the Christmas season. Listen in, and lighten up! And if you're not into podcasts but want the bare bones info about some of my favorites, don't worry - I've included the info below so you can click and shop.

 

Links from the show:

Nov 21, 2017

Hey welcome to episode 51 of Lighten Up with Melanie Dale. Today Sarah Bragg from Surviving Sarah Podcast is joining me to talk about All the Thankfulness. Sheesh, I love talking to this girl so dang much. We chat about things we're thankful for, favorite Thanksgiving food, and favorite Thanksgiving traditions. I try to describe giblet gravy -- what is giblet gravy, what in fact is a giblet -- and we discuss our extremely different views on the best way to spend Thanksgiving morning. Also, we play Thanksgiving word associations. Happy Thanksgiving, listen in, and lighten up!

Quote from the show:

"Giving thanks is active. It's something that you do. It's not always a feeling."

Links from the Show:

Definition of husbandry and Definition of giblet (This is clearly a very educational show.)

Lion Coffee

Carpool Karaoke with Bruno Mars

Women Are Scary: The Totally Awkward Adventure of Finding Mom Friends

History of Hot Brown

Nov 14, 2017

Hey welcome to episode 50 of Lighten Up with Melanie Dale. 50! We've made it to 50, guys, and I'm so excited that for the 50th episode I get to share my conversation with Chewbacca Mom Candace Payne with you. We've all seen her viral Facebook video wearing the Chewbacca mask, and it's impossible not to laugh right along with her. We do a lot of laughing together on the show, and talk about her happy Chewbacca tattoo, her lofty goal before she turns 40 (hint: it involves Michael Jackson's "Thriller"), being on the Late Late Show with James Corden, and her theories about The Last Jedi. We also chat about her faith journey, experiencing homelessness as a child, her new book, Laugh It Up, and how we can embrace defiant joy in the middle of hard times.

Episode Sponsor:

Today's sponsor is b.a.r.e. soaps! Use LIGHTEN15 for 15% off. Also, they're giving away a BARE Kindness Box to one lucky listener. To enter to win, leave a review of the show on iTunes this week.

Quotes from the show:

  • "It's not self-deprecation. It's self-aware."
  • "No matter where you're at, joy is available to you."

Links from the show:

Nov 7, 2017

Hey welcome to episode 49 of Lighten Up with Melanie Dale! Today I'm talking with poet and author Amena Brown. You guys I love her. She shares with us her process of writing and performing her spoken word poem about miscarriage, called "Mothers of Invisible Children." And then somehow we segue from hard stuff into light and laughter. We tell stories about our awkward relationships, awkward coworkers, awkward church people, favorite albums we own on vinyl, why she wrote How to Fix a Broken Record, food rules for a happy marriage, and what it's like to really be yourself. Whether you're heading to the office or your office is the laundry room, listen in and lighten up!

 

Episode Sponsor:

Today's sponsor is b.a.r.e. soaps! Use LIGHTEN15 for 15% off. Also, they're giving away a BARE Kindness Box of soaps to one lucky listener. To enter to win, leave a review of the show on iTunes this week.

 

Links from the show:

Check out Amena's book, How To Fix a Broken Record: Thoughts on Vinyl Records, Awkward Relationships, and Learning to Be Myself

Amena on TwitterFacebook, and Instagram

Amena's website

Mothers of Invisible Children

Open mic nights in Atlanta: Urban Grind and Curate

Destiny - The Jacksons

A Seat at the Table - Solange

Oct 31, 2017

Melanie and Kendall Ashley and talk about their favorite Halloween costumes from childhood and adulthood, trick or treating etiquette, their feelings on haunted houses and horror movies, favorite and least favorite candy, and favorite Halloween traditions. Melanie says in the episode, "I just love creepy things. Creepy things are my favorite." So let the Halloweenie fun wash over you like a river of Ghostbustery slime, listen in, and lighten up!

Oct 24, 2017

Melanie Dale turns 40 this week and can't think of a better person to process this milestone with than her bestie Chantel Adams. Chantel is the owner of Forever We, which connect kids with a story with families who care. They cover everything about aging -- weird growths on your skin, perceptions of getting old, midlife crises, favorite things about getting older, lessons they’ve learned, Melanie’s husband's month of gifts, and a fun game of growing older word associations.

Oct 17, 2017

Melanie talks with Shauna Shanks about receiving the unexpected honor of “Ohio’s Exemplary Citizen.” No seriously, that’s a thing, and don’t you wish you could get random awards in the mail from your state? They also talk about her brief obsession with making fancy pop tarts, building a house out of shipping containers, and of course her book, A Fierce Love, about her husband’s infidelity and how her marriage healed from the brink of divorce one step at a time. Whether you’re married or not, divorced or not, her personal story is inspiring and beautiful and you’re gonna love getting to know her a little bit here on the show, so listen in and lighten up.

Oct 10, 2017

Melanie talks with Tricia Goyer, author of more than SEVENTY BOOKS, including her newest, Walk It Out. She shares about getting mistaken for a Parisian prostitute, her daughter trying to be emo to freak her out, adopting kids out of birth order, her heart for teen moms and being a teen mom herself, how she writes so many books, and advice she has for writers!

Oct 3, 2017

Melanie talks with Sharon Hodde Miller, author of Free of Me: Why Life Is Better When It's Not about You. They chat about their love of caffeine, women doing amazing things while pregnant, PhDs, and she shares a totally embarrassing story of falling asleep in class. They also talk about resisting cynicism, unleashing women in leadership, and her new book, so listen in and lighten up!

Sep 26, 2017

Melanie talks with Shawn Smucker, author of the new novel, The Day the Angels Fell. They cover Shawn's Amish roots, his connection to Auntie Anne's pretzels, his harrowing RV experience in Willie Nelson's old touring bus, developing relationships with Syrian refugees, and his incredible new book. Shawn is a fantastic storyteller, from the pages of his book to his conversation on this podcast, so listen in and lighten up!

Sep 19, 2017

Melanie talks with Heather Avis, author of The Lucky Few: Finding God's Best in the Most Unlikely Places. They rank kids' movies from tolerable to "please, God, I can't take it anymore,” and they discuss parenting kids with Down Syndrome. They chat about how Heather’s kids are a light in their community, and she says, "I've understood the heart of God more fully in the places that have been hard for me." 

Sep 13, 2017

Melanie talks with Catherine McNiel, author of Long Days of Small Things: Motherhood as a Spiritual Discipline. They talk about the greatest popcorn in the world, how they find time for spiritual disciplines, finding God in the chaos -- in changing diapers, in washing dishes, in driving to work -- and also how they need to lighten up about other people's advice about their parenting. They also dig into the importance of bringing women's voices into the forefront, and Star Wars bad lip reading, so listen in and lighten up!

Sep 5, 2017

Melanie talks with one of her favorite podcasters, Sarah Bragg, of Surviving Sarah. They unpack Sarah's extreme deer fear, that's right, her fear of deer, like the kind with spindly legs and antlers, and Melanie shares her own irrational fear…it’s too weird to write down. They also process living on a sailboat, what Sarah loves about podcasting, and lightening up about school and homework. 

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