Along The Seam

Meet Chelsea Conaboy. Chelsea is a writer, editor and journalist who is the author of Mother Brain: How Neuroscience is Rewriting the Story of Parenthood. Her writing has been published by The New York Times, Mother Jones, Politico, the Boston Sunday Globe magazine, National Journal, The Week, ParentMap, and WBUR. And in 2014, she was part of The Boston Globe staff, that won the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for breaking news, for coverage of the Boston Marathon bombings. She now lives in Maine and runs a media production company with her husband called Strewn Wonder. Learn more about her work at: www.chelseaconaboy.com. 

In this conversation Rachael and Chelsea focus on her book and take a deep-dive into parenthood. They talk about the myths of maternal instinct and about centuries-old stories around parenting that science debunks. Chelsea teaches us about the permanent changes that happen in the brain when one becomes a parent. And they also talk about how having a child can simultaneously open up your world while asking you to focus more energy at home.

Chelsea & Rachael recorded this conversation on February 12, 2026. They were both in Maine.

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Meet Dion Flynn. Dion is a NYC-based writer, performer and producer on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, as well as an educator and army veteran. He's known for his many characterizations and songs on the show and even played Barack Obama for over a decade. In this conversation, Dion joins Rachael to talk about his family life including his one-man show titled, The Only Brown Kid in the Trailer Park. Together, they dig into the importance of laughter, play, and meditation in the service of healing and personal growth. Learn more about his work at: www.dionflynn.com.

Dion & Rachael recorded this conversation on May 27, 2024. He was in New York City and she was in Portland, Maine. You can read the transcript of our conversation here.

Dion in The Along The Seam Newsletter

• Peering Back: A Blueprint for Healing

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This conversation is with educator Shaunta Scroggins who has spent more than 20 years mentoring teens and adults along their leadership journeys. Her doctoral research was completed at Dallas Baptist University in her home state of Texas and focused on the study of toxic leadership, transformational leadership, and effective mentoring. We talk about all of that through the lens of faith and the ideas passed from one generation to the next. Shaunta is now a lecturer and Assistant Director of the Lead Forward Fellowship at Purdue University. She also hosts the podcast, Leaders Lead, Leaders Read. You can read the transcript of our conversation here.

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This conversation with Marina Cantacuzino takes on the topic of forgiveness.

Marina is an author, broadcaster and an award-winning journalist who has been widely published in British media. In 2003, in response to the invasion of Iraq, she embarked on a personal storytelling project collecting stories of people who had lived through trauma and injustice, and yet sought forgiveness rather than revenge. As a result, Marina founded The Forgiveness Project. She has published multiple books about Forgiveness, a podcast called ‘The F Word’ and she speaks widely on the topic.

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This conversation with Freddy Mutanguha is about peace education and what it takes for neighbors to heal from generations of violence, discrimination and weaponized rhetoric. 

Freddy is CEO of the Aegis Trust and Director of the Kigali Genocide Memorial. Freddy led the development of Aegis’ peace education programme in Rwanda and is now leading Aegis’ work to take this model beyond the borders of Rwanda to areas at risk, including the Central African Republic, South Sudan and Kenya. He is also a survivor of the Genocide Against the Tutsis. He was a teenager in 1994 when his parents and most of his siblings were killed. He has dedicated his life to teaching about the impact of the Genocide and the importance of forgiveness as way of post-conflict reconstruction.

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Barak Sella is an educator, activist, writer, researcher, and one of the leading Israeli experts on US-Israel relations and World Jewry. Born in Texas, Barak moved to Israel in 1994, exactly one year before the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin, the Israeli Prime Minister who was most dedicated to making peace with the Palestinians. This event deeply affected him and became an inseparable part of his socialization in Israeli society. Ten years later, as a soldier in the Israeli Defense Forces, Barak was part of the disengagement from Gaza and in the unit that evacuated the very last Jewish settlers from the region. We talk about all of this in this episode and how those formative events have impacted the way Barak understands his family's past, the world presently, and his hopes for the future. 

Throughout his career, Barak has focused on building bridges within communities in Israel and worldwide. He was formerly the Executive Director of the Reut Institute, one of Israel's foremost think tanks on strategy and leadership. During his years at the institute, Barak worked with leading actors in the Israeli government and with NGOs from Israel and the US on various issues: Israel delegitimization, antisemitism, Jewish Peoplehood, and Israel-US relations. Barak recently graduated from the Harvard Kennedy School for Government and is currently a Middle East Initiative fellow at the Harvard Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. You can read the transcript of our conversation here.


Barak in The Along The Seam newsletter:
• A Reflection for Yesterday

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Rev. Dr. Derrick McQueen is a pastor, theologian, singer, and a truly gifted storyteller whose life is full of intercultural and interfaith dialogue and relationship. His work is very much rooted in the belief that preaching is persuasive speech and that the way we communicate our stories is just as important, if not more, than what the story is about. He his phD in homiletics which is the art of preaching as well as in the New Testament. 

In this conversation, Derrick shines light on the need for community, the power of ritual and tradition, and the importance of dreaming - not dreaming while you're asleep dreaming - but daydreaming,  the hopes and desires we all have for what the world could be.
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Derrick in The Along The Seam Newsletter

• The Stories We Tell To Ourselves: Writing Prompts from Along The Seam

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Kenny Andejeski runs why[here]matters, a social enterprise that supports clients in building community to foster social cohesion, belonging and civic health towards the practice of everyday democracy at a national, regional and local scale. He was born and raised in the Midwest, but now resides in Chattanooga, Tennessee, where most of his place-based work is focused on ecosystem & capacity building throughout the Southeast and Appalachia.

In this conversation recorded on November 13, 2023 in Portland, Maine, Kenny shares the challenges he has faced in not knowing much about where his family comes from, and how the stories we tell ourselves about ourselves can make it hard to grow and progress. This short conversation is deeply rooted in the power of having a connection to a place. You can read the transcript of our conversation here.


Kenny in The Along The Seam Newsletter

• The Stories We Tell To Ourselves: Writing Prompts from Along The Seam

• Bridging The Divide (Trying)

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Micaela Blei, PHD has been teaching, studying and performing true, personal storytelling worldwide since 2012. She is a two-time Moth GrandSLAM winner and former founding Director of Education at The Moth. Her storytelling (watch a story here) has been called “heartbreaking and hilarious” and her memoir, “You Will Not Recognize Your Life,” will be released in late 2024 as an Audible Original. Micaela is a senior story editor and writer for the podcast network Wondery. And, currently she’s the visiting professor of Storytelling at the Salt Institute for Documentary Studies in Portland, Maine.

In this conversation, Micaela shares how she accidentally found herself on stage at The Moth and how that chance happening redirected her life. She talks about mining our own lives for stories, why we don't need to make our personal experiences universal and how the small moments in life lead to the deepest connections. She also reflects on writing a podcast episode about her grandmother for Family Ghosts. 

Micaela in The Along The Seam Newsletter

• A Postcard From Back Then

• The Stories We Tell To Ourselves: Writing Prompts from Along The Seam

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Lois Lowry is a beloved American author. She has written more than 50 books throughout her career and has twice been awarded the Newbery Medals for “the most distinguished contributions to American literature for children."  She won for her books Number the Stars in 1990 and The Giver in 1994. Lois’ books vary in content and style yet deal with many of the same general themes including the importance of human connections. They tell stories about the effects of loss on a family and the role that we humans play in the lives of our fellow beings.

This unedited conversation was recorded on March 4, 2022 in Lois' home in Falmouth, Maine. Lois shares stories about her life as the daughter of a career military officer in the midst of World War II, the experience of losing her son at a young age, and the profound impact her stories have had on people from around the world. Grief as a place of deep connection, including in the classroom, is present in this episode.

An edited version of this conversation was originally published as the first episode of the first season, but is being shared now in its unedited form to kick off the second season of this podcast. To read how this conversation has grown in relevance for Rachael over the two years since it was recorded, you can find an essay published on the Along The Seam newsletter.


Lois in The Along The Seam Newsletter:

• I Thought There Was Only Us, I Thought There Was Only Now

• Tree. Table. Book.

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• Find all the episodes at: www.alongtheseam.com