Today I'm joined by longtime friend, fellow UVA alum, and writer Maggie Light, whose debut novel Polar Opposites is a smart, warm, and unexpectedly deep young-adult rom-com set against the realities of modern adolescence and climate anxiety.A 2001 graduate of the University of Virginia and now an Assistant Professor at Otis College of Art and Design in Los Angeles, Maggie’s path has been anything but linear — from early success in eDiscovery sales, to an American Idol audition, to acting in LA, to sobriety, graduate school, teaching, and finally, publishing her first novel.In this wide-ranging and deeply personal conversation, Maggie and I discuss:• Her journey from sales to storytelling• The leap from Washington, DC to Los Angeles• American Idol, acting dreams, and creative reinvention• Sobriety and how honesty reshaped her life and work• Writing Polar Opposites — a YA rom-com with climate at its core• Why Gen Z's may be wiser than we give them credit for• Teaching writing, following genre rules (and breaking them)• Self-publishing, rejection, and redefining success• Selling your own work — and why it’s harder than selling anything else• Whether Polar Opposites could become a movie 👀What emerges is a candid, thoughtful meditation on creativity, failure, ambition, climate storytelling, and what it means to build a life that actually fits.