The new year is around the corner, and excitement is building to turn the page, kick 2025 to the curb, and dive into the promises and potential of 2026. But first! Let's reflect on the past year. In this final episode of season one of Feed the Art, Catherine LaSota offers some prompts for processing your 2025 so that you can move forward with the most aligned energy in 2026. She also offers some reflections on her own year, and the first year of Feed the Art, too...

Join a live, online writing party with Catherine at 8pm ET on December 18, 2025! Here are the details:

My So-Called Literary Life
Thursday, December 18, 2025
8pm-9:30pm ET on Zoom
Together we will watch clips from the television show My So-Called Life and then Catherine will offer themed writing prompts for your journal. Have fun, feel your feelings, and maybe have some creative breakthroughs, too!

It’s FREE!
Sign up here to get on the list and receive the Zoom link to join:

catherinelasota.myflodesk.com/socalledangels

Thanks for listening to Feed the Art!
Learn more about Catherine LaSota's offerings as a creativity coach and workshop facilitator at catherinelasota.com.
Looking for more ways to feed your art? Join Catherine's occasional newsletter, full of stories, prompts, inspirations, and resources, here.

Thank you to our podcast editor Jade Iseri-Ramos, and thank you to Pat Irwin for our theme music.

This penultimate episode of season one of Feed the Art features a very special guest: Amelia Hruby. Amelia hosts one of Catherine LaSota's favorite podcasts, Off the Grid, and she recently published the book (and powerful manifesto) Your Attention is Sacred Except on Social Media. In this episode, Catherine and Amelia dive into our relationship to and definitions of attention, the importance of collaboration in Amelia's creative practice, and the necessity of a pleasure practice in every artist's life. You don't want to miss this one!

About our guest:

Amelia Hruby is a feminist writer, podcaster and producer with a PhD in philosophy from DePaul University. Over the past decade, she’s been a university professor, a community organizer, and a radio DJ. Now, she is the founder and executive producer of Softer Sounds, a podcast studio that supports women and nonbinary small business owners.

Since leaving social media in April 2021, she’s also launched the popular podcast Off the Grid, where she interviews artists, writers, business leaders and former influencers. Amelia is a platform critic, an AI skeptic, and an advocate for a non-extractive internet. Her new book, Your Attention is Sacred Except on Social Media is out now.

More about Amelia:
Amelia's website: ameliahruby.com
Off the Grid website: offthegrid.fun (includes links to Amelia's podcast, book, and more!)
photo of Amelia by Linsey Huffaker

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Ways to work with Catherine before the end of 2025:

• On December 12, 2025 from 12-3pm ET, Catherine will be offering her final workshop of 2025: BE YOUR OWN DADDY. This online workshop will include powerful prompts to connect you with the roots of your creative practice, exercises to develop your own artist manifesto, and a commitment to the next action steps to build the creative life you desire! Registration includes a recording of the workshop. Learn more and sign up here: https://catherinelasota.myflodesk.com/byodintensive
• Discounted single-card tarot pulls until December 31, 2025. Steps: purchase a tarot reading in support of your creative practice for $15; receive an email prompt from Catherine to send your question for the tarot deck; within 72 hours of sending your question, receive an image of your tarot card, interpretation, and personalized journal prompts.

Thanks for listening to Feed the Art!
Learn more about Catherine LaSota's offerings as a creativity coach and workshop facilitator at catherinelasota.com.
Looking for more ways to feed your art? Join Catherine's occasional newsletter, full of stories, prompts, inspirations, and resources, here.

Thank you to our podcast editor Jade Iseri-Ramos, and thank you to Pat Irwin for our theme music.

If you want to hear what goes through Catherine's head shortly after she has an acupuncture session, then this is the episode for you! In all seriousness, Catherine has been thinking about what it means for you to approach your entire life as part of your creative practice for a long time (but the assistance of the acupuncture needles certainly helped the words flow!). Tune in for some thoughts about: practice vs projects; showing up as an artist at work; and the elimination of shame that is a byproduct of approaching every part of your life in relationship to your creative practice. Catherine also talks about how approaching our creativity in an expansive and flexible way provides resiliency for us as artists.

Online workshop with Catherine on December 12, 2025!:

Learn more and sign up for Be Your Own Daddy here. This three hour, live, online workshop will support you in connecting with your creative vision, developing your own artist manifesto, and committing to the next steps you can take to build the creative life that you desire. Registration includes a recording of the workshop.

Be Your Own Daddy: https://catherinelasota.myflodesk.com/byodintensive

Thanks for listening to Feed the Art!
Learn more about Catherine LaSota's offerings as a creativity coach and workshop facilitator at catherinelasota.com.
Looking for more ways to feed your art? Join Catherine's occasional newsletter, full of stories, prompts, inspirations, and resources, here.

Thank you to our podcast editor Jade Iseri-Ramos, and thank you to Pat Irwin for our theme music.

How can we listen to what our creative selves need, and what are the benefits of staying in the present moment (rather than waiting for a "perfect" future in which we might finally achieve ideal conditions and become the artist we want to be)? Artist, author, and small business owner Sarah Faith Gottesdiener joins host Catherine LaSota to talk about her approach to creative practice, and the roles that capacity, intuition, and reflection play in the creative process. The work that Sarah has done over the years -- including The Moon Book: Lunar Magic to Change Your Life, the Moonbeaming podcast, and her workshops via The Moon Studio -- have been important teachers in Catherine's own practice. This conversation is full of wisdom and inspiration!

About our guest:
Sarah Faith Gottesdiener is an artist, author, and small business owner who has guided over 4,500 people toward more aligned living through creativity, mindfulness, and metaphysics. Her teachings blend depth psychology, energetics, somatics, and feminist theory into practical, transformative education. With certifications in hypnosis, somatic coaching, and a Master’s from CalArts, she brings over 20,000 hours of experience as a psychic and intuitive to her global practice.

More about Sarah:
Shop website: moon-studio.co
Podcast: Moonbeaming

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Ways to work with Catherine before the end of 2025:

• Half-priced 60-minute creativity coaching sessions through the end of 2025: Take 50% off a single coaching session with Catherine by entering the discount code MAGICART when you book your session here. 
• Catherine is offering a three-hour intensive of her Be Your Own Daddy program on December 12, 2025! Want the details? Sign up here to learn more.
• Discounted single-card tarot pulls until December 31, 2025. Steps: purchase a tarot reading in support of your creative practice for $15; receive an email prompt from Catherine to send your question for the tarot deck; within 72 hours of sending your question, receive an image of your tarot card, interpretation, and personalized journal prompts.

Thanks for listening to Feed the Art!
Learn more about Catherine LaSota's offerings as a creativity coach and workshop facilitator at catherinelasota.com.
Looking for more ways to feed your art? Join Catherine's occasional newsletter, full of stories, prompts, inspirations, and resources, here.

Thank you to our podcast editor Jade Iseri-Ramos, and thank you to Pat Irwin for our theme music.

The multifaceted artist Tanaïs joins Catherine LaSota for a conversation about their winding journey through writing, perfume making, and running a company for more than a decade and counting. They discuss the depth of their practice and the importance of connecting to one's body, the role of cycles and rituals in their work, and their belief in collective knowledge and honoring one's predecessors. Tune in for a nourishing conversation with a wonderful writer who makes the only perfumes and lipsticks that Catherine wears!

About our guest:
TANAÏS is a New York City based author and perfumer. Their book IN SENSORIUM: NOTES FOR MY PEOPLE, won the 2022 Kirkus Prize for Nonfiction. This genre-defying book offers a necessary, alternative feminist perspective of South Asian history, colonization, caste, and nation-state formation, through the fascinating lens of scent history and sensuality.

They are the author of the critically-acclaimed novel BRIGHT LINES, finalist for The Center for Fiction First Novel Prize, The Edmund White Debut Fiction Award, and The Brooklyn Public Library Prize.

Their forthcoming feminist futurist novel, STELLAR SMOKE, will be published by Dutton Books in 2026.

Their latest perfume is called I WANT YOU, a Bengali oud, now available at studiotanais.com.

PHOTO CREDIT: HASSAN SAYED

More about Tanaïs:
website: studiotanais.com
newsletter: tanais.substack.com
Instagram: @studiotanais

Thanks for listening to Feed the Art!
Learn more about Catherine LaSota's offerings as a creativity coach and workshop facilitator at catherinelasota.com.
Looking for more ways to feed your art? Join Catherine's occasional newsletter, full of stories, prompts, inspirations, and resources, here.

Thank you to our podcast editor Jade Iseri-Ramos, and thank you to Pat Irwin for our theme music.

What kinds of supports and rules around your practice do you need in order to be your most creative self? When do containers and restraints for your practice help you to take the next step with confidence, and when do they stop you in your tracks? In this solo episode, Catherine LaSota compares your creative project to a construction site and shares some thoughts on how to set up the best scaffolding to get that project built.

Thanks for listening to Feed the Art!
Learn more about Catherine LaSota's offerings as a creativity coach and workshop facilitator at catherinelasota.com.
Looking for more ways to feed your art? Join Catherine's occasional newsletter, full of stories, prompts, inspirations, and resources, here.

Thank you to our podcast editor Jade Iseri-Ramos, and thank you to Pat Irwin for our theme music.

Ok, so the guest on today's episode actually says, "Give yourself an f-ing medal," but we kept the title of the episode slightly more PG-rated! Jennifer Pastiloff joins host Catherine LaSota to talk about her new book Proof of Life, as well as her philosophies for living and creating, such as The School of Whatever Works, and ways to talk down your Inner Asshole. This is a conversation to listen to if you could use some reassurance that just being is more important than always doing. You'll catch some handy reminders to drop into your body and to remember that you don't need to prove your worthiness with external accolades or shiny awards in your bio.

About our guest:
Jennifer Pastiloff is the author of the national bestseller Proof of Life: Let Go, Let Love, and Stop Looking for Permission to Live Your Life (Dutton, 2025). She trots the globe as a public speaker and to host her retreats to Italy, as well as her one-of-a-kind workshops, which she has taught to thousands of people all over the world. The author of the popular Substack, also called Proof of Life, she teaches writing and creativity classes called Allow, and workshops called Shame Loss, when she isn’t painting and selling her art. She has been featured on Good Morning America, and Katie Couric, and in New York magazine, People, Shape, Health magazine, and other media outlets for her authenticity and unique voice. She is deaf, reads lips, and mishears almost everything, but what she hears is usually funnier (at least she thinks so). Also the author of the national bestseller On Being Human, Pastiloff lives in Southern California with her son, Charlie Mel.

More about Jennifer:
Substack: proofoflifewithjen.substack.com
Instagram: @jenpastiloff
Facebook: @JenniferPastiloff

Catherine's October 2025 group program:

Sign up for Be Your Own Daddy, Catherine's Fall 2025 group program -- includes four live workshops on Zoom, three co-working sessions, and a 1-on-1 creativity coaching session with Catherine!: Be Your Own Daddy
SPECIAL SECRET $70 off discount code for podcast listeners: DADDYPODCAST

https://catherinelasota.myflodesk.com/beyourowndaddy

Thanks for listening to Feed the Art!
Learn more about Catherine LaSota's offerings as a creativity coach and workshop facilitator at catherinelasota.com.
Looking for more ways to feed your art? Join Catherine's occasional newsletter, full of stories, prompts, inspirations, and resources, here.

Thank you to our podcast editor Jade Iseri-Ramos, and thank you to Pat Irwin for our theme music.

This is an episode about becoming the authority in your own creative practice. There are so many stories out there about what it "should" mean to be a creative person. Stop chasing the paths and habits of other writers and artists, and build your own creative practice -- a practice that is built from your values, capacities, and interests...a practice that you can love and stay committed to, and that will support your best and most aligned creative projects!

As always, Catherine offers some reflection prompts for your journal so you can continue to integrate the information and ideas in this episode.

If you'd like to dive in deeper, Catherine would love to see you in her Fall 2025 group program, all about becoming the boss of your own creative practice:

BE YOUR OWN DADDY -- group program Oct 7-28, 2025
Learn more and sign up HERE.
Includes: four live workshops, three integration sessions, AND a 1-on-1 creativity coaching session with Catherine
Special $70 off discount for podcast listeners, just enter code DADDYPODCAST at checkout!

BE YOUR OWN DADDY: https://catherinelasota.myflodesk.com/beyourowndaddy

Thanks for listening to Feed the Art!
Learn more about Catherine LaSota's offerings as a creativity coach and workshop facilitator at catherinelasota.com.
Looking for more ways to feed your art? Join Catherine's occasional newsletter, full of stories, prompts, inspirations, and resources, here.

Thank you to our podcast editor Jade Iseri-Ramos, and thank you to Pat Irwin for our theme music.

The wonderful, multi-faceted Cody Cook-Parrott joins Catherine LaSota in conversation for this episode of Feed the Art. Cody shares some of the magic of their Landscapes writing group (which you can join!), as well as what it it is like to be a "person of the internet" and a person who holds space for creativity and community. Catherine and Cody get into what it means to trust yourself in your creative practice, the importance of friendships and a support team, and the fact that you absolutely do not have to have monetize everything in your life that you invest time and money into.

About our guest:
Cody Cook-Parrott is an artist, writer, and movement practitioner living on the Leelanau Peninsula in Northern Michigan. They write the weekly newsletter Monday Monday and host the writing group Landscapes. They are the author of six books, including The Practice of Attention out March 2026 with Sounds True.

More about Cody:
website: codycookparrott.com
Public Access Pilates: publicaccesspilates.com
Follow along here: are.na/cody-cook-parrott/channels
Landscapes writing group: codycookparrott.com/landscapes
Landscapes FREE WEEK Sep 8-14, 2025: codycookparrott.notion.site/freelandscapes

Sign up for Be Your Own Daddy, Catherine's Fall 2025 group program: Be Your Own Daddy
SPECIAL SECRET $70 off discount code for podcast listeners: DADDYPODCAST

Sign up for Catherine's free, online writing workshop on September 15, 2025: Waning Moon writing workshop

Thanks for listening to Feed the Art!
Learn more about Catherine LaSota's offerings as a creativity coach and workshop facilitator at catherinelasota.com.
Looking for more ways to feed your art? Join Catherine's occasional newsletter, full of stories, prompts, inspirations, and resources, here.

Thank you to our podcast editor Jade Iseri-Ramos, and thank you to Pat Irwin for our theme music.

Do you feel like all of your time is slipping by, and you can't figure out why you haven't gotten around to finishing that creative project yet? We often forget to acknowledge all of the many things that we are doing in our lives, day after day. In this solo episode, Catherine encourages you to zoom out and take stock of your commitments, as well as honor the things that you do and may discredit as just being "easy." This episode ends with some reflection prompts that you can bring to your journal, to help you remember to give yourself some credit, already!

Thanks for listening to Feed the Art!
Learn more about Catherine LaSota's offerings as a creativity coach and workshop facilitator at catherinelasota.com.
Looking for more ways to feed your art? Join Catherine's occasional newsletter, full of stories, prompts, inspirations, and resources, here.

Thank you to our podcast editor Jade Iseri-Ramos, and thank you to Pat Irwin for our theme music.