In this final part of my interview with Shannon Watts, activist and author of the brand-new book “Fired Up: How to Turn Your Spark into a Flame and Come Alive at Any Age,” we get a look at what's coming up next for her. I also ask her what she's reading, watching, listening to, drinking in her morning cup, and what she'd have for dinner tonight if she could have anything in the world.

We talked about:

- Her voracious love of podcasts (including a shortlist of her faves)
- Knowing that it's time to shift into a different way of being, but not yet knowing exactly what that looks like
- The reality show she watches until the wee hours whenever her husband is out of town

Thank you for listening!

Visit Shannon at ⁠shannonwatts.substack.com⁠.

For full show notes with links to everything we discuss, plus bonus photos!, visit katehanley.substack.com.

And thanks to this week’s sponsor, Air Doctor Pro. Visit airdoctorpro.com and use code KATE to save 30% off an amazing indoor air filter *and* receive a free three-year warranty (an $84 value).

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the second part of my interview with Shannon Watts, founder of Moms Demand Action, host of the Substack newsletter "Playing with Fire", and author of the brand new book “Fired Up: How to Turn Your Spark into a Flame and Come Alive at Any Age”, we get into the mindset side of writing.

We covered:

- Reckoning with the enormity of needing to produce 60,000+ words for a book
- The "small miracle" or crystallizing a thought in a way you hadn't been able to articulate before
- How getting reiki helps her write
- Shifting out of perfectionism and into flow
- The huge difference in the lived experience between Gen X women and their mothers
- Taking aim at mom guilt
- The woo woo retreat that almost made her run for the door, but turned out to be a much-needed entryway to being playful

Thank you for listening!

Visit Shannon at ⁠shannonwatts.substack.com⁠.

For full show notes with links to everything we discuss, plus bonus photos!, visit katehanley.substack.com.

And thanks to this week’s sponsor, Air Doctor Pro. Visit airdoctorpro.com and use code KATE to save 30% off an amazing indoor air filter *and* receive a free three-year warranty (an $84 value).

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week I am re-playing my interview with advocate, Substacker, and "summoner of women's audacity," Shannon Watts in honor of the fact that her new book “Fired Up: How to Turn Your Spark into a Flame and Come Alive at Any Age” released just last week.

Shannon first entered that national conversation when she founded Moms Demand Action, the grassroots movement for common sense gun reform that began with a Facebook post the day of the Sandy Hook school shooting and has grown to include more than 10 million members.

Shannon writes regularly for her Substack, Playing with Fire, and outlets like The Washington Post, Elle, Time, and more. She has also been named Glamour's Woman of the Year and one of Time's 100 Most Influential People.
Since leaving Moms Demand Action, Shannon has been on a quest to motivate more women to use their voices to advocate for change, whether that’s within their own families, workplaces, communities, states, the country, or the world.

It was an honor to talk with her and we really broke it down, covering:

- Knowing when it's time to transition out of what you've been doing
- ADHD and how its effects have changed as she's gotten older
- Switching gears from being a very public person who had to keep her private life private (to not feed the trolls) to a private person who talks about private things (menopause, ADHD) publicly
- The incredible origin story of Moms Demand Action (or what I call, "the Facebook post heard 'round the world)
- Her standing desk fail

Thank you for listening!

Visit Shannon at ⁠shannonwatts.substack.com⁠.

For full show notes with links to everything we discuss, plus bonus photos!, visit katehanley.substack.com.

And thanks to this week’s sponsor, Air Doctor Pro. Visit airdoctorpro.com and use code KATE to save 30% off an amazing indoor air filter *and* receive a free three-year warranty (an $84 value).

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome back to the Finding the Throughline interview with Denali Sai Nalamalapu, author of the brand new book, “Holler: A Graphic Memoir of Rural Resistance,” which tells the story of six frontline resistors to the Mountain Valley pipeline in Appalachia.

In this final installment of our interview, we cover:
- The graphic novels and streaming shows that are inspiring Denali these days
- Making the shift to writing for young adults
- Listening to your audience–not just talking at them
- Finding hope for huge problems (like climate change)
- The shows and books that are helping Denali learn how to write in a way that engages a younger audience
- The song that helps Denali “get in touch with being a little blip in a very big world”
- The food Denali describes as “a flavorful cloud”

Connect with Denali on Instagram @denalisai or at danali-sai.com.

For full show notes with links to everything we discuss, plus bonus photos!, visit katehanley.substack.com.

Thank you for listening!

And thanks to this week’s sponsor, Air Doctor Pro. Visit airdoctorpro.com and use code KATE to save 30% off an amazing indoor air filter *and* receive a free three-year warranty (an $84 value).

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In part two of my interview with Danali Sai Nalamalapu, author of the brand new book “Holler: A Graphic Memoir of Rural Resistance,” we talk about the squishier side of writing–the thoughts and beliefs that can affect your work, even if you're not fully conscious of them.

We cover:
- How being creative is a means of survival
- The joy of sharing your work after the years spent working in isolation to create it
- The worst, most boring part of creating a graphic novel (for Denali)
- Denali’s trick to countering the voice of the inner critic
- The gifts of having a mother who teaches you to question the status quo
- “Wiggling out” of external definitions and expectations
- Finding ways to do extroverted work (activism, promotion) as an introvert

Connect with Denali on Instagram @denalisai or at danali-sai.com.

For full show notes with links to everything we discuss, plus bonus photos!, visit katehanley.substack.com.

Thank you for listening!

And thanks to this week’s sponsor, Air Doctor Pro. Visit airdoctorpro.com and use code KATE to save 30% off an amazing indoor air filter *and* receive a free three-year warranty (an $84 value).

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week on Finding the Throughline I’m talking with Denali Sai Nalamalapu, a climate organizer, comic artist, and a writer who brought these three strands of their life together in their brand new book, “Holler: A Graphic Memoir of Rural Resistance, which tells the story of six frontline resistors to the Mountain Valley pipeline in Appalachia. Denali is from Southern Maine and Southern India and currently lives in Southwest Virginia.

In this episode, we cover:

- Landing on the genre that combines multiple threads from your life
- Combining climate activism, communication skills, and a love of comics
- Making climate activism relevant to regular folks who are busy living their lives
- Denali's two favorite hiking trails
- Embracing the power of being stubborn
- The morning routine that helps Denali prioritize time for creative work

Connect with Denali on Instagram @denalisai or at danali-sai.com.

For full show notes with links to everything we discuss, plus bonus photos!, visit katehanley.substack.com.

Thank you for listening!

And thanks to this week’s sponsor, Air Doctor Pro. Visit airdoctorpro.com and use code KATE to save 30% off an amazing indoor air filter *and* receive a free three-year warranty (an $84 value).

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this final installment of my interview with debut science fiction novelist Christy Climenhage (her brand new thriller is “The Midnight Project”), we covered:
The very specific sound of spring that’s giving her life right now
Finding a creative role model very close to home
Figuring out how to write for the joy of it AND make money from it
Why her goal is “write more words”
The joy of having her stories take root in other people’s heads
The series of novellas she hid in the bathtub to finish

Connect with Christy on Bluesky @cclim.bsky.social or at christyclimenhage.com.

For full show notes with links to everything we discuss, plus bonus photos!, visit katehanley.substack.com.

Thank you for listening!

And thanks to this week’s sponsor, Air Doctor Pro. Visit airdoctorpro.com and use code KATE to save 30% off an amazing indoor air filter *and* receive a free three-year warranty (an $84 value).

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to part two of my interview with Christy Climenhage, the author of the brand new science fiction thriller The Midnight Project.
“The Midnight Project” is Christy’s first novel, and focused on two friends and scientists who are muddling through a frighteningly real world on the verge of collapse.

In this episode, we talked about:

How writing, although it requires help from others, is something that’s yours and yours alone (unlike, say, a job or a relationship)
Finding the delight in being a beginner
Dealing with impostor syndrome
Learning to take the next step (instead of giving up)
Freeing yourself of the desire for external validation
The benefits of being a debut author when you are older
Debunking the idea that merit is king
Enjoying others’ success
Why she doesn’t have a Costco membership

Connect with Christy on Bluesky @cclim.bsky.social or at christyclimenhage.com.

For full show notes with links to everything we discuss, plus bonus photos!, visit katehanley.substack.com.

Thank you for listening!

And thanks to this week’s sponsor, Air Doctor Pro. Visit airdoctorpro.com and use code KATE to save 30% off an amazing indoor air filter *and* receive a free three-year warranty (an $84 value).

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

My guest this week is Christy Climenhage, the author of the brand new science fiction thriller “The Midnight Project,” a tale of equal parts hope and horror set in the near future where humanity and the climate are on the verge of collapse, focused on two scientists and friends who are charged with designing a new kind of human.
“The Midnight Project” is Christy’s first novel, and it was amazing to talk with Christy at this moment when she’s first becoming a published novelist.

We covered:

Combining interests (in Christie’s case, being a news junkie and science fiction fan)
What Cli-Fi is and why it’s not necessarily scary
The question she asked herself that got her to finally write the novel she’d been thinking about for 10 years
The schedule she created that kept her on track
The rewards of a consistent schedule (even if it’s not everyday)
Sending 20 queries and getting 20 rejections
The joy of finding your writing community
Connect with Christy on Bluesky @cclim.bsky.social or at christyclimenhage.com.

For full show notes with links to everything we discuss, plus bonus photos!, visit katehanley.substack.com.

Thank you for listening!

And thanks to this week’s sponsor, Air Doctor Pro. Visit airdoctorpro.com and use code KATE to save 30% off an amazing indoor air filter *and* receive a free three-year warranty (an $84 value).

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome back to part three of the Finding the Throughline interview with Amy Shearn, the award-winning author of five critically-acclaimed novels, including her latest book which just came out, “Animal Instinct.” Amy has also published hundreds of essays in publications like Real Simple, “O: The Oprah Magazine”, and the “New York Times” Modern Love column and has nearly twenty years of experience editing for digital publications. Amy also teaches creative writing and works one on one with writers as an editor and/or book coach.

In today’s episode, we cover:
- How she refills her creative well after publishing and promoting a book
- Why she’s on a kick of reading writers’ and artists’ published journals
- A sneak peek at the novel project she’s diving into next
- The three things on her to-do list for later in the afternoon that perfectly encapsulate her answer to my question “Is there anything you sense that you need to shift?”
- A lovely vision of a rustic writing retreat/cat farm
- The series that really had a hold on her
- The recent album she’s listened to so much she’s forgotten about all other music

Connect with Amy on Instagram @amyshearnwriters, Substack @amyshearn, or at amyshearnwriters.com.

For full show notes with links to everything we discuss, plus bonus photos!, visit katehanley.substack.com.

Thank you for listening!

And thanks to this week’s sponsor, Air Doctor Pro. Visit airdoctorpro.com and use code KATE to save 30% off an amazing indoor air filter *and* receive a free three-year warranty (an $84 value).

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices