Firestarters with Shannon Watts

Check out my Substack Live conversation with Joy Sullivan. Joy is a poet, teacher, and author of the national bestseller, Instructions for Traveling West. She’s led international writing retreats, served as the poet-in-residence for the Wexner Center for the Arts, and is the founder of writing community, Sustenance.

Joy and I discuss finding the spark that made each of us come alive, why women should embrace emotions like rage and desire, and what community means to us. Be sure you’re following Joy’s Substack, Necessary Salt by Joy Sullivan, so that you can keep up with everything she’s doing.

My new book Fired Up: How to Turn Your Spark Into a Flame and Come Alive at Any Age, is available for preorder! Out in June 2025, Fired Up will give you the formula for finding your unique spark and show you how to use it to start fires in your life. By preordering, you can enroll for FREE in Firestarter University, a year-long online program that includes live monthly workshops, workbooks and resources, accountability check-ins, and a community to help you succeed.

Check out my Substack Live conversation with Olivia Julianna, an abortion rights activist, democracy organizer, and political influencer who lives in Texas. Her massive following across social media platforms is changing the political landscape and ensuring that Gen Z voices are front and center.

Olivia and I discuss how she got involved in activism, what it’s like to fight back against the trolls (including the one who showed up in our Live comment section!), and what she envisions for the future of red states. Be sure you’re following Olivia’s Substack, A New Perspective, so that you can keep up with everything she’s doing.

My new book Fired Up: How to Turn Your Spark Into a Flame and Come Alive at Any Age, is available for preorder! Out in June 2025, Fired Up will give you the formula for finding your unique spark and show you how to use it to start fires in your life. By preordering, you can enroll for FREE in Firestarter University, a year-long online program that includes live monthly workshops, workbooks and resources, accountability check-ins, and a community to help you succeed.

"You don't know when you're pollinating the world with your attempts how they'll come back to you. It might be completely nonlinear. You knock on the same door 20 times and then it's actually a door to the left, down the hall, across the country that opens for you."

As a two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist, a Tony Award nominee, and the recipient of the MacArthur Genius Fellowship, playwright Sarah Ruhl is no stranger to accolades. After writing about the passage of time during the pandemic, her experience developing Bell's palsy after pregnancy, and her friendship through letters with a poet in remission from cancer, Sarah is sharing the lessons she taught her students at Yale in her new book, Lessons from My Teachers: From Preschool to the Present. This intimate essay collection is a testament to the bond that develops between teacher and student and how we learn from one another.

In this conversation, Sarah and I discuss her feminist father who encouraged her to follow her desires, what she learned from an important teacher about handling rejection, and why we should all send a note of gratitude *right now* to the important teachers in our life—before it's too late to matter.

Sarah is a canny observer of the human condition, a prolific and gifted writer, and a truth teller whose stories unlock truths about the human condition. To read more inspiring stories from Firestarters like Sarah, preorder my book “Fired Up: How to Turn Your Spark Into a Flame and Come Alive at Any Age” at firedupbook.com.

My new book Fired Up: How to Turn Your Spark Into a Flame and Come Alive at Any Age, is available for preorder! Out in June 2025, Fired Up will give you the formula for finding your unique spark and show you how to use it to start fires in your life. By preordering, you can enroll for FREE in Firestarter University, a year-long online program that includes live monthly workshops, workbooks and resources, accountability check-ins, and a community to help you succeed.

Check out my Substack Live conversation with Jess Piper, a mother and grandmother who lives on a small farm on the Missouri/Iowa border, about why it’s so important that the Democratic Party start focusing on organizing voters in the rural areas of red states—not just before an election, but all year long: “It's just mind blowing because we can win. We don't have to flip a district. We don't have to flip a seat. We have to turn out enough voters to make a difference at the top of the ticket. Every voter is worth it. And that's what I want Democrats to understand. We're all worth it.”

Jess, a former teacher who became active in politics after Donald Trump was elected in 2016, is the Executive Director for Blue Missouri and hosts a weekly podcast called “Dirt Road Democrat,” which can be found wherever you listen to podcasts. Be sure you’re subscribed to Jess’ Substack The View from Rural Missouri by Jess Piper, and listen in to my other Substack Live conversations by clicking here.

For women ready to stop living on autopilot and playing it small, Fired Up will show you how to shatter your self imposed limitations and unleash your potential so you can finally start living the life you’ve always wanted. Click to order.

"Bravery is a muscle and by overcoming fear, by being courageous, we build that muscle so that the next time around we can access that bravery muscle even quicker and with even more temerity and strength."

Since 2019, Jocelyn Benson, a former law professor, has served as Michigan's Secretary of State, and she’s been a tireless advocate for voting rights, election integrity, and government transparency. Jocelyn is now also an author, and her new book, The Purposeful Warrior: Standing Up for What’s Right When the Stakes Are High, shines a light on how her parents’ careers in education shaped her worldview of fighting for the underdog, what the 2000 election outcome had to do with her transition from a career in law to public service, and why she's now running to be Michigan's governor. Jocelyn has a deep commitment to public service, a desire to empower Americans to advocate for democracy, and a relentless drive to champion fairness and equality for all, even in the face of threats from extremists who have attempted to silence and intimidate her for speaking out.

To read more inspiring stories from Firestarters like Jocelyn, preorder my book “Fired Up: How to Turn Your Spark Into a Flame and Come Alive at Any Age” at firedupbook.com.

My new book Fired Up: How to Turn Your Spark Into a Flame and Come Alive at Any Age, is available for preorder! Out in June 2025, Fired Up will give you the formula for finding your unique spark and show you how to use it to start fires in your life. By preordering, you can enroll for FREE in Firestarter University, a year-long online program that includes live monthly workshops, workbooks and resources, accountability check-ins, and a community to help you succeed.

Check out my Substack Live conversation with Liz Minnella on how things are going post-election, her new initiative Connect Forward, and her new podcast Demfluenced. You can connect with Liz on Instagram for more information on her projects.

And don’t forget to check out my other Substack Live conversations by clicking here.

My new book Fired Up: How to Turn Your Spark Into a Flame and Come Alive at Any Age, is available for preorder! Out in June 2025, Fired Up will give you the formula for finding your unique spark and show you how to use it to start fires in your life. By preordering, you can enroll for FREE in Firestarter University, a year-long online program that includes live monthly workshops, workbooks and resources, accountability check-ins, and a community to help you succeed.

Check out my conversation with Mallory McMorrow about how she ended up running for office and winning, why she wrote her new book, “Hate Won’t Win: Find Your Power and Leave This Place Better Than You Found It,” and what’s next for her as she runs for a seat in the US Senate.

My new book Fired Up: How to Turn Your Spark Into a Flame and Come Alive at Any Age, is available for preorder! Out in June 2025, Fired Up will give you the formula for finding your unique spark and show you how to use it to start fires in your life. By preordering, you can enroll for FREE in Firestarter University, a year-long online program that includes live monthly workshops, workbooks and resources, accountability check-ins, and a community to help you succeed.

"If we can inherit the trauma from our ancestors, then that means we can also inherit their wisdom, their goodness, their fortitude, their strength."

Daria Burke would have had a very different life if she’d chosen to accept what seemed like her fate, but she knew innately that the addiction her parents struggled with and the neglect she endured didn’t have to shape her future, too. In Daria's new book, Of My Own Making, she writes about the incredible path she carved for herself, from a life of poverty to a career in the C-suite.

Daria and I discuss how she overcame her difficult childhood, the importance of therapy when working through trauma, and how she eventually learned to prioritize personal alignment over career ambition. Daria is a no-nonsense narrator, a wise teacher, and a beloved coach who shows us the stories we’ve told ourselves don’t actually have to define our lives. Daria is a firestarter.

To read more inspiring stories from Firestarters like Daria, preorder my book “Fired Up: How to Turn Your Spark Into a Flame and Come Alive at Any Age” at firedupbook.com.

My new book Fired Up: How to Turn Your Spark Into a Flame and Come Alive at Any Age, is available for preorder! Out in June 2025, Fired Up will give you the formula for finding your unique spark and show you how to use it to start fires in your life. By preordering, you can enroll for FREE in Firestarter University, a year-long online program that includes live monthly workshops, workbooks and resources, accountability check-ins, and a community to help you succeed.

"No matter what we navigate, adversities or joys alike, there are elements of who we are that are innate. I don't think they change just because circumstances change. I actually don't think we change at all. We just evolve."

Mallory Weggemann was just 18 years old when a series of routine epidural injections for back pain left her with no movement from the waist down. Now, 17 years later, Mallory is a gold medal paralympian; an author, filmmaker and motivational speaker; and a fierce advocate for the disability community.

In 2021, Mallory released her memoir LIMITLESS to share her journey and to empower others to overcome life's obstacles. And last year, Mallory and her husband released Watershed, a powerful documentary about her life story, including the couple's struggles with infertility. On top of that, Mallory brought home gold and silver medals from the Paralympic Games in Paris, making her a seven time medalist.During this conversation, Mallory and I discuss how she fell in love with the sport of swimming, what helped her navigate the trauma of becoming paralyzed, and the kinds of conversations she hopes to spark about disability in the world. Mallory’s drive and determination to achieve the seemingly impossible, her advocacy on behalf of others, and her refusal to give up even when things seem insurmountable make Mallory Weggemann a Firestarter.

To read more inspiring stories from Firestarters like Mallory, preorder my book “Fired Up: How to Turn Your Spark Into a Flame and Come Alive at Any Age” at firedupbook.com.

My new book Fired Up: How to Turn Your Spark Into a Flame and Come Alive at Any Age, is available for preorder! Out in June 2025, Fired Up will give you the formula for finding your unique spark and show you how to use it to start fires in your life. By preordering, you can enroll for FREE in Firestarter University, a year-long online program that includes live monthly workshops, workbooks and resources, accountability check-ins, and a community to help you succeed.

Check out my Substack Live conversation with Zerlina on how she knew it was time to make a big change in her life, the signs that lead her there (and continue to show up), and what’s next in her adventure (spoiler alert: she wants to stay in Italy forever).

I interviewed Zerlina for my upcoming book, Fired Up: How to Turn Your Spark Into a Flame and Come Alive at Any Age. Pre-order now to read more about Zerlina’s journey and dozens of other women who have followed my formula for embracing their desires instead of fulfilling their obligations.

After watching the replay, follow Zerlina on Substack at The Inner Work Dispatch.

My new book Fired Up: How to Turn Your Spark Into a Flame and Come Alive at Any Age, is available for preorder! Out in June 2025, Fired Up will give you the formula for finding your unique spark and show you how to use it to start fires in your life. By preordering, you can enroll for FREE in Firestarter University, a year-long online program that includes live monthly workshops, workbooks and resources, accountability check-ins, and a community to help you succeed.