Honestly, Dear Listener

TW: This episode contains talk about mental health struggles, religious trauma, and sexual abuse. Note: This is part one in a two-part series on mental health.This week on Honestly, Dear Listener, we’re talking about a subject near and dear to our hearts, brains, and nervous systems: mental health. We dive into how growing up in a fundamentalist Christian environment often left us more confused than comforted, exacerbating anxiety and leaving little room for honest conversations about mental ...

This week on Honestly, Dear Listener, we once again welcome Denver-based Saxophonist, Artist, and Educator Sarah Mount of Sarah Mount and the Rushmores to the podcast. We discuss something people don’t talk about enough: perimenopause. Did you know perimenopause can start ten years before a woman’s body starts menopause? We’re talking mid-30s, people, or even earlier! And when the hormones start shifting, it can throw so many things off-kilter.We share a candid discussion with Sarah Mount abo...

This week on Honestly, Dear Listener, we’re talking about the ways we put up barriers to our own creativity. We often have a creative idea but judge it too early, essentially killing it before it’s had time to marinate. We also discuss the difference between bragging and sharing our joys with others.References:Atlas of the Heart: Mapping Meaningful Connection and the Language of Human Experience - book by Brené BrownThe Artist’s Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity, book by Julia Camero...

This is part 2 in our series on purity culture. If you listened to part 1, go back and listen to part 1 and then come back here! Trigger Warning! We’re talking about sexual trauma as a result of religious abuse and purity culture. If that sounds like too much, feel free to skip this episode. Take care of yourself, Dear Listener. This week on Honestly, Dear Listener, we’re returning for the second and final part of our two-part series on purity culture. We’ll finally talk about Joshua Harris’ ...

Trigger Warning! We’re talking about sexual trauma as a result of religious abuse and purity culture. If that sounds like too much, feel free to skip this episode. Take care of yourself, Dear Listener. This week on Honestly, Dear Listener, we’re talking about how we grew up and, in particular, the real downer we’ve come to know as purity culture. As so many listeners were, we were raised in Evangelical Christian fundamentalism which valued a women’s sexual purity above all else. As a result, ...

This week on Honestly, Dear Listener, we’re circling back around to how the way we were raised (in fundamentalist, Evangelical, Pentecostal Christians) has influenced the way we create now. We also dive into how the beliefs we inherited when we were kids continues to contribute to our mental health struggles. On a lighter note, we also discuss the holes in our pop music upbringing, exploring what the rules were for what kind of music we were allowed and not allowed to listen to. We also ...

Note: We recorded this episode the day after Election Day 2024, and we gave it all we had--which wasn't much. We feel empathy and compassion didn't win this time, but we're not giving up hope. We talk about where we're going from here, what we plan on doing, and what we're going to be pushing into even more now. Please take care of yourselves and be kind. Hope is not lost, Dear Listener. Hosts: Emily Hatch and Carrie Schaeffer Instagram: @honestlydearlistener Youtube: youtube.com/@honestlyde...

🎃 This week on Honestly, Dear Listener, we're getting scary. REAL scary. 🎃 We discuss what scares us most about the entire creative process and how we're actually more scared of success than of failure. We dive into the fears and insecurities that plague us and other artists, the daunting process of starting new personal projects, not resting on our laurels, and the long road to creative success. Carrie also reads her creepy new short story, "The Inheritance." Happy Halloween, Dear Listene...

This week on Honestly, Dear Listener, we discuss validation--what it is and whether we need it or not. We also compare and contrast validation with encouragement. All this and more after a discussion about how Emily should have been a hand model!References:The Artist’s Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity, book by Julia Cameron Opal appTIMECODES0:00 - Intro0:29 - Emily shoulda been a hand model4:06 - Discussing beautiful products6:18 - Validation - do we need it?7:23 - Definitions ...

Welcome back to Honestly, Dear Listener! In today’s episode, we discuss Week 7 of Julia Cameron’s classic The Artist’s Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity. We talk specifically about how accessing our creativity is like letting ourselves fall down the well to join the river of inspiration underneath our everyday lives. Often, creating can feel like we’re straining to make something happen. Instead, we posit it can actually be a lot easier than that: unleashing or letting ourselves get ...