It's a Lot

Physical therapist, mom, avid reader, and bookstagrammer Sarah McGrath of Sarah Reads in Roc joins host Emily Hessney Lynch for a deep dive book chat on all things Shirley Jackson! We read her gothic horror masterpiece We Have Always Lived in the Castle and her first memoir Life Among the Savages to get to know both sides of Jackson and her work. In the first half of our book chat, we get into some Shirley Jackson lore, exploring her relationship with her mother, how she always felt like an outsider growing up, and how she despised going to the University of Rochester for a hot second. Then we jump into We Have Always Lived in the Castle and discuss Merricat's voice, her relationship with Constance, Jackson's signature humor and common themes, and the horrifying way things unfold at the end. Sarah also shares about her own experiences with OCD and we discuss whether or not Merricat might have some magical thinking OCD going on (among other things!).

In the second half of the show, we talk about Life Among the Savages, sharing our favorite anecdotes about Jackson's 4 imaginative children, how her classic humor shows up again, our amazement at how she managed not to lose herself in motherhood despite how little her useless husband did, and how astonishingly cheap everything was back in 1953. We also go on a fun tangent about our own experiences learning that Santa wasn't real!

Note: Our discussion is spoiler free until about 23:16. If you'd like to skip the spoilers, fast forward to the second half of the episode.

Links:

• Read along with us! Grab your own copies of We Have Always Lived in the Castle and Life Among the Savages.
• Check out Shirley Jackson: A Rather Haunted Life by Ruth Franklin for even more about Jackson's life.
• Read Jackson's first published short story from the U of R's literary magazine here, her famous essay, "Garlic in Fiction," here, and The New Republic article we mentioned here.
• To learn more about OCD, visit the International OCD Foundation.
• For more of Sarah, check out her bookstagram!
• Follow Emily on Instagram and check out her business, Serve Me the Sky Digital, if you need a digital content strategist or writer!

Interested in sponsoring It's a Lot? Our media kit is available upon request! Reach out here to start the conversation. You can also support the show by leaving us a one-time (or recurring!) tip. We'll send you a sticker to say thanks!

We're a proud member of the Lunchador Podcast Network. Our logo is by Tenderchomps Art.

Mentioned in this episode:

Joe Bean Roasters

Visit joebeanroasters.com to get fresh roasted specialty coffee either by the bag or with a Perpetual Joy subscription!

Getting Real with Bossy: For Women Who Own Business

Check out Getting Real with Bossy: For Women Who Own Business on Lunchador!

After cleaning headstones in cemeteries for fun for a few years, Katie DeRaddo started A Grave Attraction to share the stories of the dead through social media, honoring their lives and ensuring they are not forgotten. In this conversation with host Emily Hessney Lynch, we discuss proper techniques and ethics for cleaning headstones, some of Katie's favorite cemeteries in Rochester, Buffalo, and beyond, and how she pieces together people's stories using printed records from centuries ago.

In the second half of the show, we dive into Katie's experiences as a content creator, from the highs of getting started on YouTube with a video that reached 13 million views to lows like dealing with conflict in the comments section, people taking things out of context, fighting with the algorithm, and the painful trap of comparing ourselves to others on social media—something we can all relate to!

Links:

• For more of Katie's work, check out her website or follow her on: Instagram | TikTok | YouTube | Facebook.
• Follow Emily on Instagram and check out her business, Serve Me the Sky Digital, if you need a digital content strategist or writer!

Interested in sponsoring It's a Lot? Our media kit is available upon request! Reach out here to start the conversation. You can also support the show by leaving us a one-time (or recurring!) tip. We'll send you a sticker to say thanks!

We're a proud member of the Lunchador Podcast Network. Our logo is by Tenderchomps Art.

Mentioned in this episode:

Behind the Glass

Behind the Glass Gallery podcast is a monthly talk with the current month's BTG Roster. Artists are interviewed about their submissions and we dive deep into their process, inspiration and thought process centralized around their artwork in the Behind the Glass Gallery located in the heart of Downtown Rochester NY.

Getting Real with Bossy: For Women Who Own Business

Check out Getting Real with Bossy: For Women Who Own Business on Lunchador!

Joe Bean Roasters

Visit joebeanroasters.com to get fresh roasted specialty coffee either by the bag or with a Perpetual Joy subscription!

Content warning: This episode contains brief mentions of suicidal ideation; they are not discussed at length or in detail. Please take care while listening.

Artist, imagination doula, and mom Molly Darling joins host Emily Hessney Lynch for a wide-ranging conversation about evolving identity and how to take the leap and cross the threshold into something new. In the first half of the episode, we discuss the many lives Molly has lived before 40, faith deconstruction, divorce, and discovering she was a lesbian in her 30s.

During the second half of the show, we discuss how important it is to let kids have different experiences than you, learning how to say "I fucked up and I'm sorry" to your kids, the value of female rage, and figuring out how to listen to your body and trust your own intuition rather than operating from a place of fear.

Links:

• Molly's podcast, Behind the Studio Door, will be returning soon! Explore the back catalog here.
• The book Molly mentioned that discusses fear at length is Big Magic: Creating Living Beyond Fear by Elizabeth Gilbert.
• If you are struggling with postpartum depression or psychosis, here are some resources to explore: Postpartum Support International; National Maternal Mental Health Hotline; 988 Lifeline.
• For more of Molly, follow her on Instagram. You can also book an energy portrait or imagination doula session here.
• Follow Emily on Instagram and check out her business, Serve Me the Sky Digital, if you need a social media strategist, speaker, or writer!

Interested in sponsoring It's a Lot? Our media kit is available upon request! Reach out here to start the conversation. You can also support the show by leaving us a one-time (or recurring!) tip. We'll send you a sticker to say thanks!

We're a proud member of the Lunchador Podcast Network. Our logo is by Tenderchomps Art.

Mentioned in this episode:

Joe Bean Roasters

Visit joebeanroasters.com to get fresh roasted specialty coffee either by the bag or with a Perpetual Joy subscription!

Mind of Magnus

The Mind is an An Amazing Space

Getting Real with Bossy: For Women Who Own Business

Check out Getting Real with Bossy: For Women Who Own Business on Lunchador!

Champagne Manley, a mom and the owner of Cakedd by Champ, joins host Emily Hessney Lynch for a fun and thoughtful conversation about feeling lost, figuring out her path, the realities of alcoholism, getting sober, motherhood, and more. In the first half of the show, Champagne shares what it was like to go from a sheltered upbringing in a very religious family to attending community college and partying as much as possible. We also discuss what being an alcoholic was really like, getting fired from jobs, doordashing alcohol during COVID, and how a 24/7 online AA meeting was the turning point that finally helped her feel understood.

In the second part of the episode, Champagne shares what it was like when her daughter was born 10.5 weeks early, why she and her husband are choosing to be one and done, and what she hopes her daughter learns by watching her mom forge her own path and run a creative business.

Links:

• For more of Champagne, follow her on Instagram. Her cake business is Cakedd by Champ, which you can also follow on Instagram here.
• Follow Emily on Instagram and check out her business, Serve Me the Sky Digital, if you need a social media strategist, speaker, or writer!
• 24/7 online AA meeting.
• It's a Lot episode featuring my son's neurologist, Dr. Sam Mackenzie.
• Champagne's book recommendations: Sky Daddy; The Silent Patient; Incidents Around the House.
• The movie I saw at the Anomaly Film Festival where a woman is in love with an amusement park ride is Jumbo (2020).
• Gay frog plushie from InfoWars.

To support the show, leave us a one-time (or recurring!) tip. We'll send you a sticker to say thanks!

We're a proud member of the Lunchador Podcast Network. Our logo is by Tenderchomps Art.

Mentioned in this episode:

Joe Bean Roasters

Visit joebeanroasters.com to get fresh roasted specialty coffee either by the bag or with a Perpetual Joy subscription!

Mind of Magnus

The Mind is an An Amazing Space

Content warning: This episode contains mentions of sexual abuse and providing therapy to sex offenders. The discussion is high level and not graphic; it takes place during the first half of the show.

Ashley Charbonneau, a licensed clinical social worker, podcaster, author, and obsessive reader, joins host Emily Hessney Lynch for a wide-ranging conversation about the many different things we're told we shouldn't talk about. We discuss her experiences as a therapist providing therapy to sex offenders, abusive workplaces, healing from career events that shatter you, and the complex issues AI is creating that therapists now have to figure out how to handle.

In the second half of the episode, we explore Ashley's experience as a stand-in mom figure to her younger sibling, who she became the guardian of in 2023. We talk about the value of staying regulated when your kid is upset, how hard it is to be an authority figure to someone you really shouldn't have authority over, and the liberating moment of realizing that you get to choose whether or not to have kids. Ashley also shares how being the oldest of 8 kids shaped her decision to not have biological children of her own. We also hype up the importance of vasectomies (and talking about them!).

Links:

• Pre-order Ashley's book, The Resilient Therapist: Healing from Career-Altering Adverse Psychological Events, out October 1, 2026.
• Listen to Ashley and her colleague Morgen's podcast, The Art of Being a Therapist.
• Regretting Motherhood by Orna Donath is the book Ashley mentions in the episode.
• For more of Ashley, follow her on Instagram and check out her website.
• Follow Emily on Instagram and check out her business, Serve Me the Sky Digital, if you need a social media strategist, speaker, or writer!

To support the show, leave us a one-time (or recurring!) tip. We'll send you a sticker to say thanks!

We're a proud member of the Lunchador Podcast Network. Our logo is by Tenderchomps Art.

Mentioned in this episode:

Joe Bean Roasters

Visit joebeanroasters.com to get fresh roasted specialty coffee either by the bag or with a Perpetual Joy subscription!

Getting Real with Bossy: For Women Who Own Business

Check out Getting Real with Bossy: For Women Who Own Business on Lunchador!

Content warning: This episode contains discussion of infant loss and grief. The first half of our conversation shares details about childbirth, Mai's daughter's brain injury, and her baby's death. There are references to infant loss and discussions of grief in the second half. Please take care while listening.

Author and mom Mai Nguyen joins host Emily Hessney Lynch for an in-depth conversation about a mind-bending, life-altering experience that left her saying WTF and grieving deeply: losing her baby when she was just a few days old due to a brain injury caused by a lack of oxygen during delivery. Mai shares what that experience was like (devastating), how she was able to hope again, why having another baby seemed both necessary and inevitable, and what it was like to put her grief on the page in writing her new book, Cleo Dang Would Rather Be Dead.

In the second half of the show, we explore what it was like to go through pregnancy and childbirth again after such a traumatic loss, how Mai teaches her living daughter Leah about her big sister Gemma, what it's like to be friends with your grief, and the joy of learning that your kid's favorite show is getting new episodes soon.

Links:

• Grab a copy of Mai's new book, Cleo Dang Would Rather Be Dead or borrow it from your local library!
• Advocacy group mentioned in the episode: Measure the Placenta
• Mai's piece for Oprah Daily that we mention in the episode: "My Family Never Talked About Death. Then I Lost My Baby."
• For more of Mai, follow her on Instagram and check out her website.
• Follow Emily on Instagram and check out her business, Serve Me the Sky Digital, if you need a social media strategist, speaker, or writer!

Books mentioned in this episode:

• My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh
• Mai's recommendations: Hold My Girl by Charlene Carr & Gemma and the Giant Girl by Sara O'Leary
• Emily's recommendation: If You Give a Pig a Pancake by Laura Numeroff

To support the show, leave us a one-time (or recurring!) tip. We'll send you a sticker to say thanks!

We're a proud member of the Lunchador Podcast Network. Our logo is by Tenderchomps Art.

Mentioned in this episode:

Joe Bean Roasters

Visit joebeanroasters.com to get fresh roasted specialty coffee either by the bag or with a Perpetual Joy subscription!

Getting Real with Bossy: For Women Who Own Business

Check out Getting Real with Bossy: For Women Who Own Business on Lunchador!

Teacher, artist, and queer badass Lanni Maszerowski (they/them) joins host Emily Hessney Lynch for a fun book chat about Baby Blue by Bim Eriksson. Baby Blue is a queer, dystopian graphic novel about a fascist state that polices negative emotions and one twenty-something girls' journey to find her people and a place to belong. We found the novel surprisingly campy (the Peacekeepers are basically a deranged swim team!) and loved the surreal, unsettling, minimalist-but-also-maximalist art style. We discuss what aspects of the book seem strikingly, horrifyingly similar to our current society, how there's nothing wrong with mispronouncing a word because you've only read it, and the importance of weird art by real humans. At the end of the episode, we share our recommendations for more queer, dystopian reads, and some other wholesome (or unhinged) queer books you might enjoy!

Note: Our discussion is spoiler free until 23:35. If you'd like to skip the spoilers, fast forward to 36:13, where we share our book recommendations.

Links:

• Browse Lanni's joyful, colorful pins, prints, stickers, apparel, and more on their shop.
• Baby Blue official playlist
• If you'd like to get a card from the Queer Liberation Library, you can do so here.
• Check out Lanni's Instagram for more of their art, educational content, and book recommendations.
• Follow Emily on Instagram and check out her business, Serve Me the Sky Digital, if you need a social media strategist, speaker, or writer!

Books mentioned in this episode:

• Baby Blue by Bim Eriksson
• Hum by Helen Phillips
• All of Us Murderers by KJ Charles
• Lanni's recommendations: Boys Weekend by Mattie Lubchansky; On a Sunbeam by Tillie Walden; Be Kind My Neighbor by Yugo Limbo
• Emily's recommendations: The Thick and The Lean by Chana Porter; Tell Me Yours I'll Tell You Mine by Kristina Ten (and check out her episode of the podcast here!); Vanishing World by Sayaka Murata; Chain Gang All-Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah; The Memory Police by Yoko Ogawa; Parable of the Sower graphic novel; Animal Farm graphic novel; The Handmaid's Tale graphic novel; Bunny & We Love You, Bunny by Mona Awad; Shapes of Love by LV Peñalba; Railed: A Why Cho-Cho-Choose Romance by Zane E. Stori

To support the show, leave us a one-time (or recurring!) tip. We'll send you a sticker to say thanks!

We're a proud member of the Lunchador Podcast Network. Our logo is by Tenderchomps Art.

Mentioned in this episode:

Joe Bean Roasters

Visit joebeanroasters.com to get fresh roasted specialty coffee either by the bag or with a Perpetual Joy subscription!

Robin Wilt, a mom who is running for Congress, joins host Emily Hessney Lynch for a thoughtful, honest conversation about how her experiences as a mom have shaped her political views. We talk about her adult children and how proud she is of them, the painful years-long legal battle her family endured in an effort to hold her son's school accountable for their poor handling of racist harassment and bullying he faced, and how she felt when her youngest came out to her as trans. We also discuss her daughter's experiences as a trans woman in sports and the discrimination she faced when policies were deliberately changed to exclude her.

In the second half of the show, we explore how growing up as one of the few Black kids in Pittsford shaped Robin's perspective and her dedication to social justice, as well as the dilemma of where to send your biracial kids to school in the greater Rochester area. Robin also shares why she's running for office now, her fierce desire to protect people from the predations of the current administration, and what she hopes to achieve if elected. Sustainability, universal healthcare, education equity, and immigration justice are just a few of her key priorities as an anti-ICE, anti-genocide, anti-fascist, and anti-poverty candidate.

Links:

• One of the Boys by Victoria Zeller – novel about a trans girl returning to the football team after her transition
• Rugby for All – organization advocating for more inclusive rugby
• For more about Robin and her campaign, check out her website and Instagram.
• Emily's website & Instagram.

Key Dates & Deadlines:

• Deadline to register to vote (so that you are eligible to vote in the primary): June 13. If you are registering by mail, you must registration must be received by 6/13.
• On June 13, you can also register to vote in person at any early voting site.
• Early voting runs from June 13-June 21.
• The New York State primary election is on June 23, 2026. Polls are open 6am-9pm.
• Check out other election FAQs on the Monroe County website.

To support the show, leave us a one-time (or recurring!) tip. We'll send you a sticker to say thanks!

We're a proud member of the Lunchador Podcast Network. Our logo is by Tenderchomps Art.

Mentioned in this episode:

Joe Bean Roasters

Visit joebeanroasters.com to get fresh roasted specialty coffee either by the bag or with a Perpetual Joy subscription!

May 27th is the one year anniversary of It's a Lot! Thank you so much for our support throughout our first year. It means the world to us. Check out Emily's Instagram this week for celebrations, reflections, and a fun giveaway! You can always support the show by leaving a review on your favorite podcast app or sending a one-time or recurring tip.

Author Kristina Ten joins host Emily Hessney Lynch for a wide-ranging conversation about impostor syndrome, the lore of our youth, going back to school for an MFA, the marketing genius of Chuck Tingle, and why it's important to her to write flawed, unlikable characters--especially queer ones!

In the second half of the show, we explore Kristina's experiences with moving all over the U.S., how she gets to know new places, our anxieties about AI, and why you've just gotta wail sometimes.

Links:

• Buy Kristina's debut, Tell Me Yours I'll Tell You Mine (or borrow it from your local library!).
• Follow Kristina on Instagram or check out her website.
• Emily's business, Serve Me the Sky Digital.
• Also mentioned in this episode: The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones and Fabulous Bodies by Chuck Tingle.

We're a proud member of the Lunchador Podcast Network. Our logo is by Tenderchomps Art.

Mentioned in this episode:

Joe Bean Roasters

Visit joebeanroasters.com to get fresh roasted specialty coffee either by the bag or with a Perpetual Joy subscription!

Mind of Magnus

The Mind is an An Amazing Space

Dialed In: A Coffee Podcast

Dial In your coffee game! A podcast by two coffee lovers for coffee lovers. Wade Reed and Aaron Pascucci approach coffee and its culture from a different angle - grab a cup and join us!

Are we doomed to traumatize our kids? Host Emily Hessney Lynch sits down with Dr. Kenya Malcolm, PhD, a clinical psychologist and the Director of Infant and Early Childhood Initiatives at the University of Rochester Medical Center's Department of Psychiatry, for a conversation about exactly that. We explore how our trauma shows up as parents and how our anxieties can impact the environment our kids grow up in and their attachment to us, what your first stop should be when you're worried about your child's mental health (or your own!), and how to parse all the conflicting parenting advice you see online.

In the second half of the episode, we chat about a new title Kenya recently added: grandma! She shares her hopes for being a grandparent (hint: it involves spoiling them and having tons of fun), how she's taking care of her daughter postpartum, and how she built a relationship with her daughters that was flexible and allowed both her and her kids to grow and change as they got older.

Links:

• We both use a Brick to help reduce the time we spend on our phones; if you're interested in trying it, you can save 10% with my link!
• For more of Kenya, follow her PhD Instagram, her Bookstagram, and the Genre Snaps Book Club, or check out her consulting business.
• Emily's website & Instagram.

Books mentioned in the episode:

• Nonfiction: The Whole-Brain Child and How to Talk So Kids Will Listen & Listen So Kids Will Talk
• Children's books: My Mouth is a Volcano!, I Just Don't Like the Sound of No!, and The Bakery Dragon
• Fiction: Theo of Golden, Nothing Tastes as Good, and Fabulous Bodies (out July 7, 2026)

To support the show, leave us a one-time (or recurring!) tip. We'll send you a sticker to say thanks!

We're a proud member of the Lunchador Podcast Network. Our logo is by Tenderchomps Art.

Mentioned in this episode:

Common Thread

Check out Common Thread on Lunchador!

Getting Real with Bossy: For Women Who Own Business

Check out Getting Real with Bossy: For Women Who Own Business on Lunchador!

Joe Bean Roasters

Visit joebeanroasters.com to get fresh roasted specialty coffee either by the bag or with a Perpetual Joy subscription!