This week, Leonora is so thrilled that Emily Ziff Griffin has joined her for a wonderful chat. Emily is a writer and producer and an all-around totally amazing human. Emily’s critically-acclaimed novel, Light Years, was developed for television by Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Entertainment, and she is currently adapting her beloved New Yorker essay, “Last Dance With My Father,” for Endeavor Content. As the co-founder of Cooper’s Town Productions with her long-time collaborator and producing partner, the late Philip Seymour Hoffman, Emily produced the Oscar-winning feature Capote and PSH’s directorial debut, Jack Goes Boating.

Emily and Leonora discuss the many twists and turns of her fascinating career, what YA content means to them, and how to maintain a creative fire through grief.

Please visit Emily’s website at https://emilyziffgriffin.com/ to learn much much more about her and her stellar work!

This week, Leonora is so honored and happy to welcome the prolific filmmaker and writer, Mo Perkins. Mo has directed two features, A Quiet Little Marriage, which won the Grand Jury Prize at the Slamdance Film Fest, and The Last Time You Had Fun, which premiered at LA Film Fest and won awards all over the dang place. She and Leonora discuss the various shadowing programs, Mo’s extremely unique upbringing on a real, off-the-grid commune, motherhood, film school, storytelling, and feminism - Mo cannot help but be endlessly wise and inspiring.

Please check out Mo’s films on streaming platforms, and see what she’s up to at http://moperkinsdirector.com, and thank you for listening. You’re doing a great job.

This week, Leonora is thrilled to welcome actress, musician, producer, author, Emmy, and Grammy award-winning dynamo Alisha Gaddis to the podcast! Alisha and her husband lead Lucky Diaz and the Family Jam Band, which you’ve certainly heard on your radio if you are raising young children. She is the author of seven best-selling books and has recently landed on the pages of Vogue as one of the Grammy Awards best-dressed, topping herself year after year as a walking work of art. 

Alisha and Leonora talk about the hard work behind being a multi-hyphenate, how she shepherded her books into existence, their shared experience going from the Midwest to NYU,  and how her own young child inspires her art. This woman is a true inspiration!

To discover everything Alisha has going on, please visit her website at http://AlishaGaddis.com, and follow her on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/alishagaddishere.

What a true honor to welcome the inimitable Grace Chon to Mothering Heights. Grace is a world-renowned photographer, published author, the host of the Creativity School podcast, Akashic Records reader, creativity coach, and all-around creative badass. In this episode, we track Grace’s trajectory from marketing wiz to digging into her creative soul, how she cultivated that creativity for a *living*, and how to get specific and clear in your creative goals - and doing what you LIKE - so you can make a career in any artistic field. And dogs. We talk about dogs. 

This is a great episode for anyone who doesn’t know where or how to start and how to actually make a living as a creative. Grace is endlessly inspiring.

You can find Grace’s photography work here: https://www.gracechon.com/, and follow Creativity School here https://www.creativityschoolpodcast.com/, book a reading with her here: https://www.creativityschoolpodcast.com/akashicrecords, and check out her three books here: https://www.goodreads.com/author/list/16465945.Grace_Chon. And her Instagram is the best: https://www.instagram.com/thegracechon/ 

Hey, guess what? You’re doing a great job.

Leonora is so thrilled and honored to welcome author and dialect and vocal coach Samara Bay to Mothering Heights. Samara travels the world dialect coaching some of the biggest stars in the world, and in her brand new book, Permission to Speak, Samara lays out how each of us can change the world - and our place in it - by harnessing the power of our voices. Samara’s book is profound and joyful and invites us all to change who has all the power, by redefining what power sounds like. 

We discuss the process Samara took to get her book published and how sisterhood played a role in that, Leonora accidentally makes Samara cry, Samara talks about her work decolonizing public speaking and lifting marginalized voices, and Leonora shares a time she felt utterly powerless and how it took her voice away (and then gets an incredible realization on the situation from Samara!). Also, these two voice nerds just nerd out on voice stuff.

Samara’s book, Permission to Speak is available everywhere (start here: https://bookshop.org/p/books/permission-to-speak-how-to-change-what-power-sounds-like-starting-with-you-samara-bay/18485502?ean=9780593238684). You can listen to her podcast Permission to Speak wherever you get your podcasts, follow her Instagram at @SamaraBay, and check out all her work at http://samarabay.com!

This week, Leonora is honored to welcome astrologer, poet, leader, speaker, podcaster, and author Heidi Rose Robbins to the podcast. Heidi is a generous beacon of wisdom every single day on Instagram with her Moon Notes and has guided thousands of people with her insightful and powerful understanding of the cosmos. She and Leonora discuss astrology, of course, but also what self-renewal means to us as Gen X women, how we-charge and avoid burnout as busy creative moms (hint: Ojai), Leonardo da Vinci, poetry, backyard drama camp… look: we go places! 

You can listen to Heidi’s two excellent podcasts The Radiance Project and Chart Your Career everywhere you get your podcasts. Follow her inspiring Instagram at @heidiroserobbins. You can find her new book Everyday Radiance everywhere books are sold (start here: https://bookshop.org/p/books/everyday-radiance-365-zodiac-inspired-prompts-for-self-care-and-self-renewal-heidi-rose-robbins/18265452?ean=9781797211923). And to see what else this busy creative is up to, including info about her upcoming retreats, and to get your own FREE natal chart, please visit her at http://heidirose.com. PS: Heidi’s episode of We Can Do Hard Things is the BEST intro to astrology I’ve ever heard, so please also check it out!

This week, Leonora is thrilled to welcome actress, producer, writer, funny person, and self-proclaimed Cancer Mom Lily Vonnegut to Mothering Heights. They discuss how to find humor through the worst of times and finding ourselves through to the other side, how her two famously creative parents shaped her own creativity, crying in sweatpants and corsets at acting school, the creation of her hit animated show The Most Popular Girls in School, and how she channeled her dad Kurt Vonnegut to give Leonora some excellent artistic advice.

This week, Leonora is thrilled to be joined by dancer, choreographer, and movement director, Ayesha Orange. Ayesha assisted Ryan Heffington on his Emmy-award-winning choreography for HBO’s hit series Euphoria, has worked extensively with the legendary Nina McNeely and has danced onstage at the Emmys, the Oscars, with artists like Mariah Carey, Bette Midler, Pink, and Usher, and in over twenty films and over sixty television shows. She and Leonora discuss how important Ayesha’s village is as she raises her son as a single mother, how they are trying to raise resilient kids, being GenX parents, and the real ins and outs of being a working artist. This episode goes deep and is full of warmth and laughter and wisdom and connection. 

To see more of Ayesha’s work please visit https://www.instagram.com/aorange/.

Thank you for listening and sharing - please help us grow the podcast by sharing widely and leaving us a review! Appreciate each of you. You’re doing a great job.

This week, Leonora is thrilled to welcome actress, writer, and reader Clementine Ford. These two moms’ group comrades discuss Clementine’s experience as an immunocompromised MS patient living through lockdown, how her unique upbringing as the daughter of a Hollywood legend informs her parenting choices today, book shopping as a kid with Larry McMurtry, and what it was like being Miss Golden Globes the year of Titanic. And books! Books and books. 

You can follow Clementine on Instagram for more of her excellent insights into literature at instagram.com/clementineford!

Welcome back to Mothering Heights! This week, Leonora welcomes actress and acting coach Mackenzie Meehan. If you’ve ever wondered what it would be like to be directed by Martin Scorsese, Mackenzie has got the lowdown. Mackenzie has starred in projects like Wolf of Wall Street and Bull, and she and Leonora discuss grad school, forgiving yourself for being a mean girl in your 20s, getting notes from a fellow actor on set (!!), and navigating male-dominated spaces. This is a great one. To book Mackenzie for acting coaching (as you should), please visit calendly.com/mackenziemeehancoaching and take advantage of her brilliance!