Reframeables

We often have conversations with folks who have written books. In this episode of Reframeables, Nat has a thoughtful conversation with child therapist Niomi Cherney, who’s in the midst of drafting her very own book on how to talk to loved ones with opposing viewpoints — think Trump supporter at one end of the table, and leftist liberal at the other. Essentially, this episode is their attempt to reframe mental health in times of crisis — or what it means to survive and thrive in difficult times. I actually know Niomi from my early mom days, walking to and from school with Niomi, who was at that time a childcare provider for a child who was the same age as Violet. I knew even then how special she was, so caring and creative with her kids. When she reached out to join us on Reframeables, I was excited to pick up where we left off.

Nat and Niomi talk about socially conscious self-care, how Niomi finds the strength to show up for her young clients who have lived through traumas at very young ages, and what we can all learn from her self-care strategies as a therapist. They go on to talk about conflicts with loved ones whose values bump with our own, how the term ‘crisis’ has been flattened, and what it might mean to reclaim it. Finally, Niomi shares about her activist work with Independent Jewish Voices to support the ongoing crisis in Palestine. This is a smart and honest reflective conversation that you won’t want to miss — whether you are a parent of a young one navigating their own challenges, or simply someone working to balance their own mental health in these challenging times.

Link:
Follow Niomi on Instagram

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If our conversations support you in your own reframing practice, please consider a donation on our Patreon, where you can also hear bonus episodes, or tipping us on Ko-fi. Subscribe to the Reframeables Newsletter. Follow us on TikTok, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube too.

For this episode of Reframeables, we had the opportunity to speak with award-winning poet and novelist Canisia Lubrin about her new book Code Noir. After the interview, she sent the Reframeables duo an email, calling us both badass and tender, which is probably the best compliment we’ve ever been given — so there’s that. For context about her book, in 1685 France’s King Louis XIV passed a decree consisting of 59 articles meant to govern not only chattel slavery but Black subjecthood throughout France and its colonies. The document was called “le code noir.” Lubrin’s novel is written around and against these articles. In our interview, we talked about so many things: identity, and why Canisia isn’t interested in it; green underwear, and why this writer’s words make us hot (literally); poetry as something that originates in the body, not the mind. Our reframing takeaway? The art of the interview isn’t achieved in a straight line — or maybe we reframed the art of conversation as a whole. Either way, we had a blast.

Canisia Lubrin is a writer, critic, professor, poet, and editor. Originally from St. Lucia, she now lives in Whitby, Ontario. Her books include Voodoo Hypothesis, The Dyzgraphxst, and Code Noir. Canisia is currently poetry editor at McClelland & Stewart, and has taught at Humber College, University of Toronto, and University of Guelph.

Links:
Code Noir
A Conversation with Canisia Lubrin by Rosie Long Decter for Vallum Mag
Follow Canisia on Instagram

We love hearing from our listeners! Leave us a voice message, write to the show email, or send us a DM on any of our socials.

If our conversations support you in your own reframing practice, please consider a donation on our Patreon, where you can also hear bonus episodes, or tipping us on Ko-fi. Subscribe to the Reframeables Newsletter. Follow us on TikTok, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube too.

We are reframing the productivity narrative with Instagram and Substack-famous sketch artist Nishant Jain — otherwise known as the Sneaky Artist. Nishant trained as an engineer, almost got his PhD, and then switched tracks to make art in public — sneakily. Now his full-time gig is sketching with a recognizable yellow fountain pen so that he can’t erase anything — he’s very committed to the line. And if you’re ever in Vancouver, you might just happen upon one of his drawings left behind in a café or a public library. With Nishant, we talked about how he believes that everyone can be an artist and the inspiration he got from living in Chicago, where he watched a lot of bad stand-up comedy. We also unpacked productivity culture, art for art’s sake, and whether we can even have human experiences anymore without making content about them. And we heard about his new baby — who he’s now sketching too.

Nishant Jain is a writer, artist and podcaster in Vancouver. As a Sneaky Artist, he draws the people around him in the spaces he inhabits, finding moments of accidental beauty in ordinary places on ordinary days. He shares his work and ideas with thousands of readers on Substack and Instagram.

Links:
At the Existentialist Café by Sarah Bakewell
For more from the Sneaky Artist, follow him on Instagram and Substack or check out his website

We love hearing from our listeners! Leave us a voice message, write to the show email, or send us a DM on any of our socials.

If our conversations support you in your own reframing practice, please consider a donation on our Patreon, where you can also hear bonus episodes, or tipping us on Ko-fi. Subscribe to the Reframeables Newsletter. Follow us on TikTok, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube too.

On this episode of Reframeables, we are reframing rage with author Kathryn Mockler. She spoke with us about the despair of writing and editing climate justice work, and how she’s moved forward from rage and exchanged hurt for the earth for human connection. She calls it ‘post-hope,’ though instead of ‘hope,’ her preferred word is ‘possibility’ — a possibility for shared concerns in community, be it in her writing or in her teaching.

Kathryn Mockler is a writer, screenwriter, experimental filmmaker, editor, and publisher and the author of the story collection Anecdotes (Book*hug Press, 2023). She co-edited the print anthology Watch Your Head: Writers and Artists Respond to the Climate Crisis (Coach House Books, 2020) and is the publisher of the Watch Your Head website. Her films have screened at TIFF, EMFA, the Palm Springs Film Festival and most recently at the Arizona Underground Film Festival and REELPoetry/HoustonTX. She runs the literary newsletter Send My Love to Anyone.

Links:
Anecdotes
For more from Kathryn, check out her website

We love hearing from our listeners! Leave us a voice message, write to the show email, or send us a DM on any of our socials.

If our conversations support you in your own reframing practice, please consider a donation on our Patreon, where you can also hear bonus episodes, or tipping us on Ko-fi. Subscribe to the Reframeables Newsletter. Follow us on TikTok, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube too.

This week, we are reframing fiction as truth-telling with novelist, playwright, and clothing line creator Claudia Dey. You’ll hear our conversation filled with so many truths born of fiction, creating constraints to create, and the companionship of language. We talk about Claudia’s newest novel Daughter, and Hamlet, and theatre school memories of Claudia’s play Trout Stanley. We also get into how we can’t waver from value systems in terms of what we put out in the world. For Claudia, that shows up in her books and her clothing brand. For us here, it’s tied to who we bring on the show.

Claudia Dey is a bestselling novelist, playwright, and essayist based in Toronto. She has written the novels Stunt, Heartbreaker, and Daughter, as well as the plays Beaver, The Gwendolyn Poems, and Trout Stanley. Other writing of hers has appeared in The Paris Review, The Believer, Toro, and The Globe and Mail. Claudia is also the co-founder of the clothing line Horses Atelier.

Links:
Daughter
Horses Atelier
For more from Claudia, follow her on Instagram and take a look at her website

We love hearing from our listeners! Leave us a voice message, write to the show email, or send us a DM on any of our socials.

If our conversations support you in your own reframing practice, please consider a donation on our Patreon, where you can also hear bonus episodes, or tipping us on Ko-fi. Subscribe to the Reframeables Newsletter. Follow us on TikTok, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube too.

Is reframing burnout even possible? According to Emilie Aries, the founder of Bossed Up, it is — sort of. Emilie is a speaker and author whose company is committed to closing the gender leadership gap. In this episode, you’ll hear our conversation about the systemic nature of burnout culture, particularly for women. We unpack “role overload,” try and take a really realistic look at boundary setting, and learn the difference between active and passive rest. These and other important ideas will sustain us through the holidays and beyond!

Emilie Aries is an award-winning speaker, podcaster, writer, and the founder of Bossed Up, a personal and professional training organization that helps women craft sustainable careers. She is the current host of the podcast Bossed Up, and former co-host of Stuff Mom Never Told You. Previously, Emilie served on national political campaigns as an organizer and digital strategist.

Links:
Bossed Up
How to Recalibrate Your Career, a recent episode of Emilie's Bossed Up podcast that continues where our conversation leaves off
For more from Emilie, check out her website and follow her on Twitter and Instagram

We love hearing from our listeners! Leave us a voice message, write to the show email, or send us a DM on any of our socials.

If our conversations support you in your own reframing practice, please consider a donation on our Patreon, where you can also hear bonus episodes, or tipping us on Ko-fi. Subscribe to the Reframeables Newsletter. Follow us on TikTok, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube too.

This week on Reframeables, we spoke with author Lisa Whittington-Hill about her new book Girls, Interrupted: How Pop Culture is Failing Women. With Lisa, we jumped right in with a discussion about female rage, considered the failings of media for middle age women and teenage girls, and shared some nostalgic memories of Courtney Love — who Lisa has defended loudly enough to get her thrown out of parties. We are unhappy with the misogyny that is baked into pop culture and social media, but we are happy to have conversations with someone like Lisa who is doing work to interrupt it.

Lisa Whittington-Hill is a writer based in Toronto, Canada. Her work has appeared in Longreads, The Walrus, Hazlitt, Catapult, and more. She is also the publisher of This Magazine, a progressive magazine of politics, ideas, and culture, and teaches in the publishing program at Centennial College.

Links:
Girls, Interrupted: How Pop Culture is Failing Women
For more from Lisa, follow her on Twitter and Instagram

We love hearing from our listeners! Leave us a voice message, write to the show email, or send us a DM on any of our socials.

If our conversations support you in your own reframing practice, please consider a donation on our Patreon, where you can also hear bonus episodes, or tipping us on Ko-fi. Subscribe to the Reframeables Newsletter. Follow us on TikTok, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube too.

Pop culture is supposed to be light — downright breezy. Or, as we discovered in our conversation with celebrated Canadian author Jen Sookfong Lee, it can be something more: a bridge to navigating the complexities of intergenerational trauma, reckoning with one’s place in the world, and, perhaps most poignantly, facing the self. We hope you are able to take Jen’s pop culture wisdom and use it to help you reframe some of your own self-work — we did!

Jen Sookfong Lee describes herself as one who “writes, edits, and sometimes sings badly on a podcast.” She is a familiar voice as a columnist for CBC Radio One on shows like The Next Chapter and is a prolific writer of fiction, children’s literature, poetry, and memoir. For this episode of Reframeables we talked to Jen about her memoir Superfan: How Pop Culture Broke My Heart. Jen was born and raised in East Vancouver.

Links:
Superfan: How Pop Culture Broke My Heart
For more from Jen Sookfong Lee, check out her website and give her a follow on Twitter and Instagram

We love hearing from our listeners! Leave us a voice message, write to the show email, or send us a DM on any of our socials.

If our conversations support you in your own reframing practice, please consider a donation on our Patreon, where you can also hear bonus episodes, or tipping us on Ko-fi. Subscribe to the Reframeables Newsletter. Follow us on TikTok, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube too.

This week we are reframing pop culture as self-care (or reframing the inside joke) with author R. Eric Thomas. In a wonderfully meandering conversation we talked about faith, office cake, gardening, hiking up (and then running down) mountains, looking to Oprah as a way to prepare for big feelings, and using Chekhov for life metaphors. Finally, we landed on using pop culture references as bridges to help us connect with others. We really hope you enjoy this conversation as much as we did.

R. Eric Thomas is a television writer, playwright, and author of Here for It: Or, How to Save Your Soul in America. His latest book is Congratulations, The Best Is Over! For four years, Eric was a Senior Staff Writer at Elle.com, where he wrote a column called Eric Reads the News. This past week he gave Reframeables a shout out in his weekly humor newsletter. He lives in Philadelphia, where he is a long-running host of The Moth StorySlams.

Links:
Eric's newsletter
Congratulations, The Best Is Over!
Here for It: Or, How to Save Your Soul in America
For more from Eric, check out his website, and follow him on Twitter and Instagram

We love hearing from our listeners! Leave us a voice message, write to the show email, or send us a DM on any of our socials.

If our conversations support you in your own reframing practice, please consider a donation on our Patreon, where you can also hear bonus episodes, or tipping us on Ko-fi. Subscribe to the Reframeables Newsletter. Follow us on TikTok, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube too.