Retrospective: The Podcast

“I’m going to make my art (whatever that might be) with everything that I’ve got and make it matter to me and really really hope that that means something to other people. And the strange thing—at least that I’ve experienced—is that almost every time that I let out more of myself or I make my work more ‘me’ . . . it almost always means that more people connect with it. Almost always.”

— Tim Manley on Retrospective: The Podcast

Tim Manley is one of my favorite people with whom to talk, write, and share a storytelling stage. His honesty makes you feel at home just listening to him, and his generosity nudges you to ask him a good question. And then another.  

On November 5th, Tim's new book, Alice in Tumblr-land: And Other Fairytales for a New Generation comes out. Join us for this conversation about: 

• Changing careers and going all-in with creative work
• "Millenials" and Tim's own journey through his 20s
• Not apologizing for one's work (despite the temptation to do just that) 
• Having an unconventional drawing education
• Finding work that sits well with your soul, and
• The benefits of looking at your accomplishments through the 5-Years-Ago Lens.

Click the player below, or listen and subscribe in iTunes. Find previous episodes of Retrospective here.

Jen Lee

Retrospective: Tim Manley

Tim Manley is the writer and illustrator of Alice in Tumblr-land: And Other Fairy Tales for a New Generation (Penguin Books). It is based on his tumblr, Fairy Tales for Twenty-Somethings.

Tim is a Moth StorySLAM winner, mentor with PEN American Center’s Prison Writing Program, and a former English teacher at School of the Future in New York City. He has officiated eight weddings, one of which was Beatles-themed. 

“I think a lot of people get caught up in the *process* of doing more (how to make lists or get things done) without actually doing it. So if you kind of strip away all the complexity and systems, you actually have a lot more time and energy left anyway. . . . But actually trusting to take that step is quite difficult, I think.”

— Michael Nobbs, creator of sustainablycreative.com

​In this episode, Jen interviews Michael Nobbs, the creator of sustainablycreative.com and the author of Drawing Your Life: Learn to See, Record and Appreciate Life's Small Joys.  Listen in to the conversation as Michael and Jen talk:

• time, sufficiency and the pervasive pressures of the internet
• Michael's journey: from diagnosis to drawing to a creative career
• the artists and works that have inspired and influenced Michael along the way
• "Murder She Wrote" and becoming an author
• and how to build trust in the model of working slowly, with time on your side.

Jen Lee

Retrospective: Michael Nobbs

Click the left arrow on the player above to play the episode, or subscribe and listen to Retrospective in iTunes.​

“You realize you can get somewhere over a period of time, and I’m a firm believer that if you stick to something, it almost doesn’t matter what you do, but if you stick to it eventually you will get somewhere. . . . Drawing became the thing I did, and I just kept doing it. But it could have been anything really.”

— Michael Nobbs, author of Drawing Your Life

Michael Nobbs is a full-time artist, blogger and tea drinker (not necessarily in that order). He is author of the popular blog, Sustainably Creative and writes, tweets and podcasts about drawing and trying to keep things simple.

In the late 1990s he was diagnosed with ME/CFS and over the last decade and a half he has learnt a lot about sustaining a creative career with limited energy.

His new book, Drawing Your Life (made one page at a time!) was be published by Penguin/Perigee Books on 5th March.

​Photo by Anya Garrett

“The only upshot of age is you get to the point where you’re too exhasuted for a strategy that isn’t just organic. So you just go, I’m gonna be Me, and if it works out, great.”

— Ophira Eisenberg

In this episode of Retrospective, I talk with my friend Ophira Eisenberg right before her new memoir releases nationwide. You may have heard her on NPR, seen her stand-up comedy recently onThe Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson or had the pleasure of seeing her live onstage.

Click the player below to listen, or listen and subscribe in iTunes. Find previous episodes of Retrospective here.

Jen Lee

Retrospective: Ophira Eisenberg

We chat over tea and a latte and talk about:

• translating story and humor from stage to page
• dealing with "What will 'they' think?"​
• and how she combines hard work with navigating the opportunities that follow

Screw Everyone: Sleeping My Way to Monogamy is now available on Amazon.

For Ophira's storytelling wisdom, check out the Telling Your Story multimedia course.

Ophira Eisenberg is a stand-up comedian, host of NPR's Ask Me Another, and a writer. She has appeared on Comedy Central, VH1, E!, and the TV Guide Network. She is also a regular host and storyteller with The Moth. Find her online at ophiraeisenberg.com.​

“Unless you stop, you don’t know how stressed you are. You don’t know how neurotic you’re being. You don’t know how unhealthy you’re being. . . . Is that really where I want to go—where I can’t see it because I’m so busy, but the people around me are going to know it and see it and have to partake of it?”

— Caren McLellan Gazley, author of Ritual & Rhythm: A Guide to Creative Self Care

In this episode, meet author Caren McLellan Gazley, whose wisdom and friendship have mentored me for most of my adult life. Her career has centered around being of service, whether under the umbrella of faith communities or international humanitarian work. Grab a warm, steamy drink, dim the lights and press play to be transported to my kitchen table with us.

Click the player below to listen, or listen and subscribe in iTunes. Find previous episodes of Retrospective here.

Jen Lee

Retrospective: Caren McLellan Gazley

Our in-depth conversation covers:

• how Caren's journey brought self care under a spotlight
• the kind of pacing and care that can help one sustain a career in service of others
• finding the way into our own solutions and tools
• taking self care from the realm of luxury to necessity
• why it's not as simple as following a formula

Caren McLellan Gazley is a soul care specialist and human rights activist whose work has led her to places like Mauritania and Albania. Still an L.A. girl at heart, Caren has deep wisdom drawing from her rich personal experiences about caring for yourself in the midst of parenting, partnerships, community and passionate work. She is the author of Ritual & Rhythm: A Guide for Creative Self Care.

​

“One problem a lot of us suffer from is getting partway through something and then dropping it . . . but what if you finished it first, and then made that decision? It could be very surprising. And I’ve found breaking through those times of feeling discouraged has often resulted in my best work.”

— Diana Spechler

Diana Spechler is the author of the novels Skinny and Who by Fire.  In this episode of Retrospective, Diana talks about:

• fiction, nonfiction, and where your secrets come out
• dealing with being seen during a very personal book release
• "punch and get out" --lessons learned from storytelling
• keeping ego untangled from the creative process, and
• wrestling projects into submission.

Jen Lee

Retrospective: Diana Spechler

Click on the player above to listen, or subscribe to Retrospective in iTunes. You can find previous episodes here.

Diana Spechler is the author of the novels Who By Fire (Harper Perennial, 2008) and Skinny (Harper Perennial, 2011). She has written for the New York Times; GQ; O, The Oprah Magazine; CNN Living; Esquire; New York; Paris Review; Self;Details; the Wall Street Journal; Salon; Slate;Nerve; Southern Review; Glimmer Train Stories; and elsewhere. She is also a four-time Moth StorySLAM winner and has been featured on NPR. She received her MFA degree from the University of Montana and was a Steinbeck Fellow at San Jose State University and the writer-in-residence at Portsmouth Abbey School. A 2012-2013 LABA Fellow, she teaches writing in New York City and for Stanford University's Online Writer's Studio.

Jen Lee

Retrospective: Phil Gazley

In this episode, meet Phil Gazley, an anti-human trafficking educator who works with communities and law enforcement agencies around the world. We talk art, culture, creative integrity and more:

• How to prevent human trafficking by focusing on other things, and what he's seeing right now
• What anti-trafficking activists can learn from independent artists
• The power of artists to influence culture philosophically
• A middle road between academia and business created by independent art and soul care
• Commercialization and philosophical integrity
• Creating a culture of invitation and working on a grassroots level

Phil Gazley works on anti-trafficking efforts, developing coalitions and partnering with government groups, law enforcement agencies and NGOs. You can support this work here.

Click the player above to listen.

Hear more great conversations with artists, authors and visionaries on Retrospective. You can also subscribe in iTunes.

Photo by Bella Cirovic, shetoldstories.com

Jen Lee

Retrospective: Liz Kalloch

Her first language is French. She lived in Belgium as a child and spent her 20s in Europe. Artist and designer Liz Kalloch has had many adventures: grand, far and wide, but is now more rooted and creating her work and her life more than ever before. 

In this episode of Retrospective, listen as Liz shares about:

• her transition to freelance design from working for large companies and publishers
• how "working small" changes the quality of creative work
• the power of place, and
• the saving graces she's experienced along the way

Liz Kalloch paints, writes and designs in a turquoise house by the San Francisco Bay. You can see more of her work her on her website.

Listen and subscribe in iTunes. Until we have more ratings and reviews, iTunes won't recommend our podcast in search results. Help us out and leave a rating or review today!

“​What I learn from my research is that conflict, regardless on what level—whether it’s international, national, local or interpersonal—it always comes down to the stories we tell each other . . .”

— Dr. Christiane Fröhlich

Jen Lee

Retrospective: Dr. Christiane Froehlich

Christiane Fröhlich studies h​ow narratives and stories affect conflict, from a personal level to a global level, and her work informs and influences national politicians, educators and decision-makers in Germany. 

In this episode, Christiane shares about:

• ​seeking peace close to home
• navigating a post-war personal family history​
• completing a PhD thesis as a new mother​
• building an urban community, and​
• pioneering a career as a freelance conflict researcher

Dr. Christiane J. Fröhlich holds a PhD in sociology from Marburg University, as well as a Master of Peace and Security Studies and an M.A. in English, History and Psychology from Hamburg and Warwick Universities. From 2004 until 2011, she worked for the Protestant Institute for Interdisciplinary Science in Heidelberg, most notably as co-editor of the annual German Peace Report. She is a fellow at the Centre for Democracy and Peace Studies at Osnabrueck University, and specialises in discursive conflict transformation and resource conflicts, currently with a regional focus on the Middle East.

​Photo by Vivienne McMaster

“It felt like I would be able to say, ‘That title is not gonna work for me’ . . . I felt very seen throughout the process.”

— Liz Lamoreux

Jen Lee

Retrospective: Liz Lamoreux

​In this episode of Retrospective, Jen and Liz take you behind the scenes of a creative collaboration. Click on the audio player to hear about:

• the difference between being a guru and being a companion
• offering supports to share instead of trying to "fix" people​
• ​invitations versus sales pitches
• the journey from idea to tangible object, and ​
• what it's like to be seen all along the way.​

Liz Lamoreux is a retreat host, an artist, the author of Inner Excavation: Explore Your Self Through Photography, Poetry, and Mixed Media, and the creator of The Gift of This Moment Home Retreat Kit. She believes that beauty and truth are found when we share our stories through creativity and community, and she facilitates opportunities for women to shine a light on the stories just waiting inside them.

A trained yoga instructor, her experiences of community with other artists has encouraged her to see creativity as a form of yoga and she now honors creating and writing as part of her personal yoga practice. She lives in the Puget Sound Area with her husband, young daughter, and golden retriever. Most days you can find her in her studio surrounded by fabric, vintage lockets, and poetry as her daughter practices twirling beside her, or maybe she is practicing what she teaches and they are both taking a nap.

You can also subscribe to Retrospective in iTunes. If you're enjoying this series, it makes a big difference if you rate or review it there.​

www.kellybarton.com​

“When I allow myself just to truly be who I am, it doesn’t matter what anyone else thinks. . . . I can let that go.”

— Artist and designer Kelly Barton

Jen Lee

Retrospective: Kelly Barton

​Artist and designer Kelly Barton is one my favorite people in the whole world. One friend recently noted, "The best thing about Kelly is, wherever you find her or whoever she's with, Kelly is always Kelly." There's something so true blue and steady about the way she inhabits the world--you know you can always count on her to be kind, to be fair, to call it like she sees it and to walk her path, wherever it takes her.

We recorded this conversation on a porch at Squam Lake in New Hampshire, and if you listen closely you can hear the breeze blowing through the trees.​

In this episode, Kelly shares about:

being a creative in a small town in the Midwest

learning to listen to negative feedback in a non-negative way

how she balances solitude and time in the studio with friendships and creative partnerships

and her latest creative collaboration with Liz Lamoreux, Chickadee Road.​

Here's more about Kelly, in her own words: 

i am a girl who believes in the everyday simple. i love sharing
empowering stories through each girl i paint. stories that we
each tuck away in the layers of our days, sometimes just needing
a little reminder that it is okay to come out and play.

i am kelly barton. mixed media artist, designer. i own a laugh
that sounds like betty rubble and  a love for the word d.a.n.g.
a girl filled to the brim with color.

the girl next door.

Click the link at the top of this post to listen, or listen and subscribe in iTunes.