Simple

Toni Wallace is an attorney running for judge in her county in the upcoming elections — Election Day is November 6, 2018, so at the time of this episode, that's just a few months away.

She's running for judge in Fort Bend County, Texas, but also identifies as, in her words, a small business owner, a wife, mom of three, lawyer, believer, Cheer Mom, Baseball Mom, Basketball Mom, Football Mom, Team Mom, and yep, a former judge. (We'll get into that last bit.)

I loved talking to Toni — she made me both want to vote for her if I was living in her county and wish I was her neighbor so we could go on walks and grab coffee together. I know you're gonna love her.

Notes From This Episode:

• Toni for Judge
• Toni on Facebook and Twitter
• Tsh (me) on Instagram and Twitter
• An American Marriage, by Tayari Jones
• Kindly leave a review!
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• For any links and codes from our lovely sponsors, head here

A few weeks ago, Brooke McAlary asked me to share the mic with her at Book People, a local bookstore here in Austin. She was in town for a book tour for her book, Slow, and she asked if I'd join her on stage to talk about slow living: what it might mean; what it does and doesn't look like.

So, here's our live chat from just a few weeks ago, when Brooke and I talked with each other (and audience members) about our take on the topic. It was a lot of fun to see her in person again; it'd been years — she's from Sydney, Australia. (If you've read my book, At Home in the World, it was her house we stayed at over Christmas, so it was from her parents where I learned the concept of the Westbrook Effect.)

Notes From This Episode:

• Brooke's new book, Slow
• Brooke's podcast, The Slow Home
• Brooke on Instagram and Twitter
• Tsh (me) on Instagram and Twitter
• My book, At Home in the World
• Book People
• Become a patron: Support this podcast + get access to my secret show
• Sign up for 5 Quick Things, the weekly email
• For any links and codes from our lovely sponsors, head here

What's a "diversity champion," right? Well, Michelle Glauser started a community organization called Techtonica, out of a passion for seeing more diversity in the tech industry — it's a 6-month tech apprenticeship program that partners with tech companies to provide free tech training, living stipends, and job placement to women in need.

They specifically focus on underserved, diverse populations with this opportunity to be involved in a long-term, tuition free, full-time program that prepares (and then places!) apprentices in the software engineering field, without having to worry about financial instability.

Michelle says since becoming an engineer in 2012, she's been passionate about helping underrepresented people join, feel comfortable in, and stay in the software industry. If you know much about the tech world, you know that Michelle's non-profit's focus on women, low-income, and tuition-free training is a really big deal.

Notes From This Episode:

• Techtonica
• Michelle on Twitter
• Tsh (me) on Instagram and Twitter
• Homegoing, by Yaa Gyasi
• Educated, by Tara Westover
• Become a patron: Support this podcast + get access to my secret show
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• For any links and codes from our lovely sponsors, head here

A few weeks ago, I talked with Bethany Rydmark; she's the one who started the PDX Food Swap in Portland. After we chatted, I also asked her about what's saving her life right now.

This is a thing we do here on the pod every now and then; this idea is taken from Barbara Brown Taylor, a writer who, in her book, An Altar in the World, she talks about how easy it is to focus on the things that are making everything harder, and that instead, we need to remember to look around and notice: what are the little things that are making everything a bit better?

Bethany shares a few things she's loving right now.

I hope you enjoy this short chat, because down the road, we'll be doing more of these — I might ask a favorite guest from our work episodes to come back on, or another friend or co-host you love hearing from — or even some of you lovely patrons!

After my chat with Bethany, I'm sharing a little something I've got available for you right now that's only open right now, so hang on to the end for that. I think you'll really like it.

Notes From This Episode:

• Enroll in Like Your Life during the fall flash sale! It ends tomorrow.
• Bainbridge Island
• Darlingside
• God of Loss music video
• Darlingside on Tiny Desk
• Big Dreams, Small Spaces on Netflix
• Bethany's blog, Two Oregonians
• Bethany on Instagram
• Tsh (me) on Instagram and Twitter
• Become a patron: Support this podcast + get access to The WRLD at Home
• Sign up for 5 Quick Things, the weekly email
• For any links and codes from our lovely sponsors, head here

It's the start of a new school year for most of us right now, so I figured: what better way to celebrate the amazing work our kids' teachers do than share a conversation I've had with one?

Rissie Lundberg is a math teacher at an all-girls high school, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and she's part of a mathematics department made up entirely of women — which is actually pretty rare, even in a girls' school. She absolutely adores what she does, both getting her hands dirty in math, and inspiring girls to love it as much as she does.

Notes From This Episode:

• Rissie's school and Instagram
• Rissie's Instagram
• Tsh (me) on Instagram and Twitter
• The Calculus of Friendship, by Steven Strogatz
• Educated, by Tara Westover
• The Glass Castle, by Jeannette Walls
• Wonder, by RJ Palacio
• Become a patron: Support this podcast + get access to my secret show
• Sign up for 5 Quick Things, the weekly email
• For any links and codes from our lovely sponsors, head here

A bonus work-themed episode for the week! While we're busy getting ready for the fall season of the show around here, I thought I'd share one of my favorite earlier episodes of Women's Work, before we merged it into one lovely show here.

Tanorria Askew is a personal chef and through her business, Tanorria's Table, people can hire her for both everyday meals and special occasions. Her cooking roots originate from the south, and Tanorria says she loves to put a modern spin on American Comfort Food — she recently placed 4th on Master Chef!

She's passionate about good food, gathering people around the table to have good conversations, and enjoying life through it all. Her can-do attitude is contagious. Honestly... You can't not love Tanorria.

Notes From This Episode:

• Tanorria's Table
• Treats By Tanorria
• Tanorria on Instagram and Twitter
• Masterchef Season 7
• Tsh on Twitter & Instagram
• Of Mess and Moxie, by Jen Hatmaker
• Disunity in Christ, by Christena Cleveland
• Become a patron: Support this podcast + get access to my secret show
• Sign up for 5 Quick Things, the weekly email
• For any links and codes from our lovely sponsors, head here

Andrea Debbink is an editor at American Girl magazine, the beloved magazine you've probably seen in bookstores and is read by so many girls over the years. You might have read it when you were a young girl.

She creates a lot of the content their readers love, like recipes, crafts, stories, and beyond. In fact, she recently relaunched one of her favorite segments from the magazine from when she was a young reader herself: Featuring inspiring women from history, "Who's That Girl?" shows how ordinary girls became women who made their mark on the world.

Andrea also recently wrote her first book, Spark, specifically for American Girl readers!

Notes From This Episode:

• Andrea's new book, Spark: A Guide to Ignite the Creativity Inside You
• Andrea's website
• Andrea on Instagram
• American Girl magazine
• Tsh (me) on Instagram and Twitter
• How to Stop Time, by Matt Haig
• The Genius of Birds, by Jennifer Ackerman
• The Hidden Life of Trees, by Peter Wohlleben
• Become a patron: Support this podcast + get access to my secret show
• Sign up for 5 Quick Things, the weekly email
• For any links and codes from our lovely sponsors, head here

A few weeks ago I tried a new thing in my work: I led a group of 6 other women to London, exploring a tiny scratch of the literary soil there — the footsteps of Jane Austen, CS Lewis, Dickens, Shakespeare, Chesterton, and more.

It was the most gratifying and fulfilling thing I've done in my career in a long while. And I tried this whole beta-test of an experience with a dear friends, Emily P. Freeman, who co-led the group with me.

I led the travel logistics, spearheaded the vision of where we went and explored, and why — and Emily led the group dynamics, the conversations we had, helped us think through our next right thing in our work and life. I led the outer work of our time, and Emily led the inner work.

In this episode, Emily and I talk about what it was like for the two of us to lead Literary London for the first time.

Notes From This Episode:

• Emily's blog
• Emily's podcast, The Next Right Thing
• Emily on Instagram and Twitter
• Tsh (me) on Instagram and Twitter
• Literary London (sign up to know when there's another one scheduled!)
• #literarylondon and #travelswithtsh on Instagram
• For any links and codes from our lovely sponsors, head here

In this episode, I'm talking to Christine Bailey, a farmer. She and her husband run The Kindred Farm — a certified organic farm — and even though they're relatively new to farming and it's the hardest work they've ever done, she says she's loving every minute of it. She's learning a ton about the ins and outs of this ancient work that's always changing in our modern world, along with how to cultivate community in what they do. She also hosts literal farm-to-table dinner parties on their land, called Kindred Dinners, and it's one of her favorite things to do.

Notes From This Episode:

• The Kindred Farm
• Kindred Farm on Instagram
• Tsh (me) on Instagram and Twitter
• Food, Inc.
• Folks, This Ain't Normal, by Joel Salatin
• You Can Farm, by Joel Salatin
• The Life-Giving Table, by Sally Clarkson
• Wonder, by RJ Palacio
• The Magnolia Story, by Chip & Joanna Gaines
• Capital Gaines, by Chip Gaines
• Become a patron: Support this podcast + get access to my secret show
• Sign up for 5 Quick Things, the weekly email
• For any links and codes from our lovely sponsors, head here

As you know from last week's episode, this show is now an amalgamation of my two podcasts, The Simple Show and Women's Work. On Tuesdays, you'll get a conversation with a creative woman who does interesting work, and on Thursdays, you'll get a variety: chats with women about non-work stuff, book recommendations, Q&A sessions, lots of chats with people about what's saving their life, and more deep-dives with my co-hosts.

If you're not familiar with what we did over at Women's Work, I think you'll enjoy this: I love to celebrate women who make our world a better place, and these chats are a way to do just that. I especially love talking to the ones we don't always hear form: from artists and entrepreneurs, to scientists, journalists, engineers, coders, and beyond.

If you're a longtime Simple Show listener, I think you're gonna love these conversations.

Awhile ago, I talked to Bethany Rydmark about her work as a landscape architect. I loved our chat about what she does, but she casually mentioned something that I really wanted to know more about:

She started the PDX Food Swap in Portland, Oregon.

What's a food swap? Well, listen in and you'll see — and maybe you'll be inspired to start one of your own in your city, neighborhood, block, church, or simply among a group of friends.

Links From This Episode:

• PDX Food Swap
• Food Swap Network
• Bethany's blog, Two Oregonians
• Bethany on Instagram
• Tsh (me) on Instagram and Twitter
• Become a patron: Support this podcast + get access to The WRLD at Home
• Sign up for 5 Quick Things, the weekly email
• For any links and codes from our lovely sponsors, head here