The Lisa Congdon Sessions

In this episode Lisa interviews Lindsey Murphy, known to many as "Crazy Aunt Lindsey". She is the award-winning creator + host of The Fab Lab With Crazy Aunt Lindsey, YouTube’s most beloved kids science web series that takes everyday science concepts and turns them into fabulous DIY projects children can do at home with their families. Known for her inspiring, unconventional life path and her accrual of and ability to dispense wisdom, Lindsey is a regular guest on television shows, conference stages, and has been invited to speak at Harvard University and Google Inc. to talk about creative media in science communications, Diversity in STEM, fundraising, entrepreneurship, being brave, having courage, branding and marketing in the digital age. In this episode, we learn more about Lindsey’s incredible life so far with a focus on fear, risk, and experiencing life fully.

This episode Lisa talks about holding boundaries without guilt. Boundaries has become one of her favorite topics because she has struggled with having them for nearly her entire life. In the past few years, she's been making major progress in holding boundaries and she shares what she's learneing (and unlearning).

In Episode 19 Lisa chats with one of the most important voices on social media today: Courtney Ahn. Courtney – or “Courn” as she is known by her friends and fans – is a Korean American multi-disciplinary designer and illustrator and anti-racist, anti oppression activist and educator. Courn uses her platform and design chops to create beautiful, educational, hard hitting guides and other messaging to speak out about racism, oppression, among other important topics. She is dedicated to dismantling white supremacy and systemic oppression through her design practice. Courn exemplifies the spirit of Gen Z: a passion for change and speaking truth to power.

In this episode Lisa interviews artist Kyle Steed about one of her favorite topics: boredom. Kyle just published a fantastic book for kids about boredom, called, aptly A Kids Book About Boredom (which is part of a wonderful, growing series). This book illuminates a key belief about boredom that Kyle and Lisa share: that boredom is an opportunity and, ultimately, a gift – especially when it comes to creativity. Mundane activities and moments are gifts, because our minds get free reign. We are not beholden to anything except our imagination. We hope you enjoy this episode!

Lisa answers your questions! In this episode we cover everything from "not caring" what other people think, to the leap from analog to digital art, to social media (the ups and downs), to what to do when you have too many ideas (and get overwhelmed), to career dreams, insecurities, and how I got started in illustration AND MORE. Moderated by Lisa's wife Clay.

In this episode, Lisa chats with Andreea Niculescu about how the simple act of understanding our own core values has the capacity to completely change how we approach our lives, run our businesses and make choices in our everyday lives. Andreea and Lisa are both so passionate about sharing with other folks how transformational understanding core values can be that they created a deck of illustrated values cards (The Live Your Values Deck!) which you can use to narrow down your own set of core values. In this conversation Lisa and Andreea talk about how they came together to create the deck and the power of living a values driven life.

I had the pleasure of interviewing Grace Bonney, legendary former editor of DesignSponge, about what she’s been up to since she closed DesignSponge in 2019 and about her latest book, Collective Wisdom. Collective Wisdom is a collection of interviews, conversations, and intimate photographs of over 100 trailblazing women over the age of 50, who describe the ups, downs, and lessons learned while forging their unique paths. It is also a tribute to the importance of intergenerational connections between women, with interviews conducted by daughters, friends, mentors, and colleagues. I am so delighted to be included in the book and to have gotten to turn the mic on Grace to ask her what inspired her to make this book.

Episode 14 is an interview with Bill Strickland, Editor-in-Chief of Bicycling Magazine. Bill’s equal passions for cycling and writing have led to several books, award winning stories, and leading the magazine into the future, most significantly in transforming the magazine to more accurately reflect the diverse community of cyclists in the world. While many organizations made such pledges in 2020 but quickly abandoned them, Bicycling is living it. In this episode, I talk to Bill about leading the magazine through this process, and what that has been like for him personally and professionally.

In this episode, Lisa talks about the relationship between fear (which we also call anxiety) and the creative process. Fear and creativity are so inextricably linked that we almost cannot separate them. And, yet, they constantly feel at war with one another. And that conflict gets in the way of the making and the doing. So what do we do? The answer is simple, but it requires work and patience and a new perspective. Take a listen  to learn more about mind shifts you can make when anxiety keeps you from moving forward.

In this conversation with renowned entrepreneur, podcaster and author Jonathan Fields, we dive into the question: what is your unique imprint for work that brings you alive? We also discuss the groundbreaking assessment Jonathan has developed to help us answer this question. We all want to do work that brings us a sense of meaningfulness, where we are in the flow, where we feel energized, where we are allowed to express the greatest amount of potential and have a strong sense of purpose. How do we figure out what that "work" is? And how has the global pandemic pushed many of us to ask and answer this question?