The Liz Cast

In December 2024, my first book -- The Present Professor: Authenticity and Transformational Teaching -- was released. There's an audiobook of that available, but in this new series, I share some of the deeply personal stories that informed the book in my own voice. 

• Buy The Present Professor from the University of Oklahoma Press. 
• The audiobook is available from all major audiobook vendors and produced by Tantor Media.
• Older episodes of this podcast are available wherever you get your podcasts or on my website here.

Get in touch with me on social media! I'm active on Bluesky and LinkedIn (find me @liznorell) or you can email me at liznorell at gmail dot com.

More soon!

I'm back with another installment of What Liz Has Been Reading Lately, featuring Thomas King's excellent book, The Inconvenient Indian: A Curious Account of Native People in North America, and Michael Lewis's latest book, The Premonition. Both are definitely recommended!

To find out more about Thomas King, check out this profile from CBC: https://www.cbc.ca/books/thomas-king-is-hopeful-that-his-writing-has-changed-the-world-but-he-s-still-not-sure-1.5795015

And be sure to look up the book I discuss here: https://www.upress.umn.edu/book-division/books/the-inconvenient-indian

Michael Lewis is notoriously social media averse, but you can learn more about him and his work at his web site: http://michaellewiswrites.com/#top

Both books he's written in the last five years are among my top nonfiction favorites of all time! They make it easy to understand how, when, and why government is an important part of our overall health and progress as a country. 

The Fifth Risk: https://www.indiebound.org/book/9780393357455
The Premonition: https://www.indiebound.org/book/9780393881554

Learn more about the characters I mention:
Carter Mecher: https://www.phc.health/team-member/carter-mecher-md
Charity Dean: https://www.phc.health/team-member/charity-dean-md-mph-tm-2
Joe DeRisi: https://profiles.ucsf.edu/joe.derisi
DeRisi's Lab: http://derisilab.ucsf.edu/

Either would make a great Christmas gift! And while you're at it, why not shop independent bookstores! You can do so using those links or support local bookstores at https://bookshop.org/.

Next week, I'll be talking about an excellent book I'm currently about halfway through: Sorry I'm Late, I Didn't Want to Come, all about introverting, by Jessica Pan. And maybe also some more from Caste, Teaching Machines, and/or Tarana Burke's searing memoir, Unbound, all of which I'm in the middle of right now!

Follow me on Goodreads at https://goodreads.com/liznorell to see what I'm reading and on Twitter at https://twitter.com/liznorell to see what I'm thinking.

In this week's episode of What Did Liz Read This Week? I talk about Aubrey Gordon's book What We Don't Talk About When We Talk About Fat and Isabel Wilkerson's book Caste. Y'know. Some light reading.

Aubrey Gordon formerly wrote exclusively under her internet handle Your Fat Friend. She's a fat activist and co-host of the incredibly popular podcast Maintenance Phase, along with Michael Hobbes.

Isabel Wilkerson won the Pulitzer Prize for her previous book, The Warmth of Other Suns. Her latest book Caste has similarly been hailed as an incredible achievement, chosen by Oprah and others as a book of the year. It's also the common read this academic year for my college's honors program.

Links:

• What We Don't Talk About When We Talk About Fat: https://www.yourfatfriend.com/home/book
• Maintenance Phase web: http://maintenancephase.com/
• MP IG: https://www.instagram.com/maintenancephase/?hl=en
• MP Twitter: https://twitter.com/maintenancepod
• Aubrey Gordon's web site: https://www.yourfatfriend.com/
• AG's IG: https://www.instagram.com/yrfatfriend/?hl=en
• AG's Twitter: https://twitter.com/yrfatfriend
• Michael Hobbes's web site: https://rottenindenmark.org/
• MH's Twitter: https://twitter.com/RottenInDenmark
• Caste: https://www.isabelwilkerson.com/retailers
• The Warmth of Other Suns: http://warmth.isabelwilkerson.com/
• Isabel Wilkerson web: https://www.isabelwilkerson.com/
• IW IG: https://www.instagram.com/isabelwilkerson/?hl=en
• IW Twitter: https://twitter.com/isabelwilkerson

This week, I talk about key insights from the second half of Kim Scott's revised edition of Radical Candor: How to Be a Kick-Ass Boss Without Losing Your Humanity.

See the four quadrants that undergird Scott's arguments here: https://www.radicalcandor.com/our-approach/

And read more about Kim Scott here: https://www.radicalcandor.com/

I also share thoughts from Angela Y. Davis's 2003 book, Are Prisons Obsolete?  I'm so often reminded of the saying: "hurt people ... hurt people." Unless and until we can break the cycle of trauma and hurt that leads so many to have their lives forever altered by breaking a law, we will never achieve an equitable criminal justice system.

Read more about Davis's book here: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/213837/are-prisons-obsolete-by-angela-y-davis/

And consider supporting / researching further with these groups she recommends:

• http://criticalresistance.org/
• https://www.hrw.org/
• https://incite-national.org/
• http://www.ncianet.org/
• https://www.prisonactivist.org/
• https://www.prisonlegalnews.org/
• http://www.nomoreprisons.org/
• http://sentencingproject.org/

It's been a long time since my last episode, mostly because COVID sucks and my anxiety has been spiraling for a while. But I'm back! And starting what I hope will become a regular (or semi-regular) Sunday offering -- a short episode each week (ish) recapping what I've been reading that week. This week, I talk about key insights from the first third of Kim Scott's revised edition of Radical Candor: How to Be a Kick-Ass Boss Without Losing Your Humanity.

See the four quadrants that undergird Scott's arguments here: https://www.radicalcandor.com/our-approach/

And read more about Kim Scott here: https://www.radicalcandor.com/

This week, I'm hoping to read more of Scott's book AND I'm eager to dive into Angela Davis's short 2003 book, Are Prisons Obsolete? 

This is the fifth in a special series of "covid convos" -- conversations with women about how they've been navigating the coronavirus over the last few months. In this episode, I talk to Gaytha in Dallas, Tex., about how working from home and taking care of her three-year-old daughter Blanche has had a positive impact on her family. Gaytha has learned that "work-life balance" is something that's both easier and harder to achieve in a work-from-home lifestyle, in that she is often working much later in the day, but she also has the flexibility to decide when she's doing most of her work. She has also really loved getting to be Blanche's "person," for the first time since Gaytha was on maternity leave after giving birth.

I'm pretty confident you'll find something in this episode to inspire you to think about what you might be taking for granted during these ... odd times. I know I did.

If you'd like to be a part of The Liz Cast or share your own #CovidConvo, please reach out! You can get in touch via www.liznorell.com. 

This is the fourth in a special series of "covid convos" -- conversations with women about how they've been navigating the coronavirus over the last couple of months. In this episode, I chat with Stephanie about how her work as an event coordinator at a retreat center in Monteagle, Tenn., has changed since March. (Hint: It's A LOT.) We also talk about a wellness retreat she's planning in July 2020, as well as her thoughts on identity and this moment as a woman of color.

Find out more about the conference Stephanie mentions, A Bounty of Good Health, at this web site: https://www.duboseconferencecenter.org/bounty

DuBose Conference Center is a wonderful place to escape and hold your events, and it's right down the street from me, too! Find out more about it at https://www.duboseconferencecenter.org/

If you'd like to find out more about Liz or her work, visit https://www.liznorell.com/. Get in touch with show ideas, feedback, or what's on your mind.

This is the third in a special series of "covid convos" -- conversations with women about how they've been navigating the coronavirus over the last couple of months. In this episode, I chat with Rachel, who has weathered -- along with covid-19 -- a tornado and a bee infestation...! While it's been a topsy-turvy couple of months, she reflects back on this time with refreshing perspective and equanimity. I looooooove this episode!

This is the second episode in a special series of "covid convos" -- conversations with women about how they've been navigating the coronavirus over the last couple of months. In this episode, I chat with my fabulous friend Amanda, a single mom of two curious and energetic kids (both under 10, eeps!), who have been keeping her on her toes during this quarantine life. She talks about missing hugs, reading poetry, and also missing hugs ... did we mention?

Amanda's not the only person who has found a new (or renewed) interest in birdwatching during #covid19 -- here's an AP article about the resurgent popularity of the hobby: https://apnews.com/94a1ea5938943d8a70fe794e9f629b13

Thanks to Amanda for sharing her thoughts! If you'd like to be a part of this, reach out at www.liznorell.com,

Covid Convos with Katie S. Hall & Julie B.

I'm kicking off a special series of "covid convos" -- conversations with women about how they've been navigating the coronavirus over the last couple of months. In this first episode, I chat with two dear friends while we escaped to Savannah for a responsibly-planned retreat, Katie S. Hall and fellow teacher Julie B. Find out how the three of us have been thinking about this slowing down of life, and tune in soon for the next installment of Covid Convos.

Katie is a development professional who works with a ministry for men who are overcoming a history of addiction. She is also a yoga teacher with a special gift for helping women find ease and acceptance. 

Julie teaches English at Chattanooga State, and she's one of the most warm-hearted, quirky, delightful people I know. She loves Mister Rogers, Jeff Goldblum, and tiny hands more than anyone I've ever met, and she's learning how to play the ukulele during covid-19 because it's not so loud that it would disturb her condo-building neighbors.

Look for more conversations coming soon in the next couple of weeks.