In this episode, Le Trente founder and host Anne V. Mühlethaler welcomes Bianca Barratt, a journalist and writer with over a decade in the British media, five of them as a Forbes Senior Contributor, with bylines in Vogue, The Sunday Times, Cosmopolitan, the BBC and the Evening Standard. Sitting on the receiving end of roughly a hundred pitches a day taught her something uncomfortable: the people who get covered aren't better at their jobs, they just know what a journalist needs and when. That became The Scoop, which merged this August with Pressflow, where she is now a director and co-founder.

They begin, as Anne likes to, with joy and curiosity, and Bianca offers a thoughtful perspective on her life given recent personal tragedy. Asked to introduce herself, Bianca eschews the job title first and instead focuses on her creative persona: how she is a writer, a storyteller. She talks about growing up a voracious reader in the years before personal screens, and about how early she understood that storytelling was something universal and almost primal, a way of being connected to the world. The big alive question Bianca Brings to this interview is: how do I make sure I'm living up to my full potential? 

Bianca and Anne also explore the tipping point, unique to each of us, where striving for a thing starts taking more than it gives, and the better question Bianca found on the far side of it: not what do I have to do, but who would I have to be for this to come naturally?

Along the way, they discuss wholeheartedness, scattered attention, Thich Nhat Hanh on washing the dishes, Korean drama, and a CEO with a serious commitment to Dungeons & Dragons.Happy listening!

Selected links

Connect with Bianca:

Pressflow: ⁠https://www.pressflow.io/news/pressflow-3-0⁠

Bianca on Instagram: ⁠https://www.instagram.com/bianca_barratt/⁠

Pressflow on Instagram: ⁠https://www.instagram.com/thisispressflow/⁠

Bianca's masterclass for Le Trente, September 2026: How to get featured in the media (without hiring a PR agency)

Mentioned in this episode:

Elizabeth Gilbert, ⁠Big Magic ⁠

Thich Nhat Hanh, ⁠The Miracle of Mindfulness⁠

James Joyce, ⁠Ulysses⁠

⁠Brian Little's TED Talk⁠ on personality and personal projects, the Canadian psychologist Anne couldn't name in the moment: ⁠https://www.ted.com/talks/brian_little_who_are_you_really_the_puzzle_of_personality⁠

Debbie Millman's Design Matters conversation with Jacqueline Novogratz, where Anne first heard the Joyce line: ⁠https://designobserver.com/feature/jacqueline-novogratz/40321⁠

The Mettā Interview:

Website: ⁠https://LeTrente.com/the-metta-interview⁠

Spotify: ⁠https://open.spotify.com/show/5204m0Z8im7uQOfFG5mk6L⁠

Apple Podcasts: ⁠https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-metta-interview/id1832511055⁠

YouTube: ⁠https://www.youtube.com/@TheMettaInterview⁠

The Mettā View newsletter: ⁠https://themettaview.com⁠

Le Trente: ⁠https://LeTrente.com⁠

In this episode, Anne welcomes author and writing coach April Dávila, a fourth-generation Californian who helps aspiring writers write more and suffer less, and whom Anne first met at the Zoom closing ceremony of the mindfulness teacher training they took together with Jack Kornfield and Tara Brach.

In their conversation, Anne draws out stories from April, like that of the palm reader who looked at her hand before declaring her a writer. April revisits her family’s creative roots, exploring the difference between her father's (himself a memoirist) careful fact-collecting and her mother's deeper truths (herself an artist), and why fiction writers use lies to tell the truth. She shares why writing seems to get harder the better you become at it, and the honest, sometimes tearful feedback that taught her to ask the difficult questions of herself first.

The two then dive into the big alive question April brings to this conversation: what is the value of narrative story in our society? Her answer arrives in thoughtful parts. At its core, fiction offers empathy for lives we haven't lived, then adding the relief of knowing we're not alone, the freedom to imagine other worlds, and the chance to live more than the single life we're given. 

And then the thornier questions that follow, who gets to write whom, where responsibility really sits in publishing, and whether a voice can outlive the person who made it.

Along the way, we hear April recall the surprise guest that raided the campsite on the climb up Half Dome, and the strange glory of watching the sun rise from fifty feet beneath the Caribbean.
Happy listening!

About our guest:

April Dávila is a Los Angeles-based author and writing coach. She studied biology at Scripps College before turning to writing at USC, and her debut novel, 142 Ostriches, won the WILLA Literary Award for Women Writing the West. A certified mindfulness meditation teacher, she is the creator of the Sit Write Here coaching programme and the Mindful Writing Community, and co-founder of the online writing community A Very Important Meeting.

Her new book, Sit Write Here: 6 Mindfulness Practices to Help You Write More and Suffer Less, grows directly out of the practices at the heart of her teaching. She lives in La Cañada Flintridge with her husband and two children, and is at work on her third novel.

CONNECT WITH APRIL + SELECT EPISODE LINKS

Connect with April Dàvila:

Website: https://aprildavila.com
Instagram: @meldishell
Facebook
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aprildavila/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@aprildavila

Books mentioned:
Sit Write Here (the book): https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250425249/sitwritehere/
Sit Write Here coaching and the Mindful Writing Community: https://aprildavila.com/for-writers/
142 Ostriches by April Dávila (on StoryGraph)
Body Work: The Radical Power of Personal Narrative by Melissa Febos (on StoryGraph)

CONNECT WITH LE TRENTE

The Mettā Interview:

Website: LeTrente.com/the-metta-interview
Spotify
Apple Podcasts
YouTube
Full transcripts and show notes: letrente.com/the-metta-interview
The Mettā View newsletter: themettaview.com
Newsletter signup: letrente.kit.com/metta-view

Le Trente:

Website: LeTrente.com
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/le-trente
Instagram: @le_trente_studio
Event calendar: Luma.com/LeTrente

CONNECT WITH ANNE V

Website: AnneVMuhlethaler.com
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/anne-v-muhlethaler
Instagram: @annvi
BlueSky: @annvi.bsky.social

In this episode, Anne welcomes one of her dearest friends: Melissa Dishell — LA native, former professional hip hop dancer, and founder of a boutique entertainment company she has been building for nearly three decades.

In their conversation, Melissa and Anne touch on: the early experiences — from competitive horse riding to ice skating to dance — that shaped Melissa into a natural jack of all trades and gave her an unusual work ethic from a young age. How she stumbled serendipitously into entertainment management, driven not by a plan but by a conviction that some people are brilliant and the world just hasn't found out yet. What it takes to spot that kind of talent — and what it costs, over time, to devote yourself so completely to someone else's world.

They also explore the question Melissa brings to this conversation: where am I in all of this? — how it first surfaced, why it still feels alive, and how she has been quietly answering it ever since. Including what time and freedom really mean to her now, why she signed up for tennis lessons with no goal in mind, and what led her to step onto a TEDx stage to talk about putting love on her to-do list.

Along the way: Arthur Brooks and the second curve, the electric slide as a life philosophy, a MASH anecdote, and Hank the party poodle.

About Melissa Dishell

Melissa Dishell is a Los Angeles-based multi-hyphenate creative executive with over twenty years of experience in branding, marketing, and entertainment production. A former professional hip hop dancer, she began her career representing a who's who of music personalities — choreographer Fatima Robinson, director Chris Robinson, and the cabaret dance troupe the Pussycat Dolls. She most notably represented burlesque queen and international fashion icon Dita Von Teese for nearly fifteen years, inking deals with MAC Cosmetics, Perrier, and Cointreau; overseeing the expansion into Dita's own lingerie and fragrance brands; and securing her touring deal with Live Nation.

Throughout her career, Melissa expanded into event design and creative production, activating for music, fashion, and film clients including Hulu, Apple Music, Searchlight Pictures, Christian Louboutin, Giorgio Armani, Pharrell Williams, Justin Timberlake, and Maroon 5. From 2015 to 2020, she was in-house at Pharrell Williams' creative collective i am OTHER, working on strategic and experiential marketing for Mattel, Barbie, Netflix, American Express, Adidas, and more, as well as the development of festivals including ComplexCon and Something in the Water.

Most recently, Melissa served as creative producer for Dita Von Teese's Las Vegas residency at Voltaire at the Venetian. She also gave a TEDx talk — Ditch the Dating Apps: Do This 1 Thing Every Day to Find Love — about applying her career mindset to her personal life.

→ Watch the TEDx talk: https://youtu.be/eMAXQxVWCc0

Selected links from the episode

Connect with Melissa Dishell:

• Website: https://www.melissadishell.com

Books mentioned:

• From Strength to Strength by Arthur Brooks: https://www.arthurbrooks.com/from-strength-to-strength

The Mettā Interview:

• Website: https://LeTrente.com/the-metta-interview
• Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5204m0Z8im7uQOfFG5mk6L
• Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-metta-interview/id1832511055
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheMettaInterview

The Mettā View newsletter: https://themettaview.com

• Newsletter signup: https://letrente.kit.com/metta-view

Le Trente:

• Website: https://LeTrente.com
• Luma calendar: https://lu.ma/letrente

In this episode, host Anne V. Mühlethaler welcomes Lucia Dami, artist, tarot reader and creator of The Light in the Dark Oracle

Lucia's work centres on exploring and empowering the divine feminine, not as an abstract concept, but as a lived relationship with the internal world, the unseen realms, emotion, feeling, and spirit.

Her practice weaves together visual art, divination, and archetype work, with a particular interest in the symbols and myths that speak to the subconscious: the language beneath language. In this conversation, Lucia is days away from releasing The Light in the Dark Oracle, a 44-card deck and guidebook she describes as a collection of visual prayers designed to call us back to the healing rhythms of nature and our own cyclic wisdom. She also has an art exhibition opening in London in June, and has just launched The Mystic Feminine, her online Patreon community. Three things she has been wanting to do for years, all arriving in the same six months. She describes it as the beginning of something — an awakening. A part of herself that has been hiding, and no longer wants to.

Her alive question — How do I stop hiding my creative and spiritual voice? — is the thread that holds everything together. She traces from childhood, talking about the rich imaginative world Lucia inhabited, the drawings and daydreaming, her fascination with tarot. And through a formative turning point at around nineteen, when an ovarian cyst and the surgery that followed became, in her words, an initiation into the divine feminine work she does now.

What emerges is an personal account of the push and pull between wanting to be seen and being terrified of it, not as a personality trait, but as something with a much longer history. The conversation also touches on the heroine's journey as distinct from the hero's — the descent rather than the conquest — and on desire as a compass for anyone who doesn't yet know where their creative or spiritual voice lives

Selected Links

Connect with Lucia Dami:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lucia.dami
• Facbook: https://www.facebook.com/people/LUCIA-DAMI/100083612149274/#
• Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/luciadami_/
• The Light in the Dark Oracle — pre-order (releasing April 7th): https://luciadami.com/pages/the-light-in-the-dark-oracle
• The Elysian Tarot: https://luciadami.com/pages/tarot-deck
• The Mystic Feminine on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/cw/LuciaDami?l=it
• Custom art commissions: https://luciadami.com/pages/custom-art-by-lucia-dami
• Lucia on Out of the Clouds
• The Myth of Inanna
• Maureen Murdoch's the Heroin Journey (book)

The Mettā Interview:

• Website: https://LeTrente.com/the-metta-interview
• Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5204m0Z8im7uQOfFG5mk6L
• Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-metta-interview/id1832511055
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheMettaInterview

The Mettā View newsletter: https://themettaview.com

Le Trente: https://LeTrente.com

In this episode, Le Trente founder and host Anne V. Mühlethaler welcomes Oana Budica, a Chinese medicine physician, acupuncturist, and herbal medicine practitioner based in Geneva, Switzerland. Originally from Romania, Oana has spent over a decade moving between clinical medicine and serious contemplative training, and the conversation moves freely between both worlds. She spent training across multiple Asian contemplative traditions, including completing two full vassa retreats in Theravāda monasteries in Thailand and Myanmar under the guidance of Pa-Auk Sayadaw, one of the most respected teachers of systematic concentration practice alive today.

They begin, as Anne likes to, with childhood. Oana's story starts in the Romanian forests, picking mushrooms with her grandfather, a leather-hat-wearing adventurer Anne imagines as the Indiana Jones of the Carpathians. It is an image that carries through the whole conversation, because Oana's path has been anything but cautious. A comment from a friend at 19 (that she had a big ego) sent her on a journey of self-discovery that took her to India, where she found her teacher. Later, Oana decided to study Shiatsu, acupuncture, and eventually earning a diploma in classical Chinese herbal medicine under Dr A. Lewis, whose lineage-based approach to pulse diagnosis remains one of the things that still surprises Oana in her own practice. Patients ask her: how did you know that? She finds herself asking the same question.

Anne and Oana also spend time on the less mappable parts of her formation, meeting her teacher, discovering meditation, yoga philosophy and silent retreats. It was in that silence, specifically in a cave in the Himalayas at 3,500 metres, cooking on open fires, bathing in hot springs between sessions, that Oana discovered something she carries as a north star: the kind of joy and happiness that does not depend on material circumstances.

Her “alive” question — the one threading through both the clinic and her own life — is this: how do we stay aligned with what truly matters in order to create the life we are dreaming of? Anne and Oana trace it through Oana's patients, many of whom arrive with burnout, anxiety, and a kind of unnamed emptiness. They also push into what meditation is and is not — not suppression, not spiritual bypassing, not indifference to a difficult world. Oana describes it as effort that eventually becomes effortlessness, and as a way to work with anger, not away from it. In Chinese medicine, she reminds us, anger is fire. It can calcify in the body, or it can be transformed into creativity, into action, into something that moves through rather than settles in.

Oana closes the conversation with a short guided breath practice, live on air. And somewhere along the way, Anne discovers that Oana sang in front of 16,000 people at the age of nine, and is also a free diver.

This is that kind of conversation.

Connect with Oana:

• LinkedIn : https://www.linkedin.com/in/oana-budica-60032827a/

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/oanabelove/

  At Biomed MTC in Geneva: https://biomed-mtc.ch/en/our-therapeuts-biomed-mtc/oana-budica-therapeute-biomed-mtc/

The Mettā Interview:

• Website: https://LeTrente.com/the-metta-interview

• Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5204m0Z8im7uQOfFG5mk6L

• Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-metta-interview/id1832511055

• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheMettaInterview

The Mettā View newsletter: https://themettaview.com

Selected linksLe Trente: https://LeTrente.com

In this episode of The Mettā Interview, host Anne V Mühlethaler welcomes Giulia Galli, a London-based parental and mental fitness coach, author of When a Parent Is Born, and founder of Reegal Coaching. 

After more than 20 years in international fashion and communications, working with global brands like Alberta Ferretti and Dunhill in roles focused on strategy, storytelling, and experience design, Giulia now brings that same attention to intention, coherence, and the impact of choices to the way we raise children. Her method is rooted in neuro-linguistic programming and combines intentional questioning, language awareness, and practical tools to help parents slow down, think clearly, and make conscious choices. Giulia co-founded Reegal with her father, whose lifelong work in personal development and responsibility represents a beautiful continuity of values across generations.Giulia and Anne kick off their conversation with a passionate reflection on the state of the world, generational differences in how people respond to current events, and the responsibility she feels as a parent to help her children think critically. Giulia traces her roots back to growing up in 1980s Italy, where her parents broke with tradition in remarkable ways, like choosing not to baptise her, encouraging her to form her own opinions, and creating a household where questions were welcomed. 

The heart of the episode explores Giulia's central question: "What is my intention?" She unpacks how intention functions as both purpose and accountability — like setting a destination on a map that helps you navigate whatever comes up along the way. She explains how most parenting happens in what Virginia Satir called "the familiarity zone" — not comfortable, but familiar — and how stepping out of autopilot reactions transforms the parent-child dynamic.

Anne and Giulia both feel strongly about the skill of listening to understand rather than to respond or fix. Giulia credits Nancy Kline's Time to Think as revolutionary for her practice, and she and Anne explore how allowing space and silence in conversation unlocks deeper thinking for clients, for children, and for ourselves. They discuss the possibilities available to us all when we are allowed the opportunity to finish our thoughts, silence as a space of emergence, for responses so deeply human, an important skill in a world increasingly shaped by AI. 

The episode closes with Giulia's message: be kind! In actions, in words, and especially in the space we offer one another. A warm, thought-provoking conversation about intention, listening, and the quiet revolution of raising children who can think for themselves.

Happy listening!

Selected links from episode

Your Story Your Map:

Hey, it's Anne: as promised, here's Your Story, Your Map — a contemplative guide to help you trace the arc of your life with intention. You get the ebook, an audio recording (for those who'd rather listen), and an editable PDF to journal your way into recalibration. $5.Get it here

The Mettā Interview:

• Website: LeTrente.com/the-metta-interview

• Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5204m0Z8im7uQOfFG5mk6L

• Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-metta-interview/id1832511055

• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheMettaInterview

• Full transcripts and show notes: https://letrente.com/the-metta-interview

The Mettā View newsletter: https://themettaview.com

• Newsletter signup: https://letrente.kit.com/metta-view

Le Trente:

• Website: https://LeTrente.com

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/le-trente/

Connect with Anne V Mühlethaler:

• Website: https://AnneVMuhlethaler.com

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anne-v-muhlethaler/

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/annvi/

• BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/annvi.bsky.social

• LinkTree (events & free Mettā course): https://LinkTree.com/annvi

Connect with Giulia Galli:

• Website: https://reegal.co.uk

• Substack: https://giuliagalli.substack.com

In this episode of The Mettā Interview, host Anne V Mühlethaler welcomes Jessica Faith Graham, a counselor, holistic life coach, mindfulness mentor, and author of the children's book The Love Inside. With degrees in counselling, psychotherapy, fine arts, and education, Jessica's work builds self-compassion in children and families — a mission that emerged from her deeply personal journey of self re-discovery.

The conversation starts with Jessica sharing memories of making little books at age six, a creative spark that would lie dormant for decades before finding its way back to her. She speaks to Anne about a period when life had slipped into autopilot, the daily rhythms of caring for three children leaving little to no room for herself. As it happens, she recalls reaching a point of crisis which led her to ask these surprising questions: who am I anymore? What do I actually need?

She walks Anne to the answers that followed. Daily walks. Music. Returning to meditation after twelve years away. Small acts of self-care that, over time, created space for something unexpected: writing returned, and with it, the seed of her children's book, The Love Inside.

Anne and Jessica explore the central question: "Who am I and what do I need?" They discuss why we so readily anticipate others' needs (especially as caregivers) yet forget to ask the same of ourselves. They touch on the tension between security and authenticity, the courage required to keep showing up creatively, and a Buddhist teaching from their shared mindfulness training: "If we are suffering, we are believing something untrue."

This episode is for anyone who has lost themselves in the service of others. For caregivers, parents, and those who've found themselves on autopilot wondering where they went. It's a reminder that we can always come back to ourselves—and that sometimes the simplest questions open the most important doors.

Happy listening!

Selected links from episode

The Mettā Interview:

• Website: https://LeTrente.com/the-metta-interview

• Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5204m0Z8im7uQOfFG5mk6L

• Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-metta-interview/id1832511055

• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheMettaInterview

• Full transcripts and show notes: https://letrente.com/the-metta-interview

The Mettā View newsletter: https://themettaview.com

• Newsletter signup: https://letrente.kit.com/metta-view

Le Trente:

• Website: https://LeTrente.com

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/le-trente/

Connect with Anne V Mühlethaler:

• Website: https://AnneVMuhlethaler.com

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anne-v-muhlethaler/

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/annvi/

• BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/annvi.bsky.social

• LinkTree (events & free Mettā course): https://LinkTree.com/annvi

Connect with Jessica:

• Website: https://jessicafaithgraham.com

• Instagram: @jessicafaithgraham

Jessica's Work:

• The Love Inside: A Self Love Book for Kids – available on Amazon

• Counselling and holistic life coaching

• Mindfulness mentorship

• Family services and youth events

Referenced in the Interview:

• Thich Nhat Hanh – Vietnamese Buddhist monk and author

• Teachings on Love by Thich Nhat Hanh

• Tara Mohr's Playing Big facilitator training

• Martha Beck – life coach and author (integrity/alignment concepts)

• Pixar's Soul (2020 film)

• Banyan Global – mindfulness mentor training

• AmeriCorps

Concepts Discussed:

• The circular (not linear) career path

• Autopilot living vs. intentional driving

• Security vs. authenticity tension

• "If we are suffering, we are believing something untrue"

• Self-care as self-parenting

• Perfectionism as holding on too long

• Building a supportive village for creative pursuits

• Allowing change vs. forcing it

• Reading your own cues (like reading a baby's cues)

• Opening doors through practice

The Central Question: "Who am I and what do I need?"

In this episode of The Mettā Interview, host Anne V Mühlethaler welcomes Francesca Hogi, an acclaimed love educator, coach, and author who has transformed countless lives through her unique approach to modern romance and relationships.

Twelve years ago, Francesca made a bold pivot from a successful career as a corporate lawyer to pursue her true calling in love education and matchmaking. Today, she's a sought-after coach, TED speaker, bestselling author of "How to Find True Love: Unlock Your Romantic Flow and Create Lasting Relationships," and founder of The True Love Society. As host of the popular Dear Franny podcast and a two-time Survivor contestant, Francesca brings a passionately pragmatic approach to questioning the dating status quo and helping people strengthen their love confidence.

Fresh from celebrating her 51st birthday, Francesca shares her commitment to making this year an experiment in possibility.

Their conversation centers on the powerful question: "What is your assignment right now—and if not now, then when?"

Francesca explains how she developed this concept through her matchmaking work, realizing clients needed to understand their own inner work rather than outsourcing connection. She offers practical tools: start with a five-year vision, work back to six months, then three months, breaking the journey into tangible steps while building self-trust.

The discussion takes on deeper urgency as Anne and Francesca explore current world events through the lens of their family histories—both having fathers from the WWII generation. This proximity to history adds weight to the question "if not now, then when?" and the need to step up as leaders to create the world we want to see.

As she prepared for her second TED talk on unlocking flirting superpowers, Francesca embodies her philosophy of possibility thinking.

A thought-provoking conversation about finding clarity in chaos, taking aligned action, and believing we deserve the lives we envision—both individually and collectively.

Happy listening!

Selected links from episode

Connect with Francesca:

• Website: FrancescaHogi.com

• Instagram: Francesca Hogi known as Dear Franny

• LinkedIn: Francesca's LinkedIn

• Her first TED talk: True love — and the myth of "happily ever after"

• Her recent TED Talk:  How to Unlock Your Flirting Superpowers

• Her book How to Find True Love

• Dear Franny Podcast https://dearfrannypodcast.com

The Mettā Interview:

• Website: https://LeTrente.com/the-metta-interview

• Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5204m0Z8im7uQOfFG5mk6L

• Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-metta-interview/id1832511055

• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheMettaInterview

The Mettā View newsletter: https://themettaview.com

Le Trente:

• Website: https://LeTrente.com

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/le-trente/

Connect with Anne V Mühlethaler:

• Website: https://AnneVMuhlethaler.com

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anne-v-muhlethaler/

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/annvi/

BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/annvi.bsky.social

In this episode of The Mettā Interview, host Anne V Mühlethaler welcomes Danielle Keller Aviram, a specialised sustainable jewellery consultant, researcher, and lecturer who bridges the worlds of design, sustainability, and education. With an origin story rooted in childhood museum visits and cultural experiences, Danielle traces her journey from jewellery designer to becoming a leading voice in sustainable practices within the jewellery industry.

Danielle shares how her early exposure to art and culture, from dancing ballet to seeing Swan Lake at 12 in London, planted seeds for her lifelong appreciation of meaningful, tangible beauty. She recounts a transformative four-month journey through East Africa in her early twenties, where she found herself drawn not to the expected landscapes and wildlife, but to local crafts and textiles. This moment of recognition, dragging her friend to learn basket-weaving from banana leaves, illuminated her unique perspective and led her to pursue jewellery design.

Danielle describes hitting a wall after becoming a jewellery designer, when trying to trace the origins of the gold and stones she worked with. Unable to get straight answers from suppliers about where materials came from, she realised she couldn't authentically promise customers she was providing the best products from the best materials when she knew nothing about their journey. This revelation led her to pursue an MA in Sustainable Fashion in Berlin, where she discovered that despite coming from different cultures and contexts, everyone faced the same sustainability challenges.

In the second half of the interview, Anne and Danielle come to the episode’s central question: How to hold and balance multiple identities and passions simultaneously in a world that keeps asking us to choose just one?

Danielle articulates her personal challenge of wearing many hats – designer, sustainability consultant, researcher, lecturer, mother – in a world that values narrow specialisation. She points out the irony that sustainability itself requires a holistic perspective, yet the professional world often pushes for singular focus.

Danielle beautifully illustrates how her multiple perspectives enhance rather than dilute her work. Universities value her industry connections, clients appreciate her design background, and her role as a mother deepens her commitment to creating a sustainable future.

The episode offers profound insights about the fluidity of human experience, with Danielle describing her journey as walking through a dark tunnel, slowly gathering tools and connections, now beginning to see light at the end. She makes a compelling case that in addressing global sustainability challenges, we need people who can see the bigger picture and understand interconnections – not just specialists focused on narrow solutions.

Their exploration reveals how honesty and authenticity are tied to sustainability, and how bringing our full humanity to our work enriches rather than detracts from our professional contributions. The conversation serves as both validation and inspiration for anyone struggling to honour their multifaceted nature in a world that often demands we pick just one lane.

Happy listening!

Selected links from episode

Connect with Danielle:

• LinkedIn: Danielle Keller Aviram

• Instagram: @daniellekelleraviram

• Substack: Danielle's newsletter on sustainable jewellery

• ⁠⁠Website: ⁠https://www.daniellekeller.net

Danielle's Work:

• Truly Precious Foundation (co-founder) - sustainable knowledge-sharing platform for the jewellery sector

• Masterclass at Le Trente: "Beyond the price of gold: Unlocking the holistic value in your jewellery box" - December 8, 2025, 5pm CET

• Book now: https://lu.ma/0hpywk7k

Referenced in the Interview:

• Musée d'Orsay, Paris

• Louvre Museum heist (recent jewellery robbery)

• Responsible Jewellery Council (RJC)

• CIBJO (World Jewellery Confederation)

• AMD Berlin (Academy of Fashion & Design)

• Shenkar College - Jewelry Design Department

In this episode of The Mettā Interview, host Anne V Mühlethaler welcomes Paulette Perhach, a New York Times contributor, writing coach, and creator of the Writer's Mission Control Center software. Author of "Welcome to the Writer's Life" and two viral essays read by millions, Paulette brings her unique blend of humor, vulnerability, and business acumen to help writers build sustainable creative practices.

Paulette traces her writing journey from declaring her ambition at a bus stop at age 10 (where her best friend immediately warned her how hard it would be) to discovering Excel as "the brain I wasn't born with" during college. She reveals how her generalized anxiety disorder intertwined with undiagnosed ADHD shaped her path, leading her to meditation in her early twenties and eventually to creating A Very Important Meeting during COVID—a daily meditation-and-writing community that continues seven days a week.

Paulette also shares with Anne the nearing completion of her novel – a decade-long journey of writing and rewriting, along with the third iteration of her Writer's Mission Control Center software. As a late-diagnosed ADHD writer, she shares how creating structures and processes has become central to both her own practice and her teaching philosophy

The interview explores Paulette's evolution from Peace Corps volunteer teaching adult education in Paraguay to writing coach charging what initially seemed impossible fees. 

In exploring their central question, "What are we seeking when we seek a creative life?", Paulette explores a pivotal moment when business friends suggested she could make more money. She revisits pivotal stories from her past, exploring how examples of freedom like spending a day in the sun, power up her desire not only for a creative life but one with flexibility. One made for enjoyment, not just work. 

Their discussion touches on her father's death when she was a teenager, a revelatory moment under South American moonlit sky, and her ongoing dance between caring about Instagram likes and seeking profound human connection. Paulette explains her recent embrace of performance — from her viral "Trauma Kitchen" skit to upcoming nunchuck comedy —  as something that represents her decision to remove artistic molds and let creativity flow wherever it wants.

A conversation that brilliantly captures the tension between artistic calling and economic reality, offering both practical wisdom and philosophical depth for anyone navigating the creative life.

Happy listening!

The Mettā Interview:

• Website: https://LeTrente.com/the-metta-interview

• Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5204m0Z8im7uQOfFG5mk6L

• Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-metta-interview/id1832511055

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The Mettā View newsletter: https://themettaview.com

• Newsletter signup: https://letrente.kit.com/metta-view

Le Trente:

• Website: https://LeTrente.com

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/le-trente/

Connect with Anne V Mühlethaler:

• Website: https://AnneVMuhlethaler.com

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anne-v-muhlethaler/

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/annvi/

• BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/annvi.bsky.social

Connect with Paulette:

• Website: https://PaulettePerhach.com

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/paulettejperhach/

• Powerhouse Writers: https://www.powerhousewriters.com/

• Welcome to the Writer's Life newsletter: welcometothewriterslife.com

• Writer's Mission Control Center software: https://www.writersmissioncontrolcenter.com/

Paulette's Work:

• Book: "Welcome to the Writer's Life" (Sasquatch Books/Penguin Random House)

• Viral essay: "A Story of a Fuck Off Fund" (anthologized in "The Future is Feminist")

• Regular contributor: The New York Times, Vox, Elle, The Washington Post, Slate

• The Trauma Kitchen skit on Paulette’s Instagram