We Should Talk About That

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If you listened to Monday's episode, the LIVE podcast recording of WeSTAT, you would have heard one of our first audience members contribute her experiences on her second and third act. Sally has been a dance studio owner for over 30 years, and after a traumatic event that caused her family to have to hire a private investigator to vindicate his reputation and job, Sally found a "clear path forward" for her next career.

In this bonus episode, Sally talks about her thought process, the challenges, and fears she had about leaving the dance world, which she had been involved in since she was 5 years old, to moving into the private investigator world. A wide departure, she has learned a whole new skill set, and is putting her horrible situation and all she has learned, to good use.

To find out more about Sally Tierney and her work as a private investigator visit https://www.clearpathforwardpi.com/

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Jess and Jess are coming to you live from Nepenthe Art Gallery located in Ft. Hunt/Alexandria, VA. 
The theme of this audience involved conversation was centered around women (and a few men!) in their 40's, 50's and 60's deciding to move toward other areas of professional interest in second, third, fourth iterations of their careers. Attendees of this live recording have the chance to contribute their experiences and opinions to the conversation. Is it a generational shift in the culture that allows us to feel free to pursue our passion and interest instead of staying true to a career that we studied for and presumably committed to? 
Lots of inspiration, food for thought, and beautiful experiences woven throughout this episode! The ups and downs, fears and anxiety, and utter thrill of learning a new facet of ourselves through stepping out into a new career are all accounted for here! 

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You might have seen her on an interview last week with Glennon Doyle- but here they are- and The Two Jess(es) get to talk to her too! One of the most exciting interviews and conversations for these two self-professed self-help junkies, the leading pioneer of the self-help movement, Melody Beattie is here to talk about the ever confusing and all consuming practice of codependence. JessB declares that she doesn't understand what codependency really truly looks like or means- and Melody assures her, no one does. However, she DOES break it down to the practice of continually loving others before loving ourselves. 
This conversation is a true honor, as they unpack the additional need for a chapter on trauma to be included in Melody's new edition, and reflect on the importance of true love- for one's self, as being the answer to solving the epidemic of codependence.

Meet Melody!
MELODY BEATTIE is the author of many bestselling books—including The Language of Letting Go, The Codependent No More Workbook, Playing It by Heart, and The Grief Club. In 2009, Codependent No More was named one of the four essential self-help books of all time by Newsweek. She lives in Southern California.

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If you are one to lose yourself on Instagram or TikTok watching food accounts, most likely you have run across Becca Rae-Tucker, AKA @thesweetfeminist. Becca started using cake as a canvas for expressing her political opinion, specifically about abortion and female productive rights and the concept has really taken off. With several hundred thousand followers she has been able to build a community that is not just into her cakes, but also advocating for safe and legal access to abortion care.

Becca's first cookbook Baking By Feel: Recipes to Sort Out Your Emotions (Whatever They Are) releases October 25, and in this episode, she talks to Jess and Jess about the experience of baking as a way to process your emotions. Not only is this cookbook filled with delicious desert recipes, they are created to correspond with whatever you are feeling on any particular day. Bored? Mad? Lonely? Becca has created a recipe to meet a multitude of emotions, and as she explains in this episode, it has nothing to do with the end result, but all about the process, discovery and recovery of one's self.

Meet Becca:
Becca Rea-Tucker’s first foray into baking came in the form of licking the cookie dough off the beaters while watching her grandma make chocolate chip cookies. She is a baker, recipe writer, feelings lover, and strong-willed voice behind the oft-shared Instagram account @thesweetfeminist. She lives in Austin, TX with her husband.

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We’re sharing a special episode from another podcast, A Slight Change of Plans, from Pushkin Industries. In this preview first responder, Christy Warren, a firefighter and paramedic for over 25 years, was used to being the one to help people. That was until the trauma she repressed from the harder parts of the job caught up with her and she ended up being the one who needed saving. Hear the full episode, and more from A Slight Change of Plans, at
https://podcasts.pushkin.fm/scp5?sid=talk

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Since 1970, women have added 2 TRILLION dollars to the United States economy through their increased labor force participation, and we have lost 67% of that progress since the beginning of the pandemic. On top of that, the inflation rate of goods and services towards women is DOUBLE that of goods and services towards men.
Katica Roy, gender economist, and founder of Pipeline, an award winning company that that uses advanced technology to make intersectional gender parity a reality in our lifetime.
In this conversation, Katica breaks down issues like "the pink tax" and why it matters- because women have less money coming into their wallets in terms of income earnings, and more going out, in regards to purchasing goods specified for their gender.
Katica explains that the system wasn't built to value women equitably- and maintains that we confuse progress and equity. Gender in equity starts in elementary school- the value we place on boys over girls, bleeds into the workplace- and she has a ton of statistics to back up her claims.

If this episode doesn't light a fire under every woman who listens to it- then nothing will. Packed full of hard data, facts, and really interesting evaluations done by Katica around what gender equity actually means (guess what? It's not just about women's rights!)


Meet Katica!
Katica Roy is a gender economist, former Global 500 global executive, programmer, data scientist, and the CEO and founder of an award-winning SaaS company, Pipeline. CNN, CBS, Bloomberg, Cheddar, MarketWatch, and Yahoo Finance have sought Katica for her sharp and unconventional take on the day’s headlines. She’s interviewed President Biden, Vice President Harris, Senators Booker and Gillibrand,
Secretary Pete, Canadian Pay Equity Commissioner Karen Jensen, Sophia Bush, Eve Rodsky, Gretchen Carlson, and Dr. Maya Rockeymoore Cummings.
Her high-octane, visionary articles have been published by the World Economic Forum, Fast Company, Fortune, Forbes, Bloomberg, NBC, Entrepreneur, The Hill, The Advocate, Harvard Business Review, and Morning Consult. Her articles have garnered over 2.9 billion impressions. In 2017 Katica was named a
Luminary by the Colorado Technology Association; in 2018 a Colorado Governors' Fellow; in 2019 a Top 25 Most Powerful Women in Business and the Stevie Entrepreneur of the Year—Gold Award; in 2020 the Colorado Entrepreneur of the Year; in 2022 a LinkedIn Top Influencer for gender equity. She is a member of
Fast Company’s Impact Council and Bloomberg’s New Economy Forum.

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As a homeless teenager writing college essays in her rusty Toyota Corolla, Emi Nietfeld was convinced that the Ivy League was the only escape from her dysfunctional childhood. But upward mobility required crafting the perfect resilience narrative. She had to prove that she was an “overcomer,” made stronger by all that she had endured.
 The truth was more complicated. Emi’s mom was a charming hoarder who had her put on antipsychotics but believed in her daughter’s brilliance—unlike the Minnesotan foster family who banned her “pornographic” art history flash cards (of Michelangelo’s David). Emi’s other parent vanished shortly after coming out as trans, a situation few understood in the mid-2000s. Her own past was filled with secrets: mental health struggles, Adderall addiction, and the unbecoming desperation of a teenager fending for herself. And though Emi would go on to graduate from Harvard and become a software engineer at Google, she found that success didn’t necessarily mean safety.
In this episode, Jess and Jess have a very honest conversation with Emi about what it actually means to overcome- and our obsession with "resilience porn" as a culture. As per usual, the conversation gets a little uncomfortable, as Jess B confronts her own reality: She makes a living sharing about her resilience. The bottom line is that we have to hold space for the complexity in all things- that is something everyone can agree on.

Meet Emi:
Emi Nietfeld is the author of Acceptance, a memoir from Penguin Press. After graduating from Harvard in 2015, she worked as a software engineer at Google and Facebook.

Her essays have appeared in New York Times, Longreads, Vice, and Boulevard, been nominated for the Pushcart Prize, and noted in The Best American Essays 2021. 

She lives in New York City with her family and is available for select speaking engagements.

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Cody Keenan rose from a campaign intern in his hometown to become the chief speechwriter at the White House and Barack Obama’s post-presidential collaborator- and he is here to share his experiences with Jess and Jess. In particular and of most interest in this conversation are the ten days in June of 2015, following the mass murder of nine Black worshipers in a Charleston, South Carolina by a white supremicist.  In the days that followed, America – and its first Black president – went through a profound reckoning with race and the legacy of the Confederate flag, while the families of the victims perform an extraordinary act of grace. Meanwhile, two consequential Supreme Court decisions loomed that would decide more than the fate of a presidency, but the fate of millions: the right to health care for working families and the right for same-sex couples to marry.

In this episode, Cody shares his front seat reflections on what has always meant to craft and collaborate on work with President Obama, and how it has shaped how he sees himself, his work, and his country.

A different conversation, but authentic and curious, Jess and Jess are able to reminisce some incredible "Glory Days" with the person who helped pen them.

Meet Cody:
Born and raised in Chicago, Cody Keenan rose from a campaign intern in his
hometown to become chief speechwriter at the White House and Barack Obama’s
post-presidential collaborator. A sought-after expert on politics, messaging, and
current affairs, he is now a partner at leading speechwriting firm Fenway
Strategies and teaches a popular course on political speechwriting to
undergraduates at his alma mater Northwestern University. Cody lives in New
York City with his wife Kristen and their baby daughter Grace.

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Even though the First Amendment actually prohibits view-based restrictions on access, school districts across the country are banning books that address perceived "sensitive topics," such as issues related to LGBTQ+ topics in reading material, but The 19th*'s education reporter, Nadra Nittle, gives Jess and Jess a full spectrum understanding of soft censorship. What is soft censorship? Nadra explains that the regulations around placing books that are written about a wide array of topics in designated areas stigmatizes them, even if they are not included in a full on ban.
In this episode, Jess and Jess address the issue at present, our rights around free speech, and what it means for those who are already underrepresented in mainstream media to have another means of representation restricted or taken away.

Meet Nadra Nittle:
Nadra Nittle is a Los-Angeles based journalist. She has written for several news outlets, including Vox, The Guardian, NBC News and the USA Today Network.

Thanks to our sponsors for this episode:
Lyssa Seward: https://www.ttrsir.com/eng/associate/279-a-3012-4043609/lyssa-seward

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This is the stuff. Jess and Jess get the tremendous opportunity to chat with Vanessa Bennett, host of Cheaper Than Therapy podcast and co-author of It's Not Me, It's You. (out September 6, 2022)
Vanessa and her therapist partner, Jon Kim (The Angry Therapist) have compiled a top ten list of relationship struggles they see with their own clients, as well as within their own relationship. Part memoir, part relationship self-help- this book is all about breaking the blame cycle, owning your part in your relationship- and showing up to do the hard work. 
Regardless of whether you are in a relationship- the tools in this book, which Jess and Jess talk at length with Vanessa about are useful for any human who relates to anyone, romantic, friendship, professional, and with self.

From the patriarchal systems that have given us a false narrative around the nuclear family and what it should look like, or all the pressure we put on our ONE partner to fulfill every single need in our lives- Falling in love is more about YOU than your partner—it’s more about challenge and growth than comfort and ease- and that is something we should definitely talk about. 

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