What Were You Thinking?

Pat Duckworth was caught off guard by the need to share what she knows about menopause. After time at a retreat, she discovered she did have a book in her, trying to get out. Actually, she had five books waiting to see the light of day. Over the UK, where she lives and works, Pat has become the go-to expert on managing menopause symptoms using mind/body techniques. She is also leading the way for workplace awareness, helping businesses understand how to keep menopausal women working and making accommodations for their changing needs.

Visit her website.

Read about the menopause discrimination in the workplace:

https://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-news/diocese-settles-discrimination-case-with-depressed-menopausal-employee

https://hbr.org/2020/02/its-time-to-start-talking-about-menopause-at-work

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/article-we-should-be-talking-about-menopause-at-work/

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When you first meet Marci Warhaft, you immediately recognize a woman who is confident in who she is. She is fun and outgoing. She dances on TikTok. She is never afraid to take a chance. That's the Marci I've known for a decade. But when I picked up The Good Stripper, I was stunned with what I found in those pages: a series of traumatic events, the struggle with an eating disorder, a sex life she really didn't want, and a lifestyle not commonly associated with motherhood. 

The Good Stripper is so candid, I felt uncomfortable learning these things about my friend. It proved that you never know what is happening behind closed doors or in someone's head. In this episode we talk about Marci's life, her experience writing the book, and how she manages the feedback and fallout common when writing memoir.

Visit Marci's wesbite.

Support the podcast.

Learn more about the host, Dana Goldstein.

Young Adult author Christina Kilbourne has tackled some tough topics in her novels: suicide, homelessness, and mental health, to name a few. The Limitless Sky, a dystopian YA novel set 700 years in the future was a complete departure from what she is accustomed to writing. In this episode, we discuss her process, her challenges and and why she decided to switch gears to dystopian fiction.

Learn more about Christina on her website.

Watch the video mentioned in the podcast.

Support the podcast through Patreon.

Visit Dana Goldstein's website.

H.N. Khan was going to be a lawyer, until he realized there were other choices he could make. His journey took a very different turn, exposing and connecting HN Khan to the startup and tech world. As his career as a tech writer emerged and evolved, Humayun enrolled in Humber’s writing program. That program led him to new connections in the writing world, laying the groundwork for Wrong Side of the Court.

Learn more about H.N. Khan by visiting his website.

Learn more about the host, Dana Goldstein.

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If this was an episode of Who Would Win: Dinosaurs or Cephalopods, the squids would come out on top. While dinosaurs fossils get all the glory, it's the cephalopod fossils who have been doing all the work of telling the story of survival. After already surviving five (5!!!) mass extinctions, the cephalopods are likely the ocean creatures that will survive the next one. They are truly the Monarchs of the Sea, rising to the top from the deepest, darkest places of the sea.

In this episode, I talk to author Danna Staff whose book examines the fossil records of cephalpods - squid, octopus and cuttlefish. We talk about their evolution, their survival skills, the challenges of studying creatures of the sea, and how they have managed to stick around this blue marble for so long.

Visit Danna's website.

Watch the EVNautilus YouTube videos.

Save the Nautilus initiative.

The latest cephalopod (maybe) discovery.

Learn more about the host, Dana Goldstein.

Become a Patron.

Mary Boone is the author of more than 60 non-fiction books for young readers. She has written about everything from boy bands, the Biebs and in her latest book, bugs.

Bugs for Breakfast is an informative, engaging book, not just for middle grade readers, but for adults as well. It will open your eyes (and you mind) to a culinary experience that is becoming less quirky trend and more global necessity.

During this interview, Mary talks about her experience as a non-fiction author, her journey to writing Bugs for Breakfast, and how to get over our squeamishness when it comes to ingesting insects.

Learn more about Mary on her website.

Learn more about the host, Dana Goldstein.

Support this podcast on Patreon.

When first-time author and full-time business owner Laura Ballerini sat down to write some stories, she didn't anticipate the transformation that would take place inside her soul. From a very young age, Laura was introduced to art through her mother's skill with crafting, fixing, and cooking. Now, as a graphic designer, Laura realizes just how endemic art is to all our lives. In this episode, we discuss the impact of art, how she found time to fit writing into an already busy creative life and the power of story.

Visit Laura's website.

To learn more about host Dana Goldstein, visit danagoldstein.ca.

Kalena  Miller's debut novel will take you back to everything that was horrible and awesome about high school. There's junk food, fighting, texting, and prom night. You know what's missing? Sex. The night that was carefully planned goes horribly wrong. You'll laugh out loud, but also feel deeply connected to the characters in The Night When No One Had Sex.

Buy the book.

Follow Kalena on Twitter, Instagram or Facebook.

To learn more about the host, Dana Goldstein, visit her website.

As the author of 3 bestselling dystopian novels with strong female characters, Christina Dalcher is often painted as a feminist. There are so many more layers to this linguist-now-author. While her first novel, Vox, brought the issue of silencing women to the table, her latest, Femlandia, examines life in broken-down world, where women are building colonies and not everything is as idyllic as it appears.

SHOW NOTES:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPbJLXaPnZg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ql9TLUr7G78

Learn more about Christina on her website.

Learn more about the host, Dana Goldstein.