Finding the Throughline with Kate Hanley

Latest Episodes:

[Shannon Watts, practical matters]: The Facebook post heard 'round the world, the upsides of ADHD, and a standing desk fail Ep 1086 May 27, 2024

Show notes

This week I am talking with badass advocate, author, Substacker, and "summoner of women's audacity," Shannon Watts.

Shannon is the founder of Moms Demand Action, the grassroots movement for common sense gun reform that grew to include more than 10 million members who have helped pass over 500 gun safety laws across the country. She's also the author of "Fight Like a Mother", and her opinion pieces have been published in the Washington Post, Elle, Time, and more.

Shannon has also been named Glamour's Woman of the Year and one of Time's 100 Most Influential People. And she's working on a new book about women in leadership that'll be out in the summer of 2025.

It was an honor to talk with her and we really broke it down, covering:

- Knowing when it's time to transition out of what you've been doing

- ADHD and how its effects have changed as she's gotten older

- Switching gears from being a very public person who had to keep her private life private (to not feed the trolls) to a private person who talks about private things (menopause, ADHD) publicly

- Honoring the desire to have more information (and to share that information once you find it)

- The incredible origin story of Moms Demand Action (or what I call, "the Facebook post heard 'round the world)

- Her standing desk fail

Visit Shannon at shannonwatts.substack.com.

For full show notes (including bonus photos!) visit katehanley.substack.com.

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[Eric Jay Dolin, part 3: what's next]: Visualizing selling 500,000 copies + why chicken parm is the perfect food Ep 1085 May 24, 2024

Show notes

In the final part of my interview with maritime history author Eric Jay Dolin, we get a tantalizing look at his next book, which he's working on now, about a shipwreck in the Pacific that involves a clash of East and West.

We also covered:

- Why his kids hate going to museums with him

- Using a desire to travel as motivation for selling more books

- The PBS show Eric considers comfort viewing

- Why Friday is the perfect day

- The bachelor meal he makes whenever his wife is out of town

Visit Eric at ericjaydolin.com.

For full show notes, visit katehanley.substack.com.

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[Eric Jay Dolin, part 2: inner stuff]: Riding that balance of being grateful for the audience you have, while also hoping to grow it Ep 1084 May 22, 2024

Show notes

In the second part of my conversation with Eric Jay Dolin, (author of "Left for Dead," a true story about a captain of a sealing ship who was marooned on the Falkland Islands for 18 months in the early 1800s), we talk about the squishier side of writing, including dealing with your inner critic, getting through the parts of sharing your work that you'd really rather avoid, and managing your own expectations for how many copies your book will sell while also doing what you can to sell as many as possible.

We talked about:

- Getting geared up for giving talks as an introvert who grew up painfully shy (and the speaking tip that helps)

- The appeal of writing a book that will still be relevant in 30, 40, or more years

- How being in his 60s has affected his writing schedule, and his stress levels

- How being a writer can put you out of step with your friends once they start to hit retirement age, and you are still plugging along

- Taking aim at the belief that if you work hard, everything will work out

- The mystery and serendipity that impact how well your book sells

- The difference between wanting your book to sell well and expecting it to

Visit Eric at ericjaydolin.com.

For full show notes, visit katehanley.substack.com.

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[Eric Jay Dolin, part 1: practical matters]: A path to writing that is lined with sea shells and diplomas Ep 1083 May 20, 2024

Show notes

Calling all lovers of true tales about the sea! This week I'm talking with Eric J. Dolin, bestselling author of numerous books that explore some aspect of American history, generally as it relates to the sea. His latest book is "Left for Dead: Shipwreck, Treachery, and Survival at the Edge of the World." Eric has a really interesting through line that started with him studying to be a marine biologist, then morphed into studying environmental policy, and includes a big list of cool, interesting jobs, including curatorial assistant in the mollusk department at Harvard's Museum of Comparative Zoology.

We covered:

- Eric's winding path to writing, which started with wanting to be Jacques Costeau as a kid, wended through getting three degrees in marine biologist, and ended with him working in government jobs (managing a fishery, for example) while saving up to make the leap to writing full-time

- How winning awards can keep you going, even when you're not selling as many books as you'd like

- HOT TIP: Eric's new book, "Left for Dead," would make a great Father's Day gift!

- How "people are overly impressed with writers", and that recognition can also keep you going

- The skills he developed as a student that help him write books

- How researching his current book generally leads to the idea for his next book

- The secret cove in Marblehead where Eric gets his reading done during the summer

- How reading books from the 1800s and early 1900s (as part of his research) changes his language

Visit Eric at ericjaydolin.com.

For full show notes, visit katehanley.substack.com.

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[Kate Schapira, what's next]: Finding ways to share your work with more people that feel good, helpful, and nourishing (not like selling or marketing) Ep 1082 May 17, 2024

Show notes

In this final section of my conversation with "Lessons from the Climate Anxiety Counseling Booth," Kate Schapira, we cover:

- Finding ways to bring her work to groups that are already gathering for another reason (hint: need to a professional development speaker or workshop leader to talk on working with climate anxiety?)

- Using the concept of cross-pollenization as a guiding principle

- The writers whose work has changed Kate's life

- The books, beverage, and songs that Kate can't get enough of

For full show notes, with links to everything Kate and I discuss, visit katehanley.substack.com. And to get each interview in one ad-free episode delivered straight to your inbox or podcast feed, visit katehanley.substack.com and become a paid subscriber.

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[Kate Schapira, inner stuff]: Getting comfortable with the vulnerability of "telling the truth and showing your butt" in your writing Ep 1081 May 15, 2024

Show notes

In this second part of my conversation with Kate Schapira, author of "Lessons from the Climate Anxiety Counseling Booth," we cover the squishier parts of writing, including:

- The process of deciding just how vulnerable to be in your writing

- The emotional difference between writing poetry and writing prescriptive non-fiction

- How her inner critic is a salty SOB

- How a writing group holds you accountable to write despite what your inner critic is telling you

- A peek inside the mechanics and beauties of Kate's writing group

- The illusion of innocence (WOW this really blew my mind open)

- Trying to be a good person vs. trying to have a good effect

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[Kate Schapira, practical matters]: How one act of inspiration (mixed with desperation) turned in to a book + dealing with climate anxiety Ep 1080 May 13, 2024

Show notes

This week I'm talking with Kate Schapira, author of "Lessons from the Climate Anxiety Counseling Booth," which takes readers through the practical skills and emotional shifts needed to navigate our way to a more livable future.

Kate is also the author of six books of poetry, and her prose has appeared in The Rumpus, The Toast, and other places. She lives in Providence, Rhode Island, where she teaches nonfiction writing at Brown University. And fun fact about Kate, she has never met a tide pool that she didn't like.

In this episode we covered:

- How her grief over climate change inspired her to set up a table at a park in downtown Providence with a sign that said "Climate Anxiety Counseling Booth" and start talking to folks

- How that act of inspiration/desperation became a book

- The kinds of things people talked to her about at the booth

- Why she consciously chose NOT to pursue writing as a career path (it's her...side hustle? side passion that sometimes pays a little?)

- How to create a little more space when it feels like the walls of worry about the future are closing in

- The four-word mantra that helps her stay creative

- The genius (and new-to-me) concept of 'productive dissociation'

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[Jacquelyn Mitchard, what's next]: Owning your jealousy of other writers + gobs of amazing book recommendations Ep 1079 May 10, 2024

Show notes

In part three of my conversation with multiple New York Times bestselling author Jacquelyn Mitchard, author of "A Very Inconvenient Scandal" and "The Deep End of the Ocean," among many other titles, we talk about how having writer friends is so important, even if you "jealous them", the vision of the future that's fueling her to keep writing, and the recent books that made her swoon.

- The writers--and books--that make Jacquelyn jealous (a word that she uses as a verb, as in, "I'm jealousing her."

- Her love for British crime shows, including the ones that are currently keeping her up way too late

- The BBC podcast she's addicted to

- The beauty of enjoying nature--through a window

- The saying on the mug that she brought home from the Erma Bombeck conference that is her current motto

- The songs Jacquelyn listens to when she needs a pick-me-up

- The meal "that's probably 2,000 calories per bite" that she would ask for if someone said they would make her anything she wanted

For full show notes, with links to everything Jacquelyn and I discuss, plus bonus photos!, visit katehanley.substack.com. And if you'd like to receive these episodes ad-free, become a paid subscriber at katehanley.substack.com.

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[Jacquelyn Mitchard, inner stuff]: Cultivating the relationship between author and reader when "every sentence is a struggle" Ep 1078 May 08, 2024

Show notes

In this second part of my interview with the brilliant and hilarious Jacquelyn Mitchard, we talk about the squishier side of creativity–the thoughts, ideas, and attitudes that affect your work, even if you're not fully conscious of it, including:

- The specific reader Jacquelyn imagines as she writes

- Why she's devoted to social media, and why she thinks of it like having a hamster

- How some of her books have 'missed the mark' (but she's not going to tell you which ones)

- The pep talk that gets her through those moments of feeling like a pretender

- The small rewards Jacquelyn uses to congratulate herself for getting another few good sentences down on paper

- The John Prine lyric that sums up her views on aging

- What she learned from growing up on the West side of Chicago (and the viewpoint of her father's that she outright rejects)

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[Jacquelyn Mitchard, practical matters]: On deleting Oprah Winfrey's VMs + writing a book, one sentence at a time Ep 1077 May 06, 2024

Show notes

This week I am thrilled to be talking with Jacquelyn Mitchard, the New York Times bestselling author of 23 novels for adults and teenagers. Her newest novel is "A Very Inconvenient Scandal," and her first novel, "The Deep End of the Ocean" was the first selection of the Oprah Winfrey book club and has sold more than 3 million copies and been translated into 34 languages.

We covered:

- How losing her husband in her late thirties put her on a quest to publish a novel "to prove that I could have a second act"

- How, when Oprah called, she deleted the messages because she felt it must have been a friend pranking her

- How she would most definitely NOT write even if she didn't get paid

- How the hardest part of the work is coming up with the idea

- How Jacquelyn's dreams help her write her books

- How she writes her book one sentence at a time, from start to finish, like building a skyscraper

- The realities of being chronically sleep deprived

- The difference between copying and stealing

- Living on the Cape, yet hating the beach

- Why she only ever has one cup of coffee

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