The Clearing with Katherine May

Sarah Moss on memory and meaning-making Nov 16, 2024

Recently, Katherine interviewed Sarah Moss about her incredible new memoir, My Good Bright Wolf, an account of growing up as a difficult girl in a difficult family, and how this ultimately led to her eating disorder. Throughout the book, she repeatedly argues against herself. A voice rises up in the text and says, What are you trying to claim here? That’s not how it happened! Why can’t you tell the truth?

The point she makes is that we are unsteady in our remembering. We’re often incredibly uncertain, not just about the content of our memories, but also what they represent. We're unsure when the meaning-making took place. Was it something that arose at the point that those events happened? Or was it something we constructed far later in adulthood? And if so, what purpose did they serve?

Links from the episode:

Sarah Moss' book, My Good Bright Wolf

Katherine's book, Enchantment, is available now: US/CAN and UK

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Exploring Hilary Mantel's memoir with Jillian Hess Nov 01, 2024

What’s to be done with the lost, the dead, but write them into being?’

So writes Hilary Mantel in her extraordinary memoir, Giving Up the Ghost. First published in 2003, it offers a snapshot of the great writer before the Wolf Hall era: a literary, if not commercial, success, and a fragile soul with a dark, scuttling imagination.

Katherine was joined by Jillian Hess of the brilliant Noted Substack to explore this wonderful book. They discussed the way that Mantel captures her childhood and family, her relationship to her body and the endometriosis that assailed it, the way she talks about writing, and - of course, given that it’s Halloween week - those ambiguous ghosts.

Katherine's book, Enchantment, is available now: US/CAN and UK

Links from the episode:

Jillian's Substack, Noted
Hilary Mantel’s book, Giving Up The Ghost

Join Katherine's Substack for a free reading guide, video recordings and transcripts
Find show notes and transcripts for every episode by visiting Katherine's website.
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Kate Fox on the potential and power of poetry Oct 16, 2024

It was National Poetry Day in the UK earlier this month and Katherine talked to Kate Fox about her new book, On Sycamore Gap, in an extra Book Club event. Kate’s book is about a very special tree in the north of England that was chopped down by vandals, but that has brought people together in the aftermath of its felling.

Katherine's book, Enchantment, is available now: US/CAN and UK

Links from the episode:

Kate on Instagram
Kate's website
Kate’s book, On Sycamore Gap: UK

Join Katherine's Substack for a free reading guide, video recordings and transcripts
Find show notes and transcripts for every episode by visiting Katherine's website.
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Oliver Burkeman on mortality, acceptance and imperfectionism Sep 27, 2024

September - when we’re almost as likely to be trying to reform ourselves as in January - is the perfect moment for Oliver Burkeman’s new book, Meditations for Mortals.

Katherine sat down to talk to Oliver for her Book Club, and there was one question she was burning to ask: do you confuse lots of readers too?

Oliver, you see, has mastered the art of subverting the self-help genre. It’s not that he doesn’t want to offer succour to people who are struggling, nor that he denies we can change. It’s just that he wants us to understand how unrealistic we’ve learned to be about our capacity to do things. He urges us to accept our imperfections, our limitations, our fundamental humanness.

Katherine's book, Enchantment, is available now: US/CAN and UK

Links from the episode:

Oliver on X
Oliver's website
Oliver’s book, Meditations for Mortals: UK | US

Join Katherine's Substack for a free reading guide, video recordings and transcripts
Find show notes and transcripts for every episode by visiting Katherine's website.
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Lucy Jones on matrescence, maternal myths and transformation Aug 29, 2024

This month, Katherine spoke to Lucy Jones about Matrescence, her book about the profound changes wrought by pregnancy and birth. Combining the biological, the social and the political with exquisite writing, this is a radical revision of a subject veiled in forced cosiness and obfuscation.

Lucy's frankness and curiosity - her utter realness - are an absolute balm for anyone who’s navigated the very particular environment of contemporary western maternity, whether that contact has been personal or at one remove. It helps us to understand why pregnancy feels like such a hinterland, and also why it doesn’t need to be this way.

Katherine's book, Enchantment, is available now: US/CAN and UK

Links from the episode:

Lucy's Instagram
Lucy's website
Lucy’s book, Matrescence

Join Katherine's Substack for a free reading guide, video recordings and transcripts
Find show notes and transcripts for every episode by visiting Katherine's website.
Follow Katherine on Instagram

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Daniel Tammet on real autistic lives Jul 25, 2024

Katherine was excited to speak to Daniel Tammet about his latest book, Nine Minds: Inner Lives on the Spectrum. Katherine has been reading Daniel’s writing for a long time - his first book, Born on a Blue Day, came out in 2006. At the time, he was writing about his experience as a savant (his synaesthesia means that he conceptualises numbers and dates in a completely different way to most of us), and in this conversation Katherine and Daniel talk about the way that he was treated during those years. Daniel is a beautiful writer, but his talent was often invisible to people who only wanted to see him as a kind of specimen, not fully human. Hear as they talk about the way Daniel’s persisted, asserting his rightful place as a thinker and a master of prose.

Katherine's book, Enchantment, is available now: US/CAN and UK

Links from the episode:

Daniel's Website
Daniel’s book, Nine Minds

Join Katherine's Substack
Find show notes and transcripts for every episode by visiting Katherine's website.
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Tom Newlands on writing neurodivergence with a light touch Jul 04, 2024

Join Katherine as she talks with Tom Newlands about his debut novel, Only Here, Only Now. Katherine talks with Tom about his female main protagonist, the unforgettable Cora, setting the book in 1990s Scotland and how it offers a new way of writing about neurodivergence. She also explains the thinking behind choosing Only Here, Only Now for a non-fiction book club, and why it captivated her enough to break her own rules.

Katherine's book, Enchantment, is available now: US/CAN and UK

Links from the episode:

Tom's Instagram
Tom’s book, Only Here, Only Now

Join Katherine's Substack
Find show notes and transcripts for every episode by visiting Katherine's website.
Follow Katherine on Instagram

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Samantha Irby on being a person Jun 20, 2024

Join me for a recent conversation with comedian, essayist, blogger, and television writer Samantha Irby. Recorded as part of my True Stories Book Club hosted on Substack, we talked about realising you have a body again after lockdown, dogs that don’t love us enough/love us too much, writing about the darkest parts of our life, and terrorising Sex and the City fans by writing on And Just Like That… If you haven’t read it already, do check out her latest essay collection, Quietly Hostile.

Katherine's new book, Enchantment, is available now: US/CAN and UK

Links from the episode:

Samantha’s website
Samantha’s book, Quietly Hostile

Join Katherine's Substack
Find show notes and transcripts for every episode by visiting Katherine's website.
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Camille T. Dungy on unearthing histories Dec 15, 2023

At a superficial level, Soil is a gardening memoir, full of gorgeous descriptions of plants and getting your hands in the soil. But the garden in question is a political gesture, an act of resistance and an assertion of belonging. Camille T. Dungy uproots the staid monoculture of the suburban garden, and takes a fierce, critical look at its assumptions.

In this conversation, we talk about the way that gardens can become a means of social control and conformity, but also an expression of freedom and solidarity that crosses generations. We also touch on the idea of outsidership, and the difference between choosing to stay at the edges, and being forced out of the centre.

Katherine's new book, Enchantment, is available now: US/CAN and UK

Links from the episode:

Camille’s website
Camille’s book, Soil
Camille's Instagram

Join Katherine's Substack to receive episodes ad-free, extended intros and immersive, bonus mini-episdes
Find show notes and transcripts for every episode by visiting Katherine's website.
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Kaitlin Curtice on resisting with integrity Nov 17, 2023

In the past few years, resistance has been a live issue for many of us, whether we’re wondering for the first time how to bring about social change, or realising that we need to find new ways to be activists.

For Kaitlin Curtice, this resistance is an ongoing practice, informed by her perspective as an Indigenous American, and imbued with gentleness, integrity and personal sustainability. In this episode, we talk about her book, Living Resistance, how her own perspective developed over time, and - appropriately for this podcast - how we can live in this unsettling moment.

Katherine's new book, Enchantment, is available now: US/CAN and UK

Links from the episode:

Kaitlin’s website
Kaitlin’s book, Living Resistance
Kaitlin's Instagram

Join Katherine's Substack to receive episodes ad-free, extended intros and immersive, bonus mini-episdes
Find show notes and transcripts for every episode by visiting Katherine's website.
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Erica Berry on the meaning of wolves Oct 20, 2023

The wolf carries an almost unbearable amount of symbolism in western culture, encapsulating the predatory, the carnal, the supernatural and the ravenous. But in her book Wolfish, Erica Berry suggests that it’s time to understand wolves differently: as tender, as hunted, as guardians of the landscape.

What’s more, those evil qualities may be better attributed to ourselves than to wolves. Berry weaves memoir with natural history, cultural critique, folklore and conservation to show that wolves have too often been a cypher for all our fears, and that this has left them under threat of extinction.

In this fascinating and wide-ranging conversation, recorded as part of Katherine’s True Stories Book Club, Erica discusses her experiences with wolves real and imagined.

Katherine's new book, Enchantment, is available now: US/CAN and UK

Links from the episode:

Erica’s website
Erica’s book, Wolfish

Join Katherine's Substack to receive episodes ad-free, extended intros and immersive, bonus mini-episdes
Find show notes and transcripts for every episode by visiting Katherine's website.
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Dacher Keltner on awe, humility and purpose Aug 03, 2023

I stumbled across Dacher Keltner’s work when I was first researching Enchantment, and now - for the final episode in this season - I’m honoured to speak to him about Awe: The New Science of Everyday Wonder and How It Can Transform Your Life.

Dacher’s research attempts to understand this very fleeting, ineffable emotion. He and his colleagues have shown that awe induces a feeling of being small within a vast universe - a radical shift into context. What’s more, by absorbing ourselves in awe, we become better people, more motivated to go out and do good. In this episode, we explore how it feels to experience awe, how we can seek it out in the everyday, and we share the personal experiences of awe that have inspired both of our books.

Dacher Keltner is a professor of psychology at UC Berkeley and the director of the Greater Good Science Center. He has over 200 scientific publications and six books, including Born to Be Good, The Compassionate Instinct, and The Power Paradox. He has written for many popular outlets, from The New York Times to Slate. He was also the scientific advisor behind Pixar’s Inside Out.

Katherine's new book, Enchantment, is available now: US/CAN and UK

Links from the episode:

Dacher’s website
Dacher’s book, Awe: The New Science of Everyday Wonder and How It Can Transform Your Life

Join Katherine's Substack to receive episodes ad-free, extended intros and immersive, bonus mini-episdes
Find show notes and transcripts for every episode by visiting Katherine's website.
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Marjolijn van Heemstra on the overview effect Jul 20, 2023

Marjolijn van Heemstra believes that we can change the world by gazing into the night sky. Her book, In Light Years There’s No Hurry, explores the ‘overview effect’, a personal transformation reported by astronauts who have seen the earth from space. People who’ve experienced this rare view often report an ethical shift taking place, a new sense of mission in their lives. They come to see themselves as guardians of their planet, rather than its passive citizens.

Clearly not all of us can - or want to - leave the atmosphere to gaze over the earth from space. But in this thought-provoking conversation, Marjolijn makes a case for us learning to draw on the overview effect from where we stand, suggesting that this could lead us to become better stewards of our environment, and form closer bonds with the communities around us.

Marjolijn is a Dutch theatre-maker, journalist and poet who has recently been named Amsterdam’s Poet Laureate. Her most recent work has focused on reacquainting ourselves with darkness, and this includes her creative project The Night Watch, and the Amsterdam Dark Festival, of which she is the founder.

Katherine's new book, Enchantment, is available now: US/CAN and UK

Links from the episode:

Marjolijn’s Instagram
Marjolijn’s book, In Light Years There’s No Hurry
Amsterdam Dark Festival

Join Katherine's Substack to receive episodes ad-free, extended intros and immersive, bonus mini-episdes
Find show notes and transcripts for every episode by visiting Katherine's website.
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Amy Jeffs on ancient stories and new understandings Jul 06, 2023

How can we return to a richer, more complex understanding of national identity and personal ethics - one that can only come from folklore?

Amy Jeffs is the perfect person to ask. An art historian and printmaker, she creates immersive retellings of ancient stories, beautifully illustrated with her own woodcuts and etchings. In this week’s episode of How We Live Now, we discuss the function and appeal of folklore, and roam around the wind-blasted landscapes of Medieval Britain. We get a glimpse of the British Isles through ancient eyes - a haunted place stranded on the far edge of Europe, isolated and vulnerable, but full of courageous, hardy folk. What can these tales tell us about who we are now? And how can we restore this agile way of understanding the world?

Katherine's new book, Enchantment, is available now: US/CAN and UK

Links from the episode:

Amy’s Instagram
Amy’s Twitter
Amy's book, Wild: Tales from Early Medieval Britain
Amy’s book, Storyland: A New Mythology of Britain

Join Katherine's Substack to receive episodes ad-free, extended intros and immersive, bonus mini-episdes
Find show notes and transcripts for every episode by visiting Katherine's website.
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Báyò Akómoláfé on fugitive ideas Jun 30, 2023

In this week’s episode of How We Live Now, Katherine speaks to author and public intellectual Báyò Akómoláfé. We consider how we can step out of the belief that humanity is in control of a passive planet, and instead wonder how we can learn to read the intelligence of the systems and landscapes that we inhabit. We meander our way to autism, and begin to think about how we can create a new language of neurodivergent experience that resists the labels applied from disinterested - or disgusted - outside viewers. And we take a look at ‘hushes’, the shadowy, scuttling figures that disrupt Báyò’s narratives.

Born in Nigeria, Báyò is a writer, speaker, teacher and founder of The Emergence Network who finds his most sacred work in fatherhood. His book, These Wilds Beyond Our Fences, is an extraordinary meandering through the cutting edge of contemporary philosophy framed in letters to his daughter, Alethea. He is also the editor of We Will Tell Our Own Story, an anthology exploring Black African scholarship and knowledge. He now divides his time between Germany, India and the USA.

Katherine's new book, Enchantment, is available now: US/CAN and UK

Links from the episode:

Bayo’s website
Bayo's book, These Wilds Beyond Our Fences

Join Katherine's Substack to receive episodes ad-free, extended intros and immersive, bonus mini-episdes
Find show notes and transcripts for every episode by visiting Katherine's website.
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Kerri ní Dochartaigh on the mystical everyday Jun 08, 2023

Kerri ní Dochartaigh’s writing rings with a sense of connection between this world and the otherworld, and nowhere is it expressed more clearly than in her latest book, Cacophony of Bone. Here are pages full of subtle signs that are legible only to those who are in the practice of seeking them. It’s a work of plain mysticism, a very personal representation of direct contact with the sacred. At its roots, it’s about perception: how we allow it, honour it, foster it. How we can allow ourselves to encounter beauty and transcendence in the everyday.

But there’s also a hidden political dimension to Kerri’s work. She’s showing us a way of life that’s largely been lost, a mode of perception that has been deliberately crushed and denied. It’s a spiritual mode that’s democratic, resistant, dangerous. These times are ripe for it.

In this interview, we talk about the practice of everyday mysticism, its connection to Kerri’s Irish heritage, and the ways that reading has been warped by contemporary life.

Katherine's new book, Enchantment, is available now: US/CAN and UK

Links from the episode:

Kerri’s instagram
Kerri's book, Cacophony of Bone

Join Katherine's Substack to receive episodes ad-free and immersive, bonus mini-episdes
Find show notes and transcripts for every episode by visiting Katherine's website.
Follow Katherine on Instagram

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Morgan Harper Nichols on art and perception May 25, 2023

When I spoke to Morgan Harper Nichols, she was taking a break from assignment-writing for the MFA in Interdisciplinary Media Arts she’s studying. That’s a telling detail for this exuberant soul: she has ideas and energy to spare, and she’s always learning, always reaching towards new forms. A visual artist, writer, musician, speaker and podcaster, I always see her as a communicator first and foremost. She draws on all these different modes of expression to facilitate the sheer urgency of what she has to say.

In this episode, I talk with Morgan about the ways that her work ushers us towards a kind of reenchantment with life itself - but, in all honesty, I quickly lost control of the whole interview. Like me, Morgan is autistic, and I got lost in the joy of spending an hour in her thoughtful, inquisitive company. This is a conversation about how we see our work and the world around us, and how creativity helps us to connect.

Morgan Harper Nichols is an autistic mixed media artist from the Atlanta, Georgia area who has worked with brands such as Google, Starbucks, Hallmark, COACH, KIND bar, and her work has been featured in places such as Target, Anthropologie, Kohls, Barnes & Noble, among others. She is the author of books that combine words and vibrant images, including You Are Only Just Beginning, How Far You Have Come, All Along You Were Blooming, and Peace is a Practice. She is also the creator of the Storyteller app, and her podcast, The Morgan Harper Nichols Show.

Katherine's new book, Enchantment, is available now: US/CAN and UK

Morgan's website
Morgan’s instagram
Morgan’s podcast, The Morgan Harper Nichols Show
Morgan's book, You Are Only Just Beginning: Lessons for the Journey Ahead

Join Katherine's Substack to receive episodes ad-free and immersive, bonus mini-episdes
Find show notes and transcripts for every episode by visiting Katherine's website.
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Pico Iyer on the wisdom of travellers May 11, 2023

Pico Iyer’s latest book, The Half Known Life, looks at the ways in which we seek paradise on earth, sometimes in places that are fraught with risk. In this episode, he and Katherine talk about the similarities in their work, particularly the ways in which they explore secular understandings of big spiritual questions, and they touch on the differences, too. Where Katherine is drawn to the local and the known, Pico quests after the insights that come to travellers and strangers. They are two different ways of looking at the same question: that of how to live a good and peaceful life, via the practice of enchantment.

Pico can truly be called a veteran travel writer, having published his first book in 1984, and gone on to publish fourteen more, on subjects ranging from the Dalai Lama to globalism, from the Cuban Revolution to Islamic mysticism. They include such long-running sellers as Video Night in Kathmandu, The Lady and the Monk, The Global Soul, The Open Road and The Art of Stillness. His writing regularly features in Time, The New York Times, The New York Review of Books, and the Financial Times among many others, and his four talks for TED have received more than 10 million views so far.

Katherine's new book, Enchantment, is available now: US/CAN and UK

Links from the episode:

Join Katherine's Substack to receive episodes ad-free and immersive, bonus mini-episdes
Find show notes and transcripts for every episode by visiting Katherine's website.
Follow Katherine on Instagram

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Bonus episode: Katherine May on burnout and why we all need a little more wonder in our lives Mar 15, 2023

We're in between seasons of How We Live Now and Katherine is in the midst of talking about her new book Enchantment in radio and podcast interviews. We wanted to share one of these conversations with you in the How We Live Now podcast feed.

In this episode of The Shift with Sam Baker, Sam and Katherine talk about Katherine’s midlife autism diagnosis, why she believes we’re living through the burnout decade and how to wrest back control of our lives from our work.

Buy Katherine's new book Enchantment: US & Canada, UK
Sign up to receive Katherine's newsletter
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Find all the episodes of the The Shift with Sam Baker here: https://podfollow.com/the-shift-on-life-after-40-with-sam-baker

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Ece Temelkuran on the politics of emotion Jan 06, 2023

Turkish journalist Ece Temelkuran understands the problems of rightwing populism better than most: she lives as an exile, after her criticism of the Erdogan regime threatened her liberty. But despite the very personal toll that our current politics has taken, Ece remains optimistic. The seeds of a new society, she says, lie in communities, and the ways they find to come together.

In this episode, Katherine and Ece discuss courage, truth and learning to befriend our fear. We also touch on the power of Twitter in the days before Elon Musk took over - so maybe a little of our optimism was misplaced! But Ece has a unique ability to put our current political conflicts into a global context, and her faith in grassroots action is redemptive.

Join the conversation! We’re also inviting your thoughts on each episode from now on - follow this link to join the conversation. Answers, challenges, ideas and further questions are all welcome - there will be a further episode in a couple of months focusing on your voices.

Katherine's new book, Enchantment, is released in March 2023. Pre-order now: US/CAN and UK

Links from the episode:

Ece's website
Ece's books
Follow Ece on Instagram and Twitter

Join Katherine's Patreon to receive episodes early and ad-free
Sign up to receive Katherine's newsletter
Find show notes and transcripts for every episode by visiting Katherine's website.
Follow Katherine on Instagram

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Emma Gannon on understanding, not agreeing Jan 06, 2023

Emma Gannon is a true digital native, a storyteller who finds creative inspiration in online communities, and who has sought a more thoughtful way to be in the digital spaces that so dominate our lives.

In this episode, Katherine and Emma discuss what it means to be a digital citizen - the pleasures and the agonies of coming together in the ether, and the ways it can both warp and welcome connection. Emma’s is a nuanced take, emphasising our own agency within social media spaces, and inviting us to be thoughtful and disciplined, rather than reactive and addicted.

Join the conversation! We’re also inviting your thoughts on each episode from now on - follow this link to join the conversation. Answers, challenges, ideas and further questions are all welcome - there will be a further episode in a couple of months focusing on your voices.

Katherine's new book, Enchantment, is released in March 2023. Pre-order now: US/CAN and UK

Links from the episode:

Emma's website
Emma's books
Follow Emma on Instagram and Twitter

Join Katherine's Patreon to receive episodes early and ad-free
Sign up to receive Katherine's newsletter
Find show notes and transcripts for every episode by visiting Katherine's website.
Follow Katherine on Instagram

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Jay Griffiths on the ecology of connection Jan 06, 2023

Jay Griffiths’ writing has long explored the link between land, culture and our potential for connection, but her father’s death during lockdown made this more vital than ever. Denied the comfort or closure of a funeral, Jay had to find other ways to connect, mourn and memorialise, and in this gentle, wide-ranging conversation she and Katherine talk about imaginary journeys, ritual and delving into a sense of place.

Behind all of Jay’s work is an ecological urgency, and a sense of grief for the life that we seem to be losing. Here, it’s expressed through the idea of homelessness, both literal and metaphorical. But she also introduces us to the character of Nemesis, offering us a model for justice that might just see us through the next decades.

Join the conversation! We’re also inviting your thoughts on each episode from now on - follow this link to join the conversation. Answers, challenges, ideas and further questions are all welcome - there will be a further episode in a couple of months focusing on your voices.

Katherine's new book, Enchantment, is released in March 2023. Pre-order now: US/CAN and UK

Links from the episode:

Jay's website
Jay's books

Join Katherine's Patreon to receive episodes early and ad-free
Sign up to receive Katherine's newsletter
Find show notes and transcripts for every episode by visiting Katherine's website.
Follow Katherine on Instagram

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Lama Rod Owens on necessary change Jan 06, 2023

Many of us are enduring a painful new awareness of the conflicts that underpin our social relationships. For Buddhist teacher Lama Rod Owens, this is the beginning of a revolutionary path to our liberation - a necessary upheaval that will rebalance us forever.

In this profound, perspective-shifting conversation, we are urged to stop looking for short-cuts and panaceas for our suffering, and instead to engage with the deep, transformative work of change.

Join the conversation! We’re also inviting your thoughts on each episode from now on - follow this link to join the conversation. Answers, challenges, ideas and further questions are all welcome - there will be a further episode in a couple of months focusing on your voices.

Katherine's new book, Enchantment, is released in March 2023. Pre-order now: US/CAN and UK

Pre-order Katherine's new book, Enchantment, released March 2023: UK and US & Canada

Links from the episode:

Lama Rod's website
Lama Rod's books
Follow Lama Rod on Instagram and Twitter

Join Katherine's Patreon to receive episodes early and ad-free
Sign up to receive Katherine's newsletter
Find show notes and transcripts for every episode by visiting Katherine's website.
Follow Katherine on Instagram

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Simran Jeet Singh on Radical Interconnectedness Jan 06, 2023

Being a Sikh in America gives Simran Jeet Singh a very particular insight into the divisions that run between us: on one hand, his visible differences have made him a target for racism; on the other, his religion emphasises the connectedness of all humans, and urges him towards compassion, forgiveness and love.

In this thoughtful and wide-ranging conversation, Katherine and Simran explore building empathy, seeing the divine in everyone, and how being forced to confront white supremacy has helped Simran to develop a language to challenge those who would attack him. The Sikh value of Chardi Kala is hard to miss here: the sense of everlasting optimism that propels him forward.

Join the conversation! We’re also inviting your thoughts on each episode from now on - follow this link to join the conversation. Answers, challenges, ideas and further questions are all welcome - there will be a further episode in a couple of months focusing on your voices.

Katherine's new book, Enchantment, is released in March 2023. Pre-order now: US/CAN and UK

Links from the episode:

Simran's website
Simran's book, The Light We Give: How Sikh Wisdom Can Transform Your Life
Follow Simran on Instagram, Twitter and YouTube

Join Katherine's Patreon to receive episodes early and ad-free
Sign up to receive Katherine's newsletter
Find shownotes and transcripts for every episode by visiting Katherine's website.
Follow Katherine on Instagram

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Priya Parker on gathering well Jan 06, 2023

When it comes to getting together, Priya Parker turns our assumptions on their heads: gatherings, she says, benefit from firm rules and careful management, which allow us to relax more, communicate better, and come away feeling positive. It’s all about clarity of purpose. A lack of structure leads to chaotic and draining events, and may even put us in conflict.

In this episode, Katherine asks Priya how we can learn to be in the same room again - whether it’s with colleagues, family or even complete strangers. For those of us who have found it tough to return to social spaces after the pandemic, this is a reassuring conversation, reminding us of the pleasures of meeting, and offering a blueprint for more enriching, less fraught, future gatherings.

Join the conversation! We’re also inviting your thoughts on each episode from now on - follow this link to join the conversation. Answers, challenges, ideas and further questions are all welcome - there will be a further episode in a couple of months focusing on your voices.

Katherine's new book, Enchantment, is released in March 2023. Pre-order now: US/CAN and UK

Links from the episode:

Priya's website
Priya's book, The Art of Gathering: How We Meet and Why It Matters
Follow Priya on Instagram and Twitter

Join Katherine's Patreon to receive episodes early and ad-free
Sign up to receive Katherine's newsletter
Find show notes and transcripts for every episode by visiting Katherine's website.
Follow Katherine on Instagram

Image credit: Photographer, Adam Ferguson

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Susan Cain on the bittersweet & introducing How We Live Now Dec 19, 2022

Susan Cain’s groundbreaking book, Quiet, taught a generation of readers to perceive and value their introvert qualities. Her latest book, Bittersweet is a song to the complex space between happiness and sadness. In this episode, Katherine talks to Susan about how she came to move so comfortably in the understated parts of life, and why the minor key is so beautiful.

While we’ve been away, The Wintering Sessions have been undergoing a metamorphosis. Katherine talks us through the process of becoming How We Live Now, and offers us a peek at the season to come.

Links from the episode:

Susan's Links:

Susan’s latest book, Bittersweet

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