Hard-Won Wisdom, featuring Sari Botton

Write-minded: Weekly Inspiration for Writers

#Books #Writing #Storytelling #Books and Writing #Arts #Brooke Warner #Writeminded Podcast #Brooke Warner and Grant Faulkner (NaNoWriMo #Grant Faulkner (NaNoWriMo

26:18

How do you know when it’s time to make your next big career move? With International Women’s Day around the corner, we are excited to feature Avni Patel Thompson, Founder and CEO of Milo. Avni is building technology that directly supports the often overlooked emotional and logistical labor that falls on parents—especially women. Milo is an AI assistant designed to help families manage that invisible load more efficiently. In this episode, Avni shares her journey from studying chemistry to holding leadership roles at global brands like Adidas and Starbucks, to launching her own ventures. She discusses how she approaches career transitions, the importance of unpleasant experiences, and why she’s focused on making everyday life easier for parents. [01:26] Avni's University Days and Early Career [04:36] Non-Linear Career Paths [05:16] Pursuing Steep Learning Curves [11:51] Entrepreneurship and Safety Nets [15:22] Lived Experiences and Milo [19:55] Avni’s In Her Ellement Moment [20:03] Reflections Links: Avni Patel Thompson on LinkedIn Suchi Srinivasan on LinkedIn Kamila Rakhimova on LinkedIn Ipsos report on the future of parenting About In Her Ellement: In Her Ellement highlights the women and allies leading the charge in digital, business, and technology innovation. Through engaging conversations, the podcast explores their journeys—celebrating successes and acknowledging the balance between work and family. Most importantly, it asks: when was the moment you realized you hadn’t just arrived—you were truly in your element? About The Hosts: Suchi Srinivasan is an expert in AI and digital transformation. Originally from India, her career includes roles at trailblazing organizations like Bell Labs and Microsoft. In 2011, she co-founded the Cleanweb Hackathon, a global initiative driving IT-powered climate solutions with over 10,000 members across 25+ countries. She also advises Women in Cloud, aiming to create $1B in economic opportunities for women entrepreneurs by 2030. Kamila Rakhimova is a fintech leader whose journey took her from Tajikistan to the U.S., where she built a career on her own terms. Leveraging her English proficiency and international relations expertise, she discovered the power of microfinance and moved to the U.S., eventually leading Amazon's Alexa Fund to support underrepresented founders. Subscribe to In Her Ellement on your podcast app of choice to hear meaningful conversations with women in digital, business, and technology.…

19 days ago 46:28

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If part of why you write is because you have some things to share from a life well- or hard- or fully lived, then you’re in good company. Personal writing is about connection, and making sense of our experience, and this week’s guest, Sari Botton, knows a thing or two about what brings writers to the page. She is a champion of personal writing and memoir, and is going to share about contributing, about her own writing process and why it’s hard to put personal things into the world, and so much more—including how to stay the course during these insane times we’re living in and through. To read Sari’s piece that's part of Writing Co-Lab's 100 Days of Creative Resistance, visit here.

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290 episodes

Hard-Won Wisdom, featuring Sari Botton

Write-minded: Weekly Inspiration for Writers

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published 19 days ago

MP3•Episode home

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

290 episodes

#Books #Writing #Storytelling #Books and Writing #Arts #Brooke Warner #Writeminded Podcast #Brooke Warner and Grant Faulkner (NaNoWriMo #Grant Faulkner (NaNoWriMo

All episodes

1
Shapeshifting, featuring Lidia Yuknavitch 43:55

5 days ago43:55

43:55

This week we invite one of our favorite authors, Lidia Yuknavitch, back to Write-minded to discuss her new book, Reading the Waves , as well as how we can re-envision and reimagine our past experiences through the practice of asking questions and reconsidering what we think we know. “Shapeshifting” is Lidia’s word, and the book (as well as this conversation) considers ways we can re-enter our own memories and rearrange the pieces so that we might change and grow. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices…

1
Writing to Save Your Life, featuring Samina Ali 41:27

12 days ago41:27

41:27

This week’s episode tells the story of a dramatic and traumatic story, and how writing played a central role in recovery and changing the outcome of one author’s life. This week’s episode is an epic tale as much as it is interview, and it will change the way you think of the power of writing to charge your neurons and heal your mind—not to mention the way you think about willpower, writers’ block, and why writing is both personally and universally life-changing and life-saving. This week’s harrowing and fascinating story-episode is not to be missed. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices…

1
Hard-Won Wisdom, featuring Sari Botton 46:28

19 days ago46:28

46:28

1
The Suburban Novel, featuring Tom Perrotta 51:28

26 days ago51:28

51:28

There’s a caveat out the gate here, which is that in this week’s interview, Tom Perrotta stipulates that he writes about people and communities and the dramas that unfold—in places that just happen to be the suburbs. That said, we’re bringing you a great and often funny conversation with Perrotta about his decades of work, how his character Tracy Flick got caught up in the backlash of #MeToo, how he thinks about recurring characters, and his reminiscences about early books on tape when they used to be ten or more cassettes in a giant plastic case. Lots to sink your teeth into in this week’s show. Enjoy! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices…

1
Infusing Mystery into Literary Fiction, featuring Jean Kwok 43:46

5 weeks ago43:46

43:46

This week's guest is Jean Kwok, a writer known for writing literary thrillers, which is the blending of literary writing and mystery, resulting in tension-filled books with exciting twists. Jean brings fantastic insights into complex literary structures and the importance of knowing what you’re doing. A fun listen for anyone who loves their mysteries and thrillers wrapped up in a literary package. And this week’s episode comes with a dose of Agatha Christie on the side, for reasons that will become clear when you listen! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices…

1
How to Submit, featuring Dennis James Sweeney 48:30

6 weeks ago48:30

48:30

This week, Grant and Brooke talk with Dennis James Sweeney about his new book, How to Submit. If you've ever felt intimidated by the submissions process; wondered what some of the common pitfalls are when it comes to submitting, or if you need a reframe about how to think about submitting, this show is for you. Dennis has an encouraging and helpful way of submitting—thinking about it as based on community, conversation, and through the lens of trying to find the best home for your work—whether it's an op-ed, an essay, a poem, or a book. Dennis is one of the most encouraging guests we've had in a while—and if you’re wanting to get published, this is an episode you’ll come back to again! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices…

1
Why Scope Matters, featuring Tara Dorabji 49:52

7 weeks ago49:52

49:52

This week we’re focusing on a little celebrated but much important aspect of storytelling: your story’s scope. How much ground are you trying to cover and how do you execute the pacing? These are the questions you must answer if you know and understand your scope. This week’s guest, Tara Dorabji, has a new novel, Call Her Freedom , that spans more than five decades, and yet, it’s a relatively short book. And so, it packs a punch. Books can cover a single day or a hundred years, and consideration for how to unfold stories of such extremes and everything in between originates with the author. Join us for a bit of a deep dive into this fascinating conversation, and Tara Dorabji’s insights about writing, publishing, and more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices…

1
Writing Characters Your Readers Will Care About, featuring Sadeqa Johnson 43:27

8 weeks ago43:27

43:27

This week we’re looking into the stories that inspire and move us, focusing on those that focus on everyday characters who are extraordinary in their very ordinariness. We speak to guest Sadeqa Johnson about the characters who’ve called to her, those voices that became well-rounded characters who she brought to life. This episode touches on a bit of magic, and what it’s like to listen to and get to know the characters who end up in the books we want to write. There’s much to love about this episode, not the least of which is Sadeqa’s energy and enthusiasm for her craft. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices…

1
Writing Retreat Roundup, featuring Connie Hale and Ellen Sussman 49:45

9 weeks ago49:45

49:45

Are you considering doing a writers’ retreat this year? Whether you want to create your own, find something far-flung and exotic, or consider the writing retreat’s bigger cousin, the writers’ conference, this episode gives insights, definitions, and parameters for retreating. Guests Ellen Sussman and Connie Hale are both writing retreat leaders who share about their own programs and so much more. There are a lot of resources in this episode, so we’re offering these URLs for you to explore more: • Artist Communities Alliance Network • Sonoma County Writers Camp • Oahu Writers Retreat On Substackin’ this week, we salute our friend and colleague, Dan Blank, for the great and encouraging work he’s doing at The Creative Shift, and point you to his Substack . Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices…

1
Creating the Heroes You Want to See in the World, featuring Lee Wind 46:05

10 weeks ago46:05

46:05

On this week’s show, we’re recognizing and honoring how far we’ve come in the world of fiction in the past decades since everyone in this week’s conversation remembers a time when there was no such thing as a gay protagonist. Guest Lee Wind talks to us about his new novel and his LGBTQ advocacy—for writers and readers. We also talk about James Bond, great books for queer youth, and why we love the Independent Book Publishers Association. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices…

1
On the Merits of Not Letting the Past Stay in the Past, featuring Susan Lieu 43:27

11 weeks ago43:27

43:27

This week we touch upon the struggle that presents itself for memoirists who can’t or won’t let the past stay in the past, especially when other people wish you would. Guest Susan Lieu shares powerfully in this week’s show about how her mother became the central force and inspiration for her work after she died due to complications from a tummy tuck. In the process of writing about her mother and making sense of what happened, Susan discovered so much about her family’s silence, their trauma, and about her living parent—her father. If you are looking for a case study for how memoir heals and reveals, don’t miss this episode. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices…

1
The Poem As Novel, featuring Forrest Gander 38:13

12 weeks ago38:13

38:13

We welcome you to 2025 with a show that explores the exploration of form. In this conversation with Pulitzer Prize-winning author Forrest Gander, we consider the nature of the writing journey—and its connection to landscape, the multiplicity of selves, and the kaleidoscopic experience of bringing together multiple eras of a lived life. Gander calls his new book a novel poem, and you’ll find out why, along with other beautiful insights about love and loss and the journey of being a writer—and a human. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices…

1
The Counter Revolution to Resolutions Continues, featuring Grant Faulkner and Brooke Warner 25:32

13 weeks ago25:32

25:32

Welcome to Write-minded's 7th New Year's show—where Grant and Brooke always circle around their challenge with resolutions, even as they make them and break them and every so often vow not to bother with them. This year they look back to certain resolutions declared and uncompleted, and grapple with the reckoning that must come when you assert such intentions out loud. And yet, Write-minded is also all about the fact that this writing business takes the time it takes, and this show comes around each year to help unpack goals asserted and achieved, goals shifted and morphed, goal posts moved and realigned, and much more. Happy 2025, dear writers, listeners, and creatives. Happy to be on this journey with you! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices…

1
In Defense of Unsatisfying Endings, featuring Zahid Rafiq 38:04

15 weeks ago38:04

38:04

This week’s show focuses on endings, and beginnings. Guest Zahid Rafiq, who’s written a short story collection whose endings serve the stories and his characters, speaks to how he thinks about endings, including those that others might find less than satisfying. We’re defending a particular type of ending, those in which writers may feel less than compelled to tie their story in a bow for readers. Brooke points to a series of YouTube shorts she did on beginnings and endings in memoir that we invite memoirists to check out, and we close the show with a Substackin’ post Brooke wrote inspired by Salman Rushdie’s keynote at the Kauai Writers Conference in November. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices…

1
Hybrid Writing for Hybrid Lives, featuring Faith Adiele 45:23

16 weeks ago45:23