Personal Element Podcast

16/02/2023

New info on the death of one of my fave poets. We had his poem, XVII, read at our wedding.

I do not love you as if you were salt-rose, or topaz
or the arrow of carnations the fire shoots off. I love you as certain dark things are to be loved in secret, between the
shadow and the soul.

His nephew says scientists found high levels of the bacterium that can cause botulism poisoning. He says it proves that his uncle was injected with the poison at a hospital immediately after the coup.

14/02/2023

In honor of Valentine’s Day, here’s a love letter to one of my favorite recent reads.

Dear “There, There,”
What I love about good novels is how they draw you into another world, give you a glimpse of what living feels like for someone else. You did that, over and over, with each character you introduced me to. You also did that with the community you showed me— Native Americans living in Oakland, CA. You showed me how your people’s brutal history has ramifications hundreds of years after the atrocities inflicted on them, and also how those atrocities continue today. You made me think about something I had never thought about before. You made me feel.

Because of all this, you’re on my very short list of books I LOVE. Happy Valentine’s Day.

11/02/2023

Don’t miss our upcoming episode on February 15th: “I’m Deaf And I Have ‘Perfect’ Speech, Here’s Why It’s Actually A Nightmare” with

Rachel talks frankly about the difficulties in communicating when people assume she can hear because her speech is so clear.

In this funny and truthful essay, first published in We learn a little bit about what it’s like to speak in sign language and how we can all communicate better with the deaf community.

Personal Element Podcast now includes transcripts of each episode.

07/02/2023

These are a few of my favorite things...

We're going to start shouting out books, movies, podcasts, and other media we love--let us know if you check them out!

Christine's picks for the week of February 6:

* Yoga With Kassandra (YouTube). This yogi has it all: free classes released every week in every different style (power, slow flow, yin) and for every different situation (headaches, back pain, general stiffness). And she has the most amazingly soothing presence. I've been doing them weekly for many months, and daily more recently.

* Everything Happens (podcast). I just discovered this podcast put out by divinity professor Kate Bowler. The title comes from that annoying quote about everything happening for a reason. Bowler argues that sometimes crappy things happen for seemingly no reason. In each episode she interviews people who have real lives, with real struggles and the conversation always leaves me feeling like I can handle my own problems that much better. (Despite the fact that Bowler's a minister, it's not overly God-y, which would turn off this agnostic.)

15/01/2023

New Episode of The Personal Element podcast out today!

Diana Xin’s poetic essay “At 86, My Grandmother Regrets Two Things” leaves the listener with gorgeous images of village life and a sincere inquiry into what makes a life well-lived.

Listen to Episode 19 Wherever you get your podcasts.

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12/12/2022

This Thursday!
Episode 18 of The Personal Element podcast discusses Janice Northern’s essay Something Like Love about her complicated relationship with her dying father.

Listen to see if you can relate.

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26/11/2022

Lacey Jensen Marek made this BOOK CHRISTMAS TREE!!! LOVE IT! 😍🎄

09/11/2022

In less than a week, we have a special episode on The Personal Element.

We have our first-ever re-broadcast of an episode we recorded for Lesley University’s Why We Write Podcast.

In Episode 17, Christine and Tavi discuss an essay from Cindy House’s brilliant memoir Mother Noise.

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🎙 🎙

Host Georgia Sparling effortlessly joins in the mix as we discuss this powerful essay on the choices we make, mothering, and the shame we carry.

14/10/2022

In Episode 16 of the Personal Element Podcast, out tomorrow, writer Alice Bloch talks about two different men named Lenny who impacted her life. One, the famous Leonard Bernstein, the other a close friend and gay rights activist. ⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣
🌈 ***an

15/09/2022

Out today!
Episode 15: Gun Bubbles

Icelandic-American writer Margrét Ann Thors takes readers on a surprising ride from Reykjavík to Colorado through her imaginative translations. The essay, though beautiful and amusing, touches on such heavy subjects as abortion, mass shootings and serious medical conditions. Margrét deftly explores her feelings around perpetrators and zealots in relation to her pregnancy. In gorgeous language, this essay will have you wondering how the author managed to weave all these subjects into one piece.

16/08/2022

Latest episode now out! Check out a beautiful story about all we hand down to our children.

14/08/2022

Out tomorrow, Episode 14 of The Personal Element Podcast features Lauren Tanabe’s essay first published in The Washington Post “Motherhood can be Isolating. My anxiety made it worse.”
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15/07/2022

25/06/2022

For a parent with a chronic disease, it’s imperative to take down time. Rabbi Elliot Kukla argues that, in a stressful world, one of the most important things we can do for our children is to teach them to be lazy.

Listen to Episode 12 (our 1 year episode!!👏👏) based on Elliot’s essay in the New York Times.

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25/05/2022

In the wake of yet another school shooting, we want to share the heartbreaking essay by Megan Doney, a teacher who is a survivor of a school shooting at a community college in VA.

Our hearts are heavy that this episode is once again relevant.

What do educators feel after a school shooting? This beautiful essay on gun violence will help us comprehend the PTSD in the aftermath.

17/05/2022

Out now
Episode 11 of The Personal Element Podcast
We discuss Chris Collins’s powerful essay about a father returning from war in Afghanistan and the impact of PTSD on veterans and families. ⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣

16/04/2022

Out today!

In Episode 10 of The Personal Element podcast we discuss Kelly Shire’s essay (first published in Memoir Mixtapes) “Guera, Where You Going?”

Kelly impeccably describes the industrial areas where she worked as a young woman, the bravado that covered up a longing for something different.

Listen as we dive into this essay based on Beck’s song “Que Onda Quero”

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15/03/2022

Out today!

On Episode 9 of The Personal Element podcast, we discuss Brooke’s essay “Redefining Failure After a Brain Injury”, first published in Hippocampus Magazine.

Let Brooke guide you through the painful and intimate moments of learning to write—and to live—again.

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07/03/2022

A beautiful essay about how to celebrate in spite of the awful news.

In this troubled time, it would be a crime to s***f out any flicker of joy that somehow leaps into life.

07/03/2022

Episode 8 features two of Ellen Birkett Morris’s beautiful essays.

17/02/2022

A great essay about body acceptance. Pair it with our episode on body image (link to episode in comments)

This Valentine's Day, Jennifer Niesslein, 49, catches her own eye.

15/02/2022

Out today.

Episode 8 discusses Ellen’s moving and powerful essays “The Nine” about overcoming a childhood illness and “ Nobody’s Home” which describes a protest outside Mitch McConnell’s house.

Listen now wherever you get your podcasts.

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13/02/2022

“Mr. Sessions has used the awesome power of his office to chill the free exercise of the vote by black citizens in the district he now seeks to serve as a federal judge. This simply cannot be allowed to happen.” -Coretta Scott King, opposing the nomination of Jeff Session for Federal judge in 1986.

On the next episode of The Personal Element podcast (Episode 😎 we discuss two of Ellen Birkett Morris’s personal essays, one of them about a protest outside of Mitch McConnell’s house in 2017 where she perfectly weaves in the letter written by Coretta Scott King 30 years previously.

Come listen to her beautiful prose on February 15th.

Link in bio. ⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣

10/02/2022

We're having an internal debate about the below essay. One of us liked it, one of us didn't. What do you think?

A home-improvement story

10/02/2022

Tuesday’s child is full of grace…

Ellen Birkett Morris breaks apart this old nursery rhyme to contrast the ideal of grace with her bodily struggle as a child.

Ellen’s words will woo you in her essay The Nine.

Next episode of The Personal Element podcast February 15th.

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08/02/2022

An opinion piece on school shootings--pair it with our episode on the topic and let us know what you think! (Link to episode in comments)

A conviction would set an outer limit on how permissive they can be with fi****ms.

15/01/2022

You’ll love the sound of Mikhal’s voice.
Her passion.
Her courage.
Her love.

Episode 7 of The Personal Element is live.
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***an 🌈🦄 🏳️‍🌈 ***r

14/01/2022

Out tomorrow 😏
Mikhal Weiner’s fine essay “Barefoot Angels” first published in An Injustice!
Her essay is about falling in love and coming out in the Tel Aviv arts community.

She tells of a love that manages to survive the move to another continent.

Listen to this intimate, gorgeous recording in Episode 7 of The Personal Element tomorrow wherever you get your podcasts or from our home page. Link in bio. ⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣
***an 🌈🦄 🏳️‍🌈 ***r