Thread the Needle

05/11/2024

📣 New episode of Thread the Needle for election day! 📣 A Better Way to Disagree
I’ve always found it difficult to interact with people I disagree with—especially during election season. I had the pleasure of interviewing Professor Loretta Ross about how she’s learned to hold people accountable while maintaining empathy and compassion. I hope you find her as inspiring as I did! (Link in bio)
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03/05/2024

Look who I ran into today at The Newsletter Conference in NYC! My sisters and I have been listening to Happier Podcast for years and I loved getting to chat with her about all things newsletter growth and podcasting 🤩

13/02/2024

I’m hosting a free online workshop on lessons in podcasting this Saturday morning from 10-12 p.m. CST as part of SOUL BONE Literary Festival. I’ll share how I started a non-fiction storytelling podcast as a way to explore my passion for feminism and the big lessons I’ve learned so far. If you love podcasts and/or are considering starting your own show, I hope you’ll join me! You can register for free with the Eventbrite link in bio :)

08/02/2024

Thread the Needle is back for Season 2, opening with an episode on Women & Divorce.

Going through a divorce is a decidedly sucky process. While still taboo, the dreaded D word is extremely common— in the U.S., about 1 million women file for divorce every year.

Interestingly, women have consistently initiated the majority of divorces in hetero unions throughout US history. But the reasons women jump ship have changed. In this episode, we’ll explore how many women describe abandoning themselves within their marriages and how divorce becomes an act of self-empowerment. (Link in bio!)
What’s your divorce/breakup story? Comment in the chat and tag/share with anyone who needs to hear this 🙏 🫶✨💛
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28/05/2021

We've all fallen into the trap of measuring our lives by what we think we "should" have achieved by our age. This article offers a refreshing take:

"Nothing I truly want can be measured or logged as behind or ahead. . . We know the markers of adulthood, and timelines when those markers unfold—moving out, getting married, finishing school, financial security, having children—are changing. But we don’t allow people to change along with them."
https://catapult.co/stories/the-obsession-with-getting-ahead-in-your-twenties-is-failing-young-people-rainesford-stauffer

Why do we need measuring sticks like college and marriage and leaving home to track our worth?

16/04/2021

Joined the club! 💉

07/01/2021

White men are empowered to behave in this way, experts say

07/01/2021

94SharesBeneath a veneer of “niceness,” the Midwest is among the very worst places to live in the United States if you’re a person of color. That’s what historian and University of Iowa history professor Colin Gordon discovered while completing a report for the Iowa Policy Project titled “...

17/12/2020

Literary artist beautifully describes her determination to live on her own terms. Hear more from Tameka on living in Iowa as a woman of color in the season one finale of Thread the Needle (link in bio).

14/12/2020

In this extended interview with historian Colin Gordon of the Iowa Policy Project, learn the history of racist policies and practices in flyover country and what we can do about it today. (Link in bio to episode 7.)

08/12/2020

Thanks for the feature from my alma mater, University of Iowa School of Journalism and Mass Communication! 🙏

07/12/2020

“Iowa’s racism is right in your face.” Chef Cashus shares a first-hand account of the racism he faces as a Black restaurant owner in rural Iowa. Listen to episode 7 for the full story (link in bio)
Cashus Italian Cuisine

06/12/2020

“Racist people are nice, racist people don't have bad intentions, racist people don't think that they're racist, and that's honestly the problem.”
Listen to episode 7 (link in bio) for more from
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03/12/2020

Got a lot of smiles from the ladies while out and about with this tote from my sisters. 😁 I love that it’s from a Black-owned, woman-run business! Thank you Natalie , & 🙏 💗

02/12/2020

Literary artist Tameka Cage Conley opens up about the racism she’s encountered in Iowa City while attending the Iowa Writers Workshop. Listen to episode 7 (link in bio) for more of Tameka’s story.
@ Iowa City, Iowa

02/12/2020

01/12/2020

Hear Alejandra Giron () share what it was like to immigrate from Guatemala to small-town Iowa when she was 8 years old. Listen to episode 7 “The Only Black Man in Town,” for more of Alejandra’s story (link in bio). ✨

25/11/2020

2020 will go down in history as a year of racial reckoning. In the Season one finale of Thread the Needle (link in bio), host Donna Cleveland reports from Iowa, just a few hours’ drive from Minneapolis where George Floyd was killed by the police in May, on the state of racism in the Midwest. While Midwesterners are known for being neighborly, with slogans like Iowa Nice, it turns out that flyover country harbors a history of racist policies and practices, the legacy of which we’re still living with today. The result is that racial inequality in the Midwest is greater than anywhere else in the country, even the South. This episode explores what it’s really like to live in the Midwest if you’re a person of color, how we got here, and what we can do about it.
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