Thread the Needle

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 🙏 🫶✨💛
Episode artwork by
Theme song by
Audio mastering by

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
Design by

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.
Hosted and produced by
Original music by
Theme song by
Artwork by
Sound mastering by
-roles

25/11/2020

2020 will go down in history as not only the year of the coronavirus pandemic but also as a year of racial reckoning. Reporting from Iowa, just a few hours’ drive from Minneapolis where George Floyd was killed by the police in May, host Donna Marie Cleveland grapples with the state of racism in the Midwest in the Season 1 finale of Thread the Needle. 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.
Episode artwork by Chosie Titus

2020 will go down in history as a year of racial reckoning. Reporting from Iowa, just a few hours’ drive from Minneapolis where George Floyd was killed by the police in May, host Donna Cleveland grapples with the state of racism in the Midwest.

24/11/2020

putting the finishing touches on episode artwork for the season 1 finale of Thread the Needle, dropping tomorrow! 💗

17/11/2020

Excited to release the season 1 finale of Thread the Needle next Wednesday, November 25th! Fitting all my interviews into one coherent script always feels like putting together puzzle pieces before I know whether or not they belong to the same puzzle. When it all comes together it’s the best feeling! Now onto the last step—editing it all together.

17/11/2020

Catch up on all episodes of Thread the Needle before the season finale next Wednesday! In episode 6, ageism activist Ashton Applewhite says we’ve got it all wrong when it comes to aging. Listen at the link in bio for a powerful message from Applewhite about the road ahead.
“I feel full of a power and self knowledge that was completely inaccessible to me when I was younger.”
-roles

06/10/2020

Latest working-from-home setup: on the floor with lots of coffee and pillows 🥰☕️ 🛋 Last episode of season 1 coming to you soon! Aiming to release before Election Day🤞🏽 I’ll keep you posted here 😊

25/09/2020

Another great quote from This Chair Rocks in episode 6 of TTN (link in bio):

“It is homophobia that makes life harder for gay men, it is not loving a guy. It's not being a woman that makes life harder for women, it is sexism. And it is not the passage of time that makes getting older so much harder than it has to be, it is ageism.”
-roles @ New York, New York

22/09/2020

Meet Taylor Ross. She produces original music for Thread the Needle and is a generally creative and brilliant artist. Also, we go way back (swipe right to see baby Taylor and me!) Here’s what she has to say about working on this project:

“Working with Donna is the most fun, we throw things back and forth which is my favorite way to collaborate. We've known each other since we were zero, and while this is definitely nepotism, it's also great to get to do some creative adulting with an old friend. When you work with someone, especially in a space that demands creative confluences, I think it's one of the best ways to get to know someone in a new way. I love it, and it draws my own work in new directions. Here's to giving each other new opportunities together.”
-roles @ Fairfield, Iowa

17/09/2020

Have you heard of the U-curve of happiness? Neither had I until I spoke to journalist Jonathan Rauch for episode 6 of TTN (link in bio). After analyzing polls around the world, economists discovered that life satisfaction tends to drop in midlife and then rise steadily on into our eighties.
“We're very ambitious when we're young, and we think that achieving all our goals will make us super satisfied. Well, we're wrong about that. Ambition just keeps moving the goalposts. By about our forties, we start to feel like, well, I've accomplished all this stuff and I'm still not satisfied and that leads to disappointment and pessimism. But other things are also going on—our values start to change. As we get older, as lifespan gets shorter, we start to question, ‘Maybe I don't need to worry so much about the house or the car or the status. Maybe I should be thinking more about the people and relationships and pursuits that matter most.’ And that turns out is very good for happiness.”

-roles

15/09/2020

Love my cozy new tie-dyed shirt from . Allie’s been my hairdresser for years and is now also my source for cute vintage things too. I love supporting women-run businesses. 🙌🏽 Check out her shop!

10/09/2020

Ageism activist Ashton Applewhite is calling for an end to age discrimination. Listen to episode 6 of TTN (link in bio) for more from Applewhite. This Chair Rocks

“We think antique furniture is beautiful. We think antique China is beautiful. We think a flower that has exploded is beautiful. Those are subjective choices. We can choose where we see beauty.”

-roles

09/09/2020

People in the Midwest pride themselves on being nice and neighborly, and yet this is where George Floyd was killed in broad daylight by the police.
TTN host Donna Cleveland asks literary artist and activist Dr. Tameka Cage Conley for her impression of the Midwest after living in Iowa City for years while attending the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. Cage Conley

“I think that in the Midwest, we have to get over ourselves and say, first of all, why is it that everybody predominantly here looks the same? Why do we have this homogenous culture?”

02/09/2020

We’re seeing more women taking on strong and complex characters in Hollywood. But if you look at last year's hundred top-grossing films, you’ll see we still have a long way to go. While a record high of 43 of them starred women, only three of those movies starred women over the age of 45, according to the nonprofit Women and Hollywood.
In episode 6 of TTN (link below), learn more about the discrimination older women face and how it’s a misrepresentation (and lack of representation) of their full, interesting, and diverse life experiences.
-roles

https://theneedle.co/new-blog/2020/8/3/episode-6-lies-about-growing-old

29/08/2020

Literary artist Dr. Tameka Cage Conley shares why she must live Black out loud in a racist, sexist world.

"I'm empowered because I've decided to be, not because anything in my environment gives me, quote-unquote, permission to be. So I will be empowered. . . This is just strictly who I am and how I operate in the world, but it's not because I feel like I have achieved something where racism or sexism is concerned. It just simply means that, in spite of it, I have decided on critical self joy. And I use the word critical, because it is a matter of life or death. If I allow myself to be beset by gloom, as Maya Angelou wrote, then I am becoming something that is a creation of the white supremacy and the sexism around me. I'm just unable to live like that. I'm unable to live like that because of the women who raised me, I'm unable to live like that because of the civil rights activists who fought for me, I'm just simply unable live like that because of my son and because everybody who's ever loved me. So it's not even that I have worked through it. It's a constant working through. So my job is to really live above it. And that's what I mean when I say I like to be Black out loud."

Literary artist Dr. Tameka Cage Conley shares why she must live Black out loud in a racist, sexist world. "I'm empowered because I've decided to be, not beca...