You're Here to Hold You

I'm a musician and I make the podcasts Song Exploder, Home Cooking, and The West Wing Weekly. Here, I write about creativity and small delights in music, tv, film, and food.

Not really "about” salad. But salad is the force that through the green fuse drives the flower. Recipes, yes—but mostly a way of paying attention.

essays about literature, culture, and so many feelings.

Writing that boldly disregards normal restraints.

Writing that points to the universal through the lens of the very personal. I hope you find yourself here.

For people who do language. Writing saved my life—so I teach writing as if it can save yours.

Exploring what it means to travel through time in a human body, at every phase of life.

Imagine a Venn diagram with overlapping circles labeled: Medical Facts, Feminism, and Fire. You've arrived at their intersection.

A community of love, humor & Possibility. I was waiting for someone to give me proof of my life’s worthiness. F*ck that! YOU ARE YOUR OWN PROOF OF LIFE. Here you'll find poetry, art, guest essays, weird ramblings, offerings & OPEN ARMS.

A few thoughts on what I'm wearing, words I'm writing, and the world we wander.

Four verticals edited by Sari Botton: MEMOIR MONDAY, collab w/ Granta, Narratively, The Rumpus, Orion, The Walrus, Electric Lit, LitHub, Oldster; FIRST PERSON SINGULAR original essays; THE LIT LAB interviews + craft; GOODBYE TO ALL THAT, NYC stories.

personal essays for free subscribers and a podcast for paid subscribers

I write about animals, ecology, and living compassionately in a changing world. Explore twice monthly, poetic reflections on a shared sense of belonging.

Books and other stuff.

My personal Substack

Discover extraordinary true stories celebrating the diversity of humanity.

Style advice, shopping picks, pop culture, and opinion for over-40 women and the over-40-curious, from former Sassy staffer and Lucky Magazine founding editor in chief Kim France.

Essays, bad jokes, rants, and unsolicited advice from New York Times bestselling author Lauren Hough, and a dog named Woody Guthrie.

A newsletter about writing & other things that make this life dear—from the poet, not the dame

CRAFT TALK is a weekly newsletter about writing, creativity and productivity from author Jami Attenberg. This is also the home of #1000wordsofsummer, where, once a year, we write 1000 words a day together for two weeks straight.

Life itself as a creative process.

New insight from old journals. Childhood mother loss and other fun stuff. The natural world. Chicago, Ozarks, Seattle. I'm writing a memoir, working title NEVER THE SAME: A Memoir of Early Loss and Resilience.

Think more about the culture that surrounds you

Written from a journalist in a red state, this newsletter is personal, political, sometimes funny and always raises hell.