Finding the Throughline with Kate Hanley

Finding the Throughline: Conversations about the Creative Process invites you into the minds of writers and other creatives as they open up about their process, their doubts, and what kinds of changes they’re thinking about making. The questions are mildly invasive, honestly, and the answers are unvarnished…and so refreshing! 

Whether your creative work is writing, painting, making music, parenting, or simply living, Finding the Throughline can help you get—and stay—inspired. Invigorated, even. 

For detailed show notes on each interview, visit katehanley.substack.com. And if you’d like to hear these interviews in one ad-free episode (as opposed to broken up into three shorter episodes with a few ads sprinkled in to keep the lights on), become a paid subscriber once you’re there.

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Education
Self-Improvement
How To
626
Are You Addicted to Your Phone? Maybe (Probably...
Smartphones are designed to be addictive. If you can't stop looking at yours, it makes sense. Does that mean there's nothing you can do? No. Dr. Jud Brewer, a New York Times best-selling author, neuroscientist, addiction psychiatrist, and thought...
16 min
627
Managing the Onslaught of Opportunities to Sho...
Anytime you are online (unless you’ve paid for a subscription service with no ads), SHOPPING IS EVERYWHERE!! It’s very, very hard to resist. Which is tough on our willpower, which is a finite resource that burns pretty quickly, our credit...
7 min
628
Being a Better Person Online: Keeping Relations...
All our connectivity makes a lot of things easier, but there are some things where you don’t really want to take the easy route: for example, fostering day to day closeness to people you love. 
8 min
629
DAY FIVE of the First-Ever Give a Shit Challeng...
Well, you commit to something. Something that helps keep a very manageable amount of your energy directed toward making a difference. I'll also share how I came to be secretary of the PTO--and why I'm so glad I did, despite the meetings.
7 min
630
DAY FOUR of the First-Ever Give a Shit Challeng...
In what I think might end up being the shortest How to Be a Better Person podcast episode ever, your tiny assignment today is just ridiculously simple. But hearing why it matters so very much will help inspire you to do it.
5 min
631
DAY THREE of the First-Ever Give a Shit Challen...
You may not have 50,000 followers on Instagram or a million followers on tiktok, but you still have influence. Today’s piece of the challenge is to take the information you gathered on who is already doing the work on the thing you want to help...
6 min
632
DAY TWO of the First-Ever Give a Shit Challenge...
 Here’s a crucial thing to keep in mind when it comes to making a difference on issues big and small, global and local: You don’t need to be the savior rushing in a white horse. In fact, you'd likely only make things worse. Instead, your task...
6 min
633
DAY ONE of the First Ever Give a Shit Challenge...
This week on the podcast I’m doing something a little bit different. Because I’ve gotten such a great response to my free I Give a Shit sticker (it's a nice antidote to the I give zero effs thing that’s been floating around) and because there...
8 min
634
Ask Yourself This Question to Figure Out What Y...
Your emotions aren’t here to torture you; they’re messengers, giving you information about what you value, need, and want. Here's one question to ask yourself to figure out what information your anger is trying to convey. (Then it won’t have to...
8 min
635
What’s Your Anger Story? EP: 540
Each of us has a set of beliefs about anger that we’ve been carrying around since we were little. By taking a little time to think about what those beliefs are, you can get a little more objectivity and perspective on this emotion that so often...
8 min
636
Breaking the Cycle of Anger, an Interview with ...
I wanted to reach out to someone who could help us think about anger in new ways and potentially interrupt any of our habitual patterns around it so that we’ve got some space to learn some new skills for dealing with it. The person I’m talking to...
23 min
637
Reasons Why You Might Feel Angry All the Time E...
There’s nothing wrong with anger management strategies, which are fine but, to use a healthcare analogy, learning how to manage anger is trying to mitigate symptoms, instead of treating the root cause. Let’s look at some of the many, many things...
10 min
638
Is Anger Good, or Bad? Both EP: 537
This week's episodes were inspired by a listener question about feeling angry all the time lately, and what to do about it. And since anger is definitely having a moment (all that cooped-up angst has to have somewhere to go), let's figure out what all...
7 min
639
How Do You Feel When You’re Having Fun? EP: 536
Even when you’re busy and don’t feel like you have a lot of time to do things just for the fun of it, you can increase your experience of fun by tuning in to how fun feels in your body.
6 min
640
Using Fun to Motivate You--It Is Possible EP: 535
Let’s face it: Adulting can be a real slog. The list of things to do and take care of can feel relentless. However, that does not mean that doing the things you need to do has to be boring, or tedious. You CAN use fun to goad yourself into doing...
6 min
641
Feeling Fried? Might Be Time for the Healing Po...
Today I’m interviewing Dr. Rachel Allyn, a relationship and sex therapist and the author of the new book, The Pleasure Is All Yours: Reclaim Your Body’s Bliss and Reignite Your Passion for Life. After all fun and pleasure go hand in hand, and if...
15 min
642
So, What ARE You Doing for Fun? EP: 533
In order to invite more fun into your life, it helps to give some thought to what you consider to be fun, and what you’ve been doing for fun lately, and objectively assess whether you might need to prioritize fun a little more. I think of it as...
8 min
643
Let’s Have Some Fun EP: 532
I get that fun can feel frivolous, and that it’s easy to think that we should wait until things calm down before we even consider doing something just for the fun of it. But fun is not just enjoyable, but also it’s vital to our wellbeing and even...
9 min
644
How to Make Multiple Meals Out of One Cooking S...
There are two kinds of people in this world: those who embrace leftovers, and those who turn their nose up at them. By the end of this episode, I hope you’ll be firmly in the embrace ‘em camp, if you’re not there already. 
6 min
645
Cooking Doesn’t Start in the Kitchen...It Start...
We can’t talk about how to get better and making more of your own food without also talking about getting better about grocery shopping. After all, you can’t cook what you don’t have. 
6 min
646
How to Figure Out What the Heck to Have for Di...
Let’s be honest, figuring out what to eat can also be overwhelming. So today, I’m interviewing Kate Schulz, co-host of the Dinner Sisters podcast, for her tips on how to figure out what the heck to have for dinner. Kate is a home cook through and...
17 min
647
Cooking Strategies that Have Saved Me Weeks of ...
While you definitely don’t need any formal training to be a great home cook, having a couple techniques up your sleeve can make things a lot easier. So today I’m sharing three cooking strategies that, over the years, have saved me weeks of time. I...
6 min
648
Food Week: 7 Easy Ways to Eat More Vegetables E...
We all know that vegetables are good for us, but few of us are eating as many as we probably ought to be. In fact, a survey commissioned by the food brand. Dr. Praeger's found that a quarter of Americans have never had a vegetable! So let’s talk...
9 min
649
What Fall Is REALLY About EP: 526
Ok, yes, fall is busy, but it's about more than just being a busy little squirrel and hiding away your acorns for the winter to come (although it is about that too). Let's look at the deeper meaning--and opportunities--of fall so we can be intentional...
5 min
650
How a Supportive Schedule Is Like a Song EP: 525
Instead of creating a rigid new schedule for fall, think about how making your schedule more like a song--with a consistent rhythm that can adapt to different circumstances, like verses (weekdays), choruses (weekends), and even shredding guitar solos...
7 min