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
776
Digging Deep: When What You’ve Always Done Stop...
Something that can make hard times feel harder is when what you’ve always done to get through the tough stuff stops working. It happens to everyone. So what do you do now?!
6 min
777
Making a Sanity Plan for Election Night EP: 307
If you’re nervous, or feeling some aftershocks from the 2016 election that you’re not looking forward to reliving, or angry, or insert your own response here, I think it’s helpful to think about what you can do to feel good on election night and...
9 min
778
Cynicism Antidote #3: Get Out of Your Head EP: 306
Getting out of your head and shifting your focus to something other than your thoughts is a powerful antidote to cynicism. Today I share three ways to do just that.
5 min
779
Cynicism Antidote #2: Be an Empty Cup EP: 305
he four most dangerous words in the English language are “I already know that.” Deciding that you know better is a recipe for staying stuck and feeling disconnected from others.
5 min
780
Finding Faith in Humanity During Tough Times EP...
Today I interview Shelley Moench-Kelley, author of the brand-new book Here’s Your Pill, Kitten, about how a freak accident led to her spending three months as the youngest resident in a nursing home, and how that tough experience helped her have...
15 min
781
Cynicism Antidote #1: Look for the Loving Reaso...
There’s something you can do when you notice yourself thinking that some particular person or people in general suck, something that keeps you open to possibility and helps you trust that life is happening for you, and not just to you.
8 min
782
Resisting Cynicism EP: 302
This week on the podcast I’m talking about cynicism and how we can keep our faith in humanity strong even when it feels like the whole world’s gone crazy.
5 min
783
Is Life Getting You Down? Or Could It Be a Lack...
There’s a very good reason why it might feel so hard to give a darn about your health in winter. And also why your mood might also turn dark. And that is the lack of light.
7 min
784
There’s One Kind of Cookie That’s GREAT for You...
A 2019 review analyzed 10 studies that included data from over 3 million people, an found that dog owners had a 24 percent risk reduction for death from any cause. And that’s just one reason to get a dog. I’m going to give you a few more, but...
8 min
785
How Taking Better Care of Your Health Makes the...
I'm asking Dr. Chris Chlebowski, homeopath, naturopath, chiropractor and author of the upcoming book The Virus And The Host: How To Get And Stay Healthy In The Age of Novel Infectious Disease about how taking better care of your own health makes you a...
13 min
786
What Will You Give Up in the Name of Health? (O...
You likely have something that you eat or do that you know isn’t all that great for you, but anytime you think about giving it up, you dismiss that idea immediately. Here's another way to think about it.
9 min
787
Re-Committing to Your Health EP: 297
We all fall off the health wagon at some point. Here's why you don't want to wait until a health crisis, or even a health thing, to get back on it. Also, I cover how a parody video of me, made by my daughter, helped me make sense of a health...
7 min
788
Creativity Mantra #3: Keep Showing Up EP: 296
Creativity isn’t a one and done thing. It’s a part of you and just like a dog or a baby it needs loving care on the regular. So, today, we’re going to cover ways to make creativity just a thing you do. 
6 min
789
Creativity Mantra #2: Let It Suck EP: 295
In order to breathe life into your ideas and get them out into the world, you’ve got to get the ego to stand down. And the way you do that is by giving yourself permission to let that thing suck.
7 min
790
How to Stop Talking Yourself Out of Being Creat...
Today I'm talking to Zarinah El-Amin, CEO of Book Power Publishing and author of the brand-new book Book Power, about how to get over the excuses you may be giving yourself for not doing anything creative. And wow, does she deliver!
17 min
791
Creativity Mantra #1: Make the Headspace EP: 293
Creative ideas have a hard time penetrating a busy mind. You’ve got to clear a little space in that beautiful noggin of yours for the ideas to come in and be heard.
6 min
792
Feeding Your Creative Fire EP: 292
This week on the podcast, I’m pivoting to talk about something that’s still super important, but is way, way lighter than the pandemic-related themes I’ve been covering lately. And that thing is creativity. I mean, doesn’t that sound nice...
7 min
793
Difficult People: Boundaries, People! EP: 291
Because empathy is important, but often not enough, when it comes to dealing with difficult people, today talking about setting boundaries--both for them and for you.
6 min
794
Difficult People: Find Connection, One Step at ...
Today’s big idea is that difficult people are still people. And you are a person. And deep down we are more alike than we are different. So a helpful way to approach a difficult person is to seek out the things that connect you
8 min
795
Difficult People: How Conflict Can Make You a B...
Does conflict have an upside? Today I’m talking with Amy Gallo, who is the author of the to get her inside scoop on how and why to engage with the difficult people in your life.
14 min
796
Difficult People: You Spot It, You Either Got I...
While I wouldn’t wish a difficult person on anyone else, I believe that they, like every other challenging situation, show up to teach us something. It’s on us to look for that opportunity that’s wrapped up inside every fraught interaction.
7 min
797
Dealing with Difficult People EP: 287
This week on the podcast I’m talking about how to handle the difficult people in your life, whether it’s folks you don’t know that you encounter out in the world, a problematic neighbor, a boss or colleague, or even a partner or a family member....
5 min
798
Love Yourself: A Practical Way to Send Yourself...
Loving yourself is a nice idea but it’s kind of squishy--how do you actually go about doing it? Well, I’ve got something to share with you that will help you put ‘love myself’ on to your calendar, and then actually do it
4 min
799
Love Yourself: Finding Your Way to Self-Accepta...
Accepting the things about yourself that you might otherwise judge as ‘bad’ is a big piece of loving yourself. After all, love isn’t conditional. It’s not, I’ll love myself after I lose 5 pounds, or get a new job, or things calm down.
6 min
800
Love Yourself: Breaking Free from PSD (Patriarc...
When I first encountered the idea that we’re talking about today, I definitely looked like a meme of a person whose mind has just been blown.  It’s the idea that in general, women are vulnerable to thinking less of themselves, chronic stress,...
17 min