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
876
Welp, That Sucks: And the Hits Just Keep on Com...
As the coronavirus continues to be a factor in our lives, we’re having to continually deal with new and different shades of grief. Because that’s really what’s at the crux of so much of the news regarding the pandemic--loss. And the tricky thing...
7 min
877
Planning in a Time When Planning Is Impossible ...
Will schools be back in the fall? Is it safe to fly, and even if we decide it’s safe, will flights be canceled? If you’ve been furloughed, when will you get called back? Will you get called back? How long will COVID be part of our mental...
8 min
878
#podcastblackout EP: 201
In solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement, I am not posting new episodes this week. In this quick episode, I explain why I'm participating in the #podcastblackout. I'll be back next week--and in the meantime, let's stay connected on Facebook...
3 min
879
Activism In a Socially Distanced World EP: 200
Today’s big idea is how to make change in a socially distanced world. After all, all the problems we had before Covid are still there. Many of them are getting worse--economic inequality, violence against black people. Elections are coming up....
8 min
880
Keeping the Best of the Quarantine: Blowing Off...
There’s something about quarantine that’s good that’s not all peace, love and understanding. And that is being crabby and salty.  
5 min
881
Keeping the Best of the Quarantine: Supporting ...
I remember after 9/11 happened when George W Bush addressed the country and said the most important thing we could do was go shopping. I remember thinking, really? Buying stuff is important now? We’re feeling that same tension today, as staying home...
19 min
882
Keeping the Best of the Quarantine: Building Ki...
Today I'm interviewing Emma Johnson, founder of , about how to foster resilience in our kids as their world is completely changed. It's easy to say, oh kids are resilient, but how we talk to them and treat them has a TON to do with how well they...
18 min
883
Keeping the Best of the Quarantine: Keeping it ...
Now that we’re forced to slow down, doesn’t the hectic pace of our former lives feel a little insane? Is having a jam packed schedule where we’re wringing everything we can out of every moment something we even want to get back? 
9 min
884
Keeping the Best of the Quarantine: The Ministr...
Quarantine has forced us to embrace new things. This isn’t always easy for us humans, as new things mean change and change can be scary. Like it or now, the quarantine has forced us to be inventive. One of my favorite examples of this is the...
8 min
885
Keeping the Best of the Quarantine: Food Glorio...
Our relationship to food has been going through a transformation these last few weeks: more meal planning, more cooking at home, and more whole foods. There’s been stress baking. And stress eating. And food insecurity. What about the way you've been...
5 min
886
Keeping the Best of the Quarantine: The Beauty ...
As we’ve all stayed home, we’ve let a lot of things slide on a personal care level. And I wonder, how much do we WANT to carry forward? Is this an opening for all of us to be more real in our appearance? Let’s break it down. 
6 min
887
Keeping the Best of the Quarantine: Now That We...
Today I'm talking to someone who's a whiz at building and nurturing relationships to share how we can keep up the connections we've made during quarantine--and what meeting people in the future might look like.
14 min
888
Keeping the Best of the Quarantine: Take Stock,...
Just like we want to take a clear-eyed look at the positive changes that quarantine has brought about and decide what we want to bring with us as we re-emerge, we also want to think about what we want to leave behind because it really didn’t serve...
7 min
889
Keeping the Best of the Quarantine: Take Stock,...
This week and next, I’m going to be taking a look at the things the quarantine allowed us to experience that maybe we want to keep around, even when we’re starting to re-emerge. 
7 min
890
Think About How You’ll Feel the Day After EP: 189
It feels SO GOOD to get out and do some of the things we used to do. But just because it’s technically OK for us to get out more, it’s not a get out of jail free cards--the virus is still circulating. You really want to be able to be mindful about...
7 min
891
One of the Best Ways to Help Keep the Curve Fla...
A huge piece of minimizing an outbreak of any infectious disease is called contact tracing--it’s the tedious, old-fashioned work that takes a lot of humanpower. You and I can help with this effort big time by keeping a journal of everyone we’ve...
7 min
892
How to Tell Fact from Fiction During a Global ...
During this time of Covid, we're all needing to beef up our science skills so we can stay up to date and make the best decisions for ourselves and our families. It's not enough just to take the information in, we've got to process it and then put it...
15 min
893
Enhance Your Ability to Roll With It EP: 186
One of the most tough to swallow pieces of life in the time of covid is that we don’t know what’s going to happen. The opportunity it presents is that we are getting a fabulous opportunity to learn how to roll with things. 
9 min
894
Bid “Normal” Adieu EP: 185
This week is devoted to exploring how we can re-emerge from quarantine mindfully. I’m kicking things off with a really deep, perhaps unpleasant, big idea. And that is, that as much as we are eager for things to “get back” to normal, there is no...
9 min
895
Calm the Eff Down Challenge: Week 3 Recap and W...
Let’s take a look back at this final week, which was all about calming down in your own mind. Mindset shifts are subtle, a little squishy, even, but they have so much power to shift you into a better state overall. 
8 min
896
Your Secret Weapon: Acceptance EP: 183
All we can do during these times is roll with it as best we can. And that requires you to surrender. It isn’t giving up. It’s really just laying down your resistance. It means you get to stop putting effort into trying to change things you...
6 min
897
How to Feel Safe in an Unsafe World EP: 182
SO excited to be talking to Jill Miller, author of "The Roll Model" and creator of YogaTuneUp.com, as she is honestly one of the BEST people I know to talk about how to help yourself calm the eff down. Jill shares the 5 tools we all always have at...
20 min
898
The Need for Alone Time Is Real EP: 181
For those of us quarantined with other people--especially parents with kids--there is a whollllllle lotta together time. In many ways, it’s great. But alone time is also how we catch up to ourselves, process our emotions, and recuperate, kind of...
10 min
899
Eff the Eff Bomb EP: 180
So....about that time I cursed at a total stranger, right to her face. <smacks forehead> Cursing is cathartic, but it's also a slippery slope.
12 min
900
CALM THE EFF DOWN WEEK 2 RECAP AND WEEKEND ASSI...
In this second week of the challenge we’ve covered ways to reduce stress in your relationships, so that whether you are cooped up together or separated from each other, you can still feel connected. Here's a recap as well as an assignment for the...
6 min