A weekly(ish) conversation about the overlooked, underdiscussed but actually really big things that impact women today. We talk about women's lives - everything from politics, family, friendships, work and culture - and thoroughly unpack these subjects in ways that you don't usually think about, or takes that simply don't get enough visibility. Brought to you by Dara Obbard and Kristin James, two friends united by their dedication to creating social impact, championing women's issues, and an enduring love for Leslie Knope.
Last week we looked back to the movies and female characters who helped shaped the way we see the world women inhabit…and could inhabit. It was a great reminder that pop culture can play a significant role in influencing people’s lives. So is it crazy to think the reverse is possible - that the recipients of such influence could turn around and be creators? We don’t think so. If you’re an avid listener you might have noticed that every once in a while we pitch ideas into the universe - things...
2 May 2021
We See Ourselves
Awards season is officially behind us, and while both of us did a lousy job of keeping up this past year, we couldn’t help but stop and ponder the role movies have played in each of our lives. During our formative years we were lucky to see women portrayed as adventurers, saviors, leaders, risk-takers, barrier-breakers, and survivors. We saw ourselves as the funniest of friends, the nurturing mother, the fed up wife, a different kind of boss, a cool rider, young girls searching for home, or a...
24 Apr 2021
Your Body is Your Brain (Part Two)
In part one, we covered the mind-body connection through lots of angles with the help of Dr. Dan Ratner, a psychologist who specializes in the alleviation of physical symptoms deriving from, or exacerbated by, psychological causes. In part two, we expand on the variety emotional circumstances that can create physical illness - from childhood experiences through generational and collective trauma. We also spend some time talking about the signs you might be experiencing physical pa...
18 Apr 2021
Your Body is Your Brain (Part One)
For the first episode of our “Not All in Your Head” series, we each shared the many ways our anxiety, trauma and physical health keeps crashing into the other. While our individual sources of emotional pain may be different, we’ve both experienced the same type of physical manifestation as a result. We heard from many of you that this episode hit a nerve and meant a lot to you. So in this episode we even dig deeper into the science behind the mind-body connection - what’s the biggest misconce...
11 Apr 2021
Voices Carry
We’ve all had this experience - sitting in a room, listening to another person share their personal story and being emotionally moved. Words matter. They can create deep empathy, inspire action, or speak directly to a part of us that has been hidden but is begging to be acknowledged. And when each of us finds a way to tell those hidden stories, or say the hardest things, we give others the gift of knowing none of us is alone. The journey of finding and then actually using your voice though? T...
26 Mar 2021
Thank You For the Music
A wise philosopher (okay Madonna) once sang it best…music makes the people come together. Inspired by a recent social media questionnaire, Dara’s love of list making and a desire to create a series of superlative episodes, in this episode we spend some time reminiscing about our favorite live music performances of the past, the cringeworthy, the nostalgic, and what we can’t wait to see in the future. We talk about the Not Small Thing of remembering our parents through their music, connecting ...
17 Mar 2021
Not All in Your Head
It’s no secret (or surprise) that a global pandemic would create anxiety - we’re only human after all. But the ways in which people have been experiencing that anxiety varies a great deal, including the unexpected anxiety setting in as people contemplate finding their way back to “normal.” This has been a somewhat new experience for many people, but for the both of us the pandemic is one incident among many when our anxiety over physical health has crashed into the other, and vice versa. This...
5 Mar 2021
Women Be Shopping
A scavenger hunt. An escape from real life. Me time. A means of exploration. Pure convenience and simplicity. Online shopping is a wormhole unto itself for so many reasons. In this episode we examine what shopping, in general, has meant to us historically as a way to bond socially and to experience pleasurable things - to how life’s changes, growing up, and the pandemic has altered our relationship to this everyday activity. For such a seemingly simple topic, we cover a surprising range of em...
25 Feb 2021
Who are You Wearing?
We don’t know about y’all, but we needed something light and fun this week. A palate cleanser if you will - after all, stopping to appreciate something just for pleasure is definitely a Not Small Thing. It’s Golden Globes week, and while this year’s ceremony will look decidedly different, we still couldn’t help but crave some red carpet action. In this episode we talk about what it feels like and means to find your style and own it, how we each have observed the red carpet evolve over the dec...
10 Feb 2021
Ch-ch-ch-changes
Here’s a Not Small Thing…knowing what we value, and living our lives in alignment with those values. This is easier said than done because that can mean seeing that we need to do something differently. As humans we like patterns and we like fitting in, so even a small change to the established can feel NOT so small. And women particularly have been raised to be keenly aware of our place in the world, of our own limits, to be peacekeepers first and foremost, and maybe fear change or giving up ...
2 Feb 2021
Are We...Anti-Social?
In this episode, we talk about the Not Small Things we have learned from spending so much of the last 5 years on Facebook. We’ve both watched “The Social Dilemma” and know the problems with Facebook are legion, but there’s been a lot of good that came out of Facebook, too. Especially for us personally. We’re joined by Rachel Happe, Co-Founder of The Community Roundtable and a thought leader on online communities, to chat about the good, bad and ugly of Facebook: what has enhanced our lives, w...
31 Jan 2021
We Begin
For our first episode we talk about the not small things about this historic moment in time: things that were quietly groundbreaking about the way Joe Biden and Kamala Harris ran for office, things that have stuck with us from the Inauguration and beyond, the (not so) small things that have kept us going for four+ years, the things we hope to never talk about or see again — and finally the one thing we’re looking forward to the most.
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