Watch a short video clip of this episode above or hear the full interview below.

On November 5th, Tim's new book, Alice in Tumblr-land: And Other Fairytales for a New Generation comes out. Join us for this conversation about: 

• Changing careers and going all-in with creative work
• "Millenials" and Tim's own journey through his 20s
• Not apologizing for one's work (despite the temptation to do just that) 
• Having an unconventional drawing education
• Finding work that sits well with your soul, and
• The benefits of looking at your accomplishments through the 5-Years-Ago Lens.

Click the player below, or listen and subscribe in iTunes. Find previous episodes of Retrospective here.

Tim Manley is the writer and illustrator of Alice in Tumblr-land: And Other Fairy Tales for a New Generation (Penguin Books). It is based on his tumblr, 

• time, sufficiency and the pervasive pressures of the internet
• Michael's journey: from diagnosis to drawing to a creative career
• the artists and works that have inspired and influenced Michael along the way
• "Murder She Wrote" and becoming an author
• and how to build trust in the model of working slowly, with time on your side.

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In this episode of Retrospective, I talk with my friend Ophira Eisenberg right before her new memoir releases nationwide. You may have heard her on NPR, seen her stand-up comedy recently onThe Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson or had the pleasure of seeing her live onstage.

Click the player below to listen, or listen and subscribe in iTunes. Find previous episodes of Retrospective here.

We chat over tea and a latte and talk about:

• translating story and humor from stage to page
• dealing with "What will 'they' think?"​
• and how she combines hard work with navigating the opportunities that follow

Screw Everyone: Sleeping My Way to Monogamy is now available on Amazon.

For Ophira's storytelling wisdom, check out the Telling Your Story multimedia course.

Ophira Eisenberg is a stand-up comedian, host of NPR's Ask Me Another, and a writer. She has appeared on Comedy Central, VH1, E!, and the TV Guide Network. She is also a regular host and storyteller with The Moth. Find her online at ophiraeisenberg.com.​

Click the player below to listen, or listen and subscribe in iTunes. Find previous episodes of Retrospective here.

Our in-depth conversation covers:

• how Caren's journey brought self care under a spotlight
• the kind of pacing and care that can help one sustain a career in service of others
• finding the way into our own solutions and tools
• taking self care from the realm of luxury to necessity
• why it's not as simple as following a formula

• fiction, nonfiction, and where your secrets come out
• dealing with being seen during a very personal book release
• "punch and get out" --lessons learned from storytelling
• keeping ego untangled from the creative process, and
• wrestling projects into submission.

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Diana Spechler is the author of the novels Who By Fire (Harper Perennial, 2008) and Skinny (Harper Perennial, 2011). She has written for the New York Times; GQ; O, The Oprah Magazine; CNN Living; Esquire; New York; Paris Review; Self;Details; the Wall Street Journal; Salon; Slate;Nerve; Southern Review; Glimmer Train Stories; and elsewhere. She is also a four-time Moth StorySLAM winner and has been featured on NPR. She received her MFA degree from the University of Montana and was a Steinbeck Fellow at San Jose State University and the writer-in-residence at Portsmouth Abbey School. A 2012-2013 LABA Fellow, she teaches writing in New York City and for Stanford University's Online Writer's Studio.

Phil Gazley works on anti-trafficking efforts, developing coalitions and partnering with government groups, law enforcement agencies and NGOs. You can support this work here.

Click the player above to listen.

Hear more great conversations with artists, authors and visionaries on Retrospective. You can also subscribe in iTunes.

Photo by Bella Cirovic, shetoldstories.com

Her first language is French. She lived in Belgium as a child and spent her 20s in Europe. Artist and designer Liz Kalloch has had many adventures: grand, far and wide, but is now more rooted and creating her work and her life more than ever before. 

In this episode of Retrospective, listen as Liz shares about:

• her transition to freelance design from working for large companies and publishers
• how "working small" changes the quality of creative work
• the power of place, and
• the saving graces she's experienced along the way

Liz Kalloch paints, writes and designs in a turquoise house by the San Francisco Bay. You can see more of her work her on her website.

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Christiane Fröhlich studies h​ow narratives and stories affect conflict, from a personal level to a global level, and her work informs and influences national politicians, educators and decision-makers in Germany. 

In this episode, Christiane shares about:

• ​seeking peace close to home
• navigating a post-war personal family history​
• completing a PhD thesis as a new mother​
• building an urban community, and​
• pioneering a career as a freelance conflict researcher

Dr. Christiane J. Fröhlich holds a PhD in sociology from Marburg University, as well as a Master of Peace and Security Studies and an M.A. in English, History and Psychology from Hamburg and Warwick Universities. From 2004 until 2011, she worked for the Protestant Institute for Interdisciplinary Science in Heidelberg, most notably as co-editor of the annual German Peace Report. She is a fellow at the Centre for Democracy and Peace Studies at Osnabrueck University, and specialises in discursive conflict transformation and resource conflicts, currently with a regional focus on the Middle East.

​In this episode of Retrospective, Jen and Liz take you behind the scenes of a creative collaboration. Click on the audio player to hear about:

• the difference between being a guru and being a companion
• offering supports to share instead of trying to "fix" people​
• ​invitations versus sales pitches
• the journey from idea to tangible object, and ​
• what it's like to be seen all along the way.​

Liz Lamoreux is a retreat host, an artist, the author of Inner Excavation: Explore Your Self Through Photography, Poetry, and Mixed Media, and the creator of The Gift of This Moment Home Retreat Kit. She believes that beauty and truth are found when we share our stories through creativity and community, and she facilitates opportunities for women to shine a light on the stories just waiting inside them.

A trained yoga instructor, her experiences of community with other artists has encouraged her to see creativity as a form of yoga and she now honors creating and writing as part of her personal yoga practice. She lives in the Puget Sound Area with her husband, young daughter, and golden retriever. Most days you can find her in her studio surrounded by fabric, vintage lockets, and poetry as her daughter practices twirling beside her, or maybe she is practicing what she teaches and they are both taking a nap.

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​Artist and designer Kelly Barton is one my favorite people in the whole world. One friend recently noted, "The best thing about Kelly is, wherever you find her or whoever she's with, Kelly is always Kelly." There's something so true blue and steady about the way she inhabits the world--you know you can always count on her to be kind, to be fair, to call it like she sees it and to walk her path, wherever it takes her.

We recorded this conversation on a porch at Squam Lake in New Hampshire, and if you listen closely you can hear the breeze blowing through the trees.​

In this episode, Kelly shares about:

Here's more about Kelly, in her own words: 

i am a girl who believes in the everyday simple. i love sharing
empowering stories through each girl i paint. stories that we
each tuck away in the layers of our days, sometimes just needing
a little reminder that it is okay to come out and play.

i am kelly barton. mixed media artist, designer. i own a laugh
that sounds like betty rubble and  a love for the word d.a.n.g.
a girl filled to the brim with color.

the girl next door.

Click the link at the top of this post to listen, or listen and subscribe in iTunes.

​In this episode of Retrospective, scholar, artist and educator Micaela Blei shares:

• what working with children has taught her about being herself
• what storytelling on stage and having a conversation have in common
• what she tells vs. the image Georgia O'Keefe gave her for what stays "in the vault"​
• ​how her work and studies now weave all her interests together, even as she creates what's next

MICAELA BLEI is a storyteller, teacher, writer and scholar. She's appeared onstage at the Moth, the Story Collider, Told, BTK Band and in elementary classrooms across New York City. Micaela is working on her PhD in Educational Theater, and she's also currently creating a story/performance for young audiences about New York City and a big, strange museum heist.​