Podcast appearances and mentions of lauren sandler

Should we try for another child? Can we handle all the treatments, ups and downs, and possible heartbreak that comes with trying again? Will my child be okay without a sibling? Will our family feel complete with “just” one child? Lauren Sandler, award-winning journalist and author, is joining Baby or Bust to share her thoughts and insights on parenthood and chat about her bestselling book One and Only: The Freedom of Having an Only Child, and the Joy of Being One. This is the book that ignited an international conversation about single-child families. In this conversation, Lauren Sandler shares with Dr. Lora Shahine her experience as an only child and a mother of an only child. They explore the cultural pressure surrounding family size and society's heavy expectations put on parents to have more than one.  You'll hear Lauren share the importance of personal choice in parenting, debunk myths about only children, and highlight the significance of happiness and fulfillment in parenting. You'll walk away ready to embrace your unique family dynamics and make empowered choices about your lives and families. In this episode you'll hear: [2:29] Meet Lauren Sandler, author of One and Only [5:13] Getting questions about family building [8:43] 2 by 2––Society's Expectation [11:05] What does research say about single children? [17:20] Pros of being an only child [23:42] Assumptions about an only child's life and future [30:23] Lauren's life today   Resources mentioned:  www.laurenosandler.com/about  One and Only book: www.laurenosandler.com/the-book    Dr. Shahine's Weekly Newsletter on Fertility News and Recommendations Follow @drlorashahine Instagram | YouTube | Tiktok | Her Books

For this week's bi-weekly scene study, Vanessa and Lauren Sandler try not to cry their way through the ending of of Dirty Dancing. They discuss the music choices, the class politics, and the side characters they wish they heard more from. ---If we give you butterflies, consider supporting us on Patreon! On Patreon have more great romance content including a bonus close scene analysis with Vanessa and Hannah. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Vanessa Zoltan and special guest Lauren Sandler meet in the Catskills to record this week's episode of Hot and Bothered, all about Dirty Dancing – one of our favorite movies of all time. This week we discuss the abortion plot line, Baby's relationship with her father, and the difference between desire and love. We finish the episode with an interview sociologist Phil Brown on the history of Jews in the Catskills. Phil is the founder and president of The Catskills Institute which is a robust online resource for this history. ---If we give you butterflies, consider supporting us on Patreon! On Patreon have more great romance content including a bonus close scene analysis with Vanessa and Lauren. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

“Family Proclamations” is the brand new podcast by Blair Hodges, host of Fireside. Enjoy this sample episode and be sure to subscribe directly to Family Proclamations now, because this episode will fall out of the Fireside feed next month!

Lauren Sandler is an "only child" expert. She is one. She has one. And as an award-winning journalist, Lauren dug deep to answer some of the most pressing questions about singletons. Are they more lonely? Are they more selfish? Would they be better off with siblings? She answers these questions and more in her book, One and Only: The Freedom of Having an Only Child and the Joy of Being One.  About the Guest Lauren Sandler is an award-winning journalist and author based in Brooklyn. She is author of multiple best-selling books including This Is All I Got: A New Mother's Search for Home, Righteous: Dispatches from the Evangelical Youth Movement, and One and Only: The Freedom of Having an Only Child, and the Joy of Being One. Her essays and features have appeared in dozens of publications including Time, The New York Times, Slate, The Atlantic, The Nation, The New Republic, The Guardian, New York Magazine, and Elle. She has been on staff at Salon and at NPR, where she worked on All Things Considered, Morning Edition, Weekend Edition, and the Cultural Desk. And there's even more! Visit laurenosandler.com/about to see what she's up to now.   Complete transcript available at familyproclamations.org.

Anita has many close friends who defy all stereotypes about only children. But when it comes to thinking about having her own kids, she still can't shake some of those ingrained ideas. She hears three perspectives on single-kid families (including that of former U.S. poet laureate Billy Collins) and learns why the debunked mythology around only children still lingers today.Meet the guests:- Lauren Sandler, journalist and author of "One and Only: The Freedom of Having an Only Child, and the Joy of Being One,” shares her personal experience and ways to reframe the negative stereotypes about being and having only children- Corinne Lyons, a middle school teacher in Detroit, talks about how her childhood being the only child of only children has shaped how she thinks about family- Billy Collins, former U.S. poet laureate, reads his poem "Only Child" and shares the joy of being an only childRead the transcript | Review the podcast on your preferred platformBuy tickets for our live event on 4/20/24!Follow Embodied on X and Instagram Leave a message for Embodied

Today on the show I talk with artist and educator Lauren Sandler. In her current body of work she drapes stacked vessels with beads, beans, and other objects to tell broader economic and cultural narratives. In our interview we talk about her anthropological approach to materials, adornment through accumulation, and mentoring students at the Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia, PA, where she is an assistant professor. For more information visit www.laurensandlerstudio.com.   I'm excited to have a live taping of the show at this year's NCECA conference. Thursday March 21st at 2:30pm Lisa Giuliani and Brian Kakas will join me to talk about the Changing landscape of ceramic education. Directly following at 4:00pm guest Red Clay Rambler host Malene Barnett will record Clay Roots: Exploring Ceramics Across the Black Diaspora - From Africa to the Caribbean and the Americas.   The Rosenfield Collection of Functional Ceramic Art www.Rosenfieldcollection.com Bray Clay www.archiebrayclay.com  

Secondary infertility — difficulty conceiving or carrying a subsequent pregnancy — comes with a unique set of challenges. Being a parent with infertility can create tension between feeling grateful for the family you have yet grieving the family you desire.  In this episode, Dr. Lora Shahine talks with Allie Karagozian, occupational therapist, business owner, and podcaster. Allie shares her own fertility journey and why she created a special way to support those suffering with secondary infertility. Through her podcast, Secondary Infertility, and her support groups, Holding Both, Allie provides support for mothers struggling with secondary infertility.  In this episode you'll hear: [0:00] What is secondary infertility? [3:20] What are the unique challenges of secondary infertility? Guilt for wanting “more”  Providing a sibling for an existing child Age gaps between children and societal pressure to have more [11:18] Secondary infertility support groups Lack of support for those experiencing secondary infertility The need for a safe space to discuss the challenges The importance of emotional support and community [20:07] Secondary infertility support for men Men are often sidelined during fertility challenges Men also need emotional support Resources mentioned:  One and Only by Lauren Sandler: https://www.laurenosandler.com/the-book Episode with Miscarriage Doula Arden Cartrette: drlorashahine.com/podcast/arden-cartrette-on-pregnancy-loss   Finding Allie Karagozian: Allie on Instagram: @holdingboth  Allie's Website: www.holdingbothllc.com  Allie's Podcast on Instagram: @secondaryinfertility.pod Stay Up to Date in Fertility News and Events:  Weekly Newsletter Follow @drlorashahine Instagram | YouTube | Tiktok | Her Books

Lauren Sandler is an award-winning journalist and author based in Brooklyn. Her most recent book is the bestselling This Is All I Got: A New Mother's Search for Home, a work narrative nonfiction about a young homeless mother in New York. It was named a Notable book of 2020 by the New York Times. Lauren is the author of two previous books, the bestselling One and Only: The Freedom of Having an Only Child, and the Joy of Being One and Righteous: Dispatches from the Evangelical Youth Movement. Lauren's essays and features have appeared in dozens of publications including Time, The New York Times, Slate, The Atlantic, The Nation, The New Republic, The Guardian, New York Magazine, and Elle. She has been on staff at Salon and at NPR, where she worked on All Things Considered, Morning Edition, Weekend Edition, and the Cultural Desk. In addition to her journalism, Lauren has lead the OpEd Project's Public Voices Fellowships at Yale, Columbia, UVA, and Dartmouth, and has taught in the graduate journalism program at NYU, where she has also been Visiting Scholar. She was a regular commentator for the BBC and has been interviewed nationally and internationally on many networks including CNN, PBS, CBS, NBC, and throughout public radio. Support the podcastDo you get the newsletter? A Correction Podcast Episodes RSS

TESTO DELL'ARTICOLO ➜ https://www.bastabugie.it/it/articoli.php?id=7418FAMIGLIE NUMEROSE... CHE FORZA! di Christine StoddardSono la primogenita di una figliata di 9: 8 femmine e un maschio. Ne sono fiera. Certo, devo ammettere che ho patito una specie di vergogna durante i miei anni adolescenziali, in particolare, quando la gente si avvicinava al nostro furgoncino o quando ci osservavano sbalorditi entrare in uno spazio pubblico.Ormai, oggi, sinceramente, non cambierei questa condizione per niente al mondo. Se mi domandate che cosa mi spinga a pubblicare questo scritto, vi risponderò che ho letto un articolo molto interessante, domenica scorsa, sul New York Times. In questo articolo, la giornalista Lauren Sandler affermava vigorosamente che era meglio avere un solo ed unico figlio. Essendo lei stessa stata figlia unica e non avendo che un solo figlio... non mi riesce difficile comprendere che difenda un simile asserto. [...]Come potrete immaginare, non sono affatto d'accordo con lei. Potrei dire che i figli unici che ho incontrato sono egoisti e hanno difficoltà ad adattarsi. [...] In ogni caso, non cerco affatto degli esempi che dimostrino gli svantaggi di essere figli unici. Cerco solamente di esprimere quanto sono riconoscente di avere tanti fratelli e sorelle.IMPARARE A COABITARECi sono, evidentemente, dei benefici collaterali: come il fatto di non essere mai soli di fronte a un problema; se ti ammali, qualcuno ti starà vicino... e quella sensazione che il tuo armadio sia senza fondo! Che sia sempre pieno di cose prestate! Senza dimenticare che l'educazione dei miei fratelli e sorelle resta un argomento di conversazione che si conclude molto spesso con dei silenzi imbarazzati; se ho bisogno di riderne, subito mi tornano alla mente situazioni impreviste.Ma c'è molto di più! A cominciare da mio padre e mia madre, che (probabilmente senza averne l'intenzione) si sono facilitati parecchio la vita genitoriale, avendo più di un figlio. Anche se non avevano sempre un'idea ben precisa di ciò che stavano facendo, avere fratelli e e sorelle ci ha insegnato a condividere e a coabitare con altre persone, con naturalezza, a tirarci su ed educarci a vicenda... È quello che possiamo definire un'accumulazione naturale di buone qualità. Quando hai dei fratelli e delle sorelle, sei ben conscio che non tutto è tuo. Una cosa estremamente apprezzabile, in un'epoca in cui l'individualismo è alle stelle. Senza il minimo sforzo, abbiamo scoperto l'interazione sociale e la risoluzione dei conflitti. Abbiamo imparato ad avere compassione, a restare coscienti dei sentimenti e dei bisogni del prossimo, e non solo dei nostri.VEDERE LA VITA ALTRIMENTIAbbiamo beneficiato della generosità dei nostri genitori, che ci hanno accettati l'uno dopo l'altro malgrado il fatto che si facessero beffe di loro, o senza considerare che si avvicinavano tempi duri. Papà ci ricorda che ci sono stati dei periodi, di cui non ci ricordiamo, durante i quali mamma e lui si domandavano se potevano permettersi di andare a mangiare al McDonald.Con tanti fratelli e sorelle, non abbiamo mai avuto in mano l'ultimo grido della tecnologia, ma suppongo che questo ci abbia insegnato un po' più sulla vita, al di là delle cose che si possono avere. Abbiamo potuto sviluppare uno spirito di sana competitività, abbiamo potuto renderci conto che se anche avevamo fallito in qualcosa, non era questa una buona ragione per buttarci giù. Al tempo stesso, tutto questo ci ha stimolati ad apprezzare le qualità uniche degli altri, senza stare a fare paragoni: sia nell'ambito accademico sia in quello creativo o atletico.Ammesso e non concesso che abbiamo passato in rassegna tutti i vantaggi della situazione, dovrei ammettere che in più abbiamo ricevuto un regalo bellissimo: delle amicizie solide. Che sia per il semplice momento della colazione, o piuttosto per l'evento eccitante dello scegliere l'abito nuziale, non ho mai mancato di compagnia. È quello che si chiama amore, perché i miei fratelli e sorelle sono stati molto presenti nella mia vita, nei momenti peggiori e in quelli migliori.Sono persuasa che il fatto di avere fratelli e sorelle sia un aiuto apprezzabile nella ricerca della vera felicità. Perché? Perché una persona va avanti per la strada giusta, quando realizza che la vita consiste più nel dare che nel ricevere. Con dei fratelli e delle sorelle, si arriva molto presto a questa conclusione.E naturalmente la famiglia perfetta non esiste, ma ho pure la certezza che esistono tante persone che mi amano, incondizionatamente, quando io non ho fatto niente per meritarlo. Ecco qualcosa di decisamente speciale. Perché trascurare una così bella occasione di fondare un opificio di felicità, se ne avete la possibilità?

Artists-in-Residence programs are popular and prevalent in American ceramics. Artist and educator Lauren Sandler walks us through the experience of being a teaching resident at Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia.   Today's episode is brought to you by the following sponsors:   For the past 100 years, AMACO Brent has been creating ceramic supplies for our community ranging from underglazes to Electric kilns, ...and they have no plans of slowing down. www.amaco.com   The Bray is actively committed to promoting, celebrating, and sustaining the ceramic arts through its residency program, education center, and gallery. www.archiebray.org  

Anita has many close friends who defy all stereotypes about only children. But when it comes to thinking about having her own kids, she still can't shake some of those ingrained ideas. She hears three perspectives on single-kid families (including that of former U.S. poet laureate Billy Collins) and learns why the debunked mythology around only children still lingers today. Meet the guests: - Lauren Sandler, journalist and author of "One and Only: The Freedom of Having an Only Child, and the Joy of Being One,” shares her personal experience and ways to reframe the negative stereotypes about being and having only children - Corinne Lyons, a middle school teacher in Detroit, talks about how her childhood being the only child of only children has shaped how she thinks about family - Billy Collins, former U.S. poet laureate, reads his poem "Only Child" and shares the joy of being an only child Read the transcript | Review the podcast Follow Embodied on Twitter and Instagram

Lauren Sandler, author of One and Only. Topic: The freedom of having an only child, and the joy of being one. Issues: What are only children really like? Debunking stereotypes and myths about “onlies”; the benefits to children, relationships, and society of having–and being–an only child. The post The Freedom of Having and Only Child–and the Joy of Being One appeared first on Mr. Dad.

Clay is neat stuff. You can knead it, shape it, carve it, sculpt it, and make all kinds of beautiful creations. It goes from soft and squishy to hard and breakable when it's baked in a kiln. But clay is…dirt, right? It comes from the ground! So how do you get it out of the ground and into the blocks that you find at an art supply store? We asked ceramic artist and educator Lauren Sandler to guide us through the process.  Got a question that you just knead an answer to? Send it to us atBrainsOn.org/contact, and we'll help mold an answer into shape for you!

We're taking a quick break from our usual programming to introduce the newest season of Hot and Bothered, where we're currently reading through Pride & Prejudice! Each week, Vanessa and Lauren Sandler will deep dive into a chapter (or two or three) of the novel. We are talking to Jane Austen scholars, fans, and skeptics and we are going to constantly be asking ourselves: Why is this the bible of the Romance genre? What does this book believe about love, marriage, and money? And are those things we still want to be passing on? We'll be back next week, with Chapter 16 of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban!--It's two sickles to join S.P.E.W., and only two dollars to join our Patreon for extra bloopers every week! Please consider helping us fill our Gringotts vault so we can continue to make this show. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Lauren Sandler was a journalist covering homelessness in New York City when she met Camilla, a woman without a home who didn't seem to fit the homeless stereotype at all. Sandler tells Camilla's story in This Is All I Got: A New Mother's Search For Home. It's an up close and personal account of one woman who shares the fate of millions of Americans battling homelessness and the stunning boring inefficient bureaucracy of it all.Transcript at our website, firesidepod.org/episodes/sandler.Buy the book and other merch at firesidepod.org/store.

Lauren Sandler is an award-winning journalist and author based in Brooklyn. Her most recent book is the bestselling This Is All I Got: A New Mother's Search for Home, a work narrative nonfiction about a young homeless mother in New York. It was named a Notable book of 2020 by the New York Times. Lauren is the author of two previous books, the bestselling One and Only: The Freedom of Having an Only Child, and the Joy of Being One and Righteous: Dispatches from the Evangelical Youth Movement. Lauren's essays and features have appeared in dozens of publications including Time, The New York Times, Slate, The Atlantic, The Nation, The New Republic, The Guardian, New York Magazine, and Elle. She has been on staff at Salon and at NPR, where she worked on All Things Considered, Morning Edition, Weekend Edition, and the Cultural Desk. In addition to her journalism, Lauren has lead the OpEd Project's Public Voices Fellowships at Yale, Columbia, UVA, and Dartmouth, and has taught in the graduate journalism program at NYU, where she has also been Visiting Scholar. She was a regular commentator for the BBC and has been interviewed nationally and internationally on many networks including CNN, PBS, CBS, NBC, and throughout public radio. Support the podcast A Correction Podcast Episodes RSS

Welcome back to season 3 of Gaining Mom-entum! In today's check-in, Abi & Meghan begin by talking about seasonal allergies, how back to school is going so far, and mourning the loss of the talented, generous, lauded actor, Michael K Williams. Today's episode focuses on the concept of being “one and done” - having one child. They unpack the language of one and done with Abi getting into why she thinks the phrase is a bit of a misnomer and Meghan digging into the gendered implications of it. They discuss how they knew that they wanted the number of children that they have now (and were fortunate enough for that to be the case). They theorize about why people feel so invested in the personal choices of other people regarding whether or not they should have children. Meghan asks Abi to share some of the questions that she receives about if she is going to have more children. They discuss stigma and stereotypes about people who don't have siblings. They discuss some of the factors that went into their family planning decisions and assess some of the things we believe about how siblings will interact. They marvel at the energy and organization required in parenting, giving props to parents who do it with seeming ease and to parents, like themselves, who do not. As always, thanks for listening! Share Gaining Mom-entum and follow/comment/review wherever you get your pods. IG: @gainingmom_entum Facebook: Gaining Mom-entum Podcast Email: gainingmom.entumpod@gmail.com Music: Evan Dysart (Spotify and Bandcamp; Extended Cut of Podcast Theme for Gaining Mom-entum) Artwork: Catherine Cachia (IG: @catherinecachia, catherinecachia.com) Resources: The Rise of the 'One-and-Done' Family (Parents) The Joy Of Being A 'One And Done' Family (HuffPost) One and Done? (Motherly) One and Only: The Freedom of Having an Only Child, and the Joy of Being One by Lauren Sandler

Jordan talks to journalist Lauren Sandler about how close you can or should get to your subjects, about who gets to write what and why, and about the driving forces behind the stories that intrigue her. Lauren Sandler is an award-winning journalist and author based in Brooklyn. Her most recent book is the bestselling This Is All I Got: A New Mother's Search for Home (named a Notable Book of 2020 by The New York Times) and she's the author of two previous books -- One and Only: The Freedom of Having an Only Child and the Joy of Being One and Righteous: Dispatches from the Evangelical Youth Movement.   Lauren's essays and features have appeared in dozens of publications including Time, The New York Times, Slate, The Atlantic, The Nation, The New Republic, The Guardian, New York Magazine, and Elle. She has been on staff at Salon and at NPR, where she worked on All Things Considered, Morning Edition, Weekend Edition, and the Cultural Desk. She has led the OpEd Project's Public Voices Fellowships at Yale, Columbia, UVA, and Dartmouth, and has taught in the graduate journalism program at NYU, where she has also been Visiting Scholar. Lauren is a member of NationSwell Council. She has been a Poynter Fellow at Yale, a Calderwood Journalism Fellow at the MacDowell Colony, a Mid-Atlantic Fellow at the Virginia Center for Creative Arts, and a Brown Foundation resident at the Maison Dora Maar in Menerbes, France. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Big news, for those who haven't heard! Over on Hot and Bothered, we've launching a new series where we're reading through Jane Eyre! Each week, Vanessa and Lauren Sandler will deep dive into a chapter (or two or three) of Jane Eyre through the themes of power and desire. As we work through the book, we'll be asking ourselves whether Jane Eyre should stay in the canon of books passed down to the next generations of girls who love to read. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

If you know anything about Vanessa Zoltan, you know that Jane Eyre is her favorite book. In fact, she just wrote her own book about it: Praying with Jane Eyre. But after spending so much time lovingly pouring over this text, it's time to take a step back. Each week of On Eyre, Vanessa and Lauren Sandler will take a critical look at the text and ask themselves ‘does this old book still have something to say in our world?'But before we jump into the first chapter, a few questions need to be answered. Questions like: Who is Charlotte Bronte, and why should anyone (who isn't Vanessa) care about this book? ---If you plan to read along with us, we have several book club options launching on our Patreon! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Next week, we're launching our new series On Eyre. But before we jump into 19th century England, we wanted to spend some time introducing you to our new co-host Lauren Sandler. Lauren's recent book This is All I Got: A New Mother's Search for Home is recently out in paperback. We talked to her about the process of writing her book and the similarities she see's between Jane Eyre and the continued vulnerability of women on the margins . See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

We are so pleased to share an interview that Jess had with Lauren Sandler, author of “One and Only: The Freedom of Having an Only Child, and the Joy of Being One”. We were lucky enough to have her on the show and she shared insights about having/being an only child, changing the norms of what life and parenthood should look like, and gave a unique insight to what the future of parenting an only may be like. If you haven’t already, pick up One and Only at your local bookstore or library! Be sure to also check out her newest release, This Is All I Got, a riveting account of a year in the life of a young, homeless single mother, her quest to find stability and shelter in New York City—and the journalist who got too close while telling her story. Read more on Lauren’s website. Email us at onlyyoupod@gmail.com if you have thoughts on these questions or find us on Instagram or Facebook to be a part of the conversation. You can now support us on Patreon! All patrons at the $5 level or above can join us for a monthly mental health support group via Zoom and folks at the $10 level can listen ad-free. Also remember to please leave us a review wherever you get your podcasts.

We go a little bit deep in this episode and are feeling a tad more vulnerable than usual - you will definitely get to know us better! We read responses to last weeks’ question about adoption and fostering and talk about the ways we misunderstood what that process may look like. Jess talks a bit about the re-parenting work she is doing in her own life and in therapy and we read a question about whether having a traumatic childhood impacts your decision on being one and done. We also read an email that discusses medical issues (endometriosis, adenomyosis) as well as race considerations. This week’s questions: If you had a traumatic childhood, how did that play into your decision to be one and done? Has anyone else had medical issues that didn’t prevent pregnancy but impacted your decision to try for more? Does race or identity play a part in your wondering if your child needs a sibling? Feel free to write in about anything you want, each week we will be taking questions or stories on a wider range of topics so that everyone’s voices can be heard. Email us at onlyyoupod@gmail.com if you have thoughts on these questions or find us on Instagram or Facebook to be a part of the conversation. Our first book club meeting is May 2nd! You can find the audiobook using Audibletrial.com/onlyyou and receive a free one month trial of Audible, or look for a hard copy at your local bookstore or library. Join us this month in reading One and Only by Lauren Sandler. We will be doing a completely free Zoom discussion to talk about our feelings on the book. Only You: A One and Done Podcast is proudly sponsored by Audible. You can now support us on Patreon! All patrons at the $5 level or above can join us for a monthly mental health support group via Zoom and folks at the $10 level can listen ad-free. Also remember to please leave us a review wherever you get your podcasts.

In this episode, Jess interviews Julie Johnson of You Need A Counselor. They chat about the stigma around seeing a therapist, being one and done parents, and everything in between! Find episodes of You Need A Counselor wherever you get your podcasts. Be sure to follow us on Instagram and Facebook and email us your story to be featured on our show! Also remember to leave us a review wherever you get your podcasts. Starting in April, we will be launching a book club! You can find the audiobook using Audibletrial.com/onlyyou and receive a free one month trial of Audible, or look for a hard copy at your local bookstore or library. Join us this month in reading One and Only by Lauren Sandler. We will be doing a completely free Zoom discussion at the end of April to talk about our feelings on the book. Only You: A One and Done Podcast is proudly sponsored by Audible. You can now support us on Patreon! All patrons at the $5 level or above can join us for a monthly mental health support group via Zoom and folks at the $10 level can listen ad-free.

Today marks 6 months since our very first episode ever aired AND it’s National Only Child Day! To top it all off, it’s episode 26 - Jess’s lucky number. In this episode, we bring humor, good spirits, and words of affirmation to our listeners’ advice, emails, and questions. We received a ton of responses to last weeks’ questions and will be spreading out the answers over the next few episodes. We read many of your strategies on dealing with intrusive questions people ask about your family size and discuss which ones we would and wouldn’t try ourselves. Another listener wrote in about their thought process surrounding adoption or fostering, and we wonder if any of our other listeners out there are making this decision or have already come to a conclusion one way or the other. Someone else writes in wondering if other people take others’ opinions personally or let them go without giving it too much thought. This week’s questions: Parents with one child, have you ever considered foster care or adoption? Do you take other people’s input or criticisms seriously, or are you able to move on quickly and easily when confronted about having an only child? Feel free to write in about anything you want, each week we will be taking questions or stories on a wider range of topics so that everyone’s voices can be heard. Email us at onlyyoupod@gmail.com if you have thoughts on these questions or find us on Instagram or Facebook to be a part of the conversation. Starting in April, we will be launching a book club! You can find the audiobook using Audibletrial.com/onlyyou and receive a free one month trial of Audible, or look for a hard copy at your local bookstore or library. Join us this month in reading One and Only by Lauren Sandler. We will be doing a completely free Zoom discussion at the end of April to talk about our feelings on the book. Only You: A One and Done Podcast is proudly sponsored by Audible. You can now support us on Patreon! All patrons at the $5 level or above can join us for a monthly mental health support group via Zoom and folks at the $10 level can listen ad-free. This episode is sponsored by Channing Baby & Co. Also remember to please leave us a review wherever you get your podcasts.

In this episode, Jess interviews Vanessa Gorelkin, an occupational therapist and mental health advocate. She is the parent of an only child and is able to speak with experience on how it feels when people make comments about being one and done. We talk about coping skills, comebacks, and how to preserve our relationships with others in this in depth episode. We were so lucky to be able to have her on the show and both learned so much from her sage advice. Find Vanessa’s website here! Email us at onlyyoupod@gmail.com to share your story or find us on Instagram or Facebook to be a part of the conversation. Starting in April, we are launching a book club! You can find the audiobook using Audibletrial.com/onlyyou and receive a free one month trial of Audible, or look for a hard copy at your local bookstore or library. Join us this month in reading One and Only by Lauren Sandler. We will be doing a completely free Zoom discussion at the end of April to talk about our feelings on the book. Only You: A One and Done Podcast is proudly sponsored by Audible.  You can now support us on Patreon! All patrons at the $5 level or above can join us for a monthly mental health support group via Zoom and folks at the $10 level can listen ad-free. Also remember to please leave us a review wherever you get your podcasts.

Hello everyone out there! We are switching up the format of our podcast a little bit. So far, we have done our best to devote episodes to topics we thought were important for parents of only children. Now, we want to know what YOU want to talk about! Each week we will be taking questions or stories on a wider range of topics so that everyone’s voices can be heard. We have recently received emails and messages about feelings of guilt, being in a “gray area” of being one and done, and how to navigate intrusive or insensitive questions about the decision to have an only child. We answer them to the best of our ability then ask our listeners to weigh on on the next episode: This week’s questions: How do you respond to intrusive questions about your family size? Has anyone else had to make the decision to have an only child even though it’s not a black and white situation? If you have dealt with guilt around being one and done, how do you deal with it? Email us at onlyyoupod@gmail.com if you have thoughts on these questions or find us on Instagram or Facebook to be a part of the conversation. Starting in April, we will be launching a book club! You can find the audiobook using Audibletrial.com/onlyyou and receive a free one month trial of Audible, or look for a hard copy at your local bookstore or library. Join us this month in reading One and Only by Lauren Sandler. We will be doing a completely free Zoom discussion at the end of April to talk about our feelings on the book. Only You: A One and Done Podcast is proudly sponsored by Audible. You can now support us on Patreon! All patrons at the $5 level or above can join us for a monthly mental health support group via Zoom and folks at the $10 level can listen ad-free. Also remember to please leave us a review wherever you get your podcasts.

Fact 1: Vanessa Zoltan has been the host of this romance novel themed podcast for almost two years now.Fact 2: Vanessa Zoltan is a Jane Eyre evangelist. She’s literally written the book on Jane Eyre.Fact 3: Vanessa has somehow never talked about Jane Eyre on this podcast???Finally, we’ve come to our senses and one of life’s biggest contradictions is getting sorted. Coming June 1st 2021, our newest season--- Hot and Bothered: On Eyre. Vanessa will be joined by the brilliant journalist Lauren Sandler, and together with experts they’ll read through Charlotte Bronte’s seminal work and explore the questions and themes that emerge. If you want to read along, we’ll be starting with Chapters 1-4. Grab your SPF and your library card. This summer, we’re On Eyre. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Amber Sparks (AND I DO NOT FORGIVE YOU), author, employee, and mother, joins the Butheads to discuss boogers, what we thought writing while parenting would look like vs what it actually looks like, the endless pain of noveling, how loving your characters means you're doomed to see the thing through, why write a novel, as someone who primarily writes stories? working on multiple projects at once, living in DC during upheaval and pandemic, and more! Later, the Butheads talk about what they're reading (Alissa Nutting, Lauren Sandler, serial killer nonfiction, Sue Miller), giving up on reading a book you don't like, Alex reads from I Served the King of England and narcissist ass Lindsay reads from her novel, post-pandemic pipe dreams, what's a "crazy quilt" structure?!

https://www.alainguillot.com/lauren-sandler/ A black, Latina, 22-year-old woman, with a baby, finds herself homeless. Lauren Sandler is an author who writes about culture & inequality. Her new book is called THIS IS ALL I GOT: A New Mother's Search For home. Get the book here: https://amzn.to/2LVPE6l

Lauren Sandler, author of One and Only. Topic: The freedom of having an only child, and the joy of being one. Issues: What are only children really like? Debunking stereotypes and myths about “onlies”; the benefits to children, relationships, and society of having–and being–an only child. The post The Freedom of Having and Only Child–and the Joy of Being One appeared first on Mr. Dad.

It’s a new #AmWriting episode!There’s a style of creative nonfiction in which a gifted writer tells someone else’s story. The story of a house being built, or a life in the wilderness—or, in the case of Lauren Sandler, the story of a young single mother in search of housing during her first year of motherhood. Lauren’s subject—a smart, driven young woman caught up in the system because of her own history, and desperate for not just housing but an education, a career, and love and a life of her choosing—was unlikely to ever find a way to tell her own story without Lauren’s help. “She chose me as much as I chose her,” says Lauren. We talk to Lauren about how that relationship was formed and how, although the act of observing something changes it, Lauren tried to let Camilla’s story unfold as though she weren’t there, even while her own daughter was demanding to know why they didn’t just let Camilla sleep on the couch. If you’re interested in long-form journalism, or just in the process of embedding yourself into someone else’s life, you’ll love this episode.Links from the Pod:Lauren’s latest book This Is All I Got: A New Mother's Search for HomeFind Lauren on her website: www.laurenosandler.com#AmReadingLauren: The Days of Abandonment by Elena FerranteThe Lying Life of Adults by Elena FerranteKJ: The Book Charmer by Karen HawkinsJess: Goodnight Beautiful by Aimee MolloyThanks for letting us into your inbox. If you’ve got questions, comments, episode ideas, head to the #AmWriting Facebook group or email us at amwritingpodcast@gmail.com. Want more #AmWriting? Support the podcast with just a click of the button below for less than $2 an episode, and get weekly Writer Top Fives like Top 5 Mindfulness Tricks For Better Writing Sessions or Minisodes like How an Editor Considers an Essay.Have you checked out Author Accelerator’s Book Coach training at bookcoaches.com/amwriting? Seriously, if every time you hear us talk about book coaching, you think to yourself—hey, I could do that!—you should. They have great programs for fiction, non-fiction and making your side-gig full time—and they offer tuition help for BIPOC coaches as well—more info on that at bookcoaches.com/equity.And if you haven’t tried Dabble yet, YOU MUST. Just go play with the storyline building tools. Trust us. This is a public episode. Get access to private episodes at amwriting.substack.com/subscribe

This episode is dedicated to all the sufferers of mental health struggles and any person whose journey to parenthood isn’t what they hoped it would be. October is National Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness Month and we wanted to do an episode that talks about how our emotional response to infertility, loss, pregnancy, childbirth and the newborn phase can dictate whether or not we want to have another child. Jess and Pierce share their own story and struggles with anxiety when Penny was a newborn. We read emails from a mom with a lot of strong and relatable feelings about how difficult that newborn phase really is, as well as a mom whose baby had health problems that took a year to resolve after her child was born (you can read more about that in her blog). An emailer also recommends the book One and Only by Lauren Sandler.In the pop culture segment we discuss an Episode of King of the Hill where Peggy and Hank unsuccessfully try for another baby. We realize that Bobby is written as a pretty cool kid with none of the negative only child stereotypes. Be sure to follow us on Instagram and Facebook and email us your story to be featured on our show!

"When single child families idealize what they don't have: how the fantasy of larger families can poison our happiness and development" by Lauren Sandler arrived right on time for Jamie, who was struggling with intrusive thoughts about the second child that isn't here. This episode is the journey to get closer to being more fully present with the child who is here, moving from the "bargaining" stage of grief into a genuine and deeper acceptance of the reality and the gifts of being a single child family. Links and show notes with time stamps are below. Link to the article: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/one-and-only/201302/when-single-child-families-idealize-what-they-dont-have?amp Send us a voicemail about being/having an only child! https://anchor.fm/oneanddone/message E-mail us your thoughts at PopernackPodcasts@gmail.com. You're welcome to join the Facebook group One and Done: Raising an Only Child, Not a Lonely Child. Until [5:10] or is is about the future direction of the show and an invitation to get involved/give feedback. We're also looking especially for folks who are one and done by choice and/or very content with their family size. Basically as many different voices and experiences as possible would be great/help all of us get perspective. [5:10:30] Jamie realizes she's actually been in the "bargaining" stage of grief and will share the recent insights that helped her move more toward acceptance. [7:40] story of being at the beach this weekend, missing phantom children and wanting to be present and enjoy the child we have. Acknowledging that those feelings are real but wanting to be in reality in the moment. [10:10] moving into a discussion of Lauren Sandler (only child with an only child) and her article which helped Jamie so much, giving permission to let go of the fantasy. We do this on our own time table and the process is different for everyone. [14:40] How being an only child can be a good and helpful thing to one's development, from lived experience.

It’s an age-old question: how do you build a platform big enough so publishers take notice? This week we interview Dara Kurtz, author of one self-published book and one traditionally published book. She shares her considerable, deliberate efforts to build her online readership for her site, Crazy Perfect Life, and translate fans of her website and Facebook group content into purchasers for her second book, I am My Mother’s Daughter. Buckle up and dust off your spreadsheet skills, because this woman loves data. You can find out more about Dara on her website and on her podcast, Thrive. #AmReadingDara: She’s re-reading her own book, which is helpful for doing media around publication, as well as The Untethered Soul by Michael A. SingerJess: This is All I Got: A New Mother’s Search for Home by Lauren Sandler and A Beautiful Work in Progress by Mirna ValerioKJ: The Beauty in Breaking by Michele HarperThanks so much for listening! Just a reminder that our #AmWriting supporters get #BonusEmails every Monday like our Minisode: When There's No Muse, Keep Going which will be going out on Monday, October 5th. It's our thank-you for helping support the podcast you love for only $7 a month. Click the upgrade button to find out more!As always, this episode (and every episode) will appear for all subscribers in your usual podcast listening places, totally free as the #AmWriting Podcast has always been. This shownotes email is free, too, so please—forward it to a friend, and if you haven’t already, join our email list and be on top of it with the shownotes every time there’s a new episode. To support the podcast and help it stay free, subscribe to our weekly #WritersTopFive email.This episode was sponsored by Author Accelerator, the book coaching program that helps you get your work DONE. Visit https://www.authoraccelerator.com/amwriting for details, special offers and Jennie Nash’s Inside-Outline template.Find more about Jess here, Sarina here and about KJ here. This is a public episode. Get access to private episodes at amwriting.substack.com/subscribe

Some say that the best things in life come at the greatest cost. What are kids costing parents? Do they sometimes seem like too much to handle? Join in this discussion with Molly Cover (https://www.thecrossingchurch.com/staff/molly-cover/) as cover how the Bible wants us to view kids and parenting. Interested in more content like this? Scroll down for more resources and related episodes, including our eBook Redefining Love (https://www.thecrossingchurch.com/podcasts/how-to-be-a-better-parent-debunking-3-parenting-myths/). Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it with others, so others can find it too. To learn more, visit our Twitter (https://twitter.com/thecrossingcomo) @TheCrossingCOMO and @TenMinuteBibleTalks.   Outline 2:05 - Meet Molly (https://www.thecrossingchurch.com/staff/molly-cover/)! 2:20 - Are kids a burden or a blessing?: Psalm 127.3 (https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm+127%3A3&version=NIV) 4:00 - Embracing the Tension Between Parenting and Other Callings (https://info.thecrossingchurch.com/embracing-the-tension-between-parenting-and-other-callings?hsCtaTracking=916960ff-419a-44d6-90c6-12b4ad9b9a71%7C0b5ca5aa-8905-48c2-934b-ec769684f4c6) 4:50 - Fact: Fewer kids (https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/05/22/u-s-fertility-rate-explained/) 6:40 - Why we don't have children (or are having fewer children): A child-free life (http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2148636,00.html) 7:10 - Why young adults aren't having kids (https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/05/upshot/americans-are-having-fewer-babies-they-told-us-why.html) 9:00 - Genesis 9.1 (https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=genesis+9.1&version=NIV): Marriage and children 10:20 - Childfree by Choice (https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/42058458-childfree-by-choice) by Amy Blackstone 12:20 - How inconvenient are kids? 15:10 - Psychology and the Good Life (https://news.yale.edu/2018/02/20/yales-most-popular-class-ever-be-available-coursera): Yale class 18:00 - The church's role with kids 19:00 - Biblical reasons for not being married or having kids: 1 Corinthians 7 (https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+Corinthians+7&version=NIV) 20:45 - The best life; the good life 21:50 - Subscribe. Rate. Share.   Social Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TenMinuteBibleTalks (https://www.facebook.com/TenMinuteBibleTalks) Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thecrossingcomo/ (https://www.instagram.com/thecrossingcomo/) Twitter: https://twitter.com/thecrossingcomo (https://twitter.com/thecrossingcomo)   Scripture Psalm 127.3: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm+127%3A3&version=NIV (https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm+127%3A3&version=NIV) Genesis 1.28: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=genesis+1.28&version=NIV (https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=genesis+1.28&version=NIV) Genesis 9.1: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=genesis+9.1&version=NIV (https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=genesis+9.1&version=NIV) 1 Corinthians 7: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+Corinthians+7&version=NIV (https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+Corinthians+7&version=NIV)   References Molly Cover: https://www.thecrossingchurch.com/staff/molly-cover/ (https://www.thecrossingchurch.com/staff/molly-cover/) Fact: Fewer kids ("Is U.S. fertility at an all-time low? Two of three measures point to yes" by Gretchen Livingston from Pew Research Center): https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/05/22/u-s-fertility-rate-explained/ (https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/05/22/u-s-fertility-rate-explained/) A child-free life ("Having It All Without Having Children" by Lauren Sandler from TIME Magazine): http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2148636,00.html (http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2148636,00.html) Why young adults... Support this podcast

This week, Casper and Vanessa are joined by journalist Lauren Sandler to discuss her book This is All I Got: A New Mother’s Search for Home, and what it teaches us about homelessness in America. Together, they explore how Harry, Ron, and Hermione are feeling the pressures of housing insecurity in the seventh book, and how to think about Ron leaving. Thanks to Jessica, Laura, Thomas, Rebecca, and Hannah for their beautiful voicemail contributions. Next week we’ll be reading Chapter 15, The Goblin’s Revenge, through the theme of Ownership. --It’s two sickles to join S.P.E.W., and only a dollar to join our Patreon for extra bloopers every week! Please consider helping us fill our Gringotts vault so we can continue to make this show. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Vanessa and Casper explore the theme of Belonging in chapter fourteen of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. This week we discuss the shifting dynamics of the trio as they find themselves far from home, find compassion for Ron as he navigates feelings of isolation when voicing beliefs that differ from those of his friends, and recognize Hermione's strength as someone who can create the conditions of safety and belonging for those around her. Throughout the episode we consider the question: Where can we locate a sense of belonging in ourselves and in the various places that are part of our journeys? Thanks to Linh for this week's voicemail! Next week we have an Owl Post episode on the theme of homelessness with our friend Lauren Sandler. --It’s two sickles to join S.P.E.W., and only a dollar to join our Patreon for extra bloopers every week! Please consider helping us fill our Gringotts vault so we can continue to make this show. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In this episode, Natalia, Neil, and Niki discuss the movement to defund the police. Support Past Present on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/pastpresentpodcast Here are some links and references mentioned during this week’s show:  Calls to defund or abolish the police have become a rallying cry among protestors of racial violence. Niki discussed Derek Thompson’s call to “unbundle the police.” Natalia referred to this National Review piece that argues many communities want more policing, and to this Jacobin interview with criminologist Alex Vitale.   In our regular closing feature, What’s Making History: Natalia recommended Lauren Sandler’s book This is All I Got: A New Mother’s Search for Home. Neil discussed Noah Ram’s org article, “‘Gator Bait’ chant faced opposition years ago. Nothing came of it.” Niki shared Kaitlyn Tiffany’s Atlantic article, “My Little Pony Fans Are Ready to Admit They Have a Nazi Problem.”

When Christiane Lemieux was looking to sell her first company, she knew she wanted to find a buyer that understood that the future revolved around Ecommerce. She found that buyer in Wayfair and for the next few years, she worked with the company to cultivate as much knowledge about the eComm space as possible before venturing out on her own once more. Today. Christiane is the founder of The Inside and the author of numerous books, including her newest called Frictionless. The idea of her new company and the book revolves around the concept that in order to have success in the world of Ecommerce, you need to give your customers an experience that is so easy and efficient, that they never have a reason not to buy. On this episode of Up Next in Commerce, Christiane explains why that frictionless experience is so important, and how to make it a reality. Key Takeaways: Thanks to innovators like Bezos and Jobs, the world shops in a different need-it-now way. As a result, the biggest challenge Ecommerce platforms face is creating a frictionless experience By leveraging the design community to be consultants, The Inside is targeting customers who can buy with more frequency and create predictable, repeatable conversions Getting online quickly and the businesses who have a digital-first strategy are successful For an in-depth look at this episode, check out the full transcript below. Quotes have been edited for clarity and length. --- Up Next in Commerce is brought to you by Salesforce Commerce Cloud. Respond quickly to changing customer needs with flexible Ecommerce connected to marketing, sales, and service. Deliver intelligent commerce experiences your customers can trust, across every channel. Together, we’re ready for what’s next in commerce. Learn more at salesforce.com/commerce --- Transcript:   Stephanie: Christiane, welcome to the show. How's it going? Christiane: Hey. It's going really well, Stephanie. How are you doing? Stephanie: Doing great. So, for all of our listeners, I want you to pronounce your own name since I did not do it this time. Christiane: My name is Christiane Lemieux. It's very French and a huge mouthful, so I completely give you a pass on that. Stephanie: Thank you for doing that, so I did not have to. So, you are the founder and CEO of The Inside, a direct-to-consumer home furnishing brand. I love to hear a little bit about that and how you started it? Christiane: Well, this is my second foray into the world of home furnishings. I started my first company, it was called DwellStudio, out of college. I went to university at Parsons School of Design here in New York. And I started a home furnishings brand from my New York apartment. 13 years later, I sold it to Wayfair. And speaking of what's up next in commerce and the digital landscape, part of the reason that I did that was that... Oh, you know what, I should cut my nail Hold on. Sorry. Let me just cut this so it doesn't ding on you. Stephanie: Okay. Christiane: Sorry, I'll go back to Wayfair. So, I sold my first company to Wayfair, and part of the reason that I did that was that I got to be entrepreneurial fork in the road where I had never really raised money before. And I realized that if I was going to continue down, the growth trajectory that I was on, it would involve me opening more than the one store I had in New York. It would involve me raising money for the first time, substantial amounts of money for the first time, to roll out stores. Christiane: And at the end of the day, I sat and thought for a very long time about the business model that I was on, that was growing, that I had started, and I realized that it didn't feel right to me. I really believed that all businesses were going to, at some point, in the near term or distant future, transition to eCommerce. And what I wanted to figure out was, who could I either partner with or sell to that would understand that idea and philosophy? Christiane: And so, I hired an investment bank in New York and they actually had me meet with a whole bunch of home furnishings companies, most of them, you would probably know. But when I walked into Wayfair's office in Boston with 1,800 people and 800 engineers, I realized that we were really aligned from a conceptual point of view in terms of what the future of DTC look like, direct-to-consumer look like. And so, it wasn't the best offer financially but, to me, it was the best offer intellectually and philosophically. So, I sold my business to Wayfair in 2013. Christiane: And then, I went on their executive committee. I mean to say that it was a learning would be doing a disservice. It was like a full immersion into eCommerce with one of the best teams in the country, and by far, the best team in my particular category. And so, I learned so much from them. Christiane: And as I was sitting there, I was like, "What would make me start another business? What in the world after building one from the ground up and selling it, what would I do?" And so, I realized that if I could take my first business, which is really design-first and brand-first, and then merge that into what I had learned at Wayfair from a digital commerce-first perspective, that I might be crazy enough to do it again. And that's what I did. Stephanie: Yeah, that's amazing. So, what were the key learnings that you took away from Wayfair, and maybe the pitfalls that you saw where you're like, "Oh, I should avoid that."? Because when I was looking into Wayfair, I think they're still very unprofitable. And so, did you see things like that and you're like, "Oh, if you just adjusted this part of the model or this part of logistics, I wouldn't have to worry about that."? Or what kind of things do you take away from that experience? Christiane: So, I would say there's almost nothing wrong with Wayfair. And I'm saying that, I mean that honestly. First of all, Niraj, their CEO is one of the smartest digital executives in the country, if not the world. I think that he's very much following the taking market share approach pioneered by Bezos, of course. And so, I think we're just very much on the same path. He will own the furniture category online and he will very quickly, if not even now. I mean, the last quarter was insane for them because now we're all sheltering at home and [inaudible] in a very different way than we did maybe nine weeks ago. But he'll take market share and he will be very profitable, and he'll own furnishings online. Christiane: There are other companies that have pursued that line of growth that weren't necessarily as equipped as he is. And he's equipped to do that. So, as relevant as that is in the post-WeWork discussion, I think in his particular case, he's already got the groundwork done to be able to do that and do it fairly flawlessly. I think for me- Stephanie: I mean, definitely still... The first company that comes to mind when I do think about buying furniture or looking for anything, even above Amazon and Walmart... I mean, they're the first ones I would go to so I agree. Christiane: Also, because they've got the best selection and they've also got the back-end figured out. And so, they taught me things like overpack centers. I was like, "What is an overpack center?" And so, they take- Christiane: They have overpack centers where they take in the goods from the manufacturers and they overpack them, so they don't break. And by diminishing the chance of something being damaged, not only do they make the customer experience better, which is really necessary in this day and age, but they also ensure that their margins don't get completely depleted by goods that arrive damaged. And so, it's not a crazy thing to do, but at the end of the day, it's totally crucial. Christiane: So, I mean, they taught me so much about, first of all, UX, customer experience, and then the logistics and the profound necessity to really think about delivery in a way that is beyond just parcel delivery or white glove delivery. They really think about it from a 360 perspective all the way from margin protection to a really flawless customer experience. Some of the things that you don't necessarily learn when you're building a design brand, I learned at Wayfair, so I'm forever thankful. Christiane: The difference is that they're like Amazon, they're a marketplace. And so largely, they don't design and produce their own SKUs or their own products. And they don't need to because their value prop is that in COVID-19 when every single person in the country, all of a sudden, needed some kind of a home office and/or home school. I mean, you went right to Wayfair and you ordered a desk and they came to you perfectly, right? Christiane: I wanted to take the ideas of brand and design but apply the Wayfair rigor of digital thought around how I executed this next brand, some of the things like having no inventory, having exclusive product, having a 3D studio to do the photography, dropship, largely dropship the product. So, instead of sending it through a more expensive white glove delivery, have it lightly assembled so that UPS or FedEx could do the delivery. And so, all of these things add up to really beautiful customer service, exclusive custom product to the customer, and then margin improvements around delivery, around no inventory, around a decreased cost in photo assets. Christiane: So, what I wanted to do is I challenged myself to think of all of the substantial problems with a home furnishings business, solve them first, and then start the business. And so, that's how I did it this time. Stephanie: That's super smart. So, how long has The Inside been operating and how's it doing today with everything going on? Christiane: So, I left Wayfair in 2016 and I called up my favorite supplier. She went into business with me on a B2B beta way. And so, we did that for close to two years. And then, I met the extraordinary, Kirsten Green of Forerunner, and she said to me, "This is really interesting, Christiane. Why don't I write you a pre-seat check and you go figure it out." Christiane: And so, we came out of beta in July of 18th. We're a year and a half in, and it's going very well. It's going very well. In this pandemic, I did not have the category breath that Wayfair has which made this a very interesting business time for them, but enough of a product breath that I think that we're helping people improve their homes on a daily basis right now, which is what we set out to do. Christiane: And listen, I feel extraordinarily lucky that it's a digital-first company. I don't have stores, I have a very lean staff. We were working from a work kosher, which we closed down at the end of April. So, we are going to be dispersed until, at least, the beginning of 2021, so we won't have an office. We can do all of this virtually. We hold no inventory, so we have no warehouses. Essentially, we had to let go two people just to preserve the business. But we've come through this, I think, as well as you can. My whole MO right now is making sure that nobody loses a job, really, because that's the scariest part of all of this is the unemployment numbers. I mean, that just keeps me up at night. Stephanie: I know. Yeah, seeing how high they're trending is definitely that's scary. Was there any big digital pivots you had to make or that you made quickly when COVID-19 started, or right now? Christiane: Well, I think that what we did... Apparently, from my digital marketing, either cohort or people that we work with, there are three DTC areas that have done very well in this particular pandemic, I mean, the Starling pandemic, so this pandemic, but it's athleisure, home, and alcohol. So, those three things had extraordinary growth. We happen to be in one of those categories. Christiane: I think one of the things that we did, which I think, anybody in a growth category in this particular time, we stayed the course with marketing. So, a lot of people caught their marketing. And what we're seeing is customer acquisition costs have come down, the cost for all of these paid marketing initiatives across all the platforms have come down. And so, we really leaned into that. Christiane: The other interesting thing that's sort of trend that's come out of this is not the digital marketing, I don't know if you've noticed this, but a lot of people are doing direct mail. Direct mail a huge resurgence obviously, depending on the category you're in, but people are home, and they're reading their direct mail. Stephanie: You shifted into that space of it? Christiane: We're looking into it now. Stephanie: Cool. Yeah, that's great. When you were first building The Inside, were there certain key technologies that you leaned on to build up the website, or are there any favorites that you utilize? I mean, I saw you have quizzes on the website, which seemed amazing. Is there anything specific where you're like, "This is my favorite piece of tech we use or a plug-in how we build our website." Any details around that? Christiane: Well, it's funny, this is our third iteration of our website. Christiane: So, we actually had to build our site from the ground up, which has its challenges. Christiane: One of the things that happened to us is we were on a really new version of Java, and Google couldn't index our site in the beginning so we had to do all kinds of back-end hacks to fix that. But for like three weeks, we're like, "Why is our traffic so bad?" And then, we realized that we weren't showing up at all. Stephanie: That's not great. Christiane: No, it's so horrible. So, just all these learnings along the way have been really interesting. So, because of the customizable aspect of our business, we had to build our own site from the bottom up, and that's given us the ability to keep growing our SKU count and keep allowing people to customize each and every one of the pieces. Christiane: I think that there's plug-ins. Everybody loves the Affirm or any kind of extended payment plan. There are things that are so unbelievable like Apple Pay and Amazon Wallet and all these things. If you don't have them, I mean, you're putting yourself at a huge disadvantage. I mean, they're not necessarily plug-ins, they're more payment tools. Christiane: I think the name of the game now is, it goes right to the core of my book, is making the experience frictionless. I mean, this is philosophical, but I think if frictionless extends even beyond that digital aspect of our lives, people are used to getting what they want, when they want, at the price they want, with the look they want, because of... Christiane: And I would say that Bezos might be the grandfather or the father of the frictionless experience. I mean, he changed the way we consume, and buying, shopping, whatever, fundamentally, in the same way that Steve Jobs changed the way we think about media. I mean, Bezos changed the way we shop, and he made it frictionless for us, and he keeps going beyond. Because if you think about Amazon Prime, he made everything accessible to us in two days. I mean, not necessarily right now, but generally speaking, and that just removes the friction from everything. Christiane: And philosophically, it's given us time back in our lives, right? Especially, let's think about others, me as a mom, I never have to take two hours of my day to go to the toy store to get the Lego for my son, William's friend, Gray's birthday party ever. It gets delivered to my house and it takes me no time. And that time that I get back, I mean, pre-COVID, I think the digital generation looks at time in a completely different way and the generation that preceded that, right? Stephanie: I absolutely agree. Christiane: Yeah, because there is all of this found time, and I think the digital generation also understands that it is the only non-renewable resource, right? If you have money, you can throw it on almost anything, right? I mean, you can have a jab for a trainer or whatever, or if you're clever and you have to be resourceful like me, you can find, I don't know, a meal delivery service or the stretch class on Mindbody, or whatever it is you're looking for. There's ways to hack almost anything. The only thing we can't hack is time. Christiane: And so, the more frictionless your experiences are across every single thing you need to do every day from like your healthcare all the way down to your grocery shopping, the more of this found time essentially you get back or digital time. Christiane: Pre-COVID, the people were applying that to travel, experience, I don't know, wellness, self-care, working out, all these things. Because it's the first generation that doesn't have to wait in line to get their license renewed at the DMV. Stephanie: Yeah. I mean, that's definitely a very different generation now who knows nonsense and they're not going to put up with the old way of doing things. How did you think about designing your website and your customer journey to create that frictionless experience? I mean, like I said earlier, I love seeing the quiz. I actually took it to see what kind of bedframe I should buy. How did you think about designing things to make it easy for people to buy? Especially furniture, that's kind of tricky. People are usually used to testing it out. Christiane: They're used to testing it out. So, my caveat is the following, that is definitely a work in progress. We look at this every day in every way, I don't think we've made it frictionless yet but we're trying to. And I think that for home furnishings, in some ways, we have to act as your decorating friend, as well as your place to buy the product. And so, to the extent, we can make your choices easier, so the quiz or you can text us or email us or set up an appointment for a design consultation with us. If we can help you be your trusted friend and design advisor, that I think is one of the tools to a frictionless experience. Christiane: Like every other eCommerce site, there's table stakes things like, "If you don't like it, you can return it," and you have 30 days to return it. Because you know what, that's just the name of the game today. And also, we have to ship it to you for free because that's also the name of the game today. Christiane: So, there are things that have been institutionalized, I'd say, by Amazon first and then adopted by everybody else that are just table stakes. And so, we started out with those and that was, I think, like 1.0 of frictionlessness online. And then the companies that are really forward thinking are the ones that could build on that on a near constant basis. So, yeah, that's very much where we are philosophically and trying to make the UX better every day. Stephanie: Got it. What kind of metrics are you focusing on when you're making all these iterations and trying to make the experience even better? Are there certain things you pay attention to or that you sync up with your team every week and go over? Christiane: A lot of it is Google Analytics and then we look at the Facebook metrics for the paid marketing, all of these things. But some of the things we look at are, obviously, like the really basic ones like bounce rate. One of the things that people are looking at now is, they call it dwell time, how long people spend on each page and how in-depth they go. So, we look at that. Christiane: We look at who designs a piece of furniture, and then transacts, and then who abandons the cart and why. And so, we're trying to finesse the experience all the time so that people feel they're not stuck with paralysis of choice. Because I think the thing about customizing is that, especially if there's 16,000 different iterations you can possibly make, you might get paralyzed by choice. Christiane: So, the quiz is very helpful there because you may have learned that you like coastal mid-century, your favorite color is blue, here are three patterns that you like that are foolproof for you. And then, you can go from there. You can iterate from there. So, you can choose a brass leg or wood leg or whatever that works for the rest of your interior. But at least you've narrowed down to the extent you can, algorithmically what you like. And so I think that, I mean, all of those things are super important. Stephanie: And I think less choices is definitely key. Especially I've seen a model where they're populating an entire room for you of like, "Here's the whole entire bundle, so you don't even have to think about it. You can swap things in." And like you said, having someone that you can text is so super important, where you feel like you have a friend where you're like, "How would this look? What do you think about this? Show me something that's similar." I think all of those are really strategic. Stephanie: But when it comes to some of those metrics, how do you... For dwell time, for instance, I think any of these might lead you down the wrong path based on what's happening right now with the current environment where I heard that, well, times are up, but then conversions aren't maybe up at the same rate. Is there any metrics where you're like, "Oh, they might be reading into that the wrong way, and we shouldn't maybe take a quick action based on that right now." Christiane: I think that's right. I think people are... Because we have so much time, and content looks different from one person to the other, the content they like. So, if you're in the middle of decorating your house, you might be on all these sites, and because you have, all of a sudden, more disposable time at your fingertips than you have in the past. So, I think dwell time is important, but add-to-cart is really the thing you want to see, and then the final conversion. Christiane: So, we look at where people are hanging out from a GA perspective and then look at the add-to-cart and then look at the conversion on that add-to-cart. Of course, for us, the metrics that we want to focus on are getting from add-to-carts to conversion to the extent we can, and so trying to make the PDP and the the checkout page as flawless as and as inviting as possible to really get people to transact. Christiane: I mean, in front of that is as much inspiration as we can possibly allow people to consume, whether it's through Instagram or through Facebook Ads or through whatever means to get them inspired. But really, our job, especially on a site level, is to make it so easy that why wouldn't you buy it? And to the extent we can quell your paralysis of choice. That's really where we're focused right now, is really helping you design the space of your dreams digitally. Stephanie: Very cool. So, you just mentioned Instagram. I saw that you launched an Instagram Live series called Go Inside. Can you speak a bit about how you're utilizing that to potentially drive sales and the strategy behind that, and ROI that you've seen on that content or how you measure that? Christiane: Well, I think, for us, part of this... The interesting thing about the home furnishings business is that there are two distinct consumers, there is the DTCs, so the consumer you think about who wants to buy an upholstered headboard and goes on and chooses their fabric, and executes on that, but there's also the trade. Christiane: And so, our particular category has interior designers, and many of them who, at the end of the day, are a very big part of this business, and a very, very important customer to anybody in the home furnishings business because they are buying on behalf of multiple people. And if you make the whole experience frictionless for them, it's not just one bed every five years, it could be five beds every month. Christiane: And so, I think part of our Instagram strategy is really letting the rest of our community meet the interior designers that really work with our product, not only so that they can see what this community does, but also, at the end of the day, we would love our interior designers to get business and to really think about this, not only as a home furnishing company, but as a community that we're growing for people who love design and who want to, as we call it, live beyond the beige. And for us, that's really people who want to personalize their spaces, and think about their spaces as something that is theirs and that is customizable, in a way that's frictionless. And so, by going live with our interior designers, we're introducing the world to this great community of people who can service that. Christiane: A little early for ROI right now, but if we circle back in a little bit of time, I can let you know, because data has to have like a decent subset, right? So, we just launched a home design 30-minute consultation, and that's really helpful in terms of conversion. Because if people get you on the on the line and walking through their spaces and really helping them, chances are it's the kind of help that they're looking for. So, we find that useful. Stephanie: Well, how do you think about scalability when it comes to having those one-on-one interactions with the customer and consulting them on the products and whatnot? Christiane: Well, that's where these two things dovetail together, right? And so, if we build a really beautiful, robust design community that is local... Because every different area has a different design philosophy. In California, you can live indoor or outdoor, in New York, a lot less. And so, if I can introduce you to a design in your area via Instagram Live, and he or she is showing off some of the projects they've done, there's a good chance that you will then reach out to them and let them know that you were introduced to their work on The Inside. Christiane: And the rest, I think, is just great for everybody involved. I mean, that's my business philosophy. I love a win-win-win, so the customer wins there, the designer wins there, and we win there not just because of a sale, but because we've made somebody's home and life better. Stephanie: Yeah, that's a really good strategy. And this thought that you are partnering with the designers and having them do the consultation, that's super smart, where you don't really have to worry too much about hiring a bunch of people and customer support to do it who don't really have good design principles probably. Christiane: Yup. That's how we'll scale. So, we're just at the inception of this, but you get it, right? So, they can meet Maureen Stevens on Thursday night or tomorrow night, and if she's in New Orleans and if they love her design, they can call her up. And when she finds out that they were sent to her via The Inside, then she'll most likely, I mean, hopefully, use one of our upholstered beds in her next project. But even if she doesn't, if somebody gets a better interior because of something we did along the way, then I feel pretty good about that. Stephanie: These micro-influencers and designers who are helping with these consultations, are they starting to request metrics and wanting to see data and things that your team will have to start supporting eventually? Christiane: I hope so, but not yet. I hope that... Listen, that's part of that frictionless post-COVID change. I think everybody is going to need data, digitally-driven data, so that they understand exactly what the reach is beyond this traditional business models that they've had prior to all this. Stephanie: Yup. I think that because of COVID, a lot of people are definitely putting on their entrepreneurial hats and they're going to want to see those metrics. And I think it'd be really interesting to have some type of leaderboard that would show which designer is doing the best and who's helping customers, and just gamify it a bit. Christiane: That'd be so much fun. It's almost like you're at, whatever it is, flywheel and who's biking the fastest. Stephanie: Yeah, I know. Just implement that tomorrow. Easy. So, are you- Christiane: Stephanie, I'm going to take a note right here and actually do that. That's pretty interesting. Stephanie: Yeah. I think that's where a lot of the world is going when it comes to gamifying certain purchases and making it more fun. Well, when it comes to gamifying, are there any pieces of tech that you're thinking about? I was just playing around with IKEA's app where they have AR that you can put the product in your room, which was really fun to play with. I was just putting full-on dressers on top of the bed and just being silly with it. But have you thought about doing that since your products are so unique, it seems like it would be really good to get them in the room where people are trying to design it? Christiane: Absolutely, yes. And in fact, we were talking to a company in Palo Alto, who was on the forefront of this, probably right around the corner from you. Stephanie: Oh, we're neighbors. Christiane: Yeah. And they are pioneering this incredible drag and drop. So essentially, you can take a picture of your room, and then you can drag and drop furniture into it. It's so well done. It's so well done that they can tell where your window is and they can have a shadow underneath the furniture so that it looks perfectly real. Interestingly, a lot of the technology that people use for gaming is really applicable here. So, it can create a really unique and kind of true-to-life experience. Christiane: So, yes, we're looking to this all the time. I think that as a brand spanking new startup, we're trying to make sure the fundamentals are frictionless before we add all kinds of layers of complexity to the customer experience. So, we want to make sure that it's really easy for you right now to go in and say like, "I love the modern platform bed and I like it in polka dot. I'm going to transact," versus... Because I think that we got to make sure the customers where we are in terms of technology, too. So, I think we're taking baby steps there, but the answer is absolutely yes. And all of that technology is fascinating to me. Stephanie: Yeah, completely agree. I'm definitely watching that market closely and it seems like people are leaning heavily in, but agree that until you understand how you want the customer journey to work and the product to work and everything, I think... Stephanie: We were just talking with someone from Lenovo who's saying that after years of being in business, you have to just start killing a bunch of things because too many things build up and it starts worsening the customer experience. So, it's probably good to figure everything out first before pulling in a bunch of new trendy tools. Christiane: Yeah. We need to have a really beautiful conversion rate indicating to us that the customer journey is frictionless before we can start throwing pretty complex essentially gaming ideas at them. Stephanie: Yup. And it would seem like you would need a pretty large catalog as well if you're going to develop an entire AR app for your company. I mean, people probably slip through placing furniture. I mean, at least that's what I was doing. I was like, bang, bang, bang, bang. I was putting in front of everywhere. It seems like I would need a pretty large catalog for that, too. Christiane: I think that's right. I think that's absolutely right. And so, somebody like IKEA touches every part of your house. I mean, we're too young to have that kind of SKU count. It has to be in every single category, right? You can't just have the dining room chairs, you have to have the dining room table too. So, we'll get there. We're not there today. And so, I think that you're right. That's a very good point. And so, IKEA is a layup for them. It's a layup for Wayfair as well. Stephanie: Yeah. Are there any specific follow ups you do with your customers to keep them coming back, or ways that you're acquiring new customers that is maybe unique? Christiane: What's great about our category is that design is a process, right? I mean, even if you hire an interior designer, it usually takes quite a while. And also, people are thinking about their homes in a different way than they used to. It's all these things where it's done, you live in it, and that's it. I think people are constantly upgrading or adding in seasonal elements. And so, once we know you, Stephanie, are coastal mid-century from your quiz, we can keep sending you design ideas that- Stephanie: Did you just see my quiz? Christiane: No. Is that- Stephanie: That's what I was. I'm like, "Did you see me?" Christiane: But I have a feeling. Well, first of all, I can see your personal file from our Zoom earlier today, so I- Stephanie: You mean, hoodie and sweatshirt? Just kidding. Christiane: I also know where you are. I know how old you are. I know where you went to school. But this is all I do all day long, so I can pretty much- Stephanie: You're good. Christiane: ... figure it out. So, since you are coastal mid-century, I would know what to send you as a follow-up. I don't know if you have outdoor space or not, but I might send you some really cool outdoor furniture that would work with the bed you had. I will try and assist you in decorating your space, getting the home of your dreams pretty subtly until one day, you pick up the phone and say, "Hey, Christiane, will you just call me back because I want to do my entire living room?" And I will say, "Of course," and I will call you back and you'll FaceTime me through your living room and we'll decorate it. Christiane: But until then, I'm going to show you all the beautiful things you can have at very reasonable prices to make your space exactly the mid-century coastal dream you want it to be. Stephanie: That's great. It's a good process. So, to pivot a little bit, you've written a couple books and I'd love to dive into them because they're all around everything eCommerce, it seems. And so, if you want to maybe start with your most recent one or your first one, whatever one you want, I would love to hear about them. Christiane: Well, so I've written three books and I'm working on two other ones right now. But the first book I wrote was called Undecorate and it was really, for me, that watershed moment in design when I realized that the way people approach their interiors was no longer going to be like, "I design it. I live in it for 25 years. My kids take a few things when I die and that's the end of it." I realized that people were approaching their interiors the way they were approaching fashion. And that was largely because for the first time ever, things like Pinterest, that was right after Instagram launched... But all these things, all of a sudden, we were surrounded by content and media in a completely different way. So, you didn't have to buy a magazine to look at a beautiful interior, you got to see it all day long on your phone. Christiane: And so, what that did was, I believe, it raised the design IQ, not only of our audience in the United States, but globally. And so, all of a sudden, people are interested in interiors, they're interested in design history. They're interested in all these things that they weren't before and they think about their spaces in a less static way. So, I wrote that book. Christiane: And then, I followed it up with a book called The Finer Things, which was my first Instagram-generation encyclopedia of the decorative arts on the same day, and I'm writing right now the Instagram-generation encyclopedia of important furniture. This one's take me a long time, I think, four years to write. It's a big project. [inaudible] is the one I'm writing about furniture right now. Will probably take me between two and a half and three. Christiane: And then, I wrote Frictionless, which is really my first business book. Because I realized that I had started a business out of college in 2000. I grew it organically for 13 years. And if I hadn't written a book at the end of that journey, it would have been useless. It would have been fire-starting kindling at this point, because everything had changed, every single thing. Stephanie: It makes you wonder if you can rely on books these days anymore because, I mean, especially around eCommerce, everything's new and so quick. It's like what sources should I even look at to stay up to date with things? It's definitely probably not a book. Christiane: Yeah. I mean, I sat and thought what is the underlying differentiator? What makes something win or something lose here, right, if I look at all the incumbents in my industry. But just generally, what is it? What's the winner or loser? And what I realized was that it was the frictionless experience that allowed somebody to get into a, it could be a crowded category. Christiane: But if you can do in the least invasive way, you will win because all people want is as few clicks as possible to get exactly what they want with the commerce table stakes and have it delivered to their home and they don't want somebody calling them up with a delivery time. They don't want 37 phone calls. They don't want a helpline where nobody helps them. When you get into those scenarios, you're like, "I'm not doing this. I'm never coming back." Stephanie: Whenever someone wants to call me, I'm like, "Oh, can we not? And don't leave me a voicemail. Can you just text me, please?" Christiane: Yeah, just text me. Or my favorite thing is Slack. Just Slack me. Christiane: Slack is frictionless. I mean, it's beautiful. Christiane: And so, experiences like that, I don't know, equal parts art and science, I think is the big differentiator. We, as human people, now that we've experienced it, that's what we want. We want the Slack experience in every single facet of our life. And if it's not- Stephanie: No one's going back after that. Christiane: No, no. And if it's not that, then you're like, "Why does this suck so badly?" And then, you find the experience in that, I don't know, that milieu that you need, and you can find it. I mean, if you can't find it today, you'll be able to find it soon. And that's what every business should go after. Christiane: Because all the rest of it is table stakes, right, like fast and free delivery, great design. You can do those things, but to do it in a frictionless way is what's going to change your business or give you the competitive advantage you need to take market share. I mean, that's what Wayfair taught me. And when I sold to them and I understood how far ahead of the commerce game they were, it was amazing to me. Stephanie: Yeah, that's such a good experience. When you were doing your research for Frictionless, was there any surprises that you found or companies that you're following that were doing something surprising that you hadn't thought of? Or just a good process that you were like, "Oh, that's really neat. I can see why it works for them."? Christiane: There's so many nuggets in this book. I mean, I find just talking to the founder of Ixcela, she does a gut biome. You send in your... I'm obsessed with that. You send in your blood sample through the mail. I mean, the idea that we can have MIT science level help digitally is amazing to me. I mean, all of these... That is going to be the outcome of this particular pandemic because what we're realizing is that all of the things we thought we needed to do like endless in-person meetings, we just don't need to. I mean, I will never take 60 subways in a day in New York again to go to in-person meetings unless they're absolutely necessary. Christiane: So, I'm thinking about my life through the lens of frictionless experience. Those things, that's a lot of friction, like running around, being late, being stressed, when we don't need to do it. I mean, Zoom has also changed our lives, all of these platforms. Christiane: And the interesting thing is that I believe the entire world, regardless of what generation you are, just got schooled in technology, right? We all just got fully immersed in what it means to be a digital citizen. Christiane: Even my 75-year-old mom in Ottawa, Canada knows how to use Zoom now and thinks it's the greatest thing ever, and I'm like, "Mom, I told you so." But sometimes it takes being forced into something to realize how extraordinary it is. And now she realizes she can have all of her grandkids all over the world on one Zoom call and everybody can talk to each other. How amazing is that? Stephanie: That sounds very similar to my parents as well. They were teaching me how to put backgrounds on Zoom. I'm like, "Mom, I got it. But thank you." Actually, she did send me a pretty funny article that showed how to loop a video on Zoom so it looked like you were moving around and paying attention in a meeting, which I guess her... She's a teacher, so I think some of her students were doing that. They were looping themselves just moving around a few times, and it looked like they were really on board with the whole lesson. Christiane: Oh, my God. That is hilarious. Stephanie: I'm like, "That's good. Thank you for sharing that wisdom." Christiane: One of the partners that we're working with at The Inside, it's a very big home furnishings company and they are pretty sophisticated digitally, and all of them have a constant Zoom competition of who has the coolest background. Apparently, somebody had something like a 1980s workout video. That was fantastic last week. These guys are thinking about this on a near constant basis like your Zoom background now is a reflection of who you are and how creative you are, how digitally savvy you are. I think it's hilarious. Stephanie: So to zoom out a little bit, what do you think the future of online commerce looks like after the pandemic's over? Do you think things are going to shift back a bit to how they were? What kind of disruptions do you see coming down the pipe? Christiane: People would think "we're going back to normal," I think normal has changed. And I firmly believe that the companies that weren't thinking digitally are thinking digitally very seriously now. Christiane: Because as I told you, here I am in SoHo, New York and it turns out when there's a pandemic, nobody lives here. At 7:00 at night is when we all cheer. I mean, there's now six of us on my block who I see every night, and everyone else is gone. And there is one coffee shop that's open, and that coffee shop very early on had a contactless app. So, you could order your coffee in advance and then go and pick it up. Nobody touched anybody with gloves and a face mask on. I've gone there every single morning for the last nine weeks because I want to get out of my apartment and I want to see some of the world, and they have really good coffee. Christiane: And across the street from them is the fanciest coffee place in New York that people are die hard lovers of, and you know what, the doors are closed and they never came up with a contactless app and they never figured out how to digitally bring themselves into this particular pandemic and keep their business going. And I think that that's only like a neighborhood version of what the rest of commerce is going to look like, and not only commerce, just like service as well. I think that people are going to have to think about how to pivot their particular businesses digitally as quickly as possible. Stephanie: I don't think this will be the first event where businesses have to come online quickly and figure it out. And we'll definitely see the people who did do that this time and the ones who didn't. Christiane: Yeah, especially some of the ones that didn't and who are waiting for things to go back to normal might not make it through this. And that breaks my heart because there are fairly... You could probably scrappily do something fairly quickly, but you have to want to. And I think that people that didn't have their head in the sand... Is that what the ostrich does? Stick their head in the ground? Stephanie: I think so. Christiane: If your head wasn't in the sand, and you were iterating, or at least pivoting during this, it's going to serve you really well on the other side. Stephanie: Mm-hmm (affirmative). Yeah, it seems like it'll be, well, it is an environment right now where people have to learn quickly, but they'll probably look back and be like, "Glad I did that." We learned and we moved at the pace that normally would have taken us maybe on a five-year roadmap, we were able to get it done in a week or two weeks. We got pushed into that, but I'm sure they'll look back and be happy they did. Christiane: But also, look at the very fast category options. I look at the home furnishings category where, I don't know, it'd be those between 20% and 25% of consumers were willing to buy the category online. I think, in the last ten weeks, it went up to 60% or 70%. I mean, that is massive, world class adoption in a very short period of time. And I would imagine that that is universal across some of these categories. So, it'll be really interesting to see what happens post the pandemic. Christiane: But the people that are listening to the CDC won't be rushing out and shopping and going to the beach as quickly as... Some people will and some people want. So, I think that digital adoption is going to be extended, at least for 18 to 24 months, if not, forever. Stephanie: Yeah, I completely agree. So, before we move into the lightning round, which I'll explain, is there any other thoughts or ideas you have that you want to share? Christiane: No, I think we've covered up everything. I mean, I could go off... You and I are philosophically aligned that this is the way of the future. I mean, I could talk about this for days, but we need a whole Round 2. Stephanie: Yeah. It'll be really interesting to see what the landscape looks like in 8 to 10 months, if not, and then again in 24. Because I think you're right, I think that the people that are thinking on their feet and iterating constantly and really pivoting their businesses to be digital-first in whatever, incumbent-second are the people that are going to win here. It'll be a really fun way to look back. Stephanie: All right, then the lightning round, which is brought to you by our friends at Salesforce Commerce Cloud, who sponsored this podcast, of course. Christiane: Excellent. Stephanie: This is where I... Yes, they are great. They're amazing. Christiane: They are. Stephanie: This is where I ask you a question and you have a minute or less to answer. Does that sound good? Christiane: Sure. Stephanie: All right, what's up next on your reading list? Christiane: What's up next on my reading list? Oh, I have a really good friend in New York City who just wrote a book, Lauren Sandler, and I'm going to read her book next and it is called Christiane: Her new book is called This Is All I Got, and it's A New Mother's Search for Home. She is an investigative journalist. She writes for The New Yorker and New York Times. And she actually followed a single mother through the shelter system in New York. But I've just started it, it's pretty amazing. Stephanie: I'm going to check that out. Christiane: Yeah, it's pretty amazing. I'm trying to think what else? What am I reading that's like business-related? What is it? Harder Things? I just started it. Stephanie: The Hard Thing About Hard Things? Christiane: The Hard Thing About Hard Things is the business book that I'm reading right now. My editor at Harper who did Frictionless, also was the editor on Ben Horowitz' book. Stephanie: Oh, cool. I got to read that. Christiane: Yeah. I highly recommend that one. Stephanie: Highly recommend? Christiane: Yeah. I think that there are probably universal truths. And also, we're going through hard things right now. And I think it's people that are accepting and fluid in the hard things that end up being okay. Stephanie: Yeah, I completely agree. What's up next on your podcast list? Christiane: On my podcast list? Oh, my God, there's so many on my podcast list, but I'm stuck on the daily right now, if I'm honest, because, first of all, the news is so completely crazy and riveting. And also, I'm obsessed with all the COVID data. You know, I just had the test because my son was exhibiting some symptoms, and all three of us are negative. Stephanie: That's good. Christiane: Yeah, it's really good. But as a parent, the whole Kawasaki manifestation of this is very scary. Because the first bill of goods we got sold was that, "Oh, if your kids are under 20, you're fine." I was like, "Great." I don't care if I get it, I'll figure it out. But if my kids get it, I don't know what I'm going to do. And now, that's not the truth at all. So, that's generally where you'll find me. It's hard to take your ears away from the news right now. Stephanie: I know. Yeah. I have to, every once in a while, take a break because I have three kids under two and a half. Christiane: Wow. You're like me. My kids are 21 months apart. Stephanie: So, who do you follow in the industry or any newsletters or sources that you go to to stay up-to-date on all things eCommerce? Christiane: Wow. I mean, everything, like Crunchbase and TechCrunch. Oh, and I've been watching some of the podcasts, some of the live stuff on Extra Crunch. I'm trying to think eCommerce. I mean, there's just so much of it. I don't know, where else do I follow? Stephanie: Or if nothing comes to mind, we can also skip this one. Christiane: Okay. I mean, all of the above. And also, all the inbound newsletters and things like that. But just generally, the newspaper. Stephanie: Oh, newspaper. Okay. The last harder question is what's up next for eCommerce professionals? Christiane: What's up next for eCommerce professionals? Wow. Stephanie: Big shift. Christiane: Well, I think that everyone is going to have to become somewhat of an eCommerce professional first of all. I don't think digital and analog are going to be two separate things anymore after this particular pandemic, and I think that everybody out there is understanding that in a pretty profound way. I think that digital immersion is not only necessary, I mean, I think it's the only way to actually stay relevant and push your career forward. Christiane: Part of the reason that I wrote the book was also to try and understand being the parent of two children, what the future would look like for my kids and what does that mean for college and all these things? Because I wanted to understand 72% of people want to be entrepreneurs, and what does that mean? And so, I think that if they think about that from a digital perspective, it's actually a pretty great place to be, right? It means you're immersing yourself in the digital aspect of things. I think that it's not just eCommerce professionals, it's going to be every single professional. Christiane: I do think when I look at the landscape, that the content part of this is really important, right? Because even when I was at Wayfair, I mean, we did content but it wasn't merged the same way. So, your AR question I think is really important. I think that we're going to shift online for a lot of the things that we did in analog ways before this. Christiane: So, if I'm an interior designer, I'm not thinking about what my career looks like when I come into your house, I'm thinking about what can I learn online so that I can do it for you from a distance, right? And I would apply that to every single aspect of every single job out there. If I have an analog job, how can I digitize that? And I think everybody's going to have to think about that. Christiane: I mean, look at doctors are doing it through telemedicine and designers are doing it through FaceTime. You can go down every single career. I mean, pharmacists are doing it through telemedicine as well. One of the people that I profiled in the book is Eric Kinariwala from Capsule in New York. And I mean, that's a genius business because he's delivering everything from the drugstore, all of your pharmaceutical needs, anything that your doctor has prescribed, you can get delivered to your home. I'm talking to him next week, but I think he probably crushed it in this particular scenario. Christiane: So, I think there's no... You're not on one side of the fence or the other, like this silo in the company does eCommerce and this one does regular commerce. I mean, I think that the two now are going to be forever conjoined. Stephanie: Yeah, that's such a good point. Completely agree. Well, this has been such a fun interview. We definitely need to be back for Round 2. Where can people find out more about you and The Inside and your upcoming book? Christiane: Well, my upcoming book is at frictionless.pub, and you can get a copy of it there. It links to Amazon and Barnes and Noble and every other great book place to buy books. The Inside is theinside.com. And the rest, there's an endless breadth of information on Google. Stephanie: Yup. Awesome. Yeah. Thanks so much for coming on the show. It's been such a blast. Christiane: Thank you. Thanks, Stephanie.  

Lauren Sandler talks about “This Is All I Got,” and Sarah Weinman discusses classic mysteries.

My guest is Lauren Sandler. Her newest book is This Is All I Got: A New Mother's Search for Home (https://www.amazon.com/This-All-Got-Mothers-Search-ebook/dp/B07TRXXF6N/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=Lauren+Sandler+this+is+all+I+got&qid=1588628322&sr=8-1). More than forty-five million Americans attempt to survive under the poverty line, day by day. Nearly 60,000 people sleep in New York City-run shelters every night—forty percent of them children. This Is All I Got makes this issue deeply personal, vividly depicting one woman's hope and despair and her steadfast determination to improve her situation, despite the myriad setbacks she encounters. Camila is a twenty-two-year-old new mother. She has no family to rely on, no partner, and no home. Despite her intelligence and determination, the odds are firmly stacked against her. Award-winning journalist Lauren Sandler tells the story of a year in Camila's life—from the birth of her son to his first birthday—as she navigates the labyrinth of poverty and homelessness in America. As Camila attempts to secure a college education and a safe place to raise her son, she copes with dashed dreams, failed relationships, and miles of red tape with grit, grace, and resilience. This Is All I Got (https://www.amazon.com/This-All-Got-Mothers-Search-ebook/dp/B07TRXXF6N/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=Lauren+Sandler+this+is+all+I+got&qid=1588628322&sr=8-1) is a dramatic story of survival and powerful indictment of a broken system, but it is also a revealing and candid depiction of the relationship between an embedded reporter and her subject and the tricky boundaries to navigate when it's impossible to remain a dispassionate observer. Special Guest: Lauren Sandler.

Behind the News, 4/30/20 - guests: Lauren Sandler on homelessness in NYC; Cathy Cowan Becker on the awful Gibbs-Moore documentary, Planet of the Humans - Doug Henwood

In this episode, Neil, Niki, and Natalia discuss the prospect of large-scale voting by mail come November and the fate of the U.S. Postal Service. Support Past Present on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/pastpresentpodcast Here are some links and references mentioned during this week’s show:  Earlier this month in Wisconsin, voters had to choose between civic participation and public health. Questions over mail-in voting have reignited a debate over federal funding for the post office, as discussed in this Vox Niki explained the longer history of voting by mail that this New York Times article explores.   In our regular closing feature, What’s Making History: Natalia discussed the FX/Hulu television show, “ America.” Neil recommended Lauren Sandler’s new book, This is All I Got: A New Mother’s Search for Home. Niki shared Marc Tracy’s New York Times article, “Photojournalists Struggle Through the Pandemic, With Masks and Long Lenses,” and Rebecca Onion’s Slate article, “’These People Aren’t Zombies. They’re People’.”

Vanessa and Julia deal with a Reddit question from a woman whose boyfriend has recently found religion. Should his attempts to convert her end their relationship?To explore this question, Vanessa talks with journalist Lauren Sandler about her research on Christian Romance Novels and their writers. At the heart of their discussion lies the question: how religion can affect romance? They discuss how religion can bring some people closer, and can tear others apart. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

This week, Vanessa’s friend, Liz, writes on the “Widowed Virgin” trope, telling the story of a Jewish widow who finds sexual awakening after her husband’s death. Vanessa reflects on her own Jewish upbringing, and confronts the familial urge to marry within the religion. Vanessa, whose partner is non-Jewish and German, examines what it means to love someone outside of the community she was raised in. She turns to her brother, who married a wonderful Jewish woman, to discuss how important it really is to marry within your own religion. Vanessa comes to terms with her own happy ending as Liz writes an HEA for the widowed virgin of her story. We also get our next writing assignment from #1 New York Times best-selling author, Julia Quinn. Next week: More love advice and a conversation with Lauren Sandler. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Preservation expert Lauren Sandler of Canning Shed joins ORIGINS to discuss the ins and outs of canning, preservation and sustainability at large.

Our panelists include Sarah Gordon and Sheila Fain, owners and founders of Gordy’s Pickle Jar; Meaghan and Shane Carpenter, the owners and founders of Hex Ferments; and Lauren Sandler, the Director of Preservation for Foodshed, Inc. Sarah Gordon and Sheila Fain are the founders of Gordy’s Pickle Jar, the much-loved, small batch pickle company from Washington DC. Founded in 2011, Gordy’s quickly become a DC favorite not only for its delicious product line but also for its commitment to craftsmanship, community, and sustainability. The brand has received numerous accolades from the press, including the Washington Post, Food & Wine, Bloomberg, and The Food Network, among others (http://www.gordyspicklejar.com). HEX Ferments are Maryland-based food alchemists, dedicated to sourcing from local and organic farms. They believe in creating partnerships from these providers of sustenance to create unique ferments that support our individual health as well as the health of our local foodshed. HEX ferments employs a traditional process – they do not use heat or white vinegar – so that they’re creations are teeming with beneficial bacteria, healthy acids and enzymes. They balance old world quality and flavor with modern interpretations, and choose optimal, nourishing ingredients. HEX Ferments is a certified B-Corporation, 100% Wind Powered. (http://www.hexferments.com) Lauren Sandler is the production manager of Canningshed, a Maryland-approved food manufacturing facility that produces seasonal jams, jellies, and hot sauce, as well as fermented, dried, and frozen foods.  Born and raised in Baltimore, Lauren worked as a line cook at Franny;s Restaurant in Brooklyn, NY, where she developed a commitment to working with local growers and produce. Everything made at Canningshed is sourced from independent Mid- Atlantic growers, from the lavender dried for tea to the vinegar used in Snake Oil Hot Sauce.  Lauren and her team are particularly committed to minimizing food waste: beyond constantly exploring new ways to use the generally unused parts of food (from cherry pits to fibrous leek greens), Canningshed ferments, cans, dries, freezes, and juices, so that they can provide seasonal local produce year long. ORIGINS is powered by Simplecast

Interview with Lauren Sandler, author of “One and Only,” about the benefits to children, relationships, and society of having--and being--an only child. The post The Freedom of Having an Only Child—And the Joy of Being One. appeared first on Mr. Dad.

Interviews with Eric Jensen, coauthor of “Turnaround Tools for the Teenage Brain,” about how to help underperforming students become lifelong learners; and Lauren Sandler, author of “One and Only,” about the freedom of having an only child—and the joy of being one. The post Unlocking the Teenage Brain + Debunking Myths about Only Children appeared first on Mr. Dad.

Should you have only one child? Is it fair to your child? Is it fair to you? Host Dawn Davenport will talk with Lauren Sandler, author of One and Only: The Freedom of Having an Only Child and the Joy of Being One. Blog summary of the show and highlights can be found here:   Blog summary of the show   Highlights   More Creating a Family resources on family size and type can be found here. Support the show (https://creatingafamily.org/donation/)

Lauren Sandler: Journalist, author of One and Only: The Freedom of Having an Only Child and the Joy of Being One Roach wouldn’t willingly admit it in the interview, and perhaps this is presumptuous, but I think we all have a negative bias towards only children…unless, of course, you are one.  I’m not saying it’s a huge...

Hanna Rosin, Allison Benedikt and Noreen Malone are joined by writer Lauren Sandler to discuss having only one child. Also, they discuss if father figures are essential, and evaluate the necessity of wedding gifts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Lauren Sandler  writes Dispatches from the Evangelical Youth Movement  "Righteous"    Then,  "Sex Priests and Secret Codes"  Richard Sipes  with insights into Foleygate.   Then,  Chet Culver says he's against gay marriage,  "...at this time".