Firestarters with Shannon Watts

Shannon Watts
  • 4.7 (25)
  • Personal Journals

Firestarters is a podcast filled with inspiring interviews of women living audacious lives and encouraging others to do the same. shannonwatts.substack.com shannonwatts.substack.com

  1. 11h ago

    Asm. Josh Lowenthal is taking on big tech as both a dad and a lawmaker

    Asm. Josh Lowenthal represents Long Beach, California and serves as Speaker Pro Tempore in the California Assembly. Before politics, he worked as a schoolteacher and a successful tech entrepreneur, and he is the father of three young girls, an experience that pushed him to take on predatory social media practices. He is the author of AB 1709 and AB 2, two bills that together ban addictive features like infinite scrolling and autoplay for kids under 16, create a new oversight agency to monitor platforms, and raise the financial penalties when companies are found negligent in harming children. I sat down with Josh to talk about what it actually took to get this legislation passed unanimously, through a legislature that big tech spends hundreds of millions of dollars lobbying every cycle. We talked about the parallel to gun safety work, a multi trillion dollar industry operating with almost no oversight while kids pay the price, and why he sees this less as a big tobacco moment and more like alcohol regulation, something that can be done responsibly but is causing real harm at the levels kids are currently using it. He also shared why he built this bill to be a model other states can copy and paste, what he is hearing, or not hearing, from the platforms themselves, and why he believes this needs to become a defining issue in the next presidential election. Connect with Asm. Josh: Website | Instagram | Substack If you’re looking to unleash your potential, find your personal, professional, or political fire, and to connect with a community who is doing the same, click here to learn more. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit shannonwatts.substack.com/subscribe

  2. 5d ago

    Elle Pugh on why your enneagram number is the beginning of the work, not the end

    Elle Pugh, RN, BSN is a registered nurse, certified Enneagram facilitator and coach, and the founder of Beyond Your Type, an Enneagram based leadership development practice where she coaches senior level and C suite leaders at companies like Ulta Beauty, JPMorgan Chase, and PepsiCo. She began her career in a pediatric cardiac ICU before leaving the bedside, frustrated with the brokenness of the healthcare system, to build out a healthcare startup’s team from the ground up. That experience shaped her working philosophy that healthy organizations are made up of healthy individuals. She also writes The Dangerous Woman, a Substack on the Enneagram, women’s health, and leadership, and is building Naxos Health, a women’s integrative health platform launching in early 2027. Elle walked through the full map of the Enneagram, from the body types to the heart types to the head types, and why she believes the real work isn’t picking a number off a quiz but understanding the story behind it, the ways each of us learned, as kids, how to feel safe, esteem, and in control. We got candid about my own type, an eight, and how the instinct to be strong and avoid vulnerability can be exactly what makes someone effective in a fight while also being the thing that strains relationships closest to home. We also talked about the Enneagram’s spiritual dimension, the passion and virtue underneath each type, and why Elle sees this as a tool for a lifetime rather than a one time test to take and file away. Elle is also launching a new podcast with her colleague Scott Allender called Present Company, set to debut in January. The name carries a double meaning, both about being fully present in your own life instead of running on autopilot, and about the company we keep when we choose to do this kind of deep work together. Keep an eye out for it to launch as a Substack publication, and subscribe to Elle's Substack now so you don't miss it when it does. Connect with Elle: Website | Instagram | Substack If you’re looking to unleash your potential, find your personal, professional, or political fire, and to connect with a community who is doing the same, click here to learn more. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit shannonwatts.substack.com/subscribe

  3. Sep 30

    What parents get wrong about eating disorders, including blaming themselves

    Dr. Lauren Hartman is a double board certified pediatrician and adolescent medicine specialist with nearly 20 years of experience caring for young people. She runs a private practice in Berkeley, California, Aspen Grove Adolescent and Young Adult Medicine, where she specializes in eating disorders, and serves on the Eating Disorder Committee for the Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine. Her new book, Freeing Children and Young Adults from Shame, Scales and Stigma, published this year by Routledge, is written as a practical guide, with scripts and strategies for doctors, schools, and parents navigating this together. Dr. Hartman and I talked openly about the shame so many parents carry, the false belief that eating disorders are somehow voluntary or self inflicted, and why that thinking needs to change. Dr. Hartman shared how she got into this work, why early intervention makes such a difference, and how parents, far from causing eating disorders, are actually one of the most powerful parts of a young person’s recovery. We also talked through what a worried parent should actually do first, the mistakes even well intentioned parents make, and why Dr. Hartman wrote her book to give families and clinicians the language they often don’t know how to find on their own. Connect with Lauren: Website | Instagram | Substack | Buy the Book If you’re looking to unleash your potential, find your personal, professional, or political fire, and to connect with a community who is doing the same, click here to learn more. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit shannonwatts.substack.com/subscribe

  4. Sep 28

    Jennifer Weiss-Wolf on why menopause is political

    Jennifer Weiss-Wolf is a lawyer, author, and longtime advocate for gender equality. She is executive director of the Birnbaum Women’s Leadership Center at NYU Law and leads partnerships and strategy at Ms. Magazine. Jennifer spent over a decade turning menstruation, something women were told to keep private, into a matter of public policy, and her new book, When in Menopause: A User’s Manual and Citizen’s Guide, does the same for menopause, making the case that it is not just a personal health issue but a workplace, economic, legal, and public policy one. Jennifer traced how she stumbled into period policy back in 2015, after seeing two kids in her community collecting tampons and pads for a local food pantry, and how her own menopause transition during the pandemic pulled her into this next fight. We talked through the history of hormone therapy policy, from the misogynistic messaging of the 1960s to the 2002 study that scared a generation of doctors and patients away from treatment for decades, and why women are still living with the fallout of that decision today. Jennifer also broke down a whirlwind week of federal hearings on menopause care, including her own testimony before the Senate, and shared why she wrote the book as a practical, choose your own adventure style guide to help women advocate for themselves in the doctor’s office, the workplace, and their own communities. Connect with Jennifer: Instagram | Substack | Buy the Book If you’re looking to unleash your potential, find your personal, professional, or political fire, and to connect with a community who is doing the same, click here to learn more. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit shannonwatts.substack.com/subscribe

  5. Sep 24

    Sarah Stankorb on why women are losing their religion

    Sarah Stankorb is the author of Disobedient Women, a USA Today national bestseller, and her reporting has appeared in The Washington Post, The New York Times, Vogue, Elle, Marie Claire, Slate, and VICE, among others. Her new book, Damned If She Does, looks at the millions of women who have quit American churches over the last several decades, tracing the threads that connect purity culture, politics, and the reasons faith stopped fitting for so many of them. Sarah talked about the years-long reporting process that led to the book, and how covering women who blew the whistle on abuse inside their own churches, many of them still faithful, shaped the questions she wanted to answer. We got into the cognitive dissonance so many women describe between being treated as equals in their professional lives and being told to submit at church, and the hypocrisy of religious leaders who forgive abuse within their own walls while shaming the women who experienced it. Sarah also shared what she found most surprising and most fun to report, the wide range of things women are turning to instead of organized religion, from women’s only gyms to a renewed interest in astrology and ancestral spiritual practices, and what she thinks it will actually take for churches to survive if they keep ignoring the fact that women no longer feel welcome there. Connect with Sarah: Website | Instagram | Substack | Buy the Book If you’re looking to unleash your potential, find your personal, professional, or political fire, and to connect with a community who is doing the same, click here to learn more. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit shannonwatts.substack.com/subscribe

  6. Sep 23

    Jessica Tarlov on winning arguments without losing friends

    Jessica Tarlov is a liberal co-host of The Five on FOX News, the most watched show in cable news, and a fixture on the network’s election night and breaking news coverage. She also co-hosts the podcast Raging Moderates with NYU professor Scott Galloway and previously worked as a Democratic pollster specializing in GenZ and Millennial trends, holding a PhD in political science from the London School of Economics. Her new book, I Disagree: Winning Arguments Without Losing Friends, is a how to guide for navigating modern conflict with confidence, data, and emotional maturity. Jessica opened up about imposter syndrome, something she says never fully goes away even after years of holding her own on live television, and why she chose to write about it so candidly in the book rather than suffer through it in silence. We talked about how to tell the difference between fair criticism and criticism that is really just sexism dressed up as feedback, and how being attacked on style rather than substance is usually a sign the other side cannot engage with your argument. Jessica also talked about what actually happens behind the scenes on set, how relationships with colleagues who see the world differently have changed the way she talks about issues like immigration and abortion, and why she believes staying in the conversation, even with people you disagree with, is less about capitulation and more about building the kind of coalitions the country needs to move forward. Connect with Jessica: Instagram | Substack | Buy the Book If you’re looking to unleash your potential, find your personal, professional, or political fire, and to connect with a community who is doing the same, click here to learn more. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit shannonwatts.substack.com/subscribe

  7. Sep 3

    Heidi Rose Robbins on learning how to ask

    Heidi Rose Robbins has been a professional astrologer for 25 years and is the author of Everyday Radiance: 365 Zodiac Inspired Prompts for Self Care and Self Renewal. She is a guest faculty member at Esalen in Big Sur and twice a year leads Radiant Life Retreats in Ojai for people wanting to go deeper into her work. Heidi has written several books of poetry, has been a featured poet at two TedX events, and has written a daily Moon Note about the astrology and poetry of the day on Instagram and Substack for the last eight years. She hosts The Radiance Project podcast and co hosts Chart Your Career with Ellen Fondiler. Her newest poetry collection, Ask Me, is out now. Heidi read from her new book and talked about what it means to say she has collected these poems rather than written them, gathering them over a lifetime rather than sitting down to produce a manuscript. This collection came together in the years after her father’s death, and she walked through how the book moves through five sections, beginning with departure and grief and ending in what she calls a downpour of grace and self compassion. We also talked about how twenty five years of reading cycles and seasons for other people did not make her own season of loss any easier to move through, and why she believes poetry, read aloud and shared with others, is still one of the most powerful tools we have for connection. Connect with Heidi: Website | Instagram | Substack | Buy the Book If you’re looking to unleash your potential, find your personal, professional, or political fire, and to connect with a community who is doing the same, click here to learn more. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit shannonwatts.substack.com/subscribe

  8. Sep 2

    Audrey Francis on learning to fail in public

    Audrey Francis is a Tony Award winning producer and the Artistic Director of Steppenwolf Theatre, where she has been an ensemble member since 2017. As part of the executive leadership team, she has played an integral role in the company’s post pandemic turnaround, producing five of the top ten best selling shows in Steppenwolf’s fifty year history. Audrey is also the co creator of Steppenwolf IMPACT, which brings Steppenwolf’s ensemble ethos into the corporate world, and the co-founder of Black Box Acting, where she built a curriculum rooted in the study of human behavior. She has worked on nearly twenty productions at Steppenwolf as an actor and director, and coaches performers and executives alike at companies like Amazon, HBO, and NBC. In this conversation, Audrey traced her winding path from aspiring film editor to Artistic Director, and how a teacher’s offhand advice sent her from Colorado to Chicago and into an ensemble built around treating art as a team sport. She talked candidly about learning to fail in public, why she built an entire school around the practice of taking risks and celebrating each other for trying, and how she redefined failure for herself as walking away from a situation without being honest or brave rather than simply losing a role. We also got into what it took to lead Steppenwolf through the pandemic, why she coaches executives to stop performing command and start showing up as themselves, and what it felt like to stand on the Tony Awards stage watching Purpose, a play she and her co-artistic director greenlit with only forty pages written, win Best Play. Connect with Audrey: Steppenwolf Theatre | Black Box Acting | Substack If you’re looking to unleash your potential, find your personal, professional, or political fire, and to connect with a community who is doing the same, click here to learn more. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit shannonwatts.substack.com/subscribe

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4.7
out of 5
25 Ratings

About

Firestarters is a podcast filled with inspiring interviews of women living audacious lives and encouraging others to do the same. shannonwatts.substack.com shannonwatts.substack.com

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