Write About Now Jonathan Small

Catherine Coldstream shares the extraordinary tale of joining an ancient and secretive Carmelite monastery in the UK, surrendering completely to a life of poverty, chastity, and obedience. But years into leading this sheltered and isolated life of a silent nun, she started to realize the complexities and dangers of the life she vowed to live. Her experience is captured beautifully in a new memoir called Cloistered: My Years as a Nun. She joins host Jonathan Small to talk about why she gave up her  carefree, bohemian life to become a cloistered nun, what life was like inside the monastery, her views on celibacy and isolation from the outside world, and the similarities between her experience and those of cult members. 
I have a new book coming out and would love for you to be part of my Book Launch Squad. Sign up @ https://bit.ly/3vD4s0B 

Hip hop recently celebrated its 50th anniversary. What started off as an underground movement in the 1970s has blossomed into a global phenomenon with no end in sight. How has hip hop managed to not stop after all these years? Why were those who kept calling it a fad so completely wrong? Guest Todd Boyd has curated a comprehensive book called Rappers Deluxe: How Hip Hop Made the World that chronicles hip hop's defining moments each decade. Using photographs, movie posters, fine art, album covers, film and sports stills, he paints an often misunderstood  portrait of hip hop's influences. Even the word hip hop is often thought to denote the music, but as Boyd describes it, the culture encapsulates much more.  Listen to this sonic journey into hip hop's origins. 

Veteran journalist Abby Ellin almost married a pathological liar and convicted criminal, but luckily, her reporter's instincts for the truth kicked in, and she averted disaster. Her crazy story is chronicled in her book Duped and podcast Imposters: The Commander. On the show, she talks about falling for the con, discovering the truth, and what the experience taught her about those who deceive. 
Subscribe to my newsletter Small Talk @ https://jonathan856.substack.com

Only a few months in, and it's already a bleak year for the media. Journalists lost 500 jobs in January alone, with mass layoffs at the LA Times, Business Insider, Sports Illustrated, and others. I lost my own job at Entrepreneur after working there for five years. But according to my guest Chandra Turner, where one door may be closing, others are swinging wide open. Chandra founded The Talent Fairy, a recruiting agency that places journalists in editorial, brand publishing, and content marketing positions. She sees a bright and lucrative future in content marketing and rejects the belief that these jobs are sellouts. On the pod, she talks about her own career trajectory from magazines editor to job fairy, who's hiring in 2024, and what skills they desire. 
Subscribe to my newsletter @ https://jonathan856.substack.com/
Watch the interview @ https://bit.ly/WriteAboutNowYouTube
 

In the fall of 2020, a Canadian farmer named Helen Naslund was sentenced to 18 years in prison for killing her violently abusive husband. That case and the lengthy sentence she received sparked tremendous outrage around Canada, exposing serious issues with how the justice system in that country treats abused women. Guest true crime journalist Jana Pruden spoke to Naslund through multiple interviews and letters from prison. It was the first time Helen opened up publicly about what happened that fateful night and everything that came after. Pruden shares this story of unspeakable violence and a woman's fight for her freedom in the critically-acclaimed podcast, In Her Defence.  
Read her Globe & Mail story here. 
Subscribe to the Small Talk substack

Kristin Hannah is among the most successful American novelists working today. Her books focus on unsung heroines throughout history. Her new novel, The Women, focuses on Army Nurses during the Vietnam War. The pageturner is at once an intimate portrait of a young woman coming of age in a hellish war zone and an epic tale of an American divided during an unpopular war. Hannah talks about the process of writing the book, what she's learned about storytelling as the author of over 20 novels, and how she deals with the fear of failure. 
Write About Now listeners are invited to take an online masterclass with host Jonathan Small called Proven Formulas for Writing Stories that Sell on Feb 18 at 1 pm ET. Experienced and first-time writers can sign up @ https://pandemicuniversity.com/product/articles-that-sell/