Leslie Stephens is the writer behind Morning Person, a top 10 Substack newsletter that chronicles her life in Portland, Oregon. In August last year, shortly after her 30th birthday, Leslie announced to her readers that she was separating from her husband. Over the past 18 months, she’s chronicled her journey of living by herself for the first time, including her recent solo house purchase – which we chat about in this episode. She also shares her advice – as a former food and lifestyle editor – of establishing a home by yourself, and – crucially – for yourself, rather than designing around the absence of someone else. Whether or not you’re already familiar with Leslie’s work, this conversation is full of gems for any kind of solo living – I hope you get as much from it as I did. Thank you to our season sponsor Sensate, a palm-sized infrasonic stress and anti-anxiety device. Visit getsensate.com/alonement for 10% off your first device. This season of Alonement was edited by Pineapple Audio Production. Chapters 00:00 Introduction 01:00 Learning to Make a Home for One 02:25 Designing a Home as a Solo Liver 05:22 The Challenges and Mistakes of Designing Alone 06:47 Designing with a Partner vs Designing Alone 10:59 The Lack of Resources for Solo Living 11:55 Creating Content for Solo Living 13:17 Making Changes in a Solo Living Space 14:44 The Importance of Solitude in Designing a Home 19:44 The Lack of Resources for Designing a First Home Alone 21:08 Building a New Relationship with a Parent 22:32 Navigating the Grey Areas of Life 25:16 Coping with Weekends and Sundays Alone 27:07 Finding Joy in Cooking for One 32:29 Creating Recipes and Experimenting with Cooking Alone 38:11 The Inspiration Behind the Novel 'You're Safe Here' 46:26 Maintaining Solitude in a Relationship 47:45 The Ultimate Alonement: Movement and Stillness 10:00 The Importance of Self-Awareness 20:00 The Role of External Validation 30:00 Navigating Comparison and Social Media 40:00 The Impact of Internal Dialogue 48:40 Conclusion With a one-off payment of £5, you can listen to the Alonement podcast ad-free. https://plus.acast.com/s/alonement. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.