This episode starts starts with an encounter that has me sitting outside a coffee shop on the Upper East Side, age 21, when a purported mystic who can see the future approaches. "You're going to be a big star," she extolls. I smile kindly, rolling my eyes so as to play it cool, deep down wondering if she is right -- and kind of believing she is. Fast forward seven years and I am met with a question: Would I have developed the courage, gumption, fervor to chase my dreams had she not given me...

Gucci commissioned 15 artists to create a series of pieces with images and copy that tell a story about the fragrance. Leandra chatted with three of them — Emma Allegretti, Joy Miessi and Amber Vittoria — about their process for a podcast episode which means [sweetly scented drumroll please]…Monocycle hath returned!!!!!! In partnership with Gucci.

When I was nine years old, my dad told me that everyone has an interesting story if you are willing to listen to it. Over the past month, I have really enjoyed treating Monocycle like a bicycle, listening to the stories of particularly interesting people, some more public than others, and getting into the thick of what it means to be a person in the world, whether in the context of being a woman, owning your vanity or experiencing grief. But for old times' sake (and because sometimes talking...

Bozoma Saint John wears her flair on her sleeve: beads, rhinestones, gold accents; you name it, she's got it. As for the clothes, there is no color too bold, print too loud or silhouette too challenging for Uber's Chief Brand Officer to try. On traditional executive uniforms, she asks with genuine wonder in her voice, "Who made these rules, and why do we listen to them?" But there's more to Bozoma Saint John than the impressive way in which she carries herself, the seemingly effortless...

In this week’s episode of Monocycle, unofficially called Bicycle every time I have an interview subject, Karla Welch — celebrity stylist to the likes of Ruth Negga, Karlie Kloss, Justin Bieber, Olivia Wilde, Tracee Ellis Ross and so on and so forth — shares a number of important facts that are as revealing as they are sentimental. At one point, when I try to prod on how she manages burn out, she rejects my assertion that everyone experiences burn out, proclaims perennial gratefulness for her...

This week's episode of Monocycle is more like an episode of Bicycle because there are two stakeholders (wheels?) present in the conversation: myself and Lena Dunham. When I set out to interview her, I had a fairly strong sense of what we might talk about, like the evolution of Lenny Letter, life after Girls, New York vs. Los Angeles. What unfolded was a genuinely organic conversation about life, failing and succeeding and how similar they are, self esteem, family and love. While listening...

This month's theme on Man Repeller is family, which is so all-encompassing it can seem overwhelming. Where do you start with a family dynamic? Where do you begin with the complicated relationships that engulf the word's meaning? Are we even talking about the biological literals of a "family?" If we're not, what constitutes a family? If we are, why are we doing that? Our theme of the month announcement was met with some very intelligent content recommendations from you (the community!), which...

Welcome back to Fridays with Monocycle. Today's episode is about purpose. I've talked about purpose before, but this time it's different. This time it's about how to identify it, why it's important, how you know when you've lost it and how to nurture it when it's back. I tried something different for this episode and wrote it out before I spoke it, so if I sound like I'm reading off a teleprompter, that's because I am. Can't wait to hear what you think!

INQUIRING MINDS WANT TO KNOW! Are we capable of change, or what? Is it terrible if we don't -- can't -- change? What if the expectations were to learn how to better manage the qualities we dislike in ourselves instead of to do away with them completely? Would we feel more whole as individuals, knowing that we're not supposed to do 180s, and that on the contrary, we just have to be who we are? In this week's episode of Monocycle, I take you on a psychological trip (which is different from a...

Helloooooooooo ladies and gentlemen of the jury! How are you doing? How has your week been? Your month? Your quarter? Your whole damn year? Mine has been weird, which doesn't say much because I have concluded that weird is the least effective adjective one can use as an illuminating descriptor in the entire dictionary. It can mean anything, good or bad. How does this ice cream taste? "Weird." How are you feeling? "Weird." Do you see how by answering these questions I'm not answering them at...

You're probably wondering about what my ideal outfit is, right? But you would only know why I'm asking this question if you have started listening to the episode already. Before I continue forward with this intro, let me just explain said outfit: this kimono, these shorts, these shoes. Dress like a lady of leisure, but don't actually be one. That's my mantra for the summer of 2017. Glad that's out of the way! Now that we are engaged to be married, let me continue on topic: this week's...

There was an article that ran in The New Yorker a couple of weeks ago called "The Personal Essay Boom is Over." In it, writer Jia Tolentino reflected on the writing genre's heyday -- citing sites that no longer exist, like xoJane and Gawker as having heralded the uncomfortably intimate or conversely curiously insignificant style of storytelling. The headline alone, of course, scared the s**t out of me given that I don't think I even know how to have a thought about a third-party without...

Have you started listening to this week’s episode of Monocycle yet? I’m listening to it now as I write this intro and want to ask that you disregard the way I’m inflecting in the first 20 or so seconds of the episode. I don’t know why my voice is doing that thing! I sound so phony. Baloney. But maybe that is exactly apropos given this week’s topic: ~identity~ (I know, when is it ever not about identity, right?). But the thing I keep coming back to as I listen and remember how I was feeling...

Ask and ye shall receive! Following a special episode of The Chatroom with Drew Barrymore, which went live a few weeks ago after months and months of toiling with the expansive range of topics that were covered during our conversation in December, the longer-form podcast episode is here for your ear (plugs). If I'm being really honest, sitting down with Drew following a particularly tumultuous month was like Xanax for my soul -- there is an undeniable warmth about the way in which she looks...

It sounds scary as hell because when nothing is new, nothing is changing either, and when nothing is changing, you're stuck. And being stuck is painful. But I see the metaphor like this: I've been clutching a wall near the bottom of an emotional pit called rock-bottom for the past four months and have been trying so hard to crawl out when what I really need to do is just let myself fall, chill down there for a minute, and then, once I've relaxed, start trying to get out. Or something like...