Morning Person Podcast Leslie Stephens

This podcast episode is a preview of “Issue #106: A Conversation with My Mom About Our Relationship and My Divorce.”
A couple weeks ago, when I was back home in Reno, I asked my mom, Tracy Fairhurst, if she would be open to sitting down to a recorded conversation. It was, on the surface, an interview for Morning Person, but it meant far more to both of us, given our history.
For years, my mom and I had a close, but tumultuous, relationship. When I was in high school, we fought endlessly and in my 20s, we went an entire year without talking. Even this year, we stopped speaking for several months. That most recent argument, which began in April and lasted until June, felt like a tipping point: We could go on this way forever, or we could change. Thankfully, we chose the latter and began to have openhearted conversations and be more aware of each others’ boundaries and sensitivities.
Mother-daughter relationships are some of the most complicated. I hope our honest conversation below provides you with some clarity toward your own or, at the very least, normalizes the fact that not every pair is Lorelai and Rory.
Thanks for listening! You can access the original issue here.


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This podcast episode is a companion to “Issue #95: Why I'm Still (Mostly) Sober After a Year of Not Drinking.”
Sarah Levyis the author of bestselling memoir Drinking Games and the newsletterSeltzer Rocks, where she documents her experience since getting sober nearly six years ago. In a recent conversation, we talked about her own experience with AA, collecting “sober references,” and why it’s so much easier to write vulnerably than reach out to a friend. We also fully fell down a manifestation rabbit hole.
Thanks for listening! You can access the original issue here.


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This podcast episode is a companion to “Issue #92: Healing Grief Through Food with Hetty McKinnon.”
Few people understand the healing qualities of food better than cookbook author Hetty McKinnon. All of her cookbooks are deeply personal and her latest, Tenderheart (out today), serves as an ode to her father, who she lost as a teenager, through vegetables.
When I spoke to her recently, she told me, “Food is the way I make sense of my life and the things I’ve experienced and seen and gone through.” Writing the recipes in this cookbook allowed her to consider the impact her father—who brought crates of fruits and vegetables home from his job—had on her, while celebrating his life and legacy. I spoke to Hetty about healing through food, the importance of chile oil, and how food can connect us to our cultures and each other.
Thanks for listening! This is one of my favorite issues ever and includes two of Hetty’s recipes—you can access the original here.


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This podcast episode is a companion to “Issue #90: How to Ignite and Foster Creativity When You're Busy AF.”
Betsy has been designing for fifteen years, creating both custom work and standalone collections while running her successful (and expanding!) Portland-based company Betsy & Iya alongside her husband, Will. When I met Betsy at her shop over coffee and brioche from St. Honore, we chatted straight through the hour we’d scheduled with the ease of old friends. We picked back up a week later—this time hitting “record”—to chat about how to foster creativity, put it to work, and how we each define a creative life.
Thanks for listening! You can access the original issue here.


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This podcast episode is a companion to “Issue #81: Should I Have Kids? Considering the Big Question.”
I recently spoke with Ruby Warrington, whose new book Women Without Kids explores the taboo, but increasingly popular, decision to not have children. With over 20 years of experience as a lifestyle journalist and editor, Ruby has a knack for being on the cusp of major societal shifts (she coined the term “sober curious” in 2018, which I covered here) and her latest book deftly explores the life-altering decision around becoming a mother—or not.
Thanks for listening! You can access the original issue here.


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This podcast episode is a companion to “Issue #58: No More Bad Dinner Parties.”
Coming together as a community has the potential to be the most important thing we do—gatherings are supposed to make us feel something, but the uninspiring dinner party I attended is far from an exceptional anecdote. It’s why Priya Parker starts off her book The Art of Gathering with the observation, “The way we gather matters. And yet most of us spend very little time thinking about the actual ways in which we gather.”
Last week, I spoke to Priya about how to do just that. We chatted about utilizing “generous authority,” how creating a guest list can be a cleansing ritual, and the importance of a purpose and “moment of focus.” I love what she shared, near the end, when I asked her about hosting my first dinner party in my studio apartment. You can listen to our full conversation here:
Two quick episode notes:
* The article Priya quotes in her book is “Chill is a Garbage Virtue” by Alana Massey.
* The memory expert Priya references is Ed Cooke.
Thanks for listening! You can access the original issue here.


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