Welcome to Shelter in Place // starter episodes
Wondering how to dive in to Shelter in Place? Episodes aren’t sequential; they generally center on either interviews or personal essay (memoir). Seasons two and three (weekly, average 30 min) have overarching themes, but each episodes covers a certain topics. Season one episodes were daily, and average 18 min each. These are a few that represent the range of the show:
Choose your own (audio) adventure: What if life could be an exciting quest — but for listening? Laura takes us behind the scenes and into the creative expedition that happens with every episode. (Rich sound design and just plain fun to make!)
Dancing saved my life: A bicultural dance story about leaving home to find it. (2022 W3 silver award winner, best scriptwriting.)
As you wish: Why is it that the people we love most don’t show that love in the way we need it? This powerful personal essay covers love languages, family history, and why sometimes love gets lost in translation.
Stuck on the staircase: How do we move from languishing to flourishing even when things are not okay? In this intimate memoir, Laura works through one of the themes for 2021: languishing.
Lost & Found revisited: what have you lost during the pandemic? What have you found? These questions took us from New York to New Mexico for a wide-ranging ensemble interview.
Embrace the process: Award-winning poet Teresa Miller on finding fulfillment in life and creativity.
Season 3 // May episodes
“The journey lasted so long that by the time we finally returned, the dock was different, and so were we. This isn’t just the story of the pandemic, but of this podcast and of my family.”
“I spent years and years in high school and college nannying and babysitting and taking care of little children. And I still felt leveled by this experience.”
Season 3 // April episodes
And my mother, she said, “you know, this writing thing is really frustrating you. I can see that. Maybe what you ought to do is take a break and try something else for a while.”
“How does your mother's influence show up in your life? Who are you because of your mother? What did or didn't you talk to your mother about?”
Relationships, parties, music, learned optimism, and more: life lessons from an eight-year-old, backed up by psychological research — and shocking yard work incident.
Relationships, parties, music, learned optimism, and more: life lessons from an eight-year-old, backed up by psychological research — and shocking yard work incident.
Season 3 // March episodes
As we close our month-long celebration of 2 years of Shelter in Place, we share some big news. And as we enter April, National Donate Life Month, we share a beautiful story from Laurel Morales of 2 Lives about asking for help when your life depends on it.
As we celebrate two years as a show approaching 200 episodes, it’s time for a little retrospective: we look back the good, the hard, and the peaceful, escaping not out of life, but into it.
On the two-year anniversary of our podcast and the Covid quarantine, we revisit some milestone episodes along the away (one day in, one month in, 100 episodes in), reflect on the past two years, and pick a word for the year ahead.
What if we could escape to a place where we had everything we needed, where there was no pain or hunger or loneliness? Pulitzer prize-winning author Anthony Doerr shows us how.
Ten years ago, our son Gabe was born by emergency C-section. Two years ago, we started quarantine on his birthday. Since then, he's learned a lot — and so have we. So in this birthday episode dedicated to Gabe, here are reflections (and life lessons) inspired by our son.
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Season 3 // February episodes
The Hamptons are the summer getaway spot for rich New Yorkers — and a hot spot for an ecological conflict that is also playing out across the country: deer overpopulation. In this four-part miniseries, Eve Bishop interviews everyone from hunters to animal rescuers, as she wrestles with how humans and animals should coexist.
Laura and Eve Bishop met a little over a year ago—but so much has changed since that it feels like a lifetime. They talk about the challenges and changes that have shaped them, what unifies their work, and why they’re still feeling hopeful even in this time of division.
This week, we’re doing something a little different. Something a little more playful. Something that can be summed up in one word: Mattéa. #memoir #parenting
Adriana Oyarzun was a child of two cultures, growing up both in Venezuela and Miami. In this conversation, she shares her story of finding home through dancing, art, and community—and the magic and fire she brings to every class at Making Waves studios.
Season 3 // January episodes
"We all have 2 lives. The second begins the moment we realize we have only one.” Laura talks with Laurel Morales about why she chose these words to define her podcast "2 Lives," how they’ve defined their own 2 Lives moments, and what they’ve learned from that journey.
Laura talks with The Pod Broads host Alexandra Cohl about burnout, they discuss the one question that they ask everyone they interview, and how the women they've never met are shaping them in 2022.
What can you learn about life when working with your spouse? In this chat between Laura and Nate, we dig into the value of conflict, letting go of ego, and the need for timers and taking breaks.
Go behind the scenes and into the audio expedition that happens every week at Shelter in Place, from initial idea to published episode. There are highs and lows, twists and turns, and finally, the discovery of what makes a story worth telling in the first place.
Season 3 // December episodes
In a productivity-obsessed culture, the emphasis is always on doing more . . . but what are we really hoping to accomplish with our to-do lists? Today, we hold productivity up to the light, and examine whether or not those pressures to be more productive are actually serving us.
If there is no one perfect partner, passion, or place to live, what should we do? As we look back on an eventful year, a three-part mindfulness practice from our 2nd-grader gives us a structure for our audio holiday card: creativity, community, and commitment.
When was the last time you felt the joy of movement? Andreina Febres came to the United States at age 21, with one simple mission: learn English. She made a home and a family in the Bay Area — but it took a pandemic to push her to her life's true calling.
What can the fractures in our identity and ancestry teach us about how to heal? 20-something podcaster Zahra and 76-year-old professor John Jefferson Davis come together in this exploration of their own ancestral fractures, and what telling that story can teach us about healing the fractures outside of us.
In each life stage, we’re asked what we do, or what we’re going to be—but what if the question became not what we do, but who we hope to become and how we bring everyday magic to life’s everyday pain? Today’s episode is an exploration of how beauty can save us when we need it most. #memoir #personalessay #interview
Season 3 // November episodes
What if the best age is one we haven’t gotten to yet? Earlier this season we looked at the ups and downs of aging from the decades we’re in: the 20’s, 30’s, and 40’s. Today we hear from family members in the decades ahead of us: 50’s through 90’s. Their reflections had a surprising amount in common. #memoir #aging #personalessay #interview
What if the best age is one we haven’t gotten to yet? Earlier this season we looked at the ups and downs of aging from the decades we’re in: the 20’s, 30’s, and 40’s. Today we hear from family members in the decades ahead of us: 50’s through 90’s. Their reflections had a surprising amount in common. #memoir #aging #personalessay #interview
Last spring, we explored why people actually get happier as they get older despite everything our culture tells us to the contrary. We’re delighted to return to those conversations that made us think differently about the ages we are now, and made us more hopeful about where we’re headed. #memoir #aging #personalessay
Why is it that the people we love most don’t show that love in the way we need it? Love languages, family history, and why sometimes love gets lost in translation. #memoir #parenting #lovelanguages
Season 3 // October episodes
Languishing has become a buzzword of 2021, a name for the “blah” feeling that has cast a gray light over so much of life. But as the months wear on, perhaps we need a term to capture the complexity of the very different ways that we are experiencing this time. #languishing #mentalhealth #memoir
What would life look like if we oriented our week not around work—but rest? In this episode, we explore our personal and societal need for rest, restoration, and delight—and how the light of Sabbath rest might be the missing ingredient we’ve all been longing for.. #sabbath #community #memoir #rest
How do you sleep when so much of life is unsettled? In this memoir episode, Laura Joyce Davis talks about her own coronasomnia, finds some tips from sleep experts — and most of all, the way forward through building a new creative community. #creativity #community #memoir #pandemiclife
What have you lost in the pandemic? What have you found? We asked these questions to people from New York to New Mexico. What they told us has given us a roadmap for finding our way home. #interview #memoir #ensemble
Season 3 // September episodes
How can we feel at home even when our world feels out of control? All of us long for joy, rest, beauty, and belonging—but finding our way there isn’t always simple or easy. #trailer #home #growth
Why create? This is the question we ask every time we make an episode, and the first one we post to the trainees in our podcast training program. It’s also one of the questions driving season 3 of Shelter in Place, which launches next week. . #creativity #poetry #writing
How can we feel at home even when our world feels out of control? All of us long for joy, rest, beauty, and belonging—but finding our way there isn’t always simple or easy. #trailer #home #growth
Season 2 // bonus episodes
Narrative Podcasts workshops
What’s a narrative podcast? Our definition is 1) telling a story, 2) working from a script, and 3) creating an immersive soundscape. Our spring workshop series will give you the key skills you need to for each of these three essential elements.
Each two-hour Saturday session features insider insights from our award-winning shows, tutorials, examples, live exercises, feedback, and Q & A. You’ll finish each workshop with real practice, increased confidence, additional resources, and inspiration from committed peers. Learn more.
Season 2 // May episodes
How can breaking bread--or injera--together make a place home? Last year was the year of the sourdough starter. Today we reflect on how food gives us comfort and community when we need it most. #food #community #culture #cooking
In the face of physical decline, how is “acceptance” not just “resignation” dressed up in zen clothing? After an injury forced him to step back from the sports that helped him feel young, Nate Davis started to reckon with his own aging--and explore how other people feel about their age. #aging #memoir #growth
What if life’s biggest tragedy could also be life’s greatest blessing? When lifelong ski patrol and EMT instructor Posie Mansfield lost her leg a month after she lost her husband, it seemed like everything she loved had been taken away from her. A decade later, she tells us why that loss is the greatest gift of her life. #interview #amputee #faith
Season 2 // April episodes
In this episode we reflect on some of our own experiences of death, and get some fresh perspective from Sarah Chavez. She pulls back the shroud on the modern funeral industry, points out how social issues can also affect the dead, and suggests better ways for us all to engage with this natural part of life.
When we face mental health struggles, who will help us find our way out? Laura and Shelter in Place apprentice Winnie Shi talk about depression, the secrets they’ve kept hidden, and how they found light in the darkest of times.
#mentalhealth #depression #memoir
What does civic engagement look like when you can't get together? Laura talks to activist Mila Atmos, discussing how creating podcasts in a pandemic has shaped them, why they feel compelled to grapple with tough issues, and why they still hold on to hope. #womenpodcast #femalehost #interviewpodcast
How do we get the right information without falling down the rabbit hole of misinformation? In our final installment of our series on vaccine hesitancy, we look at misinformation—why it happens, who we can trust, and how we can avoid being duped ourselves.
#Vaccine #COVIDvaccine #interviewpodcast
Enough of the serious, heartfelt, and thoughtful. It’s time for something . . . a little fuzzier!. #Memoir #wombats #animals
What's in a name? We reflect on some timely questions: where do I belong? And what does it mean to be American? Melissa shares snapshots from her multi-cultural upbringing, and how recently learning her Chinese name helped her begin to reclaim a piece of her hyphenated identity. #Memoir #Culture #Racism #Immigration
Season 2 // March episodes
How can we make space for concerns about the vaccine and grapple with a difficult history? Dr. Joyce Sanchez says that the most important thing she can do when addressing vaccine hesitancy is to shut up and listen.
#Vaccine #COVIDvaccine #interviewpodcast #femalehost #womenpodcast #soothingvoice
What story will we tell when we look back on this pandemic year? On the one-year anniversary of Shelter in Place, we reflect on what we’ve learned, what’s ahead, and what two imaginary infants can teach us about creating a better normal. #COVIDversary
Once upon a time, it was unthinkable to turn away a stranger in need. Today, Sarai Waters talks about being homeless, and brings to light a sector of society in need of hospitality.
“I got the vaccine. My fear is not gone. But I don't lie awake at night anymore worrying about dying alone in my apartment. I would choose that any day over the risk of getting COVID.”
Season 2 // February episodes
“We live in community with others, and then something happens and there’s conflict. Sometimes that conflict feels impossible. Sometimes it exposes wounds that were there all along, but that we either weren’t aware of or had been able to ignore.”
“What his work has shown again and again is that being lonely is just as bad for your health as smoking.”
What if when it comes to love, we got it wrong? In this episode, Laura (with the help of some friends and experts) delves into her personal history with romance and relationships, concluding that just maybe, we need a little bit more.
“Have you ever thought about letting this writing thing go?” My dad said after a long time. “Just saying that you’ve given it a good run and now it’s time to try something else?” In that question was everything that plagued me.
Season 2 // January episodes
“I think it's an issue of narrative--especially the origin story of the United States. What if the true origins of this nation were in 1619 (rooted in slavery) rather than 1776 and rebellion against an oppressive British government?”
“I don't think I understood the extent of systemic racism. I think it's very easy to ignore unless it affects you personally. We aren't telling the truth in our history. And so how can you understand it?”
40 sound effects, 30 voices, 12 virtual rooms, and 6 musical guests: this virtual party episode celebrates what Shelter in Place has meant to all of us in 2020, and what we hope for 2021.
“The podcast has helped me realize it’s ok to cry, to be scared, but also to take risks and ask for help.”
— pamvatu on iTunes. Enjoying the show? Leave your review (On your phone, scroll down below episodes, then to “Write a Review”). Thank you!
Season 2 // December episodes
Lifelong love, memory, and the things that stay with us. To start the holidays, we're mixing it up this week with a little audio drama, a reading of a short story based on the grandparents we heard about in episode 13.
What is the most important stuff we have to go through isn't stuff at all? Before the holidays, Laura takes us to an empty house in Nebraska, where the most important things she found weren't in the boxes she unpacked, but the legacy left behind.
“If I had the choice between all those things, or feeling the high of loving the work that I'm doing, I would pick loving my work. I'd pick that high first, because if you don't have that, then you just have a job.”
“What I was not prepared for was how Zoom classes would turn my kids into forgetful, lethargic grouches. I have lots to say about the challenges of distance learning, but the truth is our school troubles predate the pandemic.”
Season 2 // November episodes
Season 2 // October episodes
Can our friendships withstand the increasing demands of the pandemic? When a heatwave, wildfires, and a positive COVID test come all at once, Laura and her family finally consider leaving their home in search of safer harbors. In a continuation from the previous episode, scarcity experts Caroline Roux and Kelly Goldsmith help us understand why friendships in times of scarcity can be so hard.
Wondering how we make the podcast? You can learn.
Season 1 // August episodes
Season 1 // July episodes
Some couples fight about how to load the dishwasher. Some couples fight about money. We fight about . . . hair.
While Shelter in Place is on break, we're re-releasing some of our favorite episodes. Today's is a combination of two (48 & 76), when we interviewed infectious disease specialist Dr. Joyce Sanchez, and epidemiologist Dr. José Luis Sanchez.
At the end of season one, after 100 episodes, it was time to meet with Shelter in Place HR. Here’s how that meeting went.
In this penultimate episode of Shelter in Place season one, I share insights from two scholars, as well as the things that have mattered most on the journey of letting go of the success I thought I had to have.
“A glimpse into often-forgotten lives that have potent resonance for today’s activists, rebels, teachers, and dreamers.”
“Everybody is feeling and doing and living just as intensely as the next person, you know, and we need to have an equal level of compassion for each other and what we're grappling with.”
Season 1 // June episodes
“We have to confront the history of what our country is and what it's based upon.”
Award-winning poet Roxane Beth Johnson shares poems to help us remember the music of life, and talks about how this time has taught her to to live a quieter life and find hope in the small moments.
Season 1 // May episodes
Some couples fight about money. Or parenting. Or the right way to load the dishwasher. We fight about those things sometimes, too. But the recurring fight that defined our marriage for at least a decade? Hair.
“I’m concerned that each time one of these situations arises and I don’t address it with my kids, I’m teaching them it doesn’t matter. Or that I don’t care. Or that silence in the face of injustice is acceptable.”
“I don’t remember if I got an apology, but in that moment I felt diminished. Had it been a white athlete, would they be under question?”
Season 1 // April episodes
Season 1 // March episodes
“He sits next to me, rubbing his hands against his slacks like he doesn’t know what to do with them. They’ve been restless ever since we left the farm.”
“Even if you don’t tend toward paranoia, it’s easy to succumb to the panic of the moment right now.”
“You will have to choose
for yourself
whether you will attend
to the signs,…”
“But maybe I’m thinking about it all wrong. Maybe the answer isn’t to figure out how to work more so we can sustain our current way of living. Maybe the answer is actually to need less.”
“Podcasts today are what letters used to be. They give us a way to share our deepest selves, but they also capture the moment in history that we’re living in.”