Season 3, episode 34 transcript:
Feels like home
Thursday, May 12, 2022
Episode description: It’s time to step out of the pandemic shadow. After 200 episodes and more than 2 years, we celebrate the journey that has led us from us to you, through the voices in our Shelter in Place neighborhood. Plus, we share our new name, and where we’re headed next.
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Transcript:
Laura: This is Shelter in Place, a podcast about reimagining life through creativity and community. Coming to you from Oakland California, I’m Laura Joyce Davis.
Laura: The story that we will tell our children—and our children’s children—about this time will begin something like this: Once upon a time, life was anchored but restless, with no real indication that anything would ever change. Until one day everything did change in a way that no one could have predicted, and so we adapted as fast as we could. Often that adaptation was hard. Sometimes it was downright miserable. But every once in a while it was also wonderful. It pushed us to become people we had not previously had the courage to be. It taught us how to forgive ourselves for being something other than what we thought we were. It set us out on a journey that would challenge and change us like nothing before, that would bring us to people we never would have met otherwise, people who would make our world bigger, and also smaller. 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. It’s the narrative arc that has taken us from that first day of the pandemic to where we are today, our 200th—and final—episode of Shelter in Place.
If you’re new here, welcome. We hope that you’ll enjoy exploring these episodes for months or even years to come. You can always jump in anywhere, but this episode actually isn’t a bad place to start, because it’ll give you the map of where we’ve been, and introduce you to the Shelter in Place neighborhood.
For those of you who have been with us from the beginning, and who have joined us along the way, this episode is for you most of all. You have been our companions on this long and winding journey that we could not have known to dream up. We made it here now, to 200 episodes, because of you. More times than I can count you’ve reached out to deliver some essential encouragement when I was ready to give up. From the very beginning, this podcast has been for you.
For the last month or so we’ve been collecting voice memos, responses to the question of what this podcast has meant to you. Listening to your voices as I’ve created this episode has been like being surrounded by very good friends. It’s reminded me of how much goodness there has been these past 27 months, how even in the worst times, we were never really alone.
So today, we’re closing this leg of the journey by celebrating you, the voices in our Shelter in Place neighborhood. We’ll take you on a condensed version of the journey we’ve all been on together for the past 199 episodes—including our new name and where we’re heading next,.
The voice memos that came together to create this episode came from all over the globe, and most of them were recorded on smartphones in the quietest place people could find—everywhere from parked cars and bedroom closets to beaches and echoey bathrooms. The sound quality of these clips is a lot like this journey; sometimes things come out crisp and clear, just like we planned. Other times we just have to do the best with what we’ve got and see the imperfections and adaptations as part of the story. I hope in all of them you’ll hear the warmth and welcome that we’ve tried to offer in each and every episode.
Our story begins on March 16, 2020, when the phrase “Shelter in Place” was still new to our ears. By noon on March 17, this Shelter in Place was born.{Front bumper}
Here’s what some of you had to say about those early season 1 episodes.
Lin Chin: Hi, I'm Lin and I'm a huge fan of Shelter in Place. When the pandemic hit, I remember everything was so overwhelming. Like we all thought that it was going to last a couple of weeks and then our kids would go back to school. And then the days dragged on and on, and weeks became months became a year. And during that time, even though we should have felt really lucky—that we could work from home and our kids had great teachers even by Zoom, and amazingly, no one in our family got sick with COVID—it was still really overwhelming to try to homeschool two kids in different grades while working full-time. The days lasted forever, and a lot of times they were miserable. We were isolated, and we ended up fighting and not knowing how to juggle school and work at the same time.
So I would turn on Shelter in Place while I was taking a shower, which were like the only 15 minutes in the day that I felt like I had to myself. And it was always like coming home. It felt like having a glass of wine and reading a great book, but also going on a walk and talking to a trusted friend—all at the same time in 15 minutes, which was all that I had to spare. And a lot of times I was just so grateful to hear Laura's voice and her vulnerability in talking about her and her family's own experience during this totally crazy, unbelievable time. It was like being able to have a conversation and be in dialogue about all of the daily challenges, but not having any obligation to keep up my side of the conversation. I think that's one of the magical things about Shelter in Place is that it feels like a heart to heart—but Laura is doing all of the work.
Molly: My name is Molly Joyce. I can't believe I'm doing this because I have not even been able to work up the courage to set up my greeting on my voicemail, so we'll see how this goes. Shelter in Place has meant a lot to me over the past couple of years. I have such good memories of listening to it in the beginning of the pandemic when everything was so scary and we had so much time and we were just minute by minute, hour by hour, not really knowing what to do with ourselves.
I lived in Nashville at the time, and I would just head out the door and start wandering around the streets of Nashville aimlessly, but listening to Shelter in Place and hearing such wonderful stories about people from all over. Sometimes I would go out for my walk and I would read the title and I'd be like, oh, I don't know if I want to listen to that. I want to listen to the one I listened to yesterday because it was so good. And then I would start listening and it would be just as good and just as profound and just as full of wisdom and things to reflect on.
I've noticed that I've been able to apply a lot of the things that Laura talks about to my own life and my own career, which is healthcare. The same lessons that she talks about I can apply to my life and my work.
I've loved Shelter in Place. I've loved the guests. I love their reflections on life and what they've learned and what they've been through. And I love Laura's reflections. It's just been really insightful and really warm and comforting. Even when the topics are a little bit hard to digest, it's still comforting, because everyone's just processing life, and the challenges and the joys. I love Shelter and Place, and I'll always remember those walks through Nashville and how nice it was to have company. It felt like company.
Laura: I began Shelter in Place as a daily podcast six days a week, a way to get myself through those early days of lockdown. I didn’t really think much about where I was headed, because I figured we’d go back to regular life in a couple of weeks.
The original idea was to write a short personal essay that told the story of whatever I was going through that day. After twenty years of being peralyzed by perfectionism in my short stories and novels, I’d let good enough be good enough. I’d write a single draft, record it in a single take, and press publish. I figured that the whole thing would take me about an hour.
{HA!}
We can all laugh at this now. My “little” project grew and grew, until by the time my husband Nate got laid off from his job a few weeks in and we were all beginning to realize that we might be living this way for a very long time, I was starting work at 5 a.m. and not finishing until noon or later.
But something else had happened during those early weeks. The daily episodes were engaging questions that we’d previously been too afraid or too busy to ask. After years of nonstop parenting and too little time to connect, Nate and I were having conversations every single day about the before times, realizing that there were deep problems both in our own lives and in the world around us, and we didn’t want to go back. For the first time, we had the courage to imagine what life could be. It was a conversation that people all over the world were having, in different ways, as we collectively groaned over the way things were, and longed for a better way to be.
So I started reaching out to people I knew, other writers and creators who were asking those questions too. Here are a few of those early guests.
Nina LaCour: This is Nina LaCour. I am a long time listener of Shelter in Place and one of the early guests. I was in awe of Laura and Nate and their family and the way they dove into this project right at the start of the Shelter in Place orders in the Bay Area, and how their adventure has developed from there and evolved. I have loved watching the show as it too has evolved and turned into something so wide ranging and inspiring and meticulously made, and I can't wait to see what you all do next. Congratulations on everything that you have accomplished so far.
Rosemerry: I remember when Laura interviewed me in May, I think, of 2020. And I thought to myself when it was done, Oh my gosh. She really gets me. It was a sweet and a remarkable feeling. We'd been talking mostly about how the pandemic changes things about parenting, about how art has saved my life, and it was such a beautiful honor to be in conversation about these things that mean so much to me. I have loved what has happened with Shelter in Place and how essential it was for helping us make meaning out of our lives in a very difficult, strange time.
Roxane Beth Johnson: This is Roxanne Beth Johnson. I was a guest for the episode “Blues For Almost Forgotten Music.” Shelter in Place was a place where I could come to hear incredible writing that was done so fast and turned around so quickly. Just hearing these wonderful stories is what made Shelter in Place important to me. I loved being a part of it. I was an early guest. It felt like an honor, especially considering all of the guests that were on the podcast over time.
My favorite episode was probably Nate’s “the butt” episode of the buttock injury. I'm sure it's not called “the butt injury,” but I love that episode. I love the dry humor. And that episode, like so many others, just nailed what it's like to be alive, what it was like to be alive during the pandemic, and how we all figured out ways to cope and to be thoughtful about our lives and to make changes—or not. And I’m looking forward to the next chapter.
Laura: The voices you just heard were from the award-winning authors Nina LaCour, Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer, and Roxane Beth Johnson. We’ll include links in the show notes to the episodes that feature them, and also to the episodes they mentioned, including “the butt episode,” which was a season 2 episode called “A Good Age.”
Those early episodes also included people I knew who were reimagining life in other industries, who could help us see the world around us better.
Laura Park Figueroa: My name is Laura Park Figueroa. I am a nature-based pediatric occupational therapist and a business coach for therapists who want to take their work outdoors with kids.
Shelter in Place, for me, has been a beacon of hope and light and happiness and reflection during a long period of darkness and hardship and feeling overwhelmed. When I took time to listen to Shelter in Place, I was often out on a hike, and listening to my dear friend Laura's voice in my ear just brought me some buoyancy in a time when life felt really heavy.
It's kind of bittersweet that it's ending, but I know that what Laura and Nate and their team are doing—what they are creating in the world—is just an example of how the things that we've lived through in the last few years do have moments of joy and have birthd things of beauty. Shelter in Place has given me that (ability to) see the beauty in the brokenness. And I think that is one of the goals that they had for the podcast, was to really help us explore that concept of seeing beauty and brokenness and embracing it all.
Jennifer Sheedy: A Shelter in Place hallmark, in my opinion, is authenticity. Authenticity is a rare thing in this world. I know Laura pretty well—have known her for a while—and she brings her authentic self to authentic conversations, and immediately there is depth, rawness, emotion, and real wrestling that just is not allowed in our culture. It's just this tendency to feel like you have to have all the answers all the time and to present well all the time and to avoid the hard things. But this podcast—and Laura herself as a human—is fully committed to authenticity, and so I just really value that authenticity that the podcast brings.
Laura: That was Jen Sheedy, who we featured in our Enneagram series in the episode “The Challenger.”
What began as a two-week passion project continued week after week even as my family and our world kept unraveling. If I had known everything that would follow, I probably would have given up. But since I didn’t know what was coming, I just kept going.
Those daily episodes gave me something to show up for in a time when nothing else felt certain. They made me feel connected to community even though we weren’t seeing anyone. Often, I’d hear from one of you right when I was ready to quit, and that encouragement was the thing that kept me going.
A few months in, when it was clear that the job market wasn’t picking up, Nate started working with me between applying for jobs. He built us a website. My podcast became our podcast.
I hadn’t realized when I started a podcast that I was becoming an entrepreneur with a startup, but working with Nate, who’d worked for several startups before that, I began to see it that way. We got advice from every entrepreneur and business owner we knew, and I started meeting other people in the podcast industry, not just to learn how they made a living, but to find connection in a time when it was hard to come by.
It was through those conversations that I learned that the podcast industry is a warm and welcoming one. The audio professionals I met were open-handed and helpful. Some of them became friends.
Katie Semro: Hey, Laura, it's Katie Semro here from Transmission Times and Mother Mine and the upcoming ‘Til It's Gone.
Shelter in Place has been fantastic. It was wonderful to hear your stories of what you were going through, and I loved having that connection to what was going on for you. And it was sometimes very similar to what was going on for me. But most importantly, I really loved meeting you and feeling like we were in this together, that we are on this journey of figuring out audio and making audio and trying to make a career out of it.
We met through our shows, both doing pandemic shows. Besides being probably really the first audio person I met, we also have met in person, which was just amazing. I really have great memories of that moment when you came to my house in Maine, and will always be glad that we actually got to meet in real life. It has been fantastic to know you and Nate, and to collaborate with you and have your support. I know that you always have my back if I need something, and that has meant so much to me, to know that we're still on this journey together. We're still figuring it out. And it's been wonderful.
Elaine Grant: Hi, Laura, it's Elaine Grant at Podcast Allies. And I've been sitting on this question of what Shelter in Place has meant to me. And it has meant a lot. I think I was one of your earliest listeners after I met you in LADIO, which is an audio listserv for podcasters and for radio makers.
I have always thought that personal stories are the way in to make people care about the issues. And you have done that so, so beautifully. I remember one particular episode—I think it was about Black Lives Matter protests and taking your kids there. And you wove in this personal story about your young children and the protest and the sensory details, and then you brought it back to the issue in such a seamless way that I was in wonder. I remember being out in my garden, listening to this and thinking, how did she do that? That was just incredible. I think that you've done that very well throughout the season and mixed in so much personal story, and your wonderful and difficult Odyssey across the country and back again. I have admired your bravery to say when you don't think you've been the world's best mother, or you've had difficult times at home. I think that takes so much courage. And I have learned courage from listening to you and from knowing you—and of course when you came to Denver, and we had a four-hour lunch because both of us love to talk about storytelling and we can't stop.
Shelter in Place has meant a lot of learning for me, a lot of enjoyment, admiration, learning from a fiction writer doing podcasts as opposed to the journalist that I am. And especially your generosity of spirit and friendship. It's been a very important part of my podcasting life and my friendship life over the last couple of years. Thank you for all your hard work. I cannot wait to see what you do next.
Laura: Four months after I started, we hit 100 episodes. In that time I’d interviewed 50 people and learned how to edit audio. The imposter syndrome that had plagued me for twenty years as a fiction writer had melted away in the daily practice of writing and releasing. After years of self-doubt and rejection, I was finally able to see even the failures as part of the story. For the first time in a long time, I saw myself clearly.
But I was also very, very tired. Writing those episodes had taken me longer and longer with each day that passed. The well hadn’t run dry, but I knew it would if I kept going at that pace. Some days, I didn’t have anything to say. Some days what I wanted most of all was to listen.
Because while my family and I were changing, our world was changing too. It was time for the podcast to change with it.
Annie: During those first days in the pandemic when life had changed so suddenly, Shelter in Place was like a lifeline. Laura put into words what I was experiencing in a way that really helped me to process what was happening to me and my family and to the world. It was like therapy. Being able to go to Shelter in Place was like going to my therapist and being able to just put words to the experience that I was having, to validate the feelings I was feeling, to explain the experience I was going through. And then subsequent seasons things really shifted. And it was fascinating as other voices came in, voices that challenged the way that I saw the world and thought about things. It was almost like when life turned and I was ready, that's when Shelter in Place changed as well to bring in those other voices. And during a time when the world feels so polarized, it's refreshing to have a place where people can come together and see each other's humanity rather than focusing on all the ways that we're different.
Katie: I first started listening to the Shelter in Place podcast when our friends Laura and Nate Davis began in March of 2020. They created a way to capture everyday moments in such a surreal time. I continued to listen as they did stories and perspectives that brought to the forefront just the real human experience. But what kept bringing me back over the months and now years was the fascinating variety of stories that were being told—some about their real life adventures, but many of the stories about people from very different walks of life who are sharing their struggles, their creativity, breakthroughs, connection with community, and touched on so many aspects of the human spirit. I found I needed that so much more during such an isolating time. Everyone has a story to be told.
One thing I've learned from this podcast is to hear from people different than ourselves, to really make space to listen, to ask questions, and to really recognize the people right here in my world. Thanks, Laura and Nate, for continuing to tell your stories and those of others and letting us be on this wild and wonderful ride with you.
Laura: The first change we made was to release episodes weekly instead of daily. But there were also big changes behind the scenes. The week we hit a hundred episodes our Oakland public school announced that when our kids returned to school the second week of August, it would be online.
While we were learning how to build a business, we were also trying to keep our family from falling apart. Money was always tight. Our kids were 8, 6, and 3 at the time. Someone was always crying or fighting. Often it was us. We were reminded daily of everything they needed that we lacked.
By the time school started in August, we’d cobbled together a backyard learning pod with another family at our school. We took turns trying to work and monitor the kids’ YouTube activity when they were supposed to be on Zoom.
Then in mid-August, a heat wave brought triple digit days and the California wildfire season started two months early. We woke up to yellow skies and ash on the windowsills. The kids moved indoors to escape the smoke. Our 2-bedroom stucco house with no A/C became a furnace for misery. Masked and sweating beside air purifiers that couldn’t keep up, learning was next to impossible.
Those early pandemic months had been challenging, but with the prospect of months of bad air and no help with the kids, we knew we had to do something drastic.
So in the span of just two weeks, we packed up our lives, rented our house to friends, and drove from one coast to the other to get help from Nate’s parents.
That journey set the stage for Shelter in Place season 2, which we called Pandemic Odyssey, because we set out on that journey with no real sense of when—or if—we’d return.
We released our first episode of season 2 just a few days after we arrived in Massachusetts. Amazingly, even there, we felt the support of our Shelter in Place community.
Wes: Hey, this is Wes. I'm a big fan of Shelter in Place and of Laura. I just love her thoughtfulness, and her commitment to this podcast has helped so many people get through the pandemic, listening to her great episodes that are just so down to earth.
My favorite was an episode called “In the Boat.” It was probably a year and a half ago or so. I just loved the way she talked about Maximizers and Satisfiesers. And this kicked off a whole conversation between myself and my wife. And we quickly realized that I'm a maximizer and she's a satisfieser—and that actually works out pretty well for us, and enables us to get through the challenges that we face, knowing where we're each coming from . . . and also reminds me that when she's hungry, you just got to find the nearest restaurant rather than trying to get the best four and a half star to five star rating on Yelp, which has caused some conflict in our marriage in the past. Sometimes you just gotta let go. So if you see the subway, just grab it, she's hungry. She just needs some food.
Laura, thanks so much for all you've done with this podcast and keep them coming.
Teresa K. Miller (Borderline Fortune): This is Teresa K. Miller. I was in the “Borderline Fortune” episode in season two that was rereleased as “Embrace the Process” and seasoned three. And I feel very lucky to have been a guest on the show, (and) also to have listened to so many different, interesting guests on the show coming from so many different walks of life and doing such cool work and engaging with the world in different ways.
I think Laura managed to create a community that couldn't have been found anywhere else. So many of these people wouldn't have crossed paths without her curation and her curiosity. It's just been very cool to see how this project that started as kind of a whim just to get her through two weeks of lockdown at the beginning of the pandemic became a way of life, and changed her relationship with her family, and created a community among guests and listeners and now trainees. So I really wish everyone the best as you move into the new chapter under the new name. And I can't wait to see what happens next.
Laura: That episode with Teresa aired just a few weeks before we began another big chapter in our journey, when a former grad school classmate reached out to ask me if I’d consider mentoring a writer she knew who wanted to learn podcasting. The week I said yes, I got a similar request from a student in Canada who’d found me through a mentorship organization I’d recently joined.
Nate and I spent the days between Christmas and New Years brainstorming, papering our apartment walls with giant post-it notes, the beginnings of a narrative podcasting curriculum that covered everything from scriptwriting to sound design. We tried to ask questions that were bigger than podcasting too, about how to make this work—or any work—sustainable, including resume and interview coaching, and how to battle burnout and imposter syndrome.
In January of 2021, we began what we now refer to as the pilot or beta version of our Kasama Collective training intensive. What began with just two women quickly grew to six, and then to five more with a second cohort in March. We didn’t fully understand yet what we were building, but we invited those women to build it with us.
We’d go through several names before we settled on Kasama Collective, which dates back to 2010, the year we lived in the Philippines and spent our days with single moms and sex trafficking survivors who taught us the value of living life with companions, or in Tagalog, kasamas, of prizing interdependence and community over independence and individualism. This program, and everything we are doing today, wouldn’t exist without those women, and so we’re donating 5% of our proceeds to fighting human trafficking in the Philippines, beginning with that organization, Samaritana. You can hear that story in more detail in our season 2 episode Coronasomnia to Kasamas.
Alana Herlands (Vaccine Hesitancy Series, A Good Age): I will always remember Shelter in Place being an integral part of my own sheltering in place. How convenient. (laughs) I took part in the Kasama Collective Training Program. My voice might sound a little familiar to you. Shelter in Place is the first place that I learned how to produce audio, so that makes it a very special place. But it has also meant a lot more to me than that, because not only did I get to produce wonderful stuff with wonderful people, but I did this during a global pandemic. It was a very uncertain time in the world and in my life personally.
It is no surprise that many find solace in the show itself, because we behind the scenes in the training program felt that solace. Shelter in Place brought me so much joy. Even on the days that I had trouble feeling joy, we had community, creating, collaborating. I felt challenged. I felt supported. And I felt safe. This is one of those shows that I am so happy that I got to be a part of, and that I'm so happy was made. And it was made kind of by accident, by taking a leap of faith. And what an awesome leap of faith. Don't be sad because it's over. Be happy because it happened. I can't wait to see what Laura and Nate do next.
Michele O'Brien (Symbolic Starter, A Good Age): Hi, my name's Michelle. Shelter in Place to me has been a safe harbor for creativity, and a springboard for new opportunities and new ideas. And Laura's voice and the music always feels like home.
Nikki Schaffer (Letting the Light In): Hi, my name is Nikki Shaffer and I'm a former Kasama collective trainee. Shelter in place has changed my life. Whenever I find myself reaching for an episode, I'm usually feeling like I need a pick-me-up in life. If I'm feeling burnt out or dejected, I know that this deep kind of love that connects us all is going to be illuminated, and I'm going to feel better living with whatever brokenness I'm experiencing. Listening is kind of like therapy for me. It allows me to extend compassion to myself so I can reconnect to my inherent wisdom and ultimately heal. I am so grateful for the Shelter in Place community. I know that I can always refill my cup with another episode.
Laura: We taught podcast production from the inside, bringing our trainees through each step of that process. We invited them to pitch their own ideas too, and then helped them turn those ideas into episodes. The voices you just heard were from Alana Herlands, Michele O’Brien, and Nikki Schaffer, who were in the first, second, and third cohort respectively. Thanks to Alana’s idea to do a 3-part series on vaccine hesitancy, we got a chance to feature experts on topics ranging from vaccine trials to misinformation. Here’s Dr. Joyce Sanchez, who was in all three of those episodes.
Joyce Sanchez (guest in our 3-part vaccine hesitancy series): This is Joyce. I just wanted to say thank you for the gift that Shelter in Place has been to my life personally. Even from the beginning, when I first started listening in and being able to identify with the challenges that you and your family were going through with lockdowns. And getting to share a little bit about myself and our pandemic response as healthcare providers has been super meaningful and very gratifying. And right now I just love that your narratives, your storytelling, the people who you bring on have opened my mind to what it means to be a woman, what it means to be Latina, what it means to love different parts of myself that are outside of being a mother, outside of being a physician, and just enjoying the opportunity to hear stories that are outside of what I would otherwise expose myself to. So thank you for that gift. Say hello to Nate. And your beautiful also wonderfully audio-gifted children too.
Laura: Some of our trainees pitched ideas that featured their own stories and voices.
Emily: You know what my favorite episode has been out of all of them? I loved “As You Wish.” I identify very much with not wanting to be touched. I'm a mother. I have a boy and a girl, and I do have to force myself to touch people that I love. I know that's something that a lot of people do naturally, but it just wasn't really a part of my mom's love language. And I just love how the interviewee speaks of that so eloquently—and not judge mentally. I feel like it's really uncommon for women to talk about that as something that's just another part of their lives. I'm a marriage and family therapist, so I guess I was expecting for it to—I don't know—end poorly, I guess. (laughs) She talks about her mom with a lot of love, even though her mom is not the kind of mom (that touches a lot). It's just really beautiful to hear Black women's voices. I find some comfort in hearing similar stories, being 38 myself and hearing other women my age who are finding some comfort and some peace in rethinking the love that they had in their life long ago, and the love that they still have—even if it's not exactly like others would expect it to be.
I know that's simple. It's just this beautiful person's voice. I think that is descriptive of what Shelter in Place is like; the thoughtfulness of who's being invited to the conversation is a big part of why I treasured it so much, so thank you.
Bethany Hawkins (As You Wish): This is Bethany. I was part of the season three cohort of Kasama Collective, and I am the voice and creator of “As You Wish,” where I merged my love of The Princess Bride, as well as the love of my mom, into an episode in regards to how my mother and I speak extremely different love languages.
There was a listener who commented on how much she enjoyed the episode. For her and for everybody else who listened, I just want to say thank you so much. This truly was a project based on love, and I couldn't have done it without Laura, Hannah, and Zahra. So thank you so much for listening. I appreciate you all.
Laura: A few weeks before Bethany’s episode was published, we got some exciting news. One of the episodes that our very first cohort had created had been selected as a finalist for the International Women’s Podcast Awards. It was an episode that was special to all of us, because it was the first time a trainee had shared her own story, and she was our very first trainee. In an episode called “An Affront to Zeus,” Sarai Waters shared her story of being homeless for six months in L.A. and San Francisco. The week we began our third season of Shelter in Place, we got the news that we won.
Naomi Mellor: Hi everybody. My name is Naomi Mellor. I am the founder of the Skylark Collective and the International Women's Podcast Awards. I met Laura in 2021, when she and Nate were the recipients of the award for “Changing the World One Moment at a Time” at the very first International Women's Podcast Awards in London. They submitted an incredible episode of Shelter in Place, which just really blew me away, and the judges as well, which is why they were such deserving winners.
So what does Shelter in Place mean to me? It means my new friend, who has become a really dear friend, a podcasting ally, and somebody who I really trust and can turn to. And to me it means the very best of indie podcasting and what it's all about: amazingly produced, brilliantly told, expertly crafted, and carefully written episodes—all of which are beautifully put together into the most amazing, amazing creation.
I think Shelter in Place really represents what you can do as a podcaster, how you can grow and how you can really utilize the medium to tell incredible stories and be really authentic. I just think Shelter in Place is an incredible effort from a very small team who do amazing work. And I am delighted to call them my friends.
Sarai Waters: My name is Sarai Waters, and I had the pleasure of being an apprentice for the Shelter in Place podcast. I was also interviewed for the episode “An Affront to Zeus.” And the experience was everything that I needed to be. I can be so in my head and critical of how I sound, but Laura took my rambling thoughts and she turned them into this well-versed episode. Laura did such an amazing job conveying my emotion and my thoughts in a way that was clear that shared my heart with the world. And now I get to participate in Kasama Labs, which is a more tailored version of their apprenticeship program, which allows me to do things at my own pace. And it's super amazing and practical, because it allows me to move through all of the modules one at a time, and I think you guys are really going to enjoy it. So don't hesitate. Sign up today, and just continue to listen. They’re going to bless your souls.
Laura: Thanks for that shoutout, Sarai. And yes, for anyone who’d like to check out the course that she’s talking about, which is a self-paced, online version of our Kasama Collective curriculum, we’ll include a link in the show notes. It’s our latest evolution, in response to a changing world and our most recent cohort of trainees, who came into the program overcommitted and tired of Zoom. In this best and newest adaptation, we’ve created a complete toolkit to master narrative podcasting—but in manageable chunks so learners could go at their own pace on their own schedule. We’re about to wrap up that first class, and just opened registration for the next one, which we’re calling Labs Weekender, our newest and best version yet. Our sixteen Kasama Collective graduates have gone on to get jobs at Headspace, the ACLU, the New York Times, Stitcher, Wonder Media Network, and OBB Sound, just to name a few. I’ve had the pleasure of recommending many of them for those jobs, coaching them through salary negotiations, and then celebrating with them when they’re hired.
Last month we learned that Kasama Collective won the PR News Social Impact Awards in the category of mentoring program organizational mission. We’ve offered scholarships since the beginning, and we hope that this award will help us get fully funded so we can offer it to even more up and coming podcasters who wouldn’t otherwise have the opportunity. We’ve also laid the groundwork to officially become a nonprofit, forming a board and applying for grants.
Here’s Lin Chin, Jesselle Miura, and Sarah Valor, our wise and generous board members, who have been with us on this journey from the beginning.
Lin Chin: One of my favorite episodes of Shelter and Place is weirdly, actually a mini-episode that was recorded between seasons. And it's really short and it's called “Weird But Effective Tricks for Chilling Out.” So I listened to this episode on a day that was just absolutely rotten for me. I'd gotten some hard news. I was feeling super sorry for myself. I was feeling really overwhelmed, almost like shaky and unsettled. And I turned on this episode, not knowing what it would be about, and it turned out to be hilarious. So Laura recounts this time that she swallowed a bug while running—and in fact, this was apparently the second time she swallowed a bug while running—and the way she told it was just stunningly funny. I laughed out loud—first at her, but then at myself, because like so many other episodes, this story reminded me that it's all small stuff—even the stuff that feels really big in the moment—but also that every failure is a new opportunity to pick yourself back up. It's a new opportunity for growth, and it's a new story that you get to tell later. Laura is fantastic at being able to convince you that failure can be inspiring, and isn't something that we should be afraid of.
One of my favorite recent episodes is called “Fixing the World in 10 Easy Steps,” which is this episode that's full of wisdom from Laura and Nate’s ten-year-old son, Gabe, who is both brilliant and charming. One thing I love about Shelter in Place is the Davis family’s willingness to share their everyday adventures. Hearing them weirdly makes me feel seen. Sometimes I feel like Laura must even have a direct view into my own house, like we're somehow living parallel lives amidst the chaos and uncertainty. But the thing is, her clever writing and her good humor lift up the blessings of family life, even when it feels really crazy, and somehow makes it easier to center gratitude, which is something that we all know we should be doing, but feels difficult to remember. Shelter in Place has shown me in so many new ways that embracing vulnerability is courageous. Doing it the way Laura does it is incredibly brave. And also that kindness starts with being kind to ourselves, especially when things are particularly hard.
Jesselle: This is Jesselle from Oakland. I've listened to Shelter in Place since the very first episode. I can't even believe we're already at 200 episodes. That's amazing. It's hard to even articulate how much Shelter in Place has meant to me over all of these three seasons. Laura's personal reflection and honesty episode after episode just resonated with me on so many levels. When she shared a triumph, I cheered. When she shared her struggles, I hurt. And her stories were so humanizing and really made me feel less alone in a time that just felt so isolating. I loved getting glimpses into her life, her adventures, and what was going on for her family. And although I loved each and every episode, some of my favorites were the ones dedicated to Laura and Nate's children, especially season three, episode 21, “How Can This Be?” Their insights into Mattéa’s personality made me laugh out loud so many times. Really gave me a pocket of sunshine the middle of Omicron. Thank you, Laura, and the rest of the Shelter in Place team for really being a constant in my life. I've enjoyed the ride and really look forward to coming along on the next leg of the journey.
Sarah Valor: I'll never forget the first time I listened to Shelter in Place. I really did feel like I was sitting down having coffee or going on a bike ride or taking a walk with Laura. It was amazing, to feel like I was sharing space and time and really deep and intimate conversation with Laura.
The thing I perhaps love most about Shelter in Place are the endings. I love feeling like I'm part of the behind-the-scenes. Whether it's one of their kids' voices, or little extras from the conversations, I just adore those. So hot tip, don't miss those.
And I think the thing that in the last year of being connected to the Shelter in Place community and Kasama Collective, I have the loved being a thought partner to Laura and Nate and the other board members. Me giving my time has given me so much joy, and a feeling of belonging and like I'm part of something that's bigger than anything I could do on my own. And I just felt really grateful to all of the participants, the learners, the teachers, the entire community.
Laura: If there’s one thing you take from this final episode, I hope it’s that the Shelter in Place community that you have all helped create is an incredible one. It’s a place where people operate out of a sense of abundance rather than scarcity, a global community where we all have something to learn from each other. Because of this podcast, and the subsequent training program and now online course, we’ve gotten to know industry leaders and podcast professionals from all across the globe. Many of them have offered their expertise to help our students learn and get more connected.
Steph: This is Stephanie from Podcast Editing Plus and Geopats podcast, coming to you clearly from a watery place. I am at one of the beaches in Split Croatia, where I'm currently living. There's a reason why I have the water in the background—and it's not just to drive Editing Laura crazy. It's impossible for me to separate the podcast itself from the community that has built up around it, so I have to—like the big body of water that I'm staring at right now—I have to actually address the entire community that you have created with Shelter in Place and the podcasting spaces that Laura, you and Nate have created and worked with. That community, those people, what you put out into the world—that you all put out into the world—has just been magical, absolutely magical.
I want to say congratulations for 200 episodes. Wowza is all I can say to that. And there is a slight sadness—and awe—that also comes with knowing when to pause, whether the pause is a finish or just a break. And I madly respect you all for doing that, and for drawing that line in the sand. Oh gosh, no pun intended, but there it is. To be fair, the beach that I'm at is a pebble beach and not sand. Thank you for the grounding that you've done with this podcast and the communities that you've created, and the energy that you put into the world that helped a lot of us get through a very, very crazy time. I know it's stemmed from chaos, and I know there's been a lot of rough bumps along the way as well, but I really appreciate you all sticking with it and you gleaning so much meaning out of the madness. I adore you all and I can't wait to see what comes next.
Laura: Steph is one of the many podcast professionals who has not only offered her expertise and knowledge, but who has become a friend and an essential part of Shelter in Place.
That community has also included people who aren’t in podcasting, like Alexis and Matt Iaconis, the founders of the Brick & Mortar and Delta Wines, who were our very first sponsors. It also included Andreina Febres and Adriana Oyarzun, who welcomed us into their Zumba classes and invited us to join their community. We got to feature their stories in our episodes Dancing Saved my Life and Finding the Fuego.
Andreina Febres: Listening to Shelter in Place has been a wonderful experience for me. I get to connect with the stories. I get to feel what other people have gone through. I get goosebumps. I get watery eyes and I'm ready to cry. And then I laugh, and I feel like I'm in a conversation with somebody that I'm close to—even though the person being interviewed may be somebody I've never met before. It's been a wonderful addition to my weekly activities to listen to the podcast and see what Laura has to offer. The way that Laura tells the stories is very engaging. I love to listen to how she relates to the people she's interviewing. I love to learn about other people's lives and things that we would never know even if we had met them in person. I love listening to Shelter in Place, and for us at Making Waves, it's been a wonderful experience to share with our community and let them know the amazing work that Laura and her team are doing. We get to dance with Laura and her kids, and we also get to enjoy her community coming to our classes and being part of what Making Waves is all about: giving back to the community. It's been a wonderful gift.
Adriana: Shelter in Place has become my favorite podcast. I'm excited every Thursday to see what new episode is going to come out, who she's interviewing. It's definitely one of my treats of the week. Shelter in Place makes me feel like the madness and chaos that's happening in my life is not just particular to me. I feel less alone. I feel seen. I love it. I love that I get to learn something new . . . be inspired, be touched, be moved. Laura has a true gift of taking us on a journey, and it's amazing how she's always able to relate it to her life and add a little bit of her story connected to whoever she's interviewing. It always makes me smile, (it) usually makes me cry, and there's always laughs in the way. Thank you so much for all your hard work. Shelter in Place feels like home.
Laura: Partnering with Making Waves studios has meant seeing some of you in their online classes, and it’s also introduced me to some of our recent guests.
Robyn Alagona Cutler: Hi, it's Robin Algona Cutler from the episode, “A Mother For All Seasons.” And I am so grateful for Laura and the whole team at Shelter in Place. What a gift Laura is . . . listening to her buttery voice and all of the aspects that go into making this brilliant podcast. It was a true privilege to be a guest, and it has been such a wonderful experience—a moving experience, an inspiring one—to listen to all of the other guests speak from the heart. I’m so grateful for this. Thanks, Laura, and everybody at Shelter in Place.
Laura: Thank you to every single one of you who has made us feel seen, heard, and valued. Thank you most of all to our parents, who have given us the gift that all of us long for: knowing they’re proud of us.
Dad: This is Lyle Joyce, Laura Joyce Davis’s, father. Laura and Nate, congratulations on your completion of your 200th episode of Shelter in Place. What a beautiful journey you have taken us on during these difficult times. The world has benefited greatly from your uplifting words and stories that have allowed us to meet many interesting people, and even get to know you and your family better through your willingness to share. We are proud of you and can't wait to learn what's ahead.
Mom: This is Tina Joyce, Laura's mom. Laura used to bring me beautiful bouquets of wild and anemones she had picked in the woods near our house in Plymouth, Minnesota. Our family did lots of hiking in various spots around the country. It was Laura who found treasures along the way that the rest of us had walked right past, like a curious insect or an interesting rock formation or an offering of flowers laid out in a beautiful design that some previous hiker had left by a stream. As I've listened to each episode of Shelter in Place, my attention often gets directed towards something I had missed, or hadn't given much thought to. Listening to the stories of so many people from so many walks of life has been informative, encouraging, and helpful, and when Laura shares stories from her own life, it's like she is handing out bouquets of laughter, wisdom, and honesty. Thank you, Laura and Nate, for all the time and hard work you've put into Shelter in Place. Thank you for sticking with it, and for helping us, your listeners, to find hope and community and creativity in these challenging times.
Laura: As Bethany said, this work has been a labor of love. It would have ended a long time ago without all of you. You’ve kept us going through encouragements, monthly and one-time donations, and by sharing the podcast with others so we could grow.
From day one of this podcast, Nate’s aunt, Sarah Edgell, has generously given her time and design skills as our resident design director. We featured Sarah in our season 2 episode “Not the (Only) One.” A few months ago we were able to hire Melissa Lent, one of our trainees from that very first Kasama Collective cohort, to be our project manager. You might remember Melissa from our season 2 episodes “Hyphenated Identity” and “In the Tunnel.” This week, we’re thrilled to welcome Tish Ambal, a true kasama from the Philippines, to join us as our new social media manager for the next chapter of our adventures.
Tish Ambal: One of the things that I really love about this podcast and how it has affected me is its richness in storytelling. I love the way that Laura talks about her experiences and her emotions, and I feel like I am right there with her. I feel like I'm being transported from the Philippines to wherever she is in the world. And that's really something that I look forward to when I listen to podcasts, because sometimes I listen to podcasts as a way that escape my daily life . . . you know, like I work all the time, but when I listen to this podcast, I feel like I'm in another place, and I feel like I'm being comforted by these stories, and that's why I really love this podcast too much.
Sarah Edgell: This is Sarah Edgell, and I'm the design director for Shelter in Place. And that started in March of 2020 when Laura called and said, “hey, I'm going to do a podcast.” Like everyone, thinking this pandemic was going to last about two weeks. “Would you do me a logo?” I said, “yeah. When do you need it?” I think you said, like an hour or two hours. It was super funny. And I was like “sure. Let's get this done.” Anyway. I've just been in the background in a very small way of graphics and a few other things. Watching someone take a dream—maybe not even a dream—just a kernel of an idea, and say, “let's do this thing and kind of jump off a cliff and not exactly have a whole plan,” that's like a place that I love to be part of. And I've just loved watching how there was no path, but Laura—and then Laura and Nate—just ran with this thing, and who knows where it took them. It's great. I love that.
I just listened to the piece “All Roads Lead From Home” with your mentor, and I loved it. And in my opinion, when you are talking with creatives about the creative process, it's your strongest work. It's what I love the most, hearing people's process, your process, her process of the confidence that she feels in her fifties, like, yeah, I can get this done. And if I'm rejected, it's not because of me. It’s because of—I mean, I feel like—I'm 64. That's where I am. I just love hearing am experienced—not young—I'm not young either—creative, in what it feels like at that point in her work and career. There's not a lot of places where creatives hear other people's process and know about their own self doubt, the voices in their heads, for this, that, I'm no good—you know, I'm a fake or I am good. I'm older and I'm better. I love hearing that.
I hope this is a wonderful year that feels like you're tying a beautiful thing up and moving onto your next beautiful thing.
Melissa Lent: I'm Melissa Lent. I was part of the first cohort of trainees, and I have recently come back to be Shelter in Place’s project manager. When I think about Shelter in Place, I think of warmth, curiosity, understanding. It really has been a time capsule to explore life as we're living it now, and also how we want to live in the future.
Being part of the first cohort of trainees that Shelter in Place had, and now coming back to be a project manager, I really can't say enough about what Shelter in Place has meant to me. Laura Nate, the trainees that I had the privilege of collaborating with—it was and is truly a joy. The people that I met are some of the most talented and hardworking people I know, and there was no other team than I would rather have been doing that with. Being part of a pilot training program, we all got to shape what working together as a team on Shelter in Place meant. And honestly, they gave me so much more than production credits. They gave me confidence. They gave me a way to grow and explore podcasting and storytelling in the way that I wanted to. And I know that whatever comes next, we're all still going to be doing that. So thank you, Laura. Thank you, Nate. And thank you, Shelter in Place.
Nate: Hi, this is Nate. What has Shelter in Place meant to me? Well, a lot of practice at my substandard cooking, carpooling and playdate-scheduling skills. The kids still tell me I’m a good daddy, but I mostly feel like an impatient, frustrated, and hot-tempered one. But you know what? It’s all been worth it, because these last two years have taught me some things that the previous 43 never could have. So here we go.
Number one on my list of “what Shelter in Place has meant to me” is that the most beneficial changes sometimes aren’t the ones you choose — they’re the ones life throws at you. Before Shelter in Place, I had good work: I wasn’t selling sugar water or vaping devices, but quality homes built by honest people at a family-run business. It was something I could believe in.
But if I hadn’t gotten laid off, none of us would be here today, because sticking with what’s familiar is always easier. Who makes a massive life change without a crisis? Not me. But without me being knocked down and forced to reimagine life through creativity and community (as they say at some podcast), Laura agrees that Shelter in Place would’ve fizzled out, like so many other pandemic projects.
For a long time, it pained me that the second big plot point in the Shelter in Place origin story was always “and then Nate lost his job,” because it felt like being portrayed as a hapless victim, the supporting character who dies along the roadside of the hero’s journey. But now, I can see that as in any good story, that conflict was necessary for this to be a story worth caring about. That conflict was necessary to make us grow. And so I’m grateful.
Number two on my “what Shelter in Place has meant to me” list has been an enlarging and ennobling of my definition of success. For most of my career, I thought of it individually: money I was making, ideas I was selling, perks I was getting. It was a limited and fragile perspective.
But with Shelter in Place (and even more with the training programs), while I’m still proud of the achievements, I don’t feel so bound to them — because our graduates are succeeding for us. They’ve made their own wonderful shows, gotten satisfying new jobs, negotiated well-deserved raises — and it feels great to know we played a part.
Number three on my “what Shelter in Place has meant to me” list is that these past two years have helped me evolve from having a job, to finding a vocation. To back up a little bit, both of my parents are teachers. Both exceptional. Both setting examples that I felt like I could never live up to. People can’t help learning from them, as my kids benefited from this past school year.
At age 45, I can see now that pursuing advertising was me running away from teaching — persuading people instead of educating them. Giving them the consumer stories they wanted, instead of the truths they needed. And yet through Shelter in Place, then Kasama Collective, and now most recently Labs, teaching found me — and I’ve never felt more fulfilled. There’s nothing that redeems the bumps and bruises of your own career like seeing your students be able to find a smoother path forward.
Number four on my “what has Shelter in Place meant to me” list is that interdependence is better than independence. In the Before Times, it wasn’t like we had life totally dialed in, but we were relatively self-sufficient.
But now? Whether it’s the constant clutter on our front porch, or our disappearance from most outside activities, our need for help is obvious! We’re barely staying above water here — and it’s a beautiful place to be. Having our independence washed overboard has been a blessing; having our pride at “making it” sink away has been healthy; having to flounder has shown us how many hands are stretched out to help.
The list of those of you who have kept us afloat these past two years could take up this whole episode, since you all have done everything from watch our kids to drop off meals, repair our porch to fix our toilet, advise us on business to coach us on hiring, sponsor our show to rate, review, and donate. Without Shelter in Place, we never would have found out how generous, knowledgeable our friends, family, and neighbors are.
Laura: “Change is always perceived as loss,” my mom said to me when I was a kid. It’s one of her immortal bits of wisdom, that I’ve come back to again and again.
For the past 2 years and 200 episodes, we’ve all been building something together, not just a podcast, but a new way of life. Just as that year in the Philippines back in 2010 taught us that life is better with companions, this podcast has changed us forever. We can’t go back to the old way of living, and we know now that we don’t want to.
But we’ve also known for a long time that Shelter in Place needed to change, just as everything else about this journey has. We’ve felt increasingly worn down by the long hours and weekly episodes, ready to embrace a new journey that would give us a much-needed reprieve and a chance to let the well of creativity fill up once again.
We even had an idea for what that next chapter would look like, a podcast that still had the same Shelter in Place heart, but released in seasons, without the weekly grind. But for six months straight, we couldn’t agree on a name.
And then one morning in March, exactly two years to the date from when I released that first episode, I came across a Jack Gilbert poem, A Brief For The Defense
It begins like this:
Sorrow everywhere. Slaughter everywhere. If babies
are not starving someplace, they are starving
somewhere else. With flies in their nostrils.
But we enjoy our lives because that’s what God wants.
Otherwise the mornings before summer dawn would not
be made so fine. The Bengal tiger would not
be fashioned so miraculously well. The poor women
at the fountain are laughing together between
the suffering they have known and the awfulness
in their future, smiling and laughing while somebody
in the village is very sick. There is laughter
every day in the terrible streets of Calcutta,
and the women laugh in the cages of Bombay.
If we deny our happiness, resist our satisfaction,
we lessen the importance of their deprivation.
We must risk delight. We can do without pleasure,
but not delight. Not enjoyment. We must have
the stubbornness to accept our gladness in the ruthless
furnace of this world.
And I knew at once, that was it: risking delight. It was what we’d been doing all along, choosing to find delight and gladness even in the furnace of this world. It was the thruline of every episode, or to borrow a metaphor from our recent guest Anthony Doerr, the glitter on the pavement that we’d been following since long before we recognized it was reflecting the stars. It felt like something we could step into.
So today, we’re saying goodbye to Shelter in Place, and hello to Risking Delight. This summer, we’re going to do something we’ve never done before. We’re going to stop. It’s our first exercise in risking delight. We’ve got some delight scheduled in the form of our newsletter, but we’re going to take the time to prepare for launching Risking Delight, a preparation that we never had with Shelter in Place. I’m going to spend this summer finishing the novel I’ve been chipping away at for several years. We’re going to try to have just the right amount of adventures with our kids.
I don’t know what my kids will say when they look back on this time, when they’re old enough to have some perspective and even wisdom. I hope what they see is that we loved them the best that we could. I hope that for each of you who have been on this journey with us, you’ll find comfort in returning to favorite episodes, that the voices and stories here will feel like old friend who remember what it was like long after the world has forgotten. I hope that you’ll share these episodes with friends who might take new comfort in them, or listen back through them like rereading a beloved book or paging through an old photo album.
At the end of Jack Gilbert’s poem, “A brief for the defense,” he writes this:
We stand at the prow of a small shipAnchored late at night in the tiny portLooking over to the sleeping island: the waterfrontIs three shuttered cafes and one naked light burningTo hear the faint sound of oars in the silence as a rowboatComes slowly out and then goes back is truly worthAll the years of sorrow that are to come.
Standing in this small ship now, that has nearly capsized so many times, but been kept afloat by you, I appreciate this moment differently. There have been so many storms, so many Pandemic Odysseys—not just ours, but yours. We’ve felt lost so much of the time. There have been leaks in the boat and long days under the hot sun and provisions lost and whole months where we couldn’t see the shore. But to be anchored in this harbor with you, in the quiet reprieve of night, to see even the shuttered cafes that represent all of the things we’ve had to let go of during this time—even there, there is beauty and delight. There’s healing yet to be found in the stillness and silence. That one naked bulb reminds us that someone is waiting to welcome us home.
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Midroll ads/promos:
Kasama Labs
Breathing Wind
Making Waves Studios
B&M
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Support Credits:
As always, if you listen to the very end of the episode, you’ll hear Shelter in Place outtakes, our little easter egg to thank you for sticking around.
But first I want to share with you a podcast I’ve discovered recently, by another new friend in audio. Sarah Davis created Breathing Wind in response to her own personal loss in 2020, and it since grown into a community of grievers and healers. Here’s what it sounds like.
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End Credits:
The Shelter in Place music was created by Chase Horsman at Reaktor Productions. Additional music and sound effects for this episode come from Storyblocks. Tish Ambal is our social media manager and Filipina kasama. Melissa Lent is our project manager, Sarah Edgell is our design director, Nate Davis is our creative director, and as always, I’m your host and executive producer.
Until next time, this is Shelter in Place. I’m Laura Joyce Davis.
And now if you’re still listening, here’s a little outtake.
OUTTAKE:
