Thanks For Being Here - When My Mama Left This World

Beth Stelling grew up making people laugh before she knew it was a skill worth taking seriously. It took years of open mics and a lot of hard-won stage time before she found her truest voice. In the fifth episode of our Wired to Create series, Beth talks about the family that shaped her, the speech and debate program that first put her on a stage, the years it took to finally sound like herself in front of a crowd, and what she's learned from helping younger comedians find their way. This episode was made possible by a grant from the Walton Family Foundation. To learn more, please visit: waltonfamilyfoundation.org. To connect with Kelly and get a list of her weekly takeaways, join Kelly's ⁠free Substack⁠. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Some people move through the world so quietly and so generously that you don't fully understand what they were doing until they're gone. Courtenay Rudzinski's almost 90 year-old mother was one of those people. This is the essay Courtenay wrote after losing her. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Jen G, as we call her in my house, is as special and wonderful as you think she is. She is such a ready learner that she carries around a pen and notebook everywhere she goes. She cares about all the right things and not one bit of the nonsense. She is still, in many essential ways, one of the “Garner girls” from West Virginia. Today’s conversation, co-hosted by Christy Turlington Burns, celebrates Jen’s mom, Pat (and a little bit, Jen’s dad, Billy Jack Garner, who died only 10 days before we recorded). I have loved knowing Jen since we met at The Nantucket Project many years ago and am grateful she could be with us for this series. (Previously aired) This series supports Every Mother Counts, founded in 2010 and led every day since by Christy Turlington Burns. Please join us with a donation here. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/jennifer-garner-and-christy-turlington-burns-talking-moms/id1532951390?i=1000654904522 To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

At 22, Blythe Harris was hit by an 18-wheeler in downtown San Francisco, pronounced dead on arrival, and spent the next several years rebuilding her identity from a hospital gurney. What she discovered in that long, humbling process set her on a lifelong inquiry into creativity — not the capital C kind that most people assume doesn't belong to them, but the small, daily, five-minute kind that turns out to be one of the most underused tools for mental health we have. Blythe went on to co-found and lead the creative vision of Stella and Dot, a jewelry and accessories company that put flexible income in the hands of tens of thousands of women, and more recently co-authored (with Mallory May) Daily Creative: The Five Minute Habit to Rewire Your Brain. In the fourth episode of our Wired to Create series, Blythe makes the case that every single one of us is more creative than we think — and that the cost of ignoring that might be higher than we realize. This episode was made possible by a grant from the Walton Family Foundation. To learn more, please visit: waltonfamilyfoundation.org. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Some teachers don't just teach you things — they show you who you are. Listener Nicole McDermott wrote this the night she found out her high school English teacher, Wendy Marber, had died — a caring educator who never went easy on her students, never stopped believing in them, and somehow shifted the way a teenager saw herself in a single hallway conversation. This one is for every teacher whose belief in a student has outlasted the classroom. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This episode is part of our special 5-part series about moms in honor of Every Mother Counts. Christy and I recently spent an unforgettable Saturday afternoon talking to the singular force of nature that is Spike Lee about his mother, Jackie, who died when Spike was a sophomore at Morehouse College. Spike has 134 directing credits over four+ decades, in each case imploring us to Wake Up. Here’s a chance to understand something about the development of this legendary voice. Please share. (Previously aired) This series hopes to raise $100,000 to support safe and respectful pregnancy, delivery and postpartum care in 9 countries through Every Mother Counts, founded in 2010 and led every day since by Christy Turlington Burns. Please join us with a donation here. Maternal health is a human right. https://everymothercounts.org/donate/ To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Jeff Kinney spent eight years working on Diary of a Wimpy Kid almost entirely in silence — no feedback, no applause, no guarantee it would ever amount to anything. He just kept going. In the third episode of our Wired to Create series, Kelly sits down with the creator of one of the bestselling book franchises in history to talk about why the siren song of instant validation might be the enemy of great work, what constraints actually do for creativity, and why making a place — a bookstore, a basketball court in Tanzania, a downtown in a town of 9,000 — might be the most powerful creative act of all. This episode was made possible by a grant from the Walton Family Foundation. To learn more, please visit: waltonfamilyfoundation.org. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Janice Finn Weekes retired from a career in adult training and wasn't sure she was qualified to teach an AARP safe driving course. Her friends set her straight: you don't have to be an expert driver, you have to be an expert trainer. Five years later, she's still showing up — and noticing something unexpected in her classroom. In a scary world, her students have gotten sweeter with each other. Someone finally said it out loud: when we come in here, we want to be the way we used to be: positive, considerate, patient and caring. Janice went looking for a way to keep giving — what she found was that the secret to volunteering is that you always get more than you give. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Funny with a touch of Irish melancholy. That's how actor, director, producer Edward Burns described Molly, his mother, to me and my co-host, Christy Turlington Burns (who has been married to Eddie for 20+ years). In celebration of his novel, A Kid From Marlboro Road, Eddie joined us in studio to talk about childhood, parenthood and grief. (Previously aired) Our About Your Mother series has raised funds to support safe and respectful pregnancy, delivery and postpartum care in 9 countries through Every Mother Counts, founded in 2010 and led every day since by Christy Turlington Burns. Please consider making a donation ⁠⁠here⁠⁠. https://everymothercounts.org/donate With special thanks to Tracy and David at Laughing Man Studios in Tribeca who support this series with pro bono studio time and superb coffee. Got feedback? Have an idea? We love to hear from listeners. Write us anytime — or sign up for our weekly list of takeaways: [email protected] . Check out our other episodes from the About Your Mother series: Jennifer Garner, Amy Schumer, Bono, Cindy Crawford, Spike Lee, Melinda Gates To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Before there were algorithms and tape submissions and studio approved lists, Allison Jones was sitting in the back rows of comedy clubs — memorizing faces, taking notes, and developing the kind of taste that can't be taught. In the second episode of our Wired to Create series, Kelly sits down with the casting director whose fingerprints are on some of the most beloved comedies ever made — from Freaks and Geeks to Bridesmaids to Barbie — to talk about what she's really looking for when someone walks into the room, why "funny or not funny" is still her most reliable compass, and what gets lost when studio oversight starts to crowd out pure creative instinct. This episode was made possible by a grant from the Walton Family Foundation. To learn more, please visit: waltonfamilyfoundation.org. Allison and Kelly mention writer/director/producer Judd Apatow in this episode. To learn more about Judd, please check out Kelly's previous interview with him HERE. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/going-deep-with-judd-apatow-on-women-collaboration-and/id1532951390?i=1000668137267 To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices