Marissa Joy Leotaud, of Can We Interest You In Erotica? fame, returns to tell us about her dramatic, fun, and sexy debut novel, A Family Affair. [https://www.amazon.com/Family-Affair-Marissa-Joy-Leotaud/dp/B0GHPYLT23] She tells us about how the novel started with a teenage pregnancy, how it was nurtured through writing classes and The Book Project, through The Lighthouse Writing Center in Denver, and how it all came together.

We hear about developments in Marissa’s life since she quit her job to pursue a creative life, and get some big surprises! We talk about the power of having overwhelming delusional faith in yourself and your dreams.

In our conversation, we talk all about writing, including:
The writing process (writing over the course of ten years, editing a million times, all of it)
The ego death of navigating the traditional publishing world
The healing journey of self-publishing and the path to publication day
Her family’s response to the book
Other upcoming creative projects

For Patti and Charlotte’ s homework, we’re going to (of course!) read A Family Affair and have our own mini book club. Join us if you’d like, and send us your reactions!

Buy the A Family Affair: https://www.amazon.com/Family-Affair-Marissa-Joy-Leotaud/dp/B0GHPYLT23

Follow Marissa:
Instagram: @marissajoyfiction
TikTok: @marissajoyfiction
Substack: https://open.substack.com/pub/marissajoyy

Logo design by Marielle Martin
Song: Upbeat Drums with Stomps and Claps by music_for_video
BlueSky: @canweinterestyouin.bsky.social
Instagram: @canweinterestyouin
Email us your interests! CanWeInterestYouIn@gmail.com
Website: canweinterestyouin.com [http://canweinterestyouin.com/]

37- Can Marissa Interest You In A Family Affair?

In this episode, Charlotte and Patti debrief the homework given to them by Laura Hartley, founder of the Scintilla Centre, coach for changemakers, and all around brilliant thinker.

First, we jump into our check-ins, and get updates on Charlotte’s journey to find an agent for her novel.

Then, the question: would you want to know when and how you were going to die?

Patti tells us about pool time with her (human) family, plus, her growing family of mini non-human animals.

Charlotte updates us on her half marathon experience and the absolute miracle she witnessed.

At about 25 mins, we get into the homework.

The Homework:
1. Notice every time you use the word “should.” Consider: What’s the story there? Is it true, does it benefit me, does it benefit others? What would happen if the story wasn’t true?
2. Notice your body at the same time. What does the “should” feel like? What comes up when you consider what would happen if the story wasn’t true?
3. Challenge your imagination. Ask yourself: Why not? What if? Let yourself dream.

Here are a few of the (American) cultural stories we interrogate:

If you’re passionate about something, you should try to be the best at it, you should try to monetize it.
Not everyone gets or deserves to have their basic needs met.
Bigger is better.

More is better.

Success has a static definition (money, numbers, etc)

We also discuss:

How the idea that anything could be possible can feel overwhelming, and consider whether that prevents us from dreaming up better ways of living.

Seeding ideas, rather than trying to “solve” everything.

Focusing on mindset and energy or approach.

Talking to kids as an entry point to questioning our assumptions.

Ways that we learn to discount our own intuition, and how can we can relearn how to trust ourselves.

Example: Action St. Louis, a grassroots organization that arose to combat the failures of the government in addressing tornado damage in North City, St. Louis.

Can we work within the literal system of capitalism without internalizing the cultural stories of capitalism?

Which industrial complexes benefit from which stories?

“Shoulds” that we actually should follow. (Warning: we go down some weird paths.)

Level of Integration Scores (LOIS). Ways to continue engaging in this work.

And, accessibility!

Website: https://scintillacentre.com/
Newsletter: https://www.scintillacentre.com/#newslettersignup
Insta: https://www.instagram.com/laura.h.hartley/
Action St. Louis: https://actionstl.org/

Logo design by Marielle Martin
Song: Upbeat Drums with Stomps and Claps by music_for_video
BlueSky: @canweinterestyouin.bsky.social
Instagram: @canweinterestyouin
Email us your interests! CanWeInterestYouIn@gmail.com
Website: canweinterestyouin.com [http://canweinterestyouin.com/]

36- Cultural Systems/Stories and How They Live In Us: The Follow-Up

Our guest is Laura Hartley, founder of the Scintilla Centre, which offers classes, salons, and coaching for changemakers. She absolutely blows our minds with her interest—the ways we live out the stories of our cultural systems (even those we don’t align with or agree with). These include systems like capitalism and patriarchy, and stories about urgency and scarcity. She says we often forget our own power to make choices that don’t replicate these systems and that we can, instead, plant the seeds for something more just and regenerative. Yes, yes, yes!

Laura tells us about her inciting incident, which started with her work in climate activism. We hear how people trying to change the world can (and often do) end up mimicking the same energy and patterns of the systems they’re working against.  We learn how changemaking starts with doing the work as individuals, rooted in our bodies. She teaches us how to “notice the water” of the cultural systems and stories we’re living in, and how to interrogate these stories.

Along the (fascinating!) way, we get into all sorts of topics, like:

Countercultural ideas versus straight-up conspiracy theories.

The concept of "right relationship."
Ways we’re taught to turn against ourselves, and who benefits when we do this.
Making changemaking something beautiful, both born of longing and yet, rooted in reality.
Even “healthy” concepts such as mindfulness, fitness, and spirituality get highjacked by the capitalist story of “growth at all costs.”

Do the homework along with us! (Preferably all the time, forever and ever) Here’s the homework:

1. Notice when you use the word “should.” Consider: What’s the story there? Is it true, does it benefit me, does it benefit others? What would happen if the story wasn’t true?
2. Notice your body at the same time. What does the “should” feel like? What arises when you interrogate the story?
3. Challenge your imagination. Ask yourself: Why not? What if? Let yourself dream.

Website: https://scintillacentre.com/
Newsletter: https://www.scintillacentre.com/#newslettersignup
Insta: https://www.instagram.com/laura.h.hartley/

Logo design by Marielle Martin
Song: Upbeat Drums with Stomps and Claps by music_for_video
BlueSky: @canweinterestyouin.bsky.social
Instagram: @canweinterestyouin
Email us your interests! CanWeInterestYouIn@gmail.com
Website: canweinterestyouin.com

35- Can Laura Interest You In...Cultural Systems/Stories and How They Live in Us?

In the follow-up to our episode about money-saving hacks and nesting with Becca Russo we get into the nitty gritty of how to save money, how to nest, and how to save money while nesting!

Patti and Charlotte start with a check-in. Check-in topics include:
A deep dive into naps.
Charlotte’s half-marathon training tips (they involve donuts and the Nike Run Club App)
Patti’s progress on her 2026 goal of learning to do an underwater flip kick.
Our etiquette anxiety in different sports.
Dog behavior
Going to the No Kings protest with Margot (who was featured in our episode on protest!)

At 28:00 we report back on our homework.
Patti shares her adventures in couponing;
Charlotte has been making use of credit card rewards.
We talk about the Space Doula quiz and go in depth into Patti’s results.

We talk about our nesting challenges, including how to follow through when you’re not a born nester.
We talk strategies for reducing analysis paralysis.
How many episodes in a row can Charlotte mention the man who's always on her mind--Vincent D’Onofrio from Law and Order: Criminal Intent?
Patti helps Charlotte do a root cause analysis into the clothing piles that impact her nesting.
We give ourselves assignments after the assignment and set a time for co-nesting to make sure we’ll do it.
We talk Trusted Housesitter as a money-saving tool.
And then we wrap things up with a discussion of accessibility and the LOIS scale!

Links:
https://spacedoula.com/
https://www.trustedhousesitters.com/

Logo design by Marielle Martin
Song: Upbeat Drums with Stomps and Claps by music_for_video
BlueSky: @canweinterestyouin.bsky.social
Instagram: @canweinterestyouin
Email us your interests! CanWeInterestYouIn@gmail.com
Website: canweinterestyouin.com [http://canweinterestyouin.com/]

34- Money-Saving Hacks and Nesting: The Follow-Up

This week we welcome Becca Russo, Patti’s longtime family friend, to the show to talk about not one, but TWO of her interests—money-saving hacks and nesting (which go together quite well, honestly).

We start with a check-in and learn that Charlotte continues to set increasingly lofty running goals, based mainly on the snacks and the merch provided at those races. We hear about Becca’s wild schedule as a fitness instructor and how it suits her perfectly. And Patti shows us what real talk about how we're doing can look like.

We have a lively, delightful conversation in which we touch on a little bit of almost everything, including Becca’s artistic pursuits; exclamation points and women; manifesting and visualization (and how not to do it). We talk about some of our favorite topics, including mental health, creativity, reality tv.

Becca tells us about crowdsourcing her interests by asking family and friends what she’s obsessed with (love this strategy!). She shares her money-saving hacks, including her many side hustles and the lengths she would go for a discount. We talk about her motivations for saving a buck, which go way beyond finances. We get into the ethics of doing minor scams on big companies. And we talk about nesting, feng shui, and the joys of temporary wallpaper.

Links:
https://spacedoula.com/
https://www.trustedhousesitters.com/
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DD71Y3JY?ref_=ppx_hzsearch_conn_dt_b_fed_asin_title_4&th=1

Logo design by Marielle Martin
Song: Upbeat Drums with Stomps and Claps by music_for_video
BlueSky: @canweinterestyouin.bsky.social
Instagram: @canweinterestyouin
Email us your interests! CanWeInterestYouIn@gmail.com
Website: canweinterestyouin.com [http://canweinterestyouin.com/]

33- Can Becca Interest You In…Money-Saving Hacks AND Nesting?

Patti and Charlotte debrief on the wonderfully thoughtful watercolor painting assignment that Jaime Lynn Henderson gave them in the previous episode.

This episode begins with an extended catch-up, during which Charlotte tells us about the Halloween she dressed as Gary Oldman’s character from the Apple TV show, Slow Horses (a show Charlotte plugs every chance she gets). We dissect our tolerance for awkwardness and discover we are on opposite ends of the spectrum on this front. We talk about Patti’s upcoming trip to Disney World (for which her niece made art to give to the characters--too cute!).

At the 18:00 mark, we get into The Assignment, which was:

1. do one freestyle watercolor
2. do one watercolor of something you love
3. compare how you felt doing each
4. be very, very proud of yourself afterwards

We talk about all the parts of the assignment, from how and where we procured the supplies, to the nitty gritty of our art anxieties (you know it’s a good assignment when it shows up in our dreams).

Then we get into the actual process of painting, of the mental shifts needed to make art, of the materials and how those matter, for emotional reasons as much as anything else.

We talk about our freestyle techniques, and how it felt not to have any limits beyond the page and the materials.Then we unveil our portraits. Can you guess what beloved things we painted? (No, not our dogs. And yes, our dogs were mad at us because of it)

Did we, indeed, feel very, very proud afterwards? (Yes, of course, that was the assignment) And we wrap it up with a discussion on accessibility and the Level of Integration Score (LOIS).

The episode ends a little abruptly due to technical difficulties, but if we could have recorded more, we would have said a big THANK YOU to Jaime Lynn Henderson for her amazing homework selection and for getting us into painting!!

Logo design by Marielle Martin
Song: Upbeat Drums with Stomps and Claps by music_for_video
BlueSky: @canweinterestyouin.bsky.social
Instagram: @canweinterestyouin
Email us your interests! CanWeInterestYouIn@gmail.com
Website: canweinterestyouin.com [http://canweinterestyouin.com/]

32-Drawing/Painting…the Follow Up

In this episode, Jaime Lynn Henderson tells us about the interest she has nurtured since childhood—drawing and painting. We learn how she went from being a child doodler and mega-fan of Bob Ross to reality tv contestant to having her first solo gallery show just last month.

We start the show with a check-in, during which we hear about how everybody is *really* doing. At the 8:22 mark we dig into painting and drawing, and Jaime’s artistic journey. She tells us about art school. “the cushiest, bougiest time of your life.” (Frankly, it sounds amazing and we want to go to there).

Then, Patti’s dream comes true—we find out we’re talking with a real life Bravo reality show star! Jaime was a contestant on the show Work of Art: the Next Great Artist and we hear all about it.

We learn about Daydream Diaries, Jaime’s first solo art show, which happened just last month! She gives us the behind the scenes details of how a gallery show gets set up. Paseo Arts Association [https://www.thepaaok.org/upcoming-exhibits]

Other topics we discuss include what parts of drawing are innate and what are teachable, creative processes, and where does our creativity come from?

If you’ve ever felt a pull to draw or to paint, take a listen and do the homework with us! Here it is: get some watercolors (or watercolor pens, because that’s a thing now), then do activity #1 - paint something from your own imagination; and activity #2 - set up something you love, and paint it, focusing on the shape, color, the light that hits it. Then, notice and compare how it feels to do each exercise; and finally, be very, very proud of yourself afterwards!

Links:
https://www.thepaaok.org/blog/daydream-diaries-the-paa-members-show-and-who-and-where-we-are

www.jaimelynnhendersonart.com [http://www.jaimelynnhendersonart.com/]

https://www.bravotv.com/work-of-art

Logo design by Marielle Martin
Song: Upbeat Drums with Stomps and Claps by music_for_video
BlueSky: @canweinterestyouin.bsky.social
Instagram: @canweinterestyouin
Email us your interests! CanWeInterestYouIn@gmail.com
Website: canweinterestyouin.com [http://canweinterestyouin.com/]

31- Can Jaime Interest You In...Drawing/Painting?

CONTENT WARNING: We discuss the conditions and treatment of dogs in breeding situations and puppy mills. 

Dog rescuer extraordinaire Stefanie Klatt returns to the show to grade us on our homework. Ok, there’s no grading involved, but she does teach us about the legislative and systemic factors impacting animal rescue.

But first, we talk about the Puppy Bowl! We are super excited that they included senior dogs this time, and we shout out the best names (hi RuPaw and Lobster Roll).

Then we get into the homework. We talk about the licensing requirements for rescues/shelters versus breeders. We learn about why it’s important to do your research before buying a dog from a pet store or a breeder, as well as the legislative changes that would help better ensure quality of life for these animals. We also learn the number one state for puppy mills.

We discuss the stories we have around dog ownership and how some of these stories need to be questioned, for example, seeing certain pets or breeds as status symbols.

We dip our toes into the No Kill shelter debate, as well as the beef between (some) shelters and rescue orgs.

Then we talk accessibility and the LOIS scale.

And even though this is some heavy material, we still have stories about the cute buddies who are the reason for these episodes—dogs!

Links:
Highway 50 Freedom Ride - https://hwy50freedomride.org/
Colorado Pet Animal Care and Facilities Act - https://ag.colorado.gov/animal-welfare/pet-animal-care-and-facilities-act
No Kill Colorado - https://www.nokillcolorado.org/
Bailing out Benji - https://bailingoutbenji.com/
Goldie’s Act (content warning - videos on the site show neglected dogs) - https://www.goldiesact.org/
Pet Finder - https://www.petfinder.com/

Logo design by Marielle Martin
Song: Upbeat Drums with Stomps and Claps by music_for_video
BlueSky: @canweinterestyouin.bsky.social
Instagram: @canweinterestyouin
Email us your interests! CanWeInterestYouIn@gmail.com
Website: canweinterestyouin.com [http://canweinterestyouin.com/]

30-Dog Rescue...The Follow Up

For the past thirteen years, Stefanie Klatt has been all about dog rescue. She’s driven up and down the state of Colorado to transport dogs, read Shakespeare aloud to a foster, and spent her weekends at adoption events. She tells us how she went from fostering her first dog, Libby, to being on the board of My Fairy Dawg Mother.

We learn about the intensity and emotional toll that this work can have, as well as the enormous rewards. We talk about the supportive dog rescue community, foster fails, and the intricacies of dog naming (everybody wants a Pancake!). Our homework doesn't involve fostering dogs, but...you never know what we'll do for extra credit.

Charlotte and Patti’s dogs, Janine and Bosco, join us for the interview (they don’t say much, but their moral support is key).

Links:
https://hwy50freedomride.org/
https://dogrescuecolorado.org/

Logo design by Marielle Martin
Song: Upbeat Drums with Stomps and Claps by music_for_video
BlueSky: @canweinterestyouin.bsky.social
Instagram: @canweinterestyouin
Email us your interests! CanWeInterestYouIn@gmail.com
Website: canweinterestyouin.com [http://canweinterestyouin.com/]

29- Can Stefanie Interest You In...Dog Rescue?

In an homage to the DIY, lo-fi sound of Guided By Voices, we kick things off right in the middle of our pre-intro chitchat, say our hellos later on, and at 13:07, get to the main course—the indie rock band, GBV (as everyone in the GBV chat calls them).

Along the way, our vocal range is huge, in spite of two out of three of us having lost our voices (ironic?) earlier this winter. We talk about:

The Winter Olympics sports we would compete in if we had the skills and no fear of injury.

Brian tells us where  the U.S. stands internationally in breakdancing.

Patti and Charlotte’s assignment was to listen to the Guided By Voices albums Bee Thousand and Thick, Rich, and Delicious. They go above and beyond to find out all the juicy gossip, including band drama (don’t call it a breakup, call it a personnel change); whether Bob Pollard is a hoarder or just prolific; the enduring allure of the band.

We ask and answer questions about music and existence:
What does it mean “to rock”?
How do you (like, you specifically) listen to live music?

And finally, we talk accessibility and give our ratings for the LOIS (Likelihood of Integration Scale, 1-100).

References:

Bee Thousand: https://guidedbyvoices.bandcamp.com/album/bee-thousand
Thick, Rich, and Delicious: https://guidedbyvoices.bandcamp.com/album/thick-rich-and-delicious

Books:
Closer You Are: The Story of Guided by Voices
Mood Machine: the Rise of Spotify and the Costs of the Perfect Playlist, by Liz Pelly

Other Links:

https://people.com/who-is-rebeca-andrade-all-about-the-brazilian-gymnast-8686852

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/a-grand-unified-theory-of-cultural-stagnation/id1594471023?i=1000738432969
The Mountain Goats, The Sunset Tree: https://themountaingoats.bandcamp.com/album/the-sunset-tree-20th-anniversary-remaster
The inspiration for Charlotte’s goal for 2026: https://www.profootballnetwork.com/nba/bulls-matas-buzelis-best-player-ever-quote-28-points-summer-league/

Logo design by Marielle Martin
Song: Upbeat Drums with Stomps and Claps by music_for_video
BlueSky: @canweinterestyouin.bsky.social
Instagram: @canweinterestyouin
Email us your interests! CanWeInterestYouIn@gmail.com
Website: canweinterestyouin.com

Guided by Voices...The Follow Up

A podcast where friends Charlotte and Patti invite people to share all about their weird and wild obsessions, or perfectly normal hobbies that have been taken just a little too far. 

We want to dabble in your curious interests!

Plus, a 2025 bonus—we hear indulging your interests is good for democracy!

This is why we should engage in activities that are of interest to us, our friends, our families. Insofar as we take pride in these activities, and come to know others who do so as well, we are creating civil society. – Vaclav Havel, “The Power of the Powerless”

CanWeInterestYouIn...?

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