Jen Gotch on overcoming productivity-shame and embracing inconsistencies

Update:  As racist and bullying behaviour has come into light since the recording of this episode with Jen Gotch, it is important to add the caveat that this behaviour is not endorsed or supported. 

Open to listening and learning on this, and my thinking around leaving the episode up (to date) has been to focus on looking forward and taking action on what I can change – asking harder questions about equality, diversity, and human rights, curating more BIPOC guests, and looking more broadly not just at our creative lives, but our entire lives to dig deeper. 

People must be held accountable for their hurtful and damaging behaviour, and also commit to growth, reflection and positive change rather than simply be deleted or cancelled – Jameela Jamil offers good food for thought on this. For now, I will leave this podcast up as a marker of growth as an interviewer, and hopefully to one day see how far workplaces and societies have come. 

In this conversation, we talk about mental health, solitude, the book writing process, self-doubt, how we don’t have to feel bad about inconsistency, being actively not busy, giving ourselves grace, the myth of perfectionism and how enjoyment can be found in the most unlikely places and times. 

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This podcast is produced, edited and mixed by Madeleine Dore using Hindenburg. Special thanks to Nelson Dore for the theme music and Ellen Porteus for the cover art.