The Clearing with Katherine May

California-based illustrator, author and Instagram phenomenon Carissa Potter chats to Katherine about the complexities of taking rest during challenging times.

In a masterclass of self-reflection, Carissa questions whether the political left have failed to cultivate tolerance and understanding, if we should brand people as evil and how to ‘show up’ when you are the caregiver of a child with complex medical needs.

It is no surprise that someone who thinks so deeply about the world has also developed a fully formed fantasy of where she would go to get away from it all; just her and her ‘platonic love at first sight’ creating art together and dipping in the waters at Indian Springs Calistoga. Bliss.

Tell us about your own vision of a dream retreat:

As mentioned at the end of the episode, if you have your own ideas about where you would go to rest and restore you can tell us about them here

We may select your retreat for our bonus content next season!

Links from the episode:

Carissa’s website
Carissa’s Instagram
Carissa’s Substack
Carissa’s online shop People I’ve Loved

Visit The Clearing website www.theclearingpod.com for a full transcript and to discover how to enjoy the episodes ad free
Buy Katherine’s books: Enchantment | Wintering | The Electricity of Every Living Thing: UK / US
Follow Katherine on Instagram
Visit Katherine’s Website

Production Credits

Guest Booker and Admin Support - Meghan Hutchins
Substack Manager - Rebecca Armstrong
Producer - Alice Lloyd
Music - The Leaf Library @theleaflibrary
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Experiencing everything, everywhere, all at once is where we find our guest Elissa Altman this week, as she chats to Katherine in the midst of a snow cyclone in Connecticut.

An author and speaker whose work touches on issues of family, trauma, and the permission to create, she acknowledges her deep need for rest and retreat as she whisks us away to her favourite place in the world; a tiny cottage set back from a stony beach in Owl’s Head, Maine.

Overlooking the sea and with guitar to hand, Katherine and Elissa grapple with overcoming guilt, the pleasures of re-reading, the fetishisation of Mary Oliver and the horror of people placing items on their desks.

A glorious and warm-hearted episode with some timely reminders about the impermanence of things, good and bad.

Links from the episode:

Elissa’s website where you can find her books
Elissa’s Substack
Elissa’s Instagram
Devotions poetry collection by Mary Oliver
Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner
The Garden Against Time by Olivia Laing

Visit The Clearing website www.theclearingpod.com for a full transcript and to discover how to enjoy the episodes ad free
Buy Katherine’s books: Enchantment | Wintering | The Electricity of Every Living Thing: UK / US
Follow Katherine on Instagram
Visit Katherine’s Website

Production Credits

Guest Booker and Admin Support - Meghan Hutchins
Substack Manager - Rebecca Armstrong
Producer - Alice Lloyd
Music - The Leaf Library @theleaflibrary
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

As someone whose life was turned upside down by an unexpected divorce and a subsequent move away from the evangelical church, US author and podcaster Jen Hatmaker has learned, and earned, a wisdom that is tangible.

In this episode of The Clearing Jen transports Katherine to her grandparents’ 1970s cabin in the snowy Colorado mountains to share the many ways she has come to terms with life’s challenges. Against a blissful setting of floor to ceiling windows, low lighting and a crackling fire, Jen describes letting others ‘drive their car in the Jen Hatmaker hate lane’, the comfort of feeling small, saying yes to everything and how ‘Me Camp’ changed her life.

Links from the episode:

Jen’s website where you can buy her books including her memoir Awake
Jen’s Instagram
The Middle Place by Kelly Corrigan
Various books by David Sedaris
Learn more about Anne Lamott
The Correspondent by Virginia Evans

Visit The Clearing website www.theclearingpod.com for a full transcript and to discover how to enjoy the episodes ad free
Buy Katherine’s books: Enchantment | Wintering | The Electricity of Every Living Thing: UK / US
Follow Katherine on Instagram
Visit Katherine’s Website

Production Credits

Guest Booker and Admin Support - Meghan Hutchins
Substack Manager - Rebecca Armstrong
Producer - Alice Lloyd
Music - The Leaf Library @theleaflibrary
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A deliciously glamorous escape to the snowy setting of a luxury Swiss chalet hotel where 1920s faded English aristocracy meets 1950s Hollywood starlet decadence.

Marabou-trimmed silk pajamas and well-stocked libraries with crackling fires abound in this absolute joy of an episode with author Daisy Buchanan.

Listen in as Daisy imagines herself preparing for a Grand Ball, with all the pleasure of a day spent wrapped in enormous fluffy white towels and none of the anxiety. She also romps through an array of subjects with Katherine, from her newfound love of reiki to the quest for calm in the neurodivergent brain and why she is so drawn to reading about the strangeness of large families.

The most wonderfully realised escape to indulge in at any time.

Links from the episode:

Daisy’s Instagram
Daisy’s books
Mortification edited by Robin Robertson
The Diary of a Provincial Lady by E.M. Delafield
The Cazalet Chronicles by Elizabeth Jane Howard
Invitation to the Waltz by Rosamond Lehmann
The Weather in the Streets by Rosamond Lehmann
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Pursuit of Love by Nancy Mitford
Ballet Shoes by Noel Streatfeild
Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
Rachel's Holiday by Marian Keyes
The Story of Tracy Beaker by Jacqueline Wilson
Laurie Colwin’s books - Home Cooking, More Home Cooking, Happy All the Time, Family Happiness

Visit The Clearing website www.theclearingpod.com for a full transcript and to discover how to enjoy the episodes ad free
Buy Katherine’s books: Enchantment | Wintering | The Electricity of Every Living Thing: UK / US
Follow Katherine on Instagram
Visit Katherine’s Website

Production Credits

Guest Booker and Admin Support - Meghan Hutchins
Substack Manager - Rebecca Armstrong
Producer - Alice Lloyd
Music - The Leaf Library @theleaflibrary
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Floor to ceiling windows overlooking a temperate blue ocean off the coast of New Zealand is where this week’s guest, journalist and author Poorna Bell, dreams of rest and retreat.

Since the death of her husband in 2015, Poorna has become well-versed in making the most of the everyday. As a result this is a conversation filled with the joy of small things. From relishing the prospect of unstructured days, to finding unquantified pleasure in movement. From an appreciation of the smell of toast to being able to say no to picnics. And why she never wants to receive another present again. Ever.

Links from the episode:

Poorna’s Substack As I Was Saying

Poorna’s website

Poorna’s Instagram

Banana Yoshimoto’s novel Kitchen

Lucy M. Boston’s The Children of Green Knowe

Lottie Hazell’s novel Piglet

Visit The Clearing website www.theclearingpod.com for a full transcript and to discover how to enjoy the episodes ad free
Buy Katherine’s books: Enchantment | Wintering | The Electricity of Every Living Thing: UK / US
Follow Katherine on Instagram
Visit Katherine’s Website

Production Credits

Guest Booker and Admin Support - Meghan Hutchins
Substack Manager - Rebecca Armstrong
Producer - Alice Lloyd
Music - The Leaf Library @theleaflibrary
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.