Episodes
- All
- Poetic Interludes
- Season One
- Season Two
“In My Best Dreams They Are On the Water” by Remica Bingham-Risher
How do you let stillness into your body as we live in an infinitely difficult world? In praising her ancestors’ strength, Remica Bingham-Risher shares her poem “In My Best Dreams They Are On the Water“(from her latest poetry collection, Room Swept Home). Creative expression is a portal to rest as liberation. Creatives, including poets, show us…
“Harvest Moon with Wildfire” by Mai-Linh Hong
How do you deeply care for the land to ground your living self within the collective of all living things? In this Poetic Interlude, Mai-Linh Hong shares her poem “Harvest Moon with Wildfire” (from her forthcoming debut collection, Continental Drift, and originally published in Waxwing Issue 34, Fall 2025). Creative expression is a portal to…
Calling All Leaders: Yes, It’s You. You’re Causing Your Team (and You) Unrest
In this episode, “Calling All Leaders: Yes, It’s You. You’re Causing Your Team (and You) Unrest,” host Dana Tenille Weekes talks about how work environments are breeding grounds for burnout and performative practices. Dana calls in (not out) leaders to assess how they show up and the impact they make by walking through five approaches leaders take…
“Off on Holiday” by Kira Tucker
What happens when our rest is tied up in someone else’s oppression (and, by extension, our own)? In this Poetic Interlude, Kira Tucker reads her poem “Off on Holiday” (first published in Poetry Magazine, Sept. 2025) and a reflection prompt on rest. Creative expression is a portal to rest as liberation. Creatives, including poets, show us…
“My Response When the Instructor Prompted Us to Craft a Poem About Flowers at a Time Like This” by Jasmine Vallejo-Love
How has your lineage influenced how you rest? In this Poetic Interlude, Jasmine Vallejo-Love shares her poem “My Response When the Instructor Prompted Us to Craft a Poem About Flowers at a Time Like This” (first published in Pinch) and a reflection prompt on rest. Creative expression is a portal to rest as liberation. Creatives, including…
Let the World Catch Up (Part 2 of 2)
In Part 2 of our “Let the World Catch Up,” episode, host Dana Tenille Weekes dives into the remaining three of five mindsets to meet those moments when you feel like you’re onto something that you can see (but most people can’t see) or you understand (but most people can’t understand). What You’ll Settle Into…
“Stem” by Anastacia-Reneé
The Rest of Us is doing something different for Season Two. Every other week, we will feature over 30 poets in a segment we call “Poetic Interlude,” launching during National Poetry Month. In this Poetic Interlude, Anastacia-Reneé shares their poem “Stem.” Creative expression is a portal to rest as liberation. Creatives, including poets, show us…
“Idle” by Susan L. Leary
The Rest of Us is doing something different for Season Two. Every other week, we will feature over 30 poets in a segment we call “Poetic Interlude,” launching during National Poetry Month. In this Poetic Interlude, Susan L. Leary shares her poem “Idle.” Creative expression is a portal to rest as liberation. Creatives, including poets,…
Let the World Catch Up (Part 1 of 2) | Season Two Premiere
In the Season Two premiere of The Rest of Us podcast, host Dana Tenille Weekes makes the case for embracing the affirmation “let the world catch up” when people cannot see what we see or understand what we understand. Dana opens this two-part episode by sharing that she struggled over the past few months to…
Celebrate Yourself Your Way | Season One Finale
It’s the Season 1 Finale of The Rest of Us! Host Dana Tenille Weekes invites you to redefine what it means to celebrate yourself in ways that align with your truth, your joy, and your rest. This episode reminds you that celebrating yourself shouldn’t be performative. This is your permission slip to experience self-recognition, joy,…
Friend, Say “Yes” to Nothing. Embrace Boredom, Silence, and Slowness.
We use apps to save time, outsource errands, and even boil water in under a minute, yet we still claim we “don’t have time.” In this second-to-last episode of Season One, host Dana Tenille Weekes challenges our cultural addiction to speed, noise, and endless doing with a simple but powerful invitation: make time to do…
Rethinking Rules We Follow, But Do Not Serve Us
Stop and ask yourself this question: What are the rules that I live by that actually do not serve me? In this The Rest of Us podcast episode, host Dana Tenille Weekes invites us to question the rules around us and our internal scripts that keep us tethered to unrest. This is the second-to-last episode…
Rest in Conversation with Nia Ariel Davis Sigona – Rest Calls for Us to Reimagine
In this special live-recorded episode from the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation’s 54th Annual Legislative Conference, host Dana Tenille Weekes sits with Nia Ariel Davis Sigona to explore the relationship between rest and reimagining. With deep wisdom, poetic reflection, and practical insight, Dana and Nia show us how reclaiming imagination isn’t naïve—it’s necessary. What You’ll Settle…
Rest in Conversation with Sullivan Summer – Why Rest as Liberation Reaches Far Beyond Self-Care (Part 2 of 2)
In Part 2 of this The Rest of Us episode, host Dana Tenille Weekes continues her raw and resonant conversation with Sullivan Summer, a poet, essayist, literary critic, adoptee rights advocate, and dear friend of Dana’s. Picking up where they left off, Dana and Sullivan’s conversation deepens on societal conditioning, particularly how feelings such as…
Rest in Conversation with Sullivan Summer – Why Rest as Liberation Reaches Far Beyond Self-Care (Part 1 of 2)
In Part 1 of this two-part, intimate and thought-provoking conversation, host Dana Tenille Weekes is joined by a dear friend and listener, Sullivan Summer, a poet, essayist, literary critic, and adoptee rights advocate. Together, they explore the layers of personal transformation, ancestral wisdom, and how societal and familial conditioning can undermine the vivid details of…
What Are You Chasing? Exploring a Life of Expectations vs. Being
In this important episode, host Dana Tenille Weekes questions the non-stop exhaustion that we call ambition: What are you chasing, and is it even meant for you? Through thoughtful storytelling, three main points, and reflection, Dana unpacks why so many of us are trapped in the “chase” (striving, following, and supporting – yes, even supporting)…
Just Do the Thing
In this motivational episode, host Dana Tenille Weekes speaks to the tension between knowing what you’re meant to do and avoiding doing it. Her message? Just do the thing. Whether you’re stuck in the loop of overthinking, waiting on the perfect sign, drowning in comparisons, or buried under the weight of others’ expectations, this The…
Feeling Unrest at Work? Maybe You’re Prioritizing Etiquette Over Professionalism
In this episode, host Dana Tenille Weekes challenges the commonly overlooked confusion between niceness and professionalism and how that confusion can create an unhealthy or even toxic work culture. She offers a retake on the definition of professionalism: “Owning your responsibilities and the truths and realities of your work with a deep sense of care,…
If the World’s Burning is Burning You Out, Be Conscious of Rest
In this urgent episode of The Rest of Us, host Dana Tenille Weekes speaks to the global unrest that is happening around us and what it means for rest as self-liberation. She reminds us that rest is not a retreat from reality, but a way to remain strong, conscious, and present in it. What You’ll…
Rest Requires Distinguishing Comfort, Peace, & Liberation
In this thought-provoking follow-up to “A Love Letter – To Folks Afraid of Their Liberation,” host Dana Tenille Weekes challenges listeners to more closely examine the differences of living a life of comfort, peace, and liberation, and why mistaking one for the other may be holding us back from true rest. This episode is an…
A Love Letter – To Folks Afraid of Their Liberation
What if comfort is not meant to serve you? What if the life you’ve built is actually a quiet form of unrest? In this special episode, host Dana Tenille Weekes reads a deeply personal love letter, “To Folks Afraid of Their Liberation,” she has written to listeners. After witnessing loved ones and strangers alike disassociate…
Want to Be Respected? Tell People How You Want to Be Helped (Part 2 of 2)
In part two of this powerful episode, host Dana Tenille Weekes completes her conversation on the three mindset shifts that can reframe how we think about asking for help. She calls in (not calls out) listeners to think about some of the default ways we navigate life “independently,” like assuming people are mind readers and…
Want to Be Respected? Tell People How You Want to Be Helped (Part 1 of 2)
Do you struggle to ask for help, even when you’re overwhelmed? Do you find yourself quietly hoping others will understand what you need without ever having to say it out loud? In this powerful two-part episode of The Rest of Us podcast, host Dana Tenille Weekes opens up about her own journey from silent strength…
Five Life Lessons Learned from Writing Poetry (Part 2 of 2)
In the second episode honoring National Poetry Month, host Dana Tenille Weekes shares the remaining two life lessons she’s learned from her poetry practice. To celebrate the power of poetry and close out April as National Poetry Month, Dana reads three influential works from poets, Rosa Castellano, Sullivan Summer, and Zia Wang, who she considers…
Five Life Lessons Learned from Writing Poetry (Part 1 of 2)
In honor of National Poetry Month, host Dana Tenille Weekes shares three of five life lessons on self-liberation she’s learned from writing poetry in this two-part episode of The Rest of Us podcast. This episode is filled with honest storytelling and grounded reflection, and features a powerful poem, “Dance to Keep from Crying,” by poet…
What’s Your Identity Outside of Producing? (Let’s Take the Seven-Day Call to Create Journey)
We were not created to produce. We were created to exist freely and thoroughly in our details. In this rich and deeply personal episode of The Rest of Us podcast, Dana Tenille Weekes invites us to pause the production line of life and answer a powerful call: the call to create. Not for performance, not…
You’re Not Indispensable at Work
It’s time to unpack the myth that we’re indispensable at work. (‘Cause we’re not!) In this episode of The Rest of Us podcast, host Dana Tenille Weekes talks about how we unintentionally contribute to unsustainable work environments by making ourselves irreplaceable. If you have greater loyalty or obligation to your job than your career, loved…
Progress is in the Pause
Friend, stop. Let’s lean into the power of the pause. In this episode of The Rest of Us podcast, host Dana Tenille Weekes names five life moments that call for us to pause: (1) when worrying; (2) when your body says so; (3) when you should celebrate; (4) when in the midst of change; and…
Standing in Your Truth and Reclaiming Your Power
In this episode of the Rest of Us podcast, host Dana Tenille Weekes calls us to stand in our truth and reclaim our power after conversations with friends, mentees, and clients who feel robbed of their truth by societal pressures and the current political climate. In doing so, she emphasizes that these societal constructs are…
Whose Mountain Are You Climbing? Exploring Succeeding vs. Thriving
Host Dana Tenille Weekes asks a profound question she believes every person must answer truthfully to reclaim their right to rest: “Whose mountain are you climbing?” This episode of The Rest of Us podcast distinguishes between succeeding and thriving and reveals how succeeding keeps us mountaineering for others. Dana ends the episode by prompting listeners…
The Rest Continuum – Exploring Three Forms of Rest (Part 3 of 3)
Host Dana Tenille Weekes closes out the three-part episode on the rest continuum by exploring the third form of rest: liberating rest. After settling in with listeners on doing nothing/being and restoring as two forms of rest, this episode of The Rest of Us podcast focuses on the importance of holding sacred space in your…
The Rest Continuum – Exploring Three Forms of Rest (Part 2 of 3)
Host Dana Tenille Weekes delves further into the concept of the rest continuum, focusing specifically on two forms of rest: doing nothing/being and restoring.