Think about the places you frequent most. What’s the experience like? How does it make you feel? How are you connecting? And who are you connecting with? Whether online or offline, Naj Austin has been exploring these questions through her visionary endeavors, which include Ethel’s Club and, most recently, Somewhere Good, an “audio platform for intimate community conversations.”
With its distinct, design-driven app and a growing suite of partnerships and offline offerings, Somewhere Good is poised to become a leader in how we can authentically connect in our complex digital age. For Naj, shifting away from scrolling our feed and moving towards feeding our relationships remains a through-line. And with that mission comes recalibrating how we pay attention to ourselves—and each other.
In this interview, Naj shared more about the role of slowness and solitude in her work, her relationship with listening, and the importance of community participation. This episode also opens with a story from Amy Snook.
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Episode Transcript: https://slowstoriespodcast.com/naj-austin
Learn more about Naj's work: https://najaustin.com/
Follow Naj: https://www.instagram.com/najaustin/?hl=en
Learn more Amy's work: https://www.pareastudios.com/parea-books
Follow Amy: https://www.instagram.com/asnooks/?hl=en
Meredith Westgate — ”Being a writer can often be empathy overload.”
Larissa Pham — ”I think everyone woke up to just how impossible it is to survive.”
Jen Spyra — ”How much doubt attends every stage of your writing?”
Melissa Febos and Forsyth Harmon — ”Writing is the very solitary room where I practice articulating things that feel unspeakable.”
Jen Batchelor — ”I take it very seriously when a word gets hijacked out of our vocabulary.”
Suzanne Koven — ”Literature opens the conversation.”
Courtney Marie Andrews — ”Poetry is asking you to get beneath the surface.”
Lesley Thornton — ”My self-care is preparation for community care.”
Dina Nur Satti — ”Art is really asking people to listen to the process.”
Jessica Manning — ”Your vision for your future changes.”
Zak Williams — ”You need to be engaged with your environment and the people around you.”
Deja Foxx — ”We should be making statements about who we are.”
Becky Cooper — ”What is the story that I should be the one to write?”
Nicole Caputo — ”I really see design as a lifestyle.”
Elizabeth Walton Egan — ”Where speed can hurt is when you are out of control.”
Mélanie Masarin — ”You never remember the time you spent on the internet.”
Lindsay Adams — ”Slow storytelling means giving yourself the grace and the space to evolve.”
Orion Carloto — ”Slowing down is the most beautiful thing you can do for yourself.”
Makenna Goodman — ”I do think that we want to escape, but I don’t think we want to flee.”
Taylor Sterling — ”I want to be more empathetic to how I can help versus how people can help me.”
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