Writer and former magazine editor Sam Baker is dragged kicking and screaming into this getaway as she admits she can never let go of her internal chatter and is not someone who ‘does rest’.

Giving us a fascinating insight into the brain of someone who has dedicated their life to hard work and busy-ness, we come to understand how different our visions of escape can be.

Needing to be ‘at the edge’ of somewhere, looking out to sea with mountains nearby, and her faithful, tail-less cat Sausage, Sam only truly rests when entering the world of her favourite anime box set. Sam’s discomfort with the concept of retreat and the realisation she doesn’t like having to choose will be utterly relatable and ring the truest for many.

Sam’s Links

Sam’s Substack The Shift

Sam’s podcast The Shift podcast

Sam’s Instagram

Buy her book in the UK here

Things mentioned in the show

You can watch The Apothecary Diaries here on Crunchyroll

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.

The ADHD and autistic tendency to rest in motion is fully realised in American author and illustrator Andy J. Pizza’s vision of the ideal retreat. Choosing an extraordinary fictional setting which incorporates an ingenious method of travelling the world, this episode showcases the wonder of a brilliantly creative, neurodivergent brain.

Along the way, and with many fascinating tangents, Andy and Katherine discuss the power of Miyazake films, their shared love of Fraggle Rock and longing for direction from the universe.

A meticulously thought out and fully realised world that accommodates his own personal experience of ADHD, Andy unveils the most beautifully zany and imaginative dreamscape. An absolute treat.

Links

Andy’s website where you can find his books

Andy’s Instagram

Andy’s Creative Peptalk podcast

Mentioned in the show

Fraggle Rock

Last of the Summer Wine Wiki

The Master and his Emissary book about left and right brain

The Little Prince

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.

Kicking off the episode with an existential crisis, the inimitable Oliver Burkeman joins Katherine to explore his own, unique take on rest and retreat.

A familiar name to many in both the US and the UK, Oliver’s book Four Thousand Weeks has put him at the heart of the global conversation around building a meaningful life. As you might expect, Oliver turns the concept of the podcast on its head whilst taking Katherine on a wild ride through topics from whether we should use AI as a creative tool to favourite notebooks to whether TS Eliot was on the path to spiritual enlightenment.

A wonderful, brain-stretching conversation that reaches way beyond the confines of an imagined cabin in the woods to explore wider ideas around what it really means to get away from it all and if we should even try.

Oliver’s Links

Oliver's website to buy his books and sign up to his newsletter

Things mentioned in the programme

Kendra Allenby’s New Yorker beach cartoon

NYC stationery store Goods for the Study

Shinzen Young on T.S. Eliot

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.