Dying To Ask

How To Define Your Life’s Purpose With News Anchor Latrice Currie

What's your purpose?

The pandemic forced all of us to reflect on where we are and where we're going. The Great Resignation is full of people who've redefined their life purpose and made professional and personal changes based on those evaluations.

Latrice Currie didn't need the pandemic to redefine her life's purpose. Life dealt her a curveball in 2019 and she's been on a different path ever since.

Latrice is a longtime, respected news anchor at WRCB-TV in Chattanooga, Tennessee. She's a wife and a mom. She's active in her community.

She also survived a life-threatening health scare she never saw coming.

Latrice suffered a blood clot. Quick thinking saved her life. Careful reflection changed her life after she spend six months off the air in rehab.

Everything changed one Sunday morning when Latrice suffered the blood clot out of the blue. She woke up three weeks later unable to speak and walk and comprehend how much her life had changed.

Her new book, My Journey: Finding God's Purpose and Power, tells the story of what happened before and after LaTrice's turning point. The good news? You don't have to live through a blood clot to live a bigger, more satisfying and impactful life!

It's equal parts raw and inspiring. And, it's a road map to identifying and following through on pivoting to one's true purpose.

On this Dying to Ask:

• What LaTrice did while barely conscious that gave her a shot at surviving a blood clot
• What she advises all people to do to better their chances of a freak health problem
• What it was like to BECOME the story instead of TELL the stories
• How we can all find our purpose when life deals us a bad hand

The Annual Summer Beach Reads Episode, Part 2

Go read a book.

Those four words summarized my mother's constant summer refrain in my childhood and I find myself parroting her words as a mom myself!

Part 2 of our annual summer beach reads episode focuses on books for kids and young adults, or YA readers. But, here's the thing. YA is actually for all ages.

Do you just love a quick, fun read? Listen for some great YA reads that will inspire and entertain.

Have a reluctant reader at home? My guest Tina Ferguson has some great hacks to get kids lost in the pages of a great book.

Tina is the owner of Face in a Book bookstore in El Dorado Hills, California.

Titles mentioned in show:

• Family of Liars by E. Lockhart
• The Peach Rebellion by Wendelin Van Draanen
• Shinji Takahashi and the Mark of the Coatl by Julie Kagawa

In this Dying to Ask:

• How to get a reluctant reader interested in reading
• Why graphic novels are a powerful reading motivator
• How Disney and TikTok are inspiring great children's literature
• The rise of inclusivity and diversity in children's lit
• Why YA books are for all ages
• And, stick around to the end for the backstory on how Dolly Parton and James Patterson teamed up for one of the most popular books of the year

The Summer Beach Reads Episode, Part 1

Read anything good lately? Your answer will be 'yes' if you pick up any of the titles in our annual summer beach reads show.

We've broken the show into two parts. Part one covers titles for adults. Part two has suggestions for kids and young adults.

Our guide to all things literary is Tina Ferguson, owner of Face in a Book Bookstore in El Dorado Hills, California.

This summer's picks include:

• Sea of Tranquility by Emily St John Mandel
• Book Lovers by Emily Henry
• One Italian Summer by Rebecca Serle
• This is Not a Pity Memoir by Abi Morgan
• The Divorce Colony by April White

In this Dying to Ask:

• How pre-sales factor into authors making the New York Times Best Sellers list
• The influence of groups like Reese's Book Club and Jenna's Book Club on book sales
• How authors are referencing the pandemic in fiction set in COVID-19 years
• Fitz and Tina share their favorite titles for a great summer read

Get In Shape With The Creator Of Fit Girl Hacks

Can you hack your way to better health? The creator of "Fit Girl Hacks" says absolutely.

Monique Christian is the trainer behind the social media community "Fit Girl Hacks." She has worked in the fitness industry for more than 20 years. Her big conclusion after training hundreds of people? Working out and eating well don't have to be so complicated.

She's sharing her shortcuts to better health in weekly hacks including:

• Don't think too long or you'll talk yourself out of a workout
• Start the day with a win and see how the rest of the day goes
• Go to farmer's markets and learn the growers' names since they are generous with their friends

Simple but effective.

Listen to this episode on a workout and I'll bet you'll burn a few extra calories!

On this Dying to Ask:

• Christian rapid-fire breaks down more than two dozen fit girl hacks
• How friends can help or hinder your fitness goals
• Why your brain is your biggest workout enemy
• A summer grilling hack that will change how you look at meal prepping
• And Monique shares what it's like to embrace life as a fitness influencer at 50

Dying To Ask Podcast: How Gardening Improves Mental Health

Stressed out? Maybe it's time to dig in the dirt.

A recent study highlighted in Agweek confirmed gardening has tremendous benefits for reducing stress and improving mental health.

Struggling to relax or focus?

Try planting some seeds and watching flowers grow. Or, bury a tomato plant and watch half of a Caprese salad sprout before your eyes.

The experts at WebMD confirm the correlation between time spent around plants and a sense of peace.

And more Americans than ever are sowing the seeds of sanity as they give backyard gardening a try.

In this solo episode, I'll share how I got into gardening and how it's kept my mind clear during some of life's most stressful times.

On this Dying to Ask:

• The science of why gardening is good for mental health
• Why watching things grow is good for focus
• How to get started even if you have a small space and limited budget

How To Deal With Toxic People With Diane Gottsman

Gotta get away?

Good luck getting away from toxic people this summer.

Summer travel is predicted to hit pre-pandemic rates and you'll need to pack more than patience to make it to your destination with your cool intact.

Diane Gottsman is a modern etiquette expert and the founder of the Protocol School of Texas.

If you think people are edgier and crankier than ever, she says you're right! And those dicey interactions are spilling into many aspects of daily life.

Pandemic anxiety lingers and crowded airplanes are often where passengers who don't see eye to eye on virus precautions get into it.

Internships are back. But, employers and interns may be out of step on expectations on everything from communication to wardrobe.

The labor shortage has made shopping in some stores difficult because of inexperienced workers. It's easy to get frustrated. It's easy to say something you shouldn't. And it's often difficult to calm conflict.

So, how can you diffuse a hot situation?

Diane has a script for that and she's going to coach you on how to tricky situations and difficult people.

On this Dying to Ask:

• How to diffuse conflict in places like planes or stores
• How to extract yourself from a gossipy conversation
• Two ways to instantly improve your interactions with people

Financial Adulting With Ashley Feinstein Gerstley

Why is our relationship with money so complicated?

Financial insecurity creates anxiety. The best way to fight that anxiety? Become more confident in your money knowledge.

Ashley Feinstein Gerstley is the author of "Financial Adulting: Everything You Need To Be a Financially Confident and Conscious Adult."

She wrote the book she says she wishes she had as a young adult struggling to manage a personal budget. That says a lot considering she majored in finance and worked as an investment banker! A career change led to a pay decrease and Ashley quickly found herself living beyond her means.

Sound familiar? People of all ages are struggling with mounting debt and inflation.

She challenged herself to get a better grasp on her finances and started blogging about everything from 401(k) accounts to buying a house. That website, The Fiscal Femme, launched a career as a money coach, speaker and author of "The 30-Day Money Cleanse."

Financial adulting challenges readers to learn about everything from 401(k) accounts to buying a house in simple and often humorous ways. You'll learn about how insurance works and what kinds are important at different stages of life. And, you'll see how re-branding common financial terms like "saving" to "investing" is a useful way to change a money mindset.

And, Fitz and Ashley get into the challenges of teaching money values to kids in our increasingly cash-free society.

On this Dying to Ask:

• Why you should throw yourself a money party
• The power of using the word "investing" instead of "saving"
• And three changes you can make today to change your money mindset

How Pallavi Golla Found An Untapped Market In Kids Activewear

Ever had a great idea but didn't know where to start?

That's called being an entrepreneur.

The successful ones start somewhere and often end up with a company or product that seems to have followed a linear path. The reality is that business journeys rarely make sense.

But there are some hacks to launching products that tend to work and Pallavi Golla is sharing those secrets in this Dying to Ask podcast episode.

Pallavi is the founder of Lark Adventurewear. Lark makes breathable activewear for kids.

Pallavi's son was 4 months old when she noticed he'd get really sweaty in his cotton onesies. She looked for more breathable materials to dress him in and struggled to find any that met her family's needs.

So, she created it.

But, designing activewear for kids wasn't easy. Most adult workout clothes contain chemicals to make them "breathe" during sweaty workout sessions. That fabric wouldn't work on a little kid's skin.

Pallavi had zero background in fashion or textiles.

But, in six years, she's created and trademarked a fabric called Softek and is the driving force behind a seven-figure online kids clothing company that is expanding to adult clothes too.

In this episode, Pallavi shares how she used knowledge from a background in hedge funds and the wine industry to propel Lark Adventurewear to success.

On this Dying to Ask:

• Pallavi Golla's advice for entrepreneurs coming out of the pandemic
• Why she's against quitting your day job to follow a dream
• How she gives herself grace to make mistakes
• How to mine your resume for hidden skills that might help you start a business
• And how to handle the people in your life who think you've lost it when in fact you might be about to find your next big thing

Bonus Podcast: How Author Colson Whitehead Writes

They say good things come in threes.

And a lot of people suspect author Colson Whitehead may become the first person this century to win three Pulitzer Prize awards in fiction.

Only three other novelists, William Faulkner, John Updike and Booth Tarkington, have won two Pulitzers for fiction.

Whitehead was recognized for "The Underground Railroad" and "The Nickel Boys." Both books use prose to draw attention and insight to systemic racism in America.

| RELATED | Colson Whitehead talks about his new book 'Harlem Shuffle'

But Whitehead's latest novel, "Harlem Shuffle," his eighth, takes a detour and tells the story of Ray Carney, a lovable crook in 1960s Harlem.

On this Dying to Ask:

• Why "Harlem Shuffle" is such a diversion from Colson's previous two novels
• How he found out he'd won a Pulitzer Prize and how it changed his life
• What it's like to write a crime caper and why listening to our parents can save us a lot of time

How To Find Purpose After Loss With Maura Horton

What is your life's purpose?

Sometimes we feel passionate about going in a direction. Other times life itself seems to send you down a path.

Maura Horton's life trajectory changed when her husband, college football coach Don Horton, was diagnosed with Parkinson's.

She watched Don struggle to do basic things like button his shirt as the disease robbed him of his mobility.

That loss of independence was crushing.

Maura looked for clothing with snaps that were easier to close.

She couldn't find any, so she invented it and patented a magnetic closure system to make dressing easier for people with limited mobility.

MagnaReady specializes in adaptive fashion and fills a gap whose importance most people don't recognize until an illness or injury impacts their ability to do something as simple as getting dressed.

The clothing line is sophisticated and trendy enough that it's popular with people who don't need adaptive features.

Amazingly, Maura Horton did all of this without any prior experience in fashion or entrepreneurship.

On this Dying to Ask:

• How Maura started a company with zero experience in fashion
• How to recognize something has become a life purpose
• Maura's advice on overcoming grief