My First Podcast Interview

Cosmic Dive Bar 11: Better Living with Liz Durham + Windy Hill Farm and Preserve

Sitting down to speak with Liz Durham for her podcast, “Being Different with Liz Durham” was both terrifying and exhilarating. Liz talks to different guests every week about the power and growth that comes from ‘being different’. She and I had met through a mutual friend during our Knoxville visit and we immediately clicked. She is young and beautiful and incredibly smart. She herself had been homeschooled by her environmentalist mother. Her mother’s journey into homeschooling was borne from a feeling of necessity and the courageousness to want more for her children than the local East Tennessee school could offer. The local schools boasted incredibly high rates of teenage pregnancy and incredibly low rates of female graduates. Having been college educated herself, Liz’s mother decided to take on homeschooling the primary years. This was the 1990s, when homeschool was considered very different. Liz was homeschooled until grade eight and then attended a small private christian school. She studied Agricultural Economics for undergrad and went on to grad school at the University of TN. She then got married, and entered the work force beginning her career at Farm Credit.

She describes this next phase of her life as “rocky”…her first marriage ended in divorce, she transitioned to Ameris Bank and became a leading mortgage broker. Then, she met Luke and her life changed again. A second marriage and three children later, she made the huge decision to quit her demanding career and become a full time stay-at-home mom…personally, she was examining her own life and where she fit. The female identities of “career woman” or “traditional wife” simply didn’t cut it. Liz decided to start the podcast to open up dialogue on how to balance goals and aspirations with motherhood in today’s complex world.

She started the podcast in January of 2023, and her audience has grown exponentially. With listeners around the world, from Australia to Oregon, Liz invites guests to join her in talking about motherhood, faith, American agriculture, the finances of farming, teaching children financial literacy, fitness, nutrition, and more. The topics are wide and varied, reflecting her curious mind and her own passions and expertise.

We sat down and immediately, I felt safe. I often feel different or “other”. It is a hard thing to choose homeschooling or world schooling or unschooling in a Western culture that is obsessed with the capitalist agenda and academic achievement. I felt confident speaking about the Lavender’s Blue curriculum and our travels, but close to the end of the interview, she asked me to name three goals that I had for the rest of this year and I was completely stumped. I think because in my head, our goals are so immediate: survive another week of homeschool, somehow pay all the bills, and continue to deep dive into homesteading skills, like growing our own food.

Our travelling experiences have been amazing for widening my daughter’s perspective, encouraging us both to keep an open mind, to meet new people and embrace different cultures. Zazie is now a seasoned traveller. On this last flight from Nashville, she was so used to the feeling of the plane taking off and landing, she barely noticed our arrival back to Canada. She’s now used to waiting in lines and has learned to be more patient. We also have a greater appreciation for being home, with inspiration from our travels feeding our creative homeschool juices.

The next few months will be Canada-based. Summer is coming to Ontario and we are looking forward to gardening, lake swims and cottage visits.

Before sitting down with Liz to record her podcast, we toured my friend Caleb’s work — a gorgeous property called Windy Hill Farm and Preserve, a boutique resort and upland preserve on 650-acres of East Tennessee farmland that offers beautifully renovated cabins, curated experiences and farm-to-table dining. Pigs, chickens, quail and goats had the children squealing with delight.

It was lovely to see Caleb’s unique building skills being put to work. I feature a cool treehouse and archway he’s building here on the cosmicdivebar instagram.

Archway by Caleb Verzyden at Windy Hill Farm, TN

The podcast with Liz got me thinking a lot about my own ambitions and pursuits.

After Spain, I had arrived home to find I had been laid off from my steady, part-time content creative position at Warmth and Weather. I felt gutted. Creating content for this beautiful wool importer whose culture was Steiner-based and Anthroposophic in philosophy was really sad. In my exit meeting, there were tears on both sides. The state of small business in Canada in 2024 is alarming. With CERB-loans coming due and the economy shrinking faster than you can say “polar dip”, I’ve been receiving emails in my inbox for the past month from favourite local businesses who can no longer keep their warehouses, storefronts or content creators on pay roll. And it’s not just small business — big business is similarly losing ground with major lay-offs and “recession-type modifications” to their staff.

The idea of heading back out into the work force to find another content creative position that feeds my soul as well as my bank book feels daunting. Warmth and Weather was amazing because it was work from home, part-time, supportive of my endeavour to homeschool (meaning I didn’t have to hide the fact that my five year old was home with me every day), and shared my love of regenerative agriculture and celebrated high-quality, high-functioning regenerative fashion.

When I have spoken to friends and family about losing my job, they are supportive but all kind of shrug, knowing I’ll land on my feet and find a new way forward. I know that, too. My nickname is “The Handler”. I’ve been freelance a long time and I created great work on the Warmth and Weather instagram page. 85 Reels in 8 months!

Liz is mailing me a good microphone. She is positive that the next step for me is podcasting, to broaden my niche of travel and locational astrology and start a podcast that is as wide and varied as hers, where conversations can roam depending on my interests and shifting curiosities. I’m not sure that that would take place here in the Cosmic Dive Bar space…maybe it does?

I bring the question to you, Dear Readers.

Thank you for being on this journey with me. Writing Cosmic Dive Bar feeds my soul in a way that nothing else does. Your support means the world and directly impacts my life for the better, so THANK YOU.

My interview on Liz’s podcast isn’t out yet but once it goes live, I’ll share the link on here and via Instagram.

Until next week, friends…