Romance author Joss Richard joins us this week to talk about what happens when something that's lived quietly inside you for years finally asks to be shared.

We talk about the leap from corporate to a creative life, how writing fan fiction became her quiet training ground, and the months of 5 a.m. mornings that led to It's Different This Time — a story that began in the Notes app on her phone and turned into a USA Today bestselling debut.

It's a conversation about creative permission, evolving dreams, and what it looks like to follow the thing that feels most true to you, even when it asks you to let go of the plan you thought you had.

A quick update: since we first aired this episode, Joss's debut has continued to be beloved by many, and Let's Kiss and Tell — her follow-up — releases this August, with a book tour to follow. We're bringing this conversation back as a reminder of where it all started.

Her debut novel, It's Different This Time — a New York-in-the-fall, Nora Ephron–style second-chance romance — is out now wherever books are sold.

We talk about:

• Our cross-country drive with our rescue dogs (and how friendship sometimes sneaks up on you)
• Fan fiction 101, "shipping," and why writing for yourself changes everything
• The moment she realized she wanted to create her own characters
• Starting It's Different This Time in her phone's Notes app, then writing the rest before work each morning
• The practical and emotional side of leaving a full-time job
• Redefining success when the goalpost keeps moving
• Why romance is serious storytelling — about love, loss, and everything in between
• The truth that what's meant for you might just be what you never thought was possible

If this episode leaves you thinking about the part of yourself that's been waiting to be seen — share it with someone who might need to hear it, or leave a review so others can find it too.

Connect with Joss Richard:
📚 Pre-order Let's Kiss and Tell
🎟️ Get Tickets for the Let's Kiss and Tell BOOK TOUR!
📚 Order It's Different This Time
✨ On Instagram → @joss.richard
🌐 On her website → https://www.jossrichard.com/

Connect with The Truth Is:
🎥 Watch the full conversation on YouTube
📸 Follow on Instagram → @thetruthispodcast

Credits
Hosted by Kathryn Flaschner
Video Production & Editing by Anton LaPlume
Music by Will Savino
Visual Identity by Sarah Gainer & Jonathan Bush
Advised by Natalie Tulloch

If you missed this one when it first aired in October 2025, here's your moment.

Kathryn sits down with her sister, Alyssa Flaschner, for a conversation about paying attention to what makes us feel alive, and how change really happens: not all at once, but through tiny degree shifts that slowly realign our lives toward what feels true.

In the stillness of COVID, Alyssa began to notice a quiet pull toward something else. What started as weeknights with her cookbook collection soon turned into a decision to take herself—and her curiosity—seriously. That choice led to nine months of commuting to New York City for culinary school—twenty-seven weekends in a row—couch surfing with friends and family and rolling a little suitcase full of knives through the city. Nine months later, that curiosity had become a craft—and eventually, a full-time role on the team at Philadelphia’s acclaimed restaurant My Loup.

Together, we talk about what it means to find the thing that makes you come alive—and to keep following it, even when it asks you to rewrite the life you thought you were building.

In this episode, we talk about:

• How perfectionism shaped Alyssa as a competitive dancer—and the ways it still shows up in the kitchen
• The difference between chasing achievement and feeling alive
• How small degree shifts add up over time—where slowly, you start to take yourself seriously, and the things that once felt impossible begin to feel real
• The awkward, necessary process of being a beginner again
• What it’s like to work in an environment where you can’t fake it—and how that kind of honesty builds confidence
• The people who remind us of our own strength, and why support systems matter more than we think

It’s an intimate, sister-to-sister conversation about curiosity, courage, and learning to trust the pull toward what makes you come alive.

Visit My Loup, where Alyssa is part of the culinary team
Read Alyssa’s essays on Substack
Follow Alyssa on Instagram → @alyssaflash

Instagram → @thetruthis_podcast
YouTube → @thetruthis_pod

Video production and editing by Anton LaPlume
Hosted by Kathryn Flaschner
Music by Will Savino → wsavino.com
Visual Identity by Sarah Gainer & Jonathan Bush
Advised by Natalie Tulloch

This episode first aired in December 2025. We're bringing it back because it's one that stays with you.

What if the clarity you’re looking for isn’t “out there” at all, but already inside you — waiting for the moment it comes into view?

In this conversation, NYT bestselling author and adventurer Jedidiah Jenkins sits down with us to talk about revelation, habituation, aging, and what it means to build a life you’re actually comfortable being yourself in.

Jed talks about how his books — from To Shake the Sleeping Self through Mother, Nature and now his upcoming fourth — trace the long arc of becoming, moving through the mother wound, his religious upbringing, and the early experiences that sharpened his curiosity. He shares why he sees revelation as the moment when previously collected pieces finally organize into clarity, and how trusting the authority of his own questions has guided his life and work.

We talk through:

• Revelation vs. information — why most “aha” moments are old truths finally landing in the right order
• Habituation and the hedonic treadmill — how we get used to everything, even the life we once wanted, and how Jed disrupts that pattern
• How he now makes sense of the 30-year-old who biked from Oregon to Patagonia — and the life that opened because of it
• How his first three books became a trilogy of healing the mother wound
• Why living fully as yourself quietly liberates other people to do the same
• His eight-week, no-phone sabbatical in rural Colorado during the election — and what surfaced when the noise stopped
• Why he believes many of us are one sabbatical away from a breakthrough
• Entering the “youngest old person” season of life and finding a beginner’s mindset again in midlife

We also talk about the truth of the moment — how naming what’s real as it arises becomes its own form of presence — and how Jed has had to rebuild his sense of truth from the inside out after growing up inside a religious system that defined it for him. He reflects on learning to trust the authority of his own questions, and why that practice continues to shape his life and his work.

And yes — we talk about the leaf.
The one Kathryn caught during a silent walk at Jed’s retreat, the one that never touched the ground. Jed wrote on it: What falls will feed the new. It becomes a quiet throughline for this conversation about clarity, courage, and letting what’s no longer true fall away so something more honest can grow.

More from Jedidiah Jenkins:
• Website — www.jedidiahjenkins.com
• Instagram — @jedidiahjenkins
• Substack — jedidiahjenkins.substack.com
• Forthcoming fourth book — out fall 2026 (fun sneak peek at the process mentioned in the episode)

Connect with The Truth Is:
🎥 Watch the full conversation on YouTube → @thetruthis_pod
📸 Follow on Instagram → @thetruthis_podcast

Credits
Hosted by Kathryn Flaschner
Edited by Dan Croll
Music by Will Savino
Visual Identity by Sarah Gainer & Jonathan Bush
Advised by Natalie Tulloch