INSIDE AND OUTSIDE: Nature + Pop Culture News with Jessica Murnane · Jessica Murnane

The French Gardening Craze of 1908 + The Life of Jane Birkin with Marisa Meltzer (author of It Girl and Glossy)

·54 min·5 clips

I'm a horticultural she is a journalist who has covered beauty, fashion, wellness, and celebrities f...

Jessica Murnane starts with a brief intro. She describes herself as a horticultural therapist, an author, someone who has lately been doing brand work again, and the founder of Basker, where nature and gardening are used for mental and social well-being. She also leaves room for a few announcements. On October 25, she is hosting an in-person class in Charleston at Redux Contemporary Art Center on how to make a podcast, including concepting, editing, recording, intro music and art, booking a dream guest, and monetization. The next day she is leading an hour-long virtual social hangout that introduces horticultural therapy and then moves into art and craft, framed as an affordable hour of calm for people who are stressed, overwhelmed, or lonely. Then the interview begins. The guest talks about how she builds books from different points of access, including her last book about Glossier, where she had first-person access to Emily Weiss and could interview her directly. She says journals matter because they add a rich layer and let a writer stay close to the words people actually used. The conversation then turns to the difficulty of reading a subject from the present without moralizing or psychoanalyzing, especially when the story involves people living in Paris in the 1970s. The result is a thoughtful conversation about how to tell the truth of a life without flattening it into judgment.

As heard by us

A thoughtful conversation about journals, biography, and reading a life with more care.

Jessica Murnane opens by naming her work as a horticultural therapist, author, and founder of Basker, then spends the early stretch on two upcoming events before the conversation finds its footing.

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

A reflective conversation about books, journals, and how you read a life without pretending the present is the only lens.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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