On this episode, we talk with Sarah Maslin Nir, author of the book Horse Crazy.

Horse Crazy is part memoir and part cultural exploration. It’s a love letter to an animal. It’s a story about the struggle to belong. And it’s a deep dive into the fascinating things that horses — and the humans connected to them — can teach us about ourselves and our society.

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Many of us assume that self care is inherently selfish — that we either focus on ourselves, or we help others.

But what if that’s a false dichotomy? This story explores how self care can end up being good for the greater community.

The story follows a woman named Linda Mohammad, also known as the Bucket List Traveler, who set out to visit all the national parks in the United States. When she started the project, she was just trying to get in shape and unplug from her hectic life. But the experience snowballed into something much bigger, and much more beautiful, than that.

EPISODE TRANSCRIPT: Click here to read the transcript as you listen.

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HEAR OUR AWARD-WINNING EPISODE: Our episode "A Series of Unlikely Events" won a silver medal in PMJA's annual awards. Listen now.

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My mother always told me I shouldn’t take “no” for an answer. If you don’t get what you want, she said, keep pushing. Growing up, I took that advice to heart: whatever the task at hand, I charged forward with dogged determination. But in 2018, a bicycle accident changed my outlook on what it means to back down, and I started standing up for myself in a new way.

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