In our last episode of the season, TW Creative Director John Vogel interviews author Athena Dixon, our first repeat guest for the podcast. A year and a half ago we released Neva’s interview with Athena, which focused on her book The Loneliness Files (Tin House, 2023). This time around, in January 2025, John asked her questions from his Perfect Recognition project focusing on intense aesthetic experiences and people’s life paths towards creativity. Fellow artists might find some resonance and solace in their open discussion about their own disillusionment surrounding artistic pursuit and how their lived experiences deviate from the more common narratives handed down to us.

TW proofreader Jess Barnett hosts award-winning Minnesotan food writer, Steve Hoffman, for a conversation about the unique joys and challenges of travel. Hoffman, a lover of French cuisine and culture, discusses traveling to the picturesque south of France, not as a tourist, skimming the surface of trending destinations, but as a humble guest, ready to immerse himself and his family in the cultural and culinary experience. In his recently published memoir, A Season for That: Lost and Found in the Other Southern France, Hoffman dishes out a humorous and layered perspective on marriage, parenting, and cooking in the small town of Autignac.

Hoffman is a self-described Francophile and lifelong lover of literature. Like many aspiring writers, he relied on other industries for financial stability, working first in real estate before transitioning to tax preparation. Hoffman’s food writing career was launched during his family's extended stay in France in 2012. Upon returning, he wrote for the Minnesota Star Tribune about his experience abroad. His 2018 piece, “What is Northern Food?” earned Hoffman the James Beard MFK Fisher Distinguished Writing Award and propelled his career as a food writer.

Hoffman describes his writing process as a decade-long reflection on “learning how to write a book, while writing one.” Stemming from journal entries during his time in France, he fashioned his writing after inspirational authors like John Updike and Jane Austen. Beyond a vivid depiction of the rural country and aromatic apprenticeship as a winemaker, he offers readers sincere vulnerability. Hoffman explores his imperfections and growth through professional coaching, caring but unvarnished feedback from his wife, and finding the balance in his writing between travel log and storytelling.

Steve Hoffman continues to draw inspiration from shared experiences with his family. Following a recent house fire (thankfully no one was injured), Hoffman’s potential second book will focus on this unfortunate event as a “clarifying devastation.” As someone who closely links identity to physical place and space, he reflects on the skillful art of a simplistic lifestyle and carrying on the “minimal number of things you need to live graciously.”

TW Podcast Production Manager Sarah Tulloch interviewed author Jeanne Blasberg this past September. Jeanne Blasberg is an award-winning and bestselling author and essayist. The two discuss her latest book, Daughter of a Promise, a modern retelling of the story of David and Bathsheba, completing the thematic trilogy she began with Eden and The Nine.