Something (rather than nothing)

Jen Michalski currently lives in Carlsbad, California. She graduated from St. Mary’s College of Maryland with a BA in English and received her MS in Professional Writing from Towson University. She was voted one of the best authors in Maryland by CBS News, one of "50 Women to Watch" by The Baltimore Sun, and "Best Writer" by Baltimore Magazine (Best of Baltimore issue, 2013).

Her new novel ALL THIS CAN BE TRUE was released by Turner...

Ophelia Darkly is a DJ, model, writer, performer, and Doll Tarot reader based out of Portland, Oregon. Magic, dreams, and storytelling are the threads that bind all of her creative ventures together. She believes that art, in all its forms, is one of the most sacred forces of the universe.

Enjoy this wonderful conversation with Ophelia and the many magickal places she takes us . . . 

Episode 301 of The Something Rather Than Noth...

Something Rather Than Nothing Podcast Episode 300!!! We talk ABOLITION.

Calvin John Smiley, Ph.D. is an associate professor of sociology at Hunter College-CUNY. His research and scholarship broadly focus on issues related to justice, inequality, and race. Smiley is the co-editor of Prisoner Reentry in the 21st Century: Critical Perspectives of Coming Home (Routledge, 2020). He is the author of the award-winning P...

Sophia Hembeck is a bilingual writer and artist based in Edinburgh. She has published three books (Things I Have Noticed, 2020 & Things I Have Loved, 2023 & Thiings That Are Different Now, 2025) which are compromised of her essays and short prose as well as artwork that she specifically created for the books. They are part of her poetic-memoir trilogy." She’s a fierce advocate for literary essays and teaches essay writing c...

This episode was recorded and captured LIVE on Independent Bookstore Day (April 26, 2025) from Browsers' Bookstore in Albany, Oregon. 

Pete Dryden:

Photographer, cabinet maker, professional overthinker. Hiding out in Albany, Oregon—dodging small talk, chasing meaning in the grain and the frame. Restless mind, calloused hands, too many questions and never enough quiet.

Abe Richmond:

Owner of Browsers’ Bookstore. If spotted in the w...

About Craig Randall - I've loved stories and literature and writing for as long as I can remember. For just as long, I've also struggled with anxiety and depression. They have loomed over me, all my life, threatening to steal away whatever hope and joy i've worked so hard to build.

All my work, the fiction and the poetry, was born out of this struggle as I worked to overcome and deal the hardships these struggles brought on.

There's ...

Shippentower is named Co-Captain of the Oregon Ravens Football Team!

Kola Shippentower is an enrolled member of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation. She has co-founded and is the Director of The Wisáwca Project - Enough Iz Enough, a non-profit organization working together for change, for better communication and involvement.

Kola has developed a Safety Plan to be utilized by anyone in identifying safet...

Meghan Lamb is the author of Mirror Translation (Blamage Books, 2025), COWARD (Spuyten Duyvil, 2022), Failure to Thrive (Apocalypse Party, 2021) All of Your Most Private Places (Spork Press, 2020) and Silk Flowers (Birds of Lace, 2017). Her work has also appeared in Quarterly West, DIAGRAM, Redivider, and Passages North, among other publications. She currently teaches creative writing through the University of Chicago, Story Studio...

Raechel Wolfe is a multi-disciplinary artist based in Portland, OR, whose work spans film, writing, modeling, and Creative Direction. She made waves by creating FINK, the world’s first Instagram-exclusive short film, and was a founding member of the core team behind Buckman Journal. Raechel continues to push creative boundaries, now adding curator to her dynamic portfolio.

Featuring co-host and model/artist Jenny Peterson.

For Your E...

elle nash is an electrifying writer based in glasgow, scotland

this is about her book 'deliver me' - 

At a meatpacking facility in the Missouri Ozarks, Dee-Dee and her co-workers kill and butcher 40,000 chickens in a single shift.

The work is repetitive and brutal, with each stab and cut a punishment to her hands and joints, but Dee-Dee’s more concerned with what is happening inside her body. After a series of devastating miscarr...

Vanessa Stockard recently visited the podcast for the 3rd time!

Vanessa Stockard was born in 1975 in Sydney and spent her formative years in a small country town in the Mid North Coast of New South Wales.  At 12 she returned to Sydney as a boarder at Abbotsleigh.  After graduating from the College of Fine Arts (COFA) Sydney in 1998 with a BFA, Stockard launched head first into the avant-garde art scene in the bohemian vill...

Rachael Tyrell aims to create art that reimagines classic pinup aesthetics through a contemporary lens. Working primarily with Sharpies and various inks, she crafts pieces that radiate raw energy.

Her sculptural work transforms everyday objects into surreal expressions, challenging expectations.

Drawing from her background as a model, Rachael's art explores the fluid boundary between being seen and seeing. She wields ink with intenti...

Lady Ro is a Baltimore based indie folk rock musician. Formally know as Baby Carrots, Lady Ro began playing shows in Baltimore in 2019, where she quickly garnering a solid following. Her performances are a dynamic blend of heartfelt song writing, humor, a stirring powerful voice, and a wicked sense of style.

We had a lovely chat about the great city of Baltimore, DIY aesthetic, thanos & eros, creativity, melancholy, style, the c...

Enjoy a lovely and vulnerable chat with Kels & Tess. Host Kenny and Co-host Jenny explore health, excitement, sex, p*rn and the powerful things that move us. 

Kels is a producer, businesswoman, and sex and relationship enthusiast. She never underestimates the power of a good story or a good spreadsheet.

In tandem with a career in project management and marketing, she has been writing, directing, producing and performing for ...