Laura Gassner Otting 
This is not your usual banana bread. It’s also not even a good banana bread. It’s the banana bread of exhaustion. Sure, it looks pretty from the outside. But on the inside it has an extra half cup of flour. And in addition to its usual teaspoon of baking powder, it also has a teaspoon … Read more
A little real talk. I was texting with a dear friend this morning and I asked her how she was doing. She replied, “I have more energy for the things I love to do, if that makes sense.” And, oh boy, does it ever. 2021 was super rough for me. I almost didn’t make it … Read more
Should all the people in your life really be in your life?Which of them should be getting a vote about what actually works for you?And how much do you want to bet that the number should be smaller than it actually is? It’s that way for me, too. For years I let everyone in my life … Read more
What would you tell your 8-year-old self? Hi, it’s me. Here’s what I would tell this girl: – You are stronger than you know and everyone else is weaker than they let on. Be nice to them, because you have no idea what they are going through. And be nice to yourself too, because it’s … Read more
Who’s in your framily? I found out a few weeks ago that some guy I know in my small corner of the world was talking shit about me. Over the weekend I learned that someone else from my small corner of the world has held a years long grudge against me. Just yesterday someone sent … Read more
Have you ever need to find the courage to step so far outside of your comfort zone that you found a different version of yourself? That happened to me this past weekend. I got on stage in front of 5,000 people, my biggest audience of my career, and the crowd was wild. The DJ was … Read more
Asking for advice… It seemed like a good idea at the time, right? But are you getting too much advice? You had a problem, an issue, a confusion, and you said, “You know what? I’ll get some advice. I bet Jane can help.” And so you asked Jane. But while you were playing phone tag … Read more
The year was 1994, and I was 23 years old and worth my weight in anxiety and 80s power suits inherited from my mother (the suits, not the anxiety). I was working in the White House after having Wizard of Oz’ed my way into the campaign, the transition team, and eventually a staffing role helping … Read more
When the millenium turned from 1999 to 2000, my husband and I were at a party in Greenwich, Connecticut. Don’t get it twisted. We weren’t “of” Greenwich. We were just “in” Greenwich. To be honest, It was probably the fanciest party we’d ever attended. It was thrown by peers who were friends of friends. These … Read more
At the end of 2016, a young man I know asked me to give him some career advice. I asked him the usual questions about what made him happy, and what he wanted to do, how much he wanted to earn, and the type of job that would give him these things. His answers were … Read more