What do you remember about high school?

Here's the story behind "Class Reunion: The Podcast," which is now available on Spotify, YouTube.

One of our senior photos, taken in the spring of 2001.

I made a podcast!

Last fall, I was sitting around a campfire with Frank at Pedernales Falls State Park, trying to explain something funny that happened in high school. I think it was a story about Travis Boatwright and the marching band, but as soon as I started to set up the story, I had to keep explaining more parts of the situation.

What the marching band represented in a small town like Aurora.

How I’d known these classmates since second grade.

How we were all friends, except when we were being jerks to each other.

How it was nice to know everyone in town until that lack of anonymity started to get to you.

Then Liz Gilbert’s “Big Magic” muse threw a bolt of lightening at me. If growing up in Aurora shaped you so much, why don’t you make a podcast interviewing your classmates about how growing up in a small town shaped them, too?

Within minutes, I was sketching out my “why” and the “what.” I started making a list of classmates I wanted to talk to and themes I wanted to unpack. Power dynamics and popularity contests. Bullying. Sports. Racism. Cruising.

A month later, I was interviewing my first subject on Zoom.

Fast forward 8 months later, and that interview is now posted as part of “Class Reunion: The Podcast,” a real thing I made with my own brain, heart and hands.

I’ve released three episodes so far: Shane (the bull rider-turned-dad), Brooke (the laywer-turned-bodybuilder) and Liz (the teen mom-turned-breast care specialist).

Over the next few months, I’ll release about 15 episodes in all, each one a conversation with a different classmate.

You can subscribe to the show on Spotify and on YouTube (with Apple Podcasts and Google Podcasts coming soon!). Want to chip in $3 a month to help produce the show? Head over to patreon.com/classreunionpodcast.

As with my Substack, I’m donating a portion of any of the proceeds from the show to a nonprofit a choice, picked by the classmate featured in each episode.

Thanks to support from Patreon supporters and our first sponsor, Advanced Eyecare Kansas City, I’ve been able to donate to Junior Pro Bull Riders Missouri, Kansas City Free Eye Clinic and the Breast Cancer Foundation of the Ozarks.

I’m also looking for a few more business sponsors, so if you have a company/brand/service you’d like to hear advertised on the show, let me know at info@classreunionpodcast.com.

And lastly, you can follow the show on Instagram @classreunionpodcast!

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This edition of The Feminist Kitchen is going out to all my Substack subscribers, but if you’re a paid subscriber, this is your second email from me this morning. Folks who sign up for the paid version get premium newsletters delivered to their inboxes each week.

This week, I wrote about the Cathedral of Junk, the famed art installation in South Austin that was, believe it or not, my first home in Austin. It’s still one of my favorite places to go to recharge my creative batteries.

Subscribing to Substack (or signing up for Patreon) helps support my creative projects, so thank you so much for taking the time to do that, if you haven’t already.

And if you want to check out my Don’t Fear the Death Card tarot readings or Tarot 101 classes (yup, I do that, too!), head over to calendly.com/addiebroyles.