From Amy:

From the beginning, my podcast has done whatever it wanted. It is, at best, loosely scripted.

As in: There's no application process. You cannot pitch yourself. I will say no thank you. This is the ONLY way it works: Someone says something that sparks my attention and I reach out to invite them. Most of the time they say yes, and if a conversation never comes to pass, then it isn't meant to happen. Each season, the podcast puts itself on hiatus so that I can write a book or record other content. Whatever I have recorded will keep. Sometimes conversations have sat for a year before I come back around to them, returning just at the right time.

In other words, I really don't think about this podcast. I feel it.

Recently, my production partner, the Brilliant Brooke Roy asked me how long I thought the current Season 6 would run. I didn't know because things have been kind of crazy around here in Minnesota. But as the ICE occupation took hold, three episodes wanted to happen as a dismount. This is the third one. Good thing too, because with all that's been going on, I'm finding myself drawn in new directions.

The podcast wants go on hiatus: I have new ideas to unpack, books to write, and book writers to support.

This final Season 6 episode does everything I describe above, dialed up to an 11. In 2026, I've only wanted to talk with people intimately acquainted with Minnesota. I want you to see this (still ongoing) ICE situation as we do, living through it. We are not quaint heroes, though it's tempting to paint us this way. We are people who have found good ways to play in the face of some pretty atrocious attacks on our neighbors in the Twin Cities and across our state. I'm proud to land on this conversation with my friend Tom Bell from my class at Carleton College.

Tom loves Minnesota. He isn't from here, and he doesn't live here now, but he once made Minnesota his home, and he's got a way with words, consistently centered around his Habits of Heart. I'm not quoting him here, but I liberally quote Tom back to himself in our conversation. After you listen, do yourself a favor and go read what he's written in the links below. Tom's is the strong, gentle kind of voice and vision we all need.

Anyway. This episode... We had set a time to talk and Tom had to reschedule. Then we recorded a whole conversation for which the files didn't turn out—not surprising because Tom's Internet kept cutting out. Third time's a charm, though. We both happened to have an extra free hour, that same day, and this episode was the result. Not scripted, not perfect. (Seriously not perfect. I refer to Joseph Lee Haywood as "Hayward" and I can't fix it and I'm not bothering to try. I love what resulted from our improvisational podcasting dance.

It's almost like this episode wanted to catch us off guard so that it could do what it really wanted.

It's exactly the message that both of us wanted to share at this time: That stories aren't frivolous. Play isn't wasting time. Perfection isn't a useful construct when it gets in the way of expressing our hearts. And perhaps most importantly, love can (and does) guide our actions even in the very worst human moments, and more than that, echo out to the people who need examples of what that might look like where they live.

Thomas Bell is an advocate of heart-led critical thinking, loving leadership, and transformative storytelling. As a writer, actor, dancer, aerialist, speaker, facilitator, and adventure athlete, he lives and leads toward truth, love, and beauty in many modes, with more yet to come as the future unfolds. Yet through them all runs an unwavering commitment to kindness, creativity, critical thinking, joy, abundance, and love.

Linkedin:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/thomas-r-bell/

Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/thomasrbell/

Website:

https://thethomasbell.com/

Substack “Habits of Heart”:

https://substack.com/@habitsofheart

There’s a full description of the newsletter here: https://habitsofheart.substack.com/about

Amy Hallberg is the author of Tiny Altars: A Midlife Revival and German Awakening: Tales from an American Life. She is the host of Courageous Wordsmith Podcast and founder of Courageous Wordsmith Circle for Real-Life Writers. As an editor and writing mentor, Amy guides writers through their narrative journeys—from inklings to beautiful works, specifically podcasts and books. A lifelong Minnesotan and mother of grown twins, Amy lives in the Twin Cities with her husband and two cats.

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