Josie Balka | The Voice Behind Every Poem You’ve Saved on Instagram!
Off The Vine with Kaitlyn Bristowe
PodcastOne
4.4 • 21.3K Ratings
🗓️ 9 December 2025
⏱️ 63 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
#900. Today on Off the Vine, Kaitlyn sits down with the internet’s favorite poet — the woman whose words somehow manage to read our minds — Josie Balka.
They unpack the unexpected moment her career began with one poem at 30, how everything blew up overnight, and what it was like when Hollywood royalty started using her sounds. Josie opens up about creating her own music, the pressure of writing work that feels like hers, and the mindset shift that made her embrace her “luckiest girl in the world” era.
She also gets beautifully vulnerable — diving into the love stories behind her second book Loves of Our Lives, the friendships that shaped some of her most emotional pieces, the cosmetic surgeries she chose entirely for herself, and her hilariously relatable take on being a “pessimistic optimist,” aka constantly worrying every good thing might be the last good thing.
It’s girl talk, real talk, and everything in between. Enjoy!
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EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS:
- (07:36) How it all began: Josie shares the story of turning 30, writing one poem on a whim, and waking up to her life completely changed after it went viral.
- (21:49) The “luckiest girl in the world” mindset: how shifting her perspective transformed her confidence, creativity, and career.
- (35:38) Josie reads a poem from her new book Loves of Our Lives.
- (40:01) Josie gets real about the cosmetic surgery she’s had, why she chose it, and how she approaches transparency with her audience.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This episode of Off the Vine is brought to you by Bombas. |
| 0:02.8 | Head over to Bombas.com slash vine and use code Vine for 20% off your first purchase. |
| 0:08.2 | ORAFrames. For a limited time, visitoraframes.com slash vine and get $35 off ORA's best-selling |
| 0:14.7 | Carver matte frames. Name number one by wirecutter by using promo code Vine at checkout. |
| 0:20.6 | Chewy, every pet deserves a wish come true. |
| 0:23.0 | Send your pet's wish to chewy.com slash Chewy Clause and it might become a reality. |
| 0:28.4 | Plus your wish means that Chewy will donate five meals to pets in need. |
| 0:33.1 | Quince, go to quince.com slash vine for free shipping on your order and 365 day returns now available |
| 0:39.4 | in my homeland Canada too. BetterHelp off the vine listeners get 10% off at betterhelp.com |
| 0:45.4 | slash vine and Pura. Right now when you subscribe to two cents for 12 months you get the Pura |
| 0:50.6 | for free. Now don't wait because this is a limited time offer and it won't |
| 0:54.8 | last. Try it risk free for 30 days now at pura.com. |
| 1:02.7 | You're listening to Off the Vine with Caitlin Bristow. |
| 1:07.2 | Hey, Vino's real quick, if you are listening right now, which obviously you are or you wouldn't be hearing this, can you hit the subscribe or follow button on whatever platform you're on? Please, that one simple thing helps more than you even realize it allows me to keep growing on this podcast and making these episodes the best they can possibly be obviously for you. That's the only favorite I'm going to ever ask, okay? |
| 1:28.1 | It truly means the world to me. Thank you. Now let's get into it. Hey, everybody. Welcome to Off the Vine. I'm your host, Caitlin Bristow. We have Josie Balca in the house, and it's so fun to be in Alberta with a prairie girl talking about all things, plastic surgery. What else do we talk about? Being the luckiest girl in the world. |
| 1:44.2 | Being the luckiest girl in the world. |
| 1:46.2 | I'm blacking out on everything we talked about. Zootopia. Oh yeah. We did a couple conspiracy theories. Um, overall. I don't even think that's what it is. Zoology. No. Zucology. Zucology. Is that what it was? I don't know't know okay we'll find out soon because i'm gonna watch us back |
| 2:02.7 | just to hear about it anyways it was just like a good fun girl chat and i even got her to read |
| 2:07.2 | one of her poems on the air on the air on my podcast we're on the air i'm brain dead right now |
| 2:12.4 | i gotta go okay before we started recording we were talking about just like flying because you have a bit of a fear of flying. Such a bad fear. Okay. Like it'll cripple you. You'll still go to Mexico. Yeah, but I like look up recent plane issues on Google. Oh, gosh. That's like I have a headache. I'm going to Google what's wrong with me. It's almost like if one had happened recently that like my chances are all right. Because it wouldn't happen twice. But |
| 2:37.7 | you get scared to get in a car or drive? No. I know. I know statistically. But I'm terrified. |
| 2:44.1 | Well also I feel like the media is trying to scare us right now with flying. So 100% which I'm like |
... |
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