We're all the center of our own worlds, right? We're all moving around with ourselves at the center. We're doing things because of what we want and where we're going and what we're thinking about. Very rarely do we make a big effort to stop and think about the other people that are around us and what their experience of the same moments and all the other moments around them

that are going on might be. And when we do that, I think our idea about our whole universe can shift.

I'm Jocelyn K. Gly, and this is Hurry Slowly, a podcast about pacing yourself, where I examine

how you can improve your productivity,

activate your creative mind, and enhance your ideas, all through the simple act of slowing down.

Today my guest is Wendy McNaughton, a graphic journalist who's made an art of listening.

And I mean that in the most literal sense. Her most personal work

involves going into communities that are rarely given a voice and shining a light on the inner

lives of the people who make those communities tick. The end result is a series of heartfelt,

freewheeling vignettes that feel like postcards from the other side. They allow you to peek into someone else's world and therefore expand your own.

Wendy did this with particular grace in her book Meanwhile in San Francisco,

a portrait of the Bay Area that extends far beyond the tech entrepreneurs

and hipsters we all know to the tales of communities we often hear less about,

and that are in danger of being erased by the rise of Silicon Valley and all the wealth that it

brings. Wendy has also produced roughly a gazillion other incredible books, primarily collaborations

with other creatives, which include most most recently, Leave Me Alone with the

Recipes, with Sarah Rich, a book that highlights the life and work of groundbreaking female

art director C.P. Pinellas, as well as salt, fat acid heat, the best-selling cookbook she made

with Chef Samin Nosrat, and Lost Cat, which Wendy created with her partner, the writer Caroline Paul.

But today, I'm focusing primarily on Wendy's interest in investigating and profiling unsung

communities. I've noticed the word empathy coming up with increasing frequency and conversations

I overhear and advice columns that I read. And I think Wendy's work, and her grative process in particular,

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