sweet magnolias

Host Jaclyn Lindsey dives into a discussion with the remarkable JoAnna Garcia Swisher to discuss the role of kindness in her work, her family, and her online initiative The Happy Place. 

Currently, Swisher stars in Netflix’s hit show “Sweet Magnolias” as ‘Maddie Townsend.’ The third season premiered on Netflix on July 20, 2023.  Swisher is best known for playing Reba’s daughter ‘Cheyenne Montgomery in “Reba.” 

Outside of acting, Swisher has founded The Happy Place, a destination that explores, motivates, and empowers the experience of living a life with intention and how that reflects in your interiors. At its core, The Happy Place will ignite and inspire the inner designer in every person. She has also been inspired by her partnership with the Step Up Women’s Network and Hills Pet Nutrition. Swisher, along with her husband Nick Swisher, also founded the Swisher Family Foundation with a mission of providing children in need with medical care, education, and recreational activities.

This podcast is one of the many ways we live out our organization's mission to educate and inspire people to choose kindness. Visit our site kindness.org and sign up to become a part of our global community which spans more than 100 countries. It's free to join and when you do you'll be the first to get access to our latest research, tools, and even episodes of this podcast. Let's build a kinder world, together. Contact us at podcast@kindness.org or on social at @kindnessorg. 

Sponsored by Verizon

Important links from this week's episode:

• thehappyplacepresents.com
• kindness.org

Follow JoAnna on social:

• Instagram: @jogarciaswisher @thehappyplace
• Twitter: @JoAnnaLGarcia
• TikTok: @joannagarciaswisher

Credits 

• Host: Jaclyn Lindsey
• Guest: JoAnna Garcia Swisher
• Producer: Melissa Malone
• Associate Producer: Becca Reed
• Assistant Producer: Leah Fullerton
• Music Composition: Chris Christiana
• Design: Ben Gibson, Christine Do, Smithfield Studio

Transcript available at this link.

In 1970, Black Theatre Troupe founder Helen K. Mason launched the oldest Black theatre organization in the Southwest Region of the United States while in Phoenix, AZ. She was 60 years old at the time and ready for retirement, but the neighborhood children told her performing plays was what they wished to do. The theatre still exists with a thriving season under Executive Director David Hemphill. He joins the show to reflect on her legacy. A treasured archive from Bryant's road trip from San Diego to Phoenix that captured his Grandmother's story in her own words via cassette tape, sets the scene.

This episode first aired on KBLA Talk 1580.

Encore Episode : Sheryl J. Anderson, the Creator and Executive Producer of the hit Netflix show Sweet Magnolias, discusses how she started as a storyteller, the way her life experience made her uniquely qualified to create this hit show, and how faith has played a crucial role for her as an artist. She also talks about her life priorities and how she has been able to get where she is today.

On writing Sweet Magnolias, Sheryl explains, "We had a running joke in the writer's room that we wanted to make the audience laugh out loud once an episode, cry once an episode, and then whatever they wanted to do in between was fine. But the running joke became that we wanted to do that to each other every day in the room and we laughed a lot together and we cried a lot together."

This episode originally aired April 2021.

See more at NavigatingHollywood.org.

Links:

• Sweet Magnolias Official Site

• Sweet Magnolias on Facebook

• Navigating Hollywood

• Sheryl J. Anderson on IMDb, Twitter

• Allen Wolf on IMDb, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter

• Allen Wolf’s website

We talk to the extraordinary Sheryl J. Anderson, veteran writer and showrunner. She tells us how 'famous, toxic' writers' rooms taught her how to lead her own show the right way, her regrets about not speaking up to protect women writers in her youth and the tremendous influence of her military father.
She explains how the best work can be done by a happy team, how the extraordinary success of Sweet Magnolias only inspires her to work harder and her 'law school' moments of sitting on the kitchen floor crying in the middle of the night and wondering if she should give up writing and do something different.
An honest, thoughtful and insightful view of how to survive and succeed in Hollywood.