Musings from a design researcher and soon-to-be mom — 36 weeks of unanswered questions about work, motherhood, and an unpredictable future.

Also how my parents became my collaborators. Kristin shares how working from home takes on a whole new meaning when the world goes virtual.

Parker discusses Stoked’s experiments to help keep the team sane and creative during these difficult times where burnout is rampant!

Parker tells the story of Stoked’s first attempts at marketing and how the results were not at all what they expected. Marketing may come across to some as shallow work, but for us, it was defining.

Take great care of yourself by building habits or rituals that will help you personally weather the inevitable storm that is coming.

Co-written by our very own Barbara Patchen and her former co-worker Dee Stone, this articles lays out what it's like for a younger person to lead an older person. Hence the title. Barb and Dee worked together for several years leading Leadership Development work at Vanguard Health. In that time they became close friends and co-creators, but at the end of the day, Barb was Dee's boss as well as being a few years her junior. This led to some awkward moments as well as some lifelong learnings.

Learn how a little “woo-woo” makes for fun, meaningful, and sustainable work. Parker reviews a 3-day team retreat that wound down the 2018 work year. At Stoked we feel it's critical to make sure that, as a team, we take the time to connect with each other in very intentional ways. The 2018 team retreat was filled with group meditation, sharing, reflecting, mirroring, laughter, tears, and getting really real with each other. It's not for the faint of heart, but we believe that it's ultimately more impactful for our collective well being and the work we do together.

Anna Love talks about attending barn dances at her grandmother's farm since she was a child. The lessons she pulls from her past are relevant to how she views the notion of rituals in her life. How new rituals need to be hers and not someone else’s idea of what she "should" be doing. Good rituals may last a lifetime, and they may only last a month!

Our friend and collaborator Bernadette Doykos shares some great thoughts on getting started with that big project you’ve been “planning” for so long!

Stoked friend and collaborator Kidd Redd wrote a little piece about his years as a radio disc jockey. According to him, we wasn't very good at it, but like everything in life, it taught him many things. Most importantly this: the strongest stories are those you tell yourself, for good and ill. Edit out the ill, and ask for some goddam help.

In this wonderful peice by Barbara Patchen, she lays out 3 causes of relationship ruts that squander growth and personal freedom and what we can do to fix these issues! Well written, and experiential in nature, you're gonna love this one!

Several members of the Stoked team chimed in on who their heroes in the work world are. As you might imagine, every one of them is radically different and for very different reasons. Yvonne Chouinard, Bruce Springsteen, Andy Puddicombe, Tina Roth-Eisenberg, Devin Carty, Ian MacKaye, and Clark Kensinger. These are the people out in the world doing work we respect and admire and maybe to some degree even try to replicate in our own work.

Stoked co-founder Parker Gates admits to being embarrisingly over-concerned with trying to optimize his life. These days it seems like the internet is full of people who can tell you how to run like so-and-so, make money like so-and-so, and decorate your home like so-and-so. All it takes is living exactly like they live. But at what point do we stop living our own lives and start living cheap imitations of others lives in hope that we'll get what we think they have?

In a wonderful written piece by Stoked's Head of Culture, Barbara Patchen relays her personal experience with the role work has played in her life. Starting with how she observed her parents relationship with work, to her present day idea of what work means in her life.

Parker shares how the influential music of his youth ended up playing such a large role in the way he views and does things in his mid-fourties. These ethos and mindsets that seemed to steer him towards trouble as a kid end up saving and guiding his life in adulthood.