I want more places where people can actually talk to each other.
Not networking events. Not webinars where you sit muted while someone talks at you for an hour. Not another Zoom call where you’re supposed to leave with seven action items. We don’t need more information—we live in a world where content comes pouring out of all of our social feeds in a stream that never stops running.
What’s missing is deep, wandering, important conversation. Space to say things out loud, hear the sound of our own voices, and reflect back to each other what we’re thinking. I want to be in rooms where we can bring a good question, learn how other people are thinking about it, and even (if we dare), begin to tell the real truth about our own lives. This kind of conversation is powerful, because it breaks down the worries, the fears, and the insecurities that social media can so powerfully build up in our minds.
So this summer and fall, I’m hosting a little series of book clubs, salons, and round-table conversations. The September Salons, which are in collaboration with The Wise Women’s Council, is a series of women-only salons about friendship, reinvention, work, identity, and the things we don’t always have a good place to say out loud.
These are designed to be participatory. You don’t need to prepare anything impressive. You don’t need to be an expert. Come as you are, and come ready to talk. Open to women, including trans women and nonbinary people who feel at home in women-centered spaces. Tickets are $20, but if you’re a paying subscriber here on Substack, scroll to the end of this post for your complimentary access codes.
Here’s what’s coming up in late Summer and Fall 2026:
Wise Women’s Salon: A Conversation About Female Friendships
Wednesday, September 2
1:00–2:30pm ET
How do you make new friends in midlife? How do you deepen the friendships you already have? What happens when a friendship changes—or ends? How do we build the kinds of friendships and communities we actually want around us? This is a conversation about the strange, beautiful, sometimes painful world of adult female friendship.
Wise Women’s Salon: Saying the True Things Out Loud
Wednesday, September 16
1:00–2:30pm ET
There are some things you can’t figure out by thinking about them harder. Sometimes you need a room where you can finally say the thing out loud. Kristina Flynn of Story EQ and I will lead this intimate, confidential salon about the things we’re carrying—the questions, changes, desires, frustrations, truths, and stories that don’t always have an obvious place to go. Join us for a private, intimate event where we tell our stories and witness the real lives of other women navigating the ALL of it. This isn’t a networking event or a lecture. It’s a salon, which means we’re focused on conversation and connection.
Reinventing Yourself, Reimagining Your Career
Wednesday, September 30
1:00–2:30pm ET
Maybe you’ve outgrown the thing you worked very hard to build. Maybe you’re considering a career change, starting something new, returning to work, or questioning what success even means to you anymore. Or maybe you just have that persistent little feeling: I think I want something different now.
Join us for Reinventing Yourself →
Fall Book Club: Communion by bell
Wednesday, October 14
1:00–2:30pm ET
This fall, we’re reading bell hooks’ Communion: The Female Search for Love.
It’s a book about women and love—but also friendship, intimacy, self-love, aging, partnership, and what happens when we begin questioning everything we were taught about how women are supposed to find and experience love.
Read the whole thing. Read half of it. Dog-ear forty pages and come ready to argue with them. Come talk with us.
What’s missing in modern life is slow connection, meandering conversation, and the space to say things out loud to each other.
Social media is not connection. Liking posts, scrolling feeds, listening to YouTube, watching lectures on Zoom … none of that is the real stuff of listening deeply and being heard. Come join us for a 90-minute session focused on storytelling, rambling, and sharing what’s true for you. You can be messy, in progress, struggling, full of emotions, and more. Show up as you are. We’d love to see you.
— Sarah K Peck
Paid Subscribers Get Free Tickets!
Below are your access codes to join all of the events for free. (If you’re not yet a paid backer, you’ll unlock the entire archive of past posts, plus event tickets and more, by upgrading today. Thank you for making this work possible!)