Nina Simon has worn many hats in her career: slam poet, NASA engineer, game designer, and museum director at the Santa Cruz Museum of Art and History. If that didn’t make her busy enough, she went ahead and wrote two nonfiction books: The Participatory Museum and The Art of Relevance. In 2020, Nina’s mom was diagnosed with advanced cancer, so Nina quit her job to help care for her. The two had always enjoyed reading mysteries, so they started imagining one that featured characters a bit like them—hardworking California women trying to balance professional ambition and motherhood. She wrote, her mom read, and the creative process helped them heal and grow closer. Today, Nina’s mom is doing well, and Mother-Daughter Murder Night is a New York Times Bestseller. (Talk about turning lemons into lemonade.)
If you dig this podcast, will you please leave a short review on Apple Podcasts? It takes less than 60 seconds and makes a difference when I drop to my knees and beg hard-to-get guests on the show. I read them all. You can watch this podcast on my YouTube channel and join my newsletter on Substack. It’s glorious.
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