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What makes a love letter truly intimate? In this episode of One Sealed Letter, Kathryn Hastings returns to one of the podcast’s most beloved subjects: how to write a love letter. Inspired by her own wedding anniversary, the extraordinary marriage of Dolly Parton and Carl Dean, and a passage from a 1901 letter by Rainer Maria Rilke, Kathryn explores a different vision of romantic love. Perhaps the deepest intimacy is not found in becoming one, but in learning to love another person completely while allowing them to remain wholly themselves. From the strange intimacy of correspondence to the importance of attention, specificity, memory, and vulnerability, this episode considers what our letters can say that ordinary conversation often cannot. And, most importantly, how to put that love onto the page.

We are living through a huge shift in how humans communicate. But I don’t think technology is making the letter obsolete. I think it’s setting it free. In this episode, I talk about what I’ve learned from reading hundreds of years of my family’s letters, why so much old correspondence is surprisingly mundane, and what that tells us about the future of letter writing. Letters no longer need to carry the maintenance of life. They can become something more spacious: a place for beauty, depth, contemplation, and the human hand. This is the new frontier of letter writing, and we are shaping it now.

In this episode of The 1 Sealed Letter Podcast, Kathryn Hastings sits down with Alissa Boyer, mentor for Highly Sensitive People (HSPs) and creator of Life by Alissa, for a conversation about sensitivity, intuition, self-trust, and learning to build a life that honors the way you actually experience the world. Alissa shares her own path from a fast-paced career in the fashion industry to discovering that the anxiety and stress she was living with were taking a profound toll on her body. What began as a difficult period of digestive illness ultimately led her into meditation, emotional healing, spirituality, and a much deeper understanding of her own sensitivity. Kathryn and Alissa explore what it means to stop treating sensitivity as a weakness, how we can distinguish intuition from anxiety, the importance of protecting our inner worlds, and the practices that help us return to ourselves. It’s a conversation about trusting your own experience and allowing sensitivity to become a source of strength rather than something you continually try to suppress. About Alissa Boyer Alissa Boyer is a mentor for Highly Sensitive People and the creator of Life by Alissa and Sensitive & Soulful. Originally from Minnesota, Alissa moved to California at 22 to pursue a career in fashion. After the stress of a demanding work environment contributed to serious digestive issues, she began exploring meditation, personal development, emotional healing, and spirituality. That experience transformed not only her health, but the way she understood herself. Today, Alissa helps highly sensitive people better understand their sensitivity, strengthen their intuition and self-trust, and create lives that support their natural way of being. Resources Life by Alissa
https://lifebyalissa.com/ Sensitive & Soulful, Free Resources
https://www.sensitiveandsoulful.com/free-resources Am I a Highly Sensitive Person? Quiz
https://www.sensitiveandsoulful.com/quiz

What makes an object worth keeping? In this episode, Kathryn sits down with artist, filmmaker, and collector Jessica Oreck, founder of the Office of Collecting & Design, a traveling museum devoted to the diminutive, the forgotten, the misplaced, and the unusual. Together they explore the hidden lives of objects, the memories they awaken, and why the seemingly insignificant artifacts of everyday life often become the most meaningful. Their conversation wanders through collecting, letters, museums, Virginia Woolf, Proust, the Japanese concept of mono no aware, the beauty of impermanence, and the surprising importance of leisure, wonder, and attention. They discuss: • Why ordinary objects often outlast precious ones
• The "residue of attention" and how use creates meaning
• How collections become portals to memory
• The relationship between beauty, grief, and impermanence
• Why women, artists, and dreamers need spaces of their own
• The value of everyday rituals and beautiful objects
• The enduring magic of the postal service and correspondence
• What it means to create a legacy in an age of infinite content This is a conversation for collectors, letter writers, artists, nostalgists, and anyone who has ever kept a small treasure simply because it felt impossible to throw away. SHOW NOTES Office of Collecting & Design:
https://officeofcollecting.com/about Museum Tour Dates:
https://officeofcollecting.com/tour-dates Treasure Club:
https://officeofcollecting.com/subscribe/treasure-club Decoder Club:
https://officeofcollecting.com/subscribe/decoderclub Office of Collecting & Design Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/office.of.collecting/

What happens when inheritance is not money, but cabinets, goblets, figurines, yearbooks, mystery boxes, and a thousand emotionally loaded objects no one quite knows what to do with? In this episode, Kathryn sits down with Nick Fox, creator of the wildly resonant Millennial Inheritance series, to talk about the strange, funny, tender, and sometimes overwhelming reality of inheriting other people’s things. Nick shares how a spontaneous video about sorting through family clutter became a rapidly growing community where people process grief, guilt, responsibility, memory, and the sheer weight of accumulation. Together, they discuss the emotional complexity of “inheritance” that was never intentionally passed down, the conversations families are not having before death, Swedish death cleaning, museum donation myths, collecting, sentimentality, and what it means to keep one meaningful object without being buried by the rest. This is a conversation about clutter, but also the stories we leave behind. Follow Nick and explore Millennial Inheritance here: Instagram: @nickfoxradio YouTube: @NickFoxRadio Facebook: Nick Fox Radio X: @NickFoxRadio

In this episode, I’m joined by Rebecca McMillan, illustrator, mother, and co-founder of Wildflower Illustration Co., as well as the creator of The Sunday Letter Project. What began as a simple idea, to write one letter each Sunday, has become something much larger. A quiet movement rooted in presence, memory, and the belief that a handwritten letter still holds the power to change a day, and perhaps even a life. We speak about the letters that shape us early on, the way handwriting carries something of the soul, and what has been lost, and can be found again, in a world that moves increasingly fast and digital. There is something here about family, about creativity without pressure, and about the small rituals that gently return us to ourselves. This conversation is an invitation to slow down, to notice, and to write what we might otherwise leave unsaid. If you feel called, you can take part in The Sunday Letter Project here: https://www.thesundayletterproject.com/ Explore their shop: https://wildflowerillustrationco.com/collections/tslp-all Follow along on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thesundayletterproject/ https://www.instagram.com/wildflowerillustrationco/

Who was Lady Emma Hamilton before she was reduced to a scandal? In this episode of One Sealed Letter, I return to the archive to reconstruct a life that has too often been simplified. Emma Hamilton was not merely the companion of Horatio Nelson, but a woman who rose from obscurity to become an artist, performer, and politically influential figure within the Neapolitan court. 👉 The Letters of Lord Nelson to Lady Hamilton Available via Project Gutenberg: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/15469 📚 Sources & Further Reading This episode draws on: • Royal Museums Greenwich archives and biographical research • Primary correspondence between Emma Hamilton and Nelson (1814 edition) • Contemporary accounts, including William Beatty’s narrative of Nelson’s death ✨ Highly Recommended For modern scholarship, I highly recommend: 👉 England’s Mistress by Kate Williams

What if English had a punctuation mark for sarcasm? Or a symbol specifically for rhetorical questions? Or even a mark that meant love? For centuries, writers, printers, and philosophers have tried to solve a quiet problem in language: written words struggle to convey tone. In speech we have inflection, pacing, and expression. On the page we have only letters and a handful of punctuation marks. That gap has inspired generations of thinkers to invent entirely new symbols for irony, disbelief, affection, and astonishment. In this episode, we explore the strange history of modern punctuation that was proposed but never adopted. We also explore how ton incorporate these interesting symbols into your writing. ⸻ Sources Bazin, Hervé. Plumons l’Oiseau (1966). Denham, Henry. Early typographic proposals for rhetorical punctuation (1580s). Speckter, Martin K. “Making a Point, or What’s the Story with the Interrobang?” TYPEtalks Magazine, 1962. Parkes, Malcolm B. Pause and Effect: An Introduction to the History of Punctuation in the West. University of California Press, 1992. Wilkins, John. An Essay Towards a Real Character and a Philosophical Language. London, 1668. Unicode Consortium. Unicode Character Database and historical punctuation documentation. Smith, Keith Houston. Shady Characters: The Secret Life of Punctuation, Symbols, and Other Typographical Marks. W. W. Norton & Company, 2013. Houston, Keith. Shady Characters: Ampersands, Interrobangs and Other Typographical Curiosities. Profile Books, 2013.

In 1858, Charles Dickens wrote a private letter explaining the collapse of his marriage. It was meant to be shown, not published. Within months, it appeared in newspapers on both sides of the Atlantic. This episode tells the story of that letter and what followed. The full text is read aloud, then placed in historical context alongside Dickens’s public statement, contemporary press reactions, and what later emerged about the lives of Catherine Dickens and Ellen Ternan. This is not a verdict. It is an inquiry into how letters shape power, silence, and legacy, and what happens when private words outlive the people who wrote them. ⸻ Sources • Charles Dickens, letter to Arthur Smith, 25 May 1858 (“The Violated Letter”) • Charles Dickens, “Personal,” Household Words and The Times, June 1858 • Contemporary newspaper coverage, August–September 1858 • Claire Tomalin, The Invisible Woman • Lillian Nayder, The Other Dickens • Patrick Leary, “How the Dickens Scandal Went Viral,” The Victorian Web • Charles Dickens Museum, Catherine Dickens correspondence

In this episode, we explore the life and letters of Paula Modersohn-Becker (1876–1907), one of the first women to paint herself nude and a pioneer of early Expressionism. Through her correspondence, Paula offers a rare, unfiltered window into the emotional world of a woman artist caught between creativity, duty, and selfhood. This episode centers on one of Paula’s 1907 letters written while she was pregnant, a raw and revealing piece in which she pleads with her sister to stop calling her impending childbirth a “blessed event.” Tired of being defined only by motherhood, Paula confides her fear of losing her identity as an artist and admits, “I have worked so little.” We reflect on how Paula’s exhaustion, honesty, and fierce self-belief echo the struggles many still face today: the tension between personal purpose and societal roles, between ambition and expectation. Through historical context and Paula’s own words, this episode offers a meditation on identity, overwhelm, and the timeless courage to believe in oneself. Full Letter Featured: Letter from Paula Modersohn-Becker to her sister (Worpswede, 1907), translated from German. Primary Sources and References: ​ Bachrach, Susan. Paula Modersohn-Becker: Biography. Fembio. https://www.fembio.org​ The Art Story Foundation. “Paula Modersohn-Becker Artist Overview and Analysis.” https://www.theartstory.org/artist/modersohn-becker-paula​ Musée d’Orsay. “Women Painters in the 19th Century.” https://www.musee-orsay.fr​ Radycki, Diane. Paula Modersohn-Becker: The First Modern Woman Artist. Yale University Press, 2013.​ Modersohn-Becker, Paula. Letters and Journals. Translated by J. A. Underwood, 1960.

In this episode of One Sealed Letter, we travel back to December 22, 1849, when the Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoevsky stood blindfolded before a firing squad. Moments before the command to fire, a messenger arrived with a pardon from Tsar Nicholas I. What followed was one of the most extraordinary letters ever written: a missive to his brother Mikhail, written just hours after Dostoevsky believed he was about to die. We’ll explore the backstory of his arrest and mock execution, then read the full text of the letter that begins, “Life is a gift, life is happiness, each minute might have been an age of happiness.” Through Dostoevsky’s words, we’ll reflect on how close encounters with death can reawaken our appreciation for beauty, simplicity, and time itself. Read the letter in full and other letters of Dostoevsky here: https://ia800506.us.archive.org/15/items/dostoevskyletter00dostuoft/dostoevskyletter00dostuoft.pdf Sources: • Fyodor Dostoevsky, Letter to Mikhail Dostoevsky, December 22, 1849 (Old Style), translated in Lapham’s Quarterly (“Reborn Into a New Form”) • Walker Caplan, “On the Terrifying Hoax Execution That Haunted Dostoevsky’s Writing,” Literary Hub (2022) • Alex Christofi, “Reborn Into a New Form (1849),” The Public Domain Review • Spencer Baum, “Dostoevsky and the Firing Squad,” Medium

Jack Kelly is an award-winning author and historian. In his newest book God Save Benedict Arnold: The True Story of America’s Most Hated Man, Jack offers a fresh exploration of Arnold’s paradoxical career, shedding new light on this gutsy yet enigmatic figure. In this podcast episode, Jack delves into the life and personal letters of Revolutionary War general Benedict Arnold, examining what they reveal about Arnold’s character and legacy nearly 250 years later. ⸻ Learn More about Jack Kelly • Website: JackKellyBooks.com — https://jackkellybooks.com • Substack (“Talking to America”): Subscribe for nuggets of history and updates — https://jackkellyattalkingtoamerica.substack.com • Pre-order his new book, Tom Paine’s War (publishing January 2026): • Macmillan page: https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250331939/tompaineswar/ • Or wherever you get your books ⸻ Letters Discussed in This Episode 1. Letter from Arnold’s mother (Hannah Arnold, April 12, 1754): https://en.m.wikisource.org/wiki/Benedict_Arnold._A_biography/1 2. Benedict Arnold to the Massachusetts Committee of Safety (Ticonderoga, May 11, 1775): https://www.fortticonderoga.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/The-Capture-of-Fort-Ticonderoga.pdf 3. Arnold’s angry letter to General Horatio Gates (Camp at Stillwater, September 22, 1777): https://historianatsaratoga.wordpress.com/2024/09/22/otd-arnold-wrote-gates-9/ 4. The Nathaniel Bacheller letter (Oct 9, 1777): https://www.newyorkalmanack.com/2019/08/a-benedict-arnold-letter-that-changed-history/ 5. Arnold’s love letters to Betsy DeBlois (1777–78) and recycled for Peggy Shippen (1778–79): https://newenglandhistoricalsociety.com/betsy-deblois-girl-got-away-benedict-arnold/

In this episode, I sit down with Felice Cohen, an author and professional organizer whose lifelong love of letter writing has become her newest creative frontier. Felice is in the midst of a yearlong experiment of handwriting one letter every day, which she shares in her Substack, A Love Letter to Letters: https://felicecohen.substack.com. With more than 1,000 saved letters from her own life, she is also crafting an “epistolary memoir” that weaves together correspondence with reflections on intimacy, nostalgia, and the enduring beauty of putting pen to paper. Beyond her devotion to letters, Felice is the bestselling author of 90 Lessons for Living Large in 90 Square Feet (…or More), inspired by her time living in one of New York City’s smallest apartments, as well as Half In: A Coming-of-Age Memoir of Forbidden Love and What Papa Told Me, based on her grandfather’s Holocaust survival. Her books have been endorsed by Elie Wiesel, taught in classrooms worldwide, and honored with multiple awards. We talk about what letters preserve that digital communication cannot, how personal correspondence becomes a record of connection and resilience, and why handwriting remains a radical act of presence. Learn more about Felice at her website: https://www.felicecohen.com Follow her Substack: https://felicecohen.substack.com Watch her story on YouTube: • Living Large in 90 Square Feet: https://youtu.be/Z4LNwaTUE60?si=h4i-jtDhS7IvbnRF • Organizing Tips & Life Lessons: https://youtu.be/JZSdrtEqcHU?si=y117jtwudEXZCm1T

In 1743, Denis Diderot, later famed as a co-founder of the Encyclopédie, risked everything for love. After being imprisoned in a monastery by his father to prevent an “unsuitable” marriage, Diderot escaped through a window, trudged miles through rain to Paris, and wrote a desperate letter to his beloved, Anne-Antoinette Champion. In it, he confessed that his “life or death depends on [her] welcome.” This episode reads Diderot’s letter in full (in English translation) and explores the circumstances of his clandestine wedding. The marriage took place in secret in Paris in November 1743, just after his thirtieth birthday when parental consent was no longer required. More than a romantic anecdote, this story uncovers the drama of Enlightenment ideals colliding with family authority, and how vows of love and freedom can become life-defining acts.

In this episode of One Sealed Letter, we take to the skies with Benjamin Franklin as he witnesses the first balloon flights of 1783. From the gardens of Versailles to the Champs de Mars in Paris, Franklin recorded these marvels in letters to his friend Sir Joseph Banks, president of the Royal Society. Franklin’s accounts blend diplomacy, science, and wonder. He details how balloons were constructed, the astonishment of crowds, and even his own anxiety for the first men to rise into the air. Along the way, we uncover what his correspondence teaches us about clarity, curiosity, and the art of writing letters that endure. His famous quip, “What good is a newborn baby?” reminds us that every new invention begins in uncertainty before it reshapes the world. As Franklin himself mused, “I begin to be almost sorry I was born so soon, since I cannot have the happiness of knowing what will be known a hundred years hence.” In his words we find not only history, but a timeless lesson for our own creative lives. Primary Sources Read in Full ​ Benjamin Franklin to Sir Joseph Banks, July 27, 1783 (The Papers of Benjamin Franklin, Yale University)​ Benjamin Franklin to Sir Joseph Banks, August 30 – September 2, 1783 (The Papers of Benjamin Franklin)​ Benjamin Franklin to Sir Joseph Banks, October 8, 1783 (The Papers of Benjamin Franklin)​ Benjamin Franklin to Sir Joseph Banks, November 22–25, 1783 (The Papers of Benjamin Franklin) Additional historical context drawn from: ​ The Papers of Benjamin Franklin Digital Edition (Yale University)​ Gillispie, Charles Coulston. The Montgolfier Brothers and the Invention of Aviation, 1783–1784. Princeton University Press, 1983.​ Sciama, Yves. “The Balloonomania of 1783.” Scientific American, November 2003.