Laura Joyce Davis bw_profile.jpg
 

Laura Joyce Davis // writer & host

A Minneapolis native who now calls Oakland home, Laura Joyce Davis is an award-winning fiction writer, a Fulbright scholar, a WNYC Podcast Accelerator finalist, and a two-time Pushcart Prize nominee. She's been featured in interviews with Mind of a Mentor, Jump Start Your Joy, 2 Lives, The Pod Broads, Future Hindsight, @Sea, Emerging Form , Out There, and elsewhere.

She’s also a mom of three young kids who believe that anything is possible if you have a cape, a crown, and a very good book (she doesn’t disagree). In past lives she’s been a collegiate running coach, a Big Ten athlete, an award-winning a cappella singer, and a blue ribbon winner at the 4-H county fair. Both at Shelter in Place and in Laura’s past writing are grounded in the conviction that changing our communities begins with changing ourselves. Laura’s full bio

  • Tish Ambal, social media manager for the award-winning Shelter in Place podcast, Kasama Collective podcast training intensive, and Labs Weekender self-paced narrative podcasting course

    Tish Ambal

    SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGER

    • Helps female podcasters shine on social media
    • Based in Cebu, Philippines (home of the best mangoes on earth!)
    • Corporate 9-5 escapee
    • Mantra-sharer, encouragement-giver, goal-setter

  • Melissa Lent, project manager at the award-winning Shelter in Place podcast and Kasama Collective podcast training intensive program, and Labs narrative podcast training course

    Melissa Lent

    PROJECT MANAGER

    • Winter 2021 intensive training program grad
    • Co-writer and main VoiceOver for “hyphenated identity
    • Writer and host, Tired in My Twenties podcast
    • Polyglot, Notion nerd, native New Yorker

  • Sarah Edgell, design director at the award-winning Shelter in Place podcast and Kasama Collective podcast training intensive program, and Labs narrative podcast training course

    Sarah Edgell

    DESIGN DIRECTOR

    • Omnivorous visual career spanning painting, ceramics, interior, textile, graphic, & web design
    Major clients include Denver Symphony, Mizel Museum, Babi Yar Park, and ColonTown
    • Chief hiker, cheerful dissenter, ceramic maker, chihuahua handler

  • Nate Davis, creative director at the award-winning Shelter in Place podcast, Kasama Collective podcast training intensive, and Labs Weekender self-paced narrative podcasting course

    Nate Davis

    CREATIVE DIRECTOR

    • 15-year advertising survivor with occasional recognition
    • In-house writing experience from construction to insurance to tech
    • Story editor, podcast course instructor, awkward youtuber, road biker, self-made mulleteer

A standout narrative nonfiction podcasting team

  • W3 silver award winner (best scriptwriting), for Shelter in Place podcast episode "Dancing Saved My Life."

    W3 Awards // silver, best scriptwriting

    A beautiful bicultural story of how you have to leave home to find it, our episode “Dancing saved my life” earned a silver award in the “best scriptwriting” category amongst 3,000+ entries in this digital media award show in its 17th year.

  • Stanford University logo, where Laura Joyce Davis teaches podcasting at the Stanford Storytelling Project

    Stanford Storytelling Project

    In addition to teaching online at Narrative Podcasts, Laura also teaches podcasting in person at the Stanford Storytelling Project. They explore “how we live in and through stories and, even more importantly, how to deepen our lives through our own storytelling.”

  • Laura Joyce Davis, writer and host at Shelter in Place, an award-winning narrative nonfiction podcast. Laura was named one of Podcast Magazine's top 22 influencers for 2022.

    Podcast Magazine // 2022 top influencers

    Editors said of the list — mostly household names and big execs — “Whether inspiring, informing, and/or entertaining, each has made unique and powerful contributions to the medium.” A great vote for indie storytelling!

  • Winner badge for 2022 Social Impact Awards, given to award-winning narrative nonfiction podcast Shelter in Place, with soothing female voiceover by  Laura Joyce Davis

    Social Impact Awards // winner

    The Social Impact Awards honor communicators who better their community and the global community at large. Our Kasama Collective training program won for mentorship and organizational mission.

  • Logo for the International Women's podcast awards, which Shelter in Place won

    International Women's Podcast Awards // winner

    Our episode “An Affront to Zeus” won the category “Changing the World a moment at a time.” The show, from Skylark Collective, attracted hundreds of entries from 13 countries. See the short award announcement video below:

  • Golden Crane podcast awards nominee artwork, 2021, earned by Shelter in Place podcast for the episode "hyphenated identity"

    Golden Crane Awards // honorable mention

    Our April episode “Hyphenated identity” won an honorable mention in the “best stories reflecting the Asian experience” category for the 2021 awards, hosted by the Asian-American Podcasting Association.

  • Descript transcription service logo

    Descript "Studio Sound" contest // finalist

    Laura’s sample video showing how she used Descript’s new Studio Sound feature to improve a clip is a finalist in this contest. Descript is an advanced audio-to-text editing tool which we use to create every single episode of Shelter in Place!

  • WNYC podcast accelerator logo

    WNYC podcast accelerator // finalist

    Laura’s first podcasting project, “Misinformed,” was a finalist for the 2019 accelerator contest, held at the Werk It! podcasting conference in Los Angeles. Judges were from WNYC, one of the country’s premier public radio stations.

  • Radio Mercury Awards logo, won by Narrative Podcasts co-founder Nate Davis in 2004

    Radio-Mercury Awards // winner

    While in advertising portfolio school, Nate won the student category of this nationwide radio contest with his 60-second spot promoting recycling, “Can Karma.”

The stories behind each season of Shelter in Place

Madeline Street sign in Oakland, California, home to the award-winning narrative nonfiction podcast Shelter in Place.

Season three: the search for home

After returning from our pandemic Odyssey in August 2021, we’ve found the answer that Oakland still feels like home — but bigger questions remain: how do we not go back to normal, or defeatedly accept a “new normal,” but work toward a better normal?

How do we embrace the journey in a world forever changed?

In a time when the term “post-pandemic” keeps receding into the future, can we escape not out of life — but into it?

Shelter in Place podcast :: Davises leaving Oakland.JPG

Season two: pandemic Odyssey

For centuries, California has been a magnet for adventurers and dreamers, artists and writers — for people like us.

Yet today, many Californians are questioning their future here. After living in Oakland for 16 years, the combination of COVID, Zoom school, and wildfires pushed us to migrate.

Many whose life has been overturned by the pandemic will relate to our struggle — yet our response was not simply to flee, but to create. Narrated by Laura, Shelter in Place is the podcast that follows our travels — physical and emotional — through the pandemic.

To be alive right now means to be confronted with life's toughest questions, all at once: what does it mean to be human? How do we connect with others? And how do we create a better tomorrow? Through open-hearted storytelling and with an inviting voice, Laura Joyce Davis gives us the agency to face the day, with a friend.

Season one: “finding sanity in a world that feels increasingly insane.”

This was the theme line that emerged early on, when “shelter in place” was a new term for the pandemic quarantine that prompted Laura to start the podcast. As we grappled with how to cope with this strange new stage of life, we were inspired to try to define sanity for ourselves — with twelve themes that still act as touchstones for our show that began as a Covid time capsule, but grew into an award-winning narrative nonfiction podcast, two training programs, and our life’s work. We wrote these words almost 18 months ago, but they still reflect how we approach the podcast, the training programs, and life.

(To hear Laura read the full version, listen to episode 70, Redefining Sanity.)


What sanity means to us: a manifesto

Authenticity

To be sane is to be genuine. This is my defining trait that either draws people in, or pushes them away. Nothing says “love” to me like someone seeing me at my worst, and sticking around anyway.

Browse episodes about authenticity

Creativity

To be sane is to create, a way to salvage beauty from our pain. For me, it’s often writing, but it can be building a business, a bookshelf, or a family. Creativity can teach us how to move from curiosity instead of striving for perfection.

Browse episodes about creativity

Hope

To be sane is to have persistent hope for a better future. Not mere fanciful dreaming, it’s a long look at reality that acknowledges pain, suffering, or injustice, but choosing to bend toward hope.

Browse episodes about hope

Rest

To be sane is to rest. Many of us have lost jobs, cancelled travel, and cleared schedules--and yet true rest remains elusive. Our challenges is finding rest for ourselves and our planet, even in a turbulent time.

Browse episodes about rest

Community

To be sane is to be together. Real friendships help us to accept and reframe our ugliest parts as beautiful. They extend to us the grace we need to extend to ourselves.

Browse episodes about community

Faith

To be sane is to have faith in something. Whether it’s the whisper of the wind through the trees, or the breath of a prayer when we long to be found, faith reminds us that we matter, that our lives can be a gift to others.

Browse episodes about faith

Lament

To be sane is to experience the fullness of humanity, pausing life’s pace, acknowledging what has been lost, and grieving it in its due. There is a time for action, and a time to sit with the truth that things are not as they should be.

Browse episodes about lament

Safety

To be sane is to be safe: if we aren’t, we can’t be creative, can’t laugh, can’t hope. Many of us do not feel safe, so my daily search for sanity envisions a safer world for all, and a provides a safe place for us to grow together.

Browse episodes about safety

Courage

To be sane is to face the hard things, with family, friends, or society. It’s having the humility to admit our wrongs, and then choosing to repair them, personally and globally.

Browse episodes about courage

Growth

To be sane means moving toward a more sustainable existence, and learning to balance progress with self-acceptance. It means doing the hard work of transformation out in the world even as you do it in yourself.

Browse episodes about growth

Laughter

To be sane is to laugh. Laughter is a necessary release valve from grief, an invitation to silliness, a gift of levity, of delight. Laughter recalls a childlike surprise at the world, and often, we have to go looking for it.

Browse episodes about laughter

Touch

During this time of quarantine, we no longer take for granted handshakes and hugs from friends. Moving forward, we need to find tangible connections without endangering each other’s health and well-being.

Browse episodes about touch

What listeners are saying


“Laura has the most eloquent yet down to earth way to tell her stories. I close my eyes and just listen.”

— CabbyB105 on Apple Podcasts. Leave your review (scroll down below episodes).

“An uplifting fusion of art and honesty, full of insights into our strange cultural moment.”

— jsk75gate on Apple Podcasts

Narrative Podcasts workshops

Would you like to make your own podcast like Shelter in Place but aren’t sure where to start? Or maybe you have some audio or podcasting experience, but want to boost your scriptwriting, narration, or sound design skills? Our one day workshops are for you.

Each two-hour Saturday session features insider insights from our award-winning shows, tutorials, examples, live exercises, feedback, and Q & A. You’ll finish each workshop with real practice, increased confidence, additional resources, and inspiration from committed peers.