Hi friends,
More than a year ago, as The Book of Alchemy was making its way into the world, I kept daydreaming about a different way of gathering—one where people could skip the awkward choreography of small talk and actually get real with each other.
Not drinks after work, not another dinner out. Not sitting across from someone at a dinner party asking, “So, what do you do?” for the umpteenth time.
I wanted something slower, more human. A space where strangers and old friends alike could move into the kinds of conversations we’re secretly hungry for. A place for reflection, creative solitude, honesty, laughter, and unexpected intimacy.
That longing eventually became Journaling Club.
On Wednesday, May 20, from 12–1 pm ET, I’ll be hosting a virtual workshop with my friend Priya Parker about how to create gatherings like these in your own life.
Priya is one of the wisest people I know when it comes to bringing human beings together. She’s the author of The Art of Gathering, and over the years I’ve watched her facilitate conversations where people become more honest, alive, and connected to one another with startling speed. She also joined me at the very first Journaling Club I ever hosted, which makes this conversation feel especially poignant.
Together, we’ll explore what makes gatherings meaningful—not just structurally, but emotionally. How to create spaces where people feel safe enough to really show up. How reflection and conversation can deepen one another. And how a room full of strangers can, in the span of a single evening, begin to feel unmistakably like a community.
And yes—we’ll also help you imagine and design a Journaling Club of your own.
The live event is free and open to everyone: Join us here. Paid subscribers will receive the recording afterward.
I’d love to see you there.
Suleika
About Priya Parker—
Priya Parker is helping us take a deeper look at how to create collective meaning in modern life, one gathering at a time. She is a facilitator, strategic adviser, and acclaimed author of The Art of Gathering: How We Meet and Why it Matters. She writes and teaches on Group Life, her Substack publication aimed to make “group help” as normal as “self help.” Trained in the field of conflict resolution, Parker has spent 20 years guiding leaders and groups through complicated conversations about community, identity, and vision at moments of transition. Her new book, The Art of Fighting, is forthcoming in September.
Wish I could be there tomorrow. Thanks, Suleika, for sending the recording of tomorrow’s gathering afterwards. I appreciate it.
Yes, I plan to join you. Hope to see our fellow Journaling Clubbers, new and familiar there. Cheers from the wilds of BC.