Hi, I’m Elise.

I’m a podcast host, former media exec and magazine editor, and the author of the New York Times bestseller On Our Best Behavior: The Price Women Pay to Be Good as well as its corresponding workbook Choosing Wholeness Over Goodness. (I also co-wrote True and False Magic with the pioneering psychiatrist Phil Stutz and have ghostwritten something like 15 books.) I’m married to a wonderful guy named Rob and we have two sons, Max and Sam. We live in Los Angeles though I was born and raised in Montana and consider that home.

So what’s happening over here?

Across my work, I focus primarily on culture, and the way it lands in our bodies: Why do we do what we do? What’s us versus the stories we’re told about who we’re supposed to be? I’m interested in pulling apart this tapestry so we can re-weave a truer version of who we are. I’m also a seeker: While I’m not affiliated with any religion, I turn to the wisdom traditions of all of them for larger context. I call this applied spirituality: How do we take the vertical—its ineffable, magical nature—and spill it into the horizontal. How do we live this deeper meaning in our ordinary existence? I write about this a lot. Here are some newsletters to the types of things I cover:

• The Most Loving Thing You Can Do: Some Practical Things You Can Do for the One Eventuality

• A Box Full of Darkness: Looking for the Light

• Re-Souling the World: Solving the Crisis of Adolescent Immaturity and Rediscovering Our Shared Morality

• Ending the “Manel”: Doing This Requires Understanding Ourselves

• Yes, There’s Stuff: And Then There’s Home

So what’s happening behind the paywall?

Besides access to paid posts and my archive (this includes all my podcast transcripts and show notes), you’ll also get my list of my most trusted healers, book recommendations on various themes like addiction, death and dying, and mythology, as well as access to quarterly energy healings, Zoom office hours, and occasional online workshops. When I’m not deep in book writing mode, I sometimes write deeper dives for my paid community on topics like guru energy, shadow, archetypal evil, and more.

CONTACT:

OFFICIAL BIO:

Elise Loehnen Fissmer is a writer and editor living in Los Angeles with her husband, Rob, and their sons, Max and Sam. She is the host of Pulling the Thread where she interviews cultural luminaries on the big questions of the day, including Dr. Gabor Maté, Esther Perel, Dr. Temple Grandin, Dr. Harriet Lerner, James Hollis, Loretta J. Ross, Drs. John and Julie Gottman, Dr. Richard Schwartz, Joy Harjo, Dr. B.J. Miller, Nedra Tawwab, Dr. Suzanne Simard. While she’s co-written 15 books, including six New York Times Best Sellers, her first book under her own name, On Our Best Behavior: The Seven Deadly Sins and the Price Women Pay to Be Good (Dial Press, an imprint of Penguin Random House), was also an instant New York Times bestseller. She’s also the author of Choosing Wholeness Over Goodness and co-authored with psychiatrist Phil Stutz (co-author of The Tools).

Previously, she was the chief content officer of goop, where she co-hosted The goop Podcast and The goop Lab on Netflix, and led the brand’s content strategy and programming, including the launch of a magazine with Condé Nast and a book imprint. Previously, she was the editorial projects director of Condé Nast Traveler. Before Traveler, she was the editor at large and ultimately deputy editor of Lucky Magazine,where she also served as the on-air spokesperson, appearing regularly on shows like Today, E!, Good Morning America, and The Early Show. She has a B.A. from Yale and majored in English and Fine Arts; she also went to St. Paul’s School in Concord, New Hampshire. Before that, she attended a school where lunchtimes were spent jumping an irrigation ditch. Originally from Missoula, Montana, it's important to her that people know that she went to the National Mathletes Championship when she was in 8th grade and that she’s a horse whisperer. These days, she spends her time writing, reading, consulting for culture-defining businesses and Fortune 500 founders, doing board work (previously MacKenzie-Childs, Skinfix, currently Jeni’s Splendid Ice Cream), and fundraising for causes and politicians focused on environmental action, social justice, women and children’s health, and a more equitable world. Elise serves on the board of the Santa Monica K-6, PS1 and is on the LA Council for the disaster relief and global health no-profit AmeriCares. Elise reads a lot.

Feel free to use the headshots below, please credit Sarah Cramer Shields,