Things That Matter with Martie McNabb

Sometimes we don’t know exactly why we keep something. We just know we can’t let it go. In this episode of Things That Matter, Colleen Clifford shares a small glass frog she bought when she was about six years old during a family trip to Mexico. Her grandfather gave her pesos at a market and tried to teach her how to barter. Colleen doesn’t remember exactly why she chose the frog, but somehow, through decades of moving, traveling, and working as a commercial fisherwoman in Alaska, that little fr

Sometimes the things that matter aren’t valuable at all—at least not in dollars. In this episode of Things That Matter, Diane Amelia Read shares a simple piece of paper she brought with her when she moved from Massachusetts to Mexico: a poem written by her mother, Evelyn, when she was just 14 years old. Diane discovered the poem while cleaning out her mother’s apartment after she moved into skilled nursing. Written in Auburn, Nebraska, in 1935, the poem imagines seagulls, oceans, pirates, and ad

What if growing older isn’t about becoming less of who we were, but becoming more of who we are? In this episode of Things That Matter, I sit down with Wendi Knox, whose relationship with dragonflies began during a major turning point in her life. At 50, Wendi lost her job as an advertising creative director and wondered if she was too old to reinvent herself. Then something extraordinary happened: hundreds of red dragonflies appeared in her backyard. When Wendi learned more about the dragonfly’

Sometimes the smallest things carry the biggest stories. In this episode of Things That Matter, I sit down with Xanthe to hear the story behind a small black ashtray she acquired in 1986 after moving from Australia to France at just 18 years old to dance at the Lido de Paris. The ashtray stayed with her through that chapter of her life before eventually being packed away for decades. When Xanthe and her husband moved back to France years later, they brought it out for a housewarming party. The

Some collections are built with expensive treasures. Others are built one envelope at a time. In this episode of Things That Matter, I had the joy of sitting down with my longtime friend, author and professional organizer Felice Cohen, whose collection of more than 1,000 handwritten letters tells the story of an entire lifetime. What fascinated me most wasn’t simply that she kept every letter; it was what happened when she reread them years later. During the pandemic, Felice began organizing dec

The Sobriety Chip That Represents an Entirely New Life. One of my favorite questions to ask every guest is: “What did you bring to show and tell?” Sometimes the answer is a family heirloom. Sometimes it’s a photograph. Sometimes it’s something incredibly unexpected. In this episode, Maria Leonard Olsen shared something small enough to fit in the palm of her hand, but powerful enough to represent an entirely different life. Her AA sobriety chip. Maria has been sober for nearly fourteen years, an