Kirsti McNabney
speaker
265 appearances
2 recordings
1 series
first heard May 2026
last heard 11 Aug
Kirsti McNabney’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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recordings per month · last 12 monthsRecordings per month over the last 12 months — 2 in all, peaking in Aug 2026 with 1.
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Hope you have a great week and we'll catch you next Tuesday.
Hey, I'm Kirsten McNamee, and you're listening to the Thinking About Podcast.
Hi, and welcome back to the Thing About Podcast. Today's guest is someone that I have wanted on this podcast since probably it started, if not very close to that, because she is what I would consider to be the queen of making simple everyday moments mean something.
Jess Janz is an author, a community facilitator, and the founder of Dinner with Strangers, also the brand with strangers. It's a concept she started in her friend's hair studio in 2017 with one simple rule, no work talk. Since then, she's hosted over 60 dinners connected with more than a thousand people and built something that I think is genuinely rare, a community rooted in real presence and real conversation.
She also has a book coming out soon, The Table Where We Meet. And if the way Jess writes is any indication or the poems that she shares on Instagram, which I am literally obsessed with, it's going to be the exact kind of book that you want to press into the hands of every person you love. It's going to be funny, heartbreaking, and deeply human. And pre-orders are open now. So head to the link in our show notes so that you can order yours. I've already ordered mine.
So Jess, welcome to the podcast. I'm so glad you're all here to listen. And I hope that you enjoy this conversation with someone who hopefully won't be your stranger after this. If you want to connect with Jess or me and let us know what kept you thinking from the episode, please send it our way. DM us, voice note us, whatever you want to do. And I hope you love the episode and we'll talk to you next week.
Jess Janz, welcome to the Thinking About podcast. I am so excited that you're here. I feel like I have wanted to get you on this podcast for a lifetime and we did it. And I cannot wait to dive into all the things today.
I have no doubts that you will. We always start, because it's called the Think About Podcast, with what currently has you thinking. It can be anything from what you had for breakfast to what you see outside or something that's like deep inside your heart. So what's your answer today?
engage in conversation in the grocery store and like when i'm out and about and it's been so rewarding so that's i agree i feel like i've seen you talk about this in your stories it's so creepy but whatever um but i feel the same way and i've noticed since moving to toronto because i'm probably leaving the house more like on a day-to-day basis there's just so many more opportunities to do that and it's literally like making my mental health better
It really is true. We live above a cafe land war. And so sometimes I just listen because sound rises or so I think because maybe people can hear me. It is now. But I like listen to people saying goodbye to each other all the time because I can hear them from my house. And I honestly think it's like changing my life to be able to like witness those small moments of other people.
So I'm right there with you with noticing. I love that so much. Okay, I want to dive in. We'll start with Dinner with Strangers. It was so hard to write your questions because I could just ask you thousands, but we did our best. So you started with Dinner with Strangers in a friend's hair studio in 2017 with pretty much one role, which was no work talk.
Something that I failed at when I went to my dinner with strangers, but that's okay. What do you think was the thing that you were hoping that was going to happen night one? And then we'll obviously talk about what happened after.
Deliverable, like I guarantee deliverable because every dinner is different and every different group of people is its own alchemy too. So yeah, it's been a really magical, strange, weird thing. It's a dream scenario for me as not a closeted introvert because I always want to go that deep with people. Yeah.
I was on a trip recently and did a morning hike where I was the worst person on it. And I got stuck with one of the guys that was supporting us. And I was literally like going back and forth with him on Google Translate because I couldn't, like I needed to kill time. And I got up the mountain and knew everything about this man. I knew his birthday. I knew how old he was. I knew what he did for work. It was very entertaining.
When you say got stuck, do you mean that you got stuck on the trail or you were like stuck because it was just the two of you back in the pack? Oh, I was just taking, yeah, he stayed with me while I was slow. Wonderful. Just needed a clarifying picture of that. And my friend was like, well, if anyone's going to get stuck with you or like anyone's going to get stuck having to like go up slowly, you're a good person to get stuck with. And I was like, thanks. Yeah.
um okay so we take the hypothesis you take all of these dinners over a thousand people and more than 60 dinners that is like no easy feat i just want anyone listening to think about hosting one single family event and then put that with strangers for several times and you have written a book about it and it's called the table where we meet which i am so excited i cannot wait
And you've described it as funny, heartbreaking and deeply human. What do you think revealed itself the most to you about human connection through writing the book, which I'm really interested to hear about because I know how deeply you take the human experience in everything that you do. So I'm excited to hear how that came through when you sat down to write a book about this journey.
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