New podcast focuses on the not-so-ordinary women of the Northwest

Published 10:14 pm Wednesday, January 5, 2022

From her recording studio in her Brownsmead farmhouse, Jan Johnson produces a podcast that could describe herself: “Women of the Northwest: Ordinary Women Leading Extraordinary Lives.”

Johnson has taught in a Navajo reservation, cared for a husband who died of a brain tumor, raised 10 children, opened a preschool, authored an uplifting memoir and embarked on two manuscripts of women’s fiction “on the romantic side.”

But that wasn’t enough.

After retiring from the Knappa School District, where she taught kindergarten through high school, Johnson and her second husband, Edward, read children’s stories on Coast Community Radio. But when the pandemic prevented them from going to the studio, the station sent recording equipment to their home. Johnson decided to buy her own equipment and set up her own studio.

“It came to me that I’d like to do a podcast, and the name (‘Women of the Northwest’) popped into my head. I wanted to interview people like me,” she said. “I’ve done a lot of things and had a lot of experiences, and I thought it might be inspirational.”

Many people have ideas about what they would like to do, but they don’t know how to take that next step, Johnson said. She hopes the podcast, available on her website at jan-johnson.com, will encourage people to move forward.

As a bonus, a few minutes are reserved at the end of the podcast to feature local authors.

Everyone Johnson has interviewed so far take it for granted that they can accomplish their goals: “They just think they can do it,” she said. “They have confidence.”

“I think what I have gained the most out of this is that we’re having meaningful conversations, which don’t happen very often,” Johnson said. People usually talk about superficial topics that don’t go very deep, she added. They don’t ask, “What makes you, you — was it things you grew up with or was it outside influences to make you who you are?” she added.

Although most of the women Johnson has interviewed have been friends, she didn’t know everything about them. She delved deeper in the conversations and came away with knew knowledge. “I’m learning along the way, too,” she said.

She interviewed Melissa Reid, a founder of Camp Kiwanilong, a former Peace Corps worker and speaker of several languages. Her can-do attitude is “kind of like popcorn,” Johnson said. “She says, ‘Oh, we can do this, oh, what about that? Oh, we can do that.’”

Another guest, Heather Miller, lived with her husband in Ukraine for 10 years. They had four children and adopted four children, then returned to the Northwest and adopted four more.

Photographer Jody Morrill discussed how a learning disability has strengthened her ability to operate three businesses. “It was really insightful,” Johnson said.

Among her next interviews — she produces at least one a week — will be her two daughters. She wants to ask them what it was like growing up when their mother was involved with so many projects all the time.

Those Johnson interviewed said they appreciated how she calmed their preshow nerves. She laughed with them, they said, and their conversations were “folksy.”

Constance Waisanen volunteered for Habitat for Humanity in several countries, earned a degree in chemical engineering, worked with Wauna Mill for 27 years, became a financial adviser and recently purchased the former Clatsop Community College Performing Arts Center, now the Charlene Larsen Center for the Performing Arts. Johnson’s friend for 25 years, Waisanen said Johnson spent time prior to the recording session discussing questions she might ask and explaining the process.

In many ways, Johnson is herself an “ordinary woman doing extraordinary things,” Waisanen said.

“I’m amazed at how fearless she is,” she said. “She’s out starting podcasts like what 20-something and 30-something people do. Yet she’s a farmer’s wife in Brownsmead, Oregon. She will never know how many people she touches.”

Reid said she felt comfortable talking to Johnson, who was “genuinely interested” in her story.

“It reminded me of where I come from and where I’ve been,” Reid said.

Johnson’s interviews of Northwest women encourage others to tackle obstacles, she added.

“It makes the world smaller. People are friendlier. That’s what we need now,” she said.

‘Women of the Northwest: Ordinary Women Leading Extraordinary Lives’

Visit jan-johnson.com to hear the podcast.