I've Been Thinking

She's Thinking...

by alanna grayce

In early 2020, before the pandemic was even a twinkle in our eyes, I was hit with an inspiration. A revelation, even. I was at my job as a Graduate Assistant, working with undergraduate students studying to become intelligence analysts, FBI agents, and security agents. I was grading papers with a docu-series in the back for white noise, and it hit me: I could be going about this so much differently. My love for research and for learning has been an omnipresent feature of my personality- from retaining obscure knowledge as a small child to devouring literature as a teenager, and then fl ourishing as a political science and anthropology student at university. I love to learn, and I love to share that knowledge with others, too. To be honest, I can’t even count how many times I walked a slightly amused friend or a too-nice-to-protest fi rst date through a summary of the research I built my Master’s Degree around. So with this realization, I pulled out a notebook and started brainstorming. How could I do this? How could I fi nd a way to research, fi nd interesting information and interesting stories, and disseminate that to the masses? A book… a blog… a… podcast. I started planning, and I chose a launch date- the day I would be walking across the stage to receive my degree. How poetic, right? May 2020. These decisions were made before the podcast was quite what it is today. With the isolation of quarantine and the increased ease of production, podcasting blew up in 2020. I can’t tell you how many people I watched buy microphones and start dropping episodes before I hard-launched this project I’d been working on for months. It was discouraging, but it made it so much sweeter as I started to grow. Over the past two years, I’ve Been Thinking with Alanna Grayce has grown and evolved in directions I couldn’t have foreseen. IBT, as she’s affectionately called, has moved from research-heavy solo episodes where I talk about some interesting historical fact or social issue for 20 minutes, and has become a platform to challenge ideas and inspire critical thought. Episodes today are more guestfocused, allowing myself and the listener to learn together, hearing from a variety of perspectives on a diverse array of topics, uplifting these varying perspectives, and sharing these unique experiences. As well as being the host and producer of I’ve Been Thinking with Alanna Grayce, I

am an artist, a writer, and manage an art gallery in Niceville, Florida. My artwork can be found in Niceville, Destin, and Shalimar currently, and I am a writer for Stove Leg Media. I love the sunshine and the Gulf, but I do fi nd myself missing the mountains of Eastern Kentucky- that I will always call home. Thanks to the support from my partner, Adam, and our puppy (and podcast mascot) Wynn, I have been able to fl ourish creatively. In my spare time, I enjoy the gym, collecting plants, and playing socialites with my friends. Follow me personally @alannagrayce or the podcast @ivebeenthinkingpod on Instagram. You can fi nd my TikTok @ivebeenalanna and fi nd the pod’s offi cial Facebook at I’ve Been Thinking with Alanna Grayce. Learn more about myself and the podcast at our website, www. ivebeenthinkingpod.com, where you can also fi nd my blog!

#girlboss by Lucinda Bunn