One of the reasons I started UNMEASURED was to share women's stories. (I guess even mine, partly.)
Feature Fridays are interviews with women around the world. We’ll discuss their lives, their passions, their projects, and more. There’s no particular angle or intended outcome to these interviews - although there is one question I’m asking everyone.
I was so happy to have the chance to speak with Rachelle Newbold one-on-one and learn more about the life she’s been building from her home in Napa, California (and beyond).
Rachelle Newbold wishes she could live for hundreds of years, not for the sake of mortality but so she’d have more time to learn. She’s managed to tackle many subjects in her time so far, with one in particular that seems close to her heart: literature and all things writing.
Rachelle studied English for her undergraduate degree and recently went on to complete an MFA in Writing from the Vermont College of Fine Arts.
She also loves travel and has built an impressive career leading enterprise projects for one of Napa’s finest wineries.
Rachelle lives with her cat, Olive, and is on a mission to share the secrets of one of the most well-known, well-loved, well-visited places in the world.
She’s also working on sharing “something extraordinary” one week, and one card, at a time through her Substack The Weekly Oracle.
With her various interests and projects – from tarot cards to travel and from 19th century religion to wine – one of the most endearing things about Rachelle is her ability to revel in the everyday, and the seemingly micro changes in the world around us on any given day.
It was such a joy to interview Rachelle. Read (and listen to) more from our conversation below.
What’s it like to live in Napa?
I was born here, but I've lived here as an adult since 2002 when I came back after college. My grandparents lived here when I was very small, and I always loved to visit. I didn't know anything about wine—my family is not a wine family—but I’ve always loved how beautiful it is here. The rolling hills, the oak trees, and, of course, the vineyards. A lot of people love Napa, and it has this association with a glitzy, high-profile life.
“There's fantasy Napa, and then there's the real Napa. And I think both are great.”
And that's great. That's kind of fun. There's fantasy Napa, and then there's the real Napa. And I think both are great. But there are so many wonderful things to be enjoyed and experienced in the “everyday” Napa, too.
That's what I want to express with my Napavore project. I enjoy, of course, the wine and the food aspect of the area, and I think there's something really generous and life-affirming about it. One of the things I’m hoping to share through the Napavore project is the simpler side of Napa.
The old Napa was very farm centered. This was prune country and cattle country for many, many, many years. The simplicity of life can still be found here. Like when you travel in Europe, in Portugal for example, and you have that true farm-to-table experience. It’s a simple but delicious way of living. And I think that's what Napa was, and there are still glimmers of that here.
What I don't like so much is sometimes there can be a preciousness to everything. I’ve noticed this tendency to analyze the parts of something: the ingredients in a dish or the flavors in a wine. Sometimes that throws up a shield and can be very off-putting for people who are just learning about food and wine, and my reaction is to want to simply enjoy the experience and not over analyze it.
On the other hand, my passion is literature, so I try to remind myself that for people who are truly passionate about food or wine, they're breaking it down into its parts probably because they love it so much. There is joy in understanding how something is made and how flavors and texture and weight on the palate all work together. I have to remind myself that this analysis is not necessarily pretension. I definitely don't want to denigrate anyone's passion! I do like being food and wine adjacent, but it's not my end-all-be-all for living.
Can you tell me a little more about the Napavore project?
The idea is to shine the spotlight on the unsung heroes in Napa. I want to talk to the people that aren’t highlighted in the media and dive into that other side of Napa that I was talking about earlier.
Learn more about the Napavore project below, and on Instagram.
I’d love to hear more about your passion for literature and creative writing.
I do love it. I can blame the fact that growing up, in the 80s, we didn't have a TV and I did a lot of reading.
Reading was like magic to me. Stories created all these images in my head, and I remember thinking that I wanted to do the same thing for other people.
I was an English major in college. I never wanted to teach English, which of course is the first thing everyone asked: oh, are you going to teach English? That was never my goal. I did teach ESL in Prague for a couple of years after college, though.
I also got my MFA in writing from Vermont College of Fine Arts in 2018. Getting my MFA had been a longtime dream. Wow, how can that be almost five years ago?
“I'm like, you know what? No, I don't want to write about myself. I'm going to try to write about other people. “
Right now I'm working on a novel. Until now my writing projects have been fiction based pretty closely on my experiences but now I'm like, you know what? No, I don't want to write about myself. I'm going to try to write about other people. It’s a relief not to write about anything that's related to me. It's a fun challenge.
Rachelle is also the author behind The Weekly Oracle. Learn more and check out this super cool Substack below.
What’s something that people would be surprised to learn about you?
It sounds so bizarre when I say it out loud, but I’m interested in 19th-century American religion, particularly around women. Because in the 1800s, there were a lot of just really interesting, wild things happening. On one side seances and the occult, and on the other really, devout protestant believers who thought the Lord was coming back any moment. There were cults, too—the Oneida community is a really interesting one. It was just a really fertile time, spiritually speaking. I’m very curious about it. And, then, what are the ramifications through history to today?
I’d actually love to go get my PhD in this. Just for fun.
I frequently wish I could live to be 500 years old so I could study everything. A true permanent student.
“The fact that I'm working for a winery right now … sometimes even I am like, what? My 15-year-old self would be stunned and shocked and probably impressed.”
Along these same lines, the high school I went to was very strict and conservative. The fact that I'm working for a winery right now … sometimes even I am like, what? My 15-year-old self would be stunned and shocked and probably impressed.
I went to a vegan school. We wore dresses, no makeup, didn't play sports, no dating. You know, all this very, very, very strict life.
Back to the studying religion thing, I want to explore, what's the effect of that on people? A lot of my former classmates are still religious. I'm not. Not in the way I was, anyway. What's the impact of this choice and how do people choose? Why did I choose to go off in a different direction?
Speaking of changing direction … I’d love to hear about your travels.
The first time I traveled outside of this continent was in 1998. I was still in college, and I was studying in Spain. We could get college credit if we took this six-week course at this school just outside the town of Sagunto.
Before our class started, my friends and I traveled around Europe on a EuroRail pass for a couple of weeks. I got to go to Paris and Berlin and all these different places. Italy. I had wine for the first time and sangria for the first time. I saw all the art I’d only seen in books. A whole new world opened up.
After college, I decided to teach English in Prague. We worked something like 50-60 hours a week for very little pay. It was exhausting! But what I liked about that experience, and I think about any travel experience, is I was immersed in the culture for two whole years—something that would be very hard to do now.
I came back to the U.S. in 2001 and did not travel again until 2019. Part of that was getting a mortgage and all the other things that come up in life. In 2019 I finally went to Croatia on a Backroads Hiking Trip. I loved that so much. And then right after we went to Venice, and it surprised me how much I loved it.
Before I went on this trip I read Venetian Life by William Dean Howells. To my surprise, he stayed in the very same palazzo my friends and I had rented on the Grand Canal! Well, we rented a small apartment. It was surreal to read his description of the place in the 1800s and then to be there and discover that perhaps not so much had changed.
I also traveled to Portugal a couple of months ago. Although that trip had a vigorous itinerary and I found myself bouncing from place to place, so it was a little bit of a sensory overload for me.
“I'd rather go somewhere, just park for two weeks and understand the area as much as I can.”
I'd rather go somewhere, just park for two weeks and understand the area as much as I can. I like to know as much as I can about the area and just experience it; to see what it looks like at different times of the day.
Even here, in Napa, I've lived in this little condo since 2009. And during the pandemic, I've been walking the same 3-mile loop almost daily. I don't get tired of it. I love seeing how the landscape changes with the seasons and even from day to day. The subtleties are beautiful to me. I'm the same way with travel.
But something I’ve heard other people say about traveling that resonates for me is that traveling gives you a perspective of your own home. You can't see the United States—or whatever country you are from—until you're outside of it.
“What is it to be myself and how do I fit with the rest of the world? That's why I like to travel, just to have that kind of wake-up call.”
Being outside this country helps me reflect on what it is to be an American. And that's a pretty big question with a pretty big answer, just like the one I have about religion and why some of us believe or don’t. What is it to be myself and how do I fit with the rest of the world? That's why I like to travel, just to have that kind of wake-up call.
What makes you feel free?
Such a big question, but an interesting one! The thing that pops into my mind is around freedom within the confines of work. The freedom to do my best work and have a creative mindset. I need a certain amount of freedom in order to be creative, but I also need guardrails to do my best creative work.
“I'm at my most free when I know there are boundaries if that even makes sense.”
I'm at my most free when I know there are boundaries if that even makes sense. If the horizon is wide open and I can do absolutely everything, it's really hard for me to conceptualize what needs to happen.
For me, the guardrails are weirdly freeing. In my job over the last few years, probably since the Pandemic, I would say I’ve had a lot more freedom professionally to make decisions, to lead things, to try things. And I find that extremely rewarding.
Right now, I don't have any direct reports, but when I've been a manager, that's one of the things I've tried to provide for my team. Even with somebody who's very junior, like fresh out of college, I make sure I'm giving them the direction and everything they need, but I also give them a little bit of rope so they can try things.
Is there a resource - a book or podcast - you’d recommend?
For any writers who may be reading this, you might enjoy The Shit No One Tells You About Writing.
This podcast is great for people who are writing fiction or memoirs. The hosts are two literary agents and a writer, and with each episode they dig into the business of writing and that pressing question of how to create your best work and ultimately get published.
People submit their agent query letters and the first five pages of their manuscript, and the agents critique it. It's illuminating. And then there's always an author interview too. It's truly an inside look at the world of publishing.
I agree. Rachelle should live for 500 years because I'd love to read what she writes about. I guess I'll have to live that long too...Great interview!
Great interview. In my opinion, she choose to go in a different direction than some of her classmates (religion) because she read. When you read you discover other viewpoints or options. It is freeing to understand there is another way to decide for yourself what works for you. Not just blindly into the someone else's vision. And I believe the majority of people are followers...it's easier.