Tuesday Announcements 10/15: Redwest Festival, Season 2 Incoming, This Week's Elevated Guest...

A festival high, a hard pause, and a guest who reimagines what “family law” can feel like—this week brings all three into sharp focus. We relive Red Westfest’s standout sets (Ian Munsick’s ease, Ella Langley’s spark, Sam Barber’s grit, a live‑better‑than‑album turn from Noah Kahan, and Kacey Musgraves casting a twilight spell) before confronting how fast celebration can flip when weather goes sideways. With care, we acknowledge a tragic loss during the windstorm and talk plainly about event safety, community responsibility, and holding space for joy and grief at once.

Back in Salt Lake, fall arrives like a door swinging shut. We talk about the tiny window of gold leaves, the comfort of soup, and why leaning into seasonal ritual can steady your mind as winter creeps in. That spirit of honest transition informs our big news: season one is a wrap after a live conversation with Shereen Gorbani. Two years and a hundred episodes later, we’re taking a deliberate breather to reset, raise our standards, and return with sharper sound and even more useful conversations. We’ll stay active on Instagram, keep events going, and send the Thursday newsletter, so the community stays connected while we rebuild.

We also unpack how we choose guests—and why vague “expert” pitches don’t make the cut. Then we preview this weekend’s feature: attorney Nonie Ferguson, founder of Law Elevated in Park City. Nonie’s approach to divorce, custody, and support puts people first, pairing solid legal strategy with mental health awareness and child‑centered practices. It’s a pragmatic, trauma‑aware model that aims for durable outcomes instead of pyrrhic wins, and it reflects what we want this show to stand for: clarity you can act on, stories that make the city feel closer, and voices that earn your time.

If this resonates, hit follow, share with a friend who needs a steadier take on family law or festival life, and leave a quick review to help others find the show. Your support shapes what we build next.

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Please be sure to like, review, follow, subscribe and share the podcast with your friends and family! See you next time 

Chapters

• 2:38 Festival Highlights & Standout Performances
• 3:38 Weather Turn, Safety, and Reflection
• 3:58 Fall Arrives and Winter Looms
• 4:19 Season One Wrap and Reset
• 4:59 Staying Active: IG, Events, Newsletter
• 5:24 Why Guests Get Chosen
• 6:05 Introducing Noni and Law Elevated
• 6:53 Release Timing and Fall Sign-off

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:53

What is up, everybody, and welcome back to another Tuesday update. It is me, Eric Nielsen, the host of the Small Lake City podcast. First things first, Red Westfest was amazing. I had an absolute blast. Um, some of my favorite people that I saw, I mean, Ian Munsick's definitely up there. Ella Langley, I will always have a crush on. Sam Barber may have been one of my favorites. Um, I've never experienced an artist that somehow sounds better live than recorded, but Noah Khan somehow made that happen. Uh, listening to Casey Musgraves was absolutely enchanting. It's unfortunate that the weather took a turn for bad on Saturday. I was really excited to see Post Malone uh Note to Self, don't buy a concert shirt before the person performs, or else you might end up with a concert shirt for a concert you didn't see. Love putting on boots and hats and acting like I'm an actual cowboy or care more about country music than I actually do. Also, terrible to hear of the girl that unfortunately passed away from getting hit in the head with a sign during the windstorm. Uh, so thoughts, prayers, and everything in between for her and her family and loved ones. But it was a great time. Also made me realize that uh winter is coming. Uh, had to pull out all my sweatshirts, jackets, put the electric blanket on my bed, and that's been turned on the last few nights. So uh, in case you are new here, it's not gonna last very long. Fall is usually only a couple weeks, even though it is my favorite season in Salt Lake. So uh make sure to go see the leaves that are left on the trees, go make some soup, and lean into it before the snow starts falling. Also, I talked about it on Instagram yesterday on the story, but wanted to make sure I brought it up here as well. As everybody knows, I just recorded the live episode with Shereen Gorbani a few weeks ago, and that will be a wrap on season one. Uh, it's been insane to think of the journey over the past two-ish years and the conversations I've had, the people I've met, the experiences I've been able to have, um, but just need some time to reset, recommit, and just take a breather before diving back into it. I'm still gonna be pretty active on Instagram, posting like I have been. Um, still gonna do events, still gonna send out the newsletter every Thursday. So make sure to go subscribe to that at smalllakepod.com and already scheduling uh the first few episodes for season two. So uh thank you for everyone who's supported me in the journey in the first 100 episodes. I can't even believe that it's become that number, but it has. I'm grateful for it. I've loved doing it. Uh I'm excited for season two, but definitely need some time to recharge before then. Also, I want to announce this week's guest. So I tend to get a lot of people who reach out to me saying that they want to be on the podcast, and I'll usually hear them out, ask them a couple questions, and see if it's a good idea or not. And there's a lot of people who reach out from, I mean, professional services and businesses that tend to be a dime a dozen. And I always ask them, I mean, why you? Are you the expert in the space? Are you the best person to talk to? Do you have any sort of nuance or niche that makes you the person I would like to talk to? And unfortunately, for the most part, people don't answer that question in a way that I would feel comfortable having them on the podcast. But someone reached out semi-recently that did. So this week's episode is Noni Ferguson. Now, Noni is the founder of Law Elevated. Now, Law Elevated is a family law practice that's based in Park City, but it focuses on more than just the legal aspects, but really focuses on their clients' mental health, the families, the children that are going through everything, and making sure that they are being taken care of and look at them as humans and not just clients and seeing how much money they can get or entitled to, but really looking at them from a holistic point of view. So and Noni isn't from here. She's a transplant from Florida who ended up moving here uh for a boy, shocker. That tends to happen from time to time. And found herself in Park City, Utah, and now raising a family here and expecting a child, actually. So uh great conversation with her, and that will be releasing this weekend. Keep an eye on Instagram and wherever you listen to podcasts to see that. But in the meantime, enjoy some fall spooky activities while we get ready for winter to show up. And yeah, I will see you this weekend. Enjoy.