Spark Me

Why is it so hard for women to ask for help? Dr. Maria Montoro Edwards thinks it’s because we believe we have to be Wonder Woman. Michele and Liz sit down with their friend Dr. Maria Montoro Edwards, President and CEO of Maternal and Family Health Services. MFHS provides health care, nutrition, education and support to more than 100,000 women, men and children across 17 counties in eastern Pennsyl...

Would you leave a dangerous home if it meant leaving your dog behind? Liz isn't sure she would be able to, and that's why this conversation stuck with her. In this Spark Short, Michele and Liz unpack their conversation with Lisa Fuller of the SPCA of Luzerne County and everything it changed for them. Michele walked in picturing the cartoon dog catcher and the pound, and walked out with her...

What really happens after an animal comes through the shelter door? Lisa Fuller has been rescuing animals since she was a kid growing up with a dad everyone called Dr. Doolittle. Today she chairs the board of the SPCA of Luzerne County and opens her home to senior and hospice dogs so their last chapter is a happy one. She has seven at home right now. In this conversation, Liz and Michele go behind...

What if a relationship check-in belonged on your annual physical, right next to everything else you dread? In this Spark Short, Michele and Liz unpack their conversation with Dr. Christine Kiesinger and what stuck with them afterward. Liz walks away with a genuine mindset shift — she's always known to schedule the physical and the colonoscopy, but it never occurred to her to check in on the he...

What if your doctor checked your relationships the same way they check your blood pressure? Dr. Christine Kiesinger returns as our very first repeat guest with an idea that reframes what we think we know about health. Commissioned by the George Washington Faculty Medical Group to write on the social connection pillar of lifestyle medicine, Christine argues that relational well-being belongs on the...

What if the most important skill in the age of AI isn't technical at all — it's curiosity? In this Spark Short, Michele and Liz unpack their conversation with Heather Cybulski, the transformation consultant helping companies bring AI into their teams. What starts as a debrief quickly turns into one of the most honest conversations they've had on the show — two women in their second act...

What if the thing standing between you and AI isn't the technology at all — it's just not knowing where to start? Heather Cybulski helps some of the world's largest companies figure out what AI actually means for the people who work there. She's also built a twenty-year career at the front edge of technology while raising three kids in a small town in Northeastern Pennsylvania — wh...

Medical Cannabis: Are You Medicating—or Numbing? Michele lives with a conflict she cannot simplify: her sister has seen medical cannabis help patients move away from highly addictive medications, while Michele’s son used the same plant to numb emotional pain. In this Spark Short, Liz and Michele ask the uncomfortable question at the center of the conversation: when are we treating a real problem—a...

She built a career around one question: what do you want more? For the first time on Spark Me, Michele interviews a sibling — her sister, Dr. MaryFrances Koester. And what starts as a conversation about becoming a doctor turns into something much bigger: a masterclass in pivoting, protecting your life, and knowing exactly what you're willing to trade. MaryFrances knew in third grade she wanted to...

What if the boldest move of your career is the one that looks like a step backward? We're re-releasing one of our earliest and most-requested conversations. Dr. Karen Murphy, PhD, RN, graduated high school, got married eleven days later, and had her first child before most people had declared a major. Fifty years into that marriage — and a career that took her from ICU nurse to hospital CEO to...

Only 17% of Americans trust their institutions. Only one in three people feel like they can trust another person. And it's about to get harder to know what's even real. In this Spark Short, Michele and Liz dig into a Wall Street Journal op-ed by former Senator Ben Sasse — written while he battles terminal pancreatic cancer — about the habits humanity may need to rebuild in the age of AI. T...

Corn on the cob, blueberry pie, one-item-at-a-time grocery texts from a caregiver, and a friend who texted the group chat to say Spark Me changed the way she thinks about her health. This Spark Short is a real check-in between Michele and Liz — how summer is going, how Liz's dad is doing, and what actually happened when they put Sarah Ohanesian's advice about micro shifts and productivity...

As she slipped off her wedding band in the middle of her divorce, Christine Kiesinger heard a voice say: you should have married yourself first. Dr. Christine Kiesinger spent thirty years in academia as an expert in relational communication — until the day the words “I’m retiring at the end of this semester” came out of her mouth before she even knew she was going to say them. Colleagues told her...

She was sitting in an airport when a stranger asked her, "where are you headed, hon?" And she realized she had no idea — not just which city she was flying to, but where her life was going at all. That moment was the wake-up call for Sarah Ohanesian, who spent over a decade climbing from intern to Chief Marketing Officer before realizing the version of success she'd built was quietly...

Wood stain at a historic building. White patio cushions that look like Miami. A priest who almost lost the use of his legs. And a heart health episode that made at least one of them finally make the appointment. In this Spark Short, Michele and Liz ease into things with a check-in on life — Liz's dad's latest health update, Michele's chaotic and triumphant week finishing the renovation...

A graduation, a punctured paddleboard, a sister story about white patio cushions — and a conversation that kept circling back to one woman who's changing how Pennsylvania sees leadership. In this Spark Short, Michele and Liz catch up on the small stuff — Michele's son graduating high school, Liz's very funny patio cushion saga with her sister, and a shared sense that AI is moving faste...

Heart disease is the number one cause of death in women — more than two times all cancers combined. And most of us still think it's a man's problem. In this episode Michele and Liz sit down with two guests for a first on Spark Me — Dr. Jennifer Nesfeder, a board-certified interventional cardiologist specializing in women's heart health, and Courtney Deignan, Development Director for th...

She was 20 years old, sitting in public administration classes in the morning and running borough council meetings at night — fulfilling the term of her grandfather, who had asked her to step in before he died. That's where Cassandra Coleman's story begins. And it only gets more remarkable from there. Cassandra is the Executive Director of America 250 PA, the commission leading Pennsylvania's role...

Sometimes an episode stays with you. This is one of those Spark Shorts. After last week's conversation with Nora Isaacs — writer, personal historian, and founder of Backstory — Michele and Liz couldn't stop thinking about it. In this Spark Short they unpack the moments that hit hardest: from the hot dog cart that changed Nora's life, to the Threshold Choir singing at the bedsides of ho...

She was standing in front of a hot dog cart in midtown Manhattan when an 18-wheeler knocked her off her feet — and knocked her onto a completely different life path. In this episode, Michele and Liz sit down with writer, author, and personal historian Nora Isaacs — Michele's dear friend from college and the founder of Backstory, a company that helps people capture their family histories and life s...

Even the most prepared families miss something. In Liz's case, it was a document sitting in a file cabinet that nobody remembered to upload to the hospital portal. This Spark Short is a real, unfiltered conversation between Michele and Liz about what's been hitting home since their episode with Cameron Huddleston — author of Mom and Dad, We Need to Talk . Liz opens up about her dad's r...

She was 35 with three little kids when her mom was diagnosed with Alzheimer's — and she had no plan in place. You're home for the holidays. Your dad's lost weight. Your mom tells the same story three times. You go to help with a bill and realize you have no idea where anything is — no will, no account numbers, no idea who their doctor is. And the conversation you've been meaning to have? It still...

he was 12 years old when terrorists bombed her father’s military headquarters — and for a day, she thought he was dead. In this deeply personal episode, Michele sits down with someone listeners have come to know and love on the other side of the mic — Spark Me co‑host Liz Graham. For the first time, Liz shares her own origin story: growing up as an Air Force brat, moving every two years across the...

What if one small idea — born from a family vacation — could change the trajectory of an entire community, an entire country, and your own family forever? This week on Spark Me, Liz and Michele reflect on one of the most moving stories they've covered: Barb Cox, a mom who turned a trip to visit her kids' former au pair in South Africa into a years-long mission that introduced lacrosse to an entire...

What starts as an ordinary trip can sometimes become the spark for real, lasting change. This week on Spark Me, Liz and Michele sit down with Barb Cox, a working mom whose decision to take her two teenage sons to visit their former au pair in South Africa quietly planted the seeds of the South African Lacrosse Project. What began as “just another summer adventure” became a 12-year effort that used...