In Her Words

My friends Nancy Haynes and Ramona Holloway have each forgotten more about media than I will ever know. Especially radio (like podcasting with less latitude). So we present for your listening pleasure a couple of free wheeling unedited conversations! Enjoy! See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ethel Smith wrote her hero, back when lovers of Language put pen to paper and did such things. To this day whole generations appreciate a hand written note. Maybe it’s more real, a tactile demonstration of a love for the written word. Wonder of wonders, her hero wrote back! Changed her life. Just listen. (Recorded in Birmingham, Alabama in December of 2020 in the midst of COVID) RERUN OF EP. 50 NO...

Hope Aldred is no less than an angel for families in recovery from addiction of all kinds. She gleaned her compassion from hard won experience with her own husband and having to explain to their two sons why Dad was dying. For her and those young men, it’s been quite the journey. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The first conversation I taped for this podcast was one of the most difficult. My friend Lucy Lustig was dying and she knew it. She was lying in a hospital bed in her living room and reflecting on a life filled with art and rich friendships and second chances.  I honor her courage and creativity in the face of her own imminent death. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

I’m talking ABOUT a woman this week: the woman whose car I plowed into on Friday afternoon. I would have been angry. She asked if I was OK. A study in grace and compassion - all hers. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

For citizens like Courtney Humbaugh (and me), finding  our most basic personal health history means fighting a maze of government laws and regulations. Orphans, foster kids… ANY adult can get their original birth certificates and the DNA history that goes with it no problem. Not adoptees. Now Courtney and many other adult adoptees, birth parents and adopting parents are trying to change that old l...

Colleen makes it sound like I forced her to talk to me on tape. Judge me if you must. It’s hardest to listen to the women closest to me in my own family. Especially when what they have to say is, “You don’t listen.” My 28 year old daughter and I talk volleyball , HAIKYU!! (The Japanese anime series on Netflix), backpacking solo in Europe for 100 days, Taylor Swift, and brain science.  Keep up. See...

Jamie Weiss was adopted as a child. Now she’s a mother herself. We speak from common personal experience as only adoptees can. Now Jamie and lots of us are asking Georgia lawmakers to treat adopted people the same as foster children, orphans and every other citizen - and give us our original birth certificates. Why is that so hard? See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

I met Diana at a retreat for adult adoptees who never really worked on healing the inner wound created by losing your mother at birth. That was almost five years ago. WOW! Have we both come a long way. This is wisdom born of pain. Hint: No shame and no blame.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

I met Kenya in 2016 when we were in a play together at Spirit Square and a presidential candidate who shall not be named was campaigning in the next theater . Secret Service. Security. Crazy times. Kenya Templeton has a GORGEOUS singing voice. A clip from this podcast was featured on WBUR’s HERE AND NOW on NPR. This is a reprise of our original episode but it’s worth checking out! See omnystudio.c...

Dr. Octavia Cannon is kind. She’s been personally kind to me. And she’s kind to the women she treats. Unfailingly kind. Just listen. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

More than 50 years ago, Mary Hopper needed a safe abortion. She found it in Mexico. She was a Republican… until the Equal Rights Amendment and the Reagan Right ignored women like her. She never went back. Could the US Supreme Court beholden to you-know-who sink GOP? A Reprise of our conversation several years back. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Wendy Hickey relishes her nickname as “Art Mama” by lots of artists who have benefited from Wendy’s tireless support for local art! But you might not know how Wendy was a bit of a teen rebel who left home at 16. Relax!  It all turns out well. Wendy combined her years of experience in billboard sales with her love of local artists to create ART POP! See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy informati...

Kim Alexander grew up in New Orleans, assaulted by her own father and grandfather. She turned her own life around after Hurricane Katrina and now works with boys and young men to show them a more hopeful future. Now Kim runs Our Daily Bread Foundation teaching young men to bake bread as an alternative to violence. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Dealing with an aging parent can be stressful and heartbreaking in the best of times. Add dementia and money problems or a health crisis and it strains families to the breaking point. Jennifer Szakaly (pronounced Sock-Eye) has decades of experience both personal and professional in precisely this field.  She helps everyone just take a deep breath. Her company CAREGIVING CORNER can help with option...

Darcy is a White woman born in Canada with an atheist father. Then as an adult in the American South, she was invited to attend a Black Church. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Laura Vinroot Poole has survived breast cancer and recently lost her mother. We talk about her wonderful Mom who just passed, her love for her native North Carolina, her Dad’s races for Governor, her black designer wedding gown she got for $75 at a thrift store in San Francisco, the NC Republican Party and whether it has a future, and too much about my ignorance of women’s fashion given that I hav...

Julia Greenfield hadn’t thought about running for political office… until 2016. Now she’s going to the Statehouse in Raleigh. Her goal: make Roe v. Wade the law of the land. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

What education earns the biggest bang for the buck for young Lawyer or Master Plumber? LaToya Faustin encourages the next generation of women to enter the building trades. She does double duty home schooling her eight-year old son who’s a professional actor appearing in his first streaming TV gig on THE CONNORS on ABC and Hulu. (He tags along with mom on this interview and restrains himself remark...

Padma Nunna had three Masters Degrees, two daughters and one husband from an arranged marriage. Then “life happened.” Her husband left and her world radically changed. And in the midst of dark muck, she bloomed. Padma means lotus, the flower that is rooted in the dark muck at the bottom of a body of water. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Maeya Carr teaches Tai Chi which she came to through her love of the Martial Arts . But how she got there is an education that stretches back across hundreds of years which she learned from her Great, GREAT GRANDMOTHER (yes, TWO greats). Now Maeya passes on the tradition of non-violence and compassion to HER great-grandchildren. You’re gonna love this woman! Promise. See omnystudio.com/listener fo...

Ramona Holloway cared for her aging Mom, moving her into her home until she could no longer feasibly provide the best care. I admire Ramona both professionally as a broadcaster and personally as a friend. You’ll love this archive edition. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ellen Whiteside was assigned to me as a partner in a Transformational Leadership Program almost nine years ago. I’ve learned from her ever since. We talk of spirit and she walks in spirit. You can hear her certitude and courage in her voice. Ellen owns and runs Sacred Grove Retreat near Gold Hill NC. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Sarah Olin loves people. And it’s not just a warm feeling. It’s years, decades of work. As a coach, mom and leader at LUMO, Sarah lives her values. Here’s what made her that way. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Queen D gives me a manicure and a pedicure on those too-rare circumstances when I treat myself to some manly pampering. When we got to talking I found out not only that she did time in prison but that she had worked very hard to transform her life and not look back. She is a portrait in resilience. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.