The Morning Glory Project

Following the unexpected death of their daughter Lili Rachel Smith in October 2009, Laura Talmus along with her husband, Averell “Ace” Smith founded Beyond Differences. Passionate about bringing awareness to the issue of adolescent social isolation, Laura is the full-time Executive Director of Beyond Differences, a student-led social justice organization dedicated to ending social isolation among...

For many, Karen Grassle is synonymous with Caroline Ingalls, the beloved character she portrayed in the long-running series, Little House on the Prairie. But she does not profess to always be as straightforward and agreeable as the character for which she’s best known. In this conversation, Karen offers us a glimpse behind the curtain of an actor’s life. In her candid memoir, Bright Lights, Prairi...

Thinking she was doing everything not to duplicate her own dangerous and abusive childhood, Lizbeth Meredith found that she’d somehow fallen into the trap of a treacherous family pattern that made her daughters vulnerable. Finally divorced from an abusive ex-husband, Lizbeth’s world was turned upside down when he abused his visitation rights and left the country with the two girls, landing in his...

At thirty-one, Kirsten Mickelwait was ready to pursue a serious career as a writer and eventually, she hoped, marriage and family. When she met Steve Beckwith, a handsome and successful attorney, she began to see the future materialize more quickly than she’d dared to expect. Twenty-two years later, Steve has become someone quite different from the man Kirsten first met. Unemployed and addicted to...

Gina Frangello is an author, editor, book reviewer, and journalist published in many prestigious journals and publications. She is the author of Every Kind of Wanting, A Life in Men, Slut Lullabies, and My Sister’s Continent. Despite these many accomplishments, Gina has come to wider reputation for her newest book, a memoir, Blow Your House Down: A Story of Family, Feminism, and Treason. Her book...

Toby Dorr dared the unthinkable. She broke a convicted murderer out of Lansing Correctional Facility. Since completing her time in Federal Prison, she has achieved two Master’s degrees and rebuilt a broken life. Since her first visit to The Morning Glory Project in 2019, Toby has been making good on her promises to herself and her community. She’s written and published what she calls her Unleashed...

Jess Ayers is a seasoned musician turned successful freelance writer. On the day that she and her husband brought their three-day-old son Jax home, and loved ones came to welcome the new arrival, nobody could have imagined what would happen. A random bullet, shot by a neighbor more than 200 yards away traveled past dozens of trees, entered their house and killed Jess’s husband, and father to their...

Lorinda Boyer strove continuously to be virtuous in the eyes of God and to live the life she believed He intended for her. She married her high school boyfriend at eighteen and had two kids by twenty-eight. Although she created a perfect Christian home for her family, she never felt wholly content in her role as wife and mother. Then her life intersected with Robin’s-the woman who would ultimately...

After a five year struggle with infertility, many heartbreaking disappointments, and with the help of IVF, Jessica Pritchett was finally pregnant. She and her husband awaited the arrival of their much-loved daughter, Izabella. But after multiple medical complications far outside of their control, and after all medical intervention failed, losing Izabella was inevitable and they were faced with the...

Dr. Lucinda Jackson is the author of the memoir Just a Girl: Growing Up Female and Ambitious about her struggles to succeed as a scientist in male-dominated oil and gas and chemical organizations. Her story continues in her new book coming out April 2022: Project Escape: Lessons for an Unscripted Life about the complex transition from hard-hitting career to retirement. Jackson is the Founder of LJ...

Lauren Trantham is the founder and executive director of Ride My Road. In 2016, Lauren started Ride My Road as a personal photography project to photograph American Survivors of abuse and sex trafficking. Since that time, and in addition to photographing over 80 survivors, she has ridden tens of thousands of miles on her motorcycle raising hundreds of thousands of dollars for survivor-led organiza...

Meredith May was our guest, sharing her intimate and inspiring memoir, The Honey Bus. We welcome her back to share the story she portrays in Loving Edie: How a Dog Afraid of Everything Taught Me to be Brave. This new memoir is a story of a dog, to be sure, but it’s also much more than that. This is the story of what our relationships with vulnerable creatures can teach us about ourselves. Meredith...

Kevin Berthia is a suicide survivor and prevention advocate. Kevin was born with a genetic major depression disorder. In 2005, at the age of 22, Kevin attempted to take his own life by jumping from the Golden Gate Bridge. Eight years after his attempt, Kevin was reunited with the officer who talked him back to safety. Since then, Kevin’s story of HOPE has touched a diverse group of audiences all a...

Kevin Briggs, a retired California Highway Patrol sergeant, spent a decade patrolling the Golden Gate Bridge. A trained negotiator, Briggs handled 4-6 crisis calls a month on the bridge. These challenging but rewarding efforts earned him the nickname “Guardian of the Golden Gate Bridge.” On one fateful day in 2005, Kevin met with one of the most challenging, yet rewarding encounters of his service...

Silvia Foti was raised on reverent stories about her hero grandfather, a martyr for Lithuanian independence and an unblemished patriot. His granddaughter, growing up in Chicago, was treated like royalty in her tightly knit Lithuanian community. But in 2000, when Silvia traveled to Lithuania for a ceremony honoring her grandfather, she heard a different story…a “rumor” that her grandfather hand bee...

What’s the purpose of poetry anyway? In these troubling times of ecological challenge, political vitriol, and social unrest, it’s easy to wonder about the value of the arts in all forms. But for Susan Goldsmith Wooldridge, the answer is simple. Poetry isn’t merely a distraction from the world, it’s a necessary element of surviving in it. She sees herself as living between the worlds, the one our b...

Jarie is an engineer by training and an entrepreneur by nature with over 25 years of bringing innovative solutions to markets. As a partner in JSY PR & Marketing, he uses his passion for helping visionary companies find success. His most recent book is The Entrepreneurs Ethos: How to build a more ethical, inclusive, and resilient world. Clearly, Jarie brings his values to his work. He’s also dedic...

When enjoying lunch with a dear friend, Elizabeth Appell began to feel peculiar. The next thing she knew she was waking up in the hospital after surgery, following a sudden stroke. To her great good fortune, Elizabeth’s friend had been in the audience at a one-woman show of another Morning Glory Project guest, Dr. Diane Barns, who wrote and performed Stroke of Luck in which she shares her own stor...

After a long career as a psychologist, organizational consultant, and sports education specialist, George Selleck has had a lot of experience at trying to understand people, groups, and relationships in work, sport, and life. But in is in his twilight years, while suffering life-threatening illness that George’s greatest teacher has arrived in the form of a prematurely born grandson. In his heartw...

Sallie Weissinger felt ready to date again after the passing of her beloved husband. She tried the updated version of the newspaper personal ads through which she’d found her husband in the first place and signed on to dating websites. When she made a list of the qualities she wanted in a new love she noticed that the first letters of those qualities spelled out “PASTRAMI,” which appealed to her s...

As a dual citizen of New Zealand and the United States, Angela Muir Van Etten served as national president of both Little People organizations and qualified as a lawyer in both countries. She was admitted to the bar in New Zealand, Ohio, and New York. As a dwarf of three-feet-four-inches, LPA has twice awarded Angela its highest honor—the Kitchens Meritorious Service Award—for her work as a leader...

Lucky-number-seven of nine children, Margot McMahon discovered their front acre of woods, ravines and the Lake Michigan shoreline before riding horses in prairies, hiking mountains and sailing while her social justice journalist parents wrote and painted their history. Natural materials like wood, sand, bronze and stone inspired her to sculpt while being locally, nationally and internationally awa...

Judy Lipson is the Founder and Chair of Celebration of Sisters, established in 2011 to commemorate the lives and memories of her beloved sisters to benefit Massachusetts General Hospital. Judy has published articles, given speeches and been interviewed by the Open to Hope Organization, the Centering Organization, SKATING Magazine, and in literature published by Massachusetts General Hospital, wher...

As an Episcopal priest, Willa Goodfellow’s ministry included work with troubled teens, college students, congregations in transition, diocesan structures to develop spiritual leadership within local communities, and advocacy for the full inclusion of LGBTQ people. She was a professional troublemaker. Life-long depression caught up with her in her fifties. Her poor pitiful brain nearly threw itself...

Stephen Dexter is an actor, writer, audiobook narrator, and activist based in New York City whose work can be seen on both stage and screen. He has appeared on Off-Broadway and International stages and is a lifetime member of the legendary Actors Studio. He has worked steadily in film and TV, most recently appearing on "Evil" on Paramount Plus, "Dr. Death" on NBC Peacock, and "Billions" on Showtim...