Breaking Glass

Erin Jorgensen is an artist, musician, and a somewhat accidental abortion activist. Having grown up in a Mormon family in rural Washington, Erin eventually turned her back on the church and moved to the coast to pursue a career in music. A struggling artist, she resorted to sex work to make ends meet. After four abortions, Erin's roommate and dear friend urged her to open up about her experie...

Matthew Nouriel is a British Iranian who from a young age, was attracted to all the things little boys in traditional homes should never be attracted to - Barbies, dresses, make up. Growing up between the UK and Los Angeles, Matthew diverged from the path that their family laid out for them and found a home among the LGBTQ+ community of West Hollywood. Soon, Matthew was able to merge their passion...

At the young age of 16, Orna Donath knew with certainty that she would never be a mother. To Orna, this self-realization was not as extraordinary as society would want her to believe. To her, it was mundane. Just as common as choosing to become a mother. In the decades that followed she became a sociologist and author, producing thought-provoking research on women who regret motherhood along with...

Esther Amini is a writer, artist, and psychotherapist whose family emigrated from Mashad, Iran to New York City before she was born. Despite their newfound freedom, the life of secrecy and duplicity that they had known in Iran resulted in generations of trauma. Esther has spent a lifetime navigating these two conflicting realities - that of a conservative Jewish Iranian daughter whose only aspirat...

Jackson Katz is founder & president of MVP Strategies and an outspoken expert on why gender violence is a man's issue. Jackson grew up in a dysfunctional family and in college found himself studying the intersectionality of race, gender, and discrimination. Watching strong female classmates survive rape and campaign for campus safety, Jackson grew increasingly infuriated by the lack of en...

Nasreen Sheikh was born into a rural village in Nepal to a family struggling to survive. The desperation of her upbringing drove her to work in a sweatshop as a young child where she lived and worked in a 10x10 foot room alongside 5 other people. After escaping child labor, she founded Women’s Local Handicraft to disrupt the manufacturing supply chain and create meaningful work and living wages fo...

Do you ever find yourself wondering who the personalities are behind these voices on Breaking Glass? This one's for you. Today we're pulling back the curtain and co-hosts Sabrina and Kassia are getting personal. We're rambling about the complexity of podcasting, the mess of motherhood, and how in the world we ended up in partnership with one another on this show. Kassia opens up abo...

Sandra Pepera is a Ghanaian woman raised in Britain by parents who were deeply committed to girls' education. No stranger to the experience of being a minority in the room, Sandra is a campaigner at heart and has dedicated her life to equity and justice work. Today, she is a renowned an expert in international development, democracy, and gender equity. The Director for Gender, Women, and Demo...

Chrissy Powers was 13 years-old when her father brought home a purity ring and sat her down to talk about the importance of waiting until marriage. Purity culture was the norm in her Evangelical Church community but the burden of shame and guilt that was placed on her as a young girl led to years of eating disorders and anxiety. Now, as a licensed family and marriage counselor, and married with ki...

In this special Father's Day episode we sit down with Sabrina's father, David Merage. A successful businessman, immigrant, and philanthropist, David reflects on his roots in a patriarchal society and the strong women whom he looked up to as a child. We discuss his duality as an Iranian Jew living in America, a successful entrepreneur whose family had meager means, and a conservative busi...

Kristina Wilfore and Lucina Di Meco are global experts and passionate advocates for women’s digital rights. With more than 800 million people using the internet as a primary source of information, these ladies are critically concerned about the number of intentional and fraudulent attacks against female politicians and journalists online. The rise of gendered disinformation to undermine women in l...

Carli Lloyd was headed into her tenth season of professional volleyball when she found out she and her long-term partner were pregnant. This deeply personal news came at a high professional cost. Carli and her partner didn’t even get a chance to process this news personally before it was thrust into the public view and her contract was swiftly cancelled. Traumatic as it was, Carli’s story isn’t un...

Aminata Conteh-Biger grew up in a well-off family in the capital of Sierra Leone where her father prioritized education and opportunities for his six daughters. She had a happy and protected childhood until a truly devastating civil war broke out in her country resulting in the deaths of more than 50,000 individuals. She herself was kidnapped for seven months before fleeing as a refugee to Austral...

After years of working in male-dominated industries, Heide Iravani and Emily Clifford co-founded Piccolina, a lifestyle brand dedicated to empowering today’s young children to become tomorrow’s leaders and problem-solvers. These renegade entrepreneurs share their experiences of how becoming mothers inspired them to take the leap and launch a business that disrupts the way we think about fashion ch...

Ester Steinberg has been in the comedy circuit since she was 16 years-old trying to make her way on stage at the one comedy club in Tampa, Fl. The message she received? No girls allowed. She then made her way to Los Angeles before settling with her comedian husband and their son in New York. Ester brings some levity and comedic anecdotes to what it’s like for a woman and a new mother in the world...

Michela Bedard is an outspoken feminist. She has to be. As the Executive Director of Period, she is heading up a youth-led movement to end period poverty around the world. Michela doesn't shy away from hard conversation and believes that there should be no shame or stigma around the topic of menstruation. We discuss how menstruation inequity is a foundational element of gender gaps across ind...

From a very young age Neysara realized that the world had something wrong about her. Born to cis-gender parents in rural India, the only transgender individuals she saw were banished to the margins of society, often selling themselves as sex workers to survive. Neysara had different aspirations. She completed college and then pursued an incredibly risky transition to live openly as a woman. She sh...

Carly Burson and Priti Pugalia are business partners working to disrupt generational poverty for women around the world. Carly is based in Texas and is the Founder of ethical fashion brand LAUDE the Label. Priti is the founder of Craft Boat, a recycled paper and textile manufacturing studio in Jaipur, India, deeply committed to encouraging sustainable Indian craftsmanship. Together they are disrup...

Julie Adams is a Sydney-based photographer widely known for her work in Vogue, Harper’s BAZAAR, Glamour, Marie Claire and others, what we’re talking about today is her personal project titled This Is Me . For this personal project, Julie has photographed hundreds of women, all of whom modeled for an unretouched photograph in their swimsuit and shared some of their own reflections about body image,...

Meredith Fineman has never struggled to find the right words. The daughter of a journalist and granddaughter of English professors, she comes from a long lineage of wordsmiths. It comes as no surprise that Meredith has found her professional stride as a communication expert. Founder of FinePoint, a communications agency, and author of Brag Better, she has built her career teaching women and men th...

Sarah Dubbeldam is no stranger to the superficial scrutiny of the media industry. A model for many years, the deterioration of Sarah's mental health drove her to defy the status quo and create more authentic content for women. Darling Magazine was launched as a source of relatable and accessible storytelling on the topics women care most about, and it quickly captured headlines when it became...

Pat Mitchell has shattered nearly ever glass ceiling in the media industry. She was the first woman to lead PBS, CNN, and to produce the first national program hosted by a woman for women. She has won Emmy’s, Peabody’s, and been nominated for Academy Awards. But before any of this success, Pat was an unemployed single mother in New York City navigating the gender barriers that were all around her....

Dr. Yuko Kawanishi is a sociologist based in Tokyo, who specializes in mental health, gender relations, and contemporary Japanese social issues. When in 2020, nearly 7,000 women took their own lives and the country experienced one of the highest suicide rates in the world, Dr. Kawanishi took interest. She joins us to reflect on the professional expectations, the stoic culture, and the social shame...

Darcy Gaechter is the first woman to kayak the Amazon River from source to sea, a tumultuous journey that lasted nearly 5 months. She has been whitewater kayaking for twenty-one years and for the past fifteen years, she has been considered one of the most accomplished expedition kayakers in the world. Darcy may not have set out to be a feminist or role model, but after hearing that women couldn&ap...

This is the story of two women from different corners of the globe whose paths cross as champions of girls education in Kenya. Rebecca Crook is a former teacher from California. Debborah Odenyi grew up in rural Kenya, became a teacher, and is now an independent consultant to education organizations. They met in Nairobi where they are supporting education innovators and organizations to improve qua...