Finding Fertile Ground: Communicate for Change

This week I interviewed Jasnam Daya Singh, born in Brazil and a Latin Grammy-nominated concert and jazz pianist and brilliant composer. He is Sikh, after growing up Catholic.  Jasnam is one of the kindest, most gentle people I know.  Earlier this year, Jasnam led a 12-piece band in playing his composition , Ekta: The Unity Project . The piece embodies Jasnam’s musical interests but also expresses...

Last week, Ash Prasad and I discussed the need for safe workspaces. This week I covered similar themes with Joy Fowler, diversity & inclusion program manager at the Port of Portland. I met Joy 20+ years ago after we both gave birth to 24-weeker preemies. We volunteered together on Legacy Emanuel’s NICU Family Advisory Board. After Amir passed away in 2012, Joy and her husband Allen founded A M...

Ash Prasad is  a South Asian Indian immigrant, author of How to Write Inclusively: An Analysis & How To Guide .   Ash's life and world view changed during college when she took a class called “Ethics of Diversity,” which addressed the philosophical harms of injustice. It made her realize she wasn’t as privileged as she thought she was and it made her view the world in a different way.  Bu...

In my last episode, Katrina Nilsson-Gorman shared her experience in southern India, and this week’s story from Annette Stixrud is partly based in Tamil Nadu as well. Annette spent much of her life working overseas as an educator and public health nurse.  I call her Saint Annette. Annette's father was a Lutheran pastor who earned a meager salary and had six children. She went to Pacific Luther...

Trigger warning: sexual assault, trauma, mental health, and suicide Born in Vail, CO, Katrina spent her first five years living on the side of a mountain. Raised by her mom and grandma, she comes from a family of strong women. From 2013 to 2017, Katrina experienced a perfect storm of events that nearly ended her life. After college, she saved as much money as she could to fund six months of travel...

Trigger warning: This episode contains discussion of childhood sexual abuse and trauma. Stephanie Coren is one of the most resilient people I know. She recalls some wonderful things about her childhood, but her parents were raging alcoholics and physically abused her. Then she was sexually abused at age four by a priest and nuns.  Stephanie had no safe adults in her life. She suppressed much of he...

This episode contains explicit conversation. Dr. Kris Gowen is a sexuality educator and researcher. Kris is cofounder of Beyond the Talk , the sex ed you wish you had. They provide presentations, workshops, and interactive games all aimed at increasing access to sexuality information. After her best friend Molly died, Kris decided to travel around to all 50 states, a 17,774-mile road trip, and sin...

I interviewed April Brenden-Locke and Miguel Ochoa Castellanos about a wonderful children’s home in Chiapas, Mexico, called Hogar Infantil . April is the president of the American board of Hogar, and Miguel grew up there and runs a language school...he’s a great success story. They share how Hogar Infantil changed both of their lives, “cambiando vidas a través de la educación,” or “changing lives...

Today I share my own life’s grit and resilience story, for it is my birthday. Resilience is my life’s motto, and that’s the reason for this podcast subtitle. Read more here . It’s also one of my superpowers and one day, when the pandemic finally ends, it will be my next tattoo. It started when I was born. My mom had German measles when she was pregnant, and I was born with a cleft lip, cleft palat...

This week I interviewed Farheen Raza , host of Authentic + Unfiltered with Farheen . Farheen is a Muslim-American community activist, radio personality, and mom of three from Texas. She is a fearless communicator, loud on social media, and active on multiple fronts.  Farheen grew up in the Boston area. She clearly remembers 9/11, when all three of the planes taken over by terrorists flew out of Lo...

If you’re a feminist like me, you’re reeling from the news of liberal icon Ruth Bader Ginsburg passing away on Friday. This episode with Marie Cecile Anderson and Katy Frame, Reformed Whores , will be a balm to your soul. If Dolly Parton & Flight of the Conchords got drunk and had a baby, you'd get the hilariously irreverent musical comedy duo Reformed Whores! They’re on a mission to empo...

Sankar Raman immigrated to the U.S. from India to attend graduate school. After a successful career in high tech, he now applies his technical knowledge, managerial skills, and pragmatic mind to founding and leading The Immigrant Story , a nonprofit organization that fosters empathy and builds a more inclusive community by sharing immigrant stories. You can reach Sankar at sankar@theimmigrantstory...

Raina Casey is my final of four "Badass Black Women.” Raina is a true survivor and has a calling to help people at the end of their lives through her witness and presence. You can reach her on Facebook here . This episode discussed the use of cannabis, which is legal in Oregon and some other states. Raina has an extensive grit story, but we were barely able to scratch the surface because I wa...

Jackie Capers-Brown is the third of "Four Badass Black Women.” Jackie has endured unimaginable grief yet she has found a way to take that grief and transform it into something great. You can reach her at her website . I met Jackie when she interviewed me for her “Level Up Your Life” podcast . When she asked me about my theme song, I answered, “Rise Up” by Andra Day. Jackie told me it was her...

Jewels was born in Harlem Hospital as an only child to a single mom. Her mom was diagnosed with breast cancer when Jewels was ten, so they moved to Georgia to be closer to family. Her mom wasn’t working while she was undergoing chemo, so they were couch surfers without their own home...not the first time in her life that Jewels would find herself houseless. From that experience, Jewels developed a...

Badass Lotus Flower Libra Forde is my first installment of my "Four Badass Black Women" series. You can reach her here: https://www.facebook.com/librabetall or https://www.instagram.com/be.tall/.   Libra's mom named her Libra because her pregnancy brought balance to her life. At 6 feet, five inches, Libra continues that balance in her own life. Born in Harlem, NYC, Libra is single m...

In my final "Three Men of Color, Reinventing Fatherhood" series, I interviewed Ken Harge, who grew up with a father who was a bully. He says writing saved his life.  Ken (or KLH to his friends) was born and raised in Waterbury, Connecticut, “a big city with a knucklehead mindset,” as he puts it. Although his childhood lacked love and nurturing, he has transformed himself into becoming a...

“I grew up in a way where I was determined that I would not allow myself to be judged by my skin color,” said Charles Jackson II about seeing George Floyd’s murder. “I wanted to present myself as a positive contributor to society, and I went out of my way to do that. And a lot of stuff that was going on in the Black community and even around me, I tried to black out.  :When I saw George Floyd and...

Ruben was born in Texas into a dysfunctional family with ten children. When he was nine, his family moved to a migrant labor camp in Oregon, where he had to work hard picking produce.  As a young brown person, he felt great shame. He dropped out of school at 16. But he turned his shame into persistence, fathering four and eventually earning a master’s degree.  Here is a glimpse of his story: “The...

Rabbi Debra (D’vorah) Kolodny (they/them) is a social justice veteran, bringing a spiritual perspective and activist passion to racial and economic, women’s, environmental, peace, and LGBTQIA causes. Rabbi Debra serves as the spiritual leader of Portland’s UnShul, and as executive director of Portland United Against Hate. After the murder of George Floyd, they started going into the streets. Rabbi...

Today's episode of the Finding Fertile Ground Podcast: Stories of Grit, Resilience, and Connection features Dr. Daivati Bharadvaj, who overcame bullying in her teen years to reclaim her power and her Indian heritage.  Daivati’s parents arrived in the United States with $24 and four-year-old Daivati. Daivati missed her family in India but has fond memories of her childhood, helping her dad in...

Dennett dropped out of high school and completed her GED by the age of 16. A New Yorker at heart, she lacked access to many opportunities as a child, and her parents divorced when she was young. Thanks to a few people who believed in her potential, she now has nearly three master’s degrees.  She is driven by her passion to help people...affecting other people’s lives for the better. Just a few mon...

Meet Skye Leybold, who tells our latest story of grit, resilience, and connection on the Finding Fertile Ground podcast. Skye was diagnosed with Stage 4 metastatic cancer a few years ago, and her doctors gave up on her. She was determined to live for her children, and with the help of her husband and a new medical team, her tumors are gone. She knows they will come back eventually, but she's...

In the first episode of the Finding Fertile Ground Podcast, Marie Gettel-Gilmartin interviews Olive Bukuru Kabura, whose family fled from war-torn Burundi when Olive was just 6 months old. She grew up in a refugee camp in Tanzania until she was 10, when her family moved to Oregon. We talked about her experiences in Africa, assimilating to the United States, going back to Tanzania and Burundi a few...