Gals Guide

Bonnie starts our monthly theme, Financial Health & Security, by talking about Katharine Dexter McCormick. Katharine was a rich lady, a suffragist, and helped fund the first birth control pill.  

Leah finishes up Creative & Expression Month with Moomins!!!!! Leah talks about the Swedish-Finnish artist, Tove Jansson, who created a colorful universe for her and her characters to escape to. The Moomin world is about admitting your joys and fears, looking for a place of safety, knowing danger is out there, but that you’ll always discover new ways to incorporate what “home” means.

Klaire is back on the podcast talking about an amazing Italian painter who started producing works as a teenager. Artemisia Gentileschi's life was full of challenges and obstacles, including an abuser and rarely getting credit for her paintings. Learn about Artemisia's fierce paintings of women that are gorgeous and haunting to look at. 

Katie is taking a pottery class and found inspiration and kinship with Beatrice Wood. Beatrice was a potter and involved with the Dada movement, giving her the nickname "Mama of Dada." Learn about Beatrice's fascinating life in pottery, art, literature, and French names we struggle to say. 

Bonnie starts Creativity & Expression month by talking about Elizabeth Keckley. From slavery to the personal dressmaker to Mary Todd Lincoln, learn about Elizabeth and her dress-making business.  

Katie finishes up Movement & Joy in the body month by talking about Eunice Kennedy Shriver and her work creating Special Olympics. Did you know Special Olympics first started with Eunice hosting a summer camp on her farm in Maryland? Learn more about Eunice and her work on behalf of persons with disabilities. 

Jackie continues our learning theme of finding wellness with Movement & Joy in the body. Jackie talks about Dorothy "Tommy" Dermody, the Irish fencer who was from County Tipperary. Not only did she compete in the  Olympic Games, but she also made movement and fitness invaluable for kids around Ireland. 

Leah starts off the month with our new theme. In May, Gals Guide is learning from women who found wellness with Movement & Joy in the body. Leah talks about the famous quote and how it might be truer (and wiser) than we might have given it credit for. "Ginger Rogers did everything Fred Astaire did, but did it backwards...and in high heels." Also, a tribute and wish for Mother's Day.

The world is a better place because Selma Miriam was in it... and we might not have known about her without the support of our patron Tony Vasquez. He was the one who sent us a DVD of the amazing documentary A Culinary Uprising: The Story of Bloodroot . Leah closes our learning theme with a wonderful example of Nourishment & The Table. Selma Miriam created a space for well being in so many wom...

Katie continues our learning theme - Nourishment & the Table - by talking about the Queen of Creole Cuisine, Leah Chase. Learn why her restaurant, Dooky Chase, was named one of the 40 most important restaurants of the past 40 years by Food & Wine.

Amy Dalton is back on the show! Amy continues our learning theme - Nourishment & the Table by talking about The Black Forager, Alexis Nikole Nelson. Learn from this adorable forest fairy of a woman, all about how the outdoors are full of things we can eat and how we can have fun learning what is edible and what isn't. 

Bonnie starts our learning theme - Nourishment & the Table by talking about Desert Person, Claire Saffitz. Claire's describes being a desert person  as "an attitude; it's about embracing cooking and eating as fundamental sources of pleasure." 

Leah finishes up Rest as Resistance month with a meditation. She learned this meditation from the Tara Mandala Center. She has been led in this meditation by Lama Tsultrim Allione as well as Lopon Charlotte Rotterdam. It’s a practice that can be done whenever you need it. It has a seed of Buddhism with mindful compassion at its center but you can use this process with any spiritual path, including...

Katie continues Rest as Resistance Month talking about Betty Ford. Learn about the former First Lady whose clinic provided rest and awareness of those with substance use disorders.

Debbi continues Rest as Resistance Month talking about Mother Jones. Learn about the activism of Mary G. Harris Jones to provide rest for the Industrial Workers of the World as well as transform child labor laws. 

Leah starts off Rest as Resistance Month with the woman who wrote the book on it, Tricia Hersey . Learn all about the amazing teaching artist and founder of the Nap Ministry. "Rest is a healing portal to our deepest selves. Rest is care. Rest is radical." - Tricia Hersey from Rest is Resistance

Leah finishes Heart & Connection Month with a gal whose empathy for animals changed our understanding of the world. Learn about Jane Goodall and her amazing work with chimpanzees. 

Katie continues Heart & Connection Month with a gal whose writing connected her readers to a larger world. Learn all about the amazing Nellie Bly and her investigative journalism into a mental institution as well as her adventures around the world in 72 days. 

Bonnie starts our Heart & Connection Month with another "puny pick." First there was a botanist for Rooted in Self Month, now there is a cardiologist for Heart & Connection Month. Learn all about the amazing Helen B. Taussig who founded the field of pediatric cardiology.

It's our 300th episode! Leah, Bonnie, and Katie recorded a live, interactive show with host Editor Amber! The Gal Pals be drinking. See if they can sum up the 300 episodes in 300 seconds. See how much of the 8 years they remember and how much was wishful drinking. Plus audience questions, interactive games, and giveaways. Raise a glass of the Gal Pal Official Cocktail to another 300 episode of ama...

Katie continues Rooted in Self Month by telling us about Joan Didion. Learn about the writer who was a pioneer in the form of New Journalism. Joan wrote essays, articles, novels, and screenplays. Writing was therapeutic and helped her process the death of her husband and daughter. Learn about Joan's years of magical thinking. 

It's the start of Season 9! The Gal Pals are back, starting off our year by learning about Personal & Collective Well-being. Leah gives you the details on the year before Bonnie starts off Rooted in Self Month with her pick, Jeanne Baret. Learn about the French botanist who was the first woman to get on a boat and circumnavigate the world (she did have to do it dressed as a man, though). Learn...

Leah finishes Political Change Month with the first Chinese woman to vote in America...and she was a pinball wizard. I know, I know seems like a jump but it’s a journey and we’re in it together. Learn all about Tye Leung Schulze in the final episode of Season 8.

Katie continues Political Change Month by talking about Jeannette Rankin, the first woman to hold federal office in the United States. The Republican Representative for Montana in 1916 and again in 1940. To this date, Jeannette is the only congresswoman to have represented Montana.

Bonnie starts of Political Change Month with the infamous Alice Roosevelt. Have you heard the quote by her dad Theodore Roosevelt? “I can do one of two things. I can be President of the United States or I can control Alice Roosevelt. I cannot possibly do both.” Learn why on this week's episode.