The Babblery RADIO-READY

NOTE: This audio is the broadcast version of this episode for radio stations only. Visit BABBLERY.com for the full stream, more information, transcript, and links. Subscribe: Apple Podcasts • YouTube • Spotify • Amazon • TuneIn Merle Hoffman opened one of America’s first legal abortion clinics in 1971—and she’s been fighting for our rights ever since. […]

NOTE: The audio of this episode is the broadcast version of this episode for radio stations only. Visit BABBLERY.com for the full stream, more information, transcript, and links. Subscribe: Apple Podcasts • YouTube • Spotify • Amazon • TuneIn Cindy Cohn’s new book, Privacy’s Defender, focuses on three legal cases that formed the basis for privacy […]

Denise Miranda is New York State's top civil rights official, the head of an agency that is charged with monitoring and promoting civil rights in the state. She's also a proud native of the Bronx, daughter of Puerto Rican-born parents, and a mother. It's an unusual time for Denise—a Black Latina—to be in charge of the part of the government so despised by New York's most famous native son.

NOTE: The audio of this episode is the broadcast version of this episode for radio station use only. Visit BABBLERY.com for the full stream, more information, transcript, and links. Visit BABBLERY.com for more information. About The Babblery: The Babblery features conversations about who we are and how we got this way. Modern humans can seem […]

NOTE: The audio of this episode is the broadcast version of this episode for radio stations only. Visit BABBLERY.com for the full stream, more information, transcript, and links.  

NOTE: The audio of this episode is the broadcast version of this episode for radio stations only. Visit BABBLERY.com for the full stream, more information, transcript, and links.  

  In her childhood, filmmaker Alexandrine Benjamin experienced the struggles of life in Haiti, a country with a troubled past and present. She had to work hard for every step of her education and career. When it came to making her first short feature film, there was no question that she would depict Haiti with […]

  Sometimes all it takes to change lives is a simple question. One day at her piano lesson, LaDoris Cordell asked her teacher, Jodi Gandolfi, if there were any Black composers of concert music. Concert music is a more inclusive term for what many people know as “classical” music: art songs, symphonies, opera, chamber music. […]

American women are so entrenched in our system of birth that it’s hard to see other possibilities, but doula Anne Wallen and the women she works with and trains are evangelical about how different it could be. In this conversation, Anne explores the ‘typical’ doctor-led birth, then describes the births she assists. The contrasts could […]

Shilpi Chhotray is a storyteller with a purpose. An environmentalist from an early age, her perspective has developed and deepened during her career. Having found inspiration in the social justice movement, she and her production team are now embarking on a project to tell stories about environmental justice through “A People’s Climate.” The new podcast […]

From Suki Wessling: Reporting from the October 18 No Kings Rally in Downtown Santa Cruz today, I heard a clear message: What’s happening in this country is not OK. People from all walks of life came together with a message of unity and hope. Although there was anger, there was a distinct lack of partisanship […]

In feminist scholar Dr. Bettina Aptheker’s early years, she found herself front and center in the 1960s controversy over free speech. As a young academic, she found herself mired in a legal dispute over freedom of association. And throughout her career, she has been able to push boundaries due to academic freedom. Recently Bettina gave […]

Dr. Eve V. Clark has spent a career in academia pursuing one seemingly simple question: How do children learn to talk? The theory in vogue at the beginning of her career was advanced by Noam Chomsky, whose theory of Universal Grammar was all the rage amongst linguists. As a woman outnumbered by men, Eve pursued […]

On April 5, 2025 Dr. Heather Ford stood at the steps of the Santa Cruz County Building, joining other scientists around the United States to protest the Trump Administration’s witch hunt against his imagined “woke science agenda.” Since World War II, the US has seen a broadly bipartisan support for the federal funding of science, […]

Why are you proud to be American? In these interviews at an Independence Day parade on Coastal California, residents talk about reaching for their pride at a time when our political landscape is so fraught.

with Joanne Foster and Patrice Vecchione What is creativity, how can we nurture it, and what can it do for us? In this conversation we speak about creativity from two directions: Dr. Joanne Foster researches and writes about creativity in education, and Patrice Vecchione teaches and practices creativity in her writing and visual art. Interviewed […]

Sharon Sewell-Fairman’s path to become CEO and President of New York City-based nonprofit Women Creating Change was hardly set at birth. She started life in a rural area of Jamaica, her only advantage being her family’s emphasis on the importance of education. Sharon pins her success on the support of women: her grandmother and mother […]

Carol Fisher Saller moved from her career as an editor to a writer of children’s books not knowing that she was witnessing the end of an era. Her first books were published by traditional, mainstream publishers who were running their businesses the way they had been run for decades. Then Carol, along with many other […]

On-the-street interviews by Suki Wessling: On April 5, 2025, people across the United States took to the streets for rallies branded “Hands Off.” I particularly appreciated that theme once I arrived at our local rally in Santa Cruz, CA. Why? Because we’ve got to stop this us and them thing. All of us depend on […]

Brooke Berman is a first-time film director. She’s also a middle-aged woman, a mom, and a wife with a full writing career under her belt. In this conversation, we explore how she got to the point of directing her film, Ramona at Midlife, and what she learned in the process. Brooke’s film is not autobiographical, […]

A special edition of the Babblery in recognition of Black History Month. I was ambivalent about going anywhere on Martin Luther King, Jr.’s birthday, this year otherwise known as Inauguration Day. It seemed like the two events were canceling each other out in my brain, creating a longing for pure nothingness. But a path to […]

Composer Anne Hege talks about music and the body, using technology in music, and the life of working musicians.

After a long career at CBS as a TV and online content producer, Stephanie Jacobs and her wife came west for a warmer climate, good wine, and proximity to family. She initially connected to the Babblery to speak about her career and her broad experience in American politics, but this conversation took an unexpected turn. […]

In this conversation, host Suki Wessling speaks with writer, researcher, designer and entrepreneur Brenda Laurel about how girls play and what that means for women and game designers. We talk about the relationship between theater and gaming, and how the gaming world grew to change the way children live and develop. We talk about the […]

“Every time I danced,  I thought about the gratitude I had to move my body when simultaneously my mother was bound to a wheelchair. It shifted my perspective on the gift of life.” – Nicole Tetreault In this wide-ranging interview, we explore how neuroscientist, author, and meditation teacher Nicole Tetreault managed to step across what was once a […]