The Courage Curve: Inspiring Stories of Women’s Resilience and Empowerment

In this episode, Parul speaks with Brian Enright, founder of Industrialicious, an artist and sculptor whose work turns discarded industrial materials into pieces of connection, memory, and meaning. Brian reflects on leaving a promising path in technology after realizing that success on paper was not the same as feeling alive. What started as a desire to work with his hands became a long, uncertain...

In this episode, Parul speaks with Sandra James, founder of Private Eyes Background Checks and author of Don’t Tell Me I Can’t , whose life has been shaped by hardship, reinvention, and an unwillingness to let difficult beginnings define what comes next. Sandra reflects on growing up on a farm as one of nine children, where work started early and survival often came before emotional safety. She sh...

In this episode, Parul speaks with Reyyan Ayfer, a professor, technologist, and community builder whose life has been guided by a simple decision she made at 17: to prioritize happiness over any fixed plan. Reyyan reflects on a childhood shaped by curiosity and discipline, where asking questions was encouraged and learning was driven by genuine interest. That early mindset stayed with her as she c...

In this episode, Parul Saini speaks with Madhu Mujoo, a partner at KPMG whose life story reflects what resilience looks like in real life, shaped through constant reinvention. Madhu reflects on being forced to leave Kashmir when she was 13 years old during the targeted violence against the Kashmiri Pandit community, escaping overnight and stepping into life as a displaced refugee within her own co...

In this episode, Parul Saini speaks with Kirsten Greer, a Managing Director at Accenture whose career has spanned more than two decades inside one of the most demanding consulting environments in the world. Kirsten reflects on receiving a life-altering diagnosis while pregnant with her first child, and what it took to move through chemotherapy, childbirth, surgery, and a return to work that felt n...

In this special Women’s Day episode, our host Parul Saini steps outside the traditional interview format to reflect on the women whose stories have shaped The Courage Curve; a podcast for women that believes resilience is not loud. This episode is not about titles or milestones. It is a tribute to what lives beneath them. Across conversations with leaders, activists, scholars, survivors, and women...

In this episode, Parul speaks with Tanya Saroj Bakhru, a social scientist, professor and author whose work asks a deceptively simple question: who gets to belong, and under what conditions? Tanya’s thinking was shaped early by family histories marked by displacement, migration, and survival. Those experiences did not produce certainty. They produced curiosity. A lifelong attention to how power ope...

In this episode, Parul speaks with Dr. Susan Bernstein, a former management consultant turned leadership coach whose work sits at the intersection of neuroscience, somatic awareness and emotional resilience. Susan has spent years inside fast-moving organizations and high-stakes environments, working closely with women leaders who are expected to stay composed, decisive, and clear no matter the cir...

In this episode, Parul speaks with Patty Hatter, a senior technology and board leader whose career has unfolded inside some of the most complex environments in global business.  Patty has led large-scale transformation and customer strategy at Fortune 500 companies including Palo Alto Networks, Intel, McAfee, Cisco, and AT&T. But this conversation is not about titles.  It is about how confiden...

Do you feel like you’re close to a breakthrough? Even if everything around you still looks the same? Then you’re in the right place. I’m Parul Saini, and I’ve learned that real change rarely starts loud. It starts quietly, inside moments that look ordinary but feel different. This is where The Courage Curve begins. It’s the point where steady choices start to compound. Where a woman senses a shift...

Judy Juanita is a poet, novelist, playwright, professor, and lifelong cultural force. She grew up in Oakland during the civil rights era and became part of the original Black Panther Party, working behind the scenes as a journalist and editor at a time when women’s labor often went unseen.  This conversation moves through memory, activism, art, and aging with agency. Judy reflects on growing up in...