Two Old Bitches: Stories from Women who Reimagine, Reinvent and Rebel

We have long marveled at Ellen Bravo's ability to balance the demands of being a feminist activist and author. Her books are driven by the same social change values and objectives that have fueled her many decades of organizing for justice and equity for women and families. She is the former director of 9to5 –yes, the group that inspired the movie– and co-founder of Family Values @ Work , a succes...

What a treat to talk with a fierce feminist who's been a force of nature for more than half a century! At 71, Nadine embodies a lifelong commitment and ever-evolving talent to amplify her passion for social justice. Her volunteer work in 1964 on Shirley Chisholm's campaign for New York State Assembly and at Women Strike for Peace with Bella Abzug immersed her in an understanding that sexism, racis...

Stories transport us across time and space, bring us together, help us make sense of our lives and the world, make us laugh and cry, and even change our minds. Stories fuel social change and personal change. Their power drives us, as Two Old Bitches, to collect edgy elder women's stories to share with story-loving listeners of all genders and ages. And to discover and tell our own stories. In this...

What's better than 'talking shop' with a serious and sensational sister traveler? That was the joy that TOB experienced when we interviewed Sari Botton, founder of the recently-launched substack magazine, Oldster . Oldster takes a fresh look at what it means to age at any stage of life, featuring writers of all genders and age groups. It fully reflects the brilliance and wizardry of Sari who, at 5...

There could be no greater gift to Screen Bitches than finding the HBO-Max series Hacks, starring Jean Smart. We brought together three of our most dedicated Old Bitch streamers – Malaga Baldi (literary agent), Aruna Rao (women's rights thinker and consultant), and Debbie Zimmerman (head of Women Make Movies and world-recognized expert on women and media) – to explore what is so powerful and ground...

Prepare to be utterly astounded as you listen to our conversation with Isa Infante! This self-described "life force," follows her heart and her values, wherever they take her. That means challenging good ole boys in Tennessee by running for mayor of Knoxville and as the Green Party candidate for governor. It means passing by a bar, hearing bluegrass music, and deciding to start a women's bluegrass...

When do you turn to books? Sometimes for escape (mysteries, anyone), sometimes for the joys of fine literature ( Matrix by Lauren Goff or Haiku Mind by Patricia   Donegan), and yet at other times for knowledgeable counsel. In this episode, two badass women authors talk with us about the recent books that their life experience led them to write and share with others. In Why Are There Monkeys ? radi...

"What I want all of my work to do is expand the definition of who Indians think they can be and how they think they can be in the world and their space for all of that -- all of the things that we can dream of." Activists Jennifer Finley and Julie Cajune, members of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai tribe in Montana, are willing to risk being called Bad Indians for the sake of this liberating v...

If you are committed to 'choosing your own adventure' you'll want to tune in immediately to TOB's conversation with Tammi Leader Fuller, the effervescent co-creator of Campowerment.   After three decades as an award-winning television producer (at The TODAY Show, NBC News, CBS News, America's Most Wanted, and EXTRA TV), Tammi left television in 2013 to partner with her college professor mom and he...

Just before the pandemic shut down live performances across the world, the American soprano Claron M. McFadden appeared with pianist Alexander Melnikov at London's Wigmore Hall to rave reviews for "an exhilarating and unorthodox show" and her "breathtakingly beautiful" voice. Having listened to her recordings, we wish we could have been there. From Handel and Bach to modern and contemporary classi...

Feminist thinkers, activists and authors Idelisse Malavé, 74,  and Joanne Sandler, 70, created and host Two Old Bitches, a podcast featuring conversations with women in the second half of life whose perspectives and experiences disrupt what it means to be "old" and reclaim what it means to be a "bitch." Over the past six seasons they have welcomed edgy progressive activists, a zen priest, performe...

"The world tells women-of-a-certain-age to be invisible, be innocuous with quiet voices. We've got news for you, world…WE'RE DONE WITH YOUR BULLSHIT!"  These are the words that appear when you pull up the Crones of Anarchy website ( https://cronesofanarchy.com ) and the spirit that infuses the 18,000+ members on the Facebook group of the same name. We – Two Old Bitches – were fortunate enough to c...

Two Old Bitche s co-hosts and friends, Joanne Sandler and Idelisse Malavé, were invited by the wonderful and popular Call Your Girlfriend podcast to have a conversation about their decades long friendship. As part of a series, "Summer of Friendship", CYG asked a few of their favorite podcasters — we're honored! — to tell them how they met, times their friendship has been stretched, and how they gr...

Imagine your life as a perpetual learning journey where you grow braver and more transcendent as the years pass. That is how Trudy Berlin has lived. She is the 98-year-old host of "The Ladies Room with Trudy Berlin", a weekly discussion group for women over 70. She started it twenty years ago and when the pandemic hit, the group went virtual. The Washington Post christened Trudy " the 'Oprah' of s...

Jaune Evans was originally ordained as a priest in the White Plum Lineage by Bernie Glassman and Taizan Maezumi Roshi in 1983 at the Zen Community of New York. She is now a priest and senior teacher in the Bay Area Everyday Zen lineage of Zoketsu Norman Fischer, and leads the Heart of Compassion Zen Sangha in Point Reyes, California. She is reading from a guided meditation by the Buddhist teacher...

Surprise! Despite being at higher risk, older folks have weathered this past year in better spirits than younger people, according to recent studies .  Well, maybe it's not such a big surprise given our breadth of experience and, uh-hum, wisdom. For Two Old Bitches, it's certainly been a crucial topic of conversation since the first lockdowns in March 2020. We've also explored how COVID affected w...

Listen to Sri's beautiful reading of a parable she wrote called "But My Neighbor is Fasting." It's a story about an act of kindness that taught Sri what it means to be extraordinary. And thanks to Sri for sharing this powerful story.   

At 69 , Srilatha Batliwala is a feminist grandmother to her four grandchildren and also sees "grandmothering" as a metaphor for how she operates in the world of feminist and social justice movements. Building on decades of activism and prolific writing as a feminist scholar – from her work with tens of thousands of women in village and slum communities in India to holding prestigious positions and...

What are we talking about when we talk about "reinventing" ourselves? Our conversation with writer, teacher and Japanese home cooking guru, Sonoko Sakai, reveals how failure is a pathway to discovering long-standing passions and new opportunities. After two decades as a successful film buyer and producer, Sonoko confronted financial and career loss. To heal, she discovered "putting my hands in flo...

"What have you been watching?" "See anything good lately?" are questions many of us routinely ask each other, especially during the pandemic. A trusted recommendation for a movie and, for some of us even better, a series with many seasons is cause to celebrate.  How often, though, do you hear of a good movie or series about, for, or by older women? Not often. So when we heard about the film "Let T...

Exploring the idea of creating an intentional living community for creatives, and the Hudson Valley, led us (Idelisse and Joanne) to the small town of Catskill, NY where we were enchanted to find an "ArTchaeological Museum" in the window of the Open Studio on Main Street. Its owner Dina Bursztyn, 72, is a visual artist and writer. We were transfixed by her gallery filled with whimsical found art a...

How do we respond to this political moment? Pessimism is tempting and optimism may feel foolhardy, yet a sense of possibility fueled by hope makes enduring sense to us. After the Biden/Harris victory, we turned to long-time activists, Lecia Brooks and Lisa Veneklasen to tap into their wisdom and clear-eyed assessment of what we're facing and what's possible in the struggle for overdue and drastica...

With "thousands of grandmothers' voices and stories" in her head, Ilana Landsberg-Lewis, a Canadian labor and human rights lawyer and passionate women's rights advocate, started the "Grandmothers on the Move" podcast over two years ago. Fifty-three engaging episodes later, she's already succeeded in her goal to "kick old stereotypes to the curb" through conversations with astonishing older women....

"When I'm wearing matte, it's like 'I dare you to come closer!" So warns feminist activist Houry Geudelekian in this episode on the joys, power and history of lipstick...at any age. Join us to hear Houry, feminist economist Radhika Balakrishnan and writer Sandra García Betancourt talk about their and our own checkered histories wearing lipstick --or not. People have colored their lips for at least...

There are so many colorful threads in the life story that Ruth Strassberg, 76, weaves for us in this episode of Two Old Bitches. Her journey to the U.S. from an Italian displaced persons camp in the 40s, transforming into a beatnik in the 50s, her immersion in psychedelic cultures of the 60s and 70s, and her engagement with new age and human potential movements since the 1980s offer fascinating gl...