Women Living the Questions

In this episode, host Ruby Tugade speaks with Sylvia Brownrigg, a writer whose work explores family, memory, and the questions that persist through a lifetime. Raised between Northern California and England, Sylvia has built a literary life through fiction, nonfiction, and creating spaces where writers can gather across cultures. Sylvia talks about the family histories explored in her memoir, the...

This episode includes discussion of chronic pain and suicidal thoughts. Please take care while listening. In this episode, host Ruby Tugade speaks with Candace Corson, MD. From growing up during the Little Rock school integration crisis and entering Yale as part of its first class of women, to practicing family medicine in rural North Carolina, she has spent a lifetime asking what it truly means t...

In this episode, host Ruby Tugade speaks with Barbara Wagner, who looks back on a life of expanding what was possible: from entering Yale as one of the first women at the college, to forging a career in corporate law when women were still being asked how fast they could type. She also shares what it was like to navigate Yale's first years of coeducation and the sexism she encountered along the...

In this episode, host Ruby Tugade speaks with Patty Louratolo Hymanson, a neurologist, former Maine state representative and chair of the Health and Human Services Committee, and longtime community leader whose life has been shaped by curiosity, courage, and connection. Patty reflects on her Italian immigrant heritage, her upbringing in Yonkers and summers by the sea in Massachusetts, and her fami...

In the latest episode of “Women Living the Questions”, host Ruby Tugade is in conversation with Annette Cyr, a painter, filmmaker, writer, and professor whose work has been recognized by global cultural institutions and film festivals including Cannes, the Pushcart Prize, and the Guggenheim Foundation. She looks back on a life of shifting between art forms, and learning that when one becomes impos...

In this episode, host Ruby Tugade speaks with Paula Marantz Cohen, a writer and professor who has moved between scholarship, fiction, and teaching, and who looks back on how family history remains a cornerstone, and how creative identity changes over time. Paula shares how her mother, a strong feminist in her time, once had her husband take her name, and how that act of naming continues in her fam...

Content note: This episode includes discussion of sexual violence and clergy abuse within faith communities. Please take care while listening. In this episode, host Ruby Tugade speaks with Marie Fortune, clergywoman, writer, educator, and advocate whose work has helped faith communities respond more thoughtfully to sexual and domestic violence. Marie reflects on her childhood in Asheville, North C...

In this episode, host Ruby Tugade speaks with Helen Glazer, an artist whose work bridges art, science, and the natural world. Helen shares her path from painted constellation murals in Baltimore to tactile sculptural work for blind children, designed so that form can be experienced through touch. She reflects on how these experiments expanded into photography of complex natural systems and later i...

In this episode, host Ruby Tugade speaks with Jacqui Parr Byrne, an educator, entrepreneur, and mother whose life reflects the ongoing process of becoming. Jacqui shares her journey from a career in banking and marketing to co-founding an educational program for “twice-exceptional students”, or young people who are both highly capable and face challenges such as anxiety, ADHD, dyslexia, or autism....

In this episode, host Ruby Tugade speaks with Sara Holtz, who looks back on a life of storytelling: from practicing law and training women leaders, to interviewing successful women on the podcast she hosted for seven years, “Advice to My Younger Me”, about the lessons they wish they had known earlier in life. She also opens up about her experience as a member of the first class of women admitted t...

In this episode, host Ruby Tugade speaks with Ann Larson, a retired Lutheran pastor whose life has evolved by ministry and a lifelong search for deeper spirituality. Ann speaks of becoming one of the early generations of women ordained in the Lutheran church, and navigating the challenges of a career that did not unfold in the ways she once expected. With striking honesty, she opens up about thera...

In this episode, host Ruby Tugade speaks with Anna Boorstin, a former film sound editor, writer, and lifelong reader whose reflections on love, grief, and self-acceptance reveal a life deeply examined and fully lived. Anna shares stories about growing up in Southern California during the rise of second-wave feminism, working in the film industry, and raising a family while learning to better under...

In this episode, host Ruby Tugade speaks with Jan Jorgensen, a poet, minister, spiritual director, and lifelong reader and collector of books. Jan reflects on growing older with curiosity and tenderness, and on learning to hold both beauty and sorrow at once. She speaks about motherhood, poetry, spirituality, and the ways our earliest selves continue to live within us. With warmth, wisdom, and poe...

This episode includes conversations about mental health and suicide. Please take care while listening. In this episode, host Ruby Tugade speaks with Therese Eke, a nonprofit director turned community organizer whose life is about service, activism, and personal transformation. With brave honesty, Therese reflects on surviving a mental health crisis in her twenties, rebuilding her sense of self thr...

In this episode, host Ruby Tugade speaks with Lauren Mayer, a comedic singer-songwriter, teaching artist, theater director, and vocal coach whose life has been anchored in the performing arts, education, and songwriting. Her story arc spans decades of people-pleasing, and ultimately arriving at a fuller sense of herself, for herself. With candor and humor, she reflects on unlearning the “good girl...

In this episode, host Ruby Tugade speaks with Diane Solomon, a nurse, midwife, psychiatric nurse practitioner, writer, and educator whose life has been rooted in caregiving. After decades in healthcare, Diane is stepping into a new chapter as a volunteer educator, teaching a more honest and complex history of Oregon. Her journey has included raising four children, moving through romantic relations...

Content Note: This episode includes references to violence, including sexual violence and assault, so please take care while listening. In this episode, host Ruby Tugade speaks with Alexis Krasilovsky, an award-winning filmmaker, author, and professor whose career spans decades of experimental cinema, academic work, and women-centered storytelling. As part of the first class of women at Yale, Kras...

In this episode of “Women Living the Questions", host Ruby Tugade speaks with Edith Terry, a journalist and cultural observer whose life and career span continents, industries, and eras of profound global change. Edith began her journey as one of the early women to graduate from Yale, navigating the complexities of gender in elite academic spaces. From there, her path led her across the world...

In this episode of “Women Living the Questions”, host Ruby Tugade speaks with Kathy Saranpa, who is a scholar, educator, and literary translator whose life has been about a lifelong love of language and an unrelenting drive to empower others through it. Kathy grew up the eldest of six in Ohio and California, stepping into the role of caretaker at twelve when her parents divorced. That early sense...

In this episode of “Women Living the Questions", host Ruby Tugade speaks with Lenore Skenazy, a journalist, author, and social change agent whose work challenges modern assumptions about safety, trust, and childhood independence. Lenore began her career as a reporter before a single parenting decision, of allowing her nine-year-old son to ride the New York City subway alone, sparked a nationa...

In the latest episode of “Women Living the Questions”, host Ruby Tugade sits down with Alice Young. They explore a life shaped by early responsibility and cultural memory, from a childhood marked by expectations far beyond her years to a pioneering legal career on Wall Street, where she helped open doors for women in a male-dominated field. Alice reflects on her Chinese heritage and the meaning of...

In the latest episode of "Women Living the Questions", host Ruby Tugade sits down with roxann Callender. They explore a life lived on her own terms, from an elite prep school in her native Guyana, to breaking ground in information technology, and later returning to academia at Yale and Utrecht University in the Netherlands. roxann reflects on navigating a health condition, and how writin...

Content Note: This episode explores family and personal histories, including wartime experiences. Please take care while listening. In the latest episode of “Women Living the Questions”, host Ruby Tugade sits down with another remarkable woman in the series, Talya Nevo-Hacohen. They explore the ways the stories we inherit and the ones we choose impact who we become. Talya reflects on discovering h...

In this episode of “Women Living the Questions”, host Ruby Tugade speaks with Stephanie Cotsirilos, a writer, lawyer, singer, and actress whose life has unfolded across cultures, careers, and creative worlds. Raised in Chicago, Stephanie studied comparative literature at Brown and music at Yale before spending fifteen years in New York’s performing arts scene, including originating the role of The...

In the inaugural episode of “Women Living the Questions”, host Ruby Tugade speaks with Cynthia Dantzic, a 93-year-old artist, educator, and pioneer whose life spans nearly a century of creativity. Cynthia began her studies at Bard College before boldly finding a way into Yale’s BFA program, decades before women were formally admitted. There, she studied with the legendary Josef Albers, whose teach...