The Babblery Podcast

What happens when women feel open to telling their stories, even when they aren’t professional writers? When writer Julia Nusbaum was a graduate student, the course of her life changed in answer to this question. This episode features an in-depth exploration of women’s storytelling, from talking about the roots of Julia’s business, Herstry, to the reasons why women still need a space—a brave space—in which to share their stories with each other …

I’m your host, Suki Wessling. I’m working on an episode about women telling stories, so I’m thinking a lot about why I write stories. One of the things I love from the interview with my guest, the editor-in-chief of Herstry literary magazine, Julia Nusbaum, is what she said about stories: “At the heart of it, I think stories are what makes life.” The other day I had a conversation with my critique group about having a moral center in the stories we tell. This moral center determines which stories we tell, how we tell them, in what venues, and when. Sometimes the moral center is obvious: sermons and children’s books have clear missions to teach. But even when the moral center is more obscured, it’s there. Journalists especially might try to ignore the moral center of their story: “I’m just reporting the news” is how many justify their work. But …

This episode features two amazing funny women, Karin Babbitt and Leah Rogers, speaking from the heart. For them, and for all comedians of their ilk, comedy is about bringing their authentic selves to the stage. It’s about being able to express deep, difficult feelings and ideas in a way that draws others into their lives. It’s about finding the limits where others can’t be drawn in. Karin was on her way to some version of success in the 80s and early 90s, when suddenly she left the stage to pursue motherhood and teaching. She’s come back now as a mature woman with a whole new view of the role that comedy plays in her life and in the lives of her audience. “I have faith in myself that this is who I am,” Karin explains. “This is the authenticity and I have every right to return to it and be …

What can the pregnancy and birth experiences of transgender men tell us about our cultural views of women? In this podcast, host Suki Wessling interviews researcher Vann Jones and features the words of three transgender men who became parents …

I love talking to writer and teacher Patrice Vecchione about pretty much anything. So when I invited her to an interview on The Babblery, we had to decide on a topic. “How about women walking?” she asked. Simple, direct, yet wide open. I found writer Tania Romanov through a web search—”book by woman about walking in the city”—and then we bonded over coffee when by chance she was driving through my bit of the coast. I love the contrast of Tania’s city to Patrice’s country—I promise I won’t quote Donny and Marie here, but I am tempted. Contrast strikes creativity. Patrice and Tania don’t know each other, but both having written books about walking, our conversation fell quickly into a comfortable groove. We talked about writing, creativity, fear, aging… It’s a little hard to sum up, which may be a liability in this age of short-form, quick-cut media. This conversation …

Women Lighthouse Keepers of the California Coast When I found out that my hometown of Santa Cruz had a female lighthouse keeper for 31 years, I naively wondered whether there were other female lighthouse keepers in her time. It turns out that Victorian women lighthouse keepers were a “thing”—stunningly, at the turn of the 20th century there were at least four of them along the Pacific Coast: Juliet Fish Nichols on Angel Island in the San Francisco Bay, Laura Hecox in Santa Cruz, Emily Fish at Point Pinos in Monterey County, and Julia Williams in Santa Barbara. These four women did a hard, sometimes dangerous, often lonely job that was absolutely essential to the safety of the men whose ships they protected from the rocks. In this program, we explore the lives of three of these keepers of the light through the work of three women who have researched them …