Minibabble: What do I look like?
In this short episode, host Suki Wessling reflects on the experience of having the full glamour treatment at the studio of w Jana Marcus.
Category: Sex and Gender
Minibabble: Women make an impact with their dollars
Women’s relationship with money isn’t developed in a vacuum. “It’s historic,” says Janine Firpo. “It’s baked into how we have been acculturated as women.” In this short episode based on….
Women invest their values with Janine Firpo
Janine Firpo literally went to the other side of the world to learn how her money represented her values. In this episode, listeners learn about impact investing and hear the stories of four women who have transformed the way they view the role of their money in the world.
Minibabble: Pointing the finger at moms
When there’s something wrong with a young child but there’s no easy diagnosis, where do you turn for an answer? Often, we blame the mom. From professionals to teachers to other parents, when a child’s behavior is baffling, the mom is suspect. Historically, disorders from autism to depression were blamed on mothers. Cold mothers, smothering mothers, inattentive mothers. In this short episode, two moms of young adult children talk about the struggles they went through in the early years getting appropriate diagnosis and treatment of their children’s disabilities. What they learned sends a message to everyone about where to look when an easy answer isn’t available.
Minibabble: The best thing that ever happened to me
What is it like for mothers raising neuroatypical children? Host Suki Wessling reflects on how creating an episode on that topic led her back down Memory Lane.
Take the scaffolding down: Mothering neuroatypical adults
“What to Expect”-style books are very popular amongst moms, and for good reason. Most children follow relatively closely to what we expect from them. But some children deviate from the norm in ways that create great struggle: for caregivers, educators, medical professionals, and most of all, the parents raising them. In this episode, Wendy and Rebecca detail the struggle to get support for their children, the toll it took on their own sense of self, and finally, the growth and understanding that they achieved in the process of helping them to adulthood.
Minibabble: Extraordinary creatures
What do women see when we look at our culture looking at women? This sounds circular, but it is the way that many mature women see ourselves. When we look in a mirror, we don’t see light bouncing off our faces and bodies and reflecting back from a smooth surface. We see the cultural experience of seeing ourselves as women. In this Minibabble, women talk about the experience of being looked at as they look at themselves.
A deep connection to humanity: Motherhood in the 21st century
There are many wonderful things about modern communication, including the fact that you could find this text and read it! Social media in particular has been instrumental in creating awareness….
Exactly Who We Are: The Portraiture of Jana Marcus
What happens when a photographer, a mature woman herself, welcomes older women into her studio to get the “full glamour treatment”? In this episode, we explore how a session with photographer Jana Marcus inspired and thrilled the women who took part. Even though beauty is supposed to be a superficial attribute, seeing themselves as beautiful, strong, and desirable had a deep and lasting effect on these women.
Minibabble: Trying not to do damage: Bettina Aptheker on a pivotal moment in the Free Speech Movement
The 1960s is well-known as a turbulent time, but in this memory, Bettina revisits a scene that was particularly influential in years to come. The Student Free Speech Movement has served as a template for protests by young people since, from the Vietnam War to Black Lives Matter. In this memory, feminist scholar Bettina Aptheker reflects on how a fact of her upbringing led her to stand on a police car at a rally, in a scene reminiscent of fact and fiction that took place later.