Nora Germain is almost always the first jazz violinist her audience has heard, and she considers it part of her job to make a place for her instrument in the jazz world. She also believes deeply in the power of bringing swing to a wider audience. An independent artist whose social media acts as her agent, Nora speaks deeply and emotionally about the life of a modern musician.
Enid Baxter Ryce is an artist who is a writer, she’s a professor who tells her students to put the computers away, she’s a mom who asks her kids to go dig a hole. In this wide-ranging conversation, we learn how Enid moved from a “feral” childhood to a life of the mind, never forgetting to keep her hands in the dirt and her self open to possibility.
Retired judge LaDoris Cordell is known for her groundbreaking career as a judge in Northern California and then her stint as Independent Police Auditor for the City of San Jose. Join us in a wide-ranging conversation, from a segregated childhood, an unusual education, and an unlikely acceptance to Stanford Law School, to retired judge, community activist, musician, artist, and grandmother.
BABBLERY.com: Writer Joan Gelfand’s career has been bookended by two “strange moments,” with the power of the 70s women’s movement at one end and the fight against authoritarianism on the other.
When writer and artist Patrice Vecchione found herself crippled by anxiety and despair in early 2025, she responded the only way a creative person can: she wrote. In this mini-episode,….
Some thoughts from Babblery host Suki Wessling about how we should read and act upon dystopian literature. It seems that reasonable people take these novels as warnings, many people seem to take them as blueprints for how we should mold our future.
In this mini-episode, we focus on a change that has both energized and confused writers: the push for representation and the elimination of cultural appropriation. Author Carol Fisher Saller speaks with refreshing candor about the difficulties she faces as a white writer who genuinely wants to write representative, inclusive kidlit. She talks about the myths and misperceptions, as well as the challenges, as she tries to make her way in a changed industry.
…and wishing it was a dumbwaiter Some thoughts on the importance of children’s literature, and how we bring the books we read as children with us throughout life. Read the….
Brooke Berman is a first-time film director. She’s also a middle-aged woman, a mom, and a wife with a full writing career under her belt. In this mini-episode, we explore what she learned from directing her film, Ramona at Midlife.
What happens when a group of midlife women watch a film about a group of midlife women? Well, we have thoughts! Host Suki Wessling gathered a group of friends who had watched the movie to talk about their reactions to this story, which is unusual in how it centers women’s lives and friendships.
