Click on the episode number to enjoy our most recent episodes.
307 B. Rosemary Grant: The Winding and Wondrous Road of a Pioneering Evolutionary Biologist, Research Partner-Wife, and Mother
B. Rosemary Grant, PhD, Research Scholar Emerita at Princeton University, is world-renowned for 40 years of pioneering fieldwork, with her husband, Peter, on two uninhabited islands in the Galapagos archipelago.Their studies of Darwin’s finches in their...
296 Anne Burke: Succeeding Together—on the playground and legal bench and in the classroom
Anne Burke, age 80, retired Chief Justice of the Illinois Supreme Court, began her career as a physical education teacher, earned her undergraduate degree as an adult student at the School for New Learning/DePaul University, completed a law degree while...
285 Helen Benjamin: Education Changes the Life Trajectory of Every Person
As an educational leader and mentor, Dr. Helen Benjamin tells stories about growing up in the segregated South, living and working in two worlds—Black and White, and helping younger Black professionals navigate their CEO roles in community colleges. In...
283 Mary Mitchell: Giving a Voice to the Voiceless
Mary Mitchell, age 74, sheds light on aging and ageism in her occasional column for the Chicago Sun Times, Starting Over. Mary ‘started over’ five years ago when she switched her journalistic authority on race relations in Chicago to concentrate on...
277 Shelia Solomon: Helping Your Neighbor Understand About Your Neighbor: The Role of Civic Journalism
Sheila Solomon’s career in mass media arts spans 50 years. She was among the first African American women to work in the newsrooms of regional and national newspapers. Sheila became a dedicated advocate for affirmative action—bringing people of color into...
272 Carol Stitzer: Art is the Tapestry of Her Life – Zippers and Bees Abound
Carol Stitzer, 80, lives life in the moment. All you have to do is listen to her and you immediately understand that she is positive, talented, energetic and happy. From early childhood education to development professional, fundraiser, artist and...
267 Carol Marin: Helping the World Know Someone Else’s Truths
Carol Marin, age 75, is an award-winning television and print journalist renowned for her nearly 50 years of investigative stories on politics, public corruption, and organized crime. In 2016, Carol co-founded and directs DePaul University’s Center for...
247 Diane Valletta: Everything Begins As A Thought
Diane Valletta has moved from passion to passion throughout her life. Her mother, who died at 93, was her role model. She had a passion for activism and service. The same is true for Diane, whose desire for service has spanned her entire life. From Women...
239 Connie Goddard: Writer and Independent Scholar: Intertwining Labor, Learning, and History
Connie Goddard has reimagined who she is for her entire life. One thing remains constant: her love for writing and for history. Connie lived in Chicago for most of her life; she writes about the city's history, that of the Dakotas where her family is...
229 Deanna Berman: An Interior Architect on a Lifetime Journey
“There will be junctions where it will be important for you to ‘just let it happen.’ We ourselves are many people at the same time.” Deanna Berman is an interior architect working with the bones, geometry and structure of 3-dimensional living and working...
214 Diane Gilman: Risk-taking and Boldness are the way to Transformation
Bold and vivacious herself, Diane’s 2nd book: Too Young to Be Old: How to Stay Vibrant, Visible, and Forever in Blue Jeans: 25 Secrets from TV's Jean Queen shows women how to face life with unfailing optimism and be risk-averse. As she reached her 60’s,...
212 Joyce Feustel: An Unstructured Life- Happiness is creating a business from your passion
Joyce Feustel earned three degrees: BS in English Education, MS in Health Education and MA in Health Services Administration. While pregnant with her first child, she was elected to the County Board of Supervisors. After her daughter was born in December...
209 Catherine Johns: You’ve Been Fired…Now What?
Catherine Johns found her way to an early career in broadcasting. She thought she went to college to become a nurse. There was this guy in her dormitory……how many stories started out that way in the ‘60s? “You have an amazing voice. You should be on the...
208 Susan Weininger Understanding Artists’ Lives and Work
Dr. Susan Weininger, age 78, is professor emerita of art history at Roosevelt University, Chicago, where she was Chair of the Department of History, Art History and Philosophy. She concentrates on art from the first half of the 20 th century, delving...
Claudia Cooley: Doing What She Loves Ignited Her Success
Claudia Cooley lives in Southern California with her husband of 61 years, one of the many ‘balcony people’ in her life who believed in her ability to make an impact. Self-taught, forward thinking and willing to put herself in uncomfortable positions,...
193 Cynthia Barnett: For Girls Only–Careers in STEAM
Originally from the West Indies, Cynthia Barnett, Ph.D., from Norwalk CT retired at age 59 to pursue the question--Why Are There So Few Women in the Sciences? Cynthia became CEO and founder of a non-profit program--Amazing Girls Science-- whose goal is to...
178 Phyllis Walden: Learning for Life in a Complex World
For Phyllis Walden, life experiences offer abundant opportunities for learning. Reading The Second Sex near completion of her doctoral program in Philosophy in the late 1960s reinforced Phyllis’ feminist perspectives. As a mentor and teacher in...
176 Lily Liu: Role Model to 1,000s of Children and Adults during her 40-year Agency Career
Ever since she came to the United States from Kobe, Japan, at 10, Lily Liu has devoted herself to living up to the role models she found in her grandparents, aunt and mother. Her grandmother raised her while her mother, widowed at 32, worked to support...