The Babblery: Recent Episodes
Suki Wessling
The Babblery features conversations with and about women in the 21st century. In each episode, my guests and I explore their experiences as women, discussing how our physical and social gender informs our experiences at work, at home, and in the wider world. Rather than focusing on issues, we focus on lives: working, parenting, playing, voting, advocating, and creating as women. Learn more at www.Babblery.com.
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.
NOTE: This audio is the broadcast version of this episode for radio stations only. Visit BABBLERY.com for the full stream, more information, transcript, and links. Subscribe: Apple Podcasts • YouTube • Spotify • Amazon • TuneIn Merle Hoffman opened one of America’s first legal abortion clinics in 1971—and she’s been fighting for our rights ever since. […]
NOTE: The audio of this episode is the broadcast version of this episode for radio stations only. Visit BABBLERY.com for the full stream, more information, transcript, and links. Subscribe: Apple Podcasts • YouTube • Spotify • Amazon • TuneIn Cindy Cohn’s new book, Privacy’s Defender, focuses on three legal cases that formed the basis for privacy […]
Denise Miranda is New York State's top civil rights official, the head of an agency that is charged with monitoring and promoting civil rights in the state. She's also a proud native of the Bronx, daughter of Puerto Rican-born parents, and a mother. It's an unusual time for Denise—a Black Latina—to be in charge of the part of the government so despised by New York's most famous native son.
NOTE: The audio of this episode is the broadcast version of this episode for radio station use only. Visit BABBLERY.com for the full stream, more information, transcript, and links. Visit BABBLERY.com for more information. About The Babblery: The Babblery features conversations about who we are and how we got this way. Modern humans can seem […]
NOTE: The audio of this episode is the broadcast version of this episode for radio stations only. Visit BABBLERY.com for the full stream, more information, transcript, and links.
NOTE: The audio of this episode is the broadcast version of this episode for radio stations only. Visit BABBLERY.com for the full stream, more information, transcript, and links.
In her childhood, filmmaker Alexandrine Benjamin experienced the struggles of life in Haiti, a country with a troubled past and present. She had to work hard for every step of her education and career. When it came to making her first short feature film, there was no question that she would depict Haiti with […]
Sometimes all it takes to change lives is a simple question. One day at her piano lesson, LaDoris Cordell asked her teacher, Jodi Gandolfi, if there were any Black composers of concert music. Concert music is a more inclusive term for what many people know as “classical” music: art songs, symphonies, opera, chamber music. […]
American women are so entrenched in our system of birth that it’s hard to see other possibilities, but doula Anne Wallen and the women she works with and trains are evangelical about how different it could be. In this conversation, Anne explores the ‘typical’ doctor-led birth, then describes the births she assists. The contrasts could […]
Shilpi Chhotray is a storyteller with a purpose. An environmentalist from an early age, her perspective has developed and deepened during her career. Having found inspiration in the social justice....
Like all citizens, women in the United States are guaranteed freedom of speech and academic freedom. But in practice, mansplaining and other unquestioned male dominant behaviors curtail women’s freedoms more....
In a speech on academic freedom and the freedom of speech, feminist scholar Bettina Aptheker explores the parallels between her student years and early career and the growing suppression of freedoms in 2025.
This morning, a man shot up a Catholic mass full of children. Usually, I don’t write about current events that haven’t been resolved in any way. But as I listened....
Dr. Eve V. Clark has spent a career in academia pursuing one seemingly simple question: How do children learn to talk? The theory in vogue at the beginning of her....
How are the Trump Administration’s cuts affecting the global science system? Dr. Heather Ford is an American climate scientist working in London. In this mini-episode, she explains how scientific research....
In conversation with Dr. Heather Ford We hear a lot about the idea of getting ‘woke’ out of science, but what does that mean? In this mini-episode based on a....
All of us are standing by a stream, experiencing the downstream effects of decisions made in Washington. This week, I felt those decisions acutely. Visit Substack to read the text,....
On April 5, 2025 Dr. Heather Ford joined other scientists around the United States to protest the Trump Administration’s witch hunt against his imagined “woke science agenda.” Since World War....
Why are you proud to be American? In these interviews at an Independence Day parade on Coastal California, residents talk about reaching for their pride at a time when our political landscape is so fraught.
Using Dr. Joanne Foster’s information about creativity, host Suki Wessling investigates the current political climate in the United States as it relates to creativity in education and science. Read the....
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,....
What is creativity, how can we nurture it, and what can it do for us? In this conversation we speak about creativity from two directions: Dr. Joanne Foster researches and writes about creativity in education, and Patrice Vecchione teaches and practices creativity in her writing and visual art. Interviewed separately, Joanne and Patrice speak on the same topics through the lens each has developed in her own life and work.
Reflections by Babblery host Suki Wessling about generations in American culture, the hippie ethic, Gen X battle gear, and the value of sowing oneself in the fertile soil of community....
Host Suki Wessling of The Babblery interviewed two women with roots in Jamaica. Feminist journalist Dr. Peggy Antrobus worked in the Jamaican government and now lives and works in Barbados. American CEO Sharon Sewell-Fairman is an immigrant from Jamaica. Their perspectives are woven together to form a story of immigration from two sides.
Living gently with nature Some thoughts by Babblery host Suki Wessling on how we have been taught to be almost too respectful of nature. We’ve forgotten how to live hard....
Women Creating Change CEO and President Sharon Sewell-Fairman talks about her path from rural Jamaica to leading a NYC nonprofit that works to increase civic engagement amongst women in New York City.
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.
This is a Minibabble, just me talking to you. I’m struggling this week. As a woman. As a person who values decency. As a mother. As an educated person. As....
I was driving in my car to a rehearsal. Michelle Obama’s speech had been playing on the radio when I started the car and so I kept listening. It was....
“Every time I danced, I thought about the gratitude I had to move my body when simultaneously my mother was bound to a wheelchair. It shifted my perspective on the gift of life.”....
How do we talk to people on the other side of the political divide? It used to be commonplace—Americans lived, worked, and went to school with people from a mixture....
How do you talk to people you don’t agree with so that you can continue the conversation? Karin Tamerius was passionate about politics as a young person, but she also noticed that her arguments with family didn’t go anywhere. Eventually, Karin melded her early political career with training in psychiatry to create a method of […]
How do you talk to people you don’t agree with so that you can continue the conversation? Karin Tamerius was passionate about politics as a young person, but she also....
In this "quick bite" episode of The Babblery, seven women talk about their lives as gifted girls and their work helping other gifted girls and women thrive.
Giftedness touches every area of gifted women's external lives: treatment by parents, teachers, and peers; life options presented to them; sexist assumptions based on their looks and clothing. But giftedness also touches these women's internal lives. In this episode, we explore the many ways that giftedness influences the lived experiences of gifted women.
In this short episode, host Suki Wessling reflects on the experience of having the full glamour treatment at the studio of w Jana Marcus.
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....
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.
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.
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.
"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.
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 This month’s episode delves into a common refrain heard from young women contemplating motherhood: “It sounds so hard!” According to the moms interviewed for The Babblery, it is hard, but it’s also an experience like no other, one that leads women to a sense of deep satisfaction. Listen to women, […]
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....
The Babblery has a full episode coming out later this month about the challenges and joys of motherhood, but on Mother's Day, I thought maybe we should stick with the joys. I hope you enjoy this short episode from mothers who will never regret their decision.
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.
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.
Noted feminist scholar Bettina Aptheker explores the dawning of her feminist consciousness in waves. Daughter of a communist, Aptheker had to throw off a lifetime of conditioning about sexuality and the role of women in order to come into her own as a woman and a scholar.
Some thoughts on cats, haters, and fighting the good fight with feminist scholar Bettina Aptheker.
Herpetology is a science with a dubious distinction. It is one of the least diverse professions, especially in terms of gender. Our guests on this episode noticed their own uniqueness. In fact, it was often pointed out to them how unusual they were. But they also noticed the special bonds they formed with their female colleagues around the world. So one day, they set out to do something about it. The result is a book, Women in Herpetology, 50 Stories from Around the World.
The Global Women in Herpetology Project culminated in the book, Women in Herpetology, 50 Stories from Around the World. But the effect on the women who took part was much more profound than a simple book. In this episode of The Babblery, two founders of the organization and one of the authors speak about the project that connected them to so many of the women around the world who practice this unusual profession.
Our upcoming episode is about how one woman herpetologist being asked to tell her story led to a book featuring 50 women who practice this unusual profession.
In this episode, we talk about the origin of the disconnect between economic indicators and our household realities. Women operate in an economy that was designed to ignore and devalue much of the work we provide. Rickey describes our economic system not as an inevitable fact, but instead as a story to be retold with all people in mind.
The Babblery has been official for a year, and that year feels very full. I interviewed women on the topics of science, winemaking, comedy, history, music, art, pregnancy, and writing.....
In this episode, we discuss how one woman's work in the 21st century is illuminating some of America's invisible women of the past. Through painstaking research, Carolyn Zola is finding, naming, and honoring them. This episode not only features Carolyn's work, but also performances of songs and texts from the time.
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....
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....
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....
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....
Most histories of the region would feature their husbands as the winemakers and thus the center of attention, but like all histories that leave out the women, that history would be incomplete. This podcast with Prudy Foxx, Valerie Ahlgren, and June Smith explores the role of women in the early years of an industry.
Three UCSC scientists speak with host Suki Wessling about continuing issues that women face while studying and working in scientific fields. Gender bias doesn’t just lead to lower representation: It leads to the continuing suppression of women’s achievements and advancement. It also leads to biased outcomes in research and narrower fields of study. Two graduate students, Nasreen Broomandkhoshbacht and Shanna Howard, join research assistant Sarah Claus to talk about inequity in science education. They also share their passion and exuberance for scientific inquiry.
In this episode, a Ukrainian-American teacher responds to the war as a teacher should: by learning everything she can to help her nation. A Ukrainian mom responds as she must, by sending her teenage son away.
CBD is the non-intoxicating chemical cannabidiol that is the less-regulated partner to THC, the chemical that produces euphoria. I was curious about the cannabis business, and also about being a woman in that business.
Unsettled Borders, a new book by University of California at Santa Cruz Professor Felicity Amaya Schaeffer, is aimed at academia, definitely not your light bedtime reading. Felicity explores everything from....
My Name is Andrea is not what you think. It's less a documentary than a meditation, an exploration of words, and a universalization of ideas. I sat down to watch it reluctantly, wondering if I'd make it through. I was drawn in immediately by the actresses' performances, by seeing Dworkin through a woman director's eyes, by realizing that I'd always seen her through men's eyes.
As goes California, so goes the world. Our state had a huge hand in creating the waste culture we're living in now, and hopefully we'll have an equally big hand in solving it.
Recently a friend of one of my adult children said to me, “So I hear you hate Catholicism.” I explained that this was a rather large mischaracterization about my feelings....
As a lover and writer of children’s books, I think that books for kids are now and has always been about representation. Kids naturally see themselves in stories, and they....
Cat & Cloud Coffee considers one of their jobs to be nurturing young adults in the world of work. Can they sustain this practice as they grow?
Some years ago I took a jazz singing course at our local community college. The instructor, the wonderful big band leader Wally Trindade, said that to really test our chops,....
In this podcast, Suki Wessling and Christine Barrington interview two pioneers in the movement for legal midwifery and home birth. Kate Bowland and Raven Lang provide inspiration for women to continue to fight for the legal right to bodily autonomy.
This interview with Spanish teacher Lisset Orozco is part of my Moms Who Make a Difference series.
This interview was one of the most delightful ones I’ve done. The Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music is a big deal here in Santa Cruz—and around the world. But it’s....
This podcast presents a special Independence Day panel discussion about abortion and California's status as an Abortion Sanctuary State. We discuss the roots of abortion stigma, and how stigma manifests itself everywhere from conversations between friends to communications between healthcare providers. We also discuss California's status as a sanctuary station for abortion seekers, and what that will mean for our healthcare system.
In this conversation, I discuss chemistry with with Professor Timothy Johnstone. Tim runs The Johnstone Laboratory: Medicinal Inorganic Chemistry Research Group at UC Santa Cruz. The inventor of, among other things, a....
In this podcast, a panel of three abortion providers speak about how abortion is an integral part of comprehensive women's health.
When Erin learned she had to leave her beloved profession, Early Childhood Education, she decided not to leave it behind. Listen in to learn how one mom to many figured out how to give moms a break, give kids a fun place to hang out, and keep her deep connection with children alive.
Parenting transgender children offers two moms a chance to broaden their perspective on parenting and human potential.
I will tell you that I worked hard to get this interview! I have wanted to learn more about Save the Redwoods League ever since they saved our backyard (literally)....
In this podcast, leaders of an educational nonprofit that offers classes in nutrition and cooking talk about how they get children to cook, how they help adults learn to stay healthy, and how nonprofits constantly chase funding while providing essential services.
This interview was recorded for my series of articles, “Moms Who Make a Difference,” about women who have children and also work to better their communities. I’ve spoken to Sierra....