Women Making History

Bethany Mangle - Young Adult Contemporary Author

In honor of May being Asian & Pacific American Heritage Month, this Big Blend Radio "From the Vault" conversation features author Bethany Mangle, who discusses her young adult novel debut “Prepped.” The story weaves a narrative together with humor, excitement, and romance while exploring themes from Bethany’s Korean identity, sisterhood, and finding your place within your family and the world. She creates honest characters against an adventurous backdrop, and captures raw emotions and a sincere portrayal of the teenage experience.Bethany is now also the author of "All the Right Reasons," and "Conditions of a Heart." More at https://www.bethanymangle.com/

Salt in My Soul - The Art of Dying

This "From the Vault" episode of Big Blend Radio focuses on the documentary film SALT IN MY SOUL: THE ART OF DYING  (Giant Pictures) which is based on the bestselling posthumously published memoir of the same name. It’s is a classic coming of age story about Mallory, a young woman figuring out how to live with cystic fibrosis which she was diagnosed with at the age of three. In her twenty five-year battle with the deadly disease, she carved out a life that most of us don’t come close to. 
Using Mallory’s posthumously published 2500-page secret diaries, hundreds of hours of newly discovered footage, and audio recordings, the film offers Mallory as the narrator of her own extraordinary chronicle.
Featured guests are filmmaker William Battersby and Mallory's mother Diane Shader Smith. More: https://saltinmysouldoc.com/ 

Anna Penenberg - Dancing in the Narrows

With today being World Lyme Day (May 1, 2024), this "From the Vault" episode of Big Blend Radio features Anna Penenberg, author of “Dancing in the Narrows: A Mother-Daughter Odyssey Through Chronic Illness.” 
Dancing in the Narrows (She Writes Press) chronicles a mother and daughter’s multi-year journey through illness and trauma. At sixteen, Anna’s youngest daughter, Dana, is stricken with a mysterious and debilitating condition, eventually diagnosed as Lyme disease. Desperate to find a cure, the two women are thrust into the established medical world, then far beyond. Full of adventure, humor, and blind faith, Dancing in the Narrows is an inspiring story of self-discovery as a single mother fights to save the life of her child. https://annapenenberg.com/ 

Faye Brenner - Collywobbles: Tales of Travel, Life, and Anxiety

An irresistible compulsion to travel and a nervous affliction: put these together and you get the collywobbles, that jittery feeling one gets from anxiety. 
This episode of Big Blend Radio's "Vacation Station" Travel Show features author and world traveler Faye Brenner who chats about some of her travel experiences and her book "Collywobbles: Tales of Travel, Life, and Anxiety." 
Part memoir and part travelogue, "Collywobbles" takes readers on amusing journeys from climbing up to the gargoyles atop Notre Dame to crawling through the Cu Chi tunnels in Vietnam, all the while wrought with multiple anxieties - from the fear of heights to the fear of getting lost. As she seeks ways to overcome her angst, Faye continues to pursue worldly pleasures in the arts, food, phalluses, and, oddly enough, toilets. More at https://www.fayebrenner.com/

Author Renée K. Nicholson - Fierce and Delicate

With today being International Dance Day (April 29, 2024), we're revisiting our Big Blend Radio conversation with acclaimed author, writer, and poet Renée K. Nicholson, who discusses her memoir, "Fierce and Delicate: Essays on Dance and Illness."
Renée Nicholson’s professional training in ballet had both moments of magnificence and moments of torment, from fittings of elaborate platter tutus to strange language barriers and unrealistic expectations of the body. In "Fierce and Delicate," she looks back on the often confused and driven self she had been shaped into—always away from home, with friends who were also rivals, influenced by teachers in ways sometimes productive and at other times ordering on sadistic—and finds beauty in the small roles she performed.
When, inevitably, Nicholson moved on from dancing, severed from her first love by illness, she discovered that she retained the lyricism and narrative of ballet itself as she negotiated life with rheumatoid arthritis.
More at http://www.reneenicholson.com/

Poet Lauren Martin - Night of the Hawk

This episode of Big Blend Radio celebrates Earth Month and National Poetry Month with Lauren Martin who discusses her book, "Night of the Hawk: Poems" which will be out on May 14, 2024 through She Writes Press. 
A powerful and wise poetry collection on shamanism, feminism, and disability, "Night of the Hawk" tells untold stories of the marginalized. Inspired by the Lauren's own experiences as an aging woman living with chronic illness, the poems in this collection will inspire readers to seek compassion and kindness in an often inhospitable world. 
LAUREN MARTIN is a psychotherapist, poet, and a devoted Ìyânífá. She lives in Oakland, California. Lauren studied poetry at Sarah Lawrence College. She spent years writing without submitting her work due to a long shamanic journey, which led her to both Ifá, and to the writing of this collection of poems. More at: https://www.laurenmartin.net/ 

Filmmaker Samantha Wishman and Dog Rescuer Monda Wooten

Featuring filmmaker Samantha Wishman and dog rescuer Monda Wooten, this episode of Big Blend Radio "From the Vault" focuses on their documentary film FREE PUPPIES which is out now on VOD and DVD in the USA and Canada.
FREE PUPPIES! travels across the country's political divide to explore one of the many areas where no public animal services exist, and volunteers -- many of them women -- step in. The story follows rescuers Monda Wooten, Ann Brown, and Ruth Smith, and the network of independent “rescue ladies” who patrol vast rural counties in the Tennessee Valley caring for stray and surrendered dogs. Their grassroots efforts to start up a spay-and-neuter program, rescue countless dogs from euthanasia and neglect, and place them in loving "forever homes" will pluck at the heartstrings of any dog person. More: https://www.freepuppies.us/

Author Cheryl Leutjen - Love Earth Now

Enjoyed this shared episode from today's Big Blend Radio's "Nature Connection" Podcast featuring Cheryl Leutjen, author of "Love Earth Now: The Power of Doing One Thing Every Day."
As a geologist, environmental law attorney, spiritual practitioner and, most importantly, devoted mother, Cheryl understands that most people don’t have an endless reservoir of time, money and energy to devote to Earth-friendly practices. That’s why she wrote "Love Earth Now," a candid, often humorous exploration that reveals her own imperfect journey toward living an eco-friendly lifestyle. Each chapter includes gentle prompts to help readers uncover their own capacity for making meaningful changes, one step at a time. More: https://loveearthnow.us/
Big Blend Radio's "Nature Connection" Podcast airs every 4th Friday in collaboration with Margot Carrera, a fine art nature photographer who is passionate about the environment. More: http://margotcarrera.etsy.com/