Shows
Women Living the QuestionsMarie Fortune: A Ministry of Healing & JusticeContent note: This episode includes discussion of sexual violence and clergy abuse within faith communities. Please take care while listening.In this episode, host Ruby Tugade speaks with Marie Fortune, clergywoman, writer, educator, and advocate whose work has helped faith communities respond more thoughtfully to sexual and domestic violence.Marie reflects on her childhood in Asheville, North Carolina, where time spent in her father’s hardware store nurtured a lifelong love of curiosity, problem-solving, and conversation. She shares how an early interest in science eventually gave way to a calling in ministry, informed by questions of...
2026-06-1532 min
Women Living the QuestionsHelen Glazer: The Art of Exploring & TryingIn this episode, host Ruby Tugade speaks with Helen Glazer, an artist whose work bridges art, science, and the natural world.Helen shares her path from painted constellation murals in Baltimore to tactile sculptural work for blind children, designed so that form can be experienced through touch. She reflects on how these experiments expanded into photography of complex natural systems and later into 3D and digital modeling.She also describes a lifelong pattern of moving toward the edge of what she doesn’t yet know how to do, where uncertainty signals discovery rather than doubt....
2026-06-1435 min
Women Living the QuestionsJacqui Parr Byrne: Hands in Clay, Quiet MindIn this episode, host Ruby Tugade speaks with Jacqui Parr Byrne, an educator, entrepreneur, and mother whose life reflects the ongoing process of becoming.Jacqui shares her journey from a career in banking and marketing to co-founding an educational program for “twice-exceptional students”, or young people who are both highly capable and face challenges such as anxiety, ADHD, dyslexia, or autism. What began as a response to her own children’s struggles in traditional school became a deeply meaningful and lasting vocation.With candor and insight, Jacqui reflects on the realities of raising four children, includ...
2026-06-1032 min
Women Living the QuestionsSara Holtz: How Yale Made Me a FeministIn this episode, host Ruby Tugade speaks with Sara Holtz, who looks back on a life of storytelling: from practicing law and training women leaders, to interviewing successful women on the podcast she hosted for seven years, “Advice to My Younger Me”, about the lessons they wish they had known earlier in life.She also opens up about her experience as a member of the first class of women admitted to Yale College. With brave candor and compassionate perspective, she recounts the sexism she encountered, and how her college years made her into a feminist and a uniq...
2026-06-0130 min
Women Living the QuestionsAnn Larson: The Sacred Work of PresenceIn this episode, host Ruby Tugade speaks with Ann Larson, a retired Lutheran pastor whose life has evolved by ministry and a lifelong search for deeper spirituality.Ann speaks of becoming one of the early generations of women ordained in the Lutheran church, and navigating the challenges of a career that did not unfold in the ways she once expected. With striking honesty, she opens up about therapy, and learning to redefine success and failure over time.She also shares moving stories from her years in the ministry, including sitting beside people in their final...
2026-05-2931 min
Women Living the QuestionsAnna Boorstin: The Many Lives of LoveIn this episode, host Ruby Tugade speaks with Anna Boorstin, a former film sound editor, writer, and lifelong reader whose reflections on love, grief, and self-acceptance reveal a life deeply examined and fully lived.Anna shares stories about growing up in Southern California during the rise of second-wave feminism, working in the film industry, and raising a family while learning to better understand herself. With humor and candor, she reflects on body image, aging, anxiety, and the complicated expectations placed on women across generations.She also speaks movingly about her late partner, historian John Archibald...
2026-05-2429 min
Women Living the QuestionsJan Jorgensen: A Poetic Soul Pays AttentionIn this episode, host Ruby Tugade speaks with Jan Jorgensen, a poet, minister, spiritual director, and lifelong reader and collector of books.Jan reflects on growing older with curiosity and tenderness, and on learning to hold both beauty and sorrow at once. She speaks about motherhood, poetry, spirituality, and the ways our earliest selves continue to live within us.With warmth, wisdom, and poetic insight, Jan shares what it means to listen deeply, and reflects on love, shame, forgiveness, and the healing that can happen when we bring our wounds into the light....
2026-05-2027 min
Women Living the QuestionsTherese Eke: It's Up to Me. It's Up to Us.This episode includes conversations about mental health and suicide. Please take care while listening.In this episode, host Ruby Tugade speaks with Therese Eke, a nonprofit director turned community organizer whose life is about service, activism, and personal transformation.With brave honesty, Therese reflects on surviving a mental health crisis in her twenties, rebuilding her sense of self through community, and learning to use her voice in service of others. She speaks about the importance of trust and storytelling, and the responsibility she feels to stand up against unfairness.Therese has found renewed...
2026-05-1431 min
Women Living the QuestionsLauren Mayer: When Laughter Becomes LiberationIn this episode, host Ruby Tugade speaks with Lauren Mayer, a comedic singer-songwriter, teaching artist, theater director, and vocal coach whose life has been anchored in the performing arts, education, and songwriting. Her story arc spans decades of people-pleasing, and ultimately arriving at a fuller sense of herself, for herself.With candor and humor, she reflects on unlearning the “good girl” role, confronting her inner critic, and learning to fully own her talent as a gift. Now, she is channeling her creativity into work that challenges ageism and cultural stereotypes, while finding joy in making people laugh and...
2026-05-1030 min
Women Living the QuestionsDiane Solomon: The Long Arc to Slow LoveIn this episode, host Ruby Tugade speaks with Diane Solomon, a nurse, midwife, psychiatric nurse practitioner, writer, and educator whose life has been rooted in caregiving.After decades in healthcare, Diane is stepping into a new chapter as a volunteer educator, teaching a more honest and complex history of Oregon. Her journey has included raising four children, moving through romantic relationships, and building a career devoted to understanding human nature.With candor and reflection, she talks about growing up fast, and shares the hard-won lessons of what she calls “slow love”. Now, she’s committed to rec...
2026-05-0431 min
Women Living the QuestionsAlexis Krasilovsky: Living Her Heroine’s JourneyContent Note: This episode includes references to violence, including sexual violence and assault, so please take care while listening.In this episode, host Ruby Tugade speaks with Alexis Krasilovsky, an award-winning filmmaker, author, and professor whose career spans decades of experimental cinema, academic work, and women-centered storytelling.As part of the first class of women at Yale, Krasilovsky created her first film in 1970, End of the Art World, featuring Andy Warhol, Robert Rauschenberg, and Jasper Johns, now restored by the National Film Preservation Foundation. She has built a body of work that...
2026-05-0336 min
Women Living the QuestionsEdith Terry: An Observer Across WorldsIn this episode of “Women Living the Questions", host Ruby Tugade speaks with Edith Terry, a journalist and cultural observer whose life and career span continents, industries, and eras of profound global change.Edith began her journey as one of the early women to graduate from Yale, navigating the complexities of gender in elite academic spaces. From there, her path led her across the world, from her childhood in the Philippines to roles in Washington, New York, Beijing, Tokyo, and Hong Kong, where she has lived for over two decades.She shares her experiences working in...
2026-04-3030 min
Women Living the QuestionsKathy Saranpa: Translating a LifeIn this episode of “Women Living the Questions”, host Ruby Tugade speaks with Kathy Saranpa, who is a scholar, educator, and literary translator whose life has been about a lifelong love of language and an unrelenting drive to empower others through it.Kathy grew up the eldest of six in Ohio and California, stepping into the role of caretaker at twelve when her parents divorced. That early sense of responsibility followed her across decades and continents, through a PhD at Yale, where she was also a new mother, to a tenured position in Finland, to her current life...
2026-04-2330 min
Women Living the QuestionsLenore Skenazy: Restoring Kids' FreedomsIn this episode of “Women Living the Questions", host Ruby Tugade speaks with Lenore Skenazy, a journalist, author, and social change agent whose work challenges modern assumptions about safety, trust, and childhood independence.Lenore began her career as a reporter before a single parenting decision, of allowing her nine-year-old son to ride the New York City subway alone, sparked a national conversation and led to the creation of the “Free-Range Kids” movement. What followed was a shift from storytelling to advocacy, as she began questioning the culture of fear shaping how children grow up today.They t...
2026-04-2034 min
Women Living the QuestionsAlice Young: The Meaning of First BeautyIn the latest episode of “Women Living the Questions”, host Ruby Tugade sits down with Alice Young. They explore a life shaped by early responsibility and cultural memory, from a childhood marked by expectations far beyond her years to a pioneering legal career on Wall Street, where she helped open doors for women in a male-dominated field.Alice reflects on her Chinese heritage and the meaning of her name, “First Beauty”, and what it has meant to live between cultures while preserving family traditions across generations.She speaks about being among the first women at Yale, co...
2026-04-1539 min
Women Living the Questionsroxann Callender: From Guyana to Her Full SelfIn the latest episode of "Women Living the Questions", host Ruby Tugade sits down with roxann Callender. They explore a life lived on her own terms, from an elite prep school in her native Guyana, to breaking ground in information technology, and later returning to academia at Yale and Utrecht University in the Netherlands.roxann reflects on navigating a health condition, and how writing has become both a source of community and a personal sanctuary.At the core of her story is a deep empathy for the people whose lives she has chronicled, and for...
2026-04-0732 min
Women Living the QuestionsTalya Nevo-Hacohen: The Stories We’re Told, the Lives We ChooseContent Note: This episode explores family and personal histories, including wartime experiences. Please take care while listening. In the latest episode of “Women Living the Questions”, host Ruby Tugade sits down with another remarkable woman in the series, Talya Nevo-Hacohen. They explore the ways the stories we inherit and the ones we choose impact who we become.Talya reflects on discovering her father’s wartime past later in life, and how that revelation deepened her understanding of herself.Her journey from architecture to investment banking in New York, to real estate in Southern Califo...
2026-03-3135 min
Women Living the QuestionsStephanie Cotsirilos: Finding Meaning Through StoryIn this episode of “Women Living the Questions”, host Ruby Tugade speaks with Stephanie Cotsirilos, a writer, lawyer, singer, and actress whose life has unfolded across cultures, careers, and creative worlds.Raised in Chicago, Stephanie studied comparative literature at Brown and music at Yale before spending fifteen years in New York’s performing arts scene, including originating the role of The Critic on Broadway in the Tony Award-winning musical, “Nine”. She later returned to Yale for law school, building a new professional chapter in advocacy and intellect.After a profound loss, she moved to Maine with her y...
2026-03-2733 min
Women Living the QuestionsCynthia Dantzic: Living the Questions at 93In the inaugural episode of “Women Living the Questions”, host Ruby Tugade speaks with Cynthia Dantzic, a 93-year-old artist, educator, and pioneer whose life spans nearly a century of creativity.Cynthia began her studies at Bard College before boldly finding a way into Yale’s BFA program, decades before women were formally admitted. There, she studied with the legendary Josef Albers, whose teaching profoundly shaped her understanding of color and design.She later earned her MFA from Pratt Institute and taught for more than fifty years at Cooper Union and Long Island University, inspiring generations of stu...
2026-03-1736 min
Women Living the QuestionsIntroducing "Women Living the Questions" (Trailer)“Women Living the Questions” explores the long arc of a woman’s life: the courage, curiosity, and wisdom earned over decades, and the stories our culture too often overlooks. Host Ruby Tugade speaks with remarkable women, including the first female students at Yale College, about reinvention, discovery, and living fully. Inspired by her mother’s bold journey from her home country to the United States, and guided by Rilke’s words to “live the questions now,” Ruby celebrates the depth, resilience, and power of womanhood at every stage. This podcast is for anyone who wants to see, value...
2026-03-0802 min