Growing up my playgrounds were the fields and streams surrounding our old farmhouse in the hills of rural Wisconsin. I learned the rhythms of insects and birds, the song of the frogs lining our creek… Year by year, though, my family and I began to detect unsettling changes. Our breathtaking constellation of stars faded as lights from the suburban sprawl encroached, and birdcalls no longer lulled me to sleep on summer nights. One day I found our stream stagnant and rotten, choked with yellow foam. It had become contaminated from chemical run-off from the neighboring farms. When I began reporting around the world, I recognized a mourning similar to my own in the eyes of women in the Amazon whose sacred lands had been coated in oil spills. The animals they relied on for nourishment had vanished, and their children had become sick with unexplainable rashes, boils, and stomach cancers. In Burma and neighboring Thailand, I met families who had been forced from their homes by military troops to make way for a natural gas pipeline. Many had been forced into slave labor for oil companies. They had been gang-raped and tortured into submission. Everywhere women are on the frontlines […]
Continue reading... →Two thousand people in the theatre and you could hear a pin drop when Elizabeth Lindsey floated onto the stage. When she spoke, the stillness deepened. I was so moved by her presence and message, I reached during my interview with her and held her hand. It was as natural as could be. When I think of her now as I write this, I take a deep breath and know we’re not alone. The ancestors are with us.
Elizabeth Kapu’uwailani Lindsey, Ph.D., is the first female National Geographic Fellow. An award-winning filmmaker and anthropologist, she is also the first Polynesian explorer for the National Geographic Society. Lindsey’s commitment to the conservation of vanishing indigenous knowledge and tradition not only provides a cultural record for present and future generations, but also serves as the foundation for a global, digital repository, an initiative which she spearheads at the National Geographic Society.
Continue reading... →While I was in New Orleans for the Green Matters Conference, I met the most extraordinary woman. Simone Bruni, better known in the Crescent City as the “Demo Diva,” took her personal tragedy from Hurricane Katrina and turned it into a woman-owned and run demolition business, complete with hot pink front loader and giant dumpster. I have written and spoken extensively on the lack of women in green. There are many reasons for it, I suppose. Green, particularly Green Building, is really a version of construction, and women represent only 3-6% of the building trades as a whole. But the lesson from the Demo Diva is that there is nothing really stopping women from becoming involved, even in the male dominated fields like demolition and construction! On the softer side, there is certainly no reason that women cannot be green building lawyers, sustainable investment advisors or involved in the marketing and selling of green products. Given that the economy is in a fragile recovery, green and sustainable businesses are leading the areas of growth. There are many programs specifically designed to help women acquire these skills. (A listing is available here.) Green Business Women is a nice site with resources for women looking to turn […]
Continue reading... →Sister Courage Wears the Shirt of Action • What makes you angry enough to take action? • What makes you inspired enough to take action? “I love your T-shirt,” chuckled Jenny, my twentysomething personal trainer, as she stretched my aching legs. “I never saw that before.” I hadn’t noticed which of my many message T-shirts I had thrown on when I rolled out of bed before sunrise. Most of the folks who populate New York’s Columbus Circle Equinox gym sport workout clothes that bear designer labels, but seldom do I see any that pack a message punch. I figure my chest is valuable real estate — why not use it to communicate my convictions? I looked down and saw that I’d grabbed one of my favorites: Well-Behaved Women Rarely Make History. Historian Laurel Thatcher Ulrich’s wry observation became one of the guiding principles of the women’s movement during the 1970s, and living it seems as natural to me now as balance ball crunches do to my lithe trainer. Perhaps because of their delicious candor laced with felicity of expression, these words have become a slogan for boundary-breaking women everywhere. But just because it’s proudly emblazoned on mugs and bumper stickers […]
Continue reading... →Did you know 98% of household paper goods are still made by cutting down trees. That means your paper towels, your paper napkins, your toilet paper. All of these are made from 98% virgin fiber from freshly killed trees!. It’s a shame in today’s world of environmental advances that these kind of practices are still taking place. But they are. And it’s time we get informed, women. We make the majority of purchases in the household. We can turn that all around by just not buying into those products.
Continue reading... →I went to the Santa Fe Farmers Market and asked shoppers what they thought about the Dalai Lama’s bold statement, “The world will be saved by the western women.” This show is a montage of responses from both women and men. I wonder what would happen if I asked this around the country? What would women say in Boston? What would the men say in Lexington, Kentucky? In Boise, Detroit, Amarillo?
We really want to know what you think. Go ahead and put your response and city location in the comment box below to: Can western women save the world? If you want my 2 cents, here it is.
Continue reading... →The Dalai Lama said last year in Vancouver that western women will save the world. I think most of them were at the Women in Green Forum in Pasadena earlier this month. A two-day conference and networking gala filled with women on the forefront of the green movement. I was fortunate to be there and in good, no great, company.
Continue reading... →This show is different from any other show I have produced so far. What you are about to hear are words of Clarissa Pinkola Estés’ “You Were Made For This”. A powerful poem spoken by 22 powerful women leaders from diverse cultures, ages and backgrounds. Each of them in their own unique way have dedicated their lives and labors to changing, healing and nourishing the world for the benefit of all.
This show takes place at the Ocamora Retreat Center in New Mexico. For one rich, glorious week, all 22 of us were in the caldron of community made possible by two extraordinary women leaders, Nina Simons and Toby Herzlich for their Cultivating Women’s Leadership Program. This is where this podcast was born. May the words and wisdom of these women bless you as they have blessed me. Warning: You might want to get a tissue before you play this.
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