The Women's CuTrrent

A Life Après® Podcast

Across Generations: Hosted by Sylvia Beckerman alongside a co-host from a different generation, The Women's Current explores power, identity, aging, visibilty, and change.

Women In Politics with Judith Hope

The Women's Current
The Women's Current
Women In Politics with Judith Hope
Loading
/

Women in Politics – Don’t Tell Her She Can’t!

It was 1973, East Hampton needed a Town Supervisor. She was told ‘no one will elect a woman.’ Those words would keep with her forever and blazed a future she hadn’t thought of. Judith Hope ran, won and became East Hampton’s first female Town Supervisor serving three terms. Turns out, Judith was the first female town supervisor in all of Long Island. Local politics and women are quite the combination. Judith ran on an environmental ticket. She got the 2% transfer tax passed which has raised over a billion dollars and is responsible for saving more than 5,000 acres of open space,

Continue reading →

Sexual Abuse Survivor & Children’s Advocate with Kathy Picard

The Women's Current
The Women's Current
Sexual Abuse Survivor & Children's Advocate with Kathy Picard
Loading
/

Award-winning author Kathy Picard returns to the podcast. A survivor of sexual abuse as a child, Kathy has been a children’s advocate for over twenty years. When we first met Kathy her book Life with My Idiot Family: A True Story of Survival, Courage & Justice over Childhood Sexual Abuse had just been published. It started when Kathy was only seven. She thought the abuser was her father. At seventeen Kathy learned that her abuser and rapist was actually her stepfather.

Continue reading →

Childhood Trauma , Adulthood and Resilience with Sally Baker

The Women's Current
The Women's Current
Childhood Trauma , Adulthood and Resilience with Sally Baker
Loading
/

Sally Baker, Award-winning London-based therapist with over 25 years of experience, shares her journey of resilience after childhood trauma. At the age of seven, she was sexually assaulted, taking her 30 years to process this experience. Sally, who initially worked with women facing sexual abuse and domestic violence, emphasizes the importance of overcoming negative self-judgments and societal barriers.

In her latest book, “The Getting of Resilience from the Inside Out: A Practical Guide to Learning Resilience at Any Age, No Matter Your Upbringing,” Sally delves into strategies for developing resilience from within. She highlights the need to re-assess unhealthy coping mechanisms to effectively navigate life’s challenges. Resilience, as Sally suggests, stems from empowering oneself and learning to be strong in the face of adversity.

Continue reading →

She Wolves of Wall Street with Paulina Bren

The Women's Current
The Women's Current
She Wolves of Wall Street with Paulina Bren
Loading
/

Her novel The Barbizon: The Hotel That Set Women Free could have been the precursor to her newly released ‘She Wolves: The Untold History of Women on Wall Street.’ As author and historian Paulina Bren told me, she ‘followed the women out of the Barbizon Hotel in New York to Wall Street’ from the late 1950s and 1960s to 9/11, Women looking for interim work, found their way to Wall Street. Out of the three jobs that were available to women: receptionist, secretary or clerk, Wall Street paid the most. And so began the entry of the She Wolves of Wall Street. The men were the brokers making the money, the women were their support staff. The women were watching and learning. Wall Street was being manned by women!

Continue reading →

Witch of Wall Street Breaking Glass with Patricia Walsh Chadwick

The Women's Current
The Women's Current
Witch of Wall Street Breaking Glass with Patricia Walsh Chadwick
Loading
/

he ‘Witch of Wall Street’ breaking through the ‘glass ceiling’. That would be Patricia Walsh Chadwick. When we last talked with Patricia in 2020 her first book “Little Sister, A Memoir” had just been released and we were left with the idea that there was more to come. A woman of resilience and determination, Patricia’s story continues. At the age of seventeen she had been ejected from the only home she’d known since she was five. Turns out it was a cult, a cult that had cut her off from the outside world.

How did this teenager who had never even used a phone, turn into a dynamo on Wall Street? Patricia’s new book “Breaking Glass, Tales from the Witch of Wall Street” tells the story of a woman who didn’t take no for an answer and broke through the old boy’s club. Her career started in 1972 at a time when a woman’s role on Wall Street was mainly administrative. How then did Patricia work her way up to becoming a portfolio manager overseeing $6 billion dollars of client assets? Listen to a fascinating conversation with Patricia.

Continue reading →

Toscanini Musical Love Story with Lucy Antek Johnson

The Women's Current
The Women's Current
Toscanini Musical Love Story with Lucy Antek Johnson
Loading
/

September is Classical Music month so let’s start with one of the greatest musicians, Maestro ArturoToscanini. For seventeen years Samuel Antek was first violinist for Toscanini. This Was Toscanini was written by Samuel Antek. His sudden death in 1958 never gave him the chance to finish. His daughter Lucy Antek Johnson expanded on her father’s story with This Was Toscanini: The Maestro, My Father, and Me. In 2021 the hardcover was published with pictures, and the audiobook has now followed. Swapping out pictures for music, from rehearsals to performances, Lucy allows the listener in to hear the passion and dedication of a genius. Listen and you will hear an excerpt from the first rehearsal of Brahms. Yes – in this episode!

Continue reading →

Reality or TV Show? with Dr. Stephanie S. Covington

The Women's Current
The Women's Current
Reality or TV Show? with Dr. Stephanie S. Covington
Loading
/

Orange is the New Black – reality or just a TV show? Dr. Stephanie S. Covington, an internationally recognized clinician, author, organizational consultant, and lecturer. Stephanie sheds light on the realities faced by incarcerated women in her new book “HIDDEN HEALERS: The Unexpected Ways Women in Prison Help each Other Survive.” The book highlights the brutalities these women endure within a system not designed for them. In our conversation she emphasizes the kindness they offer each other to navigate their challenges. It’s essential to recognize that the majority of women in the criminal justice system have themselves been victims of harm.

Continue reading →

Family, Marriage, Divorce, Motherhood with Joyce Maynard

The Women's Current
The Women's Current
Family, Marriage, Divorce, Motherhood with Joyce Maynard
Loading
/

New York Times Bestselling author Joyce Maynard’s latest novel How the Light Gets In is a story of family dynamics. Marriage, divorce, motherhood, raising children and letting go and the realization that ‘We don’t tell our children who they should be. They tell us who they are and what they believe. And it may not always be what we want to hear.’

Continue reading →

Third Girl from the Left with Christine Barker

The Women's Current
The Women's Current
Third Girl from the Left with Christine Barker
Loading
/

The Other Side of Broadway and the AIDS Epidemic

Christine’s dream had come true, she was a dancer, the ‘Third Girl from the Left’ in the cast of the Tony Award-winning show A Chorus Line, first in London and then Broadway. Unfortunately it was the early 1980s and the onset of the AIDS epidemic. A conversation with Christine Barker, author of Third Girl from the Left, her story of what life was like for her, a young woman having to make impossible choices. Her start in New York, her dream job, and eight shows a week. In the middle of it all was the AIDS epidemic and its impact on those around her affected by this unknown. Among them was her brother Laughlin. Christine’s choice was to take care of her dying brother and others she was close to. When asked why she wanted to write this, Christine answered ‘Because sometimes the story is all that is left.’

Christine retired from her theater career and has turned her sights to another dream – writing. She holds an MFA in Writing from Sarah Lawrence College. She is currently working on her next project.

Continue reading →

Beauty Industry’s Most Feared Woman with Jessica DeFino

The Women's Current
The Women's Current
Beauty Industry’s Most Feared Woman with Jessica DeFino
Loading
/

This week an eye-opening conversation with beauty journalist Jessica DeFino. Beauty standards have an impact on our lives, often without us even realizing it.

‘The beauty industry reels us in by calling it ‘beauty’ and assigning it metaphysical powers. I really think we would be better off if we called the beauty industry the appearance industry.’

Continue reading →