Season Two
Exploring the systems shaping women’s lives—from healthcare and reproductive law to media visibility and climate activism.
Her Podcast Helps Women Find Comfort in “Life After…” Moments When hardship occurs — be it a divorce, a loss of a loved one, an unexpected layoff at work, or something else — it can be difficult to find joy again. But Girl Scout alum Sylvia Beckerman, 70, is one woman helping others access the […]
This week I’m Sylvia and I’m ‘Me’. Two years ago I spoke to an extraordinary woman. Since then, I’ve spoken to over 100 women. 100 ordinary women doing extraordinary things. I didn’t set out with a specific goal in mind. But it turned out that as smart as I may have thought I am, I learned something new and different from each of these women.
Dorothy Wickenden and The Agitators
New York Times bestselling author Dorothy Wickenden’s latest book – The Agitators: Three Friends Who Fought for Abolition and Women’s Rights. The Agitators is the true story of Harriett Tubman, Martha Coffin Wright and Frances A. Seward. One a former slave, one a Quaker mother of 7 and one a politician’s wife. Although three very different women, they came together to fight for abolition and women’s rights in the mid-nineteenth century in Auburn, New York.
Much history has gone into the fight for abolition and women’s rights. Many have heard of Harriet Tubman, a former slave who was the conductor of the Underground Railroad. The Underground Railroad, a network of secret routes and safe houses used by enslaved African Americans to escape into Free states and Canada.
But not many have heard of Martha Coffin Wright or Frances A. Seward. By introducing us to them, Dorothy shines a light on the story of three women who worked together. Yes, three women who worked together at a time when women had little control. So little that a married woman didn’t own anything. And yet somehow Frances, Martha and Harriet fought for the end to slavery and advocated for women’s rights.
Dorothy is the executive editor of The New Yorker and the host of its weekly podcast Politics and More.’ She is also the NY Times bestselling author of Nothing Daunted: The Unexpected Education of Two Society Girls in the West. Dorothy edited The New Republic Reader: Eighty Years of Opinion and Debate.
A conversation and a lot of history with Dorothy:
Why these three women
The connection
The women
Upper and middle class women and their roles
Witnessing abuse and feeling helpless
Frances’ awakening and Martha’s aide
Meeting Harriet
Their families
The bold move that allowed Francis to sell Harriet the house
How Harriet established herself
Jean Shafiroff ‘The First Lady of Philanthropy’
Jean Shafiroff has been called ‘The First Lady of Philanthropy’. She has spent a lifetime doing charitable work. And it all started when she was a child, learning from her parents.
After her first daughter was born, Jean made the decision to be a stay-at-home mom. As she says, she was lucky to be able to do so. And as a result, she volunteered at the school. This allowed her to spend time with her daughter and help out with school functions and fundraising. A start which turned into a career of philanthropy. At times you could find Jean on the boards of seven charities at once.
Philanthropist, author, human rights and animal rights advocate and socialite, Jean serves on multiple national and regional philanthropic boards. She is the ambassador and spokesperson for American Humane Feed the Hungry Covid-18 Program. Jean is the host of ‘Successful Philanthropy, a TV show on LTV. She is also the author of ‘Successful Philanthropy: How to Make a Life By What You Give’.
Jean serves on the boards of the South Hampton Hospital Association, NYC Mission Society, French Heritage Society, Couture Council of the Museum at FIT, Global Strays, Jewish Board (Honorary Trustee), and Southampton Animal Shelter Foundation Honorary Board. She is a New York Women’s Foundation Board Alumna and remains very active with the Foundation and women’s issues.
Jean holds two degrees: a BS in Physical Therapy from the College of Physicians and Surgeons at Columbia University and an MBA in finance from Columbia Business School at Columbia University. She resides in Manhattan and Southampton with her family.
A conversation with Jean:
The beginnings of philanthropy
Stay-at-home decision and volunteering
Starting off small
Making a difference
Choosing what’s right for you
But I can only give an hour…
Fashion and parties and loosening up the crowd
The fashion industry and the pandemic
The pandemic and the change
Feed the Hungry Covid-19 Program
Daughters following in mom’s footsteps
A message
My Babysitter, My Summers With a Serial Killer is a chilling true story, part memoir and part crime investigation. Based on Liza’s summers as a child on the Cape, you con’t be able to put it down. It was the 60’s. Her babysitter was a kind, handsome handyman who took Liza and her sister on adventures. Adventures which included visits to his ‘secret garden.’ A secret garden which turned out to be where some of his victims were buried. And a babysitter who turned out to be a charming, brutal psychopath. This was before the term ‘serial killer’ was coined.
Lifelong friend, investigative journalist Jennifer Jordan knew this was a story that needed to be told when she heard it. Together they took the pieces of the puzzle and turned them into a chilling, unimaginable story. A story where Liza learns to trust her voice.
Liza Rodman
Liza Rodman attended the University of Massachusetts/Amherst and received her Bachelor of Arts with a concentration in Creative Writing from Vermont College. She has balanced life as a mother, stepmother, writer and tax accountant for more than thirty-five years. In 2005, she began researching the story of Tony Costa when she realized her personal connection to the infamous Cape Cod killer. She has gathered thousands of documents, testimonies, and interviews, perhaps more than any other investigator or journalist who’s worked on this case. She and her husband live outside Boston and have three children and five grandchildren. The Babysitter is her first book.
Jennifer Jordan
Jennifer Jordan is an award-winning author, filmmaker and screenwriter, with over 35 years’ experience as a reporter, journalist, and radio and television producer, working for NPR and PBS in Boston and Salt Lake City, as well as writing for several newspapers and magazines. She has written four books. Two of her books won the National Outdoor Book Award. In 2016 she created, directed, and produced the documentary 3000 Cups of Tea: Investigating the Rise and Ruin of Greg Mortenson, a documentary examining the deeply-flawed 60 Minutes report on the renowned philanthropist.
A chilling and gripping conversation with Liza Rodman and Jennifer Jordan:
Summers in Provincetown
1968 meeting Tony Costa – babysitter/serial killer
Adventures and a secret garden
1968 – 1st known murder
Years of nightmares then a face becomes clear
Confronting her mother
Obsession and investigation
Working together
Memoir and crime investigation – natural balance of writing
Trusting your voice
The story comes out and family reaction
For Pat Lynch, Founder WomensRadio(R) her former boss gave her a lifeline. Pat’s immediate boss really liked her marketing ideas. The problem was, he could never answer the question as to when they would be implemented. So Pat went up the line to his boss who told her: ‘You know your boss has been here longer and he has a family. So maybe you should find another job.’ Words that eventually propelled her to where she is now.
By the age of 25, Pat had served as the Press Secretary for a U.S. Senator and Congressman. She then founded her first advertising agency in Atlanta, Georgia. Pat has been listed twice in The Worlds Who’s Who of Women. And she was the first person to use radio and TV to promote real estate.
In 1996, she began a broad-based company, Women’s Online Media and Education Network, to promote communication for and about women. It is currently producing WomensRadio® and a unique high quality and low cost tool called AudioAcrobat®. With streaming credits from Microsoft, the first programs began in 1998, making the site the first to stream for women! W.O.M.E.N. targets niche markets using the Web, wireless technologies, and social media and provides a platform for women leaders and also not-for-profits which serve women and issues that affect women, children and families.
‘It takes an overwhelming amount of courage to do something in the face of all opposition.’
My conversation with Pat Lynch:
Breaking into the man’s world of advertising
How a nightmare of words turned into an opportunity
A long journey
Seeking advisement
Competitors and sharing of ideas
Overcoming fear of new ideas
The beginnings and the why of WomensRadio(R)
Women’s online media and education creation
What women want to hear about
So much more to do
A former actress (you may have spotted Judith in one of the original Star Trek series episodes), Judith Sherven coined the phrase The Fear of Being Fabulous. A clinical psychologist with more than 35 years’ experience as a psychotherapist, transformational executive coach and business consultant, Judith practices alongside her husband Jim Sniechowski, also a PhD Clinical Psychologist. Judith is an executive coach for a number of tech companies. She helps leaders overcome any insecurities they have about maximizing their leadership: Their Fear of Being Fabulous.
Both Judith and Jim are on retainer at both LinkedIn and Credit Karma. Judith writes for LinkedIn as an influencer. She inspires managers to engage their team members with their trademarked program: Overcoming the Fear of Being Fabulous. It’s been called “the missing link in personal and professional development.”
Judith has been on over 3,000 radio and TV shows including Oprah, The View, 48 Hours and Canada AM as a guest expert. Together, Judith and Jim have written 7 LA Times bestselling books.
Both had been professional actors for a long time before they met in 1987. And both discovered that their Fear of Being Fabulous had prevented them from moving forward with their acting careers. This brought them on a 6 year journey of creating their program.
A conversation with Judith:
Self-sabotaging a successful acting career
The Fear of Being Fabulous incubation
The Barbizon connection
Patterns identified and their connections
Meeting Jim and their journey
Owning your own excellence
Asking for more with confidence
Relationships of all kinds – personal and professional, family and friends
Owning your uniqueness
‘You are a miracle’
Making yourself stronger
‘Step out of the history that is holding you back. Step into the new story you are willing to create.’ – Oprah Winfrey So Many Women and Announcing… As we roll out Season 8, I’m delighted to tell you that our podcast series Sylvia & Me has been enjoying great success. Our weekly downloads […]
The 1940s and 1950s saw changes to how women were portrayed in film. A change from the victim of the 1930s. Post World War II films introduced the ‘Femme Fatale’ and with it women characters who were mysterious and dangerously seductive, not victims. During the war, women had taken the place of men in the workforce, bringing an independence that for many, had never been experienced before. These movies were known as ‘Film Noir’ (French for ‘dark film’), classics of the 1940s and early 1950s.
‘The Queen of Noir’ Ann Chernow
So I turned my attention to ‘The Queen of Noir’, renowned artist Ann Chernow. Ann has been painting this genre for over a decade. She does paintings, prints and drawings always in the abstract capturing the essence of the ‘Femme Fatale’. Ann has gone from actual portraits of the films’ stars, to imaginary faces of film, to painting scenes from the films to inventing scenes from ‘Film Noir’ movies. Then came a night alone at an Italian restaurant in NYC and a bottle of wine. The evening resulted in creation of ‘Bad Girls’ – eight separate stories and eight separate images.
Film Noir and Femme Fatales have been with her ever since that evening.
‘The reason for women: everybody has a guess. It’s psychological. It has to do with the women in the films. The women in Noir movies all had fabulous clothing and the men just had gray suits and hats. There’s nothing to paint – just gray suits and hats, so the male figure is sometimes an abstract support.’
Meet Ann Chernow
Artist, ‘Queen of Noir’, Mother, Grandmother and Teacher. Ann has taught art for over 26 years. Born in New York City in 1936, Ann has been a resident of Westport, Connecticut, considered a haven for artists for the last 50+ years. Ann is a beloved leader in the extended arts community. She has worked in the mediums of lithography, silkscreen, etching and colored pencil as well as oil painting.
Ann’s second husband, Burt Chernow founded the Housatonic Museum of Art. He was an art historian and professor at the Housatonic Community College. Burt passed away in 1997. Ann later became the life partner of actor and documentarian, Martin West (d. 2020).
Ann’s work evokes a sense of veiled mystery. A veiled mystery that is the essence of Film Noir and Ann’s creativity.
I had the privilege of talking with Ann about our favorite genre of film, her beginning, her philosophy, the pandemic and her continued mining.
Age 3 ½ – the beginning
The RKO theaters and going to the movies at 11
Victims and Heroines
The ‘Queen and King’ of Noir
Femme Fatales
1930’s and Post World War II
Those clothes
The abstract
‘That looks like my grandmother’
Miss Bette Davis
How to get an invitation
Artists and life
Advice to young artists
Keep on mining
With her passion for perfume, Jessica Murphy uncovers the history and empowerment of scent. Jessica is a Scent and Art Historian and a Museum Professional. She’s always looking for new ways to connect art, fragrance, history and popular culture. Jessica shares the continuing results of her curiosity and research skills and along the way, she enriches the enjoyment of perfume.
Since 2006, Jessica has been a contributor for the leading perfume blog Now Smell This. And what better name for her website than ‘Perfume Professor’. Since late 2015 Jessica has taught and lectured about the history and culture of fragrance at venues such as the Brooklyn Brainery, the Brooklyn Museum, The Institute for Art and Olfaction and the New Jersey Council for the Humanities.
Currently, Jessica is Manager of Visitor Engagement at the Brooklyn Museum. Before the pandemic, Jessica occasionally offered scent-themed tours.
Prior to the Brooklyn Museum, Jessica worked as a Research Associate at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. She has also worked as a Contractual Educator at the Met and as a Curatorial Assistant at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
Jessica received her B.A. from Fordham University and her M.A. and Ph.D. in Art History from the University of Delaware.
A conversation with Jessica Murphy…
The beginning – religion or incense
Festivals and seduction
Commercial use
Luxury and class
Studio 54
That iconic fragrance
Memories and scent
