309 Nancy Furstinger “Catskill Creatures”

Nancy Furstinger is the author of nearly 100 books, including many on her favorite topic: animals! She started her writing career in third grade, when her class performed a play she wrote while recovering from chicken pox. Since then, Nancy has been a feature writer for a daily newspaper, a managing editor of trade and consumer magazines, and an editor at two children’s book publishing houses. She shares her home and heart with her partner, big dogs, house rabbits, and a chinchilla (all rescued), and volunteers and fosters pets for several animal organizations. Nancy has been speaking up for animals since she learned to talk, and she hasn’t shut up yet! Please adopt, don’t shop.

She is the author of CATSKILL CREATURES, a lovely full color children’s book offering readers of all ages a fresh and informative introduction to the Catskill area’s native fauna. This book asks, are you curious about the amazing Catskill creatures sharing your back yard? Your wild neighbors star in nature’s outdoor theater, where exciting drama changes with the seasons. Catskill Creatures spotlights fifteen species of wildlife with intriguing facts and dramatic illustrations. Inside these pages you will discover: Who isn’t scared of the skunks stinky spray? What warty secret weapon protects toads? Where prime raccoon real estate is located? When black bears head into their winter dens? Why the little brown bat is nature’s original bug zapper?

A self proclaimed “animal nut,” Nancy shares heartfelt and inspiring stories of animals that she’s written about over the years. As someone who’s life is rooted in compassion, she gives us a glimpse into the local shelter scene and ways you can help take care of our animal friends. As a life long writer, our conversation also touches on how her career has evolved over the years and advice she has for aspiring writers.

She’ll be at the Poughkeepsie Children’s Book Festival on March 30th and loves visiting and reading at schools and libraries, so get in touch with her directly if you’d like her to visit you!

Our task must be to free ourselves by widening our circle
of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the
whole of nature in its beauty.

—Albert Einstein

Here’s this week’s Full Moon Report!

Today’s show was engineered by Ian Seda from Radiokingston.org.

Our show music is from Shana Falana!

Feel free to email me, say hello: she@iwantwhatshehas.org

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280 Lindsey Danis “Writing and Belonging”

Lindsey Danis is a queer, gender expansive writer based in the Hudson Valley, New York. Lindsey received a BA in English from Vassar College and an MFA in Fiction from Emerson College. Lindsey is Creative Nonfiction editor at Atlas + Alice and runs the queer outdoor travel blog Queer Adventurers.

Lindsey’s nonfiction has appeared in Condé Nast Traveler, AFAR, Longreads, Eater, and Catapult, received a notable mention in Best American Travel Writing 2019, and is anthologized in “The Best New True Crime Stories: Unsolved Crimes and Mysteries”  and “Nourishing Resistance: Stories of Food, Protest, and Mutual Aid.” Lindsey received an Individual Artist Commission for an oral history essay project, “Queer Homesteading in the Hudson Valley.”

Lindsey is currently working on a book proposal on queer travel, with themes of queer joy, personal power, and transformation.

Our conversation begins by discussing the notion of belonging. Inspired by Lindsey’s personal journey of feeling like she didn’t belong as a young person in school and specifically in yoga studios, she reflects on how her sense of belonging arrived during a recent LGBTQ focused yoga retreat.

Related to her challenges of making yoga a more regular part of her life, Lindsey raised an issue I had not considered before, the ways in which the LGBTQ community is impacted financially. We didn’t have time to go into this fully, so I asked Lindsey to share some of her writing on this subject.

Lindsey expands further about her writing, how and why she became a writer and how she got to where she is today, writing and editing in various spaces with a focus on money and how she likes to spend it — food and travel — from a perspective that centers LGBTQ voices. I highly recommend following along on Lindsey’s Instagram account where she/they shares regular inspiration for other writers and deep thoughts and perspectives on the LGBTQ experience.

Today’s show was engineered by Ian Seda from Radiokingston.org.

Our show music is from Shana Falana!

Feel free to email me, say hello: she@iwantwhatshehas.org

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270 Elissa Garay “Sustainable Travel” and Amy Summers from “Raising Hope”

In the first half of today’s show, I am joined by Elissa Garay, Freelance Editor & Writer in Travel & Lifestyle. A modern-day explorer, perpetual seeker, and diligent travel scribe, she’s also a champion for sustainable tourism and believes that we can all travel with conscience, for the greater good. With over 20 years’ experience in the field, she’s worked as an editor at leading travel publications like AFAR, Fodor’s,Travelzoo, and ShermansTravel, and has had hundreds of travel and lifestyle articles published in Condé Nast Traveler, Good Housekeeping, Parents, CNN, BBC, and more. She studied journalism at SUNY New Paltz and has since 2016 lived here in our home base of Kingston, NY.

Today, Elissa shares her path to writing about sustainable tourism, what sustainable tourism means and tips for the traveler on how to adopt more green travel practices.

Following our conversation, I shared a positive story about what has happened locally in my hometown of Olive to better conserve and preserve our natural resources during a time of major development here in the Hudson Valley. The Pacama Conservation Organization has been vital in preserving land near and dear to me.

In the second half of the show I am joined by returning guest, Amy Summers, Raising HOPE Program Director. She is responsible for overall management and leadership of Raising HOPE including outreach, recruitment, interviewing, and managing workshops, trainings, and support groups. Amy joined the United Way team in 2019.

Before joining Raising HOPE, Amy directed a Big Brothers Big Sisters program at Amherst College, owned Transformations Workshops and Gallery, and taught meditation and Conscious Communication at the Five College Consortium. In 1999, Amy founded the Center for Circles of Empowerment, where she led women’s empowerment workshops. Amy is a former resident of Kripalu Center for Yoga & Health, she also resided and taught at Centro Creativo, in Costa Rica. She serves on the New Start
for Women Advisory Board (SUNY Ulster) where she also teaches Stress Management. She is an Ulster Leadership Development Institute alumna, a facilitator of women’s empowerment circles for the Hudson Valley LGBTQ+ Center, and a graduate of Omega Institute’s Women’s Leadership Intensive.

Amy holds an advanced degree in Women’s Studies and is the founder/facilitator of Aquoga aquatic cardio, yoga and meditation classes. She is a survivor of a near fatal car accident, and brings the unique perspective of someone who healed from 16 assorted broken bones, and relearned how to walk, into her tool box of inspiration.

Amy shares about the Benefit Concert for Raising Hope’s Scholarship Fund happening on Saturday April 29th at Rosendale Theater. BETTY will be the special guest performer at this special happening! We also talk about their mentorship program and the amazing workshops that they offer on a regular basis. It’s always uplifting to hear about the good work happening at Raising Hope.

You can purchase tickets to the benefit party at Rosendale Theatre.

Here’s your New Moon Report.

Today’s show was engineered by Ian Seda of Radio Kingston.

Our show music is from Shana Falana !!!

Feel free to email me, say hello: she@iwantwhatshehas.org

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266 Martha Frankel “On Writing and Woodstock Bookfest”

Today’s guest, Martha Frankel, needs little introduction.

Martha Frankel, executive director of Woodstock Bookfest, believes reading and writing are central to our inner lives. Long ago Martha’s real life surpassed even her wildest stories. Her writing career started at the original Details magazine with her column on plastic surgery, called Knifestyles of the Rich and Famous. She went on to write book reviews, essays and celebrity profiles for Details other magazines, such as Movieline, Cosmopolitan and Redbook. Her memoir, Hats & Eyeglasses, chronicling her family’s lifelong love affair with gambling and her own later addiction to online gambling, was published in 2008 (Tarcher/Penguin Group). Martha’s work has appeared in magazines as diverse as the original DETAILS, The New Yorker, Fashions of the New York Times, Japanese Vogue and German Men’s Vogue, The Goodguys Gazette, Redbook, Cosmopolitan, and Movieline’s Hollywood Life. She has been an on-air contributor to VH1′s Sexiest Movie Moments, Entertainment Tonight, and Inside Edition. She is a winner of a NYFFA Award in creative nonfiction, a fellow at the Squaw Valley Community of Writers, was named the 1997 Philip Morris Fellow at The MacDowell Colony, and taught a memoir class as the 2003 Artist-in-Residence at SUNY Ulster.

She writes, teaches and lives in the Hudson Valley with her husband, the artist Steve Heller.

Woodstock Bookfest happens March 30-April 2 in Woodstock, NY.

Martha shares the stories of how she learned to love books, writing and the telling of stories. Listening to her speak about her life and it’s many adventures, she sounds fearless, but she shares how that’s not necessarily true. Martha shares generously her advice to aspiring writers as well as some of the non-writing bits of her life.

Today’s show was engineered by Ian Seda of Radio Kingston.

Our show music is from Shana Falana !!!

Feel free to email me, say hello: she@iwantwhatshehas.org

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#198 June Millington “From Fanny to Institute for Musical Arts”

Today I have the ultimate honor to share my conversation with June Millington, a Filipino American guitarist, songwriter, producer, educator, actress and writer. She was the co-founder and lead guitarist of the all-female rock band Fanny, which was active from 1970 to 1974. After leaving the band, June went in pursuit of her spiritual path, continued to make music, collaborate, act, write and is the co-founder and artistic director of the Institute for the Musical Arts (IMA) aka the “Magical Queendom” in Goshen, Massachusetts.

The Institute for the Musical Arts was co-founded with partner Ann Hackler in Northern California in 1986 and received its nonprofit status in 1987.  It operated its studio and programs from Bodega, California’s historic Old Creamery until 2001 when property was purchased in Western Massachusetts for a permanent facility. The institute’s nonprofit mission is to support women and girls in music and music-related businesses.  Rooted in the legacy of progressive equal rights movements, IMA’s development is guided by the visions, needs and concerns of women from a diversity of backgrounds and has grown from the need to nourish ourselves and each other. In addition to its summer programs for girls, IMA offers concerts and workshops year-round in support of its nonprofit mission which, unless otherwise noted, are open to the public.

Today June shares about how they are supporting girls at IMA, leaving Fanny, feminism, foremothers, Buddhism, cancer, life lessons and what’s she’s got on the horizon.

Here are the important links for you! IMA and their Summer Programs. Memoir, Land of a Thousand Bridges. And if you want more of the  Fanny story, you can check out where to stream Fanny: The Right to Rock.

You can support IMA by joining in their upcoming November 20th and 27th events, both of which will be livestreamed! And stay tuned for June’s upcoming release, “Snapshots.”

You can check out June’s TEDxTalk, “Rocking the Boat: How Playing Like a Girl Can Change the World.”

Linking here also to Ann Hackler’s TEDx Talk, “Leading from the Kitchen.”

And finally the Go Fund Me for Jean Millington, June’s sister.

Here’s the Full Moon report I read from!

Today’s show was engineered by Ian Seda of Radio Kingston.

Our show music is from Shana Falana !!!

Feel free to email me, say hello: she@iwantwhatshehas.org

** Please: SUBSCRIBE to the pod and leave a REVIEW wherever you are listening, it helps other users FIND IT

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#159 Malebo Sephodi “Miss Behave”

Malebo Sephodi is a South African writer and researcher. With over 6 years corporate and just over 20 years community development experience, Malebo has worked and spoken in various parts of Africa, Europe and the Americas. She has worked with many Schools, NGO’s and the private sector tackling numerous socio-economic projects.

She has been listed by Okay Africa as top 100 women in Africa in 2018 and a Mail and Guardian Top 200 Young People in 2018. She was the recipient of the Fabulous Woman Brave Award in 2018 and a runner up in the Gauteng Legislature Vita Basadi Award. Malebo was also the recipient of the South African Literary Award first-time Published Author in 2018 and is a Wits City Institute Mellon Fellow and recipient of the Wits University Walter and Albertina Sisulu Prize. Her research interests include: Gender, Human Development Economy, Artificial Intelligence Policy, and the Hegemony of Science.

Her debut non-fiction titled Miss Behave published by BlackBird Books (imprint of Jacana Media) was released in May 2017. Dubbed by many readers as “compulsory reading,” Miss Behave tracks Malebo’s journey as a Black Woman in South Africa fighting for autonomy over her life. She addresses issues such as Patriarchy, Sexism, Intersectionality, Body positivity and Economic Quotas. Miss Behave has been long listed for the Sunday Times Alan Paton Non Fiction Prize.

Malebo shares how growing up in a family of activists was the start of her being seen as a pillar in her community and how the pressure to remain that pillar took a toll on her body which eventually led to an awakening of sorts (my language) with respect to self care. She shares how she learned to rest, find pleasure, joy and prioritize self care. Malebo also talks about the role spirituality plays in her personal care as well as her life in general, and how honoring her spirituality is decolonial work. “Science is knowledge, but who defines what that knowledge is.” Malebo has also done a lot of work to end gender based violence, and she shares some of her lessons learned along the way. There are so many nuggets of wisdom in this talk today, grab a cup of tea and enjoy! Here’s her TEDxTalk that I mentioned.

Also as mentioned at the end of the show, here’s where you can find out about IONE’s Dream Festival, happening now! http://www.ministryofmaat.org/dreamfestival.html

Today’s show was produced, hosted, and edited by ME, Theresa, so please forgive any hiccups.

Our show music is from Shana Falana !!!

Feel free to email me, say hello: she@iwantwhatshehas.org

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#152 Belinda Farrell “Find Your Friggin’ Joy”

Belinda Farrell is a Certified Master Hypnotherapist, NLP Master Practitioner, Huna Practitioner, and Reconnective Healing Practitioner. She’s had an exceptionally adventurous life, teaching third grade for five years in Puerto Rico and Los Angeles, playing the character Snow White at Disneyland, as a TV News Reporter for KABC Channel 7 in Hollywood, working on the staff of Senator Charles H. Percy (Illinois) in Washington, D.C., firewalked 18 times with Tony Robbins, swam with dolphins, was a film and stage actress and a professional Precision Stunt Car Driver for TV Commercials and films. She healed herself from a significant incapacitating spinal injury and is the author of several books including Find Your Friggin Joy.

I recorded this interview early in the year, pre-COVID. As the world seemed to change because of the pandemic, I put it on the shelf for a more appropriate time. As the year was coming to a close, I listened back to my conversation with Belinda which felt like a much needed healing session and the perfect way to end the year. Belinda shares her adventurous life story and the wisdom she learned along the way including the power of forgiveness, believing in your ability to heal, overcoming fear, releasing the programming in the unconscious mind, cutting cords, Huna and working through the grief of losing her son to a drug overdose. The challenges of the pandemic won’t end magically come January 1st, but I hope that we’ve learned ways to move through the challenges with the support of and by supporting others, to bring greater ease to all. Happy New Year to everyone! Wishing you a joyful 2021!!!

Our show music is from Shana Falana !!!

Feel free to email me, say hello: she@iwantwhatshehas.org

Leave me a voicemail with your thoughts or a few words about who inspires you! (845) 481-3429

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#150 Susan Slotnick and “Flight, the Dance of Freedom”

Susan Slotnick is a Visual Artist, Choreographer, Dancer, Writer, and Social Justice Volunteer. For 16 years, she has gone behind the walls at The Woodbourne Correctional facility and DFY (division for youth prison) every Friday and Sunday to bring the joy of modern dance to incarcerated men and boys under the auspices of RTA Rehabilitation through the Arts.

She founded Figures-In-Flight Dance School and in 1995, the Company attained professional status, launching a paid tour of New York State schools with a dance drama aimed to prevent bullying.She’s been featured in Dance, Dance Teacher, and Dance Studio magazines. In 2014 she received the “Caring Heart Award” from Dance Studio magazine for her work with incarcerated populations. In 2010 Susan was featured in the Huffington Post as the  “Greatest Woman of The Day”  in celebration of Women’s History Month. In 2016 she received the prestigious Justice Through the arts and journalism award from the NYSACDL New York State Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.

In addition to her work in dance, Susan continues her career as a painter and a writer. She’s been a featured columnist for the New York State newspaper The New Paltz Times. A documentary profile about her entitled “The Game Changer,” has been accepted at 15 film festivals including The Cannes Film Festival and won first prize for best documentary short at The Harlem Film Festival. She recently published her memoir, “Flight, The Dance of Freedom.”

Today’s show was engineered by Nick Panken of Freedom Highway on Radio Kingston.

Our show music is from Shana Falana !!!

Feel free to email me, say hello: she@iwantwhatshehas.org

Leave me a voicemail with your thoughts or a few words about who inspires you! (845) 481-3429

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#145 Perla Ayora and Martha Preve Ayora of “No me Digas!”

Today I get to speak with two creative latinas, Perla and Martha. They’ve collaborated together on several projects including this short, OFF OFF OFF OFF Broadway, and their new radio show “No me Digas” on Radio Kingston.

Martha Lorena Preve Ayora @martha_preve one half of the dynamic duo behind No Me Digas on Radio Kingston. She is a Mexican theater and film actress, writer, director and producer. She is the co-founder of Something from Abroad  @somethingfromabroad an Indie theater company based in NYC. Originally from the Yucatan Peninsula, Martha loves creating art that mixes English and Spanish and combines her Mexican traditions and culture with American characters. Martha has also been working as a Stage Manager OFF BROADWAY. In her free time, she enjoys reading, going to the beach and watching as much dark comedy as she can!

Perla’s back! As the other half of the creative team behind “No Me Digas” on @radiokingstonny and frequent collaborator with her cuz Martha, she’s been busy since February when she was last on the show to talk about her stand up comedy. Soooo much has happened, or not happened since then, but cleary Perla’s making the most of it while stand-up is on hold. As a stand-up comedian @perla_ayora enjoys writing songs, poems, essays, and… jokes. As a member of the Radio Kingston tech team, if you’ve ever been to one of their supported events, you’ve likely seen her dancing between wires, framing cameras, or setting up a stage with complex technical sound design. Originally from Yucatan, Mexico, Perla now lives in Kingston with her hubby and two children.

No me Digas” Is a bilingual show about top news and contemporary events, hosted by two latina comedy writers, Martha Preve Ayora and me, Perla Ayora. We will make you think and laugh at the same time. It’s fun and informative, informativo y divertido. Irreverent and unapologetic, sorry, maybe just irreverent. This show will promise to exceed your expectations as long as they are very low. Tune in and if you support diversity share this show with the people you like, if not, share it with the people you don’t like. There is a lot of division in this world, we hope at least we can laugh together. It doesn’t matter if you don’t speak Spanish, you will end up yelling “¡No Me Digas!”

Here’s the collage class I was talking about with past guest Mel Toth.

Here’s the article I referenced on 3-Minute Commitments!

Today’s show was engineered by Nick Panken of Freedom Highway on Radio Kingston.

Our show music is from Shana Falana !!!

Feel free to email me, say hello: she@iwantwhatshehas.org

Leave me a voicemail with your thoughts or a few words about who inspires you! (845) 481-3429

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#139 Helen Zuman “Mating in Captivity”

After some short technical difficulties, I finally connected with today’s guest, Helen Zuman, a tree-hugging dirt worshipper devoted to turning waste into food and the stinky guck of experience into fertile, fragrant prose. She holds a BA in Visual and Environmental Studies from Harvard and a Half-FA in memoir from Hunter College. Raised in Brooklyn, she lives with her husband in Beacon, NY and Black Mountain, NC.

She is the author of Mating in Captivity (She Writes Press 2018), a memoir of her five years, post-Harvard, in a cult with a radical take on sex and relationships. Mating in Captivity received a starred review from Kirkus, was named a Kirkus Best Indie Memoir of 2018, was a finalist in Creative Nonfiction for the Community of Literary Magazines and Presses’ 2019 Firecracker Award, and was both first runner-up in memoir and a finalist for First Horizon and Grand Prize honors in the 2020 Eric Hoffer Awards. Other work has appeared in The New Farmers Almanac, in Communities and Livelihood magazines, and on the Foundation for Intentional Community’s website (ic.org). 

Mating in Captivity: When recent Harvard grad Helen Zuman moved to Zendik Farm in 1999, she was thrilled to discover that the Zendiks used go-betweens to arrange sexual assignations, or “dates,” in cozy shacks just big enough for a double bed and a nightstand. Here, it seemed, she could learn an honest version of the mating dance – and form a union free of “Deathculture” lies. No one spoke the truth: Arol, the Farm’s matriarch, crushed any love that threatened her hold on her followers’ hearts. An intimate look at a transformative cult journey, Mating in Captivity shows how stories can trap us and free us, how miracles rise out of crisis, how coercion feeds on forsaken self-trust.

In addition to cults, we also talk about the journey to trust oneself, the “infinite growth myth,” gift circles, her connection to a well balanced eco-village that is doing intentional living well and how she takes care of herself (no social media!). I can personally highly recommend her book even for those not remotely curious about how one gets pulled into a cult. It’s extremely well written and uniquely empowering to hear some of the more difficult details of her story.

Looking for an intentional community or wondering about the health of one you’re currently in? Helen’s article may be of help to you. And if you do have friends, family or loved ones you fear are wrapped up in a cult, eh hm, political party, then Helen recommends some resources written by therapist and cult expert Steven Hassan. You can tune in to hear the best thing Helen’s Mom did easing her exit from the cult mind-control.

Today’s show was engineered by Nick Panken of Freedom Highway.

Our show music is from Shana Falana !!!

Feel free to email me, say hello: she@iwantwhatshehas.org

Leave me a voicemail with your thoughts or a few words about who inspires you! (845) 481-3429

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http://iwantwhatshehas.org/podcast

ITUNES | SPOTIFY | STITCHER

ITUNES: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/i-want-what-she-has/id1451648361?mt=2

SPOTIFY:https://open.spotify.com/show/77pmJwS2q9vTywz7Uhiyff?si=G2eYCjLjT3KltgdfA6XXCA

STITCHER: https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/she-wants/i-want-what-she-has?refid=stpr

Follow:

INSTAGRAM * https://www.instagram.com/iwantwhatshehaspodcast/

FACEBOOK * https://www.facebook.com/iwantwhatshehaspodcast

TWITTER * https://twitter.com/wantwhatshehas

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