by Betsy Fasbinder | Nov 2, 2022 | Podcasts
Following the unexpected death of their daughter Lili Rachel Smith in October 2009, Laura Talmus along with her husband, Averell “Ace” Smith founded Beyond Differences.
Passionate about bringing awareness to the issue of adolescent social isolation, Laura is the full-time Executive Director of Beyond Differences, a student-led social justice organization dedicated to ending social isolation among middle school students.
Beyond Differences’ Social Emotional Learning (SEL) curriculum is now being used in over 9000 schools across all 50 states. They are best known for the national holiday, No One Eats Alone Day.
The work of Beyond Differences strives to have an effect on every layer of society when it comes to suffering from social isolation. Working with families, schools, local and state programs, and even on the national level, this non-profit organization works to advance social-emotional learning and children’s mental health.
Laura has received numerous awards and recognitions including being selected as an AARP Purpose Prize Fellow, a Jefferson Prize Award winner, receiving the MLK, Jr. Humanitarian Award from the Marin County Human Rights Commission, the Courageous Leaders Award from the Jewish Community Relations Council of San Francisco, and the North Bay Business Journal’s Award’s Nonprofit Leadership Award. She is also a member of the Washington, D.C.-based organization, the Coalition to End Social Isolation and Loneliness (CESIL).
by Betsy Fasbinder | Oct 19, 2022 | Podcasts
For many, Karen Grassle is synonymous with Caroline Ingalls, the beloved character she portrayed in the long-running series, Little House on the Prairie. But she does not profess to always be as straightforward and agreeable as the character for which she’s best known.
In this conversation, Karen offers us a glimpse behind the curtain of an actor’s life. In her candid memoir, Bright Lights, Prairie Dust, she reveals the elements of her life as a woman who came of age in the turbulent ‘60s, as a stage and screen actor, and as one who faced her own struggles with depression and alcoholism. She reveals the tenacity, work ethic, and dedication to her craft that kept her moving forward as her life and career. This memoir is a soulful, candid story filled with humor, heart, and wisdom, celebrating and honoring womanhood, in all its complexity.
by Betsy Fasbinder | Oct 5, 2022 | Podcasts
Thinking she was doing everything not to duplicate her own dangerous and abusive childhood, Lizbeth Meredith found that she’d somehow fallen into the trap of a treacherous family pattern that made her daughters vulnerable. Finally divorced from an abusive ex-husband, Lizbeth’s world was turned upside down when he abused his visitation rights and left the country with the two girls, landing in his native country of Greece. Pursuing, finding, and rescuing her daughters became Lizbeth’s everything. Her harrowing story is captured in her memoir, Pieces of Me: Rescuing My Kidnapped Daughters and premiered in March 2022 as a true story film on Lifetime as “Stolen by Their Father,” starring Sarah Drew.
Lizbeth is an author, speaker, and online teacher who holds a master’s degree in psychology. After a career working with domestic abuse and child abuse victims, Lizbeth then worked for 20 years as a juvenile probation supervisor. Today, she’s happy to write, speak, and teach online from her home in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
by Betsy Fasbinder | Sep 21, 2022 | Podcasts
At thirty-one, Kirsten Mickelwait was ready to pursue a serious career as a writer and eventually, she hoped, marriage and family. When she met Steve Beckwith, a handsome and successful attorney, she began to see the future materialize more quickly than she’d dared to expect.
Twenty-two years later, Steve has become someone quite different from the man Kirsten first met. Unemployed and addicted to opioids, he uses money and their two children to emotionally blackmail her. The couple separates but, just after their divorce is finalized, Steve is diagnosed with colon cancer and dies within the year, leaving Kirsten with $1.5 million in debts from properties that are no longer hers.
As she fights toward recovery, Kirsten begins to receive communications from Steve in the afterlife—leading her on an unexpected path to forgiveness. The Ghost Marriage is her story of discovery: that life isn’t limited to the tangible reality we experience on this earth, and that our worst adversaries can become our greatest teachers. This is a book about life after divorce and life after death. It’s a story of how forgiveness is the best revenge.
by Betsy Fasbinder | Sep 7, 2022 | Podcasts
Gina Frangello is an author, editor, book reviewer, and journalist published in many prestigious journals and publications. She is the author of Every Kind of Wanting, A Life in Men, Slut Lullabies, and My Sister’s Continent.
Despite these many accomplishments, Gina has come to wider reputation for her newest book, a memoir, Blow Your House Down: A Story of Family, Feminism, and Treason.
Her book was called “Searing, honest, heartbreaking, heart-mending, and a hell of a ride,” by Rebecca Makkai, author of The Great Believers.
Part memoir, part social commentary, this poignant book of raw candor does what its title implies…it blows the house down, departing from the customary expectations of women’s memoir, and daring to tell the truth about being an imperfect woman who has the sheer audacity to rise into a happy life after making mistakes in her life.
