by Betsy Fasbinder | Dec 1, 2021 | Podcasts
As an Episcopal priest, Willa Goodfellow’s ministry included work with troubled teens, college students, congregations in transition, diocesan structures to develop spiritual leadership within local communities, and advocacy for the full inclusion of LGBTQ people. She was a professional troublemaker.
Life-long depression caught up with her in her fifties. Her poor pitiful brain nearly threw itself over the edge as a consequence of a major depression misdiagnosis and treatment with way too many antidepressants, until she was re-diagnosed with bipolar disorder and began her road to recovery. But hey—she got some great rants out of the experience and went freelance as a troublemaker. She is now a mental health journalist, speaker, blogger, and author of Prozac Monologues: A Voice from the Edge.
by Betsy Fasbinder | Nov 17, 2021 | Podcasts
Stephen Dexter is an actor, writer, audiobook narrator, and activist based in New York City whose work can be seen on both stage and screen. He has appeared on Off-Broadway and International stages and is a lifetime member of the legendary Actors Studio. He has worked steadily in film and TV, most recently appearing on “Evil” on Paramount Plus, “Dr. Death” on NBC Peacock, and “Billions” on Showtime. He is also an award-winning audiobook narrator with over 200 titles to his credit. His most recent film “American Morning”, which he wrote, produced and stars in alongside Emmy-winner Richard Schiff (“The West Wing”, “The Good Doctor”), deals with the aftermath of a school shooting and the desperate measures a survivor resorts to to reconcile his guilt and affect change. The film is currently on the festival circuit and has been lauded both here and abroad receiving a Spirit Of Cinema nomination and Special Mention for Best Short Film at the venerable Oldenburg Film Festival in Germany.
by Betsy Fasbinder | Nov 3, 2021 | Podcasts
As the co-author, with Ellen Bass, of the iconic and groundbreaking book The Courage to Heal Laura Davis rode the hurricane-force that was unleashed by empowering women to talk about surviving sexual abuse, while also being catapulted to fame for the worst thing that had ever happened to her. In her new memoir, The Burning Light of Two Stars: A Mother Daughter Story Laura reveals what it was like behind the force of that hurricane and tells the intimate story of her relationship with her mother, of whom she eventually became caretaker.
by Betsy Fasbinder | Oct 20, 2021 | Extra Blooms, Podcasts
In this Extra Blooms episode, we catch up with past MGP guest, Damien Posey, an award-winning Bay Area mentor, affectionately known as Uncle Damien to his community. When the coronavirus pandemic hit and other service organizations had to shut down, the most vulnerable took the brunt, and Damien stepped up what they do every day in a big way. Now, through his organization Us4UsBayArea Damien and his team work to provide health clinics, mentorship, food services, and entrepreneur training to help and inspire others to live healthy, happy, productive lives.
There’s not a single term that describes what Damien—known as Uncle Damien, or “Unc” in his community—means to his beloved San Francisco Bay Area community. Perhaps his six-word biography says it best: “Once a monster, now a mentor.” As a low-income young man of color in the inner city, Damien chose an all too familiar path that led him to gunfire, crime, and ultimately incarceration. In jail, he realized he’d gotten there because of choices he’d made and that he could make different ones for himself, his daughter, and his community. Now he works to help others to avoid the path he took.
Working in concert with existing organizations and resources, Damien has worked for decades to serve the young, the old, and the vulnerable in San Francisco. Regarding every young person as his “baby” and every adult as his sister or brother, Damien never stops doing all he can to serve his “family.”
Mayor London Breed awarded Damien the key to the city, and he holds the key to the hearts of many.
by Betsy Fasbinder | Oct 6, 2021 | Podcasts
British-born Claire Hennessy is an award-winning storyteller, producer, podcaster (The Bonkers Brit) and author. She reconnected with her first boyfriend after not seeing him for 30 years and then uprooted her entire life in England and took her two kids to live in California to marry him. She then wrote a humorous memoir about her journey and is hoping to find an agent before she is too old to go on a book tour. She recently “came out” as a comedic storyteller, performing funny, true and often embarrassing stories around the San Francisco Bay Area. She started an online storytelling show at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic and co-produces Six Feet Apart Productions with longtime, successful comedian Regina Stoops. Together with her husband, Mark, they have produced over 40 online live storytelling shows. To top it off, Claire is the Morning Glory Project’s very first countess. We only hope she’ll let us borrow her tiara.
by Betsy Fasbinder | Sep 15, 2021 | Podcasts
Judy Temes was just five years old when she was left by her parents seeking to escape Communist Hungary. With borders sealed in 1969, there were few options for crossing the East-West divide. Her father—a Holocaust survivor desperate to leave behind Hungary’s totalitarian government and the legacy of the Holocaust—used tourist visas to take his wife and twelve-year-old son to the West. These visas, however, came at a high price: one child would need to be left behind. Left with an antisemitic uncle in a destitute Hungarian village, five-year-old “Juditka” had to cope with not only her parent’s apparent desertion, but questions about her real identity and what it means to be a Jew. Judy documented her story in her debut memoir, Girl Left Behind. She is a former journalist, a secondary humanities teacher in Seattle, and the mother of three children.
