Jamie Weiss just wants the facts. Her birth certificate says she was born in Georgia. She knows that’s not true. So she (and Stuart and many others) are asking the State Assembly to open the records, just like a wave of other states including neighboring Alabama and Tennessee. It’s not going to be easy, but Jamie is hopeful. We talk origin stories - and why it’s important to know where you come from.

ManListening

Jamie just wants the facts

 Melinda Benson tells Stuart what it was like to go to college with only women - in the class, teaching it and even all the administrators. From there she tracked down a company founded by a future recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom - because she firmly believed in its mission. On those lines. Melinda talks about living in New Orleans post-Katrina and how Hurricane Ida was the final straw.     

Melinda believes busine$$ and art can coexist

They represent three life challenges she has overcome. 1) Infertility 2) Divorce 3) Starting her own company We get to those. But first - how an Indiana girl went from a high school across from a pig farm to San Fransisco and beyond. Hint: it involves David Letterman.

Allison Andrews bears a tattoo of three mountains

 Beth Troutman wanted to change the way women appeared in media. So she began working in media - specifically by packing a U-Haul and moving straight from UNC-Chapel Hill to Los Angeles to join the staff of THE WEST WING - the hit NBC TV show. She came home to North Carolina to run for Congress in real life - a losing battle against an old pol later convicted of corruption. We talk about why she still works diligently for peace, justice and a better world. 

Beth Troutman's lessons in life and death

Ohavia Phillips is a force. A presence. She shows up big time. Impossible to ignore, she brings love and light with her. Stuart is particularly fragile between funerals and Ohavia steps up to support a new friend she had never met.

Ohavia is a force

Stuart has hired Felicia Bittle to help him dress in a fun, creative way without coming off as a clown. Client and consultant sit on a park bench in Charlotte’s 4th Ward under umbrellas ️in a drizzle and talk fashion and showing off your best self.

HI FELICIA! Felicia Bittle dresses others to show their best selves

 Stuart sits down with his brother Andy’s ex-wife and we do not talk about men. Instead we hear about big moves from Easley, SC near Greenville to Wellsville, NY near Rochester. We also hear about being a single mom to two teenaged boys and a career educator. Tessa Levitt has two masters degrees. She’s taught in the classroom and now she makes classroom learning possible as the Director of Curriculum and Instruction in the Allegheny region of Western New York state. 

Tessa teaches two sons

 Cherene Caraco was about to step in front of a speeding car to end her young life. Then she had an epiphany. Now she draws on her darkest moments to help others see light. The founder and CEO of Promise Resource Network and its new home Respite sits down to talk preventative mental health and a new way forward. 

Cherene's acts of charity

Mara Palermo packs a punch. When her boyfriend’s boss made a crude insult, she gave him a black eye. Now she walks away. How one woman learned to control her emotions after realizing that her emotions had controlled her.

Mara Palermo ceases fighting

Demetria Kalodimos won many awards for her investigative reporting. The corporate news managers fired her. She sued. Now she’s looking with hope towards new and brave forms of journalism, specifically by resurrecting The Nashville Banner as a nonprofit digital news brand. Godspeed Demetria!

Demetria Kalodimos' fearless reporting

Sasha Gombar visited Rwanda to study genocide prevention. Then she went to work in the problematic American justice system. Now after graduation from Vanderbilt Law School, she’s clerking for a Federal judge. She’s a walking, talking testimonial to hope and a better future. We talk about her Dad’s escape from the communist Czechoslovakia and how her summers in Prague profoundly influenced her.

Sasha Gombar lays down the law

 Wesley Paine led the way to preserving Nashville’s full scale replica of the Parthenon. She managed the Parthenon for more than 40 years and on her watch the number of visitors more than doubled. Wesley talks about how her mom and dad taught her the value of the Arts for herself and the city she loves. 

Wesley Paine, Goddess at the Parthenon

 Judge Shirley Fulton was the first Black woman to be a Superior Court Judge in NC. She's retired from the bench, but not the law. She talks about the SC low country, Gullah-Geechee culture, what it was like to pick cotton as a girl, her decision to attend an HBCU, then Duke Law, why some people need jail time, Juneteenth, Black Lives Matter, and her legacy. It’s a whole lot, y’all. 

Judge Shirley Fulton makes history

Kathy Izard shows compassion for people who live on the streets - and teaches kindness by example. We talk El Paso, bipolar disorder, Hopeway, a kegger where she met her husband, Moore Place, Charlotte as community, panhandling and what Jesus would really do.

Kathy Izard’s compassion

Mary-Ann was touring clubs in Europe singing the blues. Producers kept asking, “What’s HER story?” It was almost like, “Who IS this skinny white girl and what right does she have to sing the blues?” She never told them what you’re about to hear.

Mary-Ann’s Blues

What happens when one man stops talking and starts listening? A fresh podcast featuring the stories of strong women who bounce back. Because everyone deserves to be heard. Find us on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter at @manlistening Hosted by Stuart Watson Produced by Jeni Wren Stottrup of Grittybirds Podcasting

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ManListening

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