Ly Tran says she writes to overcome self-doubt and to celebrate her voice. More than that, she says her words connect her to others, and the best part of putting a book in the world is the feedback she gets from readers who say that her story touched them in a deep and meaningful way.
It took 10 years for Karen Baum Gordon to write and publish her memoir, The Last Letter: A father’s struggle, a daughter’s quest, and the long shadow of the Holocaust, under the guidance of a friend who was an editor at McGraw-Hill. The book expands on a synagogue speech and explores generations of her family through letters, while grappling with the ancestral trauma and psychological legacy of terror, genocide and persecution.
In the latest episode of the Make Meaning Podcast, host Lynne Golodner interviews two important DIGs contributors: Valoree Gagnon, Assistant Professor in the College of Forest Resources and Environmental Science at Michigan Tech and Director for University-Indigenous Community Partnerships at the Great Lakes Research Center; and Karena Schmidt, an ecologist with the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community Natural Resources Department.
In a way, every person is a storyteller, according to Jake Neher, senior producer for Detroit Today on 101.9 FM WDET in Detroit. As co-host of the weekly series and podcast MichMash, not only does Jake have storytelling gifts, but he brings a huge passion for gardening to guide his curiosity when choosing guests and asking questions. As his radio career took him to Barrow, Alaska, New York City and finally Detroit, Jake nurtured this interest in growing things, via a little hydroponic garden in the dark and cold of America’s northernmost reaches to a lone tomato plant on a […]
The coronavirus pandemic has changed the world in so many ways. For some people, the past year has led to a major shift in the work they do, either by necessity or by desire – both of which are reasons that propelled Rebecca Jeffreys to end her 35-year career as a professional flutist and launch Sprouting Health Families. In the latest episode of the Make Meaning Podcast, Rebecca speaks with host Lynne Golodner about how she turned her journey parenting a child with autism into an effort to support parents along their autism journeys. Her new coaching company provides one-on-one […]
Margaret Trimer has created a varied and fascinating career with a focus on building educational opportunities for children and girding communities with value and voice. She does this, she says, by following her personal core values. Beginning at the Detroit Free Press as a reporter covering education, Margaret has moved through roles as founder and director of one of the highest performing charter school districts in the region, president and CEO of Junior Achievement of Southeast Michigan, communications director at the Michigan Education Association and most recently, as VP of Strategic Partnerships of Delta Dental of Michigan, Ohio, and Indiana. […]
When Lynne Golodner pivoted from journalism to public relations and marketing, she had a love-hate relationship with the PR field; it felt like crossing over to the dark side, she recalls. But Nancy Marshall, founder and CEO of Marshall Communications in Maine, never had such misgivings about the field of public relations. She loved it from a young age and has been thrilled with her decades-rich career in the industry. In the latest episode of the Make Meaning Podcast, Nancy speaks with host Lynne Golodner about understanding yourself and your passions enough to find meaningful work. Nancy helps companies to […]
Sometimes meaning comes out of the tiny obligations and routines of daily life. We find meaning in the mundane as easily as preparing a meal and sitting down with people we love to enjoy it. As a celebrity chef, author of two books and mom to two young children, Crystal Blanchette is dedicated to making meal prep easy and making food a priority, not a chore. In the latest episode of the Make Meaning Podcast, Crystal speaks with host Lynne Golodner about her internship at Lucas Films, her career cooking for such celebrities as Will.i.am, Prince, George Lucas, Mike Tyson, […]
A mural cannot be a band-aid on a society that puts Black and Brown people at the bottom every single day,” says Katie Yamasaki, muralist and children’s book artist who uses art as a platform to build dialogue and tell stories of communities. In the latest episode of the Make Meaning Podcast, Katie speaks with host Lynne Golodner about her early influences (including her famous grandfather, architect Minoru Yamasaki, who designed the World Trade Center), collaborating with former students and incarcerated mothers on important mural projects, and how she always cobbled together jobs to make ends meet so she could […]
Growing up in the Chabad Lubavitch community, Bassie Shemtov always knew she’d devote her life to service. So when she married and moved to Michigan, she and her husband set about dedicating their life and family to building friendships with people in isolation.
She calls herself an eco-warrior, and her mission started early in life. By the age of 8, Kehkashan Basu was already advocating for sustainability, and now as a university student in Toronto and the founder of the Green Hope Foundation, she shows no signs of slowing down.
In the latest episode of the Make Meaning Podcast, Jim Rajan speaks with host Lynne Golodner about how difficult it was to leave a creative industry to infuse his life with more meaning. “If I’m not living my truth, I am wasting my life,” he says. “I needed a more spiritual way of living, more connected to self and the world.”
