Mae Chandran overcame a difficult childhood in China, and fled from a dysfunctional family life in the US. She went to college in California where she met and married her husband. After having two children, she left a successful career to raise them, vowing to give her family the happy home life that she never had. These days she enjoys watching her children flourish, gardening and cooking, and has won the international silver award in a UK marmalade contest. Find out more about Mae Chandran Read more about The Passionistas Project. FULL TRANSCRIPT: Passionistas: Hi and welcome to the Passionistas Project Podcast. We’re Amy and Nancy Harrington. About a year ago we interviewed Sashee Chandran, the innovator behind the premium beverage line Tea Drops, and during our chat she spoke about her mother Mae, who is her biggest cheerleader and a constant source of support. We were beyond excited when Sashee nominated Mae to be a guest on our podcast. Mae overcame a difficult childhood in China, and fled from a dysfunctional family life in the US when she went to college in California. After marrying her husband she left a successful career to raise a family, vowing to give them the happy home life that she never had. So please welcome to the show Mae Chandran. Mae: Oh, thank you. Thank you very much. Passionistas: What are you most passionate about? Mae: I think I'm most passionate about food and cooking. I'm passionate about gardens and my little babies. I call them. So many things I'm passionate about. I have a lot of interests. That's what keeps me going. So cooking and gardening and of course my family. Passionistas: Take us back to the beginning and tell us where you were born and where you grew up. Mae: I was born in Canton, China, Southern China in 1948 just after the war and since I was a baby of that era in China. It was a very difficult time and my parents had me late in life because my father came to make his fortune. He went the way of Cuba and then he came to Massachusetts and my mom was still in China. Usually the husband goes abroad, then leaves the family behind. And so my mom was there. This is like after world war two people fled to Hong Kong. So I was three years old when we went to Hong Kong. I mom was there and we live together. She was called to come to America and in 1952 she came, I was four years old. She left me behind with her friend. She took care of me and it was very difficult because you're four years old, but it had to be because when you're a baby, when you're a woman, you're not worth much. My father saw my birth papers because it was worth some money because of that, I didn't have identity and so I couldn't come with my mom, so my mom had to leave me and I knew she was leaving, but I didn't want to give her a lot of trouble. I was very sad, but I took her to the airport with a lot of other people and then she went in the, I had no idea when she was going to see me next, but the lady she left me with was very nice to me. She was okay. I remember she used to always say I was like three or four stripped down to your waist because I want to show your mom pictures. And I never know why she wanted to do it that way. But I realized later she wanted to show my mom that I was eating okay. And I was okay when my mom left, you know, in those we don't talk on the phone or anything. She just left. I didn't know when I was going to see her. I was so sad that nobody could talk about my mom because I would cry anyway. I live with this lady. She was a young widow, like all people in Hong Kong, they want to do better. So when an older gentleman came to Hong Kong, he was searching for wife. So she took the opportunity to go with him. So I somehow found out and later on I went to see her mother-in-law and I remember going to this dark room and she was in a bed by herself, and then she shouted at me and said, I use leaving. Me too. Everybody's leaving me. So I started crying. I didn't know what she meant. Any

Two-time Grammy nominee and the award-winning author — Holly George-Warren has written 16 books including the New York Times bestseller The Road to Woodstock and the new biography Janis: Her Life and Music about rock icon Janis Joplin. Holly is also working with Petrine Day Mitchum on a new documentary called Rhinestone Cowboy about the story of Nudie, the Rodeo Tailor. Find out more about Holly George-Warren. Read more about The Passionistas Project. FULL TRANSCRIPT: Passionistas: Hi and welcome to the Passionistas Project Podcast. We’re Amy and Nancy Harrington and today we're talking with two-time Grammy nominee and the award winning author Holly George-Warren. To date, Holly has written 16 books, including the New York times bestseller, “The Road to Woodstock” and the forthcoming biography, “Janice: Her Life and Music” about rock icon Janice Joplin. Holly is also working with Patrine Day Mitchell on a new documentary called “Rhinestone Cowboy” about the story of Nudie, the rodeo tailor. So please welcome to the show Holly George-Warren. Holly: Great to be here. Thanks so much for having me. Passionistas: What's the one thing you're most passionate about? Holly: Wow, gosh, what time is it? Every time it changes on the hour it seems like, but of course right now I'm most passionate about, I guess both Janis Joplin and Nudie. As far as my work life goes, my head is wrapped around both of those people. And interestingly enough, Nudie actually did make some outfits for Janice in 1970 so there's a connection with everything. And of course my other passion in my personal life is my family, my husband Robert Brook Warren and my son Jack Warren, who fill my life with joy and excitement and share, uh, my love for the arts, film, music, the outdoors, etc. So I'm very blessed. Passionistas: So tell us a little bit about what first inspired you to become a writer. Holly: I think music really did first inspire me beginning at a very, very young age. I grew up in a small town in North Carolina and literally I'm old enough to have discovered music back in the days of am radio. And in my town it was so tiny. We had very, you know, little radio, just some gospel, I think country and Western. This was in the ‘60s. But I discovered at night after like say nine o'clock on my little clock radio that I could tune into w ABC in New York and WCFL in Chicago. And that just blew my mind. It opened up this whole world for me of all these different sounds and styles of music. Cause that was in the day of very eclectic radio. Playing a DJs, they, they didn't go by strict playlists or anything like that. And I literally started just kind of writing, I think inspired by the music I was hearing. I started writing a little bit about music and I of course started reading biographies also at the same time. So that was the other major I would say inspiration for me. I started reading in elementary school these biographies of all kinds, everyone, you know, from like George Washington Carver to Florence Nightingale to Abraham Lincoln biographies and became kind of obsessed with reading those books. And you know, I just love to read from a young age. So I think those interests kind of combined that. Um, by the time I got to college I was writing quite a bit and uh, always did quite well with my writing assignments in school and then found myself writing more and more about music, going out and seeing bands performing live. And then that's what I did when I moved to New York city in 1979 I started writing for all kinds of fanzines and underground magazines that existed at that time in the East village. About then, it was kind of the post punk scene I guess, but I had been inspired by the original punk rockers, you know. I got to see the Ramones and bands like that in North Carolina before I moved to New York. So I've just started writing about the scene, which was not that well covered at the time. Talk a little bit more about the scene at that point.

Carolyn Koppel founded Aaron’s Coffee Corner while sitting with her son Aaron in his hospital room. Her mission is to provide 24/7 access to free Keurig coffee to the family, friends and caregivers admitted to the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit of Ann & Robert Lurie’s Children’s Hospital of Chicago. Find out more at AaronsCoffeeCorner.org. Read more about The Passionistas Project. FULL TRANSCRIPT: Passionistas: Hi and welcome to The Passionistas Project Podcast. We're Amy and Nancy Harrington. Today we're talking with Carolyn Koppel, the founder of Aaron's Coffee Corner. Carolyn left a career in Hollywood to return to the Midwest where she worked at the Shoah Foundation and Oprah Winfrey's Harpo Studios. Most recently she founded Aaron's Coffee Corner, while sitting with her son, Aaron, in his hospital room. Her mission is to provide 24/7 access to free Keurig coffee to the family, friends and caregivers of patients in the pediatric intensive care unit of Ann and Robert Laurie's Children's Hospital of Chicago. So please welcome to the show, Carolyn Koppel. Carolyn: Hello. Thank you. Passionistas: What's the one thing you're most passionate about? Carolyn: I feel that of course, right now I'm passionate about this project and getting coffee to people that really could use it, but I think in general, as I look back on my adult life, I've tried to work with organizations and people that do good, which I didn't really think about, but it turns out that it's a running theme in my life and I'm pretty proud of it. Passionistas: Why do you think you're drawn to projects that help other people? Carolyn: I think it's just my upbringing. I think I grew up pretty happily and my parents were always very kind to people and I think that my family has nurtured that. And as I went through middle school and high school and college, it's something that I carried with me. I think it's just my upbringing. I'll give that credit to my parents. Passionistas: How does that translate into what you do in your day to day life? Carolyn: Well, right now my day to day life is nothing that I thought it would be like 14 years ago when my child Aaron was born. So over the last few years I've thought about what can I do? Should I get a job? How can I get a job? Because there's a lot of medical appointments and there's a lot of time off if parent gets sick, how do I tell people that I need a really flexible job that can allow me to care for my globally delayed and medically fragile child? So it's been a journey to try and find something that I can do. And along the way I've volunteered on a parent board, um, for a local organization here called North suburban special education district, which my son is a part of and has been a part of. And I slowly got back into the idea of filling my time, trying to help somebody else because after you're in a situation like I am, it takes a long time to kind of settle into your life. And I think that just over the last few years we've had a little more regularity so you can kind of look outside of what your craziness is and say, Oh, other people have it worse than me. And I think that when I started going to the hospital, I think that played a big role in how I was going to handle life with Aaron. And that I always looked around when I was in the pediatric intensive care unit and thought, Oh my God, look at these people. They have it so much worse than we do. And I think that always rang true that no matter how frustrating and how difficult and how ludicrous you feel your life is, somebody has always got it worse. So it took a long time to kind of get to the point where I'm like, okay, well it's always going to be like this. Let's see how we can help other people because now I have things a little under control and let's open it up and see what we can do for others. And that started to happen about four or five years ago, but I couldn't really find what I needed until I was so frustrated in the middle of the night i

After becoming the first woman to ever hold the title of Vice President of Visual Effects and Post Production at a major movie studio, Amy decided to leave that world behind and start working with Nancy. Together they founded The Passionistas Project to share the stories of strong and empowered women who are following their passions to inspire others to do the same. Read more about The Passionistas Project. Sign up for the mailing list to learn more about The Passionistas Project Pack — a quarterly subscription box launching this fall. FULL TRANSCRIPT: Passionistas: Hi and welcome to the Passionistas Project Podcast. I'm Nancy Harrington and today I'm interviewing my business partner, sister, inspiration and best friend Amy. Amy left home right after college to follow her passion in Hollywood. She quickly rose through the ranks to become the first women to ever hold the title of Vice President of Visual Effects and Post Production at a major movie studio. After years in the film world she left all that behind to join forces with me to create the Passionistas Project where we share the stories of strong and empowered women who are following their passions through our podcast and our upcoming subscription box. So please welcome to the show my very special guest, Amy Harrington. What are you most passionate about? Amy: I'm most passionate about fulfilling my sense of curiosity and trying to learn something new every day. When I had my first job on the TV show Matlock, my boss at the time, John McClain told me as long as I learned something new every day, I feel like I had a good day and I've always carried that with me. Passionistas: So how does that translate into what you do for a living and with the Passionistas Project specifically? Amy: Well, when we started working for the Television Academy, 10 years ago at this point, and started to do interviews with people, I realized that that's what I love to do more than anything else. And it really fed into that sense of curiosity that I have because I love to talk to people about what they like to do and what their experiences have been. And I love, in the middle of an interview, when someone says something that triggers a question in my head that we hadn't prepared before. So for me, being able to do that with the Passionistas Project and to use that skill and to focus that passion on women who are following their passions and are really empowering and really inspiring, just brings that all together for me. Passionistas: So, let's talk about your background a little. You spent the summer of 1990 in Los Angeles at the Television Academy as an intern. So talk about what you learned from that experience. Amy: The first half of that summer I had been in New York and I worked at MTV and had an internship there. And that really made me even more excited to get into television because it was fun and energetic and everybody was young and it just felt like you could do anything cause you were, everybody was your age. The executive producers were probably late twenties early thirties so I felt like, okay so this feels doable. And then when I came up later in the summer to California for the Television Academy internship, I really felt like, okay, I am getting my foot in the door. I'm meeting other people my age and people who have experience who have been doing this for a really long time. And as long as I work hard and do a good job and prove myself, then the possibilities are endless. This is not just some crazy dream, a kid from the south shore of Massachusetts was having, but that, I could really move to California. I could really work in television and I could make it happen, you know? And if I hadn't had the Academy internship, I don't know that I would have believed that and I wouldn't have met the friends that I made who helped me get my first job when I moved back the summer after I graduated. Passionistas: Talk about what that first job was and what your path was that

After a successful career as a graphic designer, Nancy decided to leave that world behind and start working with her sister Amy. Together they founded The Passionistas Project to share the stories of strong and empowered women who are following their passions to inspire others to do the same.  Read more about The Passionistas Project. Sign up for the mailing list to learn more about The Passionistas Project Pack — a quarterly subscription box launching this fall. TRANSCRIPT: Passionistas: Hi and welcome to The Passionistas Project Podcast. I'm Amy Harrington and today I'm interviewing my business partner, sister and best friend Nancy.  After a successful career as a graphic designer, Nancy decided to leave that world behind and start working with me. Together we founded The Passionistas Project to share the stories of strong and empowered women who are following their passions to inspire others to do the same.  Nancy doesn't just talk the talk, she walks the walk pursuing her own dreams by working with me to build our growing movement. In addition to this podcast, Nancy and I will be launching a subscription box of products from women owned businesses and female artisans later this fall. So please welcome to the show my very special guest, Nancy Harrington.  Nancy: Hello.  Passionistas: Hello.  Nancy: So nice to be here.  Passionistas: Always a pleasure to have you here. What are you most passionate about and how does that translate into what you do for a living? Nancy: I'm most passionate about giving a voice to women who aren't ordinarily heard. I feel like in this day and age it's really important that women's voices get louder. And I think with The Passionistas Project we are supporting those voices and inspiring other women to have voice. So I want to help shine a light on the women that are doing good for the world, that are bringing happiness to the world, that are bringing a positive message to the world because I feel like everything is so dark and scary right now and I'd like the compassion that women have to be the feeling that permeates throughout the world.  Passionistas: You started your career as a graphic designer. What drew you to that field? Nancy: I grew up with my dad owning an advertising agency, so all my life there were magic markers and t-squares and drawing pads and rubber cement and triangles and all these tools around the house that I thought were really cool. But as a typical teenager, I rebelled against everything my father did. So I didn't want to do that, but I knew that I wanted to do something creative. I was really into music and radio, so I thought that I was going to be a DJ, so I went to be you because they had a really great student run radio program. And the first class, the first day was a mass comm class where we had to go home, cut up magazines and tell our story in a collage. And I had so much fun and I used rubber cement and t squares and Exacto knives and drawing pads and all the things that were around the house. My whole childhood that I thought I didn't want to have any part of. And then I realized that that's kind of all I wanted to do. And it was like having an art project that you could make a career out of. So I studied mass communications, I studied advertising, but I also got permission from the school to take art classes in the school of visual arts as part of my studies. So I actually studied in both the College of communication and the School for fine arts at Bu. And when I graduated I always been extremely independent and I didn't really want to get a job in advertising. So I right away just started finding clients and working for myself. And I started my own graphic design business right out of school. I had one part time job for about six months after school and then I just started working for myself. And while I was in college I was art director of a rock and roll magazine in Boston. So when I was 19 years old I was designing and laying out on national ma

Billie Best is the author of the memoir Crazy Wife Farm and the blog It’s Not Easy Being Fabulous. She gave up a successful corporate career to become a farmer in Western Massachusetts. But when her lifelong partner and husband passed away from cancer, Billie found herself starting over, indulging her passions and looking for her purpose. Now her mission is to change the societal views on women and aging. Read more about Billie. Read more about The Passionistas Project. Hear more from Billie Best:Billie Best on the best part of new life PortlandBillie Best on her female role modelsBillie Best on her cultural heroinesBillie Best on her pop culture icons

Sister Monica Clare is a nun with the community of St. John Baptist, an Episcopal religious order based in Mendham, New Jersey. Sister Monica, formerly known as Claudette Monica Powell, had what many considered a glamorous Hollywood life as a photo editor at a Los Angeles-based advertising agency. She gave up that world and all her personal possessions to dedicate her life to helping others. Read more about Sister Monica's church. Read more about The Passionistas Project.   Hear more from Sister Monica Clare: Sister Monica on her secret to a rewarding life Sister Monica on her definition of success Sister Monica on her proudest achievement Sister Monica on her biggest challenge Sister Monica on her day to day life as a nun Sister Monica on advice to a young woman who wants to be a nun Sister Monica on the pop culture icon

Beth is an independent producer, director and writer, whose fervor for American history, music and culture has led to a series of award-winning and critically acclaimed films. In fact a few weeks after we recorded this interview, Beth won an Emmy for her film Fort Vancouver that she made for Oregon Public Broadcasting. Her latest project, her first scripted web series, called The Musicianer tells the tale of Yodelin’ Vern Lockhart — a hillbilly singer with a problem. Read more about Beth. Read more about The Passionistas Project.   Listen to these BONUS CLIPS from Beth's interview: BONUS: Beth Harrington on her definition of success BONUS: Beth Harrington on her biggest professional challenge BONUS: Beth Harrington on her plans for The Musicianer BONUS: Beth Harrington on singing with Jonathan Richman and the Modern Lovers BONUS: Beth Harrington on her most courageous decision BONUS: Beth Harrington on opportunities for female filmmakers at festivals and markets BONUS: Beth Harrington on her mantra BONUS: Beth Harrington on her advice to an aspiring female filmmaker BONUS: Beth Harrington on her mentors BONUS: Beth Harrington on her pop culture icon FULL TRANSCRIPT Passionistas: Hi and welcome to the Passionistas Project Podcast. We're Amy and Nancy Harrington. Today we're talking to a very special guest, our sister Beth Harrington. Beth is an independent producer, writer, and director whose fervor for American history, music, and culture has led to a series of award winning and critically acclaimed films. In fact, a few weeks after we recorded this interview, she won an Emmy for a film she made for Oregon Public Broadcasting about Fort Vancouver. Her latest project, a scripted web series called "The Musicianer," or tells the tale of yodelin' Verne Lockhart, a hillbilly singer with a problem. So please welcome to the show, Beth Harrington. Beth what's the one thing you're most passionate about? Beth: I mean, the obvious answer is filmmaking. With the close second being music. Those things are just so intertwined for me, more, especially more and more lately, that's all I really want to do and talk about and think about. But in of course in that is storytelling. You know, I love a good story and I love telling those stories. And lately I've just been feeling like a lot of it's about just being as creative as you can be for as much of the day as you can be creative. And I have some inspiration for that lately from people I've been working with and it's like, oh yeah, let's just be creative all day long. Let's cut out things out of construction paper and make little things out of clay. So I don't know, that's, I've been really excited about just being creative more and more. Passionistas: So how does that translate into what you do for a living? Beth: For a living large, actually I work for public television and I've been making films for Oregon Public Broadcasting in the northwest and before that in Boston at WGBH for a number of years. And that's been my sort of bread and butter. But what's great about that is I'm still filmmaking and it's never a thing that I feel anything but great about, you know, I, I love working in public television. That's been great. So there's that. But on my, as far as my own stuff goes, that preoccupies even more of my brain. And I've just always, I'm just kind of always thinking about that stuff. And I'm, I've been lately, you know, the last few years I've been trying to figure out how I can make music and film be so much a part of what I do, that I will live out my days doing those things. I think I spend every part of everyday thinking about how to advance the film and music related film stuff that I do, um, in whatever shape or form I can do that. And sometimes, unfortunately that takes the form of just doing boring things like applying for grants. And some of it is really fun. I just came back from a month where a big part of the month I was just away shooting stuff. And then last ni

Marlo Meyer, a cultural anthropologist who is the Education Administrator for the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Virginia, is also co-owner of the Meyerhof Farm in Manton, California. The family owned, small farm specializes in organic practices and soil sustainability farming hops and herbs. She is currently fighting to open a local school for her farming community. Read more about Marlo. Read more about The Passionistas Project.   Hear more from Marlo in these added value clips: Marlo Meyer on her proudest career achievement Marlo Meyer on the influential female role models in her life Marlo Meyer on her professional mentors Marlo Meyer on her pop culture icon

Nan Kohler is the owner of Grist & Toll, an urban flour mill in Pasadena, California. After spending years in the wine industry, Nan turned back to her first love, baking, and was inspired to become a pioneer of the local whole grain movement. Read more about Grist and Toll. Read more about The Passionistas Project. Hear more from Nan in these bonus clips: BONUS: Nan Kohler on the milling process at Grist and Toll BONUS: Nan Kohler on the name Grist and Toll BONUS: Nan Kohler on where she sources her grain BONUS: Nan Kohler on how long does her flour lasts BONUS: Nan Kohler on what she would be eating if she could be anywhere BONUS: Nan Kohler on Passionista Clemence Gossett BONUS: Nan Kohler on not having role models or mentors BONUS: Nan Kohler on her pop culture icon   FULL TRANSCRIPT: Passionistas: Hi and welcome to The Passionistas Project Podcast. We're Amy and Nancy Harrington. And today we're talking to Nan Kohler the owner of Grist and Toll, an urban flour mill in Pasadena, California. After spending years in the wine industry Nan started selling her baked goods at the Studio City Farmer's Market and working at the Sweet Butter Kitchen. But after seeing a video about a mill in Bath, England, Nan was inspired to open Grist and Toll and become a pioneer of the local grain movement. So please welcome to the show Nan Kohler. Nan: Good morning. Thanks for having me. Passionistas: Our pleasure. Thank you for being here. So, what are you most passionate about? Nan: There are many things, so it's hard to narrow that down to something singular but they do all revolve around whole grain. And so I am definitely very, very passionate about changing everyone's perceptions of whole grain and what that means for baking. And on all different levels from an artisan sour dough loaf of bread to the fanciest type of French pastries. Passionistas: So how does that translate into what you do for a living? Nan: Well I am creating flour so it is just like making wine, roasting coffee beans, teas, everything hinges on the quality of that sourcing of ingredients. So it's really critical that I continue establishing long term relationships and collaborations with farmers and that we have a continuing dialogue on the types of grain and the diversity of grain that is being planted and how it's being grown. Because we're not used to thinking about flour as a flavorful ingredient. We're thinking of it as the body of what you're making. But all the different grains really do have dramatically different flavor, aroma, color, character, textures. So it's really quite complex. What you can do when you keep the integrity of that grain intact that's what gives you all of those different choices but everything depends on the quality of the grain to begin with. Passionistas: So how did we become a country or a world where flour just became this bland ingredient? Nan: Well we decided we wanted white bread. So that really everything about what is grown, how it is grown, how it is milled and processed and handled is all in service to basically creating that white sandwich loaf of bread at the grocery store at a very, very cheap price. So older grains, the stone milling process that I use, those are disadvantages to creating the white bread so they had to go away. And things had to radically change in order to give that to us. Passionistas: So how did you get interested in all of this? Nan: I don't know that there's an easy answer for that. I've been a lifelong baker, so looking at my ingredients and what I'm using to create cakes or cookies or pies that's always been very interesting to me. But we really have been trained not to think about flour. Right? Someone else tells you this is your bread flour. This is what pastry flour is about. But I'm a curious baker. And so when I was baking that Sweet Butter and even just at home I was integrating oat flour, rye flour, whole grain pastry flour, all sorts of different things. So I'm naturally kind of c

Madonna Cacciatore is the Executive Director of Christopher Street West/LA Pride. Prior to taking on this role, Madonna worked as Director of Special Events at the Los Angeles LGBT Center overseeing projects including their annual Vanguard Awards and the Simply DiVine event. She began her career in activism at AIDS Project Los Angeles after doing grassroots work in Washington for marriage equality and volunteering at The NAMES Project — The AIDS Memorial Quilt. Read more about LAPride. Read more about The Passionistas Project.   FULL TRANSCRIPT Passionistas: Hi and welcome to the Passionistas Project Podcast. Today we're talking to Madonna Cacciatore, the Executive Director of Christopher Street West, the 501c3 non-profit that produces the annual L.A. Pride Festival and Parade. Prior to taking on this role Madonna worked as Director of Special Events at the Los Angeles LGBT Center overseeing projects including their annual Vanguard Awards and the Simply Divine Food and Wine event. She began her career in activism at AIDS Project L.A. after doing grassroots work in Washington for marriage equality and volunteering at the NAMES Project — The AIDS Memorial Quilt. So please welcome to the show Madonna Cacciatore. Madonna: Thank you. Passionistas: We're really glad to have you here. We're so excited to be doing this interview. Madonna: I'm excited to be doing this interview as well. Passionistas: What are you most passionate about? Madonna: I think it's every living thing having a chance to thrive — every person, every animal, the planet, every tree. I cry for any time tree's cut down in L.A. which is pretty much all the time, so I'm always crying. I'm about to cry now. Yeah I just care about life. Passionistas: So how does that translate into what you do for a living? Madonna: It translates beautifully because I've been an activist for most of my life. I came out as a lesbian when I was 19 years old and I grew up in Texas so I had a lot of great friends and I had a lot to deal with. So ending up being here as the Executive Director of Christopher Street West L.A. Pride is kind of incredible. This isn't where I was headed. I thought perhaps it was in some alternate universe. I came to L.A. to pursue my acting career and I was doing event production and I sort of stumbled into the nonprofit world that way. I was hired to do a event fundraiser a summer party at AIDS Project Los Angeles that was supposed to be a temp job to sort of pay the bills. And then we hit it off and then I just started working there. And then I produced more events. Meanwhile I kept my acting because that's my passion and my career my acting and theatre has been part of my life — dance and theater for my whole life. So I kept sort of all of my worlds going trying to believe that I could do all the things. I still believe I can do all the things. But ending up with a trusted fantastic board of directors and Esther Von Montamayor who's our board president of L.A. Pride really putting his faith behind me and just sort of being a professional gay is pretty incredible. And being able to work with people who have like minds and like spirits and want to make change and want to have a place where people feel they can come out and be safe to do so. And not just come out is not even just LGBT, allies coming, out bisexual people coming out, and not being judged by our own community for who we are or by anyone for who we are. So I feel like I'm in a great position to be where I am. It fits with everything I've done in my life from lying down on the street in Washington D.C. yelling "Free Barbara's Bush" to you know being here today it's all pretty cool. Passionistas: Tell us a little bit more about your childhood in Texas and what that was like. Madonna: We ended up in Texas. My family's from New York but we ended up there my dad was in the military and that's where he met my mom. My grandfather had a restaurant called Dan's Venetian Club. My mom's side of the

Sophie Kim is a playwright, filmmaker, LGBTQ activist and the Los Angeles County Youth Poet Laureate. She just finished her senior year at Harvard-Westlake School in Southern California and will be attending Harvard University in the fall. Read more about Sophie. Read more about The Passionistas Project.   FULL TRANSCRIPT Passionistas: Hi and welcome to the Passionistas Project Podcast. We're Amy and Nancy Harrington and today we're talking to Sophie Kim a playwright, filmmaker, LGBTQ activist and the Los Angeles County Youth Poet Laureate. Sophie just finished her senior year at the Harvard-Westlake School in Southern California and will be attending Harvard University in the fall. So please welcome to the show. Sophie Kim. Sophie Kim: Hello. Passionistas: Thanks so much for being here. We're so excited to talk to you. Sophie Kim: Thank you. Passionistas: Sophie what are you most passionate about? Sophie Kim: I mean I think I do a lot of different things like slam poetry I've really been interested in that. A lot of filmmaking documentary filmmaking, playwriting, poetry in films. But I think that I feel like all those things kind of bring together like using artist as activism. For example, I identify as queer and I came out in like eighth grade to my family and friends and from there I kind of realized, oh this is something that I really care about and that I feel like I can really talk about through art specifically. Because I think that like especially with some activists like topics sometimes it's hard to like engage people in conversation because it's like maybe talking about like harassment is really difficult or talking about your own experiences maybe you're still trying to figure your own your own identity out. And like you're not super like you're not ready to like kind of talk to a whole big group yet which is like cool. I think that with art it's really fun and kind of easier to bring people to the table. Plus it's just there's so much freedom. Like you don't have to limit yourself in any way because art is just there's so much diversity in it. So I think that that's something that I'm really interested in is like using art as a way to bring about change and just kind of have like conversations with other people. Passionistas: And you obviously have not limited yourself. You do so many things. Let's start by talking about when you started writing poetry and why you were drawn to that form of expression. Sophie Kim: I started out writing like short stories like as an elementary schooler. But I think I started really getting into poetry in middle school when I was reading and watching these slam poets and just written like poets that just write words to be read on the page. And I was kind of realizing that there's so much freedom and there's really no kind of limit to what you can say in poetry. I think I was kind of realizing like this is such a cool art form and you can say so much with it depending on your audience. And I think also one of the reasons why I got into slam poetry in particular was actually because I did 'Shades of Disclosure" which was like a show that was at the Scarlet Theater in Los Feliz. And it was essentially I'm in a writing group with other LGBTQ writers. So it was like a show that we created with our own monologues about like the AIDS crisis and LGBTQ history pretty much up until the 2016 presidential election and then beyond. So we were talking about like all these different issues. And it wasn't poetry it was like performed more theater monologues. But I think like doing that first and kind of being able to be on stage and performing for like complete strangers as opposed to like my friends also really got me into slam poetry because I realized like having an audience and being able to kind of speak like the stuff I was writing as opposed to just like giving it to someone on the page that was super exciting. Passionistas: In June 2018 you won the title of the Los Angeles Coun

Karen L. Arceneaux is a dancer, choreographer, personal trainer and fitness coach. Karen trained at the American Dance Festival in North Carolina, the Martha Graham School of Contemporary Dance and the Alvin Ailey School. Currently her Elite Physique 247 Fitness Class has taken Long Island by storm. Read more about Karen. Read more about The Passionistas Project.

Pamela Skjolsvik is an author, book preservationist and activist. Pamela has been published in several literary journals and her book, Death Becomes Us, is a humorous memoir exploring how her journey talking to people about dying helped her learn to engage more fully with the living. Read more about Pamela. Read more about The Passionistas Project.   FULL TRANSCRIPT: Passionistas: Hi. Welcome to the Passionistas Project Podcast. We're Amy and Nancy Harington and today we're talking to Pamela Skjolsvik — a writer, book preservationist and activist. Pamela has been published in several literary journals and her book "Death Becomes Us" is a humorous memoir of her journey talking to people about dying which helped her learn to engage more fully with living. So please welcome to the show Pamela Skjolsvik. Pamela: Thanks for having me. Passionistas: Thank you so much for being here. We really appreciate it. Pamela what are you most passionate about? Pamela: I have to say that I'm probably most passionate about books because books are integral to both my day job as well as my career aspirations — writing books, working in a library and also doing the book preservation. Passionistas: Tell us how that relates to your career aspirations and your day job. Pamela: I have two different jobs. I do book preservation for a man who collects rare books as well as art. And I work in a public library. So my day job involves kind of two different aspects of books. One is very solitary. I'm just dealing with a physical aspect of a book and preserving it, doing repairs on the paper or the spine, making boxes for these books to keep them preserved for future generations. And then at the library I'm working with the public, helping people find things that they're looking for. And that's probably my favorite part because I love talking to people about books or movies doing recommendations. Passionistas: Talk a little bit about your path to becoming a writer. Pamela: I really liked writing but it was kind of like a thing that I didn't feel. I could do in my family. Because I was kind of set up to be the responsible child and not do something creative. And I did that. But I love telling stories. And probably when I lived in Colorado about 2004, 2005, I joined the writing group. And I just had a lot of fun telling stories about myself, my family. And then I just tried to get that work out there and see if people were interested in reading it. And I got some early success with my writing so that spurred me to keep going. Passionistas: What inspired your first book "Death Becomes Us"? Pamela: I had a midlife crisis and I went to grad school. To become a writer. To have that validation like. To spend two years to study writing. And I didn't know what I was going to write about but we had to come up with the thesis. We had to figure it out. And I was with journalists and very serious types of writers. And I was like oh I really don't know what I wanted. You know I could write about my family or read about myself. And that's what I thought I was going to do. But then I was supposed to call my mentor and we were supposed to discuss my thesis and she didn't call me. And I had my kids up stairs. They were young at the time and so I called her number. And instead of getting her I got a funeral home. Wrong number. What? So I kept calling and I kept getting it and then she finally called me and turns out that when she was on the phone, she had a landline, that calls would get directed to a funeral home, if she was on the phone. And that morning she was on the phone talking about the death of her favorite author David Foster Wallace. So she was talking about death. And then we started talking about funeral homes and people who worked in funeral homes. And I'm like, this is kind of weird. And she's like well why don't you go find up who works in funeral homes. And that kind of started the journey of discovering death professions. Passionistas: Tell us a li

Tess Cacciatore is CEO of Global Women's Empowerment Network, an organization dedicated advocacy and activism for human rights. Tess is an award-winning producer, director, writer and editor creating content that focuses on social impact. She covers important topics like human trafficking, early child marriage, domestic violence and clean water initiatives. Read more about Gwen Global. Read more about The Passionistas Project.   FULL TRANSCRIPT:   Amy and Nancy Harrington: Hi and welcome to the Passionistas Project Podcast. We're Amy and Nancy Harrington and today we're talking to Tess Cacciatore, co-founder of Global Women's Empowerment Network, which is dedicated to the advocacy and activism of human rights. Tess is an award winning producer, director, writer, and editor creating content that focuses on social impact. She covers important topics like human trafficking, early childhood marriage, domestic violence and clean water initiatives. So please welcome to the show Tess Cacciatore. Tess Cacciatore: Hello. Thank you so much for having me on. Amy and Nancy Harrington: Thank you so much for being here. We really appreciate it. What are you most passionate about? Tess Cacciatore: Well that's a loaded question because it varies as we talked about earlier today. You know my book ranges from A to Z. But I think the most important message that I'm trying to get out there right now is about people to have the courage to share our stories. Everyone has a story to share and I think it's really important. We have a hash tag revealed the hill which is all about how can we get vulnerable and share stories. And through that turn of events I'm hoping to be able to inspire self-love. I think once we have that self-love we're going to make better decisions about who we bring into our life and bring better awareness of what's happening around us and hopefully do better in our lives. Amy and Nancy Harrington: Talk a bit more about how you've translated that passion into what you do for a living.  Tess Cacciatore: Well Global Women's Empowerment Network started off as a 501 c3. I came back all the way up into the 90s where I had this vision of having an interactive multimedia platform of programming for social impact. But when you talked about virtual classroom and social impact inside of the entertainment industry back in the 90s people pretty much looked at me with my own like I had two heads. So I think the timing and the juncture of vision meets technology and the awareness that people have in the world is right now. So everything's been this small little building blocks these small stepping stones and some of them big leaps and some of them been drowning in water and coming back up around the cycles that we all have in life. But why I think it's really important about right now is because there is such turmoil going on in the world. National disasters what's happening in our world in many levels. And I think that it's really important to be able to be able to have that story to heal you know what is our individual stories how can we be compassionate for others how can we be compassionate towards ourselves. In the ‘90s, you were working in the tech industry so what did you learn during that time that sort of bridged the cultures through technology. Tess Cacciatore: So technology is really interesting I just moved to L.A. about five years previous to 1993 and a friend of mine Amy Simon said there there's this new industry that's happening and you're a great writer and a producer and maybe you can come and play in this wild wild west as we called it back then and there was very few women in industry. So I was really excited about seeing what was under the hood of what was going on what the worldwide web was what email was what all kinds of you know the inventions that were coming out. And one of the side stories that I love to share is that I was with a group of friends and this one guy had this great vision and we became a bo

Writer/producer Elle Johnson is currently an Executive Producer on the Amazon series Bosch. Previously she has worked on other TV series including CSI: Miami, Law & Order, Ghost Whisperer, Saving Grace and The Glades. Listen to this episode to find out how a New York City parole officer's daughter became a Los Angeles TV writer. Watch episodes of Bosch. Read more about The Passionistas Project. ----more---- FULL TRANSCRIPT: Passionistas: [00:00:00] Hi and welcome to the Passionistas Project Podcast. We're Amy and Nancy Harrington and if you enjoy listening to the show, please consider becoming a patron. Just a small donation of one dollar a month can help us keep the project going and you'll get rewards like buttons, access to premium content and invites to Passionistas Project events. Today we're talking to writer/producer Elle Johnson. In addition to her current role as Executive Producer on the Amazon series Bosch, Elle has worked on the TV series CSI: Miami, Law and Order, Ghost Whisperer, Saving Grace and The Glades. So please welcome to the show Elle Johnson. Elle Johnson: Thank you it's really wonderful to be here. Passionistas: What are you most passionate about? Elle Johnson: [00:00:40] This is going to sound bizarrely selfish but I am most passionate about telling my stories. I have gotten to a point in my career, in my life, where I realized that the way I best communicate with the world and also the way I best process life is through telling stories. Writing them down. I came to writing late in life, or later I wasn't one of these people who started out as a kid and knew that I just wanted to be a writer. I had to discover that for myself. And once I discovered that that was the thing that made me happiest, I just wanted to learn how to be the best writer I could be and tell stories the best way that I could. As I've written I've come to realized that I'm what I would refer to as a method writer in that I like to have an experience with something. So in order for me to write about something I feel like if I haven't already had a personal experience with it or some involvement with it, I like to go out and get that personal experience with it and kind of use that to inform my writing. And so that's enabled me to learn about everything and anything in the world that I want to and kind of insert myself into situations that I have no understanding of or no business being a part of. But suddenly I can learn about another part of the world. And to me that is I think the thing that drives me as a writer is being able to find stories that I can make my own and tell my stories. Passionistas: [00:02:19] How do you translate that into what you do for a living? Elle Johnson: [00:02:23] The great thing about being a television writer is so much of writing TV is exploring other worlds. And I primarily write cop shows. My dad was a parole officer in Manhattan for 30 years. My uncles were homicide detectives. I have a lot of law enforcement in my family and so I'm really comfortable with that world and also kind of with that character. It's a very particular personality who goes into law enforcement. I really feel like I understand that. So while I generally have ended up working on cop show. And when you do a cop show, usually what happens is you have the detectives kind of walking in and out of different worlds. Whoever the victims are, whoever the suspects are you're usually entering their world. And that's what makes it fascinating for me because it makes it, I get to enter worlds. I get to decide OK this this week I want to discover what's going on in the world of fashion or in the world of anthropologists or just whatever it is. And then you get to do kind of a deep dive and really explore that. And the best experience or one of the best experiences that I had in my career was working on a show called The Glades. And we had been approached about or asked by the network if we could find a way to do a story about N

Clemence Gossett is the founder and co-owner of The Gourmandise School of Sweets and Savories in Santa Monica, California. Along with her partner, Sabrina Ironside, Clemence has built a school with a vision to expand the consumer’s education and experience of how to create amazing meals and treats out of locally sourced, sustainable ingredients, using the very finest techniques. Read more about Clémence and the Goumandise. Read more about The Passionistas Project. ----more---- FULL TRANSCRIPT: Passionistas: Hi and welcome to the Passionistas Project Podcast. We're Amy and Nancy Harrington. If you enjoy listening to the show please consider becoming a patron. Just a small donation of one dollar a month can help us keep the project going and you'll get rewards like buttons, access to premium content and invites to Passionistas Project events. Today we're talking with Clémence Gossett, co-founder of the Gourmandise School of Sweets and Savoryies in Santa Monica, California. Clémence and her partner, Sabrina Ironside, have built a cooking school that teaches students how to create amazing meals and treats out of locally sourced, sustainable ingredients, using the very finest techniques. So, please welcome to the show Clémence Gossett. Clémence: Thank you. Passionistas: We're so excited to have you here. Clémence: Thanks. This is fun. Passionistas: What are you most passionate about, Clémence? Clémence: I think I'm most passionate about getting people to think. Just reminding people not to take anything at face value. Whether it's related to food or policy or whatever. Just having to think beyond like, "Oh I can just pick this up because it was designed for me." That sort of thing, if it relates to food. Passionistas: How did you design this school to take advantage of that concept? Clémence: The new iteration of the school, the new space we are in, was designed by Sabrina my business partner and myself in terms of the physical layout of the space. But the school came about through a series of very sort of serendipitous occasions. There was no day where I just sat down and was like, "You know, I think of cooking school." Because that doesn't make any sense. So it sort of evolved over a decade. But the physical layout of the space was designed by Sabrina and I with the input of all of our chef instructors. Passionistas: Tell us a little bit about your background. Were you born in Paris? Clémence: I was born in Paris. I was born in Neuilly, which is like a little neighborhood in Paris. But I grew up in Paris spent. First seven years of my life there. And then we moved to the east coast of the U.S. And we finally settled right outside Washington, D.C. in Northern Virginia. I lived there until I was 18 and graduated from high school and left to go to college. And then finished college and that day it snowed on May 11th which was my graduation day. And it was like never again. So moved to LA, and I've been here 20 years. Passionistas: Did growing up in Paris influence your culinary tastes? Clémence: Most of my culinary influences come from after we left Paris. So my father's side of the family is from the south eastern part of France and right around the time when we moved to the US his parents decided to open up in retirement, n nobache — so like a little hotel and had a bar and a restaurant there. And so we would go during the summers and the winters to help them run the space during the busy season which meant like scooping a lot of ice cream — which was my favorite part doing a lot of dishes and just being around. And my grandmother ran the kitchen for the first year. And my father always cooked. He didn't really necessarily work as a professional chef but we canned at home. He would string up his sheep in the backyard and roast it on a spit. You know there was a lot of like, :We just do this in our house." And I thought it was really weird and I was super embarrassed by it. But in the end just having no fear around food

Erica Wright is the founder of U FIRST, INC., a charitable organization dedicated to serving the homeless with the basic necessities in efforts to restore their dignity and help them to lead a healthy and whole life. For more about Erica and U First. Read more about The Passionistas Project.   FULL TRANSCRIPT: Pop Culture Passionistas: [00:00:00] Hi and welcome to The Passionistas Project Podcast. We're Amy and Nancy Harrington and today we're talking to Erica Wright founder of the nonprofit organization U First Inc., a charitable organization dedicated to serving the homeless with the basic necessities in an effort to restore their dignity to lead a healthy and whole life. So please welcome to the show Erica Wright. Erica Wright: [00:00:21] Hi. Thank you guys so much for having me. I am just excited to be here, excited to talk about what we're doing with U First and our journey of homeless love. Pop Culture Passionistas: [00:00:29] What are you most passionate about? Erica Wright: [00:00:32] Right now, I'm definitely passionate about helping the homeless community bringing dignity back to their lives. I've experienced being homeless myself and I know what it feels like to meet someone. Sometimes your ego will allow you not to want to reach out to people. And so I just had a great group of people around me supporting me who pour it back into me even in the time of need. And s o the spirit has never left me. And even at a young age I've always felt like we could always do more because of the things that we have and so it's just been a passion of mine and to just give back to those in need. Pop Culture Passionistas: [00:01:04] How does that translate into what you do for a living? Erica Wright: [00:01:07] We do so many things that you U First. The passion is just not for our homeless community but as for those who are in need. So, it could be our children, who are in need with school supplies. Food. But my passion of helping the homeless community by keeping them clean is to put together these love acts we call them and they're just simple necessities of life like a washcloth, toothbrush, toothpaste, the things that we take for granted. And so it packaging these items and giving those to the people in need whether they're in shelters or under the bridge. I have a phrase of I believe everyone has a seat at the table. So Why not be able to get up in the morning and feel that love and sense of belonging, just from a small kit like a love bag. And that's truly my passion to do that. Put a smile on someone's face. Pop Culture Passionistas: [00:01:52] How did that journey start? What was the seed of the idea to start doing this and how did it develop? Erica Wright: [00:01:56] About 10 years ago, I saw this lady under the bridge, literally using a bottle of water to wash her hair. And It was cool that morning and I could see the steam coming from her head and it never left my spirit. I went through a bad breakup and I knew that I had a purpose and a passion and I needed to birth something. And so, August the 7th, 2014, I woke up from a dream and God had given me a vision. And I was like Paul, I just wrote out all of the things that were going to come forth with helping people and the name U First came about. And so, I didn't know what it was going to look like I didn't have any money and didn't have any credit and I had a blueprint. So, I heard this whisper, truly from God to use social media. And so what I would do, I spoke at Sunday school about my passion and my dream and my vision and two ladies from Sunday school started bringing hygiene items for the love bags. So I was able to put the kits together and that's how it started. So once people started getting engaged, with it I post it on social media and I would say, "Hey thank you Miss Jackson for donating two tubes of the toothpaste." And It just became contagious people from all over the place, I mean different states would just send items. And it's just been it's be

  Susan X Jane is a diversity educator, speaker and trainer. Susan is a former professor and youth worker, who now consults with organizations looking to make sense of our current cultural shift. ----more---- Learn more about Susan. Learn more about The Passionistas Project. Listen to Susan's Bonus Material: Susan X Jane on BeyonceSusan X Jane on Kanye WestSusan X Jane On the 2018 MidtermsSusan X Jane on Her Pop Culture Icon   FULL TRANSCRIPT: Passionistas: [00:00:00] Hi and welcome to the Passionistas Project Podcast. We're Amy and Nancy Harington. If you enjoy listening to the show please consider becoming a patron. Just a small donation of one dollar a month can help us keep the project going and you'll get rewards like buttons access to premium content and invites to Passionistas. Project events. Today we're talking to Susan X Jane — a diversity educator speaker and trainer. Susan is a former professor and youth worker who now consults with organizations looking to make sense of our current cultural shift. So please welcome to the show Susan X Jane. Susan X Jane: [00:00:35] Hi. Thank you for having me. Passionistas: [00:00:38] Susan, what's the one thing you're most passionate about? Susan X Jane: [00:00:41] Definitely diversity and inclusion. Really thinking about race. I care about all kinds of diversity and social justice. I think that we all have to get together. But my particular interest really lies around race and also the way that race is represented. How we talk about it. The stories that we tell about it and how those stories shape what we think race is and how we experience it. Passionistas: [00:01:08] How does that translate into what you do for a living? Susan X Jane: [00:01:11] It is kind of an odd niche thing to do for a living. So I think that I've always just kind of found places where people were interested in doing the work to really think about identity and to think about race. But I have to be honest it used to be like you're wandering in the wilderness and I was the only person it felt like that really cared a lot about this. There wasn't a lot of focus. I remember a lot of times going to people to try to say, "Hey it would really be great if you guys talked about race." And people saying, "Oh those issues are really done. We don't have to do that anymore." But we all now know that we've got to talk about race. But still I find that it's a awkward and uncomfortable conversation. And it's such a kind of amorphous idea that I think people really are often intimidated by how to like touch it so teaching education. And now that everybody is really saying well, "What does this mean for me?" I think working with the organizations to step in and to bring my expertise to help answer that question. Passionistas: [00:02:15] What inspired you to start to do this for a living? Susan X Jane: [00:02:19] I always joke that I started doing race work when I was in utero. So before I was born. I am biracial and I'm also a trans racial adoptee. Which means that I am a person of color who was adopted by a white family. And this happened — I'm going to age myself here — but this happened in '69 and it was kind of like that NICHD right in between civil rights kind of like coming to some fruition and busing. So it was a moment kind of fraught with some racial tension and so because of the way adoption was I don't know what the story was. But I imagine there were probably some conversations about race involved in my adoption process. And certainly from my parents and those conversations about race were from the very beginning. So I think that I have always been a person that has been standing on this kind of racial line in America. And so it's really been an interesting process. I grew up in an all white community and then I went to college and came out of the house and started thinking about this stuff and it really was very curious to me. I think being free from having family that are centered in one side or an

Erin Penner, is the founder of the an outdoor, exploration-based preschool, ILA — Inspired Little Activists. She is also an elected official on the Hollywood United Neighborhood Council and an advocate for the LGBT community and the unhoused population in Los Angeles. ----more---- Learn more about ILAAdventureSchool.org. Learn more about The Passionistas Project. FULL TRANSCRIPT: Passionistas: [00:00:00] Hi and welcome to the Passionistas Project Podcast. We're Amy and Nancy Harrington and if you enjoy listening to the show please consider becoming a patron. Just a small donation of one dollar a month can help us keep the project going. And you'll get rewards — like buttons, access to premium content and invites to Passionistas Project events. Today we're talking to Erin Penner — the founder of an outdoor, exploration-based school ILA, which stands for Inspired Little Activists. Erin is also an elected official on the Hollywood United Neighborhood Council and she's an advocate for the LGBT community and the unhoused population in Los Angeles. So please welcome to the show. Erin Penner. Passionistas: What are you most passionate about. Erin Penner: [00:00:40] I'm most passionate about giving a voice to people that aren't being heard. And giving them a platform to really say what they need and speak what's on their mind and whether it's working with the homeless or with children it's just giving them a voice. Passionistas: [00:00:55] So how does that translate into what you do for a living? Erin Penner: [00:00:59] I started my own nonprofit organization that teaches kids how to take ownership of L.A. So they clean Griffith Park and they clean the beach and they feed the homeless and they're on the metro twice a month and they go all over the city and they really are advocates for the city and for people in need and for themselves. So gives them quite a voice.  Passionistas: [00:01:21] Talk a little bit about your path to starting the preschool. Erin Penner: [00:01:24] When I came here 12 years ago I had my teaching degree from Wheelock College in Boston. And back then I mean you could get... You could work in TV without even thinking about it. The jobs were like a dime a dozen. So I jumped into TV but also nannied to because my passion was working with kids. So I was Nannying for quite some time. And one of the children's preschool teachers grabbed me and she had her own school out here in L.A. that she had started. And I was working one on one with her for years and she branched out and the school moved to Griffith Park and became entirely outside. But she had a child two years ago and I kind of took it over rebranded it and added my own little flair to it. And that's where I am now. Passionistas: [00:02:13] And what's the flair that you added? Erin Penner: [00:02:15] I made it very much an activism school and it's actually called Inspired Little Activists. And what she was doing is very nature driven and this still is. But nature's not necessarily my passion. I enjoy being outside very much but I'm not really put your hiking boots on every single day kind of person even though we do do that. But I added my own let's grab a backpack get on the metro and go meet Mayor Garcetti and stuff like that. So it's kind of both. Passionistas: [00:02:47] So give us examples of some other kinds of things you do. Erin Penner: [00:02:50] We constantly learn about leaders, world leaders, leaders in the community, whether it's just someone in town or Billie Jean King or stuff like that. But we also have... It's really important to me that they know their community and you can teach their own parents about their communities. So the fire department will stop by and police will stop by my friends and nurse. He'll stop by and it's just very much just being a part of the world they live in. So we do that. They constantly have visitors and then like this week it's Day the Dead, so we're going to an art gallery downtown — Self Help Graphic

Joan Baker is a voice-over artist, teacher and coach. She is also the author of Secrets of Voice-Over Success. And along with her husband, Rudy Gaskins, she is the co-founder of the Society of Voice Arts and Sciences. SOVAS is a non-profit organization created to enhance opportunities for gainful employment across all aspects of the voice-over industry and its related fields. Learn more about Joan and SOVAS. Learn more about The Passionistas Project. Listen to Joan's Bonus Material:BONUS: Joan Baker on the challenges of doing voice overBONUS: Joan Baker on almost introducing ObamaBONUS: Joan Baker the Voice Arts Awards and That's Voice Over BONUS: Joan Baker on her mantrasBONUS: Joan Baker on Josephine BakerBONUS: Joan Baker on her pop culture icons

Ramona Harvey left the field of consumer research to focus on helping people identify their unique path and their true purpose in life. She has recently designed a workshop to help people navigate the Path of Happiness. To learn more about Ramona and the Path of Happiness, visit SFStoryTeller.com. To learn more about the Passionistas Project visit our website.   Listen to Ramona's Bonus Material:BONUS: Ramona Harvey on her advice to someone seeking happinessBONUS: Ramona Harvey on reaching the full bloom of happinessBONUS: Ramona Harvey on studying the science of happinessBONUS: Ramona Harvey on her pop culture icon

Sarah Boyd is the founder and creative force behind SIMPLY, a beauty and fashion brand consultant agency. Simply’s flagship conferences and monthly sessions, bring together fashion, beauty and entrepreneurial mavens to network, inspire and learn from one another. To learn more about Sarah visit Simply-Inc.com. To learn more about the Passionistas Project visit our website.    

Jessie Jacobson is a lecturer, musician, former Marriage & Family Therapist and a contributor to Queer Wise, an LGBT writer’s collective and spoken word performance group in Los Angeles. To find out more about Queer Wise, visit QueerWise.net  Read more about The Passionistas Project at The Passionistas Project Podcast. Listen to Jessie's Bonus Material:BONUS: Jessie Jacobson on Her Pop Culture IconsBONUS: Jessie Jacobson on Her Professional Mentors BONUS: Jessie Jacobson on Dealing with Creative BlockBONUS: Jessie Jacobson on Her Mantra

Elise Darma is the founder of the international marketing agency Canupy and full-time traveling entrepreneur. She offers online courses and one-on-one coaching to other aspiring Instagram influencers and "travelpreneurs" who seek freedom from their 9 to 5 jobs. To find our more about Elise visit EliseDarma.com. Read more about The Passionistas Project at The Passionistas Project Podcast. Listen to Elise's Bonus Material:BONUS: Elise Darma on Her Cultural InfluencesBONUS: Elise Darma on Her Pop Culture Icon