MY STORY
One year into Covid, overwhelmed and supporting my kids with zoom school at home, while in the midst of production on my award-winning, new-genre, podcast series STILLPOINT, I went on a long hike by myself into the forest, deeply listening for how to serve others with my passions and skills.
For two decades I had worked as an independent professional combining public radio, music, and podcast series making inspired by my experience of motherhood. With innovative, award-winning projects stretching the genre of what was possible within the medium, and reaching large audiences nationwide to elevate the voices of women and mothers, these works were distributed via Public Radio International, NPR, PRX, and Spotify including: SHADES OF GRAY (won Golden Reel Award for Best National Radio Documentary NFCB Community of Broadcaster), BIRTH, BORN, DELVE, A MOTHER'S LENS, BENDING IN 2020, along with facilitated listening and story sharing circles in over 75 communities nationwide with THE BIRTH TOUR.
While sitting on a rock to rest, I observed a nest of baby birds chirping as their mama came back to feed her hungry young. So basic and true.
It was a miraculous, mundane moment of tending that moved me to an idea. I saw myself in that mother bird and felt human storytelling is as basic as the nourishment that sustains us.
The next day, I received a call from the chairman of my department at Southern Oregon University, where I teach the next generation of media makers in addition to my independent media work. He asked if I’d like to create my dream college course.
ALIVE: YOUR VOICE, THIS MOMENT became an ecosystem of stories to test my idea, inspiring authentic connection and wisdom sharing among my students.
We honed in on one transformational story from their lives with lessons applied to meet this moment.
From there, I guided each student to produce a sound-rich, creative podcast expression of their story.
It was a hit in the department and in the lives of my students, and this experience gave me another idea.
Taking the work a step further, I believe wise visionary women leaders are the brilliant collaborative tending force that can change the world. Centering personal wisdom stories from lived experience, illuminated with sound and music to deeply connect with customers, clients, colleagues and self, I was inspired to create podcast series consulting + creation offerings to serve this very special superpower inside the marketplace.
And so, my work as a Media Midwife in The Story Womb was born.
In fact, this deep call to empower the voices of visionary women originated long before Covid, traced back to one core transformational story in my teen years that would come to guide my life's work.
When I was 15, there was a family gathering for my mom’s 39th birthday party. She was stressed from having a final paper due to graduate law school at DePaul University in Chicago.
At this party, my Grandpa Herbie (who at the time felt there was nothing worse than a woman lawyer and to whom my mom felt voiceless since her childhood) outrageously blamed my boyfriend for getting me sick with a cough after visiting him at the hospital.
One year before, this same boyfriend almost died from a freak accident after being struck by 2200 volts of electricity. He was recovering in the hospital and I would find a way to get there almost every day after school. When he finally emerged from this catastrophic experience, he told me that my presence at the hospital and late nights on the phone helped him heal from the trauma of over 100 skin graft operations. I caught a cold from him just before my mom’s birthday party.
So when my grandfather called my boyfriend “a toaster jinx” I ran upstairs to my room, heartbroken and sobbing on the bed. My mom followed me upstairs and made disgusting excuses for her father's horrifying behavior: “He didn’t mean it, he didn’t mean it…” she pleaded.
In that moment, I stopped crying, wiped my face, marched downstairs, stuck my finger in his face and screamed in front of my entire family: “Don’t you EVER speak about my boyfriend like that again you son of a bitch!” My grandfather stood up and screamed: “NO ONE TALKS TO ME LIKE THAT!”
He stormed out of the house, slammed the door, and drove home with my Grandma Niecey who, before leaving with her husband, yelled: “Oh my goodness! Ahri, you can’t talk to your grandfather like that!” Then, my mom yelled: “Why does the First Amendment end with HIM?”
My grandfather called my mom the next morning and said: “I was really angry yesterday but then after I calmed down I said to myself, "That kid's got spunk!”
My mom was inspired to write the paper which allowed her to graduate, become a lawyer, and land her first job.
It was the first time I found my voice, and helped my mom find hers.
This is one of the WHY stories guiding my path to support visionary women leaders to bravely step into their wisdom through podcast series creation.
If this is YOUR TIME, I invite you to BOOK A 30 MINUTE CALL to see if we're a fit to work together inside THE STORY WOMB.
For two decades I had worked as an independent professional combining public radio, music, and podcast series making inspired by my experience of motherhood. With innovative, award-winning projects stretching the genre of what was possible within the medium, and reaching large audiences nationwide to elevate the voices of women and mothers, these works were distributed via Public Radio International, NPR, PRX, and Spotify including: SHADES OF GRAY (won Golden Reel Award for Best National Radio Documentary NFCB Community of Broadcaster), BIRTH, BORN, DELVE, A MOTHER'S LENS, BENDING IN 2020, along with facilitated listening and story sharing circles in over 75 communities nationwide with THE BIRTH TOUR.
While sitting on a rock to rest, I observed a nest of baby birds chirping as their mama came back to feed her hungry young. So basic and true.
It was a miraculous, mundane moment of tending that moved me to an idea. I saw myself in that mother bird and felt human storytelling is as basic as the nourishment that sustains us.
The next day, I received a call from the chairman of my department at Southern Oregon University, where I teach the next generation of media makers in addition to my independent media work. He asked if I’d like to create my dream college course.
ALIVE: YOUR VOICE, THIS MOMENT became an ecosystem of stories to test my idea, inspiring authentic connection and wisdom sharing among my students.
We honed in on one transformational story from their lives with lessons applied to meet this moment.
From there, I guided each student to produce a sound-rich, creative podcast expression of their story.
It was a hit in the department and in the lives of my students, and this experience gave me another idea.
Taking the work a step further, I believe wise visionary women leaders are the brilliant collaborative tending force that can change the world. Centering personal wisdom stories from lived experience, illuminated with sound and music to deeply connect with customers, clients, colleagues and self, I was inspired to create podcast series consulting + creation offerings to serve this very special superpower inside the marketplace.
And so, my work as a Media Midwife in The Story Womb was born.
In fact, this deep call to empower the voices of visionary women originated long before Covid, traced back to one core transformational story in my teen years that would come to guide my life's work.
When I was 15, there was a family gathering for my mom’s 39th birthday party. She was stressed from having a final paper due to graduate law school at DePaul University in Chicago.
At this party, my Grandpa Herbie (who at the time felt there was nothing worse than a woman lawyer and to whom my mom felt voiceless since her childhood) outrageously blamed my boyfriend for getting me sick with a cough after visiting him at the hospital.
One year before, this same boyfriend almost died from a freak accident after being struck by 2200 volts of electricity. He was recovering in the hospital and I would find a way to get there almost every day after school. When he finally emerged from this catastrophic experience, he told me that my presence at the hospital and late nights on the phone helped him heal from the trauma of over 100 skin graft operations. I caught a cold from him just before my mom’s birthday party.
So when my grandfather called my boyfriend “a toaster jinx” I ran upstairs to my room, heartbroken and sobbing on the bed. My mom followed me upstairs and made disgusting excuses for her father's horrifying behavior: “He didn’t mean it, he didn’t mean it…” she pleaded.
In that moment, I stopped crying, wiped my face, marched downstairs, stuck my finger in his face and screamed in front of my entire family: “Don’t you EVER speak about my boyfriend like that again you son of a bitch!” My grandfather stood up and screamed: “NO ONE TALKS TO ME LIKE THAT!”
He stormed out of the house, slammed the door, and drove home with my Grandma Niecey who, before leaving with her husband, yelled: “Oh my goodness! Ahri, you can’t talk to your grandfather like that!” Then, my mom yelled: “Why does the First Amendment end with HIM?”
My grandfather called my mom the next morning and said: “I was really angry yesterday but then after I calmed down I said to myself, "That kid's got spunk!”
My mom was inspired to write the paper which allowed her to graduate, become a lawyer, and land her first job.
It was the first time I found my voice, and helped my mom find hers.
This is one of the WHY stories guiding my path to support visionary women leaders to bravely step into their wisdom through podcast series creation.
If this is YOUR TIME, I invite you to BOOK A 30 MINUTE CALL to see if we're a fit to work together inside THE STORY WOMB.
