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PODCAST

Desert Lady Diaries

Dawn Davis Voiceover and Podcaster

Desert Lady Diaries: 30-minute conversations with women who live in the desert. Find out why they came, what they do here and why they stay.

society & culture personal journals

All Episodes

33:05

DLD| Cindy Daigneault |Ep 145

Desert Lady Diaries ·

2021/02/09

Born and raised in Minnesota, Cindy Daigneault says a high school radio station job shadowing experience inspired her to seek out a career the radio business. After high school, Cindy attended the Brown Institute of Broadcasting, one of few women entering the industry at that time. She was immediately hired from the Institute by the owner of a new radio station in Wisconsin. One particularly bitter winter, Cindy decided she'd had enough cold and snow and contacted a radio consultant to

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31:37

Jessica Bennett | Ep 144

Desert Lady Diaries ·

2021/01/26

Jessica Bennett's first desert experience was a program in her Washington State high school called ‘desert school’. Growing up in lush Seattle presented allergy challenges for Jessica and she immediately took notice of a change while visiting the eastern Washington desert climate. A series of bachelorette parties brought Jessica to Palm Springs and some of those trips found her coming up to the hi-desert to experience Joshua Tree National Park. The more time she spent in this part of the

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40:03

DLD| Elena Yu | Ep 134

Desert Lady Diaries ·

2021/01/05

Elena Yu started making trips to the desert with her pre-school classmates and their climbing dads. She recalls loving their regular trip to Coyote Corner to pick out rocks. Placing them in a little velvet back made it seem like rocks were something important to collect. A competitive swimmer in her youth (discussed in the Diary Unlocked portion of the interview), Elena studied various mediums of studio art at UCLA from 2012 to 2016. After graduating in the spring of 2016 with her

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36:52

DLD| Turiya Autry |Ep 142

Desert Lady Diaries ·

2020/12/08

Turiya Autry grew up on the west coast in Monterey Bay, eventually traveling up the coast to Portland where she lived for 20 years and raised her children. She now finds herself on a different west coast - in Florida. Turiya's first experience with the desert was on the third anniversary of her mother's death. Turiya's mom loved going to Vegas and Turiya decided taking a trip to Sin City would be a good way to honor her mother. Wanting to further explore the desert in more raw form, Turiya

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32:11

DLD| Merilee Kuchon |Ep 141

Desert Lady Diaries ·

2020/11/23

Born and raised in South Orange, NJ - in the shadow of NYC - Merilee Kuchon’s early life was very suburban and urban. Merilee was about five or six when she had her first desert experience. Aunt Franny and Uncle Pete, who lived in Encinitas, put Merilee in the VW Bus and drove down to Anza Borrego. Merilee says, “It blew my mind.” In 2004 Merilee was working at High Times Magazine in NYC. Though the job had some perks, Merilee was tired of sitting behind a desk. Having experienced 9/11

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35:57

DLD| Adriana Lopez-Ospina |Ep 140

Desert Lady Diaries ·

2020/11/10

Growing up in the Coachella Valley, Adriana recalls feeling completely alien spending summers in mountainous Columbia with extended family. One of Adriana's favorite places in Columbia is the Museo del Oro. Each visit to the museum brought her closer to her culture and eventually inspired the art she creates today as Pura. In this episode, Adriana shares memories celebrating holidays together with other Columbia families in the valley and the joy and comfort of enjoying their traditional foods

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32:49

DLD| Michelle Castillo |Ep 139

Desert Lady Diaries ·

2020/10/27

Michelle Castillo is an interdisciplinary artist, writer, educator, and community organizer living on Cahuilla Land, also known as Coachella Valley, CA. Michelle founded the feminist creative collective, Wyld Womxn and socially engaged food + art + memory project, Lola's Kusina, and is one of the co-founders of Bayanihan (buy-uh-nee-hahn) Desert. Through social practice, alternative spaces, and meaningful exchanges, she uses the arts as a tool to cultivate, bridge, and create more inclusive

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22:09

DLD| Rosa DeFelice Ficara |Ep 138

Desert Lady Diaries ·

2020/10/13

Rosa Ficara was born in Scafati, Italy- one of nine children. In 1973, despite a bit of a language barrier, Rosa began a long-distance, letter-writing romance with the love of her life, Gioacchino, who brought her first to Connecticut, then to Yucca Valley, CA in the early 80’s. At the age of seven, Rosa and two of her sisters were taken to a convent to live with nuns because it was difficult for her mother to take care of all the children. Rosa's mother visited weekly and once Rosa

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29:58

DLD| Supinda Sirihekaphong |Ep 137

Desert Lady Diaries ·

2020/09/29

With turtle as her spirit animal, Supinda Sirihekaphong says wherever she is, is home. She was in awe of the colors and the sky on her first trip to the desert. Born in southern California and raised in New York City, Supinda has also lived in Thailand, Philadelphia and studied abroad in Australia. Supinda says living in all these different places has helped her learn to appreciate wherever she is, allowing her to put down roots and call where ever she is home. While living in the

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30:34

DLD| Artemis J. Rose |Ep 136

Desert Lady Diaries ·

2020/09/14

Artemis first experienced the desert as a five year old visiting her godparents home in the desert. And again, a few years later on a visit to see her stepbrother in Nevada. Artemis remembers staring out the car window, admiring the stars and the quiet open spaciousness. Artemis is a licensed marriage and family therapist, pursuing her doctorate in clinical psychology, specializing in trauma informed care education. She is also a women’s empowerment coach, yoga teacher, writer and poet.

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35:06

DLD| Karen Harper |Ep 135

Desert Lady Diaries ·

2020/08/31

Born and raised in Queens, New York, Karen Harper came west at the urging of a friend. Looking down at the landscape of the Reno, Nevada desert from a hot air balloon, Karen loved it. While in Reno, Karen was accepted in the Job Corps vocational program where she tried her hand at welding and culinary arts. Upon graduating, Karen started work with one of the local casinos and thought her cooking skills would take her places. Karen left the casino kitchen for institutional cooking in skilled

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36:01

DLD| Melissa Grisi |Ep 134

Desert Lady Diaries ·

2020/08/18

Originally from New Jersey, Melissa Grisi was living in San Francisco and working at Ameoba Records when she got into listening to alt-country. She and her boyfriend - now husband, Ben - were digging the music and history of Gram Parsons. So, before moving back to the east coast in 2002, the pair decided to make a pilgrimage to Joshua Tree - to visit where Gram had partied with the Rolling Stones and would ultimately die, at the Joshua Tree Inn. In this episode, Melissa describes what the area

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29:43

DLD| Jennifer Jungwirth |Ep 133

Desert Lady Diaries ·

2020/08/03

Twenty years ago, Jennifer Jungwirth was just wrapping up her college education when she got a call to interview for a teaching position in Baker, CA. Then, the Morongo Valley Unified School District called. Jennifer came out to Yucca Valley and after 45 minutes of what Jennifer assumed was just friendly, casual conversation, the folks at YYHS offered her the job - and she accepted. This was Jennifer's first experience with desert. In this episode, Jennifer says her friends thought it was 'cool'

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34:03

DLD| Janis Commentz | Ep 132

Desert Lady Diaries ·

2020/07/21

Janis Commentz is a southern California native who grew up near the coast and began drawing and painting early in life. As the daughter of an artist, she was surrounded by art materials and enjoyed trips to galleries and museums, as well as seasonal trips to Laguna Beach and Carmel. Commentz moved to the Mojave Desert in 1977 to teach art and English at Sky High School, now Black Rock High School. At the University of Redlands, she earned a B.A. in art and English and studied printmaking with John

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30:58

DLD| Bobbi Fabian |Ep 131

Desert Lady Diaries ·

2020/07/07

Bobbi Fabian's first experience with desert was with the Warner Brothers Roadrunner cartoon. Growing up in Melbourne Australia, Bobbi made her way to America looking for more opportunities as a photographer, finding she felt more at home in the U.S. than in her home country. Bobbi moved to the U.S. in 2003, settling in Los Angeles. With an MA in Photography Bobbi was a freelance photographer and educator for most of her working life – commissioned by brands like Timex, Penguin Books, Audi and other

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30:30

DLD| Marylee McIntyre |Ep 130

Desert Lady Diaries ·

2020/06/22

Born and raised in the Tri-Cities area of Detroit, Michigan, Marylee 'Boo' McIntyre grew up gathering bushels of berries, apples, apricots and what ever other fruits were in season with her siblings to be used in the creations her grandmother and mother would bake from the day after Thanksgiving through the December holidays. Over the years, baking became a way to relieve stress and get grounded. Marylee's first encounter with the desert was visiting neighbors from Royal Oak, MI, who had a place

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24:12

DLD| Jody Curtis |Ep 129

Desert Lady Diaries ·

2020/06/09

After 20 years in Los Angeles and a career in the film industry, Jody Curtis was guided to the Mojave desert in 2008. A seeker of deeper spiritual understanding from an early age, her first experience with desert was visiting her Mom and step-dad during one of their annual stops in Slab City. Taking several days to wind down from the stress of the city, Jody often found she didn’t want to leave the desert to go back home. Just after leaving her job at NBC, Jody was diagnosed with Stage 4 Cancer

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28:05

DLD| Rosa Ficara |Ep 128

Desert Lady Diaries ·

2020/05/19

At the age of six, Rosa Ficara had her first experience with desert - her family had just moved to the desert from Waterbury, CT. Rosa doesn’t recall much about the move other than the fact that the desert was much warmer than those Connecticut winters. As the first-born of Italian immigrants, Rosa spoke Italian (two dialects) before she spoke English. At that time, this area of the desert wasn’t extremely diverse and in school, Rosa found herself befriending schoolmates in a similar situation –

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30:17

DLD| Shaney Jo Darden |Ep 127

Desert Lady Diaries ·

2020/05/05

Born and raised in San Diego, Shaney Jo Darden's first experience with the desert was traveling to visit her grandparents who lived in Palm Desert. About ten years ago, Shaney Jo started coming to the hi-desert to visit a friend, who owned Rimrock Ranch in Pioneertown. Rimrock became a place for Shaney Jo to bring her staff for annual employee retreats: learning about new programs, receiving training and enjoying some off-site downtime hiking, taking in a sound bath at the Integratron or having

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28:00

Jacqueline Guevara | Ep 126

Desert Lady Diaries ·

2020/04/21

Forty years ago, stifled by life in a small Michigan town, Jacqueline Guevara's vibrant, fun-loving mother loaded her 1972 Cadillac Coupe de Ville and hit the road with her teen-aged daughter for a new start in Palm Springs. Driving into this desert oasis was Jacque's first experience with desert. In this episode, Jacque describes working in the Palm Springs hospitality industry in the 1980's and the life skills she acquired in those jobs. A change in ownership lead to a subsequent lay-off from

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165 results

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