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PODCAST

The Babblery

Visit BABBLERY.com. The Babblery features conversations about who we are and how we got this way. Modern humans can seem like the ancients building the Biblical Tower of Babel, cursed by God/nature never to understand each other. As Visiting Translators at the Tower of Babel, our guests delve into their work, their research, and their own experiences to try to explain the bits they"ve learned about Earth"s most perplexing species. Though we all speak different languages, here at The Babblery we aim

society & culture relationships

All Episodes

10:53

Minibabble: Swinging with Nora Germain

The Babblery ·

2026/10/05

What is swing and why does jazz violinist Nora Germain love it so much? In this short outtake from our full interview, Nora explains what swing is, how it feels to play it, and why she believes that everyone would love it if they gave it a chance.Listen in. "It reminds me of sitting in a house, it could be a family member's house or just any house in front of a nice fire, and feeling a sense of warmth from the universe." Check out the uncut video on YouTube Check out the full audio

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7:41

Minibabble: Nora Germain is a player AND a person

The Babblery ·

2026/09/29

At the end of my interview with jazz violinist Nora Germain, I realized that I had forgotten to ask her an important question spurred by her book. Why did she choose to write only one important sentence about her experience as a woman in the jazz industry?"After many years of being underestimated, discarded, harassed, assaulted, fired, groped, robbed, propositioned, and abused, after looking over my shoulder and clarifying my comments, being put down, intimidated and assaulted, insulted, he at

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59:50

“The Giving Mindset” with violinist Nora Germain

The Babblery ·

2026/09/23

Jazz violinist Nora Germain has been playing her instrument for 30 years, yet she describes herself as a beginner. Attracted to improvisational music from a young age, Nora knew that she wouldn't follow her family's classical music tradition. With no plan other than to leave home, she became the first jazz violinist trained at the top boarding school for performing arts, Idyllwild, then the first violinist to graduate from University of Southern California with a degree in jazz.In this emotional

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29:00

Minibabble: Shaped by Motherhood

The Babblery ·

2026/09/14

How does becoming a mother—or choosing not to—shape women's lives?Time and again, mothering is fundamental to how women do their work. Whether women choose to be mothers or not, the choice affects their lives deeply. Having children often changes or postpones career choices, but mothering also informs how women do their work outside the home. In this interview, you will hear how mothering or choosing not to mother fundamentally changed the lives of twelve women: Retired judge LaDoris

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4:26

Minibabble: “I screamed at Gloria Steinem”

The Babblery ·

2026/09/06

"I think most people will gasp when I tell you that I screamed—yelled at Gloria at one point. But you know, that's, we thought those differences were life altering, basically. And she just laughed."This week we lost a towering figure of second wave feminism, Gloria Steinem. I find myself not at all sad because I can't imagine a life better spent. Gloria saw the trajectory of her life change in a church basement full of women telling their abortion stories. She never stopped being a

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6:29

Minibabble: “We didn’t know how to listen”

The Babblery ·

2026/08/24

Abortion, race, and the second waveHistory records that Black women felt excluded from Second Wave Feminism. In this short piece, historian Barbara Winslow reflects on the issue through her experience as a radical feminist activist in Seattle. She traces the movement's roots to the anti-war and Civil Rights movements, but Barbara argues that there were complications that led to Black women's voices being stifled. While the media played a large role in ignoring the leadership of Black women, she

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57:11

Turning the World Upside-Down with Barbara Winslow

The Babblery ·

2026/08/19

Barbara Winslow has been a political activist since she was a kid campaigning for Stevenson over Eisenhower in the 1950s. By the late 1960s she was a founding member of Seattle Radical Women and then Women's Liberation Seattle, groups that fought for legal abortion in Washington State years before Roe v. Wade. Her book, Revolutionary Feminists, is a hyperlocal history of that movement: the meetings, the splits, the leafleting, and the door-knocking that changed minds and the law. In this

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00:06:29

Minibabble: Enid Ryce Casts Spells

The Babblery ·

2026/07/26

Enid Baxter Ryce has just published a book that explores spells and incantations across time and cultures. In this short version of the full episode, Enid reads and explains some of her favorite spells. Please visit BABBLERY.com to listen to the full interview, in which we discuss magic and spells, but she also addresses the importance of nature and education in the age of artificial intelligence.

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1:00:49

A Spell to Keep Us Human: In conversation with Enid...

The Babblery ·

2026/07/22

Enid Baxter Ryce is an artist who is a writer, she’s a professor who tells her students to put the computers away, she’s a mom who asks her kids to go dig a hole. In this wide-ranging conversation, we learn how Enid moved from a “feral” childhood to a life of the mind, never forgetting to keep her hands in the dirt and her self open to possibility.

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00:10:54

Minibabble: Merle Hoffman follows her own voice

The Babblery ·

2026/06/29

In this short adaptation of the full episode, “Living within the questions,” women’s healthcare pioneer Merle Hoffman speaks about the importance of trusting women to know their own bodies and....

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1:07:09

Living Within the Questions with Merle Hoffman

The Babblery ·

2026/06/16

Women’s Healthcare Pioneer: When abortion became legal in New York State in 1970, Merle Hoffman didn’t celebrate—she got to work. While others were still absorbing the news, she opened one....

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00:13:19

Minibabble: Cindy Cohn on protecting our online freedoms

The Babblery ·

2026/06/08

Cindy Cohn, retiring executive director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, speaks about the controversies regarding restriction of online speech. Addressing everything from breastfeeding forums to human rights abuses in Sudan,....

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00:12:52

Minibabble: 3 women. 3 lawyers. 3 ways to change the...

The Babblery ·

2026/05/27

LaDoris Cordell, Denise Miranda, and Cindy Cohn are three very different women who have had three very different careers. But all three have drawn their inspiration from using their legal training to make a difference in the world.

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00:15:31

The Internet doesn’t have an anonymity problem—it has...

The Babblery ·

2026/05/26

I went into my interview with Cindy Cohn of the Electronic Frontier Foundation ready to argue my case that anonymity is the problem. I came away with a more nuanced understanding.

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00:59:20

Fighting for a Better Online World with Cindy Cohn

The Babblery ·

2026/05/19

Cindy Cohn’s new book, Privacy’s Defender, focuses on three legal cases that formed the basis for privacy and freedom of speech on the Internet. But it’s also a memoir, framing the issues raised by legal battles through personal choices and life events both mundane and momentous. In this unusual conversation, we leave the big legal questions behind and focus instead on our modern lives on the internet. What do women get from privacy and freedom of speech when men so often use their own privacy and

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1:00:17

Rooted in Service with Human Rights Commissioner...

The Babblery ·

2026/05/05

Denise Miranda is New York State's top civil rights official, the head of an agency that is charged with monitoring and promoting civil rights in the state. She's also a proud native of the Bronx, daughter of Puerto Rican-born parents, and a mother. On the Babblery, we discuss the passion for justice and rights for all that drives her work.

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00:07:41

Minibabble: #MeToo meets due process

The Babblery ·

2026/05/03

What happens when women's fight for long-delayed justice collides with our legal tenet of due process? In this Minibabble, host Suki Wessling speaks with retired judge LaDoris Hazzard Cordell about the #MeToo movement and how she reacted when she heard some women insist that we should "believe all women."

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00:11:17

Minibabble: When we open the door for others

The Babblery ·

2026/04/26

This month’s guest on the Babblery podcast is retired judge LaDoris Hazzard Cordell. I first interviewed LaDoris about her work with the African American Composer Initiative. In both interviews, she gives a passionate defense of what she calls today’s “dirty word”—DEI. In this Minibabble, producer Suki Wessling reflects on what it means to hold the door open for others.Read the full text on Babblery.Substack.com.

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1:01:26

Stepping through the Door with LaDoris Cordell

The Babblery ·

2026/04/21

Retired judge LaDoris Cordell is known for her groundbreaking career as a judge in Northern California and then her stint as Independent Police Auditor for the City of San Jose. Join us in a wide-ranging conversation, from a segregated childhood, an unusual education, and an unlikely acceptance to Stanford Law School, to retired judge, community activist, musician, artist, and grandmother.

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00:06:31

Minibabble: The Signs of No Kings

The Babblery ·

2026/03/29

An Audio Montage I walked around my local No Kings 2026 Rally and asked people to do dramatic readings of their signs. Some are more dramatic than others, but all....

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105 results

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