Episode 38: protest, Puppets, and Voting like a mother With Activist anD Storyteller Sara Berliner

Sara Berliner is the founder of “Vote Like A Mother,” an organization that sells ethically sustainable merch with a wink, benefits mom run organizations, and acts as a filter for activism. Sara is also a children’s media executive, content curator, activist, and mom.

Her career has been focused on storytelling across platforms and genres, launched from a Harvard degree in Folklore & Mythology, with criss-crossing paths through puppet theater, documentary film, the music industry, festival production and live events, children's book publishing and TV animation, and digital apps. Sara has told stories with collaborators like Todd Oldham, Julianne Moore, Sesame Street, Warner Bros., the Harry Potter film team, Disney, DreamWorks, Mattel, Highlights for Children, Scholastic, National Geographic, Penguin Random House, and Nickelodeon. 

After 15+ years creating children’s content, Sara founded Vote Like a Mother in March of 2018, making parenthood and empathy a lens for political engagement. Born in Chicago, Sara lives in New York with her husband and two kids. Find her @votelikeamother on Instagram, Twitter, FB and at www.votelikeamother.org

Episode 37: Black Women, Higher Heights and Making the Sausage with Political Fundraiser and Activist Kimberly Peeler-Allen

Kimberly Peeler-Allen has been working at the intersection of race, gender and politics for almost 20 years, and she joins Mallory in the MILK studio. Kimberly is the Co-founder of Higher Heights, a national organization building the political power and leadership of Black women from the voting booth to elected office. A highly skilled political fundraiser and event planner, Kimberly ran her firm Peeler-Allen Consulting, LLC from 2003 to 2014, the only African American full-time fundraising consulting firm in New York State. 

Prior to that, she served as the deputy finance director for the 2002 gubernatorial campaign of H. Carl McCall. In 2014, Kimberly served as finance director for Letitia James’ successful bid to become Public Advocate of the City of New York and the first African American woman elected citywide in New York’s history. In 2018, Kimberly was selected as one of the Roddenberry Fellowship's 20 established and emerging activists to devote an entire year to projects that will make the U.S. more inclusive and equitable through their inaugural cohort. She runs Higher Heights with co-founder Glynda Carr, and runs her family with the help of her entrepreneur husband. Check out at www.higherheights.com for more information.

Episode 36: Like A Mother: Feminism, Science and the Culture of Pregnancy With Journalist Angela Garbes

Journalist Angela Garbes joins Mallory in the MILK Studio. Angela is a Seattle based writer specializing in food, bodies, women’s health, and issues of racial equity and diversity, and is the author of “Like  A Mother: A Feminist Journey through the Science and Culture of Pregnancy.”

As a new mom food writer at Seattle's alt-weekly, The Stranger, Angela wrote a piece called “The More I Learn About Breast Milk, the More Amazed I Am.” The story became the publication’s most read piece in its twenty-four year history, and the inspiration for “Like A Mother.” Angela is an experienced public speaker, frequent radio and podcast guest, and event moderator.  She grew up in a food obsessed immigrant Filipino household and now lives in Seattle with her husband and daughters. Find her on twitter @agarbes

Episode 35: Mom Memoirs, MeToo Media, and Katy Perry Kisses with New York Times Styles Reporter Katie Rosman

Journalist Katie Rosman is in the MILK Studio with Mallory. Katie is a reporter for The New York Times, where she covers popular culture for Styles, and a former reporter for The Wall Street Journal. She is the author of “If You Knew Suzy: A Mother, A Daughter, A Reporter’s Notebook," which marries a daughter's quest to truly know her late mother, with a reporter’s attention to detail, humor, and pathos. Katie and Mallory talk about the democratization of media, getting harassed online by Katy Perry fans, and about how a bad death can overshadow a good life.

Photo: Katie Rosman

Katie is a yogi, DIY crafter, and a mom of 2. Originally from Michigan, she lives in New York with her family. Find her @katierosman on Twitter and Katherine Rosman at the New York Times.

Episode 34: Parkway Cabana Club, Hanging Backstage with The Boss, and Selling Houses with Real Estate Pro Rosyln Neiman

Rosyln (Roz) Neiman joins Mallory in the MILK Studio. Rosyln is a real estate sales professional with 31 years of experience with The Howard Hanna Agency in Pittsburgh. Roz was voted best realtor in Pennsylvania and one of the top realtors in the United States by The Wall Street Journal.

Born in the ‘burgh, Roz has been married to her high school sweetheart, Sandy Neiman, for 51 years. They have three grown children and three grandchildren. Roz hung with Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band throughout the 1980’s and 90’s, when Sandy managed sax player Clarence “The Big Man” Clemmons, while building her own career and raising her family. On this Mother’s Day edition of MILK, Mallory talks to Roz about Mallory’s mom, Judi Kasdan, and how Roz saw their lifelong friendship. They laugh and remember the good moments at Parkway Cabana Club, and the sad ones too.

Check out Roz at HowardHanna.com

Episode 33: Don’t Keep Your Day Job, Radical Empathy and Authenticity with Podcast Host and Songwriter Cathy Heller

Songwriter and Podcast Host Cathy Heller joins Mallory in The MILK Studio. Cathy’s passion is helping others to realize their passions, and her podcast “Don’t Keep Your Day Job,” is hugely popular. Each week, Cathy interviews guests like Jonathan Adler, Bobbi Brown, Jenna Fischer and other creative powerhouses, who share their successes and how they arrived where they are, inspiring her listeners to make money doing what they love.

Cathy is a songwriter, and started out pitching her own music in the film and television world. She has licensed her songs over hundreds of times to to film, television and commercials, and has been featured in Billboard, LA Weekly, and Variety. She went on to start her own licensing company, Catch The Moon Music and helps represents other songwriters as well. With the “Don’t Keep Your Day Job” podcast and on-line community she has created,Cathy acts as mentor, coach, and friend to her listeners. We talk multi-tasking mamas, marriage, authenticity, guilt, expectations and making others feel valued. Cathy lives in Los Angeles with her family, where she gets to write songs outside on her guitar! Find her at www.CathyHeller.com

Episode 32: Canada, Cannabis and CEOs with Alison Gordon

This moment is a turning point for normalizing cannabis, and Alison Gordon is in the MILK Studio with Mallory to tell us why. Alison is the CEO of 48North Cannabis Co., a medical cannabis company based in Toronto.

Named one of Canada’s Top 10 Marketers by Marketing Magazine, Alison has been celebrated for her unique ability to shift public opinion and consumer behavior in the right direction. As a co-founder and EVP at Rethink Breast Cancer for 13 years prior to joining the medical marijuana industry, Alison is credited with growing a new generation of young breast cancer supporters -- a previously untapped demographic compelled by her ground-breaking communication and branding expertise.

Alison’s extensive work with patients, physicians and government, coupled with her entrepreneurial approach and marketing experience, has uniquely positioned her in the marijuana industry. Alison lives in Toronto with her family. Follow her @cannabisculturist on Instagram.

Episode 31: Signs, Signs, Everywhere There's Signs Of Resistance, Dear Client, and #TheseKids with Designer Bonnie Siegler

Designer and author Bonnie Siegler is in the MILK Studio with Mallory. Bonnie has two new books, Signs of Resistance, a visual history of protest in America, and Dear Client, a how-to book about working successfully with creative people.  

Photo by Ryan Christopher Jones

Bonnie founded and runs the award-winning design studio Eight and a Half, and was voted one of the fifty most influential designers working today by Graphic Design USA. She is best known for her design work for Saturday Night Live, the Criterion Collection, HBO, Late Night with Seth Meyers, StoryCorps, Participant Media, and Newsweek.

Most recently, she was the creative director of the Trump parody autobiography “You Can’t Spell America Without Me” by Alec Baldwin and Kurt Andersen and created the main title sequence for Will & Grace. She has taught at the graduate level for many years at the School of Visual Arts and Yale University, conducted workshops at the Maryland Institute College of Art and Rhode Island School of Design and judged design competitions all over the place.

On the day after the National School Walkout Against Gun Violence, and a few days before The March for Our Lives, Bonnie and Mallory talk about pussy hats, Trump obsessions, memes, fonts, Our Bodies Ourselves, being a mother, and fear of failure. Check out Bonnie’s work at 8point5.com

Episode 30: Violence and Memory, Empathy and Diversity, #MeToo and Oysters with Journalist Rona Kobell

Journalist Rona Kobell is in the MILK Studio with Mallory. Moved by the trauma of the Parkland, Florida shooting, Rona and Mallory collaborated on a print piece about their high school classmate Karen Hurwitz, who was brutally murdered when they were all seventeen years old. Read the piece that prompted this conversation.

Rona began her career covering crime in rural Missouri and later Pittsburgh, and was on the staff of the Baltimore Sun from 2000 to 2009. After a journalism fellowship at the University of Michigan, she moved on to the Chesapeake Bay Journal, a monthly newspaper focusing on America’s largest estuary. There, she started a monthly radio show, “Midday on the Bay,” broadcast for five years on Maryland’s largest NPR station. Rona also freelanced for several publications, including Grist, Slate, Modern Farmer, and The Washington Post. Now a science writer at the University of Maryland’s Sea Grant College, she lives north of Baltimore with her husband, also a journalist, and two children. Follow Rona’s writing @rkobell on Twitter. 

Extras: In the episode, Rona and I talk about articles and podcasts you should check out. Find them here:

https://www.thisamericanlife.org/640/five-women

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/25/books/review/little-fires-everywhere-celeste-ng.html

https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2018/03/how-to-lose-your-job-from-sexual-harassment-in-33-easy-steps/555197/

https://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/21/arts/television/viola-davis-plays-shonda-rhimess-latest-tough-heroine.html

Episode 29: Cartoon Coping, Unpaid Custodial Work, and Goop-y Wellness with Dr Grace Farris, MD

Cartoonist and physician Dr. Grace Farris MD is in the MILK Studio with Mallory. Dr. Farris graduated from Brown Medical School and completed her internal medicine residency at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. She practiced as a hospitalist at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, and was a fellow in bioethics at Harvard Medical School in 2016. In 2017, Dr. Farris joined the Icahn Mount Sinai School of Medicine as assistant professor and Chief of the Division of Hospital Medicine at Mount Sinai West. 

In addition, Grace draws the most excellent, wry, New Yorker-ish cartoons and shares them on Instagram, about momming as a doctor and woo-hooing at every Soul Cycle around NYC. It is a spot on, self-deprecating (because look at her resume!) look at life as a curious NYC transplant, a physician who is often mistaken for a nurse, #boymom. Check her out @coupdegracefarris on Instagram and @gracefarris on Twitter.