Women Living the Questions

Marie Fortune: A Ministry of Healing & Justice

Content note: This episode includes discussion of sexual violence and clergy abuse within faith communities. Please take care while listening. In this episode, host Ruby Tugade speaks with Marie Fortune, clergywoman, writer, educator, and advocate whose work has helped faith communities respond more thoughtfully to sexual and domestic violence. Marie reflects on her childhood in Asheville, North Carolina, where time spent in her father’s hardware store nurtured a lifelong love of curiosity, problem-solving, and conversation. She shares how an early interest in science eventually gave way to a calling in ministry, informed by questions of ethics, justice, and community. She also discusses coming of age during the rise of feminism, recognizing her identity as a lesbian, and finding her place within religious institutions. A pivotal turning point came when a survivor of clergy abuse reached out for help, opening Marie’s eyes to a problem that would reshape her work for decades to come. This is a powerful conversation about justice, resilience, and living a life of purpose. Music: “Love” by Alex-Productions, licensed under CC BY 3.0

Helen Glazer: The Art of Exploring & Trying

In this episode, host Ruby Tugade speaks with Helen Glazer, an artist whose work bridges art, science, and the natural world. Helen shares her path from painted constellation murals in Baltimore to tactile sculptural work for blind children, designed so that form can be experienced through touch. She reflects on how these experiments expanded into photography of complex natural systems and later into 3D and digital modeling. She also describes a lifelong pattern of moving toward the edge of what she doesn’t yet know how to do, where uncertainty signals discovery rather than doubt. There was also a formative cross-country trip as a teenager that exposed her to communities living in very different circumstances across the United States, deepening her understanding of privilege, resilience, and shared dignity. More recently, Helen brings her curiosity to Antarctica and Greenland, documenting landscapes formed by ice, time, and climate change, and exploring how powerful natural and human forces influence what we see and are. This is a conversation about curiosity, and following questions across a lifetime. To learn more about Helen Glazer and explore her beautiful artwork, visit helenglazer.com, follow @HelenGlazer [https://www.instagram.com/HelenGlazer/] on Instagram, or find Helen Glazer, Artist on Facebook. You can also contact her at 410-654-0077. Music: “Love” by Alex-Productions, licensed under CC BY 3.0

Jacqui Parr Byrne: Hands in Clay, Quiet Mind

In this episode, host Ruby Tugade speaks with Jacqui Parr Byrne, an educator, entrepreneur, and mother whose life reflects the ongoing process of becoming. Jacqui shares her journey from a career in banking and marketing to co-founding an educational program for “twice-exceptional students”, or young people who are both highly capable and face challenges such as anxiety, ADHD, dyslexia, or autism. What began as a response to her own children’s struggles in traditional school became a deeply meaningful and lasting vocation. With candor and insight, Jacqui reflects on the realities of raising four children, including triplets, and the kind of endurance and daily grit that motherhood required of her. She speaks about leadership, growth, and learning to navigate complexity with greater awareness and compassion. In a more recent chapter of her life, Jacqui has discovered a passion for ceramics. She describes working with clay as an almost meditative experience, and one that quiets her mind and opens up a new, nonverbal form of creativity and exploration. This is a conversation about embracing change, letting go of self-judgment, and remaining open to new passions and possibilities, no matter where you are in life. Music: “Love” by Alex-Productions, licensed under CC BY 3.0

Sara Holtz: How Yale Made Me a Feminist

In this episode, host Ruby Tugade speaks with Sara Holtz, who looks back on a life of storytelling: from practicing law and training women leaders, to interviewing successful women on the podcast she hosted for seven years, “Advice to My Younger Me”, about the lessons they wish they had known earlier in life. She also opens up about her experience as a member of the first class of women admitted to Yale College. With brave candor and compassionate perspective, she recounts the sexism she encountered, and how her college years made her into a feminist and a uniquely effective mentor and leader. Music: “Love” by Alex-Productions, licensed under CC BY 3.0

Ann Larson: The Sacred Work of Presence

In this episode, host Ruby Tugade speaks with Ann Larson, a retired Lutheran pastor whose life has evolved by ministry and a lifelong search for deeper spirituality. Ann speaks of becoming one of the early generations of women ordained in the Lutheran church, and navigating the challenges of a career that did not unfold in the ways she once expected. With striking honesty, she opens up about therapy, and learning to redefine success and failure over time. She also shares moving stories from her years in the ministry, including sitting beside people in their final moments, and witnessing death as both sacred and deeply human. Throughout the conversation, Ann looks back on the role of ritual, music, spirituality, and community in helping us live with greater presence and compassion. Music: “Love” by Alex-Productions, licensed under CC BY 3.0