Women's Work

Valerie Gordon admits this sounds like a strange job, but it's a needed one—she helps women better tell their stories as they navigate career transition. So yeah, she's a career coach, but one that uses the elements of story to lead women into their next stage of work. In her 20+ year career as a TV storyteller, she now believes in the unlikely beauty of burnout at work, and why it’s good to change the term "mid-life crisis" to "mid-life transformation." Talking with her feels like coffee with a really smart, strategic friend — lucky for all of us. Notes Commander-In-She Commander-In-She on Twitter Tsh on Twitter & Instagram Women’s Work on Twitter & Instagram Wedding Toasts I’ll Never Give, by Ada Calhoun

Tish Harrison Warren is a priest with the Anglican Church of North America. She’s a woman who maneuvered a lot of hurdles and went through a LONG process of discernment, study, training, and overcoming stereotypes to do work she never thought she’d end up doing: being an ordained priest. Her story is fascinating, and I could have talked to her for hours. (Plus, it’s not everyday I get to talk to an honest-to-goodness fellow Tish, especially one with deep roots in Austin, Texas.) This was a fun chat! Notes: Tish on Twitter Tish's blog Tsh on Twitter & Instagram Women’s Work on Twitter & Instagram Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary Anglican Church of North America Orthodoxy, by G.K. Chesterton The Anglican Understanding of the Church, by Paul Avis Letters to a Diminished Church, by Dorothy Sayers The Lord of the Rings, by J.R.R. Tolkien Narnia series, by C.S. Lewis Anne of Green Gables, by L.M. Montgomery

Sarah Pulliam Bailey is a journalist with the Washington Post, working at their religion desk. Within just a few years, she’s really cut her teeth on some of the most newsworthy events in our current climate. I met her a few years back, in Israel, and I was immediately taken with her. I love her work, her story, and how she makes our world a better place. Notes Sarah's articles on the Washington Post Sarah on Twitter & Instagram Tsh on Twitter & Instagram Women’s Work on Twitter & Instagram

Sherwin Safir is a felony prosecutor who does the tough work of making where we live a safer, more just place. She works tirelessly to make sure justice is served in her community, along with so many other felony prosecutors with heart like her. She specifically works to protect our most vulnerable from abuse — children, women, and animals, to be specific. She shares her story of how she became a lawyer, and that she knew what she wanted to do from a pretty young age, what advice she’d give to someone else wanting to do what she does, and how she keeps grounded as she works in some pretty emotional situations. Notes Tsh on Twitter & Instagram Women’s Work on Twitter & Instagram

Katie Davis Majors is the founder of an organization called Amazima in Uganda. But you might have heard of her because of something else: she’s a 29-year-old mother of 14 kids, who left her comfortable life when she was still a teenager to devote her life to something she never expected. Little did she know her heart would burst into a million pieces when she met her yet-to-be daughters and ultimately start an organization that helps hundreds and hundreds of kids stay with their families and have what they need for school and medical care, instead of being sent to orphanages. Notes: Amazima Amazima on Twitter & Instagram Katie on Instagram Tsh on Twitter & Instagram Women’s Work on Twitter & Instagram

Saki Milton is the founder of a group called GEMS Camp—she turned her passion for math into a STEM-focused camp for girls, particularly girls living in urban neighborhoods. Her vision is to instill confidence in urban teen girls in five core areas–academics, career, creativity, leadership, and service– so that they’ll be successful in STEM studies and future careers. Saki's got a great story, because even though her program began and continues to flourish in the Dallas, Texas area, she now lives in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, on the Persian Gulf, where she hopes to take what she started on a global scale and bring STEM camps for girls in the Middle East. She does fascinating, life-changing work to encourage young teen girls—especially vulnerable ones in urban environments—and encourages them in the joy, necessity, and know-how of STEM fields. Saki loves what she does. Notes   The GEMS Camp Saki on Twitter Tsh on Twitter & Instagram Women’s Work on Twitter & Instagram Go Girls, the travel agency s

Gretchen Rubin is a researcher and writer who’s become one of the most influential observers of happiness and human nature in our culture. She’s written many books, including her bestseller, The Happiness Project, and came up with a nifty, spot-on rubric for helping us understand how we uniquely approach the art of setting habits, which she then wrote about in a book called, The Four Tendencies. In this episode, Gretchen shares how she got into the work of research, because it wasn’t an obvious path. She started her career in law and was clerking for Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor when she realized she actually wanted to be a writer. She loves what she does, and she has tons of ideas for her work that’ll keep her going for a long time. Notes Gretchen's website Gretchen on Twitter & Instagram Tsh on Twitter & Instagram Women’s Work on Twitter & Instagram

Jessica Honegger the founder of Noonday Collection, a fashion company that designs and sells jewelry and accessories made by artisans across the globe. In this chat, Jessica shares why she started Noonday—because she never actually meant to create a business. She also talks about what it was like to found an ethical retail business when she never had any actual business or retail experience, and yet why she thinks Noonday has taken off like it has. It has a unique model that both empowers women artisans in developing countries and women with an entrepreneurial heart who’d love to partner with them. Notes Noonday Collection Jessica on Instagram Tsh on Twitter & Instagram Women’s Work on Twitter & Instagram

Annie B. Jones basically has my own dream job (besides being a writer): she owns an indie bookstore called The Bookshelf, in beautiful Thomasville, Georgia, not too far from Tallahassee, Florida. Annie shares what it was like to start off as a bookshop owner with zero business background, and the things she had to learn on the sales floor about managing a team, deciding what her community liked — and didn’t like — to read, and at the end of the day, how to keep the lights on doing something that she confesses is more work than she ever imagined, but wouldn’t trade for the world. Notes: Annie on Twitter The Bookshelf The Bookshelf on Instagram Annie's podcast, From the Front Porch Tsh on Twitter & Instagram Women’s Work on Instagram Myers-Briggs Crossing to Safety, by Wallace Stegner Wildwood, by Colin Meloy A Wrinkle in Time and Austin Family Chronicles, by Madeleine L'Engel The Ensemble, by Aja Gabel Yes, Please, by Amy Poehler In the spirit of this episode—if you'd like to order one of her book recom

You might know Sarah Stewart Holland as one half of the podcast Pantsuit Politics, but she's also a city commissioner of her small Kentucky town, Paducah, where she spends a lot of her workday making decisions that make where she lives a better place. She shares about the ins and outs of what it means to be a city commissioner in a small community. And she’s open and honest about the hurdles she jumped to become a young woman and mom who spins a lot of plates to use her passion for politics to serve her town. Sarah on Twitter & Instagram Pantsuit Politics & The Nuanced Life Emerge America Tsh on Twitter & Instagram Women's Work on Instagram Raising Ms. President Less Than Angels, by Barbara Pym What She Ate, by Laura Shapiro The Vegetarian, by Han Kang A Man Called Ove, Fredrik Backman A Gentleman in Moscow, by Amor Towles Thanks to sponsor Hello Fresh—get $30 your first week with promo code womenswork30!

Countless women make the world go round… Let’s hear some of their stories. A new show by author and top-ranked podcaster Tsh Oxenreider. Sign up for the email to know the minute Women's Work begins Follow the show on Twitter and Instagram