Explore every episode of the podcast Women Living the Questions

In this episode, host Ruby Tugade speaks with Diane Solomon, a nurse, midwife, psychiatric nurse practitioner, writer, and educator whose life has been rooted in caregiving.

After decades in healthcare, Diane is stepping into a new chapter as a volunteer educator, teaching a more honest and complex history of Oregon. Her journey has included raising four children, moving through romantic relationships, and building a career devoted to understanding human nature.

With candor and reflection, she talks about growing up fast, and shares the hard-won lessons of what she calls “slow love”. Now, she’s committed to reclaiming joy, and embracing a more spacious, self-compassionate way of being.

Music: “Love” by Alex‑Productions, licensed under CCBY 3.0

Content Note: This episode includes references to violence, including sexual violence and assault, so please take care while listening.

In this episode, host Ruby Tugade speaks with Alexis Krasilovsky, an award-winning filmmaker, author, and professor whose career spans decades of experimental cinema, academic work, and women-centered storytelling.

As part of the first class of women at Yale, Krasilovsky created her first film in 1970, End of the Art World, featuring Andy Warhol, Robert Rauschenberg, and Jasper Johns, now restored by the National Film Preservation Foundation. She has built a body of work that consistently challenges dominant narrative traditions.

With her forthcoming novel, Portrait of an Artist as a Young Woman, she returns to the 1970s art world with a clarity that only comes with time, revisiting it as both participant and observer.

ARTIST’S BIO:  

Alexis Krasilovsky is an award-winning filmmaker of the documentaries Let Them Eat Cake and Women Behind the Camera. She was born in Alaska, survived sexual assault at gunpoint, and has traveled to twenty countries. Her first film, End of the Art World – featuring Andy Warhol, Robert Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns – was made in 1971 while she was an undergraduate in the first class of women at Yale, and recently restored by a National Film Preservation Foundation award. (Her films are available on Kanopy.com.)

Alexis is also a Pushcart Prize-nominated poet. Her pandemic poetry film, The Parking Lot of Dreams adapts poems from her book, Watermelon Linguistics: New and Selected Poems.

Her most recent book is the forthcoming novel, Portrait of an Artist as a Young Woman, which will be released by City Point Press on September 8, 2026 and is available for pre-sale at Simon & Schuster (https://bit.ly/4sG9Zvc).

Alexis has an MFA from Cal Arts and is Professor Emerita at California State University, Northridge. Her pro-choice hologram, Childbirth Dream, was exhibited at the Georges Pompidou Center in Paris.

Alexis lives in Los Angeles and likes to dye her hair purple and blue.

For more information, see http://alexiskrasilovsky.com.

Music: “Love” by Alex‑Productions, licensed under CCBY 3.0

In this episode of “Women Living the Questions", host Ruby Tugade speaks with Edith Terry, a journalist and cultural observer whose life and career span continents, industries, and eras of profound global change.

Edith began her journey as one of the early women to graduate from Yale, navigating the complexities of gender in elite academic spaces. From there, her path led her across the world, from her childhood in the Philippines to roles in Washington, New York, Beijing, Tokyo, and Hong Kong, where she has lived for over two decades.

She shares her experiences working in China during the 1970s as an interpreter for U.S.-China trade delegations, offering a rare glimpse into a pivotal historical moment. Edith also reflects on her transition into journalism, and the insights she’s gained from a life spent observing people and change, up-close.

The conversation also turns to her personal passions, from dragon boating in Hong Kong to her deep appreciation for Asian art, and how these practices have influenced her understanding of teamwork, beauty, and attention.

At its core, this episode is about embracing uncertainty and finding meaning in a life defined not by a single path, but by continual transformation.

Music: “Love” by Alex‑Productions, licensed under CCBY 3.0

In this episode of “Women Living the Questions”, host Ruby Tugade speaks with Kathy Saranpa, who is a scholar, educator, and literary translator whose life has been about a lifelong love of language and an unrelenting drive to empower others through it.

Kathy grew up the eldest of six in Ohio and California, stepping into the role of caretaker at twelve when her parents divorced. That early sense of responsibility followed her across decades and continents, through a PhD at Yale, where she was also a new mother, to a tenured position in Finland, to her current life as a full-time literary translator in the small Finnish village where her ancestors were born.

They speak openly about burnout, the difference between giving up and surrendering, and what it means to finally turn that lifelong care back toward yourself.

Music: “Love” by Alex‑Productions, licensed under CCBY 3.0

In this episode of “Women Living the Questions", host Ruby Tugade speaks with Lenore Skenazy, a journalist, author, and social change agent whose work challenges modern assumptions about safety, trust, and childhood independence.

Lenore began her career as a reporter before a single parenting decision, of allowing her nine-year-old son to ride the New York City subway alone, sparked a national conversation and led to the creation of the “Free-Range Kids” movement. What followed was a shift from storytelling to advocacy, as she began questioning the culture of fear shaping how children grow up today.

They talk about the rise of surveillance in parenting, and how this puts cultural trust into question. Lenore also reflects on her own childhood freedom, and why letting go may be one of the most important acts of care.

Music: “Love” by Alex‑Productions, licensed under CCBY 3.0

In the latest episode of “Women Living the Questions”, host Ruby Tugade sits down with Alice Young. They explore a life shaped by early responsibility and cultural memory, from a childhood marked by expectations far beyond her years to a pioneering legal career on Wall Street, where she helped open doors for women in a male-dominated field.

Alice reflects on her Chinese heritage and the meaning of her name, “First Beauty”, and what it has meant to live between cultures while preserving family traditions across generations.

She speaks about being among the first women at Yale, co-founding the Harvard Law Women’s Association, and building a trailblazing international law practice, while also navigating the demands of family and career long before there were models for doing both.

At the center of her story is a lifelong role as caregiver, shaped by early responsibility and a pioneering path, carried forward in how she lives the meaning of her name, “First Beauty.”

This conversation offers a window into what it means to build a life that holds both ambition and care, through moments of reflection and vulnerability.

Music: “Love” by Alex‑Productions, licensed under CCBY 3.0

In the latest episode of "Women Living the Questions", host Ruby Tugade sits down with roxann Callender. They explore a life lived on her own terms, from an elite prep school in her native Guyana, to breaking ground in information technology, and later returning to academia at Yale and Utrecht University in the Netherlands.

roxann reflects on navigating a health condition, and how writing has become both a source of community and a personal sanctuary.

At the core of her story is a deep empathy for the people whose lives she has chronicled, and for the way that same compassion is now turned inward.

This conversation is warm, thoughtful, and full of insight into resilience, and finding steadiness amid life’s uncertainty.

Music: “Love” by Alex‑Productions, licensed under CCBY 3.0

Content Note: This episode explores family and personal histories, including wartime experiences. Please take care while listening.

In the latest episode of “Women Living the Questions”, host Ruby Tugade sits down with another remarkable woman in the series, Talya Nevo-Hacohen. They explore the ways the stories we inherit and the ones we choose impact who we become.

Talya reflects on discovering her father’s wartime past later in life, and how that revelation deepened her understanding of herself.

Her journey from architecture to investment banking in New York, to real estate in Southern California, shows a common denominator of curiosity, intelligence, and depth.

This conversation is heartfelt and powerful in its raw vulnerability and openness.

Music: “Love” by Alex‑Productions, licensed under CCBY 3.0

In this episode of “Women Living the Questions”, host Ruby Tugade speaks with Stephanie Cotsirilos, a writer, lawyer, singer, and actress whose life has unfolded across cultures, careers, and creative worlds.

Raised in Chicago, Stephanie studied comparative literature at Brown and music at Yale before spending fifteen years in New York’s performing arts scene, including originating the role of The Critic on Broadway in the Tony Award-winning musical, “Nine”. She later returned to Yale for law school, building a new professional chapter in advocacy and intellect.

After a profound loss, she moved to Maine with her young son, beginning yet another season of reinvention. Throughout it all, storytelling has remained a steady thread, offering a way to navigate change and make sense of life’s turning points.

This deeply reflective conversation offers a portrait of a life of resilience and creative expression.

Music: “Love” by Alex‑Productions, licensed under CCBY 3.0

In the inaugural episode of “Women Living the Questions”, host Ruby Tugade speaks with Cynthia Dantzic, a 93-year-old artist, educator, and pioneer whose life spans nearly a century of creativity.

Cynthia began her studies at Bard College before boldly finding a way into Yale’s BFA program, decades before women were formally admitted. There, she studied with the legendary Josef Albers, whose teaching profoundly shaped her understanding of color and design.

She later earned her MFA from Pratt Institute and taught for more than fifty years at Cooper Union and Long Island University, inspiring generations of students.

Today, she remains actively creative, co-authoring books that help preserve handwriting for younger generations.

This energetic conversation reflects a remarkable lifelong practice of curiosity and creativity.

Music: “Love” by Alex‑Productions, licensed under CCBY 3.0

“Women Living the Questions” explores the long arc of a woman’s life: the courage, curiosity, and wisdom earned over decades, and the stories our culture too often overlooks.

Host Ruby Tugade speaks with remarkable women, including the first female students at Yale College, about reinvention, discovery, and living fully. Inspired by her mother’s bold journey from her home country to the United States, and guided by Rilke’s words to “live the questions now,” Ruby celebrates the depth, resilience, and power of womanhood at every stage.

This podcast is for anyone who wants to see, value, and honor the lives of older women.

Episodes will be available soon! Join us on this journey.

Music: “Love” by Alex‑Productions, licensed under CCBY 3.0