Spark Me

Spark Me Podcast
  • 5.0 (9)
  • Society & Culture
  • Updated Weekly

Spark Me was born out of countless honest talks with girlfriends about how life keeps shifting — and how incredible it is when women support each other through it. Co-hosts Michele Dempsey and Liz Graham bring humor, heart, and just the right amount of “did-we-really-just-say-that?” honesty to real conversations about careers, family, identity, health, relationships — and all the curveballs life throws in between.

  1. 2d ago

    I Couldn't Leave Without My Dog

    Would you leave a dangerous home if it meant leaving your dog behind? Liz isn't sure she would be able to, and that's why this conversation stuck with her. In this Spark Short, Michele and Liz unpack their conversation with Lisa Fuller of the SPCA of Luzerne County and everything it changed for them. Michele walked in picturing the cartoon dog catcher and the pound, and walked out with her view flipped a complete 180. Liz was surprised to learn the SPCA runs almost entirely on community donations. Both of them keep coming back to Purple Paws, the program that cares for the pets of women leaving domestic violence. Neither had ever thought of a pet as a barrier to safety. They talk about what it takes to be someone like Lisa, who has adopted 18 elderly dogs and has seven at home now. They talk about why animals and kids are the most vulnerable among us, and how much work goes into every animal the shelter takes in, from the vet visit to the microchip to a quiet place to decompress. Then it gets personal. Liz tells the story of Smokey, the rescued cat who lived like a king with the Graham family, and of Guinevere, the Old English Sheepdog her family had to give up when they moved overseas. Michele remembers the strays of her childhood, and one candy-fueled family punishment she'll never live down. They close on why a dog might be the best reason to get outside, and what you can do even if you'renot ready to adopt. In this episode you'll learn: Why the old “dog pound” image of the SPCA is so farfrom the truthHow a pet can keep someone from leaving a violent home,and how Purple Paws removes that barrierWhat happens to an animal in its first days at theshelter, and why an adoption fee doesn't come close to covering it Why the SPCA depends on community donations, notgovernment fundingWhat it means to adopt the dogs nobody else willWhy surrendering a pet can be the right and lovingdecisionHow a dog gets you outside, moving, and connectedThree ways to help if you can't adopt: foster,volunteer or donate Resources from this episode: Our full conversation with Lisa Fuller — https://www.sparkmepodcast.com/more-than-rescue-what-animals-teach-us-about-being-human/SPCA of Luzerne County - https://www.spcaluzernecounty.org/Love Stays Home programs, including Purple Paws — https://www.spcaluzernecounty.org/how-to-help/love-stays-home.htmlFostering and volunteer applications https://www.spcaluzernecounty.org/adoption/National Domestic Violence Hotline: 1-800-799-7233 Keep sparking If this conversation resonated with you: Follow Spark Me wherever you listen to podcasts so younever miss a Spark ShortShare this episode with the friend whose dog runs theirlife Leave a rating or review. It helps other women in theirsecond act discover the show.  Tag us and tell us about the pet who got you throughsomething

  2. Sep 30

    More Than Rescue: What Animals Teach Us About Being Human

    What really happens after an animal comes through the shelter door? Lisa Fuller has been rescuing animals since she was a kid growing up with a dad everyone called Dr. Doolittle. Today she chairs the board of the SPCA of Luzerne County and opens her home to senior and hospice dogs so their last chapter is a happy one. She has seven at home right now. In this conversation, Liz and Michele go behind the scenes of animal rescue, and it is a lot more than adoptions. Lisa walks through hoarding and neglect cases, the humane officers most people don't know exist, and Purple Paws, a program that cares for pets so women can leave abusive homes without leaving their animals behind. She clears up the biggest myths about euthanasia and funding, explains why shelters lose money on every adoption, and gives honest advice for anyone who wants a pet but isn't sure they have the bandwidth. (Michele, we're looking at you.) In this episode: The stray named Crab Cake that pulled Lisa into the SPCAWhat happens in an animal's first days at the shelterLove Stays Home: Kibble Connection, the Angel Fund, and Purple PawsWhy dogs sometimes live in the shelter's lunchroom, and go to summer campAdopting vs. buying, and why "foster fail" is a complimentThe difference between your local SPCA and the ASPCAPlans for a new 12-acre facilityFind a way to help: Resources From This Episode: SPCA of Luzerne County: https://www.spcaluzernecounty.org/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SPCAofLuzerneCounty/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/spcaofluzernecounty/ Love Stays Home / Purple Paws: https://www.spcaluzernecounty.org/how-to-help/love-stays-home.html Not in NEPA? Look up your local shelter. Most are community funded, just like this one. If you or someone you know needs support, the National Domestic Violence Hotline is available 24/7 at 1-800-799-7233. Follow Spark Me on Instagram for weekly clips, and subscribe wherever you listen so you don't miss Lisa's part two when the new facility opens.

  3. Sep 23

    You Can Have Everyone and Still Feel Alone

    What if a relationship check-in belonged on your annual physical, right next to everything else you dread? In this Spark Short, Michele and Liz unpack their conversation with Dr. Christine Kiesinger and what stuck with them afterward. Liz walks away with a genuine mindset shift — she's always known to schedule the physical and the colonoscopy, but it never occurred to her to check in on the health of her relationships with the same discipline. Michele focuses on the piece she didn't get from the Harvard study or the Blue Zones: that the relationship with yourself comes first, and for women, that's usually the hardest one. They get honest about the practice of it. Liz on boundaries and refusing to give headspace to other people's toxicity. Michele on being caught mid-spiral by her sister and told that coulda-woulda-shoulda is a prescription for suffering. They talk about why small talk stopped working somewhere in the second act, why friend groups get smaller and deeper, and why the people who know us best rarely live in our zip code. Then it widens out. Liz tells the story of Breezy, a homeless man on a Georgetown corner 30 years ago whose name she still remembers, and what he proved about daily connection. Michele shares what the Blue Zones and a happiness-based city plan revealed about intergenerational relationships and what actually makes a place happy. And they both return to their recent in-person event — a room of women carrying more than anyone knew, and what happened when they felt seen and gotten. In this episode you'll learn: Why your relationships deserve the same scheduled attention as your annual physicalWhy the relationship with yourself has to come first — and why women struggle with it mostA practical way to spot and stop negative self-talk before it takes rootHow to set boundaries around other people's negativity without guiltWhy small talk gets harder and friend circles get smaller in your second actThe everyday micro-connections — the barista, the bank teller — that are associated with longevityWhat happened in the room at the Spark Me live event, and why it workedThe postcard practice that doubles as a check-in with yourselfWhat the Blue Zones and the happiest countries reveal about designing for connection Resources from this episode: The full conversation with Dr. Christine Kiesinger Christine's work on the social connection pillar for George Washington Faculty Medical Group The Harvard Study of Adult DevelopmentThe Blue Zones TED Talk on social integration and longevity Keep sparking If this conversation resonated with you: Follow Spark Me wherever you listen to podcasts so you never miss a Spark ShortShare this episode with someone who's been carrying more than they've told youLeave a rating or review — it helps other women in their second act discover the showTag us when you're listening and tell us: who are you sending a postcard to this week — or are you sending one to yourself?

  4. Sep 16

    The Connection Prescription with Dr Christine Kiesinger

    What if your doctor checked your relationships the same way they check your blood pressure? Dr. Christine Kiesinger returns as our very first repeat guest with an idea that reframes what we think we know about health. Commissioned by the George Washington Faculty Medical Group to write on the social connection pillar of lifestyle medicine, Christine argues that relational well-being belongs on the vital signs chart — right alongside weight, pulse, and blood pressure. She calls it the connection prescription. The data backs her up. The Harvard study on longevity and happiness has spanned 88 years, and it named healthy relationships the number one predictor of both how long and how well you'll live. Meanwhile loneliness has been declared an epidemic, with long-term effects Christine compares to smoking. And you don't have to live alone to feel it — you can be lonely inside a family, a marriage, or a full office. Christine gives Michele and Liz the questions to actually ask themselves, walks through her Five S's of relational health, and explains why relational invisibility does more damage than we admit. The conversation then turns to work — 90,000 hours of the average adult life — and to the particular loneliness of leadership. It closes where Christine's work always does: with the relationship you have with yourself, and why self-compassion is very good medicine. In This Episode You'll Learn: Why relational well-being deserves to be treated as a vital signThe specific questions that reveal the health of your own relationshipsThe Five S's of relational health — and how to spot toxicity earlyWhy loneliness happens inside marriages, families, and busy workplacesThe four horsemen of relational destruction, and the simple antidote to criticismWhy leadership is fundamentally an act of relationshipHow isolated leaders can build support outside their own organizationThe two sides of self-compassion — tenderness and fierce protectivenessWhy relationships should be the first thing you examine after a difficult diagnosis Resources From This Episode: Christine's work on life style medicineDr. Christine Kiesinger's social connection work for George Washington Faculty Medical GroupChristine's first Spark Me episode The Harvard Study of Adult Development The Gottman Institute — the four horsemen and their antidotes Gallup Q12 employee engagement assessment Self-compassion research from Dr. Kristen Neff and Dr. Christopher GermerEsther Perel on intimacy The Blue Zones Keep Sparking If this conversation resonated with you: Follow Spark Me wherever you listen to podcasts so you never miss an episodeShare this episode with someone on your critical care team — or someone you suspect doesn't have oneLeave a rating or review — it helps other women in their second act discover the showTag us when you're listening and tell us: who's the one person you're going to call, text, or send a postcard to this week?

  5. Sep 10

    Never Say Never: Can a Machine Actually Create?

    What if the most important skill in the age of AI isn't technical at all — it's curiosity? In this Spark Short, Michele and Liz unpack their conversation with Heather Cybulski, the transformation consultant helping companies bring AI into their teams. What starts as a debrief quickly turns into one of the most honest conversations they've had on the show — two women in their second act trying to figure out what this technology actually means for their work, their kids, their creativity, and their brains. Liz makes the case that there's something irreplaceably human about creation — the John Steinbeck letter, the Wright brothers building a machine to fly when no plane existed. Michele pushes back: never say never. They land somewhere in the middle, and the disagreement is the point. They also get into the parts nobody has answers for yet. What happens when AI stops being a tool and becomes the worker? What do teachers do when the detection software can't keep up? What are we losing when we let a machine do our critical thinking for us — and what does the research actually say about handwriting, typing, and memory? But this isn't a fear episode. It's a curiosity episode. Michele shares how she used AI to turn a study guide into a game her son actually wanted to play. Liz talks about a friend who released an album and a novel using AI as a creative collaborator. The takeaway isn't "be afraid" or "it's all fine." It's: pay attention, stay engaged, and don't bury your head in the sand. In This Episode You'll Learn: Why approaching AI with curiosity instead of fear changes what you're able to do with itThe difference between AI as a tool and AI as a worker — and why that shift is unlike any technology before itHow AI is opening creative doors for people without technical training (what "vibe coding" actually means)Why handwriting and cursive fire up your brain in ways typing doesn't — and what the new research out of Norway foundPractical ways parents and teachers can rethink learning in an AI worldHow to use AI to make learning more engaging for kids who don't thrive sitting stillWhy the human "imperfection" may be exactly what makes creative work resonateWhat James Patterson said about AI that reframes the whole creativity debateThe real-world resource and infrastructure costs behind the AI boomWhy Michele believes we'll look back on this moment as genuinely unprecedented Resources From This Episode: The full conversation with Heather Cybulski John Steinbeck's 1956 letter to Marilyn Monroe Norwegian study on handwriting vs. typing and memory retention Films referenced: Her, Ex Machina, 2001: A Space Odyssey, The TerminatorThe Diary of a CEO with Steven Bartlett Keep Sparking If this conversation resonated with you: Follow Spark Me wherever you listen to podcasts so you never miss a Spark ShortShare this episode with a friend who's either excited about AI or quietly terrified of itLeave a rating or review — it helps other women in their second act discover the showTag us when you're listening and tell us: what's one thing you've tried with AI — or one thing you're still refusing to hand over?

  6. Sep 3

    AI Is Moving Fast. You're Not Behind.

    What if the thing standing between you and AI isn't the technology at all — it's just not knowing where to start? Heather Cybulski helps some of the world's largest companies figure out what AI actually means for the people who work there. She's also built a twenty-year career at the front edge of technology while raising three kids in a small town in Northeastern Pennsylvania — which turns out to be its own lesson in designing a life on purpose. Liz and Michele get into the thing most of us are quietly feeling: the tools are moving so fast that even the people who are excited feel ten steps behind. How do you know what's safe to connect? How do you get a whole team using this the same way when everyone's prompts produce different answers? Heather's answers are refreshingly unglamorous — treat an AI agent the way you'd treat a new hire, start with something ordinary like your kid's math homework, and remember that excitement and nervousness feel identical in the body. The only thing separating them is what you believe is coming next. In This Episode You'll Learn: Why building your career around a short list of non-negotiables beats taking the first good offerWhy fear of new technology is almost always a "where do I start" problem in disguiseThe 18-month dashboard that now takes 18 minutes and 18 dollarsBrené Brown's framing of excitement versus nervousness, and why it's the key to any change effortHow to think about AI permissions the same way you'd onboard a new employeeThe single best final prompt Liz uses on every analysisWhy nobody is an AI expert right now — and why that's an opportunity, not a threat Resources From This Episode: Brené Brown on excitement and nervousnessTools discussed: ChatGPT, Claude, Google Gemini, Microsoft CopilotWorth looking up: agentic AI, vibe codingConnect with Heather Cybulski Keep Sparking If this conversation resonated with you: Follow Spark Me wherever you listen to podcasts so you never miss a Spark ShortShare this episode with a friend who's excited about AI but has no idea where to startLeave a rating or review — it helps other women in their second act discover the showTag us when you're listening and tell us: what's the one ordinary, annoying task you'd hand off first?

  7. Aug 15

    Medical Cannabis: Are You Medicating—or Numbing?

    Medical Cannabis: Are You Medicating—or Numbing? Michele lives with a conflict she cannot simplify: her sister has seen medical cannabis help patients move away from highly addictive medications, while Michele’s son used the same plant to numb emotional pain. In this Spark Short, Liz and Michele ask the uncomfortable question at the center of the conversation: when are we treating a real problem—and when are we avoiding the one underneath it? They talk candidly about stigma, concerns around insufficient patient guidance, workplace drug testing, and why legalization without thoughtful regulation can leave patients and families navigating difficult choices. The conversation also returns to MaryFrances’s larger lesson: build a life around what matters to you, even when others judge the choice. From choosing family time over a surgical path to bringing Oreos instead of homemade cookies, the point is the same: no one else lives with the consequences of your decisions. In this episode The difference between managing symptoms and numbing emotional painWhy personal experience can make this conversation complicated, not ideologicalRegulation and patient-guidance gaps that can leave people unsupportedHow judgment shows up in women’s career and family choicesWhy a pivot is not a failure, even after years of trainingThe emotional cost of becoming a family’s medical translator during a parent’s illnessResources From This Episode: Full episode with MaryFrancesEpisode with Brenda ZaneMaryFrances's cannabis care consulting Keep Sparking If this conversation resonated with you: Follow Spark Me wherever you listen to podcasts so you never miss a Spark ShortShare this episode with a friend who's weighing a career pivot, navigating a loved one's substance use, or carrying the caregiver role for her parentsLeave a rating or review — it helps other women in their second act discover the showTag us when you're listening and tell us: what's the choice you made that other people didn't understand?

  8. Aug 7

    Medicine, Motherhood, and Medical Marijuana

    She built a career around one question: what do you want more? For the first time on Spark Me, Michele interviews a sibling — her sister, Dr. MaryFrances Koester. And what starts as a conversation about becoming a doctor turns into something much bigger: a masterclass in pivoting, protecting your life, and knowing exactly what you're willing to trade. MaryFrances knew in third grade she wanted to be a surgeon. She went through all of medical school with that single focus, applied for surgical residency, and was already in it when she watched the residents around her drop their kids at daycare at five in the morning and pick them up at seven at night. She went to dinner with her husband and told him she was quitting surgery for emergency medicine. It was a decision that took real soul-searching — she loved surgery — but she chose shift work, and she chose a life she could actually be present for. Then there's the other role she never applied for: the doctor in a family of six siblings. Michele and Liz go deep on what it costs to be the one everyone calls — the translator, the advocate, the person who gets the text with the photo of the weird rash. And when their parents got sick, that role became something else entirely. MaryFrances describes being the intermediary between oncologists, neurologists, and five siblings all asking her the same questions at once, while carrying knowledge none of them had yet. She calls it the most stressful time of her life. When COVID emptied out the ER, MaryFrances started researching how to become a medical marijuana physician on the drive home from Florida. She started with a large certification company, didn't like what she saw — she describes it as a card factory — and left to build her own practice. Now she runs what she calls a true medical practice, and she's candid about all of it: what cannabis genuinely helps with, where Pennsylvania's program falls short, why she thinks the state's real motivation is tax revenue, and the honest line she draws with her own patients between medicating and numbing. Michele — whose son has struggled with marijuana misuse — pushes on both sides of that, and the result is one of the most balanced conversations you'll hear on this topic. In This Episode You'll Learn: Why MaryFrances left surgery mid-residency, and the question she asked herself to make the callHow to set boundaries when you're the family's go-to expert — without shutting the door completelyWhat it's like to be both the doctor and the daughter while your parents are dyingThe "wall" she's built in emergency medicine, and why it makes her better at her jobThe difference between THC and CBD — and why she believes CBD is the most underrated part of the plantWhich conditions she most commonly certifies patients for, and why she thinks people dismiss "anxiety" too quicklyHow cannabis may help with perimenopause and menopause symptoms, especially sleepWhy she believes 70% THC products shouldn't be on dispensary shelves for most patientsThe question she asks every patient: are you using this to numb, or to medicate?Why she deliberately scaled her business back when it started taking off Resources From This Episode: Cannabis Care Consultants — Dr. MaryFrances Koester's practicePennsylvania Medical Marijuana Program, PA Department of Health Atlas Shrugged by Ayn RandEconomics in One Lesson by Henry HazlittEM:RAP (Emergency Medicine: Reviews and Perspectives) podcastJordan Peterson's Psychology of the Bible lecture seriesSpark Me episode with Brenda Zane on addiction Keep Sparking If this conversation resonated with you: Follow Spark Me wherever you listen to podcasts so you never miss an episodeShare this episode with a friend who's the "designated expert" in her family — or with anyone weighing a career pivot against the life she wantsLeave a rating or review — it helps other women in their second act discover the show

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5
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About

Spark Me was born out of countless honest talks with girlfriends about how life keeps shifting — and how incredible it is when women support each other through it. Co-hosts Michele Dempsey and Liz Graham bring humor, heart, and just the right amount of “did-we-really-just-say-that?” honesty to real conversations about careers, family, identity, health, relationships — and all the curveballs life throws in between.

Information

  • Creator
    Spark Me Podcast
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    54
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Spark Me Podcast
  • Show Website
    Spark Me

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