The Morning Glory Project

Betsy Graziani Fasbinder
  • 4.9 (31)
  • SELF-IMPROVEMENT

The Morning Glory Project is my earnest attempt to listen to, learn from, and celebrate people of exceptional determination. Whether they’ve overcome obstacles, endured traumas or tragic losses, experienced setbacks, disappointments, or failures, or they’ve accomplished what others might have thought impossible, I want to know these folks, and it’s my joy to introduce them to you. Morning Glory People endure, when others around them may not. They’ve survived what others might not have. I want to know what inspiration, practices, resources, and decisions keep them going when so many others might quit. The stories of Morning Glory People are not all tidy, happy-ending stories. Those who endure do so with scars, but they endure. They survive. They thrive. They find meaning—life, love, joy, hope, passion—beyond their experience, and they turn their disappointments and disasters into determination. Morning Glory People inspire me; I just know they’ll inspire you too.

  1. 10/02/2024

    Sandy Phillips: Self-care for Survival

    There are certain groups to which nobody wants to belong. High among that list of undesirable memberships is to be one whose loved one has been stolen from you by gun violence. Sandy Phillips and her husband Lonnie are members of this loathsome club. Their daughter, Jessica Ghawi, was murdered in the massacre at the midnight showing of The Dark Knight Rises in the Summer of 2012 in Aurora, Colorado. Their grief and rage could not be measured and the loss of their beloved daughter was unimaginable. They made two life-changing decisions in the midst of their grief: they’d cling to one another, keeping their marriage intact as so many survivors had not, and they’d turn their heartbreak into action to prevent the tragedy of gun violence for other families. They founded an organization to offer compassion, support, and resources to help the far too many new survivors immediately after their loved ones are taken, and through their grief process. Survivors Empowered is exactly what its name implies, an empowerment group, to not only support survivors, but to relentlessly confront legislators and businesses who have the power to prevent future gun violence. Find out about Survivors Empowered at SurvivorsEmpowered.org

    41 min

  2. 09/04/2024

    Audrey Edwards: American Runaway

    Whether doing international reporting under the aegis of the United Nations on the effects of a drought in sub-Saharan Africa in 1984, or interviewing influencers as diverse as Oprah Winfrey and Maxine Waters, Audrey Edwards has had a 40-year career as a journalist with work that has won awards, been used in university courses, and referenced on national television talk shows. A former senior-level editor for the national publications Essence, Black Enterprise, Family Circle and More magazine. Audrey has also authored seven books, most notably the groundbreaking Children of the Dream: The Psychology of Black Success (Doubleday, 1992), co-authored with Dr. Craig Polite. Her latest work, AMERICAN RUNAWAY: Black and Free in Paris in the Trump Years (August Press, 2020), is a wise and wisecracking memoir on her decision to run from America following the election of Donald J. Trump as President of the United States. Paris has historically offered refuge to Black Americans running from American racism, be they soldiers following World War I, or the writers, musicians, artists and other creative thinkers who have been coming to the City of Light for 100 years. She chose to run as an older, retired Baby Boomer who had benefited from the enormous social and political gains of her generation’s revolutionary activism. She was not inclined to remain in America watching those gains come under assault by the new Donald Trump political regime.

    37 min

  3. 08/07/2024

    Clea Simon: Surviving a Mad House

    Before turning to a life of crime (or at least writing fictional crime), Boston Globe-bestselling author and multiple Massachusetts Center for the Book honoree Clea Simon was a journalist. The author of three nonfiction books and 31 mysteries, most recently the amateur sleuth adventure Bad Boy Beat, her books alternate between cozies (usually featuring cats) and darker psychological thrillers and amateur sleuth suspense. Clea’s personal story is rich with drama too. A recent cancer survivor, her unstoppable optimism has served as an essential element of her healing process. But what’s most remarkable about this optimism is that is was born in a childhood of extraordinary challenge, including schizophrenia that plagued her two siblings and cost one his life as she describes in Mad House: Growing Up in the Shadow of Mentally Ill Siblings. The survival of this Clea’s dedication, creativity, resilience, and humor makes this author’s lived story, as remarkable as the ones she writes in her fiction.

    33 min

  4. 07/03/2024

    Caroline Leavitt: Days of Wonder

    Caroline Leavitt’s mother told her that all the Leavitt women were cursed with tragic lives. And, at first it seemed true. Caroline’s young fiancé died in her arms from a heart attack two weeks before their wedding. She was in a coma and in the hospital for months with a mysterious critical illness no one thought she could survive. And her writing career shattered, making it seem that she would never be published again. But Caroline refused to let despair break her. Instead, she persisted with hope and resilience, knowing that sometimes the biggest tragedies can make future happiness even brighter. She ignored setbacks to become a New York Times bestselling novelist, ignored statistics to marry and have a child in her forties, and she became a part of a wonderful community by helping writers during Lockdown by cofounding A Mighty Blaze. Caroline is a New York Times bestselling author of 13 novels, her most recent being Days of Wonder.

    37 min

  5. 06/05/2024

    Alex Kuisis: Truth Matters, Love Wins

    Alex Kuisis was a happily married early-childhood-educator-turned-health coach, living a beautifully fulfilling life in Denver, Colorado, when the doorbell rang on September 1, 2016. It was the police, there to arrest her for seven felony crimes that she did not commit. Truth Matters, Love Wins is both an astounding account of fighting false accusations in a slanted criminal justice system, and an uplifting testament to choosing integrity and introspection when responding to staggering levels of betrayal. Alex’s dedication to surviving her darkest hour through faith, love, and personal growth will captivate and inspire you. ​ A must-read for anyone curious about how to handle the pain and anger that accompanies life’s most devastating curveballs, Truth Matters, Love Wins showcases the power of keeping love close when you know you have the truth on your side.

  6. 05/01/2024

    Cara Brown: Life in Full Color

    Cara Brown is an award-winning watercolor artist and teacher, though she came about this having this be her life quite unexpectedly. When she was 24, her first husband proposed marriage to her – in front of a group of friends. She didn’t say yes or no, she said “I want kids.” She had always yearned for the whole experience available to people in female bodies – becoming a mother, including being pregnant and giving birth. When life circumstances deemed that not possible, she went into a dark time, wondering how her life could be fulfilling, how it could have meaning, given this crushing disappointment. She prayed for the energy to pursue adoption – or to be given something else. Within a few years, it became obvious what that something else would be. She was asked by a friend to show her art for the first time in 2007. In 2011 she led her first groups of watercolor student-artists. In the years since, these two aspects of her life have evolved, grown, and flourished. She almost stumbled upon a rich and fulfilling life of art making and providing instruction and the supportive environments in which people best expand and learn. Living a Life in Full Color is Cara’s mission, for herself and all of us. You can find out more about Carta and see her art at: LifeInFullColor.com and find her podcast about art and life, Watercolor Conversations wherever you find your favorite podcasts.

    35 min

  7. 04/03/2024

    Leah Lax: Not From Here

    When Leah Lax was asked to write a libretto for an opera intended to celebrate local immigrants, she began by spending a year listening to the stories of upheaval, migration, and arrival, told to her in confidence by people from around the globe. She felt she had discovered the song of America, found its great beating heart. But Leah also discovered troubling truths about America, through the eyes of immigrants, and in so doing was inspired to uncover the lost history of her own Jewish family. Through this interwoven experience of their story and hers, Leah found not only a larger context for the story of immigrants, but a new way of looking at how her own identity, rather than as a member of a small “minority”, but as a part of a very large majority who are here in this country because either they or their parents immigrated from another country. Nearly two decades after Leah had those conversations, long after the opera she wrote had left the stage, she captured those stories into this “libretto” of a story, her extraordinary new book, Not From Here: The Song of America. Leah was a guest on The Morning Glory Project after her deeply stirring memoir, Uncovered: How I Left Hasidic Life and Finally Came Home, which was the first gay memoir ever to come out of the Jewish ultra-Orthodox world. Leah’s dual career as an author and as a librettist has brought her many well-deserved accolades. When she’s not writing, you can find her playing cello or kayaking around the world with her wife.

    35 min

  8. 03/06/2024

    Susanna Solomon: Finding Her Own Path

    Growing up as a girl in the 1950’s girls were not expected to have any career goals. They were going to be housewives. Susanna Solomon’s mother complained bitterly about her lot in life. Her father told her she was too stupid to go to college, then he fell in love with someone else—someone other than Susanna’s mother. When her mother took her own life when Susanna was fourteen, the upheaval in the family was seismic. At 20 she met a guy who was loving and warm and wonderful. At first he was great fun, but he liked to drink. Each year went by things became more difficult, as he would yell and stagger, and diminish Susanna and their two children. After 11 years, Susanna made the decision to get a divorce, but she knew she didn’t have enough skills to support herself and her kids on her own and that “women’s jobs” of that era wouldn’t provide enough. She decided that she would need what was then called a “man’s” career, with a “man’s income”. Everyone she knew, but for her brother, made fun of her for what seemed like an absurd choice. After six-and-a-half years, she graduated Summa Cum Laude, got a job and ended her marriage, becoming a single parent. In her delightful short story collections, Point Reyes Sheriff’s Calls, and More Point Reyes Sheriff’s Calls, Susanna takes the tidbits of sheriff’s call incidents published in her local small-town paper and imagines what the late Paul Harvey might have called “the rest of the story”. In her more recent publication, Paris Beckons, she continues to do what she’s always done… breaking from the expected, weaving her lived experiences and fictional storytelling throughout a collection of short stories that put a different light on loss, memory, and independence.

    28 min
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4.9
out of 5
31 Ratings

About

The Morning Glory Project is my earnest attempt to listen to, learn from, and celebrate people of exceptional determination. Whether they’ve overcome obstacles, endured traumas or tragic losses, experienced setbacks, disappointments, or failures, or they’ve accomplished what others might have thought impossible, I want to know these folks, and it’s my joy to introduce them to you. Morning Glory People endure, when others around them may not. They’ve survived what others might not have. I want to know what inspiration, practices, resources, and decisions keep them going when so many others might quit. The stories of Morning Glory People are not all tidy, happy-ending stories. Those who endure do so with scars, but they endure. They survive. They thrive. They find meaning—life, love, joy, hope, passion—beyond their experience, and they turn their disappointments and disasters into determination. Morning Glory People inspire me; I just know they’ll inspire you too.

Information

  • Creator
    Betsy Graziani Fasbinder
  • Years Active
    2019 - 2024
  • Episodes
    120
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2023 Betsy Graziani Fasbinder
  • Show Website
    The Morning Glory Project