Gals Guide

Leah starts off Learning & Growing Month talking about one of the first female professors in the United States. She was hired as a professor in 1880. She spent over 30 years of her teaching career at the University of Minnesota. Her name is Maria Sanford, and she was also called “the best-loved woman in Minnesota.”

Katie closes up Healing & Mental Health month. Her pick is Marsha Linehan an American psychologist, professor, and author. Marsha created dialectical behavior therapy (DBT), an evidence-based psychotherapy that combines cognitive restructuring with acceptance, mindfulness, and shaping.. Learn more about Marsha Linehan on this week's episode of the Gals Guide Podcast. The Gals Guide Podcast is off next week for Labor Day. Trigger Warning: This episode does mention suicide and self-harm.

It's Lauren's episode of Healing & Mental Health month. Her pick is Margaret Morgan Lawrence. She’s an American psychiatrist who wrote books about mental health in children in inner cities. Learn more about Margaret Morgan Lawrence on this week's episode of the Gals Guide Podcast. Trigger Warning: This episode does mention suicide and self-harm.

Leah continues our look at Healing & Mental Health month. Her pick is Demi Lovato. She’s a singer, songwriter and actress. She’s sold over 30 million records world wide so far. She’s an artist that is constantly evolving and experimenting with her voice and her sound. She also struggles with mental illness and turns that struggle around to be an advocate for others and be a light in the dark. Learn more about Demi Lovato on this week's episode of the Gals Guide Podcast.

Bonnie starts off a new month's theme. August is Healing & Mental Health month and Bonnie's pick is Leta Stetter Hollingworth. Leta was an American Psychologist known for her at Bellevue and her work with gifted children.

Katie finishes up Financial Health & Security Month with a prospector during the Gold Rush who built a church, a restaurant, and a boarding house. She was known as "The Angel of Tombstone," not the pizza, the Val Kilmer movie. Learn about this amazing Irish woman from County Cork! Special note: no episode next week, August 3, 2026.

Debbi continues Financial Health & Security month with Barbara Hackman Franklin. Businesswoman, board executive, and the 29th U.S. Secretary of Commerce are just a few of Barbara's financial pursuits. Learn more about this powerhouse on this week's episode.

Leah continues Financial Health & Security Month with the first Black woman to establish a bank in the United States. Maggie Lena Walker not only opened the Saint Luke Penny Savings Bank, but she was the first Black woman to be president of a bank in the United States. Learn more about the financial well-being Maggie created for her community in this week’s episode.

Bonnie starts our monthly theme, Financial Health & Security, by talking about Katharine Dexter McCormick. Katharine was a rich lady, a suffragist, and helped fund the first birth control pill.

Leah finishes up Creative & Expression Month with Moomins!!!!! Leah talks about the Swedish-Finnish artist, Tove Jansson, who created a colorful universe for her and her characters to escape to. The Moomin world is about admitting your joys and fears, looking for a place of safety, knowing danger is out there, but that you’ll always discover new ways to incorporate what “home” means.

Klaire is back on the podcast talking about an amazing Italian painter who started producing works as a teenager. Artemisia Gentileschi's life was full of challenges and obstacles, including an abuser and rarely getting credit for her paintings. Learn about Artemisia's fierce paintings of women that are gorgeous and haunting to look at.

Katie is taking a pottery class and found inspiration and kinship with Beatrice Wood. Beatrice was a potter and involved with the Dada movement, giving her the nickname "Mama of Dada." Learn about Beatrice's fascinating life in pottery, art, literature, and French names we struggle to say.

Bonnie starts Creativity & Expression month by talking about Elizabeth Keckley. From slavery to the personal dressmaker to Mary Todd Lincoln, learn about Elizabeth and her dress-making business.

Katie finishes up Movement & Joy in the body month by talking about Eunice Kennedy Shriver and her work creating Special Olympics. Did you know Special Olympics first started with Eunice hosting a summer camp on her farm in Maryland? Learn more about Eunice and her work on behalf of persons with disabilities.

Jackie continues our learning theme of finding wellness with Movement & Joy in the body. Jackie talks about Dorothy "Tommy" Dermody, the Irish fencer who was from County Tipperary. Not only did she compete in the Olympic Games, but she also made movement and fitness invaluable for kids around Ireland.

Leah starts off the month with our new theme. In May, Gals Guide is learning from women who found wellness with Movement & Joy in the body. Leah talks about the famous quote and how it might be truer (and wiser) than we might have given it credit for. "Ginger Rogers did everything Fred Astaire did, but did it backwards...and in high heels." Also, a tribute and wish for Mother's Day.

The world is a better place because Selma Miriam was in it... and we might not have known about her without the support of our patron Tony Vasquez. He was the one who sent us a DVD of the amazing documentary A Culinary Uprising: The Story of Bloodroot . Leah closes our learning theme with a wonderful example of Nourishment & The Table. Selma Miriam created a space for well being in so many women’s lives. Learn and share the story of Bloodroot a feminist, vegetarian, restaurant, and bookstore in Bridgeport Connecticut.

Katie continues our learning theme - Nourishment & the Table - by talking about the Queen of Creole Cuisine, Leah Chase. Learn why her restaurant, Dooky Chase, was named one of the 40 most important restaurants of the past 40 years by Food & Wine.

Amy Dalton is back on the show! Amy continues our learning theme - Nourishment & the Table by talking about The Black Forager, Alexis Nikole Nelson. Learn from this adorable forest fairy of a woman, all about how the outdoors are full of things we can eat and how we can have fun learning what is edible and what isn't.

Bonnie starts our learning theme - Nourishment & the Table by talking about Desert Person, Claire Saffitz. Claire's describes being a desert person as "an attitude; it's about embracing cooking and eating as fundamental sources of pleasure."