From Sparks to Light - Inspiring Stories for Challenging Times

Joe Cuddemi and I travelled in similar circles in our college days, although we didn’t know each other well. After graduation we both ended up in Montana as Jesuit Volunteers; Joe was a teacher on the Fort Belknap Reservation while I was in Great Falls and then in Ashland on the Northern Cheyenne Reservation. We saw each other at retreats and I remember at least one wonderful afternoon riding horses together, but it wasn’t until this conversation that I had the chance to learn about his journey, about a searching to find his spark, the thing that gave his life meaning and purpose.

Joe grew up in Boston (you might hear evidence of that in this interview) in a big Italian family surrounded by grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins. Although his parents never went to college, His mother instilled in him the value of education, a lesson he took to heart. We talk about the experiences and people who helped guide him through more than 35 years of experience as a teacher, counselor, and principal. About staying humble and maintaining a learners mind. About the value of finding mentors and giving to others what was given to you. Teaching, after all, is about paying it forward.

Since 2015, he has been a national educational consultant serving hundreds of districts and schools across the country. Joe delivers keynotes, facilitates workshops and coaches educators in the PLC at Work process, Transforming School Culture, RTI at Work, Priority Schools and Social Emotional Learning.

Joe earned a bachelor’s degree in biology from Boston College, a master’s degree in the Art of Teaching Mathematics from Northern Arizona University and his principal licensure at Colorado State University. He lives in Thornton, Colorado with his wife Donna.

To learn more about Joe Cuddemi visit his page at Solution Tree
To learn more about Robert Maggio, the composer of our theme music, please check out his website.
To learn more about the inspiration for this podcast, please check out Suzanne's memoir, Estrellas - Moments of Illumination Along El Camino de Santiago.
Find Suzanne on Social Media

• https://www.suzannemaggio.com
• On Instagram: @mamasuzanna
• On Facebook: @suzannemaggioauthor
• On Twitter: @bottomofninth

To learn more about Robert Maggio, the composer of "Where Love is Love," our theme music, please check out his website.
To learn more about Suzanne, visit her website.

To learn more about the inspiration for this podcast, please check out Suzanne's memoir, Estrellas - Moments of Illumination Along El Camino de Santiago
Follow Suzanne on Social Media

• Instagram @suzannemaggio_author
• Facebook @ Suzanne Maggio author
• Threads @suzannemaggio_author

One of the greatest gifts of teaching is to watch a former student spread their wings in the world. Take the years of education, the life experience, the curiosity and passion they possess and find their place to shine. Today on the podcast we talk with former student, intern, colleague and friend Allison Murphy, someone I first met in the classroom more than 20 years ago. Allison is a clinician, founder and CEO of Mothers Care, a service provider for women during the prenatal and perinatal periods of pregnancy and delivery. In layman’s speak, Allison provides support during some of the most significant and extraordinary times in a woman’s life, when she is pregnant and in those first early months of motherhood.

The discovery that a woman is pregnant sets into motion a series of changes. For some, it is a time of great excitement and anticipation, for others, a time of anxiety, fear and worry. For many of us, a combination of all of these feelings and more. Yet society does not often create space for the latter, leaving the new mother feeling isolated and alone. Left untreated, these issues can cause serious problems. According to Mothers Care’s website, “Nationally, nearly 1 in 5 women struggle with maternal mental health disorders such as anxiety and depression, yet most go untreated (2020mom). Additionally, 1 in 10 Dads will experience depression postpartum (Postpartum.net). The COVID-19 pandemic has only exacerbated mental health struggles. According to The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) August 2020 findings, 40.9% of U.S. adults reported struggling with poor mental health.”

The mother of two, Allison recognized the need for support for women who struggle during this difficult time. In 2010 she began to work with a local OB/GYN, hoping to build a partnership and create a lifeline for those facing challenges. Her commitment and hard work paid off. Now, after years of diligence and dedication, Mothers Care is a thriving service provider in partnership with a host of local OB/GYNs, mid-wives, pediatricians and healthcare providers.

Allison received her Bachelor of Arts from George Mason University, her Master of Arts from Sonoma State University, and she completed post-graduate training at the Family Institute of Marin with a focus on Family Therapy. She has over 30 years of experience working in clinical settings with individuals, families and couples. She is an Adverse Childhood Experience (ACE) Interface Master Trainer and sits on committees for the Sonoma County Mental Health Services Act and Sonoma County Nurse Family Partnership. Allison’s experience includes instructing at Sonoma State University, consulting, training, and presenting to state and local organizations on the topic of perinatal mood and anxiety disorders; and co-hosting a community public radio program.

She is the proud mother of two children and the grandmother of a beautiful baby boy. Allison lives in Petaluma, California with her husband Jack.
To learn more about Allison's work and Mothers Care, please visit their website.
To learn more about Robert Maggio, the composer of our the

To learn more about Robert Maggio, the composer of "Where Love is Love," our theme music, please check out his website.
To learn more about Suzanne, visit her website.

To learn more about the inspiration for this podcast, please check out Suzanne's memoir, Estrellas - Moments of Illumination Along El Camino de Santiago
Follow Suzanne on Social Media

• Instagram @suzannemaggio_author
• Facebook @ Suzanne Maggio author
• Threads @suzannemaggio_author

Today we’re talking to D’Lynda Fischer, a city council member for the city of Petaluma, a community in northern California about 45 minutes north of the Golden Gate Bridge. But the truth is, this could be a conversation about any community across America, and many places in the world as well. This is a conversation about climate, about our environment and the steps we can take to make a difference in the world we live in. We talk about honoring the planet and paying attention to the choices we make. It’s about living intentionally so that our children, grandchildren and the generations to come have a place to call home.

I learned so much during this conversation. For one thing, (and I’m slightly embarrassed to admit this) I’ve never actually been to a city council meeting, in this city or in any other of the many places I’ve lived. Perhaps I should have, because the more we know about what goes on at city hall, the more we can demand that our elected officials make decisions that benefit all of us. This conversation allowed things to come together for me, like the pieces of a puzzle that I’d struggled to understand. Does recycling really matter? Are paper straws better than plastic? It all felt so insignificant, but this conversation left me feeling energized, with actual steps I can take to help my community become carbon neutral and it left me wanting to learn more.

D’Lynda grew up in a politically active family in the foothills of Anchorage, Alaska. She became an adult while living in New York City and migrated to Southern California where she had a successful career as an Urban Planning Consultant. She moved to Sonoma County nine years ago and worked as a consultant to non-profit environmental organizations. She is passionate about healthy food systems, connected communities, and being a leader in this changing world.
To learn more about D'Lynda Fischer you can check out her website.
To learn about the Cool City Challenge, check out coolpetaluma.org.
Read Social Change 2.0 - A Blueprint for Reinventing our World by David Gershon.
To learn more about Robert Maggio, the composer of our theme music, please check out his website.
To learn more about the inspiration for this podcast, please check out Suzanne's memoir, Estrellas - Moments of Illumination Along El Camino de Santiago.
Find Suzanne on Social Media

• https://www.suzannemaggio.com
• On Instagram: @mamasuzanna
• On Facebook: @suzannemaggioauthor
• On Twitter: @bottomofninth

To learn more about Robert Maggio, the composer of "Where Love is Love," our theme music, please check out his website.
To learn more about Suzanne, visit her website.

To learn more about the inspiration for this podcast, please check out Suzanne's memoir, Estrellas - Moments of Illumination Along El Camino de Santiago
Follow Suzanne on Social Media

• Instagram @suzannemaggio_author
• Facebook @ Suzanne Maggio author
• Threads @suzannemaggio_author

Today on the podcast we’re talking to Mark Rimple, a musician, educator, composer, performer, union member, father and all around deep thinker. I met Mark through my brother Robert. They’re colleagues in the music department at West Chester College in Pennsylvania.

Mark is one of those people who has a passion for learning. It’s evident from the earliest moments of his life when a young friend introduced him to The Beatles and he never looked back. He absorbed music into his soul, and became an accomplished guitarist with a deep love for medieval and renaissance music.

In this conversation we talk about teaching. About the relationship between teacher and student. About the challenges of a pay for play educational system and the challenges that two years of Covid impacted education present in the classroom. Mark spent many years involved in union work, advocating for his colleagues in an environment that hasn’t always treated its members with the respect and dignity they deserve. Union work allowed Mark to feel like he was making a difference, especially in a world where problems often feel too big and unwieldly to do much about.

But my favorite part of this conversation is the discovery that despite working in different disciplines, Mark and I do much the same thing. We teach people to listen. We talk about how critical it is to learn to hear the music of life, from the harmonious tones to the dissident ones, and our shared belief that it is only in learning to listen to one another that we will truly heal what ails us.

Mark Rimple is a composer, lutenist and countertenor in addition to his many other talents. His work has garnered critical notice for his interpretation of early music from national newspapers and journals including the Philadelphia Inquirer, The New York Times, the Chicago Tribune, The Washington Post, Early Music America, and Early Music (UK). He principally plays medieval and Renaissance lute, archlute, gittern, citole, psaltery, cittern, and viol.

He is a founding member of the vocal-instrumental ensemble TREFOIL. Mark has recorded early and new music as countertenor and lutenist with the Newberry Consort, Trefoil, Seven Times Salt, and Cygnus Ensemble and has performed with The Pennsylvania Ballet Orchestra and Curtis Orchestra (on mandolin), The Philadelphia Chamber Orchestra (lute), Network for New Music (lute, guitar, mandolin) and The Philadelphia Classical Symphony (guitar).

Mark principally plays medieval and Renaissance lute, archlute, gittern, citole, psaltery, He earned his Doctorate and Masters degrees from Temple University and his Bachelors degree from University of the Arts. He is a Professor of Music Theory and Composition at The Wells School of Music at West Chester University of Pennsylvania.
You can learn more about him by visiting his website

To learn more about Robert Maggio, the composer of "Where Love is Love," our theme music, please check out his website.
To learn more about Suzanne, visit her website.

To learn more about the inspiration for this podcast, please check out Suzanne's memoir, Estrellas - Moments of Illumination Along El Camino de Santiago
Follow Suzanne on Social Media

• Instagram @suzannemaggio_author
• Facebook @ Suzanne Maggio author
• Threads @suzannemaggio_author

Traei Tsai was 6 years old when her family emigrated from Taipei, Taiwan to make a new start in Vancouver, Canada. New to a country and community where they didn’t speak the language, Traei began school where, for the first time in her life, she began to recognize that she was different. Some othe the children teased her, and to manage the discomfort she found solace in books. She began learning English through reading, even though her grasp of the language was still tenuous. In books she found the power of sharing a story, a way to open oneself to world where a different way of being was possible. She was grateful to her teachers and recalls a time when a teacher corrected her after she’d read aloud. “She did it with such grace,” she said, not shaming her in any way.

Perhaps not surprisingly, Traei found her voice in sharing the stories of others. On her podcast Her Stories Untold, she shares stories from women from various walks of life as a way to build connection to the ordinary (and extraordinary) lives we all lead. As an actress and filmmaker she aims to open hearts and minds to the challenges that exist in the world around us. Film has the ability to break us open, encouraging us to think about things differently, and then, perhaps, to shape our actions to make the world a better place.

Traei Tsai is a Taiwanese-Canadian multi-talented artist based in Vancouver, Canada, who gained recognition for her role in the globe’s first "Corona Movie," which in addition to the subject of the film’s title, explored issues of racism and xenophobia. As the Vice-President of the BC Minorities in Film & TV Society, she champions diversity in the film industry, advocating for representation both in front of and behind the camera. Traei speaks seven languages with varying degrees of fluency, including English, Mandarin, Cantonese, Japanese, French, Taiwanese, and Russian. She is currently developing new digital art series to promote harmonious living and is in pre-development on several documentary, web series, and TV/film projects.

To learn more about Robert Maggio, the composer of "Where Love is Love," our theme music, please check out his website.
To learn more about Suzanne, visit her website.

To learn more about the inspiration for this podcast, please check out Suzanne's memoir, Estrellas - Moments of Illumination Along El Camino de Santiago
Follow Suzanne on Social Media

• Instagram @suzannemaggio_author
• Facebook @ Suzanne Maggio author
• Threads @suzannemaggio_author