Breaking Glass

Nasreen Sheikh was born into a rural village in Nepal to a family struggling to survive. The desperation of her upbringing drove her to work in a sweatshop as a young child where she lived and worked in a 10x10 foot room alongside 5 other people. After escaping child labor, she founded Women’s Local Handicraft to disrupt the manufacturing supply chain and create meaningful work and living wages for Nepali women. Despite beating the odds, Nasreen still wasn't free. As a young adult she found herself being forced into an arranged marriage which she managed to escape only by hiding on the day of the ceremony and petitioning village elders to dissolve the marriage. Nasreen joins us to reflect on the obstacles that she’s faced as a young girl born into extreme poverty, and why she feels compelled to shed a light on the lives of more than 250 million individuals still trapped in modern slavery. 

Breaking Glass is a production of Evoke Media, a nonprofit organization that exists in order to elevate the people and stories working to make the world a more unified and equitable place. To join a global conversation about gender equality:

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Do you ever find yourself wondering who the personalities are behind these voices on Breaking Glass? This one's for you. Today we're pulling back the curtain and co-hosts Sabrina and Kassia are getting personal. We're rambling about the complexity of podcasting, the mess of motherhood, and how in the world we ended up in partnership with one another on this show. Kassia opens up about trying to raise empathetic children and her crush on old men, while Sabrina reflects on the profound impact of her gap year and her global goals for this show. Together, we vow to do a better job weaving our own stories into this global conversation about womanhood.

Breaking Glass is a production of Evoke Media, a nonprofit organization that exists in order to elevate the people and stories working to make the world a more unified and equitable place. To join a global conversation about gender equality:

• Sign up for our Tits & Tats newsletter rounding up whit and resources on gender equity
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Sandra Pepera is a Ghanaian woman raised in Britain by parents who were deeply committed to girls' education. No stranger to the experience of being a minority in the room, Sandra is a campaigner at heart and has dedicated her life to equity and justice work. Today, she is a renowned an expert in international development, democracy, and gender equity. The Director for Gender, Women, and Democracy at the National Democratic Institute in Washington D.C., she works tirelessly to help women overcome barriers to their equal and active political participation all over the world. We're talking tokenism, quotas, politics, as well as how to engage our sons in issues of gender equity. Typically constrained by professionalism and diplomacy, we're excited to share Sandra's story completely unleashed.

Breaking Glass is a production of Evoke Media, a nonprofit organization that exists in order to elevate the people and stories working to make the world a more unified and equitable place. To join a global conversation about gender equality:

• Sign up for our Tits & Tats newsletter rounding up whit and resources on gender equity
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Chrissy Powers was 13 years-old when her father brought home a purity ring and sat her down to talk about the importance of waiting until marriage. Purity culture was the norm in her Evangelical Church community but the burden of shame and guilt that was placed on her as a young girl led to years of eating disorders and anxiety. Now, as a licensed family and marriage counselor, and married with kids herself, she is going back to her roots to deconstruct the damaging effects of idolizing purity and attaching shame to sex, the joys of finding pleasure in her own body, and how she'll do things differently for her kids. 

Breaking Glass is a production of Evoke Media, a nonprofit organization that exists in order to elevate the people and stories working to make the world a more unified and equitable place. To join a global conversation about gender equality:

• Sign up for our Tits & Tats newsletter rounding up whit and resources on gender equity
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In this special Father's Day episode we sit down with Sabrina's father, David Merage. A successful businessman, immigrant, and philanthropist, David reflects on his roots in a patriarchal society and the strong women whom he looked up to as a child. We discuss his duality as an Iranian Jew living in America, a successful entrepreneur whose family had meager means, and a conservative businessman with progressive social values. We press him to explain his perspective on women's rights, why he's willing to leverage his resources for policy change around early childcare, and why he believes that women should have paid maternity leave but why he's not quite comfortable calling himself a feminist.

Breaking Glass is a production of Evoke Media, a nonprofit organization that exists in order to elevate the people and stories working to make the world a more unified and equitable place. To join a global conversation about gender equality:

• Sign up for our Tits & Tats newsletter rounding up whit and resources on gender equity
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Kristina Wilfore and Lucina Di Meco are global experts and passionate advocates for women’s digital rights. With more than 800 million people using the internet as a primary source of information, these ladies are critically concerned about the number of intentional and fraudulent attacks against female politicians and journalists online. The rise of gendered disinformation to undermine women in leadership and deter women from running for political office is pervasive. Kristina and Lucina reflect on individual and social consequences of these strategic digital attacks on women, how they're working to bring public awareness with their inititiave, #ShePersisted, and why social media companies should be held accountable.

Breaking Glass is a production of Evoke Media, a nonprofit organization that exists in order to elevate the people and stories working to make the world a more unified and equitable place. To join a global conversation about gender equality:

• Sign up for our Tits & Tats newsletter rounding up whit and resources on gender equity
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Carli Lloyd was headed into her tenth season of professional volleyball when she found out she and her long-term partner were pregnant. This deeply personal news came at a high professional cost. Carli and her partner didn’t even get a chance to process this news personally before it was thrust into the public view and her contract was swiftly cancelled. Traumatic as it was, Carli’s story isn’t unusual. She joins us to reflect on women’s rights in professional athletics and the culture shifts being seen across some sports to mandate pregnancy policies and protect maternity leave for mothers. 

Breaking Glass is a production of Evoke Media, a nonprofit organization that exists in order to elevate the people and stories working to make the world a more unified and equitable place. To join a global conversation about gender equality:

• Sign up for our Tits & Tats newsletter rounding up whit and resources on gender equity
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Aminata Conteh-Biger grew up in a well-off family in the capital of Sierra Leone where her father prioritized education and opportunities for his six daughters. She had a happy and protected childhood until a truly devastating civil war broke out in her country resulting in the deaths of more than 50,000 individuals. She herself was kidnapped for seven months before fleeing as a refugee to Australia. Aminata’s own story of survival doesn’t end with the war. After rebuilding her life in Sydney, Aminata endured the traumatic birth of her first child which ignited a passion for maternal health. The founder of Aminata Maternal Foundation, Aminata has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars and changed thousands of women's lives in Sierra Leone, which has some of the worst child and maternal mortality rates in the world.

Breaking Glass is a production of Evoke Media, a nonprofit organization that exists in order to elevate the people and stories working to make the world a more unified and equitable place. To join a global conversation about gender equality:

• Sign up for our Tits & Tats newsletter rounding up whit and resources on gender equity
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After years of working in male-dominated industries, Heide Iravani and Emily Clifford co-founded Piccolina, a lifestyle brand dedicated to empowering today’s young children to become tomorrow’s leaders and problem-solvers. These renegade entrepreneurs share their experiences of how becoming mothers inspired them to take the leap and launch a business that disrupts the way we think about fashion choices for our children and the messages they receive early on in life. We talk about the gender boxes we place around our children, the stereotypes and career paths that constrain them, and what we can do as parents to inspire creativity and equity in the next generation.

Breaking Glass is a production of Evoke Media, a nonprofit organization that exists in order to elevate the people and stories working to make the world a more unified and equitable place. To join a global conversation about gender equality:

• Sign up for our Tits & Tats newsletter rounding up whit and resources on gender equity
• Follow along on Instagram at ...

Ester Steinberg has been in the comedy circuit since she was 16 years-old trying to make her way on stage at the one comedy club in Tampa, Fl. The message she received? No girls allowed. She then made her way to Los Angeles before settling with her comedian husband and their son in New York. Ester brings some levity and comedic anecdotes to what it’s like for a woman and a new mother in the world of stand up comedy. She’s reflecting on how she’s approached her career during parenthood and the pandemic, as well as both the sexism she’s endured as a female comedian, and the humor she's found in the mess of motherhood.

Breaking Glass is a production of Evoke Media, a nonprofit organization that exists in order to elevate the people and stories working to make the world a more unified and equitable place. To join a global conversation about gender equality:

• Sign up for our Tits & Tats newsletter rounding up whit and resources on gender equity
• Follow along on Instagram at ...