The Morning Glory Project
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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. Some are activists, some are entrepreneurs. Some are artists, others champions for their cause. These are the candid, authentic stories of inspiring people with stories of determination.
Morning Glory People inspire me; I just know they’ll inspire you too.
Interviews Coming Soon!
04/03/2024
Leah Lax
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. Though 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.
Find out more about her at:
05/01/2024
Cara Brown
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 crushin 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.
The Morning Glory Project Team
Host – Betsy Graziani Fasbinder
As host of The MGP, Betsy Graziani Fasbinder brings her background as a storyteller and her 30+ years of experience as a therapist, writing coach, and speaking coach to every conversation. In these interviews she explores the stories of survivors, thrivers, innovators, and trailblazers of all kinds, trying to understand the tools and insights they’ve used to cope with, and overcome the heartbreaks, losses, obstacles, and traumas they’ve experienced.
Betsy coaches writers of both memoir and fiction, helping them to get their stories out of their heads and onto the page. She is a public speaking coach, assisting both the bold and the bashful to find skill and confidence in front of audiences of any size.
She is the author of Fire & Water (a novel), Filling Her Shoes (a memoir), and From Page to Stage: Inspiration, Tools, and Public Speaking Tips for Writers. She has a novel in progress, slated for publication in August 2021. The working title is The Anatomy of Lightning.
Find out more on betsygrazianifasbinder.com.
Why Morning Glories?
Morning glories are beautiful flowers, but for me, they are much more than that. They are nature’s inspiration for determination and a symbol of endurance.
Any gardener knows these beauties to be among the most tenacious of vines, so dedicated to life that they reach over, under, around, and through any obstacle in their path in order to find the light they need to flourish and blossom. They’ll crawl through rubble and darkness, over thorny obstacles, always determined to find light. Even when you try to chop them down, morning glories sprout again, their blossoms a symbol of their survival.
Like these beautiful, formidable, indomitable blooms, Morning Glory People endure, reach for the light, survive, and thrive.
Co-Producer – Angela Washington
Angela comes from the world of journalism, starting her career in Monroe Louisiana as a reporter for Gannet News Service and at the News Star World where she was honored with the Louisiana Press Association’s “Best Breaking News Coverage Award”. She continued her work in San Francisco where she worked in commercial post-production work, leading Clio Award-winning projects, and later as an Executive Producer in corporate promotions for companies including Nike, EA Sports, and Coca Cola. In 2012 Angela hosted and produced her passion project: The Simple Truth, a live-streaming talk show focused on professional, personal, and spiritual balance, featuring guests such as Angela Alioto and Golden State Warrior Alvin Attles.
Today, Angela runs her own social media and event consulting company, producing and promoting events for organizations and individuals doing work that she believes makes the world a better place, particularly for seniors and other vulnerable people.
Angela is a marathon runner, and frequent walker on San Francisco’s steepest stair-cased sidewalks, and a proud mom of two amazing and successful adults.