Ana Hebra Flaster was nearly six when her family fled Cuba and settled in Nashua, New Hampshire. After graduating from Smith College and enjoying a career in software consulting, she began her writing career. Her writing about Cuba and Cuban Americans has appeared in the The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe and elsewhere.

Her commentaries and storytelling have aired on NPR’s All Things Considered and PBS’s Stories from the Stage.

Property of the Revolution, her first book, was shortlisted for the 2023 Restless Book’s New Immigrant Writing Prize and the 2022 Cintas Creative Writing Fellowship.

After forty years in the Boston area, she recently moved to southern New Hampshire with her family. When she’s not writing, Ana loves birdwatching, walking in the woods, and digging in her garden.

Cuba Curious Substack

https://anahflaster.substack.com/

Amazon buy page

https://tinyurl.com/y39pzkzm

Ana Hebra Flaster Personal Website

https://anacubana.com/

Lena Fein is an author, retired engineer, and philanthropist based in San Francisco. A graduate of Engineering at UC Berkeley, Lena spent decades as Vice President of Sales and Marketing at a successful high tech company. When Lena was fifty-one, her mother died which propelled Lena on a path of healing from childhood abuse and trauma. Her debut memoir, Shattering the Mirror, explores her transformative journey to wholeness. Lena believes it is never too late to reclaim your freedom and truth. Now in her late sixties, Lena can often be found taking long walks by the San Francisco Bay and hugging her grandchildren. Executive Producer Jake Landry.

Hello Co-journeyers! Nancy Shear, author of I Knew a Man Who Knew Brahms, was only fifteen when she began sneaking into Philadelphia Orchestra concerts through the stage door, and seventeen when she was hired as a member of the orchestra’s library staff to help prepare the music; one year later, she became Leopold Stokowski’s musical assistant. Being young and female, she was a pioneer in both positions.

It is a privilege to share with you my conversation with Nancy that is both inspiring and insightful. Where she takes us into rehearsals and concert halls, revealing the choices musicians must consider, and what conductors, players, and composers really do.

Executive Producer Jake Landry