- 57
- Episodes
- 14
- Ratings
- Weekly
- Cadence
- 2025
- First episode
About Spark Me
Spark Me was born out of countless honest talks with girlfriends about how life keeps shifting — and how incredible it is when women support each other through it. Co-hosts Michele Dempsey and Liz Graham bring humor, heart, and just the right amount of “did-we-really-just-say-that?” honesty to real conversations about careers, family, identity, health, relationships — and all the curveballs life throws in between.
- Publisher
- Spark Me Podcast
- Category
- society & culture
- Language
- en
- Explicit
- No
- First episode
- 2 Sept 2025
- Latest episode
- 28 Oct 2026
Latest episodes
57 episodes in the feed.
28 Oct 2026
Leave the Bag. Get on the Plane
What would you leave behind to get on the plane? For Amy Conner-Murphy, the answer was her suitcase, and it changed how she sees everything. Michele's friend Amy Conner-Murphy is an architect, interior designer and founder of ACM Designs in Asheville, North Carolina. She's also a mom of two, a gardener, a watercolor painter, a runner, a cyclist and a dog lover. Amy shares the childhood memory she pieced together decades later: watching from her crib as her granddaddy built a bathroom onto the family farmhouse. She talks about the summer her parents set her up to shadow friends at work, and the architect's office that just felt right. She started architecture school at Auburn at 17 and never looked back. Liz gets to ask two architects a question she's always wondered about: how do you even start designing someone's home? Michele tells the story of the house she designed for her parents, built around a coal breaker in honor of her grandfather, who left school in fifth grade to work in the mines. Amy explains why her client questionnaire asks whether you're a night owl or a morning person. Amy also talks about building a firm almost by accident while raising her daughters, why the business side is her least favorite part, and what she's learned by taking a tile class with the trades. Then it goes deeper. Amy describes Hurricane Helene's impact on Asheville: the loss, the grief, and the community that came together to rebuild. She shares what decades inside people's homes have taught her about what people really want. And she tells the story of the morning she left her suitcase in the car, got on the plane anyway, and found one of the most freeing weeks of her life. In this episode you'll learn: What makes a house a home, and why it always starts with story How Michele turned a coal breaker into a family home her parents loved to the end The unexpected questions Amy asks clients, and what they reveal How caring for young children taught Amy how a home really works Why the business side of running a firm is so different from the work itself How learning from builders and tradespeople makes a designer better What Hurricane Helene revealed about loss and the human spirit Why, in this stage of life, it's worth caring less about what everyone else thinks How one decision in an airport parking lot opened up a week of unexpected joy Resources from this episode: ACM Design (https://www.acm-designs.com/) Our episode with Beth Twohy (https://www.sparkmepodcast.com/lift-as-you-climb-career-community-and-courage/) Keep sparking If this conversation resonated with you: Follow Spark Me wherever you listen to podcasts so you never miss an episode Share this episode with the friend who overpacks (or the one who needs permission to just go) Leave a rating or review. It helps other women in their second act discover the show. Tag us and tell us: what would you leave behind to get on the plane?
21 Oct 2026
Why Don’t We Check Mental Health Like a Physical?
Before kids go back to school, they get a physical and their shots. So why aren't we checking on their mental health too? In this Spark Short, Michele and Liz unpack their conversation with Dr. Maria Montoro Edwards, President and CEO of Maternal and Family Health Services. Michele has worked alongside Maria as the architect of the circle of care, and she shares what makes Maria such a decisive leader. They talk about the full-circle moment of a woman whose family once used WIC now running the largest WIC provider in Pennsylvania, and why treating mental health as part of whole-person care matters so much, for new moms and for everyone else. Michele takes us inside the circle of care in Scranton, a former silk mill. She describes how the design team turned MFHS's vision into a space that's dignified, easy to navigate even if you can't read the signs, and private for those who need behavioral health care. She also shares the litmus test she uses at the end of every project. Liz tells the story of a board chair who returned federal money nobody had ever returned before. Together they dig into decisiveness, paralysis by analysis, and Michele's childhood nickname, "Yeah, but what if." Then the conversation wanders, in the best way. They admit they don't really know what a midwife does, and they want to hear from you if you've had a midwife birth. Liz wonders why there's no women's version of the men's health clinic she visited with her dad. And they close on a theme guest after guest keeps coming back to: you don't have to blow up your life. A small tweak to the rudder can turn a big ship. In this episode you'll learn: Why mental health belongs in whole-person care, from postpartum to back-to-school How the circle of care was designed so its building tells you who MFHS is The litmus test Michele uses to judge a finished designWhy decisive leaders beat paralysis by analysis, and how to quiet your inner "yeah, but what if" What one woman's choice to return federal money says about leadership Why women deserve a health care experience designed for them How small shifts, not big blowups, can redesign a life that isn't working Resources from this episode: Our full conversation with Dr. Maria Montoro Edwards — https://www.sparkmepodcast.com/we-feel-like-we-have-to-be-wonder-woman/ (https://www.sparkmepodcast.com/we-feel-like-we-have-to-be-wonder-woman/) Maternal and Family Health Services — https://mfhs.org/ (https://mfhs.org/) WIC eligibility calculator — https://www.fna.usda.gov/wic/eligibility-tool (https://www.fna.usda.gov/wic/eligibility-tool) Circle of Care, Scranton — https://mfhs.org/locations/mfhs-circle-of-care/ (https://mfhs.org/locations/mfhs-circle-of-care/) National Maternal Mental Health Hotline: 1-833-TLC-MAMA (1-833-852-6262), free and confidential, 24/7 Episodes mentioned: Heather Cybulski (https://www.sparkmepodcast.com/ai-is-moving-fast-youre-not-behind/), Michele's sister (https://www.sparkmepodcast.com/medicine-motherhood-and-medical-marijuana/), and Beth Twohy (https://www.sparkmepodcast.com/lift-as-you-climb-career-community-and-courage/) — Keep sparking If this conversation resonated with you: Follow Spark Me wherever you listen to podcasts so you never miss a Spark Short Share this episode with the friend who's always saying "yeah, but what if" Leave a rating or review. It helps other women in their second act discover the show. Have you given birth with a midwife, or with both a midwife and a doctor? Tag us and tell us what it was like. We might just do a whole episode on it.
14 Oct 2026
We Feel Like We Have to Be Wonder Woman
Why is it so hard for women to ask for help? Dr. Maria Montoro Edwards thinks it’s because we believe we have to be Wonder Woman. Michele and Liz sit down with their friend Dr. Maria Montoro Edwards, President and CEO of Maternal and Family Health Services. MFHS provides health care, nutrition, education and support to more than 100,000 women, men and children across 17 counties in eastern Pennsylvania. Maria is the oldest of eight siblings, all with names starting with M, and she studied to be a freelance illustrator before discovering a knack for grant writing. She shares the secret she learned as a grant reviewer for the National Science Foundation: less is more. Get to the point. Maria explains how MFHS grew from a 1971 family planning grant into the largest WIC provider in Pennsylvania. She walks through the circle of care in Scranton, a maternity medical home where a mom can get prenatal care, nutrition support, ultrasounds, dental care, behavioral health counseling and more under one roof, on a bus route. (Full disclosure: Michele was the architect.) Maria talks about why the building opened debt-free, why preterm births among MFHS clients are dropping, and why so many families who qualify for WIC never sign up. Then it gets harder. Maria serves on the Pennsylvania Maternal Mortality Review Committee, and she describes what it’s like to review the deaths of mothers and ask where the ball was dropped. So often, she says, the missing piece is a warm handoff. She talks about the trauma many women don’t recognize as trauma, the stigma around postpartum depression, and why a single broken-down car can tip a hardworking family over the edge. She also gets personal about single parenthood, how hormone replacement therapy lifted her out of a fog, and the advice she’d give her younger self. In this episode you’ll learn: What Maternal and Family Health Services offers, from first period through menopause Why so many families who qualify for WIC never use it, and how to check if you qualify How putting care under one roof is helping lower preterm birth rates What the Pennsylvania Maternal Mortality Review Committee does, and the warm handoff that could save lives Why it’s okay to ask for help with postpartum depression and anxiety, and where to find it How MFHS offers confidential reproductive health services to young adults The grant-writing secret that also makes you a better leader: less is more Why delegating is a gift to your team, not a weakness How to quiet imposter syndrome by talking to yourself like a friend Resources from this episode: Maternal and Family Health Services — https://mfhs.org/ (https://mfhs.org/) WIC eligibility calculator — https://www.fna.usda.gov/wic/eligibility-tool (https://www.fna.usda.gov/wic/eligibility-tool) Circle of Care, Scranton — https://mfhs.org/locations/mfhs-circle-of-care/ (https://mfhs.org/locations/mfhs-circle-of-care/) Nurse-Family Partnership — Link (http://changent.org/?gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=950949778&gbraid=0AAAAAD9b-w1cGp2WScabbkkJboEHtQLwu&gclid=CjwKCAjwrbfWBhAeEiwAc2e6PgIZlCsE8ousgmgPE8nbW8E8rOb7UPH8EdbMxSVDpGA29pokWpNh_BoCnGEQAvD_BwE) Healthy MOMS at The Wright Center — https://thewrightcenter.org/services/healthy-moms/ (https://thewrightcenter.org/services/healthy-moms/) Pennsylvania Maternal Mortality Review Committee — https://www.pa.gov/agencies/health/programs/maternal-health-and-infant-care/maternal-mortality/mmrc (https://www.pa.gov/agencies/health/programs/maternal-health-and-infant-care/maternal-mortality/mmrc) CASA of Luzerne County — https://luzernecasa.org/ (https://luzernecasa.org/) Volunteer with or donate to MFHS — https://luzernecasa.org/ (https://luzernecasa.org/) National Maternal Mental Health Hotline: 1-833-TLC-MAMA (1-833-852-6262) Keep sparking If this conversation resonated with you: Follow Spark Me wherever you listen to podcasts so you never miss an episode Share this episode with a new mom, or with the friend who never asks for help Leave a rating or review. It helps other women in their second act discover the show. Tag us and tell us: what would you say to your younger self?
Reach and audience
Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.
- Apple Podcasts (US)
- 5.0 / 5
- 10 ratings
- Spotify
- 5.0 / 5
- 4 ratings
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