Welcome to Spark Me!

Spark Me

For women whose lives are full in every sense of the word.

You may have to walk the path. But you don’t have to walk it alone.

Good thing we brought some wine...and a sense of humor.

Your life is full. 

Full of people who need you and people you’d do anything for. Full of a career that demands everything and that you worked hard to build. Full of aging parents, kids who aren’t quite launched, a body that’s changing in ways nobody warned you about. Full of love and noise and responsibility and, somewhere underneath all of it, you. Still there. Still trying to figure it all out.

Spark Me is for that woman. 

The one who wants answers. Permission to be imperfect, to make hard choices that sometimes put her first, to say “this is a lot” and hear the response “we get it.”

We see you.

Every week, hosts Michele Dempsey and Liz Graham sit down with women who have something real to give — earned expertise, hard-won wisdom, and resources you can actually use. The kind of conversations that leave you with something. Not theory. Not advice that evaporates by Tuesday. Something that actually moves the needle in your real life.

It doesn’t stop when the episode ends. There’s a community here, online and in person, where women share what they know, lift each other up, and stop walking this path alone.

This is where full stops being a warning sign and starts being a source of power.

We’ve been waiting for you. Pull up a chair and welcome to Spark Me.

 

51
Sept. 16, 2026

The Connection Prescription with Dr Christine Kiesinger

What if your doctor checked your relationships the same way they check your blood pressure?
Dr. Christine Kiesinger returns as our very first repeat guest with an idea that reframes what we think we know about health. Commissioned by the George Washington Faculty Medical Group to write on the social connection pillar of lifestyle medicine, Christine argues that relational well-being belongs on the vital signs chart — right alongside weight, pulse, and blood pressure. She calls it the connection
50
Sept. 10, 2026

Never Say Never: Can a Machine Actually Create?

What if the most important skill in the age of AI isn't technical at all — it's curiosity?
In this Spark Short, Michele and Liz unpack their conversation with Heather Cybulski, the transformation consultant helping companies bring AI into their teams. What starts as a debrief quickly turns into one of the most honest conversations they've had on the show — two women in their second act trying to figure out what this technology actually means for their work, their kids, their creativity, and thei
49
Sept. 3, 2026

AI Is Moving Fast. You're Not Behind.

What if the thing standing between you and AI isn't the technology at all — it's just not knowing where to start?
Heather Cybulski helps some of the world's largest companies figure out what AI actually means for the people who work there. She's also built a twenty-year career at the front edge of technology while raising three kids in a small town in Northeastern Pennsylvania — which turns out to be its own lesson in designing a life on purpose.


Liz and Michele get into the thing most of us
48
Aug. 15, 2026

Medical Cannabis: Are You Medicating—or Numbing?

Medical Cannabis: Are You Medicating—or Numbing?
Michele lives with a conflict she cannot simplify: her sister has seen medical cannabis help patients move away from highly addictive medications, while Michele’s son used the same plant to numb emotional pain.


In this Spark Short, Liz and Michele ask the uncomfortable question at the center of the conversation:


when are we treating a real problem—and when are we avoiding the one underneath it?


They talk candidly about stigma, concerns ar
47
Aug. 6, 2026

Medicine, Motherhood, and Medical Marijuana

She built a career around one question: what do you want more?
For the first time on Spark Me, Michele interviews a sibling — her sister, Dr. MaryFrances Koester. And what starts as a conversation about becoming a doctor turns into something much bigger: a masterclass in pivoting, protecting your life, and knowing exactly what you're willing to trade.


MaryFrances knew in third grade she wanted to be a surgeon. She went through all of medical school with that single focus, applied for surgical
46
July 30, 2026

From the Corner Office to a Cubicle — and Back Again

What if the boldest move of your career is the one that looks like a step backward?
We're re-releasing one of our earliest and most-requested conversations. Dr. Karen Murphy, PhD, RN, graduated high school, got married eleven days later, and had her first child before most people had declared a major. Fifty years into that marriage — and a career that took her from ICU nurse to hospital CEO to Pennsylvania's Secretary of Health — she's still not done.


Karen spent three decades at Moses Taylor