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.

 

5
Oct. 28, 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
4
Oct. 21, 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 l
3
Oct. 14, 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
2
Oct. 8, 2026

I Couldn't Leave Without My Dog

Would you leave a dangerous home if it meant leaving your dog behind? Liz isn't sure she would be able to, and that's why this conversation stuck with her.
In this Spark Short, Michele and Liz unpack their conversation with Lisa Fuller of the SPCA of Luzerne County and everything it changed for them. Michele walked in picturing the cartoon dog catcher and the pound, and walked out with her view flipped a complete 180.


Liz was surprised to learn the SPCA runs almost entirely on community donat
1
Sept. 30, 2026

More Than Rescue: What Animals Teach Us About Being Human

What really happens after an animal comes through the shelter door?
Lisa Fuller has been rescuing animals since she was a kid growing up with a dad everyone called Dr. Doolittle. Today she chairs the board of the SPCA of Luzerne County and opens her home to senior and hospice dogs so their last chapter is a happy one. She has seven at home right now.


In this conversation, Liz and Michele go behind the scenes of animal rescue, and it is a lot more than adoptions. Lisa walks through hoarding an
52
Sept. 23, 2026

You Can Have Everyone and Still Feel Alone

What if a relationship check-in belonged on your annual physical, right next to everything else you dread?
In this Spark Short, Michele and Liz unpack their conversation with Dr. Christine Kiesinger and what stuck with them afterward.


Liz walks away with a genuine mindset shift — she's always known to schedule the physical and the colonoscopy, but it never occurred to her to check in on the health of her relationships with the same discipline. Michele focuses on the piece she didn't get from