{"podcast":{"title":"Becoming Your Best Version","slug":"becoming-your-best-version-3288450","podcast_index_feed_id":3288450,"rss_url":"https://anchor.fm/s/54765080/podcast/rss","website_url":"https://www.marialeonardolsen.com/","image_url":"https://d3t3ozftmdmh3i.cloudfront.net/production/podcast_uploaded/14070400/14070400-1653618081522-158301d87ef86.jpg","author":"Maria Leonard Olsen","episode_count":271,"summary":"Award-winning podcast about living your best life, by Maria Leonard Olsen & her inspiring guests. Maria is a lawyer/journalist/author who seeks to amplify women's voices to share about their lives, work & life lessons. She graduated from Boston College & Univ. of Virginia Law. She served in the Clinton Justice Dept. and is a lawyer in Washington, D.C. Her latest book, 50 After 50--Reframing the Next Chapter of Your Life, has helped thousands reinvigorate their lives. Maria is a two-time TEDx speaker and one of her Talks was chosen as a TEDx Editor’s Pick, a designation given to fewer than 1% of TEDx Talks. See MariaLeonardOlsen.com and follow @FiftyAfter50","last_synced_at":null,"page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/becoming-your-best-version-3288450"},"episode":{"title":"A Conversation with Harper Bailey, a Powerful Storyteller Whose Memoir Charts a Path Towards Wholeness","slug":"a-conversation-with-harper-bailey-a-powerful-storyteller-whose-memoir-charts-a-path-towards-wholeness","published_at":"2026-03-20T12:00:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/becoming-your-best-version-3288450/a-conversation-with-harper-bailey-a-powerful-storyteller-whose-memoir-charts-a-path-towards-wholeness","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/becoming-your-best-version-3288450","url":"https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/maria-leonard-olsen/episodes/A-Conversation-with-Harper-Bailey--a-Powerful-Storyteller-Whose-Memoir-Charts-a-Path-Towards-Wholeness-e333osm","audio_url":"https://traffic.megaphone.fm/APO6381277347.mp3","summary":"Harper A. Bailey is the pen name of Dr. Tiosha Bailey, a Chicago native, public health leader and powerful storyteller who challenges the status quo. She manifests dreams through grief and creativity. She was the first Black woman to lead a prominent national women's healthcare nonprofit, where she prioritized health equity and amplified the voices of underserved communities. Her first book, It Was Her: A Memoir —featuring a foreword by renowned motivational speaker Lisa Nichols—invites readers into a deeply personal story shaped by loss, resilience and transformation. Through honest and compelling storytelling, Harper explores identity, healing and the courage it takes to reclaim your narrative. It Was Her is more than a memoir about endurance; it is a testament to the human spirit’s remarkable capacity to heal when we dare to listen to what truly calls us. Bailey’s voice offers a compelling invitation to anyone who has ever felt broken by life’s demands to discover resilience, extend forgiveness, and pursue renewal. It invites readers to lean into the uncomfortable, to find grace in the ordinary and to believe that the darkest chapters can become the prologue to a brighter, more authentic life. As a speaker, Harper brings clarity, depth and humor to conversations about leadership, purpose and the lived experiences of Black women. She connects with audiences through truth-telling and a passion for creating spaces where people feel seen, heard and empowered. In this episode, we discuss: The dream that sparked the book and how grief became a surprising creative catalyst What allowed Harper to finish the book quickly while processing deep emotional pain The decision to include personal journal entries and the intimacy they added to the story How reframing trauma opened s…","meta_description":"Harper A. Bailey is the pen name of Dr. Tiosha Bailey, a Chicago native, public health leader and powerful storyteller who challenges the status quo. She…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":1658,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/becoming-your-best-version-3288450/episodes/a-conversation-with-harper-bailey-a-powerful-storyteller-whose-memoir-charts-a-path-towards-wholeness/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/becoming-your-best-version-3288450/a-conversation-with-harper-bailey-a-powerful-storyteller-whose-memoir-charts-a-path-towards-wholeness.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}