March 2026 brings International Women’s Month as well as the 6th anniversary of the Thought Sparks Podcast. In the spirit of celebration, we’d like to share the women who have joined the Thought Sparks Podcast to share their expertise and experience as leaders, scientists, activists, scholars, artists, and executives.
The Thought Sparks Podcast is available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, and anywhere else podcasts are found.
Arts + Media
Julia Boorstin – CNBC Media & Tech correspondent, author of When Women Lead
Jaye Fenderson – documentary filmmaker behind The Class
Dessa – musician, rapper, former record executive
Industry Leaders
Sharon Price John (2022 episode) – CEO of Build a Bear Workshop
Cheryl McKissack Daniel – author of The Black Family That Built America
Jean Oelwang – CEO of Virgin Unite
Karla Trotman – CEO of ElectroSoft, Dark Dirty Dangerous: Building the Vibrant Future of Manufacturing
Charlotte Jones Burton – founder of Women of Color in Pharma
Jennifer Witter – PR exec and CEO
Amy Webb – futurist and strategic foresight
Shellye Archambeau – women’s ambition
Patty McCord – next generation HR
Freada Kapor Klein – entrepreneurs and founders
Joanne Wilson – startups and venture capital
Liz Wiseman – becoming and developing high impact players
Anne Marie Slaughter – gender at work “Why women can’t have it all”
Sarah Stein Greenberg – design thinking
Thought Leaders
Amy Edmondson – author of The Right Kind of Wrong
Zeynep Ton – author of The Case for Good Jobs
Sabina Nawaz – author of You’re the Boss
Morra Aarons-Mele – author of The Anxious Achiever
Sally Helgesen– author of How Women Rise
Neri Karra Sillaman – author of Pioneers and immigrant leadership
Ranya Nehmeh (+ Peter Cappelli) – HR and RTO (In Praise of the Office)
Sheena Iyengar – Think Bigger @CBS
Tiffani Bova – customer and employee experience
Ruth Gotian – mentoring in healthcare
Whitney Johnson – disruptive innovation and personal disruption
Erin Meyer – author of The Culture Map
Herminia Ibarra – leaders’ and organizational reinvention
Julie Lythcott-Haims – parenting, management, identity, relationships
Lori Rosenkopf – entrepreneurship and innovation diffusion
Rita Kakati Shah – gender inclusion strategist
Jennifer Moss – burnout and the new world of work
Zoe Chance – influence and persuasion
Leslie Crutchfield – social change and mission-driven enterprises
Marissa King – Social Chemistry and networks
Gina O’Connor – innovation proficiency
Judy Samuelson – author of New Rules of Business
Rebecca Henderson – author of Reimagining Capitalism in a World on Fire
Jennifer Aaker + Naomi Bagdonas – author of Humor, Seriously
Kelly Richmond-Pope – detecting and dealing with fraud
Deborah Ancona – building effective teams
Science
Jayshree Seth – Chief Corporate Scientist @ 3M
Susannah Fox – author of Rebel Health and patient advocacy
Sylvia Acevedo (last year) – engineer and tech executive
Anna Lembke – author of Dopamine Nation and the neuroscience of pleasure