331 Polishing the Gems: The Story of an Extraordinary Woman Living Through Hard Times

331 Polishing the Gems: The Story of an Extraordinary Woman Living Through Hard Times

Author: Gail Zelitzky and Catherine Marienau June 4, 2025 Duration: 38:09

Josephine (Jo) Alexander (1909-1993) was Nancy Manahan’s dearest friend and Natalya Lukin’s beloved grandmother. The world knew Jo as a prize-winning journalist and photographer, social justice advocate, and author of America Through the Eye of My Needle (1981), a critical analysis of business conglomerates. But no one knew details about the fourteen years Jo spent as an impoverished Arizona homesteader and rancher during the Depression—-that is, until after Jo’s death, Natalya found Jo’s “messy” unpublished memoir among boxes of unpublished essays. Natalya and Nancy (also Jo’s literary executor)formed a bi-coastal collaboration to edit and publish Jo’s memoir: At Sea on the Range: From Berkeley Radical to Arizona Homesteader 1934-1948. Nancy “fell in love with the story of this extraordinary woman who was courageous, adaptable, self-confident, and capable of surmounting impossible barriers.” Natalya values her grandmother as a timeless role model for courageous, capable, and enterprising women. At Sea on the Range won Best Memoir in the 2025 Great Southwest Book Festival.

"We felt compelled to share the story of how a city girl with studies in literature and anthropology fell in love with an impoverished rancher in Arizona, adapted to grueling circumstances, and grew to appreciate the desert and its people."

Connect with Nancy and Natalya  

Email: atseaontherange@gmail.com

Book: At Sea on the Range: From Berkeley Radical to Arizona Homesteader 1934-1948. (2024) by Josephine Alexander, Natalya Lukin, & Nancy Manahan. 

Thanks to our Sponsors for this episode:

Compass Navigation Group, Steve.Nasralla@compass.com

Skintensive, creams for mature skins, https://www.skintensive.com


Hosted by Gail Zelitzky and Catherine Marienau, Women Over 70: Aging Reimagined turns the page on a well-worn cultural script. This is not a series about decline, but a collection of dialogues focused squarely on expansion. You’ll hear from women who are starting businesses, deepening their creative practices, forging new relationships, and confronting societal expectations with a refreshing blend of honesty and humor. These conversations, rooted in personal journals and lived expertise, delve into the practical and the profound-from the science of longevity to the personal journeys of resilience that define this chapter. The podcast moves beyond inspiration to offer tangible insight, framing the later decades as a time of active reinvention. Tune in for stories that replace stereotypes with specificity, and discover a community redefining what it means to grow older with purpose and curiosity.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 100

Women Over 70: Aging Reimagined
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