How do we balance a life-defining career with the strain it can place on life outside it? How can we reconcile complex identities that may clash at home and in our careers? When a profession shapes your identity, who are you once it ends?
Mary Winchester and Sarah Defur’s stories reveal how unexpected detours can lead to purpose, leadership, and resilience. Mary’s path began at seventeen in the Army Reserves, evolving into a vital biomedical engineering role during Operation Desert Storm. Sarah, once set on becoming a veterinarian, found her calling in firefighting and emergency medicine. In this powerful season two extra about the stratospheric highs and chasmic depths, both women share how they faced life’s toughest moments—Mary’s sudden job loss and Sarah’s heartbreaking loss of a child—with strength, faith, and the sometimes awkward but always well-meaning support of their communities. Navigating high-stakes careers in male-dominated fields, they reflect on stepping into leadership, challenging norms, and forming deep bonds through shared experiences. In a refreshing take on our eternal question, are we ever really “there,” or is life just chapters of becoming?
What is Are We There Yet??
Are We There Yet? is about recognizing, defining, and building pathways toward a more sustainable working future. How can we collaborate with others in a way that brings authenticity and durability to our projects and relationships? What tools can we leverage to communicate productively towards a shared goal? What can leaders do to shape where we’re going, and how to get there? Hosts Sonja Ernst and Jamie Hardy are two humans on a quest to understand just where we’re headed, in monthly conversations with pioneers, professors, artists, and experts in the fields of science, technology, placemaking, coalition building, AI, and so much more. Whether you're a business leader, a technology enthusiast, or simply curious about the future of how we do things, this podcast is for you.