Deborah is a singer-songwriter, voice and breath teacher, Alexander Technique practitioner, and author of the novel The Sinking of the Leonardo da Vinci. Born in New York City in the fifties, she moved to Europe in the nineties and has been here ever since. Her home base is Oslo, but when we speak, she is on a campsite somewhere near Barcelona.
She travels a lot, helping people find their voice, teaching them and learning from them in return.
I live in the small town in Germany where I grew up in the eighties and nineties, not far from my parents’ house, where I found refuge from the chaos of my own home for our Live. After years of studying and traveling, my life since the birth of my children has become the very definition of settled, and in that sense the opposite of Deborah’s.
On the surface, she, the European nomad, and I, the settled one, live very different lives. And yet we share a mission.
In our conversation, find out how we became who we are today, what challenges we face, and what first steps you can take to reconnect with your inner voice.
00:00 | Welcome and introduction
00:04 | About Deborah’s novel
00:11 | Reader reactions, book clubs, multicultural characters
00:15 | Deborah’s life story: New York, music, moving to Europe
00:23 | Nervousness & imposter syndrome
00:27 | Judith’s path: motherhood as teacher, finding the inner compass
00:32 | How Judith came to Substack
00:37 | Deborah on Substack, her many hats
00:39 | Judith’s first step: saying no
00:44 | Closing & Deborah’s exercise
Judith dreamed of becoming a singer-songwriter when she was young. To this day, music holds a special place in her life, because it combines the art of deep words with the art of (mostly) gentle sounds and personal stories.
