Will the Story Be Unbroken? Women, Memory and the Power of Revisiting Division Street

photo of Mary Schmich and Melissa Harris by Alex Garcia

In this week’s Speaking of Phenomenal episode, I sat down with two extraordinary storytellers—Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Mary Schmich and marketing executive Melissa Harris—to talk about their moving and meticulous podcast, Division Street Revisited. Inspired by Studs Terkel’s 1967 oral history Division Street: America, their series reimagines some of the original 71 interviews through the voices of descendants and contextual connections.

“It’s a curious book,” Mary reflected. “Because if you really start to analyze it, you don’t know that much about these people. But somehow… you sense that you know them.”

That sense of knowing is exactly what pulled Melissa into the project in the first place. Back in 2009, she asked Chicago legend Rick Kogan for a reading list to help her understand the city she had just moved to. Division Street was at the top.

“It transported me back into a time I certainly didn’t live through,” Melissa said. “But I felt that by the end of it, I had a deeper understanding of it.”

Years later, when she learned the Library of Congress was digitizing Studs’ original interview tapes, Melissa knew it was time to bring the idea to life as a podcast—and she pitched it to Mary over a bottle of Pinot Noir.

Mary’s reaction? Curiosity, yes—but also vulnerability.

“The not knowing… was both thrilling and terrifying,” she admitted. “How do you find their kids? Their grandkids? And once you find them, how are you going to make a story out of this?”

Together, they narrowed Terkel’s 71 interviews down to seven, intentionally centering a balance of perspectives—including four women whose lives reflected resilience, complexity and quiet power.

Melissa introduced us to some of them: Blanche Gates, a widowed mother of 15 who migrated from Appalachia; Della Reuther, a tavern owner who had four husbands and children affected by four different wars; Mary Ward Wolkonsky, a socialite whose life reflected both privilege and restriction; and Myra Alexander, a civil rights activist and janitor who struggled with how to hold her righteous anger.

“Each of the women I would describe as resilient,” Melissa shared. “They each overcame, they each persevered, they each survived—and in some cases, thrived.”

Still, Mary was clear: this wasn’t about checking diversity boxes—it was about reflecting a wider human truth.

“We were simultaneously looking for people who were interesting in and of themselves,” she said. “But we also wanted those people to represent something.”

That intention carries through the entire series. Even the podcast’s theme song—“Will the Circle Be Unbroken”—was carefully chosen.

“It’s about this family imagining that… they will all be reunited,” Mary shared. Taking these now-deceased people and traveling through time to their descendants—circling back.

As someone who heard my own mother hum that song, I felt that connection deeply.

Mary and Melissa’s collaboration is more than a storytelling triumph—it’s a master class in lifting one another up.

“Your dreams are limited when you try to attempt something solo,” Melissa said. “Go find people who want to go on that journey with you.”

Mary agreed, offering this advice to any woman who’s ever felt like her voice doesn’t matter:

“It’s a combination of dreaming big, but also learning to take small steps… I just took a yellow sticky note and wrote: baby steps. One, two, three, four.”

Because step by step, story by story, we’re closing the circle.

🎧 Season 5, Episode 7 of Speaking of Phenomenal is live now. Listen, share, and remember: we’re all part of this ongoing story.

Contributor: Carolina Baldin