Author: Sara Troy

RGC25-39. Fiona and Molly McIntosh. U Shape Us

Sara Troy

Raising Our Gifted Children with Sara Troy and her guests Fiona & Molly McIntosh, on air from September 30th

U Shape Us: The power of imagination to turn ideas into friendships

So many of our children carry creative gifts that go unseen. I first noticed this with my daughter Molly, when we used a simple imagination game to help her make friends. From that moment grew U Shape Us—our mother–daughter social enterprise creating playful imagination games to spark creativity, connection, and belonging across generations. Each time a child shares an idea and sees it welcomed, it builds self-esteem and the deeper belief: “I am someone whose ideas matter. I am creative.” Parents, grandparents, and teachers often tell us they’ve discovered a new side of their children through these games, as ideas turn into friendships and voices are heard. At its heart, our message is simple: you belong where your ideas are welcomed.

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Molly and her mum Fiona McIntosh co-founded U Shape Us, a social enterprise based in Canberra, Australia using imagination games to build belonging. What began when Molly was just six years old—with a simple game that helped her make friends during a difficult time—has grown into games now reaching families, schools, and communities across the world. Today, Molly plays an active role in shaping and running the enterprise, bringing fresh creativity, lived experience, and the voice of a young person showing what it means to belong. Fiona, a solo mum with a background in human services, community development and inclusion, works alongside Molly to bring the games to life and share them widely. Together, they are proving how simple, playful ideas can ripple out to create lasting confidence, connection and community.

20 sec version : Fiona and her daughter Molly McIntosh are the co-founders of U Shape Us, a social enterprise from Canberra, Australia. What started when Molly was six years old as a simple game to help her make friends has now grown into imagination-based card games reaching families, schools, and communities around the world. Together, they’re proving how playful ideas can spark creativity, build confidence, and turn ideas into friendships.

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SE25-35. Sue William Silverman’s Mercy of the Reader

Sara Troy

Sensual Expression with Sara Troy and her guest Sue William Silverman, on air from September 2nd

The award-winning voice behind Love Sick:  One Woman’s Journey Through Sexual Addiction (which was adapted into a Lifetime movie) and How to Survive Death and Other Inconvenience now new book Selected Misdemeanors: Essays at the Mercy of the Reader, Sue Williams Silverman.

A master of metaphor and a longtime teacher of creative nonfiction, Silverman uses each essay in Selected Misdemeanors to reveal a kind of emotional misdemeanor—a misstep, a moment of contradiction, a wound we give ourselves while yearning for something more.

In this collection of flash nonfiction “misdemeanors,” she explores small yet shimmering moments where home and belonging weave themselves through life’s contradictions. The brevity of the flash form allows her to capture meaning with precision—each piece a distillation of memory, metaphor, and subtle irony. She chose this form for its ability to hold something so short yet resonant, a space where metaphor deepens the emotional truth and irony reveals the complexity of human experience. These stories often pivot on contradictions—those universal tensions we all contain—and invite readers to see themselves within them. As she says, “I never wanted to drink crème de menthe, I just wanted to admire it. Some things are better left imagined,” a line that reflects both the restraint and the richness at the heart of her storytelling.

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Silverman is best known for Love Sick: One Woman’s Journey Through Sexual Addiction, which was adapted into a Lifetime movie, and Because I Remember Terror, Father, I Remember You, winner of the AWP Award for Creative Nonfiction. Her previous book, How to Survive Death and Other Inconveniences, won the gold Foreword INDIE Book of the Year Award and the Clara Johnson Award for Women’s Literature. She is also the author of the craft book Acetylene Torch Songs: Writing True Stories to Ignite the Soul, which won the IPPY Silver Award and was a finalist for two Foreword INDIE Awards. 

Sue William Silverman is an award-winning author known for her fearless explorations of trauma, identity, and personal transformation. Her latest book, Selected Misdemeanors: Essays at the Mercy of the Reader, showcases her signature blend of lyricism, insight, and unflinching honesty. She co-chairs the MFA in Writing Program at Vermont College of Fine Arts and has appeared on The View, Anderson Cooper 360, and PBS Books.

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25-34. Giving & Receiving

Sara Troy

Sara’s View of Life with Sara Troy, on air NOW

You never know where your angels will come from. For much of my life, I found it hard to accept help, believing it meant weakness or that there was always an agenda behind it. But over the years—especially in my 13 years of podcasting—I’ve learned to surrender to the gift of receiving, understanding that allowing others to help is not only okay, it gives them the joy of fulfilling their own meaningful purpose.

Angels have shown up in many forms: friends, family, guests, and strangers, offering kindness, support, and unexpected blessings—sometimes financially, sometimes technical, sometimes simply the gift of time. These acts, freely given from the heart, have sustained me, allowing me to continue my work of sharing wisdom, telling stories, and standing for those whose voices need to be heard.

I’ve learned that true giving asks nothing in return, yet what’s given ripples forward in ways we may never see. Kindness, compassion, and support—whether through money, time, or encouragement—are the currency of a thriving humanity. We each have the power to be someone’s angel, and we each have angels to thank. Acknowledge them. Be one yourself. And remember, when you’re aware, you care—and once you care, you can never be unaware again.

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25-30. Where Has the Intelligence Gone?

Sara Troy

Sara’s View of Life with Sara Troy, on air from July 29th

“Be the voice that uplifts common sense. Be the truth-teller who won’t stay silent. Be the spark that grows truth into action—and shifts the tide away from tyranny.”

One by one, we’re witnessing the quiet removal of those with true intelligence—whether in government, media, science, or creative thought. It’s a glaring sign: those in power are running scared. Scared of truth, scared of intellect, scared of minds that question, probe, and pierce through propaganda. They want obedience, not brilliance. Control, not clarity. Silence, not solutions.

We’ve seen this before. History has echoed this pattern countless times. The brightest minds are pushed aside, ridiculed, or erased. For a while, the illusion holds. The noise distracts, the lies comfort, and the stage remains lit—but eventually, the structure rots from within. The low-vibrational minds that hijacked power cannot solve the problems they’ve created. And slowly, inevitably, things begin to unravel.

That’s when the thinkers return.
The visionaries. The creators. The healers and the systems-shifters. They’ve never truly left—they’ve just gone underground. Working in whispers, in community circles, in quiet spaces of resistance and rebuilding. And it’s there, beneath the surface, that the true revolution brews—not with swords, but with soul. Not with noise, but with knowing.

So how do we protect them?
We honor their voice, even when it’s inconvenient.
We share their work, even if it challenges the norm.
We fund them, even with a dollar or a warm meal, because true brilliance often walks a humble path.
We gather, in heart-centered spaces, to create networks of trust, care, and collaboration.
And we educate—not with dogma, but with curiosity, awakening minds before fear has a chance to seduce them.

From the underground up, we create a web of light—anchored in truth, driven by service, and powered by love. Bit by bit, it grows. It moves through communities, across borders, beyond barriers. And when the old systems fall—and they will—this web will rise, ready to lead, ready to rebuild.

Let them fear the thinkers. Because it is the thinkers, the feelers, the grounded dreamers, who will light the way forward, not for domination, but for restoration. In a world where wisdom is not silenced, but shared. Where intelligence is not feared, but cherished. And where every soul is invited to rise into the brilliance they were born to become.

Be the Voice of Common Sense.
Be the one who stands steady in a world swirling with noise—who lifts the voices rooted in wisdom, clarity, and calm.

Be the Truth-Teller.
Speak the truth grounded in fact and reason, even when it’s inconvenient, even when it shakes the room.

Be the Firestarter of Change.
Find new ways to grow truth into action—into movements, into choices, into waves that shift the tide and dismantle the grip of tyranny.

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AK25-28. The Fire Concerto by Sarah Landenwich

Sara Troy

An Authors Kiss with Sara Troy and her guest Sarah Landenwich, on air from June 17th

THE FIRE CONCERTO (Union Square & Co.; June 10, 2025) is a riveting literary debut by Sarah Landenwich that blends mystery, music, and forgotten history. When Clara Bishop—a once-celebrated pianist now tending bar in Texas—receives a mysterious metronome from her estranged former mentor, she’s pulled back into a world she thought she’d left behind.

The metronome may be tied to her ancestor, famed composer Aleksander Starza, and the woman accused of murdering him, brilliant 19th-century pianist Constantia Pleyel. As Clara and her childhood rival Tony travel to Poland in search of the truth, they uncover dangerous secrets, lost compositions, and a narrative far more complex than the one history has recorded.

With echoes of generational trauma, artistic obsession, and redemption, THE FIRE CONCERTO is a lush, suspenseful novel that reclaims the voices of extraordinary women long erased from memory. Through pain, Clara must find beauty, and perhaps, a way back to herself.

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SARAH LANDENWICH is a writer, a writing instructor, and a classically trained pianist. Her debut novel, The Fire Concerto was inspired by her love of music of the Romantic period and pays tribute to 19th-century female musicians, artists, and scholars who have been largely forgotten. She lives in Louisville, Kentucky, with her husband and daughter. For more information, visit: 

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