Episodes

This week Jessica speaks with Vivien Straus: Writer, Performer, & Small Farm Advocate. Vivien is known for her one-woman shows exposing her “interesting” life choices. She’s worked in New York City, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. She was part of the New York sketch comedy group “BOB” and has had roles on film and TV with directors such as Francis Coppola and Oliver Stone. You might have seen her in films like Peggy Sue Got Married, plus she's acted in numerous plays and commercials. She wrote a...

Jessica chats with Newton Cheng, Google executive, mental health advocate and speaker, & world champion powerlifter. Newton is a husband and father to two amazing daughters via adoption. He's a world champion powerlifter who holds multiple world records. He is also Director of Health + Performance at Google where he’s spent 14 years developing, launching and scaling global programs aimed at helping Googlers to thrive. He takes a special interest in the intersections of human performance and spir...

This week, Jessica interviews Beth Carr, brand & marketing expert and a classically trained actor who sings. Beth spent 15 years working as an actor on Broadway. On the marketing side, she's led branding and marketing initiatives for nearly two decades at companies like Nestle, Booksy, and Vendini. Beth started her own firm, Fortified Branding in 2019. She's a certified StoryBrand Guide and works with companies and entrepreneurs to stand out in the minds and hearts of their customers. You can l...

This week, Jessica talks with Dr. Sloka Iyengar, neuroscientist & Bharatanatyam dancer who is passionate about relieving suffering through science and the arts. For her Ph.D. and postdoctoral work, she studied the circuits in the brain that lead to the generation and propagation of epileptic seizures. She's worked with adults and children with epilepsy to develop better therapeutic strategies. Sloka is also an award-winning Bharatanatyam performer and practitioner who has created productions tha...

This week, Jessica interviews Matt Toy, a Movement Trainer, & Cooperative Business Owner / Baker. Matt Toy is a movement trainer who helps students move better in their yoga practice, athletic pursuits, and daily lives, all while creating a culture of mindfulness & mastery through movement. He's also co-owner and lead baker at the Cheese Board Collective, a workers cooperative bakery and pizzeria in Berkeley, CA that regularly has lines around the block. With a black belt in Freestyle Martial Ar...

Jessica interviews Brad Balukjian, Entomologist & Journalist. Brad studied journalism and island biogeography at Duke University and earned his Ph.D. in Environmental Science from UC Berkeley. Brad founded the Natural History and Sustainability program at Merritt College, where he teaches today. In 2020, his first book, The Wax Pack, reached #7 on the Los Angeles Times bestseller list and was named one of NPR's Best Books of the Year. He's now working on a new book, The Six Pack, to be published...

Jessica once again talks with Liron Lavi Turkenich, typeface designer & productivity expert — and a self-described multi-passionate. Since graduating from the University of Reading with a masters degree in typeface design, Liron has been designing custom multilingual typefaces for global companies specializing in Hebrew. She is the founder of Aravrit, a hybrid writing system that merges Hebrew and Arabic, and has received wide recognition for its ingenuity and scope. She's spoken at TedX Vienna...

This week, Jessica talks with Vasu Panicker, Music Maker & Business Strategist. Growing up as an arts kid in New York City, Vasu did his undergrad and grad music studies at City University of New York and then built and directed Face the Music, the country’s only youth music program dedicated to works by living composers. He himself is a creative composer and sound designer specializing in contemporary and experimental genres. On the business side, Vasu got his MBA from Berkeley Haas and now wor...

This week, Jessica interviews Veronique Kherian, a San Francisco-based photographer, cheese evangelist, & classical singer. Vero studied Economics and French at Wellesley, and taught English in Normandy, France. After returning to the US to earn her JD, she grew her law practice focusing on intellectual property, when a life-altering stint as a cheesemonger brought her into the forefront of artisan cheese with her blog, Miss Cheesemonger. Currently, she manages the social media for a local San F...

This week, Jessica chats with Percy Liang, Computer Scientist & Classical Pianist. Percy is an Associate Professor of Computer Science at Stanford University. He got his Bachelor's from MIT and Ph.D. from UC Berkeley. His research is on artificial intelligence, more specifically foundation models that can generate text, images, and music. Percy has been playing piano since he was 8 years old. He's won several contests, including the Phoenix Young Musicians Competition, the MIT Concerto Competiti...

In Season 2, Ampersand Jessica Wan, leadership coach & classical singer, interviews people who, similarly, have led "double lives" for decades and succeed in two completely different worlds. This show explores how their two worlds – different as they may seem – collide, integrate, and fuel each other. Jessica's goal is to celebrate, elevate, and normalize these stories. Through these interviews, the goal is to co-create the Ampersand Manifesto, principles for leading our multi-passionate lives. ...

"You can tell almost immediately which typeface it is from the ampersand character" Hello listeners! We're excited to bring you another bonus episode. Today, we'll be talking about the ampersand character and its role in typeface design. Joining Jessica is Liron Lavi Turkenich, design entrepreneur and typeface designer based in Israel. Liron is an Ampersand, and we'll be interviewing her about her Ampersand in Season 2, so keep an eye out for that episode in the spring. Liron is also the found...

Hello listeners! Thanks for joining us in this bonus episode between season 1 and 2 where your host Jessica Wan shares a brief history of the Ampersand as told by Merriam-Webster (yes the dictionary makers). Also check out Shady Characters by Keith Houston. If you enjoyed season one, please leave a review on Apple Podcasts! Are you a high achiever, a leader in your workplace, a person with many interests, maybe even an Ampersand? Well, guess what? Jessica works with people just like you. Jess...

For the season one finale episode of the Ampersand Manifesto, producer Naomi Tepper interviews Jessica Wan, creator and host of The Ampersand Manifesto who is a leadership coach & singer. Jessica's first Ampersand journey was as a double major in Product Design and Music, Vocal Performance as an undergrad at Stanford. She started her musical journey playing piano, violin, oboe, and the bass drum in marching band. Today, as a singer, Jessica enjoys performing opera, art song, musical theatre, j...

This week, Jessica talks to Sara Wampler, a writer & tech executive. In her corporate life, Sara has spent almost fifteen years at Google, leading teams focused on customer success, community operations, and support strategy. In her creative life, she writes under the pen name Sara Ramsey and has published seven Regency romance novels. Sara is currently taking a break from the corporate world to focus on writing full time. After living in the Bay Area and in Denver for two decades, she now split...

This week, Jessica talks with Don Atkins, ed-tech entrepreneur & classical pianist. Don is passionate about fostering individual and social flourishing through education, the arts, and creativity. He's been recently focused on product marketing in the EdTech space and also has worked in program management, policy, strategy, and operations in the agricultural and food innovation industries. Early on in the pandemic, he founded an ed-tech startup, Studious, which is an online platform that connect...

This week, Jessica talks to Laurel Sprigg, singer and former small business owner. For 30 years, Laurel ran her business Laurel Sprigg Inc., providing couture quality sewing of soft furnishings for the designed interior — custom-made draperies, shades, bed covers, pillows, and more. Her work has been featured in Architectural Digest and California Homes magazines. Since retiring earlier this year from her business, she's been focusing on putting more time into her Ampersand: singing and perform...

This week, Jessica interviews one of her closest friends, Tim Eischens a singer, pianist, & executive assistant. Tim and Jessica met almost 20 years ago in their voice teacher Susan Gundunas's studio. She saw that he was the only male singer in the room and made a beeline for him, thinking, ooh a potential duet partner! Their first duet grew into a lifelong musical collaboration and a deep friendship. By day, Tim works at Autodesk, the maker of AutoCAD, Maya, and Sketchbook. As an executive ass...

This week, Jessica talks with Stephanie Wu, a Marketer & Cellist. Steph has appeared as a soloist with the National Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. As one of 101 musicians selected from 33 countries, she performed in the YouTube Symphony at the Sydney Opera House in 2011, a life-changing experience that inspired her to get an MBA from UC Berkeley and become a marketer at Google. Today, Steph works at Coursera, where she helps others to re-skill as she did. Ste...

This week, Jessica talks with Dr. Arie Perry who is a physician & classical singer. Arie started singing in a rock band in high school (inspired by Journey and Rush) and then he caught the classical music bug. He's performed as a lyric tenor with a number of ensembles including the San Francisco City Chorus, Oakland City Chorus, and American Bach Soloists. Arie is also a physician and the Chief of Neuropathology at UCSF. Combining his vocal talents and medical expertise, he released an album on...

Jessica interviews Heidi Moss Erickson, a singer & scientist. Heidi double majored in biology and vocal performance at Oberlin and went on to grad school to study biochemistry with an emphasis in neuroscience. Her postgrad research on telomeres led to a landmark paper in the research journal Cell. For over 20 years, Heidi has had an extensive career as an opera singer and concert soloist with a focus on new music. Heidi teaches vocal physiology at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and ap...

Jessica interviews Dominic Lim, an author & singer & storyteller. Dominic's debut novel ALL THE RIGHT NOTES, a queer Asian rom-com, will be released in June 2023. Dom is a member of The Writers Grotto and is a co-host of the Babylon Salon reading and performance series in San Francisco. He studied psychology at Oberlin and got his masters from Indiana University's Jacobs School of Music. Dom has sung with numerous professional early music and choral ensembles. As a proud member of the Actors’ E...

Jessica interviews Reichi Lee, Youth Advocate & Fitness Coach, this week. Not only is Reichi an incredible fitness coach, she's a former foster youth attorney and educator who's now running for the Berkeley School Board in November 2022. Straddling these worlds of personal fitness and public education, what brings it all together for Reichi is a deep belief that humans can defy limits. Learn more at reichilee.com Are you a high achiever, a leader in your workplace, a person with many interests,...

This week, Jessica interviews David Riemer, a Startup Storyteller & Theater Producer who reminds Ampersands that when it comes to pursuing your dreams, you need to get out there and just do it! David was Jessica's marketing mentor, and now he's graduated to being her life mentor. David's business career has taken him from being the VP of Marketing at Yahoo! in its heyday to spending the last 15 years helping hundreds of innovators use storytelling to put their products and businesses on the ma...