By Elizabeth Howard

Episode Summary

Ruchira Gupta, in a conversation with Elizabeth Howard, reflects on her friendship with Gloria Steinem who died on September 2, 2026. Most Americans know Gloria as a second wave feminist, as a journalist, author, and as an advocate for women. What isn’t as well-known is the influence of Mahatma Gandhi on Gloria’s work and the time she spent living, studying, and working in India. Like Gloria, Ruchira is a journalist, documentarian, author, and a woman who has dedicated her life to advocating for women, ending the sex trafficking of women, and promoting peace. In 2002 she founded ApneAap with 22 “brave young women”, a global grassroots Indian organization that empowers marginalized girls and women to resist and end sex trafficking.

Episode Notes

Gloria Steinem

Gloria Steinem was a writer, political activist, and feminist organizer. She was a founder of New York and Ms. magazines, and is the author of An Unexpected Life, The Truth Will Set You Free, But First It Will Piss You Off, My Life on the Road, Moving Beyond Words, Revolution from Within, and Outrageous Acts and Everyday Rebellions, in addition to many collections and essays. She co-founded the National Women’s Political Caucus, the Ms. Foundation for Women, the Free to Be Foundation, and the Women’s Media Center in the United States. As links to other countries, she helped found Equality Now, Donor Direct Action, and Direct Impact Africa. For her writing, Steinem has received the Penney-Missouri Journalism Award, the Front Page and Clarion awards, the National Magazine Award, the Lifetime Achievement in Journalism Award from the Society of Professional Journalists, the Society of Writers Award from the United Nations, and the University of Missouri School of Journalism Award for Distinguished Service in Journalism. In 1993, her concern with child abuse led her to co-produce an Emmy Award–winning TV documentary for HBO, Multiple Personalities: The Search for Deadly Memories. She and Amy Richards co-produced an Emmy nominated series of eight documentaries on violence against women around the world for VICELAND in 2016. She is the subject of Julie Taymor’s biopic, The Glorias, released in Fall 2020 and was featured in Dear Ms., released on HBO in 2025. Among many tributes and honors for her activism, in 2013 she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama and in 2019, she received the Freedom Award from the National Civil Rights Museum. For her boundless commitment to feminism, and for including all voices in the name of equality, Gloria was the 2021 recipient of the Princess of Asturias Award for Communication and Humanities. She lives in New York City. Gloria’s home is the heart of Gloria’s Foundation and has become renowned as a magnetic and life-changing center for feminist and activist thinkers from around the world.

Ruchira Gupta is the author of I Kick and I Fly and The Freedom Seeker, and a lifelong activist ARuchira Gupta is the author of I Kick and I Fly and The Freedom Seeker, and a lifelong activist is the author of I Kick and I Fly and The Freedom Seeker, and a lifelong activist working to end sex trafficking. She is a Emmy-winning documentatian, she founded   Emmy-winning documentarian, she founded Apne Aap with survivors from her film The Selling of Innocents. Her advocacy has shaped global laws and earned her the French Ordre National du Mérite. She advises the UN, teaches human trafficking and migration at NYU, and writes social justice adventure books to inspire change. Through story and action, Ruchira empowers readers and policy makers alike to build a world where every girl is safe, free, and valued.

ApneAap

Apne Aap Women Worldwide is a grassroots Indian organization that empowers marginalized girls and women to resist and end sex trafficking. We organize vulnerable girls and women into small self-empowerment groups, where they work collectively to access legal, social, economic and political rights.

Our organization was founded in 2002 by Ruchira Gupta along with 22 courageous women in prostitution who shared her vision of a world where no woman would be bought or sold. A charitable trust registered in India, Apne Aap Women Worldwide continues to strive to turn this vision into reality.

Based in New York, Apne Aap’s international office in New York raises funds to support the organization’s grassroots work in India. Apne Aap International, which is registered as a 501(c)(3) charity in the United States, partners with organizations such as NoVo Foundation, Coalition Against Trafficking in Women and Equality Now to push for an end to sex trafficking.

The Short Fuse Podcast  is hosted by Elizabeth Howard. She talks with artists, writers, musicians, and others whose art reveals our communities through their lens and stirs us to seek change through their art, music, ideas, and performances. James Baldwin reminds us that “artists are here to disturb the peace.”  Her articles related to communication and marketing have appeared in European Communications, Investor Relations, Law Firm Marketing & Profit Report, Communication World, The Strategist, and the New York Law Journal, among others.  Her books include Queen Anne’s Lace and Wild Blackberry Pie, (Thornwillow Press, 2011), A Day with Bonefish Joe (David Godine, 2015), and Ned O’Gorman:  A Glance Back (Easton Studio Press, 2016). @elizh24 on Instagram.

Gerald Kent is the producer and editor of the Short Fuse. Based in Cape Town, South Africa, he is a talented musician and audio engineer who has been releasing his own music independently since 2021. Alongside his artistry, he’s built up experience working with multiple clients in the podcasting space, from editing to full-scale production.

Evelyn Rosenthal copy edits the Short Fuse. She is a singer specializing in jazz and Brazilian music, a freelance editor, and the former editor in chief and head of publications at the Harvard Art Museums. She writes about music for the Arts Fuse and copy edits the magazine.

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