In this episode, Karen Horting, CEO and executive director of the Society of Women Engineers, sits down with Olympic gold medalist and industrial engineer Benita Fitzgerald Mosley, the first Black woman to win gold in the 100-meter hurdles — a milestone she achieved at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics.

Benita shares how she balanced the demands of engineering school with her Olympic training, the lessons she learned about time and energy management, and the unforgettable moment when she realized she had won gold. 

Hear how Benita’s personal mantra, “Why not me?,” has guided her through challenges in athletics, STEM, and leadership — plus the five gold medal strategies she continues to practice.

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The Society of Women Engineers (SWE) is a powerful, global force uniting 50,000 members of all genders spanning 85 countries. We are the world’s largest advocate and catalyst for change for women in engineering and technology. To join and access all the exclusive benefits to elevate your professional journey, visit membership.swe.org. 

Ep 343: Olympic Gold Medalist Benita Fitzgerald Mosley on Leadership, Engineering, and “Why Not Me?”

Launch yourself into this rock ballad about one of the most important mathematicians in American history, Katherine Johnson, who was pivotal in helping the USA win the Space Race.

Lyrics:

1918, a fire in her eyes,  
West Virginia skies, where brilliance would rise.  
By ’37, her degree complete,  
Equations and vectors, her rhythm and beat.  

1953, NASA’s halls,  
She solved the problems, she answered the calls.  
Analytic geometry, curves in the sky,  
She plotted the paths where the rockets would fly.  

She calculated launch, she calculated land,  
Orbital mechanics at her command.  
From thrust to re‑entry, the math held true,  
Every trajectory she carried through.  

Into the stars, she lit the way,  
Katherine Johnson, night turned to day.  
She carried the mission, she carried the flame,  
The rockets remember her name.  

1961, Shepard’s flight,  
Her figures confirmed the arc was right.  
And when John Glenn said, “Get Katherine to check,”  
Her math was the trust that kept him on deck.    

Apollo 11, the first Moon’s embrace,  
Armstrong and Aldrin, that historic place.  
Her re‑entry math brought them home alive,  
Ellipses and angles, precision sublime.  

No walls could bind her, no lines could chain,  
She shattered the limits, rewrote the game.  
Hidden no longer, her story revealed,  
Her courage and genius forever sealed.  

She helped us win the Space Race fight,  
Her math turned struggle into flight.  
And in 2015, the world gave its praise,  
Freedom’s Medal crowned her days.

Into the stars, she lit the way,  
Katherine Johnson, night turned to day.  
First Moon landing, she carried the flame,  
The rockets remember her name.  

Her math lit the heavens, her courage the flame,  
Freedom’s Medal crowned her name.  
Into the stars, her legacy flies,  
Katherine Johnson — forever the skies.  

Into The Stars (Katherine Johnson, NASA mathematician)

Learn about the Palgrem-Miner rule of calculating linear damage, a more than century-old fatigue estimation tool still in popular use today in engineering.

Lyrics:


Back in '24, Palmgren took the stage,  
Ball bearings whispering their secrets with age.  
He saw the cracks forming, the wear in the steel,  
A vision of fatigue that the world could feel.  

Then Miner came along in '45,  
Put math to the struggle, kept machines alive.  
Together they gave us a way to define,  
How damage builds slowly, one cycle at a time.  

It’s the Palmgren-Miner rule, holding strong,  
Counting the cycles where the stresses belong.  
Without it we’d stumble, blind in the night,  
Guessing at failures, never getting it right.  

Airplanes in the sky, bridges on the ground,  
Engines and turbines where the forces pound.  
Designers were lost, no compass, no chart,  
Till linear damage gave science its heart.  

Each fraction of life, each stress that remains,  
Adds up to a total, the sum of the strains.  
When the number hits one, the warning is clear,  
Failure is coming, the end is near.  

It’s the Palmgren-Miner rule, holding strong,  
Counting the cycles where the stresses belong.  
Without it we’d stumble, blind in the night,  
Guessing at failures, never getting it right.  

Imagine the struggle before they arrived,  
No way to predict if the steel would survive.  
Palmgren and Miner, two minds intertwined,  
They gave us a measure, a rule well-defined.  

From railroads to rockets, the story is told,  
Structures and systems, both new and old.  
Fatigue is a shadow, but now we can see,  
The path to durability, reliability.  

It’s the Palmgren-Miner rule, holding strong,  
Counting the cycles where the stresses belong.  
Without it we’d stumble, blind in the night,  
But thanks to their vision, we design it right.  

So raise up a glass to Palmgren and Miner,  
Two pioneers who made our designs finer.  
One cycle at a time, the damage we trace,  
Their rule is the rhythm that keeps us safe.

One Cycle At A Time (Palgrem-Miner rule of linear damage)

In this thankful episode of The Downtime, co-hosts Sarah Wynn and Sheri Kasprzak interview Dustin Lee, vice president of sales at Morrison Container Handling to discuss Morrison’s product line, versatility, and customer support philosophy. He also talks about becoming well-known in the packaging industry as a sneaker head.

And don't miss the Regional Roasts game at the end of the episode!

The Downtime | Episode 31: Thankful

Feel the buildup as we sail with Waloddi Weibull on his journey to unveiling what we now call the Weibull distribution, one of the most versatile and widely-known statistical methods in survival and reliability analysis.

Lyrics:

Born in Vittskövle, 1887, Waloddi sailed the Swedish seas under heaven.
A midshipman first, then a scholar of math, He charted the unknown, drew a brand-new path.

From fracture mechanics to strength of steel, He asked: how long will machines truly feel?
In 1937, he gave us the key, A model of failure, shaped probabilistically.

Oh, the Weibull line, it tells us when, The failures start, and the wear begins. 
With beta for shape and eta for scale, It maps out life where others fail. 
From infant mortality to aging decay, His function guides us every day.

He studied at Uppsala, taught at KTH, Saw time-to-failure as more than just a phase.
In 1951, he made it precise, A distribution that still rolls the dice.

From turbines spinning to medical scans, Weibull’s curve fits countless plans.
Predicting fatigue, forecasting strain, Designing for stress, avoiding pain.
Shape parameter rising, hazard rate climbs, It’s all in the math, across industries and times.

Gold medals gleamed in his later years, ASME honored the pioneer.
From Sweden to France, his journey complete, But his legacy lives in the data we keep.

Oh, the Weibull line, it tells us when, The failures start, and the wear begins.
With beta for shape and eta for scale, It maps out life where others fail.
From infant mortality to aging decay, His function guides us every day.

So let the curve that bears his name Remind us why he earned his fame.
From reliability to lifetime design, We still walk the path of the Weibull line.

The Curve of Life (Weibull distribution)

Rock out to the infinite, never ending, eternal and probably most popular irrational number ... ever.  Can you imagine life without Pi?

Lyrics:

They called you Archimedes’ dream,  
A symbol carved in ancient schemes,  
From Babylon’s clay to Greek design,  
You whispered secrets through the line.  
Defined as the circle’s sacred law,  
Circumference divided by diameter raw,  
A ratio endless, a number’s cry,  
The world revolves around you, Pi.  

Oh Pi, you’re the fire in the wheel,  
The heartbeat that the cosmos feels.  
Without your song, the stars would fall,  
No bridges, no waves, no circles at all.  
You’re infinite, you never die,  
The rock of reason — eternal Pi.  

Geometry bows to your command,  
Physics trembles in your hand,  
From quantum strings to ocean tides,  
Engineering rides where you reside.  
Astronomy charts the heavens wide,  
Statistics finds its truth inside,  
Without your code, we’d lose the sky,  
No measure, no map — no Pi.  

Oh Pi, you’re the fire in the wheel,  
The heartbeat that the cosmos feels.  
Without your song, the stars would fall,  
No bridges, no waves, no circles at all.  
You’re infinite, you never die,  
The rock of reason — eternal Pi.  

Imagine a world where circles break,  
Where clocks can’t turn, where ships can’t wake,  
Where music’s rhythm fades away,  
And science has no words to say.  
But you remain, a guiding flame,  
Unfinished, endless, yet the same,  
A ballad sung through time and sky,  
Forever bound to you, sweet Pi.  

Oh Pi, you’re the fire in the wheel,  
The heartbeat that the cosmos feels.  
Without your song, the stars would fall,  
No bridges, no waves, no circles at all.  
You’re infinite, you never die,  
The rock of reason — eternal Pi.  

Eternal Pi

Laying the Foundations for AI in Construction and Engineering: A Complete 2026 Guide

The common advice for career growth is to “move up” into management — but what if your true passion lies in staying close to the technology itself?

In this episode, host Sam East speaks with Deb Whitis, Ph.D., and Amrita Maguire, both of the SWE Technical Career Path Affinity Group, about what it means to grow, lead, and make an impact as engineers while staying on the technical career path.

From developing nickel-based superalloys that power jet engines to advancing ergonomic standards and AI-enabled design, Deb and Amrita reflect on their careers and share how technical leadership can be just as influential as managing people. 

They also highlight the work of SWE’s Technical Career Path Affinity Group, including a new mentorship program helping women chart their own path as innovators, inventors, and subject matter experts.

Get involved with the SWE Technical Career Path Affinity Group: https://affinitygroups.swe.org/technical-career-path/ 

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The Society of Women Engineers is a powerful, global force uniting 50,000 members of all genders spanning 85 countries. We are the world’s largest advocate and catalyst for change for women in engineering and technology. To join and access all the exclusive benefits to elevate your professional journey, visit membership.swe.org. 

Ep 344: Staying on the Technical Career Path: Engineers Leading Through Innovation

pure recordings, no effects, no editing, no engineering - release 2027

GOD KNOWS - THE TRANSMOTIONS - Bjoern Eilen

Women engineers often struggle to set boundaries or say “no” at work.

Srividhya Pallay and Tsega Tefera, solutions architects at Amazon Web Services, joined us live in the WE25 Diverse Podcast Studio to share real-world lessons around overcoming imposter syndrome, finding the confidence to speak up in meetings, and unapologetically protecting their time and energy in their STEM careers.

In conversation with Laurie Shuster, editor-in-chief of SWE Magazine, hear how to handle disagreements with professionalism and grace, calendar-blocking techniques to maintain balance, and go-to phrases to communicate boundaries effectively.

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The Society of Women Engineers is a powerful, global force uniting 50,000 members of all genders spanning 85 countries. We are the world’s largest advocate and catalyst for change for women in engineering and technology. To join and access all the exclusive benefits to elevate your professional journey, visit membership.swe.org. 

Ep 345: How to Say No at Work Without Burning Bridges

THE TRANSMOTIONS are an independent brand new Rock Pop Alternative Band, our music is real, created by real artists with love and passion, we don't use AI in our music production! Our songs reflect real life, we feel, we love, we dream, miss friends, we are depressed, we fail, we live and we will also die one day...
All of our lyrics and tunes are self written and self performed with absolutely no support of AI. Music is a treasure that touches human beings, a verbal and non verbal communication, it belongs to humans...
For video creation, THE TRANSMOTIONS are using NEURAL FRAMES.
We released our first professional promotional video on YOUTUBE December 2025, a hidden track from the song "Falling". The production of 20 songs is ongoing until 2026 with a world wide release of the first single in 2026. 
All of our lyrics and tunes are self written and self performed with absolutely no support of AI. Music is a treasure that touches human beings, a verbal or non verbal communication, it belongs to humans only.
For high quality video creation, THE TRANSMOTIONS are using NEURAL FRAMES.

Welcome to Diverse, a podcast by the Society of Women Engineers. SWE gives women engineers a unique place and voice within the engineering community. On Diverse, we highlight incredible thought leaders and personalities in the STEM community and discover who they are at home, at work and in between.

The Downtime is your weekly podcast for manufacturing news, hosted by Sarah Wynn and Sheri Kasprzak from WTWH Media. Thanks for spending your downtime with us!

Pun father of 3, proud military retiree, mediocre engineer, karaoke delight.  

Using AI tools to produce educational and technical jams that real musicians wouldn't care to create.

New tracks tagged #engineering