As Director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area, Maria Blanco has a passion for immigrant rights, women’s rights and racial justice. Ellen sits down with this award-winning lawyer to ask her what it was like to move to the States from her homeland of Mexico, why she decided to become an attorney, and what made her wait so long to become an American citizen herself.

Who said you can’t have more than one job? Lynn Reiser, Professor of Psychiatry at Yale Medical School and the award-winning author and illustrator of 25 children’s books, has successfully combined both of her passions in an interesting and meaningful life. Reiser reveals how the books she writes books allow her to connect with the child within herself and tells Ellen where she finds inspiration for her stories.