HeadRoom with Author Barbara Sommer Feigin & Peter Feigin President, Milwaukee Bucks

HeadRoom with Dr. Rod Berger

Taking us from Nazi Germany at age two to the boardroom of Gray Advertising (now Grey Global Group), Barbara Feigin's new book My American Dream: A Journey from Fascism to Freedom (Five Star Press, Jan. 2024) is a memoir of resilience, grit and grace. In this powerful episode, Feigin tells of her life as a young German-speaking refugee in a small Washington town yearning to become an “authentic” American. She details how she became a trailblazing executive in the advertising industry's male-dominated 1960s ‘Mad Men’ era–rising through the ranks and ultimately securing a seat in the boardroom. Often, she was the only woman in the room.

My American Dream begins with the entire text of her Jewish father's journal about the terrifying details of the family's escape from Germany, coming to the U.S. by way of Lithuania, Russia, China, Korea, and Japan before crossing the Pacific. Then we learn of her remarkable career, her devotion to her husband, who suffered two strokes, and the happiness of raising three successful sons, one of whom is the president of the Milwaukee Bucks.

Barbara and Peter join Berger in a heartfelt and revealing examination of family, perseverance, and pride.