Broken, Not Bound | With America Ferrera

A moment in time — sometimes that's all it takes to shift a relationship, change a perspective, alter a future. In this week's episode, we relive one of those moments with Golden Globe and Emmy Award-winning actress America Ferrera, known for ABC's "Ugly Betty" and NBC's "Superstore." She reads Mara Gordon's essay, "Broken, Not Bound, By An Intimate Tie."

About the voices in this episode:

America Ferrera is an award-winning actress and producer who is perhaps best known for her breakthrough role as “Betty Suarez” on ABC’s hit comedy, "Ugly Betty." For her outstanding performance on the show, Ferrera was recognized with a Golden Globe®, Emmy® and Screen Actors Guild Award®, as well as ALMA and Imagen Awards.

Ferrera currently produces and stars in the new NBC comedy, "Superstore." Ferrera recently wrapped production on Ricky Gervais’ satirical film, "Special Correspondents," set to premiere on
Netflix in 2016, opposite Ricky Gervais, Vera Farmiga, and Eric Bana. Her recent film credits also include Ryan Piers Williams’ drama "X/Y," which she produced and starred in opposite Amber Tamblyn.

Ferrera continues to lend her vocal talents to the DreamWorks’ Oscar® nominated franchise films "How to Train Your Dragon." Other film credits include "End of Watch," the crime thriller starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Anna Kendrick, and Michael Peña and "Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (parts 1 and 2)."

Ferrera served as ambassador on the campaign “America4America” joining Voto Latino, the leading non-partisan national youth empowerment organization. The campaign featured Ferrera discussing issues related to voter ID laws, education, and immigration.

Ferrera also served as an artist ambassador for Save the Children and traveled to West Africa where she raised funds to build a school in southern Mali. She has dedicated her time to the organization, ONE, in support of women facing the challenges of extreme poverty.

Behind the scenes, America has started her own television and film production company, Take Fountain.  She tweets @AmericaFerrera

Mara Gordon graduated from medical school last year and is now a resident in family medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. She loves to write, and her work has also appeared in The Atlantic. She is at work on a memoir about her years in East Africa. She lives in Philadelphia with her partner and her dog. You can find her on Twitter @gordonmara1

Original music in this episode includes "June03" by Aeroc, provided by the gholicense collection at ghostlysongs.com.

We'd love to get to know you! Fill out this quick survey to help Modern Love keep getting better and better.

Don't forget to write us a review on iTunes, "Like" Modern Love on Facebook, and follow Dan Jones on Twitter at @danjonesNYT and Meghna Chakrabarti at @MeghnaWBUR.