Sunflowers, Survival and Storytelling with Oksana Kukurudza

When Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, Oksana Kukurudza felt called to do far more than protest – she realized her creative voice could serve as a powerful bridge between history, personal family memory and global advocacy.

This episode was first released in November 2024.

From writing handmade books of fairy tales in second grade, to spending over thirty years in public accounting, business school and global management consulting, Oksana Kukurudza gave up her early artistic passions to secure financial independence. Decades later, an invitation to contribute a chapter to a business anthology reignited her love for creative writing.

In this episode, Oksana shares the emotional journey of writing her debut narrative nonfiction book, Sunflowers Bend But Rarely Break. 

We explore her parents’ harrowing experiences as teenage labourers in Germany during World War II, the long-lost 1989 school paper that unlocked her mother’s hidden past and how storytelling can hold corporations accountable, inspire generational resilience and drive active support for Ukraine today.

We discuss:

• The 2022 Invasion and History Repeating: How the outbreak of war in Ukraine prompted Oksana to protest and advocate, recognizing chilling parallels between modern news footage and her parents’ World War II trauma.
• Uncovering Wartime Journeys in Germany: Researching the individual wartime journeys of her mother (aged 17 in 1941) and father (aged 20 in 1941) – from wartime displacement to enduring severe labour conditions in Germany.
• The Lost 1989 Paper and Narrative Nonfiction: How her sister rediscovered a long-lost high school interview paper from 1989, allowing Oksana to blend secondary historical research with immersive, character-driven narrative nonfiction.
• Corporate Responsibility and The Resilience of the Sunflower: Why sunflowers symbolize unbroken endurance, how Oksana connects historical wartime labour to modern corporate ethics and social responsibility, and her advocacy work on Capitol Hill supporting Ukrainian rebuilding.

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Podcast recorded with Riverside and hosted by Buzzsprout