October 9 2025
Welcome to Ep15 of the Questions Bar, the podcast and video show sponsored by Inkandescent Women magazine, which invites you in to listen in on a chat with two girlfriends talking about topics of the day that touch their minds, bodies, spirits, souls, and hearts: AlinaZ in Los Angeles and Hope Katz Gibbs in Washington DC.
The mission of the show: To share tools and experiences to manage stress and find hope in our lives each and every day. In Season 1, the hosts engaged in some girlfriend therapy as they discussed issues that were challenging them, and found healthy solutions to transform the pain to joy (see some of the topics below).
In Season 2: The sister friends dive into 3 Big Questions to mine deep into their hearts as they tell the stories of their lives. But today, we are thrilled to talk about Alina’s two new books — one, “12 Selves,” she has been working on for more than a year. Her second new title, “Lessons from my Birkin,” was written while she was on vacation last month.
“It just came to me, so I turned the ideas into a coffee-table style book that will also be a deck of inspirational cards in 2026,” shares Alina Z, an award-winning Board Certified Health Coach who helps high-achieving women reconnect with their true purpose by transforming how they eat, dress, and live, alinaz.com.
Co-host Hope Katz Gibbs is the founder and president of Inkandescent® Inc., a national PR firm and publishing company, Inkandescent.us.
Elena Masarsky
Check out today’s special girlfriend chat, and stay tuned for our next episode featuring Alina’s Mom, Elena Masarsky, who will talk about her life in Russia, her battle with Putin, and what she learned about the power of resilience as she reinvented herself repeatedly. We can’t wait for this interview!
About Alina Z: An award-winning Board Certified Health Coach, Chopra Life Coach, Detox Specialist, and former chef, named creator of the #1 Best Diet in America by Harper’s Bazaar, Alina holds a degree from Parsons School of Design and a Master’s in Communication, blending style, soul, and science into one transformational experience. Through her signature Wholistic Self-Discovery Coaching Program, Alina helps high-achieving women reconnect with their true purpose by transforming how they eat, dress, and live. Her philosophy? When you eat to nourish your soul and dress to express your truth, you shift your inner state — and from that space everything changes. Peace returns. Confidence rises. Sparkle comes back. 
About Hope Katz Gibbs: The founder and president of Inkandescent® Inc., a national PR firm and publishing company that this long-time journalist founded in 2008, Hope is on a mission to help entrepreneurs supersize their small businesses. She and her team of 10 publish online magazines (
