Recent Episodes
115
Sept. 1, 2026
Sometimes the Dragon Wins: Natasha J. Layton on Surviving a Cult, Five Suicides, and Herself
⚠️ Content Warning: This episode contains detailed discussions of childhood sexual abuse, suicide, cult dynamics, and domestic violence. Please proceed with care. In this episode Natasha J. Layton — speaker, entrepreneur, and co-host of The Survivors Podcast — shares her story about a childhood most people can't fathom. Raised inside the FLDS cult under her uncle, Warren Jeffs, Natasha survived childhood sexual abuse, three of her own suicide attempts, and the eventual loss of five brothers to s
114
Aug. 18, 2026
Rolling the Dice: A Brain Injury Survivor's Unlikely Path To Healing Through Gaming | Nicholas Ruchlewicz
⚠️ Content Warning: This episode contains discussions of traumatic brain injury, a serious motorcycle accident, mental health struggles, suicide, and grief. Listener discretion is advised. In this episode, Jennifer sits down with Nicholas Ruchlewicz in his home in Herndon, Virginia, nearly ten years to the day after a single-vehicle motorcycle crash left him with a traumatic brain injury, a shattered pelvis, and a recovery no one expected him to fully wake up from. He walks through the disorient
113
Aug. 4, 2026
The UndU Method: A Former NFL Player's Science-Backed Path From Fibromyalgia to World-Ranked Sprinter | Dan Esposito
⚠️ Content Warning: This episode contains discussions of childhood trauma, family abuse, and chronic illness. Please proceed with care. Dan Esposito spent his twenties and thirties chasing movement, first as an NFL running back, then as the guy who never left the dance floor, until chronic pain took all of it away. Diagnosed with fibromyalgia and degenerative arthritis, and told he'd need four joint replacements starting at 50, Dan refused to accept that his body was simply aging out from under
112
July 21, 2026
Artist, Nomad, Advocate: The Losses and Leaps That Shaped Kirsten Dickerson's Life of Service (Part 2)
This episode picks up right where Part 1 left off, as Jennifer continues her conversation with her friend and longtime travel companion Kirsten Dickerson in her home in London. Kirsten opens up about what came after Raven + Lily - the quiet grief of walking away from something she had built her identity around, and the winding season that followed: a global nonprofit, a string of retreat centers renovated by hand, a painting practice she never expected to fall back in love with, and a handful of
111
July 7, 2026
Artist, Nomad, Advocate: The Losses and Leaps That Shaped Kirsten Dickerson's Life of Service (Part 1)
Jennifer sits down with her friend and travel companion Kirsten Dickerson, founder of Artist & Nomad, in Kirsten's garden flat in London. Kirsten opens up about the moments that quietly rearranged her life: a family that lost nearly everything, a mother she wasn't sure she could hold onto, and a faith that kept nudging her toward the next unlikely yes - from the sorority halls of Baylor University to the bustling streets of Calcutta. What emerges is the origin story behind the life Kirsten has b
110
June 23, 2026
Open Doors: How One Panamanian Woman Walked From an Orphanage to the United Nations | Isabel
⚠️ Content Warning: This episode contains discussions of childhood physical and emotional abuse, suicidal ideation, institutionalization, and intergenerational trauma. Please proceed with care. What does it look like to rebuild a life that was broken before you were old enough to understand why? In this deeply moving episode, Jennifer sits down with Isabel — a young Panamanian woman raised in the countryside of Veráguas, who endured childhood abuse, entered Panama’s overburdened child welfare sy
109
June 9, 2026
The Invisible Crisis: How Karen Olson Built a National Movement for Homeless Families
⚠️ Content Warning: This episode contains discussions of suicide, grief, childhood trauma, and homelessness. Listener discretion is advised. What does it look like when a single act of kindness, a sandwich handed to a stranger outside Grand Central Station, becomes the seed of a national movement? In this episode, Jennifer sits down with Karen Olson, founder of Family Promise, in her home in Springfield, New Jersey, to trace the remarkable arc of a life shaped by early loss, quiet resilience, an
108
May 26, 2026
Losing My Daughter to Medical Negligence, and Finding Hope in a Baby at 57 | Barb Higgins
⚠️ Content Warning: This episode contains discussions of childhood sexual abuse, child loss, grief, and substance use. Please proceed with care. In this episode, Jennifer sits down with Barb Higgins — educator, CrossFit coach, author, podcaster, and mother — inside her home in Concord, New Hampshire, the very town where her story began. Barb’s life has been shaped by a series of extraordinary events: childhood sexual abuse, a 20-year teaching career that ended in a forced resignation, the devast
107
May 5, 2026
Faith, Loss, and Finding Home: A Panamanian Woman’s Story of Grief, Resilience, and the God She Argued With | Marina Mendez
⚠️ Content Warning: This episode contains discussions of grief and loss of siblings. Please proceed with care. In this episode, Jennifer sits down with Marina Mendez, a 24-year-old Panamanian educator and woman of deep faith, in Panama City, Panama. Marina’s story begins in the shadow of unimaginable loss: by the time she was twelve years old, she had buried both of her brothers, and she didn’t pretend to be okay about it. What follows is a journey of grief, doubt, determination, and a faith tha
106
April 21, 2026
Walking On: A Father's Story of Loss, Legacy, and Choosing Hope After the Unthinkable | Stephen Panus
⚠️ Content Warning: This episode contains discussions of the loss of a child, grief, and traumatic death. Listener discretion is advised. In this episode, Jennifer sits down with Stephen Panus - author, speaker, and bereaved father - to hear the story of August 9, 2020: the day his 16-year-old son Jake was killed as a passenger in a reckless car crash that changed everything. Stephen shares, with extraordinary candor and vulnerability, what it means to lose a child suddenly and without warning,
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