Recent Episodes
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,
105
April 7, 2026
Grieving Twice: One Woman's Journey Through Suicide Loss, Truth, and the Power of Advocacy | Lisa Sugarman
⚠️ Content Warning: This episode contains discussions of suicide, suicide loss, grief, and mental health. Please proceed with care. What happens when the story you've built your grief around turns out to be a different story entirely? In this deeply moving episode, Jennifer sits down with Lisa Sugarman, author, mental health advocate, crisis counselor, and suicide loss survivor, in Salem, Massachusetts, to talk about one of the most profound and disorienting experiences a person can face: learni
104
March 24, 2026
Property of the Revolution: One Cuban Refugee's Story of Loss, Legacy, and the Power of Intergenerational Storytelling | Ana Flaster
What does it mean to carry a country inside you — one you were forced to leave before you were old enough to understand why? In this deeply moving episode, Jennifer sits down with Ana Flaster, Cuban-American author of Property of the Revolution, to explore the story that shaped her entire life: fleeing Cuba as a child in 1967, arriving in the snowy mill town of Nashua, New Hampshire with one suitcase and a family that refused to let loss have the last word. Ana recounts the visceral moment she s
103
March 10, 2026
The Year of Dating Yourself: How One Woman Chose Herself — and Changed Everything | Abby Rosmarin
What happens when you stop looking for love and start finding yourself? In this episode, Jennifer sits down with author and New Hampshire transplant Abby Rosmarin in Concord, NH, to talk about the year that changed her life: 2023, the Year of Dating Herself. After a string of tumultuous relationships that left her gaslit, depleted, and sitting in a bathtub wondering how she got there, Abby made a radical decision — to spend an entire year intentionally single, intentionally present, and intentio
102
Feb. 24, 2026
When Dreams Change: Cheryl Johnson on 45 Moves, Motherhood, and Learning as Transformation
What happens when the dream you've chased your entire life finally comes true—only to discover it's not actually what you wanted after all? In this conversation, host Jennifer Peterkin sits down with Cheryl Johnson, a woman who has moved 45 times across 8 states, visited all 50 states, and learned that life's greatest gifts often come disguised as detours. Cheryl's story begins at age 8 on an airplane, helping flight attendants pick up trash and dreaming of a glamorous life in the skies. For ove
101
Feb. 10, 2026
From Silence to Survival: Ruth Carroll's Journey Through Decades of Abuse to Radical Healing
Content Warning: This episode contains detailed discussions of childhood sexual abuse, domestic violence, physical abuse, substance abuse, and suicide. Listener discretion is strongly advised. In this powerful episode of The Human Experience, host Jennifer Peterkin sits down with Ruth Carroll—a survivor whose story spans decades of unimaginable abuse, yet who now stands as a beacon of hope and resilience. Ruth's story begins in the innocence of childhood, with memories of happy Christmases and p
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