A podcast of inspirational stories of overcoming adversity and emerging transformed with a positive outcome.
Twenty-three-year-old Aaron Martinez grew up going to school in Espanola, New Mexico, a city with a population of about 10,000. You’ll pass through it if you’re driving between Santa Fe and Taos, two tourist towns known for its art scene, winter skiing and opera. Unfortunately, it also sits in a Northern New Mexico region where …
Continue reading “094: Aaron Martinez: Breaking the Cycle of Drug Addiction in his Family”
Founder and CEO of the inspirational fashion brand ShineThe Light On, 25-year-old Eli Brown knows first-hand what it’s like to struggle with mental illness. An avid tennis player since the age of four he was so good that he later received a tennis scholarship to attend a prestigious university and compete with Team Canada. But …
Jess Key is a remarkable woman who says she’s a major underdog story. She’s a 41-year-old mother of three and she’s a dragon boat racer on the U.S. National Dragon Boat Team. You’d never know it today, but Jess has overcome multiple adversities. Both of her parents were drug addicts, she grew up with physical …
Five years ago and 36 weeks into her pregnancy, Briar Harvey said she went into the hospital expecting to come home with a baby, but instead she came home with nothing. Due to complications, her baby didn’t make it. Briar explains what happened, how this traumatic experience has affected her, and how she was able …
It’s been 29 years to this day that Director, Producer, Editor and Filmmaker Eric Christiansen survived the 1990 Painted Cave Fire in Santa Barbara, California. The fire destroyed over 400 homes, including Eric’s, and burned over 5,000 acres, devastating many lives. Eric talks about how he turned to alcohol and drugs to cope with the …
Suicide prevention strategist, author and speaker Susie Reynolds Reece is trying to educate and spread awareness about the topic of suicide less and make is less uncomfortable to talk about. She says that if we’re more comfortable with the subject, then we’ll be able to help those who need support and also make it more …
Continue reading “084: Susie Reynolds Reece: Making the Topic of Suicide More Comfortable”
Today we’re talking with Brenda Adelman, who is an actress, director, coach, speaker, author and creator of the one-woman show, My Brooklyn Hamlet. Having performed her show to over 12,000 people, she tells the tragic story about her family; her father murdered her mother and then remarried her mother’s sister. Brenda explains how she initially …
[UPDATE: Since the release of this episode, a suspect has been arreted in Jamie’s murder in March 2019. Further updates to be provided later.] On August 28, 2016, Valerie Silveira had a parent’s worst nightmare come true—a knock on the door with the news that her 30-year-old daughter, Jamie, was murdered. She evidently was shot …
Phillip Andrew is an Emmy-nominated TV Producer, Writer, Media and Life Coach. He’s also a Speaker, who talks at rehabs, jails, colleges and high schools. In this interview, Phillip shares his story of how he began abusing alcohol at an early age. Actually, he started drinking when he was 11. Things got worse when his …
Today our guest is Dr. Cathleen Gerenger. Cathleen came from a family of 13 children, all of who risked their lives to travel for weeks on a dangerously overcrowded boat. They were fleeing their home in Vietnam from the aftermath of the war and her parents decided to split up the children in small groups …
