Notes from the Edge

What did we know at five years old that we somehow forgot along the way?Tiffany Dennison is a kindergarten and first-grade educator with 22 years of experience whose work centers on play, belonging and social-emotional development. Her classroom offers a fascinating reminder that children may understand some of the fundamentals of being human long before adults complicate them.In this conversation, Tiffany and I talk about what happens when children are given enough time to actually play, why belonging and emotional safety have to come before learning, and what five-year-olds can teach adults about repairing conflict without dragging yesterday’s resentment into today. We also get into screen time, storytelling, nervous-system regulation and Tiffany’s own journey of recognizing and releasing people-pleasing.In this episode:Play-based learning and why unstructured play mattersSocial-emotional learning and childhood developmentBelonging, emotional safety and nervous-system regulationHow children repair conflict differently than adultsThe effects of screens on connection, creativity and attentionStorytelling as a tool for learning and human connectionWhat adults model for children without realizing itPeople-pleasing, identity and learning to listen to your bodyWhy slowing down may be one of the most important things children can teach usConnect with Lisa Lacyhttps://www.lisalacy.comWhat did you perform in order to survive?Welcome to the Edge. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Writer and memoirist Daniel Sterling spent much of his life chasing achievement, recognition, and the next version of success until he discovered that some of the hardest work a man can do happens in the few inches between his head and his heart.Daniel and Lisa talk about the childhood hunger to be seen that fueled his drive, from becoming a top U.S. alpine ski racer to television, filmmaking, and screenwriting, and what happened when that identity finally stopped sustaining him. They dig into male emotional isolation, the mentor who helped Daniel rebuild his life through self-study and accountability, and why raising emotionally whole boys requires adults willing to examine their own patterns first.In this episode:Male isolation and why emotional connection can be so difficult for menAchievement, validation, and using success as a substitute for feeling seenMidlife emotional collapse and rebuilding identity beyond performancePersonal accountability, self-awareness, and dropping defensivenessCommunication and healthier relationshipsRaising boys into emotionally whole menWhy a meaningful apology requires changed behaviorLetting go of ego and discovering who you are beyond accomplishmentsConnect with Daniel Sterling:https://daniel-sterling.comConnect with Lisa Lacy:https://www.lisalacy.comWhat did you perform in order to survive? Welcome to the Edge. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

What happens when everyone in your family knows the truth about your life except you?Al Isaacs, author of Finding Mary Smith and longtime comedian and improv teacher, joins Lisa Lacy to talk about discovering at 52 that he had been adopted and what happens to identity when the foundation of your own story suddenly shifts.Al takes us inside the ordinary phone call from his mother’s oncologist that accidentally exposed a secret his family had kept for more than five decades, and the search that followed through DNA, genealogy, Search Angels and the trail of a folk singer named Mary Smith. The conversation also moves into imposter syndrome, forgiveness, the power of improv’s “yes, and,” and the painful cost of family secrets, including the conversations we may lose when truth is withheld.In this episode:Late-discovery adoption and identityFamily secrets, truth and belongingGray-market adoption in the late 1960sDNA testing, genealogy and Search AngelsSearching for a biological mother decades laterImposter syndrome and reclaiming identityForgiveness without erasing what happenedHow “yes, and” helped Al keep moving when he wanted to give upThe memories and relationships family secrecy can cost usConnect with Al: AlIsaacs.comFinding Mary Smith is available in paperback, eBook and audiobook.Connect with Lisa: LisaLacy.comWhat did you perform in order to survive?Welcome to the Edge. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

What if the traits you think are your personality are actually things you learned to do to survive?Simone Bowyer is a writer and founder of The Light Within Collective, whose work explores what she calls the “language of survival,” the patterns we develop to feel safe, loved, worthy, and less likely to be abandoned.In this conversation, Simone and I talk about perfectionism, hyper-independence, control, and overachievement as survival adaptations rather than simply personality traits. She shares her experience with severe treatment-resistant depression, years of psychiatric treatment, and ultimately electroconvulsive therapy, or ECT, which she describes not as a cure, but as something that finally created enough space for her to consider life beyond the darkness.We also take the conversation into the workplace, exploring why we cannot simply leave our wounds at home, what human-centered leadership can look like, and why psychological safety matters when the person who appears to be your highest performer may actually have a nervous system that never learned it was safe to stop.In this episode:• How childhood trauma can become perfectionism, people-pleasing, control, and hyper-independence• Treatment-resistant depression and Simone’s experience with ECT• Why recovery does not erase survival patterns overnight• Performing worth in order to feel lovable and avoid abandonment• Trauma, the nervous system, and high achievement• Psychological safety and human-centered leadership in the workplace• Why healing is not linear and does not have a timeline• Simone’s book, Chasing Light, and finding color again after years of depression• Moving from asking “What is wrong with me?” to asking “What did I learn to do to survive?”Connect with Simone Bowyer:The Light Within Collectivehttps://lightwithincollective.co.zaConnect with Lisa Lacy:https://lisalacy.comWhat did you perform in order to survive?Welcome to the Edge. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Would you look away?Ruth E. Stitt is an author and licensed counselor whose family’s preserved letters from Nazi Germany reveal how persecution can unfold gradually, how difficult escape can become, and what happens when ordinary people decide whether to remain bystanders or stand up.In 1938, Ruth’s grandmother in Bridgeport, Connecticut received a letter from relatives in Berlin desperately searching for a way out of Nazi Germany. What followed was five years of correspondence filled with hope, fear, bureaucracy, attempted immigration, love and devastating loss.In this conversation, Ruth and Lisa go beyond the question, “Why didn’t they just leave?” They explore the financial, legal, political and emotional barriers Jewish families faced while trying to escape, the psychology of denial as danger slowly becomes normalized, and what fear and grief do to human beings under extraordinary pressure. They also talk about the choice that can remain when nearly everything else has been taken away: how we respond, who we love and whether we are willing to speak when someone else is being dehumanized.In this episode:• Holocaust history and life inside Nazi Germany• Jewish refugee immigration and the barriers to escape• Family letters documenting persecution as it unfolded• Denial, fear, grief and psychological survival• Why “Why didn’t they just leave?” misses the complexity of displacement• Choosing love when control has been stripped away• Turning documented family history into historical fiction• The difference between a bystander and an upstander• Moral courage, dehumanization and the responsibility to speak• Letting go of perfection, overachievement and the need to always have the answerContent note: This conversation includes discussion of the Holocaust, persecution, forced displacement, psychological trauma and profound loss.Connect with Ruth E. Stitt:https://scripturecomesto.lifeFind Ruth’s books on Amazon by searching Ruth E. Stitt.Connect with Lisa Lacy:https://lisalacy.comWhat did you perform in order to survive?Welcome to the Edge. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.