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Send us Fan Mail You can hear the exact moment a life story turns into a healing practice. Susie McCartney grew up outside Philadelphia in a family shaped by Vietnam-era fallout, alcoholism, and the kind of “everything is fine” chaos that looks normal until you’re old enough to feel your own nervous system. We trace how that early wiring shows up later as the urge to flee, the need to belong, and the lifelong project of figuring out who you are beneath the roles you inherit. Susie takes us f...

Send us Fan Mail A nine-year-old gets hit by a stray bullet while playing second base. A 30-year-old nursing student hears the words “you have cancer” and still has to get dinner on the table for three boys. A seasoned Alaska RN crashes an airboat into a sweeper, wakes up pinned, and starts running a trauma checklist on herself while the boat sinks. That’s the real-life timeline Nicole Holm lays out with us, and it’s as raw, specific, and human as it sounds. We talk about growing up in Haine...

Send us Fan Mail A kid from flat Kansas farm country ends up on the open ocean, clinging to a mast in a storm and wondering if he will make it back down. That is where Matt Jones’ story gets real, and where mine as a listener shifted too. Matt walks us through the unexpected chain of choices that took him to the Coast Guard Academy, onto cutters and tall ships, and into a career shaped by responsibility, risk, and the kind of leadership you only learn when other people’s lives are tied to you...

Send us Fan Mail One minute Jim Stanford is a farm-country kid outside Cleveland pushing a mower across five-acre lawns. The next he’s caddying at a U.S. Open, running track and football at Kent State, and watching campus tension build until the Kent State shooting changes everything. Jim’s story has that rare mix of history, humor, and hard-earned clarity, and it only gets wilder from there. We talk about leaving Ohio for San Diego, becoming a professional commercial diver, and how a...

Send us Fan Mail A great-looking jacket is the end of a very long chain of decisions and most people never see the chain. We talk with fashion designer Shelby Steiner about what actually happens between a sketch and a product you can buy, from pattern making and prototypes to tech packs, factory communication, and the unglamorous details that make gear work (or fail) in real life. Shelby shares how a rural upbringing and an early fixation on fashion pushed her to move fast, take risks, and e...