Advertise on podcast: The Life Shift | Conversations About Life Before and After

Have you ever wondered what you would say if someone you love told you they were ready to go? Most of us put that conversation off, and it waits for us anyway. Oliver spent about twenty years far from Switzerland, in Japan, the UK and Australia. He came home for one year, and stayed when his father's health began to decline. He and his mother grew closer than they had ever been. Then one afternoon, over a cup of tea, she told him it was time. He had known for years, and in that moment it felt real for the first time. He said yes, and he walked beside her through a chosen, conscious ending. This is a warm and honest conversation about love, letting go, and a mother and son finally getting to know each other. There are tears, gratitude, and a surprising amount of lightness. If death is something you are afraid to talk about, I hope this feels like a gentle place to begin. What You'll Hear Why Oliver left Switzerland and what finally brought him home Twenty years of keeping his mother at arm's length, and the hug that ended it The afternoon over tea when she said it was time What it means to complete a life rather than end it The small layers of letting go, from skiing to her favorite soup Why the conversations before the end can free everyone in the room Guest Bio Oliver Christen grew up in a small Swiss town. After graduating from business school and completing his service as an officer, he left Switzerland to expand his horizons and see the world. Over the next two decades, Oliver travelled extensively, experienced different cultures, built businesses across four continents, and immersed himself in meditative practice. For several years, he performed with a spiritual theatre company at renowned festivals across Asia and Europe. Eventually, he returned to Switzerland as a dual Swiss/Australian citizen to be closer to his parents, bringing with him his international family. With no prior experience in assisted dying, he relied on intuition, presence, and a handful of careful conversations and research to support and witness his mother's intentional end of life. Friends deeply moved by his mother's final journey encouraged Oliver to write As She Chose. Today, Oliver lives near Zürich. As She Chose is his first book, available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Goodreads. Website: www.choosingtogo.com Social: @oliverchristen Listen and follow: https://www.thelifeshiftpodcast.com/follow/?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=shownotes&utm_campaign=ep295 Subscribe to the newsletter: https://thelifeshiftpodcast.beehiiv.com/ You Might Also Like: Grief: Making Something Beautiful From What Broke The Complexity of Grief After Losing a Brother in Childhood supporting a dying parent, end of life conversations, letting go, grief and acceptance, mother and son, conscious dying, living will, peaceful death, fear of death, family caregiving Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Maybe you have ticked every box and still wondered why the feeling never showed up. The degree, the job, the right age, the right house. You reach the milestone and happiness quietly slips over to the next one. Charu grew up believing a good life was a checklist. On the first morning of her honeymoon, she woke up unable to feel her hands, and within hours she was paralyzed. Lying in that hospital bed, all she could think was whether she would survive. That morning was the first crack in a life built to be approved of. Over the years that followed, it led to a divorce, a complete restart, and the slow work of learning to hear her own voice. This conversation holds a lot of tenderness. A father whose life ended just before retirement. The grief of years given away to pleasing people. The first time she said no to a friend after practicing in front of the mirror. If you have ever lived a life for someone else's approval, I hope you feel a little less alone here. What You'll Hear Why achieving everything on paper still left something missing The honeymoon morning when her body stopped listening Waking up in the hospital with only one question left A divorce, a restart, and the fear of not knowing anyone Saying no for the first time, after practicing in the mirror Writing a book as a way back to herself Guest Bio Charu Moorjani is an Australian Author, a mindset coach and a wellbeing storyteller known for her honest memoir-style writing and a grounding approach to personal growth. Her debut book, The Happiness Pathway, blends her lived life experiences with practical tools to help readers rebuild their self-worth by creating boundaries without guilt and developing simple daily habits to cultivate lasting happiness. Every chapter in her book includes stories and reflections from her life and little exercises that readers can use to make gentle shifts in their own lives. With a warm and relatable voice, Charu writes about healing after emotional pain, choosing resilience during times of change and the power of choosing yourself first. Through workshops and community conversations she creates safe space for reflection, connecting to yourself and making a lasting change in your life through simple tools, reminding people that happiness isn't something you find once, it's something you create daily. Website: www.thehappinesspathway.com Instagram: @thehappinesspathway Listen and follow: https://www.thelifeshiftpodcast.com/follow/?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=shownotes&utm_campaign=ep294 Subscribe to the newsletter: https://thelifeshiftpodcast.beehiiv.com/ You Might Also Like: Illness: When the Hard Thing Sets You Free Self-Worth: The Life She Fought For living by a checklist, people pleasing, Guillain Barré syndrome, starting over after divorce, learning to say no, healing journey, finding yourself, loving your own company, setting boundaries without guilt, redefining happiness Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Content note: this episode includes a detailed account of discovering a loved one's suicide. Todd Maguire spent twenty-seven years with the Queensland Police Service, most of it as a detective, including two years working undercover under a new identity: Donny Wilson. But the badge and the alias were only part of the story. On New Year's Day 2000, Todd's girlfriend Karen died by suicide in their home. He and her four-year-old son found her. Todd was twenty-five. Twelve months later, almost to the day, Todd became Donny. He grew his hair out, got tattoos, bought drugs from dealers, and walked toward danger most people would run from, chasing a recklessness that let him feel like nothing was worth protecting, including himself. He escaped death more times than he can count and once had a hundred-thousand-dollar bounty on his head. Looking back, he calls it a bit of a death wish. It took years of drinking, undiagnosed PTSD, and a wife telling him it felt like walking on eggshells before Todd started to find his way back. Therapy that didn't work the first time around. Reading about other undercover officers who'd lived through something similar. And eventually, writing it all down in a memoir, Donny: Undercover Cop with a Deathwish, that he wrote for himself and ended up helping strangers he'll never meet. What You'll Hear: Finding Karen and the moment that changed everything Deciding, together, not to continue a pregnancy weeks before her death Protecting her four-year-old son in the middle of the worst morning of Todd's life Grieving through blame, and the years it took to let it go Becoming Donny Wilson, twelve months to the day after Karen's death Repeatedly escaping death undercover, and the hundred-thousand-dollar bounty Marrying again, becoming a father, and still not being able to leave Donny behind Living with undiagnosed PTSD and what his wife noticed before he did Finding validation through other people's stories, a decade and a half later Why he wrote the book for himself, and what happened when strangers read it What he'd want to tell the Todd who was waiting on that porch in 2000 Guest Bio: Todd Maguire spent twenty-seven years with the Queensland Police Service, largely as a detective, including two years working undercover as "Donny Wilson." He is the author of the memoir Donny: Undercover Cop with a Deathwish, which tells the story of the grief, the undercover years, and the long recovery that followed the loss of his partner, Karen, in 2000. Website: www.toddmaguire.com.au Facebook: Todd Maguire Instagram: @todd_author_donny Listen and follow: www.thelifeshiftpodcast.com/follow Subscribe to the newsletter: https://thelifeshiftpodcast.beehiiv.com/ You Might Also Like: First Responder Mental Health: What a Helicopter Crash Opened Up Part of Me Died That Day: Learning to Live After the Worst Day of Your Life undercover policing, PTSD, suicide loss, grief, memoir, Queensland Police, Donny Wilson, complex trauma, recovery Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Content note: this episode includes discussion of suicidal thoughts and a crisis hotline call. Travis White was twenty-three, newly engaged, and by his own description living the dream when his body started sending signals nobody had taught him to read. One ordinary night, studying for a web development class, he felt off. Hours later, he woke up surrounded by paramedics and police, unable to remember any of it, and the first question they asked him was what drugs he'd taken. He hadn't taken any. He'd had a seizure, and over the next six weeks he had forty or fifty more. What came after was almost harder than the seizures themselves. Medication that made him hallucinate. Neurologists who ran out of answers and handed him off. Jobs he walked out of mid-shift and never returned to because he was too ashamed to explain what had happened. Dissociative episodes that once had him driving an hour and a half home without remembering the trip. For fifteen years, Travis mostly kept all of it hidden, even as the seizures came and went, even as he built a career, got married, and became a father. Then in late 2024, months after his third child was born, the seizures returned in a brutal cluster. This time doctors gave the condition a name: psychogenic non-epileptic seizures, stress firing through the body in a pattern that looks like epilepsy but isn't. The diagnosis didn't come with a clear treatment plan, and Travis spiraled into a depression severe enough that he became suicidal. A call to the 988 hotline and a brother-in-law who reached out and meant it were the turning point. From there, Travis went all in on therapy, functional medicine, and a handful of simple tools that finally let him stop just managing his life and start rebuilding it. Today Travis hosts Overcome, a podcast built around the same honesty he fought to find for himself. What You'll Hear: The night in April 2009 that started it all, and waking up surrounded by paramedics Getting asked what drugs he'd taken when he'd never touched them Forty to fifty seizures in six weeks and a week hooked up to 24-hour monitoring Medication that caused hallucinations, and tapering himself off against medical advice Losing jobs by walking out and never going back, too embarrassed to explain What dissociation actually felt like, including driving home without remembering it Rebuilding a career, buying a house, and becoming a father while still hiding the struggle The 2024 seizure cluster and the diagnosis of PNES Becoming suicidal, calling the 988 hotline, and the phone call from his brother-in-law Therapy, functional medicine, diet changes, and the tools that actually helped Why starting Overcome became part of his own healing Guest Bio: Travis White is a speaker and the host of Overcome with Travis White, a mental-health podcast featuring honest conversations about trauma, grief, addiction, identity, and resilience. After seizures disrupted his independence and sense of self, Travis spent years trying to reclaim his old life before learning to grieve who he had been and build a meaningful new one. Through Overcome, he has hosted more than 80 conversations designed to help people feel less alone and recognize that difficult seasons do not have to define the rest of their lives. Website: https://overcomepod.com Listen and follow: www.thelifeshiftpodcast.com/follow Subscribe to the newsletter: https://thelifeshiftpodcast.beehiiv.com/ You Might Also Like: Lemon-Sized Brain Tumor: The Life That Grew After Surgery The Cost of Quiet: Learning to Speak Up After Years of Silence seizures, PNES, psychogenic non-epileptic seizures, mental health stigma, dissociation, depression, 988 hotline, therapy, fatherhood, project manager, Overcome podcast Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Content note: this episode includes discussion of sexual assault and an abusive relationship. Sometimes the yes that changes everything looks, at the time, like an escape. Angela Harger Thompson has been a storyteller since she was four, waving a feather duster in her sister's home movie. At 30, she packed her Honda Civic and drove to Los Angeles with no connections and a very big dream. Two months later, a producer who had promised to keep her safe drugged and assaulted her. Angela reported it. She went to the hospital, then sat with police for six hours, then waited nine months for a district attorney to tell her the case wouldn't be prosecuted. And she made a very intentional choice. She would heal right there in LA, through therapy, yoga, and a lot of anxiety attacks behind a bar, because he had already taken enough. A few years later, burned out and waiting for her big break, she said yes to crewing a sailboat from Panama to the Marquesas. She had never sailed. One week out, the world shut down. Borders closed, plans changed daily, and what was supposed to be six weeks turned into 49 days at sea, including sixteen days with just two people on board and a storm straight out of Castaway. She kept the camera rolling the whole time. That footage became her documentary Quarantine at Sea, and the rest of the story became her memoir, Worst T**s Ever. This conversation is about survival, faith, and the moment Angela realized she could stop waiting for someone to hand her the role and start creating it herself. What You'll Hear: Moving to LA at 30 and why knowing her values early mattered so much The producer who groomed her by promising to keep her safe What reporting an assault actually looked like, and why she understands why so many women don't Choosing to heal in the same city where it happened Pushing through anxiety attacks while bartending and auditioning The dream that helped her say yes to crossing the Pacific Being stranded at sea as COVID closed every border Learning to sail in a 15-minute tutorial and riding out a storm near the equator Recognizing an abusive relationship and fighting to keep her documentary Why she stopped waiting to be chosen Guest Bio: Angela Harger Thompson is an actress, filmmaker, and storyteller whose work spans film, commercial, voiceover, and now the written word. Her screen credits have included Sense of Urgency, Something in the Woods, the web series Austin Wannabes, and the video game DC Universe Online, where she voiced the iconic DC Comics character The Question. Her transformative experience began in January 2020, when she wrote a single goal in her journal at a church Dream Day: let God tell a great story through me. She had no idea that would soon unfold in the most unexpected way. A few weeks later, she boarded a sailboat in Panama and set out on a three-to-four-week passage across the Pacific. One week in, a satellite email changed everything. COVID-19 had become a global pandemic. With island borders closed and nowhere to land, Angela found herself stranded at sea, navigating squalls, relational conflict, and her own spiritual awakening. She kept the camera rolling the entire time. That footage became Quarantine at Sea (2022), a feature-length documentary she directed, produced, and starred in, now streaming on Amazon, Apple TV, and Google Play. But the story was bigger than what the documentary could hold. Her memoir Worst T**s Ever tells the rest: a raw, laugh-out-loud funny, heartbreakingly honest story of faith and the hard work of rebuilding. Foreword writer and actress Jen Lilley describes it as "a love story, a survival story, and a coming-of-age-in-your-thirties story." Believing every person carries a story worth telling, Angela founded The Storytell Initiative to help others find and share theirs. She lives in Southern California with her husband, Dustin. She is grateful to catch the sunsets over the Pacific, though now safely from a beach. Website: https://angelahargerproductions.com Quarantine at Sea on Prime Video: https://www.primevideo.com/detail/0LZUYBIYA02UYEYORJXKNF3D33 Worst T**s Ever on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Worst-T**s-Angela-Harger-Thompson/dp/B0G8R4BLXF Listen and follow: www.thelifeshiftpodcast.com/follow Subscribe to the newsletter: https://thelifeshiftpodcast.beehiiv.com/ You Might Also Like: Reclamation: Coming Back To The Girl Who Got Shut Down Starting Over: You Can Lose Everything and Still Be Okay Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Some goodbyes don't come with a conversation. They come with a phone you keep picking up and putting back down. Brittany Perham grew up in a house full of friends and happy memories, with a mom who protected her and her brother, and a father whose drinking nobody named out loud. In college, when things got scary, she made one of the hardest grown-up decisions of her life. She stopped answering his calls. The silence stretched to almost fifteen years. When her brother reconnected with him before his wedding, Brittany found herself back in a little bit of contact, just in time for her father's final year. There was one good phone call, a recipe, a "good to talk to you." And then there was a hospital room at Mass General, where she and her brother had to decide to let him go. Then came the surprise. Weeks before he died, her father had changed his will and named her the executor of an estate that turned out to be buried in debt. It took almost seven years to close. This is a tender, honest conversation about estrangement, about guilt and sadness living side by side, and about how a story keeps changing each time we tell it. Brittany is a poet and a teacher, and she talks about her father with so much care and so much honesty. I loved every minute of this one. What You'll Hear: Growing up in what looked like the perfect childhood while living with a father's quiet addiction The decision at 21 to get a therapist and step away from her dad Why estrangement never really feels like freedom Walking around the house holding the phone, unable to make the call The one good phone call, and a recipe she'll never forget Taking her father off life support and the strange intimacy of that moment Being named executrix of an indebted estate she never saw coming Why the story of her father is ultimately a story of not knowing Guest Bio:Brittany Perham's new memoir, Executrix (University of Georgia Press), won the 2025 AWP Sue William Silverman Prize for Creative Nonfiction. She is also the author of Double Portrait (W.W. Norton), which won the Barnard Women Poets Prize and was a finalist for the Northern California Book Award; The Curiosities (Free Verse Editions); and, with Kim Addonizio, the collaborative word/art project The Night Could Go in Either Direction (SHP). Her writing has received support from the Civitella Ranieri Foundation, the Hemingway House, the James Merrill House Foundation, Vermont Studio Center, the Wallace Stegner Fellowship Program, and Yaddo. She taught for fifteen years at Stanford University before joining the English faculty at Endicott College, where she is an associate professor. She lives in San Francisco and Massachusetts. Website: www.brittanyperham.comExecutrix (University of Georgia Press): https://ugapress.orgListen and follow: www.thelifeshiftpodcast.com/followSubscribe to the newsletter: https://thelifeshiftpodcast.beehiiv.com/ Keywords: estrangement, grieving an estranged parent, alcoholic father, children of alcoholics, executor of an estate, grief, memoir, memory, family stories, complicated grief You Might Also Like: Grief and Fatherhood: The Song That Changed Everything Part of Me Died That Day: Learning to Live After the Worst Day of Your Life Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Some of us carry a weight for so long that we forget it isn't supposed to be there. Chloe Kelly spent 35 years being very good at being someone she wasn't. She learned the rules early. Play sports. Earn man points. Don't stand out. Never let anyone see. She got so good at the performance that even she couldn't see through it for decades. There was a soulmate. A house. A good job. Everything that was supposed to add up to happiness. And underneath all of it, a quiet leak. A dripping tap that just wouldn't stop. Then, at 45, on her lunch break, she downloaded a face filter app. She pressed a button. And she couldn't look away from what she saw. This is a conversation about what it feels like to live inside the wrong story for 35 years, and what it feels like when the real one finally starts. Chloe is warm, funny, honest about the hard parts, and sickeningly happy in the best possible way. She's calling in from Buenos Aires, because of course she is. What You'll Hear How Chloe spent decades earning "man points" and what that kind of performance actually costs The FaceApp moment on a lunch break that cracked everything open Why telling her wife was the point of no return, and how that conversation went What it felt like to discover joy after a lifetime of quiet sadness Solo travel across 18 countries as a trans woman in her forties, the beautiful parts and the hard ones Why she now wants to give the person she used to be a hug instead of a shake Guest BioChloe Kelly is a British writer who transitioned at the age of 45 after decades of suppressing her true identity. After leaving a 25 year corporate career, she is rebuilding her life through writing, travel and sharing her experiences to help others navigating major life changes. She has written for PinkNews, is currently writing a guide for people transitioning later in life, and is also working on a travel memoir about travelling solo around the world as a trans woman in her forties, exploring identity, courage and reinvention. She documents her travel adventures through her Girl:Avanting YouTube series. YouTube | Instagram | Substack Listen and follow: www.thelifeshiftpodcast.com/followSubscribe to the newsletter: https://thelifeshiftpodcast.beehiiv.com/ gender identity, late transition, transgender story, transitioning later in life, self acceptance, authenticity, performing for others, telling your wife you are trans, solo travel as a trans woman, finding joy You Might Also Like: Trystan Reese: A Journey Through Love, Identity, and Family Cancer: The Diagnosis That Stopped the Reinventing Reclamation: Coming Back To The Girl Who Got Shut Down Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Maybe you know what it is to be the steady one. The person who shows up, holds it together, and makes sure everyone else is okay before anyone thinks to ask about you. Jeff Abbott has been that person for more than 25 years in emergency medicine, most recently as a Critical Care Flight Paramedic and base manager. On April 26th, 2022, his friend and pilot Jim died in a helicopter crash. Jeff responded to the scene in another aircraft, kept his people together all day, and then went home and broke down in his wife's arms. What followed was eighteen months of anger he couldn't name, nightmares he couldn't shake, and a slow realization that being built for this work didn't make him immune to what it carries. This is a conversation about what happens inside the people who show up when everyone else needs help. We talk about EMS culture, dark humor, and the quiet cost of never asking for anything in return. We talk about Boulder Crest, EMDR, breathwork, and watching chickens until his nervous system remembered what calm felt like. And we talk about a book Jeff started 25 years ago, found in an old email, and finally finished because it was time. He tells it plainly, the way someone does once they've set some of the weight down. What You'll Hear Growing up in blue collar Buffalo, a military dream cut short by a knee injury, and 25 years in EMS The April 2022 helicopter crash that killed his friend and pilot Jim Eighteen months of anger as the mask that fear and shame wear Boulder Crest, EMDR therapy, breathwork, and watching chickens Why self acceptance is the wall that has to come down The book he started 25 years ago and finally finished Guest BioJeff Abbott is a Critical Care Flight Paramedic, author, and speaker with more than 25 years in emergency medicine. His career has taken him from ground EMS to critical care and flight medicine, where functioning calmly in chaos became both a skill and part of his identity. He is the author of Built For This: A Paramedic's Reckoning, a candid memoir about EMS culture, dark humor, camaraderie, loss, and what happens when being able to keep functioning is mistaken for being unaffected by the work. paramedicabbott.comBook: Built For This: A Paramedic's Reckoning Listen and follow: www.thelifeshiftpodcast.com/followSubscribe to the newsletter: https://thelifeshiftpodcast.beehiiv.com/ first responder mental health, paramedic PTSD, grief and anger, asking for help, EMS culture, flight paramedic, trauma recovery, Boulder Crest retreat, EMDR therapy, losing a friend You Might Also Like: Anger: The Drink I Never Stopped Drinking Part of Me Died That Day: Learning to Live After the Worst Day of Your Life Identity: More Than the Thing You're Known For Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Maybe you know what it is to lose someone in the middle of building something together. To be left holding a piece of unfinished work and a hole where a person used to be, with no idea how to carry either one. Jan Becker is a filmmaker who set out with his close friend Christian to make a documentary about a vision quest in the high desert. They finished shooting, went their separate ways for the holidays, and then, on the fourth of January, Jan got a text. Christian had died in a plane crash, along with his two young daughters. What follows is the story of the year Jan spent alone in an editing room with his friend's face on the screen, turning grief into something he could hold. He talks about the strange sense that the desert had been preparing him, about losing his father two years earlier, and about how finishing the film became the way he learned to mourn. This is a conversation about what we do with the things left unfinished, and about how the work of our hands can carry us through the parts of grief that words cannot reach. What You'll Hear The phone call on the fourth of January that changed everything Why finishing the film became Jan's way through grief What it feels like to edit footage of someone you have lost The vision quest, and the sense that it had been preparing him Grieving a best friend and a father as one long process Choosing meaning and connection over recognition Guest Bio Jan Becker is a German-born, Los Angeles-based filmmaker, director, producer, and editor. He has worked in media production for more than 15 years, with credits across documentary, television, and commercial storytelling. His work often explores transformation, healing, trauma, spirituality, and the deeper psychological forces that shape human lives. Jan is the director, producer, and editor of Vision Quest, a feature documentary about a 10-day wilderness retreat in the California high desert and the healing power of nature. The film became deeply personal after the tragic death of his friend, co-director, and producing partner Christian Oliver, who appears in the film. Through his production company, Exalted, Jan is developing documentary and narrative projects that make inner transformation visible through cinematic storytelling. exalted.la | visionquestfilm.com | Vision Quest Trailer | Instagram Listen and follow: www.thelifeshiftpodcast.com/follow Subscribe to the newsletter: https://thelifeshiftpodcast.beehiiv.com/ sudden loss, losing a best friend, grief and creativity, finishing what someone started, film as healing, plane crash grief, processing a father's death, vision quest, meaning after loss, storytelling as healing You Might Also Like: Grief: Making Something Beautiful From What Broke Part of Me Died That Day: Learning to Live After the Worst Day of Your Life 147 Days: Raising and Losing My Sister Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Some of us have known something about ourselves for a very long time. And we have spent just as long trying to pretend we didn't. Kate Saint Clair grew up seeing and hearing things no one around her could explain. She was the curious kid who asked too many questions and got lies as answers. The sensitive one who felt everyone else's feelings as if they were her own. For years, she tried to be the tough kid. The normal one. The person who didn't see anything. But the knowing didn't go away. It never does. This episode is about the long, quiet war between who you are and who you think you're allowed to be. Kate's shift didn't come from one single moment. It came in pieces: a voice in a park that moved her and her toddler away from danger. A skin cancer diagnosis that stripped her of every way she'd been performing. A six-year-old girl making a deal with her dead grandfather in a dark bathroom and then spending two decades honoring it. What she eventually found wasn't just peace with her gift. It was herself. What You'll Hear: How growing up feeling "too sensitive" became the foundation of a career helping others The moment Kate heard a voice in a park that may have saved her daughter's life, and what it finally pushed her to do Why a skin cancer diagnosis became the unexpected turning point that made her stop deferring and start leading What it looks like to fight the thing you were born for, and what finally makes you stop How Kate shifted her career from reading for others to teaching everyone that the ability is already theirs The story of a six-year-old girl, a closed bathroom door, and a grandfather she refused to talk to for nearly twenty years Guest Bio: Kate Saint Clair is a Human Intuition Expert, psychic medium, and intuitive advocate who has been teaching intuition as a practical, embodied skill since 2007. Her work is devoted to normalizing intuition and helping people trust their inner guidance with clarity and confidence. Through her books, live programs, and communities like The Clair Club, she supports people in understanding how intuition communicates through the Clairs: clear knowing, feeling, seeing, hearing, and sensing. Known for her grounded, direct approach, Kate empowers people to move from self-doubt to self-trust and live guided from the inside out. ‘Find out which Clair you use the most to access your personal Intuition’: https://www.katesaintclair.com/quiz A chapter of her book Be Guided and Be Great and some free resources including energy meditations, an intuition tracker, and more: https://www.katesaintclair.com/resources Listen and follow: www.thelifeshiftpodcast.com/follow Subscribe to the newsletter: https://thelifeshiftpodcast.beehiiv.com/ -- intuition development, psychic medium story, trusting yourself, childhood shame, sensitive people, spiritual awakening, self-acceptance, life shift, finding your purpose, embracing your gift Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Maybe you know what it is to finally exhale. To reach a season where the noise quiets down, the plan starts to work, and for the first time you let yourself believe things might actually be okay. Ryan was 24 and living in Denver when he reached that place. He had married young, moved more times than he could count, and spent his whole life feeling unsettled. And then, quietly, life started to come together. One ordinary Tuesday he went to work, and at lunch he got a call that his wife had not shown up for hers. She had been killed that morning by their next door neighbor. What followed was almost twenty years Ryan spent trying to outrun that day, through grief he could not name and an addiction that nearly took his life. This is the story of how he finally stopped running, and found his way back. Ryan does not tell this story to shock anyone. He tells it because he spent two decades believing he had to carry it alone, and he wants you to know that you do not. What You'll Hear What it feels like to finally feel settled after a lifetime of moving The ordinary morning that split his life into before and after How grief and addiction can quietly braid together Losing years of memory, and hiding it from everyone The lowest night that finally turned him toward help Why telling the story out loud began to set him free Guest Bio Ryan Roberts is a father of four between 3 and 16 years old and a full-time network engineer. He is the author of the memoir Fragmented: The Crossroads of Trauma, Addiction and Recovery. He has been sober since February 16, 2018, and his mission is to help people find recovery, hopefully sooner than he did, and to meet them wherever they are on their journey. Digital Diatribe | Substack Listen and follow: www.thelifeshiftpodcast.com/follow Subscribe to the newsletter: thelifeshiftpodcast.beehiiv.com/ sudden loss, losing a spouse young, grief and addiction, recovery from alcoholism, feeling settled, complicated grief, finding purpose again, sobriety, memory loss and grief, telling your story You Might Also Like: Part of Me Died That Day: Learning to Live After the Worst Day of Your Life Anger: The Drink I Never Stopped Drinking Grief: Making Something Beautiful From What Broke Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Maybe you know what it feels like to hold everyone else together before you are old enough to hold yourself. To learn young that love can leave, and that safety is not something every kid gets to keep. Robin was eight when her mother died. By eleven, her father had chosen a new life over his children and sent Robin and her younger sister into foster care, rather than let them live with the aunt who wanted them. Five and a half years passed with no contact from her family. She grew up among strangers, first in a shelter and then in a foster home where she was fed but never really loved. And still, somehow, she kept reaching for people. At eighteen she traveled alone to a village in Kenya and found the belonging that had been missing her whole life. This is a conversation about what happens after the people who were supposed to stay decide to go. Her story is not tidy, and she does not pretend it is. But Robin is proof that a hard beginning does not get the final word, and that love, once you let it in, can be the thing that carries you the rest of the way. What You'll Hear The moment a father's choice changed the course of two young lives What it means to be parentified as a child, and how it stays with you Becoming sensitized to racism as an eleven year old inside the foster system The year in Kenya that turned strangers into family How raising her own children became a way to reparent herself Why Robin believes love is the counterpoint to grief Guest Bio Robin Rosenbluth, author of the forthcoming memoir, Living With Strangers: Healing a Wounded Heart in a Distant Land (to be published by She Writes Press on October 27, 2026), is a former foster teen who advocates for finding permanent homes for older foster youth. She has worked in the nonprofit sector in New York, raising funds for museums, women's organizations, healthcare, and environmental causes, and has taught fundraising at New York University and Columbia University. She has studied memoir and the craft of writing with many renowned authors and writes a Substack, My Jagged Journey as a Debut Writer. Robin and her wife have raised two children who now have families of their own. She lives in Brooklyn, New York. robinrosenbluth.com | Substack: My Jagged Journey as a Debut Writer Listen and follow: www.thelifeshiftpodcast.com/follow Subscribe to the newsletter: https://thelifeshiftpodcast.beehiiv.com/ losing a parent young, foster care survivor, childhood abandonment, finding belonging, grief and love, reparenting yourself, feeling unwanted, chosen family, healing after a hard childhood, foster youth advocacy You Might Also Like: 147 Days: Raising and Losing My Sister Grief: Making Something Beautiful From What Broke Starting Over: You Can Lose Everything and Still Be Okay Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You know the version of yourself you built to get through. The one who keeps the peace, reads the room, holds it together so no one else has to worry. Maybe you have wondered who you would be if you ever set that version down. This week I sat with Tarah and EJ Kerwin, two therapists who spend their days helping couples find their way back to each other. They came in curious about a therapy they wanted to understand before recommending it, and instead they found themselves in the middle of their own life shift. For Tarah, a supervised ketamine session opened a door to something her body had been carrying since she was a little girl, something she might have lived her whole life never knowing. For EJ, it became a slow lesson in letting go of the control he had always mistaken for love. What stays with me is how gentle they are with all of it now. There is no neat bow here, no tidy lesson about pain making you stronger. There is a woman learning that she was allowed to feel safe in her own body. There is a man learning that joy is something you have to actually go looking for. And there are two people who found out that you cannot force safety onto a person, you can only make enough room for it to arrive. What You'll Hear Why keeping the peace can quietly cost you your own voice What it feels like when your usual ways of coping stop working The difference between controlling a relationship and creating safety in one How buried memory can reshape the way you see your whole life A kitchen conversation that started with letting go and ended in more love Why real change is never too late, at fifty, at eighty two, at any age Guest Bio Tarah and EJ Kerwin are the founders of Relationship Renovation and creators of the Relationship Renovation Model™, as well as hosts of the Relationship Renovation Podcast. They blend raw honesty, humor, and decades of combined experience to help couples deepen intimacy and build emotional safety. Known for their vulnerability and real-life storytelling, they share practical, research-backed tools rooted in attachment science and nervous system regulation. EJ is also the founder of Men Who Do the Work, a group helping thousands of men create emotional safety and show up more intentionally in their relationships. Together, their work includes the nationally recognized Relationship Renovation Counseling Center in Tucson, Arizona, a globally ranked top 1% podcast, the Relationship Renovation @ Home manual (available on Amazon), a global online community, and private coaching for couples and individuals. They are passionate about helping partners break old patterns, rebuild trust, and create lasting, intentional connection. Instagram | YouTube | Facebook | TikTok Relationship Coaching | Relationship Renovation at Home Manual | Patreon Community Listen and follow: www.thelifeshiftpodcast.com/follow Subscribe to the newsletter: https://thelifeshiftpodcast.beehiiv.com/ childhood trauma healing, recovered memories, ketamine assisted therapy, emotional safety in marriage, releasing control in relationships, couples healing together, learning to feel joy, self compassion after trauma, feeling safe in your own body, we are not uniquely broken You Might Also Like: Anger: The Drink I Never Stopped Drinking The Cost of Quiet: Learning to Speak Up After Years of Silence Starting Over: You Can Lose Everything and Still Be Okay Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Have you ever loved someone and felt the fear of losing them arrive in the very same breath? Most of us learn early to look away from that fear. Brad learned to look right at it. Brad grew up the grandson of Auschwitz survivors, carrying a fear of death that felt older than he was. As a boy, he needed proof that the people he loved were still breathing. Then, at eighteen, he told a childhood friend he loved her, and two weeks later she was diagnosed with a rare cancer. Everyone expected the frightened boy to retreat. Instead, he brought his guitar to her hospital room, and something shifted. The music eased her pain. It eased his. And it showed him that the thing he feared most could also be the place where he was most needed. This is a conversation about what it means to stay. To sit beside someone without the right words. To let grief become something you tend, instead of something that tends you. Brad turned his fear into a life of helping other people channel their pain into beauty. By the end, you might find yourself thinking about the moments you almost walked away from, and the ones you are so glad you didn't. What You'll Hear Why the fear we inherit can feel like our own, long before we understand where it came from The two weeks that changed everything, and the choice to show up anyway What music can do in a room where words fall short The quiet difference between fixing someone's pain and being present for it How grief can be channeled toward destruction or toward beauty, and why the direction matters Turning loss into a life's work, one song and one person at a time Guest Bio Brad Wolfe is a singer-songwriter, community activist, and founder of Reimagine, a national movement helping people transform loss into meaning and action. His music and mission are deeply intertwined, both shaped by a lifelong exploration of mortality, love, and healing through creativity. Wolfe's forthcoming three-part EP collection, Loss, Life & Love Mixtapes, has been more than a decade in the making, with the first chapter, Loss, arriving this summer. His musical journey began after his childhood friend Sara was diagnosed with a rare pediatric cancer. Wolfe spent two years writing and playing songs for her in the hospital, an experience that inspired both the Sunbeam Foundation, which has raised over $1 million for cancer research, and his musical project, Brad Wolfe & The Moon. Through Reimagine, Wolfe has since helped create over 4,500 events for more than 250,000 people, using music, storytelling, and art to explore grief, healing, and human connection. www.bradwolfe.com | letsreimagine.org Listen and follow: www.thelifeshiftpodcast.com/follow Subscribe to the newsletter: https://thelifeshiftpodcast.beehiiv.com/ fear of death, intergenerational grief, showing up for someone who is sick, the power of music in grief, losing a first love, turning pain into meaning, presence over fixing, anticipatory grief, finding purpose after loss, learning to stay You Might Also Like: Grief and Fatherhood: The Song That Changed Everything Grief: Making Something Beautiful From What Broke 147 Days: Raising and Losing My Sister Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Tyler spent years building what the world told him success looked like. The abs, the car, the company. And the world cheered him on. He drove his dream car home one day, pulled into the driveway, turned off the engine, and felt completely empty inside. He didn't know yet that emptiness was trying to tell him something. Then he went to gymnastics class in his late twenties, and a coach told him to punch harder. His body said no. He said, you shut up. And his knee went completely sideways. ACL, MCL, LCL, quad, meniscus, all in one shot. He hobbled to the side and started doing ring work anyway, because that is what kind of man Tyler was before all of this began. What followed was four surgeries, nearly a year of his life spent in bed recovering, and a slow, painful unraveling of the identity he had built from the inside out. This is a conversation about what happens when you can no longer prove yourself. About the inner critic that drove him and the inner cheerleader he had to build to replace it. About the company he shut down because it was making money the wrong way. About what he calls a choiceless choice. And about the life that came after. What You'll Hear: Why Tyler bought everything society said would make him happy, and why none of it worked The moment on the gymnastics floor when his ego and his body had it out, and the body won What four surgeries and years of recovery forced him to face about himself How a meditation retreat moment changed the way he speaks to himself for good Why he shut down a successful company because it was built on shame-based marketing What he means by the inner cheerleader, and how you actually build one Guest Bio: TYLER BRAMLETT is a movement coach, father, and co-founder of WeShape whose path was reshaped by a cycling accident that shattered his femur and permanently damaged his knee. Unable to return to traditional, appearance-driven fitness routines, he began a 15-year healing journey that included multiple surgeries and deep study in functional anatomy, biomechanics, and rehabilitation. Through working with top physical therapists and coaches, he discovered that real transformation comes from moving smarter, not pushing harder. This lead him to reject shame-based fitness culture and create an approach centered on alignment, mindful movement, and what he calls “movement freedom,” the ability to live without feeling trapped in a body that hurts. Find Tyler and WeShape across social media: @WeShape Listen and follow: www.thelifeshiftpodcast.com/follow Subscribe to the newsletter: https://thelifeshiftpodcast.beehiiv.com/ -- You Might Also Like: How Kevin Palmieri Rebuilt His Life After Chasing the Wrong Dream Alan Lazaros on Rebuilding His Life After a Near-Fatal Car Crash When Her Body Spoke, She Finally Heard -- shame-based fitness, identity and injury, ego and healing, inner critic, movement freedom, fitness industry toxic culture, choiceless choice, self-compassion and fitness, recovering from knee surgery, performing success Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices