At 11 years old, Robin became a parentified child, managing household finances and cooking on just ten dollars a week. After her mother passed away, her father left her to raise her little sister alone. When the family court intervened, he chose to send them into the foster care system…
Her mom was gone. Her dad left her ten dollars a week and her little sister to raise. The full story: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cyZAsh6bL0g
Ryan was standing on a snowy rooftop, completely at peace. Then his wife's job called at lunch. The full story: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5gIh4skDcIY
A single phone call at lunch ended Ryan's marriage and shattered his world. This is the story of surviving profound grief. Please note: this story includes the death of a spouse by violence, described plainly. It was the first day back after the holidays. Ryan almost stayed home. His knees…
Robin and I get into how memory actually works, how a single smell can bring your mom right back, even when the details have blurred. Her chicken soup memory is such a tender one. Listen now. The Life Shift Podcast.
Ryan looks back at one of the most chaotic stretches of his life. After a divorce, he fell into an 18-month binge, cycling through 15 bosses as companies sold out from under him. He talks about how, somehow, that chaos still kept a roof over his kids' heads.
Chloe Kelly shares her late transition story, from 45 years of performing a life that wasn't hers to the FaceApp moment that changed everything, and the joy she lives with now. Chloe Kelly spent 35 years being very, very good at not being herself. She played sports. She climbed the…
Flight paramedic Jeff Abbott shares how a helicopter crash that killed his friend and pilot led to first responder PTSD, eighteen months of anger, and finally asking for help. Jeff Abbott has been a paramedic for 25 years. A Critical Care Flight Paramedic, base manager, guy who functions calmly in…
Ryan grew up moving constantly, new towns, new schools, never anywhere long enough to feel at home. He talks about the quiet ways we protect ourselves from loss, and the deep pull to finally settle down somewhere.
Abandoned by her father and handed to a stepmother who was cruel to her, Robin does not flinch from any of it here, and she shows how she came out the other side. New episode out now. The Life Shift Podcast.
Ryan says the biggest change in his life was letting go of the need to have it all together. He talks about what it took to stop hiding the messy parts, and how making peace with not always being okay is the thing that finally set him free.
Before the worst of it, there was an unsettling encounter with the neighbor next door. Ryan talks about how he and his wife handled feeling uneasy, and the small decisions we make when something just feels off.
Robin talks about what older kids in foster care are really up against, and the people and groups working to find them a family. Heartbreaking and hopeful at once. Out now. The Life Shift Podcast.
Ryan carried his story alone for fourteen years, sure that saying it out loud would break him. He talks about the first time he finally told all of it to another person, and the relief that came instead.
When his son was born in 2010, Ryan walked out of the hospital and realized that in his head it was still 2004. He talks about the disorienting jolt of losing six years, and trying to make sense of the time that had simply vanished.
No money and no map, and Robin still found her way from a hard start to living in Kenya in the early seventies. Her whole approach was simple, figure it out. She tells me how here. The Life Shift Podcast.
Ryan describes the strange, chilling moment when officers started asking about his wife's whereabouts, and the questions that hung in the air before he understood what was going on.
After 17 years away, Ryan went back to Texas, stood at his wife's grave, and came home changed. He talks about what that trip stirred loose, and how it gave him the push to finally write his story down.
From a children's shelter to finally feeling wanted, Robin shares how much it matters for a kid to know someone is glad they exist. A story about surviving and being seen. Listen now. The Life Shift Podcast.
Grief took more from Ryan than he realized. He talks about the memory gaps that swallowed whole stretches of his children's early years, and how he has learned to sit with the moments he simply cannot get back.
Ryan got honest about how close he came to dying. Down to 113 pounds with his liver failing, he was drinking himself toward a slow end. He talks about the choice to stop, and how that decision saved his life.
Robin witnessed a little girl sent back simply because of the color of her skin, and she has never forgotten it. A hard, honest look at what she saw inside the system as a kid. Out now. The Life Shift Podcast.
It started as a normal lunch break. Then Ryan got a call from his wife's coworker asking why she hadn't shown up for work. He walks through the panic of the next hour and the moment right before he understood what had happened.
February 2018, Ryan woke up in a jail cell at the lowest point of his life. He talks about the strange relief he felt sitting there, the difference between the lows that happen to us and the ones we cause, and why this was the night everything finally turned.
