Ruth Clare is a successful author, having written her award-winning memoir Enemy: A True Story of Courage, Childhood Trauma and the Cost of War. Behind her achievements as an actress and a TEDx speaker, lies a painful story. In this episode, Ruth talks about the effects that the Vietnam War had on her veteran father who abused her and the rest of her family physically and emotionally. In her book, Ruth writes: “My Father. My Enemy. My Beloved.” But this episode is about more than her relation...

Terry Tucker has assumed many roles in his life: from loving husband and father, a talented and rising basketball star in his college years, to fulfilling his dream of working as a hostage negotiator (for a trigger warning, see the bottom of the show notes). But life had other plans. In a twist of fate, he was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer. Yet despite the hardship, pain and daily dread that his cancer poses, Terry holds his head high, puts his family above everything else and pa...

Cindy Gersch worked as a successful corporate executive, was a marathon runner and juggled all her commitments while taking care of her two children on her own as her husband was deployed. Then came the diagnosis that would alter the course of her life irrevocably: fibromuscular dysplasia. A journey began that would lead her to unexpectedly losing her job, friends and her husband telling her he wants to separate via a note on Christmas Day. All the while, she experienced physical pain every d...

Jane Sagui is the Co-Founder and CEO of the successful health app Pollie, which is revolutionising how PCOS and other chronic health issues are treated. Jane suffered from symptoms of Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome for years before she received her diagnosis in her early 20s. She found that she had to visit many doctors and conduct her own research to help her design a system of treatment and build a medical team to overcome her health issues. In this episode, we talk about her journey of...

Tragedy struck the day after Brian S. Quinn found out that he had passed the bar exam. At a trial on the next day, he watched his mentor fall on the courtroom floor and have a heart attack. Brian’s life would never be the same again. Having just passed his exams, he took over the law firm in the next few days. Without the necessary training, he never felt good enough to represent his clients. Following decades of alcohol and drug addictions, multiple encounters with law enforcement and ...

Theresa Brown was an English Professor before she became a Registered Nurse and a successful author. Most recently, she published her memoir Healing: When a Nurse Becomes a Patient. We talk about her years going through breast cancer and her thoughts on the health system after seeing it from both sides. Theresa tells us about her years as an oncology and hospice nurse, what it was like to receive her diagnosis and her long road to recovery. Her message is one of compassion and hope. Theresa ...

Lisa Cornwell embraces the label she has been given: She is a Troublemaker. Throughout her life, Lisa has stood up against bullies and authority figures who abuse their power. In this episode, I chat with her about how her life changed when she faced a public smear campaign from her former employer, a Golf TV channel, and how she fought back. Lisa takes us through her memoir “Troublemaker: A Memoir of Sexism, Retaliation and the Fight They Didn’t See Coming” (with a foreword by Hillary ...

Before she became an award-winning memoirist, Ly Tran immigrated to the US at the age of 3, where her life was shaped by the inherited trauma from her father’s experiences as a Vietnam War Veteran and Prisoner of War. Ly’s childhood was spent working in poverty and sweatshop labour from her home in New York. She gradually lost the ability to see properly, leading to her grades deteriorating and her dropping out of college. And yet Ly’s story is NOT one defined by her darkest periods of ...

Christy Warren served as a firefighter for 25 years until the moment that the trauma she witnessed over the course of her career became unbearable. Having been neglected as a child, Christy was always self-reliant. Keeping a clear mind during intense emergencies came naturally to her. When she would respond to a horrific accident, she would “close the lid” on the experience…until it all came out and she was diagnosed with PTSD. By leaving her career behind, she was able to breathe again...

At the age of 2, Blake’s doctor told his parents that their child would likely never be able to walk. Blake has no lower legs but today he is one of the fastest paralympic runners in the world. In our conversation, Blake talks about how he was questioning life until he realised that he was responsible for finding the strength to achieve his dreams. We talk about what it was like to compete in a sold-out stadium of 85.000 people, most of whom were cheering for his opponent Oscar Pistorius. We ...