The Lady's Illness Library
The Lady's Illness Library
Rachel Katz
The Lady’s Illness Library is a collection of stories about unconventional illness journeys. Here, you won’t find prescriptive health tips or quick fixes, but exploratory conversations that seek to understand these immense human experiences. Diseases that are multifaceted, sort-of-undiagnosed, and debilitating–think autoimmunity, long COVID, migraine–are more common than ever, affecting majority women. And yet, despite their growing ubiquity, they still live beneath the surface of our culture. Let’s change that.
Creative Priorities Redefined with Erica Vipond of A Novel Idea
Send a text about the show here. If you want a reply, add your email address. What happens when chronic illness forces you to prioritize your life’s passions? In this conversation, Rachel Katz interviews Erica Vipond, a fiction writer diagnosed with a nerve-affecting autoimmune condition, to explore how these challenges reshaped her creative priorities. Erica shares how her chronic pain led her to let go of less vital pursuits, like a magazine she created, to focus solely on writing—her lifel...
Aug 30, 2024
57 min
Very ambitious and very ill with Emma Simpson of Lemon Soul
Send a text about the show here. If you want a reply, add your email address. If you're sick of the one-size-fits-all approach to managing illness, Emma Simpson's story will resonate with you. This conversation encourages us to reject the pressure to adhere to conventional wellness practices and instead personalize our routines–a huge relief when there are so many “shoulds” around.Emma has always been a remarkably ambitious woman but she had to leave her career as an Air Traffic Controller du...
Jul 30, 2024
58 min
Sara Tasker on chronic fatigue and invisible disabilities
Send a text about the show here. If you want a reply, add your email address. Ever feel like you're battling some kind of weird, unexplainable health issue that even doctors can't seem to get a grip on? Writer and influencer Sara Tasker gets refreshingly honest about her decades-long journey with chronic fatigue, narcolepsy, dysautonomia, and a whole mess of other “invisible illnesses.” She also opens up about having to completely redefine her idea of success and fulfillment. Despite all the ...
Jun 30, 2024
43 min
Autoimmune dichotomy: holding grief and joy at the same time
Send a text about the show here. If you want a reply, add your email address. In this heartfelt episode, Rachel sits down with Julia Edelman to discuss her ten-year journey with uveitis, an autoimmune disorder affecting the retina. They explore the roller coaster of emotions Julia has experienced through the medical challenges and numerous surgeries. She expresses difficult emotions, such as feeling like a burden to her caregivers during her procedures, but also shares uplifting experiences l...
May 30, 2024
55 min
Living With Migraines: From Control To Creation
Send a text about the show here. If you want a reply, add your email address. What does life look like when frequent migraines sap your energy? How do you find meaning in this context? Host Rachel Katz explores this question with Substack writer Amber Horrox, who shares her journey with chronic illness in her newsletter, Warrior Within. From grappling with the inability to work to overcoming medical skepticism and chronic illness grief, Rachel and Amber cover topics like medical research and ...
Apr 30, 2024
42 min
I do deserve to be okay
Send a text about the show here. If you want a reply, add your email address. Ema Hegberg is the extraordinarily thoughtful writer behind Peace of the Whole. She has spent over a decade with varying symptoms, from upper GI issues (feeling like food was getting stuck when she swallowed) to chronic gut problems to Lyme disease and adverse reaction to antibiotics and panic attacks and more. Ema talks eloquently about body awareness and cyclical living, and how she has slowly shaped a n...
Apr 13, 2024
45 min