Terrible, Thanks for Asking
The First Stone: Cheating, shame and a series of unfortunate men
Jenni was raised Mormon, and for the first part of her life, was a dutiful follower. She got married young, attended church, and was a loyal wife. But life got messy and complicated for Jenni, and she eventually made a choice that surprised her. A choice considered a sin in her culture, and a pretty hurtful thing to do by the rest of society: she cheated. For the last year, Jenni’s been grappling with the shame and guilt of this choice and how parts of her dating history led to this choice.
Should I Have Kids?
Producer Claire McInerny experienced an extreme weather event in 2021, a result of climate change, that left her worried about the future. She started channeling her anxiety about the future of our world into another question she was asking herself: should I have kids? In this episode, Claire tries to untangle her feelings around what the world will look like in the future with her desire to have a family of her own.
Nora Needs a New Dad
Nora's dad died in 2014 from pretty much all of the cancers, leaving her mom Margaret without her life partner of almost 50 years ... and leaving Nora without a dad. Does a 40-year-old married woman with four children of her own need a father figure in her life? Nora thinks so! But what does Margaret have to say about dating as a widow in your 70s?
Debt, Lies and Other Things Our Parents Leave Us
Identity theft is something many of us are familiar with, but we have a specific image of what this looks like – our data being stolen online, or someone getting a hold of our social security number. But almost a third of identity theft crimes are committed by a family member. This episode tells the story of two people who experienced financial abuse at the hands of their parents.
Into the Void
One thing we know about grief is that it needs a witness. That inside every griever is a nearly uncontrollable urge to make the people around us understand what we had and what we have now. In this episode, we are all David’s witnesses.
Overthinking About You
Allison Raskin was just 4 years old the first time she told her parents she wanted to die. Within weeks, the preschooler was diagnosed with obsessive compulsive disorder and depression. In this episode, we talk with Allison and her mother Ruth about raising a child with severe mental illness and what Allison’s world looks like today as an adult living with OCD.