Human Amplified

Belinda Harvey learned early that some people experience America differently than others. Growing up in South Central Los Angeles, she witnessed gang violence, lived with constant uncertainty, and learned not to expect help when police were called.  Those experiences stayed with her as she built a successful career in corporate America, raised a son of her own, and watched the events of 2020...

Purpose didn't arrive all at once for Wendy Yates. It emerged through creativity, service, entrepreneurship, and a willingness to start over when life wasn't aligned with who she wanted to become. Wendy shares how growing up in a military family, rebuilding her life after divorce, and building a design business from scratch shaped her understanding of purpose, community, and meaningful work. We di...

For much of her life, Lori Reising was trying to understand a feeling she couldn't quite explain. Adopted as an infant through a closed adoption, she grew up surrounded by love. Yet underneath that love was a persistent sense of abandonment, a question of belonging that followed her into adulthood and shaped the way she moved through relationships, loss, and healing. Lori reflects on the impact of...

When life falls apart, people often reach for something bigger than themselves. But why? Mike Hutchinson looks at why faith becomes an anchor during hardship, beginning with what the Bible says about faith before moving into deeply personal stories of bipolar disorder, infertility, adoption, anger, and unanswered questions. Rather than offering easy answers, he examines how faith, action, and resi...

Faith is one of the most common words in our vocabulary, yet it's also one of the least defined. Depending on who you ask, faith is belief, trust, hope, optimism, religion, or simply something deeply personal. Those definitions often overlap, but they don't always mean the same thing. Mike Hutchinson, a theology student, pastor-in-training, and host of The True Presbyterian podcast, explores how C...

Spiritual abuse often doesn't look like abuse at first. It can sound like guidance, accountability, or faith while quietly replacing your own judgment with fear, shame, and control. Sarah Gates spent decades in conservative evangelical churches where manipulation was framed as spiritual authority. She shares how religious trauma affected her sense of self, why leaving wasn't as simple as walking a...

What happens after a near-death experience? Popular culture often tells us people emerge with complete clarity, renewed purpose, or an entirely different outlook on life. But reality is often more complicated. When filmmaker and podcaster Greg Tilton survived a car accident that first responders expected to be fatal, he walked away with injuries that eventually healed. The emotional impact, howeve...

Sometimes the project you start isn't just something you make. It changes the way you see yourself. When Michelle Liter found herself wondering what came next after years of raising her family, she returned to the one thing that had always been part of her identity: creating. That decision led her to write and illustrate her first children's book, but along the way, it also reshaped how she though...

Cannabis has long been one of the most misunderstood plants in modern healthcare. While CBD has become increasingly mainstream, confusion about how it works, whether it's legal, and what it can actually do continues to shape public perception. CBD educator Neal Thompson shares how a career in the cannabis industry led him to become passionate about helping people separate myths from facts. Learn a...

Grief doesn't end after the funeral. It follows you into ordinary moments, changes the way you think, and asks you to build a life that no longer looks the way you expected. When Laurah Jurca unexpectedly lost her husband, she was thrust into a reality no one prepares for. Twelve days later, her mother also passed away.  She shares what it felt like to experience two devastating losses back t...

One ordinary afternoon by a resort pool changed Valerie Moss's life forever. While on her honeymoon in Mexico, she was suddenly called to help a toddler who had been pulled from the water unconscious. With no medical background beyond CPR training, she stepped in. The child survived, but the story didn't end there. Years later, Valerie shares how that experience reshaped the way she thinks about p...

What if finally receiving a diagnosis wasn't the end of your journey, but the beginning of an even more complicated one? After years of searching for answers, Tiffanny Thomason was diagnosed with Cushing's disease. But treating one rare condition uncovered another, forcing her and her husband, Josh, to rethink everything from their future family plans to what recovery really means. The couple disc...

For years, Lynnette Henderson built a career around research, education, and helping others. Then chronic headaches, debilitating fatigue, and brain fog forced her to step away from the work that had defined much of her life. Lynnette shares her journey to a cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) leak diagnosis caused by Ehlers-Danlos syndrome and what it has been like navigating chronic illness, complex medic...

Editor's Note: This conversation was recorded during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic. Some references to public health guidance, events, and resources reflect that specific moment in time and are no longer current. We've preserved this episode as a snapshot of how people experienced and responded to an unprecedented period. In the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, uncertainty touche...

When Kristen Teffeteller bought her first hula hoop after a music festival, she was simply looking for a new hobby. She had no idea it would lead her into circus arts, burlesque, and a profession built around movement and live performance. Over time, those experiences reshaped her confidence, her relationship with her body, and her understanding of creative expression. We unpack the unexpected les...

What happens when the stories you've believed about yourself aren't actually yours? For years, Erin Grace struggled with anxiety, depression, dissociation, and a persistent feeling of not being enough. In searching for answers, she turned to trauma work, energy healing, and intuition to better understand the beliefs that had shaped her life. We dive into childhood trauma, self-limiting beliefs, em...

When someone buys a T-shirt, what are they actually paying for? For artist Sherry Spivey, the answer isn't the cotton. It's the artwork. And the memory of the vacation, the festival, the dog show, the event with friends, or the tradition someone wants to remember years later.  After three decades of designing and screen printing T-shirts, she's watched people wear them until they fall apart,...

This week’s guest, Ben Minnis, sees human faces in the abstract. Ben is an early childhood educator turned sculptor from Eugene, OR. He now runs huMinnist sculpture. His heavy focus on material languages for young children has inspired how he approaches his art - he has a dialogue with the clay until the conversation ends. You’ll learn from Ben the importance of living in the moment and losing inh...

When Brandi launched Human Amplified, she thought she was creating a podcast about the human condition. What she didn't expect was how much hearing other people's stories would change her own perspective. Throughout Season 1, guests shared deeply personal experiences of trauma, loss, resilience, healing, and hope. Each conversation revealed how much people carry beneath the surface, and how often...

Ryan Sauls and Brandi Fleck answered relationship questions submitted by listeners - this is the unedited, full length recording. They recorded this episode at 6 am in their closet on a Monday before work. There’s a huge surprise at the end that they didn’t air with the original episode. Can you guess what it is? For more episodes, go to onbeinghumanpodcast.com . Season 2 will be here in March 202...

Military service has a beginning and an end. The transition home isn't nearly as clear. Three Marine veterans share what happened after they left the military, from adjusting to civilian life and losing the structure they once depended on to navigating PTSD, alcoholism, grief, and survivor's guilt.  They also explain why finding other veterans who understood those experiences became one of th...

For in-depth details, highlights, and links, check out the show notes at www.onbeinghumanpodcast.com/episodes/033 . Find the podcast on Facebook: @OnBeingHumanPodcast . Subscribe on Apple Podcasts (iTunes) so you get the latest episode delivered weekly. Love what you hear? Leave a review on Apple Podcasts, telling me what you love most about the show. This helps others find the show too! Thanks fo...

For in-depth details, highlights, and links, check out the show notes at www.onbeinghumanpodcast.com/episodes/032 . Find the podcast on Facebook: @OnBeingHumanPodcast . Subscribe on Apple Podcasts (iTunes) so you get the latest episode delivered weekly. Love what you hear? Leave a review on Apple Podcasts, telling me what you love most about the show. This helps others find the show too! Thanks fo...

For in-depth details, highlights, and links, check out the show notes at www.onbeinghumanpodcast.com/episodes/031 . Find the podcast on Facebook: @OnBeingHumanPodcast . Subscribe on Apple Podcasts (iTunes) so you get the latest episode delivered weekly. Love what you hear? Leave a review on Apple Podcasts, telling me what you love most about the show. This helps others find the show too! Thanks fo...

For in-depth details, highlights, and links, check out the show notes at www.onbeinghumanpodcast.com/episodes/030 . Find the podcast on Facebook: @OnBeingHumanPodcast . Subscribe on Apple Podcasts (iTunes) so you get the latest episode delivered weekly. Love what you hear? Leave a review on Apple Podcasts, telling me what you love most about the show. This helps others find the show too! Thanks fo...