The Human Experience

Dan Emr’s story starts before he was born, with a piano teacher who asked a hurting 17-year-old boy what he believed he was worth. That boy became Dan’s father. That question shaped three generations: a family that left a comfortable life for post-Soviet Ukraine, and a son who later walked away from his engineering career to start Worthwhile, a nonprofit serving survivors of human trafficking. Jen...

⚠️ Content Warning: This episode contains detailed discussions of childhood sexual abuse, suicide, cult dynamics, and domestic violence. Please proceed with care. In this episode Natasha J. Layton — speaker, entrepreneur, and co-host of The Survivors Podcast — shares her story about a childhood most people can't fathom. Raised inside the FLDS cult under her uncle, Warren Jeffs, Natasha survived ch...

⚠️ Content Warning: This episode contains discussions around traumatic brain injury, a serious motorcycle accident, mental health struggles, suicide, and grief. Please proceed with care. In this episode, Jennifer sits down with Nicholas Ruchlewicz in his home in Herndon, Virginia, nearly ten years to the day after a single-vehicle motorcycle crash left him with a traumatic brain injury, a shattere...

⚠️ Content Warning: This episode contains discussions of childhood trauma, family abuse, and chronic illness. Please proceed with care. Dan Esposito spent his twenties and thirties chasing movement, first as an NFL running back, then as the guy who never left the dance floor, until chronic pain took all of it away. Diagnosed with fibromyalgia and degenerative arthritis, and told he'd need four joi...

This episode picks up right where Part 1 left off, as Jennifer continues her conversation with her friend and longtime travel companion Kirsten Dickerson in her home in London. Kirsten opens up about what came after Raven + Lily - the quiet grief of walking away from something she had built her identity around, and the winding season that followed: a global nonprofit, a string of retreat centers r...

Jennifer sits down with her friend and travel companion Kirsten Dickerson, founder of Artist & Nomad, in Kirsten's garden flat in London. Kirsten opens up about the moments that quietly rearranged her life: a family that lost nearly everything, a mother she wasn't sure she could hold onto, and a faith that kept nudging her toward the next unlikely yes - from the sorority halls of Baylor Univer...

⚠️ Content Warning: This episode contains discussions of childhood physical and emotional abuse, suicidal ideation, institutionalization, and intergenerational trauma. Please proceed with care. What does it look like to rebuild a life that was broken before you were old enough to understand why? In this deeply moving episode, Jennifer sits down with Isabel — a young Panamanian woman raised in the...

⚠️ Content Warning: This episode contains discussions of suicide, grief, childhood trauma, and homelessness. Listener discretion is advised. What does it look like when a single act of kindness, a sandwich handed to a stranger outside Grand Central Station, becomes the seed of a national movement? In this episode, Jennifer sits down with Karen Olson, founder of Family Promise, in her home in Sprin...

⚠️ Content Warning: This episode contains discussions of childhood sexual abuse, child loss, grief, and substance use. Please proceed with care. In this episode, Jennifer sits down with Barb Higgins — educator, CrossFit coach, author, podcaster, and mother — inside her home in Concord, New Hampshire, the very town where her story began. Barb’s life has been shaped by a series of extraordinary even...

⚠️ Content Warning: This episode contains discussions of grief and loss of siblings. Please proceed with care. In this episode, Jennifer sits down with Marina Mendez, a 24-year-old Panamanian educator and woman of deep faith, in Panama City, Panama. Marina’s story begins in the shadow of unimaginable loss: by the time she was twelve years old, she had buried both of her brothers, and she didn’t pr...

⚠️ Content Warning: This episode contains discussions of the loss of a child, grief, and traumatic death. Listener discretion is advised. In this episode, Jennifer sits down with Stephen Panus - author, speaker, and bereaved father - to hear the story of August 9, 2020: the day his 16-year-old son Jake was killed as a passenger in a reckless car crash that changed everything. Stephen shares, with...

⚠️ Content Warning: This episode contains discussions of suicide, suicide loss, grief, and mental health. Please proceed with care. What happens when the story you've built your grief around turns out to be a different story entirely? In this deeply moving episode, Jennifer sits down with Lisa Sugarman, author, mental health advocate, crisis counselor, and suicide loss survivor, in Salem, Massachu...

What does it mean to carry a country inside you — one you were forced to leave before you were old enough to understand why? In this deeply moving episode, Jennifer sits down with Ana Flaster, Cuban-American author of Property of the Revolution, to explore the story that shaped her entire life: fleeing Cuba as a child in 1967, arriving in the snowy mill town of Nashua, New Hampshire with one suitc...

What happens when you stop looking for love and start finding yourself? In this episode, Jennifer sits down with author and New Hampshire transplant Abby Rosmarin in Concord, NH, to talk about the year that changed her life: 2023, the Year of Dating Herself. After a string of tumultuous relationships that left her gaslit, depleted, and sitting in a bathtub wondering how she got there, Abby made a...

What happens when the dream you've chased your entire life finally comes true—only to discover it's not actually what you wanted after all? In this conversation, host Jennifer Peterkin sits down with Cheryl Johnson, a woman who has moved 45 times across 8 states, visited all 50 states, and learned that life's greatest gifts often come disguised as detours. Cheryl's story begins at age 8 on an airp...

⚠️ Content Warning: This episode contains detailed discussions of childhood sexual abuse, domestic violence, physical abuse, substance abuse, and suicide. Listener discretion is strongly advised. In this powerful episode of The Human Experience, host Jennifer Peterkin sits down with Ruth Carroll—a survivor whose story spans decades of unimaginable abuse, yet who now stands as a beacon of hope and...

For this milestone 100th episode, we're doing something special—host Jennifer Peterkin hands over the mic to her friend, Kesh Witmer, for an intimate conversation about the journey behind The Human Experience podcast. In this raw and reflective episode, Jennifer opens up about the three-year odyssey of creating this show, from publishing her first episode at 11:50 PM on January 31st, 2023 (cutting...

In this insightful podcast, host Jennifer Peterkin interviews Blair, an individual diagnosed with schizoid personality disorder, to shed light on this widely misunderstood condition. Blair shares personal experiences of being perceived as different from an early age and the internal struggles faced in social settings. The conversation highlights the significant impact of schizoid disorder on one's...

Show Notes: In this deeply reflective episode of The Human Experience, host Jennifer Peterkin visits lifelong New Yorker Tony Stewart, who shares an intimate story of love, creativity, and grief. Tony recounts meeting his wife, Lynn Kotula—an accomplished painter—and building a life together rooted in art, exploration, and storytelling. He opens up about Lynn’s cancer diagnosis, the emotional and...

In this deeply moving episode of The Human Experience, host Jennifer Peterkin sits down with Rebecca (Becky) Faye Smith Galli in her Maryland home for a powerful conversation about loss, resilience, faith, and the courage to keep moving forward. Becky shares her life journey marked by profound hardship, including the death of her teenage brother, raising children with special needs, divorce, and s...

⚠️ Content Warning: This episode contains discussions of childhood trauma, abuse, pornography exposure, and mental health struggles. Listener discretion is strongly advised. In this powerful and deeply heartfelt episode of The Human Experience, host Jennifer Peterkin sits down with Minister Jalisa Hardy, also known as The Golden Child, for a courageous conversation about generational trauma, resil...

In this heartfelt episode of The Human Experience, host Jennifer Peterkin welcomes Angela Harvey, who opens up about her profound journey through codependency, depression, and rediscovering her self-worth. Angela shares candid reflections on her lifelong search for validation, the pain of unmet expectations, and the transformative process of learning to nurture herself from within. Through honesty...

⚠️ Content Warning: This episode contains discussions of war, genocide, and trauma related to the Holocaust. Listener discretion is strongly advised. In this profound episode of The Human Experience, host Jennifer Peterkin and guest interviewer Linda explore the extraordinary story of a woman whose Hungarian refugee parents survived World War II and the Holocaust. The guest recounts the shocking d...

⚠️ Content Warning: This episode contains discussions of alcohol use, trauma, and grief related to a fatal car accident. Listener discretion is strongly advised. In this deeply moving episode of The Human Experience, host Jennifer Peterkin welcomes Cheryl Wilder, who shares her remarkable journey of survival, accountability, and transformation following a tragic car accident at age 20 that changed...

In this thoughtful episode of The Human Experience, host Jennifer Peterkin visits John (Jonathan Heaslet) at his North Carolina home to reflect on a remarkable life of service, transformation, and storytelling. John shares his early years growing up near San Francisco, his studies in mathematics and economics, and his first career as a health economist before answering the call to ministry. He rec...