This Is It! by Thriving Yinzers

If you’ve ever looked up from your phone and realized you missed the moment you’ll never get back, you’re not alone. We get honest about how easy it is to live on autopilot, even when we’re physically home, and why “getting things done” can still leave us stressed, disconnected, and oddly lonely. Presence isn’t a cute idea to us, it’s a survival skill for modern life and a foundation for real rela...

One moment Dr. Cindy Zurchin is a high school senior with plans for graduation. The next, her car explodes and she’s burning on the side of the road. Cindy’s story is intense, but what stays with us is what she builds after: a life devoted to resilience, leadership, and helping other people make it through change with courage and a plan. We talk about her new book, Made of More, and why she reshap...

Bounce back. Push through. Get back to where you were. We've all heard it.  Sherry spent years trying to do exactly that, and it nearly cost her everything. This week she tells parts of her story for new listeners — the facial nerve pain she taught through, the drive home where she cried every day, the "no big deal" black finger she ignored until she'd finished her errands, and...

Nobody's building a listening team. There's no coach, no tournament, no scholarship for it: just a whole lot of people trained to win and nobody trained to understand. In this episode we get into the difference between listening and listening to understand , why holding your convictions and hearing somebody out aren't opposites, and what it costs all of us when people stop expecting...

A note before you listen... This episode includes frank discussion of substance use, overdose, and family loss, and contains explicit language. We often think the opposite of addiction is sobriety. Rich Jones makes the case that it's connection. Rich grew up in Ligonier, about an hour east of Pittsburgh. A car accident in 1999 sent him home from an emergency room with 120 Darvocet, and within...

Self-compassion gets confused with self-care, self-pity, and self-indulgence,  and it's none of those. In this co-host episode, Sherry and Jodi pick up where their conversation with Lori Karsch left off and get into what self-compassion actually is: learning to treat yourself the way you'd treat a good friend, especially when things go wrong.  They talk about people-pleasing and why cons...

When Survival Mode Becomes Your Personality  with Lori Karsch, Author of Torn Wide Open Lori Karsch was 27 when a rare brain condition took her mom; her safe place, and the only one she had. What came after was decades of survival mode so constant it started to feel like her personality: the people-pleasing, the hypervigilance, the little voice she kept shoving aside. Then she sat down to write he...

ABOUT THIS EPISODE We’re revisiting growth mindset and  the real question underneath it: do you still believe you’re becoming, or have you quietly stopped expecting more for yourself? Sherry and Jodi talk through the difference between “I can’t” and “I can’t yet,” Michael Jordan walking away from basketball at the peak of his career, and how Fred Rogers turned a lonely, bullied childhood into a 33...

Ever feel like you’ve been “doing the work” for years and somehow still end up back in the same place, asking yourself what’s wrong with you? We’re pulling the plug on that idea with Dr. Leslie B. Newman, psychologist, author, and positive psychology expert, because growth isn’t a straight line and you’re not a project to be completed. We talk about what it looks like when progress comes in loops,...

Emotional Regulation: Working With Your Emotions, Not Against Them Somebody blows up, shuts down, or flips the story so fast you end up apologizing and wondering what just happened. We start there, but we don’t stay there, because the real leverage point is what we do with our own emotions first. We talk about emotional regulation as a learnable skill, why emotions are signals not threats, and how...

A kid catches a fish and suddenly stands a little taller. That moment is why we wanted Phil Papa on the show. Phil is the founder of Fishburgh Outdoors, a Pittsburgh youth fishing program built to help families get outside, get off screens, and feel that rare mix of calm and lit up that happens near the water. What starts as a bluegill at a city pond becomes something bigger: confidence, patience,...

We talk about agency as the small, real choices we can still make when life is unfair, overwhelming, or full of grief. We connect self-awareness to action, name the nervous system “freeze” response, and share practical ways to find one next step without shaming yourself.   • defining agency as influence inside what you cannot change   • why awareness without action turns into shutdown   • Jodi’s s...

You can’t fix what you refuse to notice and most of us are moving too fast to see ourselves clearly. Season two starts with a small, powerful skill that changes how we handle stress, conflict, and burnout: self-awareness. We’re not here to spiral with the headlines or pretend everything is fine. We’re here to get grounded, put our own oxygen masks on first, and take the next right step with more c...

Three words can change how you survive the hardest seasons of your life: This is it. Sherry opens season two by sharing the message her dad wrote to their family while facing glioblastoma, and how those words kept her steady through compounding grief, sudden medical events, and the long, brutal reality of loving someone through addiction and serious mental health challenges. We don’t sanitize any...

We close season one by tracing how small order, honest support, and micro habits help us move from survival toward steadier ground without chasing perfection. The theme is simple and stubborn: accept where you are, build tiny anchors, and keep paying it forward. • defining thriving as mindset, not destination • order over chaos through tiny tools and routines • taking a beat to exit survival mode...

The hardest stories to tell are the ones that matter most. We open our hearts to share a sister’s life, loss, and grief—while confronting the painful truth that love alone can’t solve a complex crisis. What starts as a personal remembrance becomes a wider discussion on addiction, trauma, mental illness, and the limits families run into when care systems fall short. We talk about her early path int...

A life narrowed by chronic pain can make even simple pleasures feel like a threat. We sit down with Dr. Leah Flaherty, a pain psychologist at Allegheny Health Network and certified Empowered Relief instructor, to explore a FREE and practical, two-hour path that helps you change how your brain responds to pain—without pretending it will vanish. Grounded in pain neuroscience education and cognitive...

Life is messy — between burnout, stress, clutter, and emotional overload, most of us are just trying to hold it together. But you don’t have to stay stuck in survival mode. In this episode of This Is It! by Thriving Yinzers , we’re redding up the chaos — starting with what’s actually in our control: our daily habits, routines, and physical environment. We break down why chaos overwhelms your brain...

When life tests us with unimaginable challenges, we discover capacities for strength and resilience we never knew we had. Megan Grau's story embodies this truth in ways that will leave you speechless, inspired, and perhaps forever changed. On a single day in May 2020, while the world grappled with pandemic uncertainty, Megan's world shattered: her husband Mike was diagnosed with stage fo...

A cancer diagnosis changes everything. While medical treatment targets the disease, what about the person—their fears, their appearance, their family, their spirit? Laurin Scanlon from AHN's Integrative Oncology Division reveals the extraordinary support system maybe you never knew existed. The program, fully launched in 2023 after years of development, focuses on four pillars: health and fit...

When life piles up fast—schedules, stress, emotions, unfolded laundry—it's easy to overlook how you're still showing up. That's why we created our #4Wins4Yinz framework, a simple tool to help you see progress when everything feels overwhelming. This episode guides you through four essential dimensions of well-being: spiritual (what gave you peace or purpose?), physical (how did you...

When was the last time you felt truly aligned—mind, body, and spirit working in harmony? For too many of us, that sense of wholeness feels increasingly elusive in a world that treats our physical and mental health as entirely separate domains. Matt Plutko, co-founder and Director of Wellness at Revelations Counseling and Wellness, joins us to share a perspective on healing that bridges this artifi...

That little word "yet" might be the most powerful tool in your mental toolkit. When you catch yourself saying "I can't do this," adding "yet" transforms limitation into possibility—opening the door to growth where you once saw only roadblocks. In this reflective conversation, we explore the science and practical application of developing a growth mindset based on...

Dr. Tony Kovatch, known as "Slow Tony" after being the last to cross the finish line at the 2025 Pittsburgh Marathon, shares insights from his 40+ years as a pediatrician and his philosophy on living a meaningful life shaped by personal struggles and professional triumphs. • Early exposure to his mother's battle with Huntington's disease influenced his decision to become a doct...

Living with intention means taking the wheel of your life instead of letting it happen to you. We explore practical strategies for making deliberate choices that align with your values and create the life you actually want.  Moving from autopilot living to intentional decision-making Why setting boundaries might make others uncomfortable—and why that's okay How meditation and mindfulness can...