Change in Motion

Ruth Clare is a successful author, having written her award-winning memoir Enemy: A True Story of Courage, Childhood Trauma and the Cost of War. Behind her achievements as an actress and a TEDx speaker, lies a painful story. In this episode, Ruth talks about the effects that the Vietnam War had on her veteran father who abused her and the rest of her family physically and emotionally. In her book,...

Terry Tucker has assumed many roles in his life: from loving husband and father, a talented and rising basketball star in his college years, to fulfilling his dream of working as a hostage negotiator ( for a trigger warning, see the bottom of the show notes ).  But life had other plans. In a twist of fate, he was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer. Yet despite the hardship, pain and daily dread...

Cindy Gersch worked as a successful corporate executive, was a marathon runner and juggled all her commitments while taking care of her two children on her own as her husband was deployed. Then came the diagnosis that would alter the course of her life irrevocably: fibromuscular dysplasia . A journey began that would lead her to unexpectedly losing her job, friends and her husband telling her he w...

Jane Sagui is the Co-Founder and CEO of the successful health app Pollie, which is revolutionising how PCOS and other chronic health issues are treated. Jane suffered from symptoms of Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome for years before she received her diagnosis in her early 20s. She found that she had to visit many doctors and conduct her own research to help her design a system of treatment and build a...

Tragedy struck the day after Brian S. Quinn found out that he had passed the bar exam. At a trial on the next day, he watched his mentor fall on the courtroom floor and have a heart attack. Brian’s life would never be the same again.  Having just passed his exams, he took over the law firm in the next few days. Without the necessary training, he never felt good enough to represent his clients. Fol...

Theresa Brown was an English Professor before she became a Registered Nurse and a successful author. Most recently, she published her memoir Healing: When a Nurse Becomes a Patient . We talk about her years going through breast cancer and her thoughts on the health system after seeing it from both sides. Theresa tells us about her years as an oncology and hospice nurse, what it was like to receive...

Lisa Cornwell embraces the label she has been given: She is a Troublemaker. Throughout her life, Lisa has stood up against bullies and authority figures who abuse their power. In this episode, I chat with her about how her life changed when she faced a public smear campaign from her former employer, a Golf TV channel, and how she fought back.  Lisa takes us through her memoir “Troublemaker: A Memo...

Before she became an award-winning memoirist, Ly Tran immigrated to the US at the age of 3, where her life was shaped by the inherited trauma from her father’s experiences as a Vietnam War Veteran and Prisoner of War. Ly’s childhood was spent working in poverty and sweatshop labour from her home in New York. She gradually lost the ability to see properly, leading to her grades deteriorating and he...

Christy Warren served as a firefighter for 25 years until the moment that the trauma she witnessed over the course of her career became unbearable. Having been neglected as a child, Christy was always self-reliant. Keeping a clear mind during intense emergencies came naturally to her. When she would respond to a horrific accident, she would “close the lid” on the experience…until it all came out a...

At the age of 2, Blake’s doctor told his parents that their child would likely never be able to walk. Blake has no lower legs but today he is one of the fastest paralympic runners in the world. In our conversation, Blake talks about how he was questioning life until he realised that he was responsible for finding the strength to achieve his dreams. We talk about what it was like to compete in a so...

As an award-winning war correspondent, Anjan has reported on many of the world’s most dangerous conflicts.  Anjan had become a father shortly before his work as a war correspondent led him to a dangerous conflict zone. We talk about how his work impacted his marriage and ultimately led to the breakup. Anjan gives a gripping account of how close he came to dying in the war zone and his struggles to...

Alana's life was forever changed following an accident that left her paralysed when she was just 17. Fast-forward to her 20s and Alana was a three-sport phenomenon having won gold for wheelchair basketball with Team USA and alpine skiing at the Paralympics. She talks to us about what her journey to Paralympic success has been like as she struggled with her mental health, grief and further inj...

In the coming episodes you’ll hear about injuries that ended careers at the NFL, being blacklisted for speaking up about toxic cultures in TV reporting and Hollywood, when grief hits you during a race and traumas suffered through shocking incidents and firefighters and children of Vietnam war veterans.  You will hear about how a world record holder shifted his mindset after his prosthetic leg fell...