A Body Rebels: A Chronic Illness Podcast

Spring has a way of looking hopeful while also trying to crawl directly into your sinuses. In this episode, I talk about what it means to live with sarcoidosis, heart issues, and the shifting realities of chronic illness through the seasons. This is about pollen, fatigue, beauty, grief, adaptation, and those quiet moments that still manage to feel like life. If you live with sarcoidosis, chronic i...

After a week of rain and gray skies, I stepped outside and found myself face-to-face with a monarch butterfly—a rare, breathtaking sight that reminded me why we let dandelions grow and bees buzz in our yard. Here's why moments like these mean everything when you're living with chronic illness and still trying to find joy in the little things. This podcast is narrated using an AI voice. T...

A treatment built for cancer is now doing something that sounds almost unreal in autoimmune disease. In this episode, I talk through a story about CAR-T cell therapy, a woman whose body had been attacking her from multiple directions, and the uneasy hope that comes with hearing the words remission, reset, and maybe even recovery. This isn’t a miracle story, because real bodies are messier than tha...

What happens when chronic illness shows up and your first instinct is to blame yourself? In this episode of Thoughts While Surviving Chronic Illness , Tate reflects on growing up with guilt, being taught to question himself, and how that old wiring followed him into life with sarcoidosis. This is a quiet, honest conversation about shame, fear, faith, and the heavy stories we attach to illness. If...

Chronic illness teaches you that control is often an illusion. Tests, insurance approvals, medications, and diagnoses can feel like they belong to systems far bigger than the person living inside the body. For someone living with sarcoidosis and heart complications, routine medical tests are never really routine. They can determine whether the disease is quiet… or quietly returning. But every once...

After writing about winter tearing up my hands and posting a photo of my cracked, bleeding knuckles, I got an email that was less compassionate and more confused that I was not the race the sender expected. This episode is about sarcoidosis, chronic illness, medical stereotypes, and the exhausting way people reduce human beings to categories instead of meeting them with empathy. It is about what h...

After insurance forced me to leave the pulmonologist who had known my lungs for twenty years, a brand-new doctor asked a question that hit me like a dropped skillet: had anyone discussed putting me on the transplant list? If you live long enough with sarcoidosis and serious lung disease, transplant eventually enters the room. But hearing the question and wanting the answer to be yes are not the sa...

I learned respect the slow way—by watching what happened when women spoke and men decided they were “too much.” By listening in kitchens where the food mattered more than the people making it. And by living long enough with sarcoidosis and heart failure to realize time is expensive, energy is limited, and “just ignore it” is the laziest advice on earth. This isn’t a victory speech or a halo-polish...

When you grow up learning who doesn’t show up, you start measuring love in smaller, sharper ways—like footsteps on a porch, a hand on your forehead at the school nurse’s office, or the kind of laughter that keeps you upright when your body (hello, sarcoidosis ) is acting like it pays rent. This is about the dad I lost too soon—the one who earned the title—and the strange little lessons that follow...

Some people collect souvenirs when they travel. I collect medical printouts. One routine cardiology visit handed me a neat little report, the kind that looks boring until you realize it’s basically a receipt for a moment your body tried to freestyle without permission. If you live with sarcoidosis and heart failure, you already know the feeling: you can be doing something painfully normal, and the...

A new study claims low vitamin D may drive inflammation—but if you live with sarcoidosis , the story gets more complicated. Before reaching for supplements, there’s something important many headlines leave out. This podcast is narrated using an AI voice. The words, reflections, and lived experience are my own. Contact A Body Rebels More info about Sarcoidosis and to donate toward research: The Fou...

We remember diagnoses, heartbreaks, and miracles—but what about the quiet days that carry us between them? Living with sarcoidosis has made me realize the most important parts of life might be the ones our memory quietly skips over. This podcast is narrated using an AI voice. The words, reflections, and lived experience are my own. Contact A Body Rebels More info about Sarcoidosis and to donate to...

Welcome to nother bonus episode of short stories from my now closed podcast, "Pan to Pen." This podcast is narrated using an AI voice. The words, reflections, and lived experience are my own. Contact A Body Rebels More info about Sarcoidosis and to donate toward research: The Foundation For Sarcoidosis Research 

A simple story about a pillow full of feathers has been told for centuries by rabbis, monks, and priests. I heard it once on the radio and it stuck with me—especially as someone living with sarcoidosis, where words from doctors, strangers, and even ourselves can linger longer than we realize. But the real lesson in the story isn’t what you think. This podcast is narrated using an AI voice. The wor...

Sometimes sarcoidosis whispers instead of shouts. Someone can appear perfectly healthy, living their life, planning tomorrow… while something dangerous quietly hides in the heart. This episode reflects on a recent tragedy, a strange twist of fate, and the thin line between what doctors find… and what they don’t. This podcast is narrated using an AI voice. The words, reflections, and lived experien...

This bonus short story is from my now closed podcast, "Pan to Pen: A Storytelling Podcast." This podcast is narrated using an AI voice. The words, reflections, and lived experience are my own. Contact A Body Rebels More info about Sarcoidosis and to donate toward research: The Foundation For Sarcoidosis Research 

I read a lot of chronic illness blogs—part coping strategy, part writerly snooping—and I keep running into the same pattern: the urge to turn suffering into a spiritual trophy. Living with sarcoidosis has taught me faith can be a lifeline, but it can also become a convenient little crutch… the kind that looks holy while quietly stealing your agency. This one might make you laugh, sigh, or clutch y...

You think Covid was just a bad flu and “done with”? Let me tell you why that belief didn’t exactly age well — especially if you’re someone living with sarcoidosis or any chronic illness where every breath matters. I’ll get personal, a little sarcastic, and explain why I still mask up even when the world says “move along.” This podcast is narrated using an AI voice. The words, reflections, and live...

A Bonus story episode from my now closed podcast, "Pan To Pen: A Storytelling Podcast." This podcast is narrated using an AI voice. The words, reflections, and lived experience are my own. Contact A Body Rebels More info about Sarcoidosis and to donate toward research: The Foundation For Sarcoidosis Research 

Ever notice how sarcoidosis doesn’t just come for your lungs (or your heart, if it’s feeling ambitious)—it comes for your calendar, your energy, and your bank account too? This is the story of what “good insurance” looks like when the bills have six digits, the premiums creep up like a horror-movie soundtrack, and you realize staying alive in America is a subscription plan you never asked for… but...

When you’re a writer with chronic illness juggling deadlines, the last thing you expect is your editor ghosting you mid-contract. This cautionary tale dives into how one “faith-filled” editor turned out to be a crook—and what every writer, especially those managing sarcoidosis or other chronic conditions, can learn about protecting themselves (and their wallet). This podcast is narrated using an A...

This is a bonus episode. A Story from my now closed "Pan to Pen: A Storytelling Podcast" This podcast is narrated using an AI voice. The words, reflections, and lived experience are my own. Contact A Body Rebels More info about Sarcoidosis and to donate toward research: The Foundation For Sarcoidosis Research 

In 2007, a routine heart procedure turned into a life-changing diagnosis: heart failure. Nineteen years later, I’m still here—living with sarcoidosis, a defibrillator in my chest, and the constant awareness that my next heartbeat might depend on a tiny piece of metal and code. This is what surviving with an AICD really feels like—equal parts miracle, nuisance, and reminder to keep going. This podc...

Living with sarcoidosis taught me a weird truth: the harder you work to keep your life normal, the more the system charges you for it. Portable oxygen was supposed to mean freedom—walks, errands, road trips, maybe even a little joy—until I met the fine print, the upsells, and the “special charger” that costs more than my first apartment’s microwave. If you’ve ever felt like breathing comes with a...

Ever wondered what happens when an 18-year-old bank manager gets peer-pressured into a “mandatory meeting” that turns out to be rum shots and card games? Here’s the messy, hilarious, and surprisingly life-defining story of my first and only time getting drunk—complete with spinning rooms, questionable decisions, and one disgusted girlfriend (now wife). This podcast is narrated using an AI voice. T...