Bump In The Road

Portia Louder: Prison, Redemption and Life What would you say if a federal judge gave you a seven year prison sentence? Portia Louder was a wife, a mom and a realtor. It was the realtor role that landed her in prison. During the hey days of the real estate boom in the mid 2000's Portia was buying and selling overvalued properties. The appraisals were manipulated. When the market crashed, the owner...

Side Trips are about the off road excursions we take that often lead to interesting life experiences. This is a new addition to Bump In The Road that lets me share my thoughts beyond the podcast. In this Side Trip, I share some of the background on how the podcast came to be. Coming Soon! The Book. Bump In The Road, Stories of Courage, Hope and Resilience, an inspiring anthology of overcoming life...

Lise Deguire is an attractive woman. Her kind eyes belie what she has lived through. When Lise was four years old, her mother used a household solvent used to start a barbecue. It exploded, engulfing the entire porch in flames. Her mother ran through the fire and jumped in the lake to cool her burns. She left Lise standing in the midst of the inferno. Lise who was a beautiful, bubbly, child with b...

Welcome to Side Trips. This podcast is to introduce Side Trips, a short form podcast about a variety of topics. Side trips are about the off road excursions we take that often lead to interesting life experiences. This is a new addition to Bump In The Road that lets me share my thoughts beyond the podcast. For Side Trips there's no set publication schedule and no set topics. The podcasts are short...

Dave Pelzer is the author of a series of books including A Child Called It, which was on the New York Times bestseller list for a record setting six years. In that book, he chronicles a childhood of almost unbelievable abuse. Finally, one weekend, he was sure his mother intended to kill him. And that's when a network of caring adults stepped in to save him. Dave has gone on to a life of great adve...

Sultan Deniz was a banker for fourteen years. But when she found herself meditating for hours and hours to deal with the stress, she realized something had to give. Sultan decided to follow her heart and it led her to becoming a mediation coach and poet. Becoming yourself is a process, and the answers lie within. It is in that internal exploration that Sultan directs her clients to discover what i...

In 2020 the world was dealing with Covid. But in Nova Scotia, Canada, another event took place that defined the year, the deadliest mass shooting in Canadian history. Over two days, April 18th and 19th, Gabriel Worman killed 22 people. He started by killing 13 people in Portapique, N.S. and by burning down several houses, including his own. The next day his rampage continued. Altogether, twenty tw...

Robin's story starts with 14 years of dealing with infertility. As an RN, Robin went on a surgical trip to the Dominican Republic. It was there she had an aha moment, that moved her from her angst over infertility into an adoption mindset. Robin and her husband would go onto adopt a two day old baby girl and three years later, a 5 day old little girl. Robin was in love with her children, but over...

From Uganda to American culture, this is a far ranging conversation with Charlie Hedges. Charlie and I are both on a quest for greater understanding and consciousness, and this conversation reflects that. It starts with Charlie's efforts with Wells of Water, a charity that provides clean water for rural Ugandan villages. Clean water changes everything for these villages. The women no longer spend...

Terry Chase is an athlete. And that mindset has defined her life. Riding her bicycle one sunny spring day in Colorado, Terry came to a turn. Behind her was a large SUV that collided with her, then fled the scene. Terry was left sprawled on the pavement with a broken back. Her beloved red bicycle lay mangled on the road. This is a story of remarkable courage and resilience. It's a story of enormous...

What is an "Old Soul"? The phrase has connotation of wisdom beyond one's years. And that certainly describes Raileigh Duschen. Raileigh was on a successful path. She'd been accepted into a prestigious medical school program as an undergrad. Her future was assured. Or was it? For Raileigh, medicine was about healing, but she herself was not well. That recognition sent her on a different path, one o...

What does "KC" stand for? Killer Chick. Kim "KC" Campbell served in the Air Force for 24 years as a fighter pilot and senior military leader. She has flown 1,800 hours in the A-10 Warthog, including more than 100 combat missions protecting troops on the ground in both Iraq and Afghanistan. KC's story is one for all of us. It's about courage, inspiration and perseverance. It's about creating a wing...

Thane Lawrie's novel, The Buddhist CEO, is loosely based on his own experiences in running a large organization. And on his experiences as a Buddhist. This is a conversation about peace, presence and kindness. It's about taking responsibility for oneself and going within, in a "modern" world that's focused on the newest, latest, transient topic. In short, it's a conversation for everyone. For Bump...

Vicki Matthews started off thinking she'd become a doctor. And she did; a naturopathic doctor. Vicki also has a BA in Psychology and an MBA in Marketing and Consumer Behavior from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. Her curiosity and love of learning also led her to study Chinese Medicine. Meanwhile, in her naturopathic practice, she saw may physical problems triggered by emotional...

Kenya has had a bumpy road. Reflecting on her childhood, she notes that self awareness wasn't a skill set she was taught. But it would turn out to be a lynchpin in Kenya's life. Kenya grew up in a middle class home in Detroit. Her parents believed in the prototypical American dream of a better life for their daughter. Instead, Kenya found herself attracted to urban street culture and that attracti...

Every generation reflects on the differences between their experiences and that of their children. But in this world of 24/7 availability of "information" things are different. "Things are moving quickly; information is coming at an incredible rate. Children don't have the life experiences to sort this out." How does a parent cope? Christine Van Horn points to the importance of teaching your child...

Brian Smith was faced with the unfaceable. He went to bed one night. The next morning, he went to rouse his fifteen year old daughter, Shayna, and she was dead. "You go to bed one night, you're living one world; the next day you're living in another world." How does a parent cope with such a terrible grief? Meet Brian Smith who's grief caused him to turn his life upside down to help others. You ca...

Marina Shakour-Haber did not seek out a spiritual journey. It came to her. Her story is one of success and despair. And success again. But slowly, it became apparent that she wasn't on the right track. She was meant to follow a spiritual path, and from that path much wisdom has arisen. Today, Marina coaches others in their journey. Marina has that rare ability to see the larger spiritual perspecti...

We all view the world through a different lens. For Conor Hogan, known as Doc Conor, sports was a natural choice. But Conor's participation in sports was cut short by a back problem. What would replace his beloved competiton? This is a story of how one man used a potentially devastating bump in the road to find a new path for himself, and to help others along the way. His book, "The Gym Upstairs"...

Since 2013, Renaye Thornborrow has been leading a global movement to bring life coaching to kids. Her company, Adventures In Wisdom, is certifying hundreds of WISDOM Coaches, transforming the lives of children and families around the world. Renaye uses stories to teach personal development and self awareness concepts to children, giving them the psychological strength and resiliency to move forwar...

Michaela's sister, Kaylen, was a star in a family of stars. She was athletically gifted, smart and motivated. She played sports, earned a Master's and was always on the go. And she was a drug addict. Kaylen's introduction to drugs started inadvertently when she broke her ankle skating at age 13. She was treated with oxicodonx, hydrocodone and a morphine drip. Next she'd be diagnosed with ADHD, whi...

Kristen Carter has a good life. Meaningful work, a husband and a family. But return of cancer with a Stage 4 diagnosis made her stop and re-evaluate things. What was most important? Where were her true values? Was she living her most authentic life? And what is an authentic life? This is a warm and wonderful conversation with wisdom for all of us. Enjoy. #BumpInTheRoad #BreastCancer

If you were psychic, what would you do with it? This is a story of a remarkable woman who survived an attempted murder by her first husband, saved her baby, and overcame multiple health issues. And along the way she found a set of psychic skills that set her in a most unexpected direction. Nancy Orlen Weber first discovered her psychic skills working in health care, where she could easily and intu...

Is one of your quests for the new year better health? What exactly does that entail? Emily Gold Mears went on a quest to better understand 'what creates health' when her father became ill. Looking for solutions, she discovered many treatment modalities beyond the allopathic world. She shares her research in her book Optimizing Your Health: An Approachable Guide to Reducing Your Risk of Chronic Dis...

Manoj Krishna has spent the majority of his professional life as a spine surgeon. But a story about suffering touched him deeply, causing him to shift his attention to cultivating wisdom. Wisdom, according to Manoj, is a journey of learning about ourselves. It's a deep and endless voyage, of stripping away our conditioning to better understand your true self. This led to the creation of the Human...