By Chance Avenue

Host Elizabeth Tiglao-Guss shares reflections from a 12-day Morocco yoga retreat with 10 other women from her kundalini “tribe,” noting that despite beautiful photos she got sick early on and lived on plain bread for days, yet returned home feeling “good different.” Traveling solo this time (after a Maldives retreat with Victor), she describes valuing the freedom of not having kids and using the t...

As the holidays approach, Elizabeth shares painful experiences of being excluded from family plans because she and her partner, Victor, don’t have kids, including a past getaway they weren’t invited to and a recent visit where plans were made without them so the kids could spend time together. Although she understands why events may be built around children, she emphasizes that understanding doesn...

Host Elizabeth Tiglao-Guss reflects on being frequently asked “Do you have kids?” and how painful it felt during the end of an IVF journey, including an encounter with a distant family member who pressured them to keep pursuing IVF abroad and reacted coldly when adoption was mentioned. They describe cultural norms in Filipino families where questions about marriage and children come with few bound...

Host Elizabeth Tiglao-Guss recounts a therapy session they almost canceled because life felt good, only to uncover deeper emotions tied to weight and infertility. After losing weight this year as part of reclaiming their body post-IVF, they realized their fear of gaining weight back wasn’t about the scale but about returning to sadness, disappointment, loneliness, and years of discomfort that bega...

Host Elizabeth Tiglao-Guss talks with friends Doreen, John, and Jada about her growth from feeling like a victim to advocating for women through her podcast, sharing support she once lacked while navigating infertility, pregnancy loss, adoption ending, divorce, depression, and mental health challenges. They describe how she and Victor have moved forward, embraced a child-free life, strengthened th...

Host Elizabeth Tiglao-Guss talks with longtime friends John and Jada about how miscarriage, IVF, and years of infertility created an unspoken disconnect as her friends assumed she was “fine” and would reach out if needed, partly because their friendship wasn’t phone-call heavy and because she had Victor for support. Elizabeth explains she felt lonely, in a “season of waiting,” hesitant to burden o...

Host Elizabeth Tiglao-Guss reunites with longtime friends John, his wife Jada, and childhood friend Doreen to discuss how friendships can shift when some friends have kids and others don’t, and to reflect on Elizabeth’s years of infertility, miscarriage, IUI/IVF treatments, and an adoption process that included a failed adoption. They recall a fallout after John and Jada’s 2013 marriage and reconn...

Host Elizabeth Tiglao-Guss shares her new obsession with American mahjong, describing how she discovered its colorful, beautifully designed tiles online, took a private lesson to learn the game, and quickly began collecting sets. She contrasts it with the traditional mahjong she knew growing up in Filipino/Asian households, which she associated with gambling, and explains that mahjong is having a...

Host Elizabeth Tiglao-Guss shares how buying BTS concert tickets and becoming an “Army” fangirl unexpectedly brought her lightness after over a decade of heavy seasons, including infertility treatments, failed adoptions, and a hard year for her family. After initially scrolling past a BTS Netflix concert, she clicked a replay and docuseries, got hooked, and binge-watched years of content while bon...

Checking In Three Years After Choosing a Childfree Life: Elizabeth and Victor Reflect Host Elizabeth Tiglao-Guss welcomes Victor back after months away to check in three years after they decided to stop pursuing children following a nearly 10-year infertility and adoption journey. They reflect on a recent Joshua Tree anniversary staycation that felt “full circle,” since they originally went there...

Host Elizabeth Tiglao-Guss shares how dancing freely with a friend made her realize she hadn’t felt comfortable in her body in years, leading her to discuss reclaiming her body after her infertility journey. After moving to California, she became pregnant and miscarried, then spent about seven years doing IUI and IVF, experiencing significant body changes, weight gain, and deep resentment—especial...

Host Elizabeth Tiglao-Guss shares that her cat, Tula, turns 14 in August and will have an end-of-month ultrasound to check her kidneys, which brings her anxiety despite normal blood work a few months ago; Tula is also on thyroid medication and a prescription diet. Elizabeth explains how Tula has been her constant companion since before she and Victor married, staying by her side through years of I...

Host Elizabeth Tiglao-Guss shares how a strained back forced her to cancel a road trip with visiting friends after several hectic weeks of travel, hosting, late nights, weekend swimming and snorkeling, and worsening neck and lower-back pain despite regular chiropractor visits. Lying in pain, she notices an old belief resurfacing: that she isn’t “allowed” to slow down because she doesn’t have kids...

Host Elizabeth Tiglao-Guss shares how, when traveling, hosting gatherings, or hearing about college tuition, she now feels genuine relief and freedom about not having children—feelings that sometimes bring guilt because she and Victor wanted kids for a long time and went through infertility treatments. She reflects that freedom used to be a “silver lining” she leaned on during intense grief, but h...

Host Elizabeth Tiglao-Guss reflects on taking on an unofficial maternal role through her large family, with about 11 nieces and nephews and 10 godchildren, beginning when her first niece was born as she turned seven. As the youngest until age 16, she became hands-on early—learning caregiving tasks and later building close, sibling-like bonds with her oldest nieces and nephews—eventually becoming t...

Host Elizabeth Tiglao-Guss shares a long-held tradition with Victor during their season of trying and waiting for a baby: collecting small, meaningful travel souvenirs intended for a future nursery, including a stuffed St. Bernard from Switzerland, a giraffe door stopper from Kenya, a stork from a French market, and a dolphin wind chime from the Maldives. She explains she still keeps these items b...

Host Elizabeth Tiglao-Guss shares how an “On This Day” phone memory resurfaced photos and videos from five years ago of the six-month-old baby she and Victor were supposed to adopt, noting it may be triggering. Seeing the baby’s face sparked tenderness and curiosity about how he is now, but a photo of Victor laughing while holding him hit hardest, highlighting what Victor lost and her desire to ha...

Host Elizabeth Tiglao-Guss reflects on a week that contrasted her prior discussion of the “messy middle,” sharing how her heart felt unexpectedly full through layered moments of connection. A lifelong best friend visited and they spent time eating, beachgoing, laughing, and enjoying K-pop and K-dramas; another close friend came for a soul-filling night of conversation. She hosted a brunch where th...

Host Elizabeth Tiglao-Guss reflects on living in a “messy middle” where her life feels both joyful and heavy: she’s making new friends, enjoying a new hobby, and feeling excited about projects, while also processing difficult new news about her dad’s health after last year’s serious health scare and caregiving season. She shares how being the only one in her large Filipino family without children...

Host Elizabeth Tiglao-Guss shares the fuller context behind an Instagram video about returning to Joshua Tree for her 13th wedding anniversary with Victor, contrasting it with a trip nearly three years earlier when they went to the desert to decide whether to renew their adoption home study and continue a decade-long infertility journey. On that earlier trip, amid emotional weight and a storm, the...

Host Elizabeth Tiglao-Guss speaks with Sarah, co-founder of The Otherhood Collective, about Sarah’s path toward living without children and how the project began with longtime friend and co-founder Lisa Levy. Sarah is the co-founder of The Otherhood Collective, a community and storytelling platform that gives voice to those navigating life outside traditional expectations of motherhood, family, an...

Host Elizabeth Tiglaso-Guss reflects on how, during grief and loss around not having children, people need empathetic community that “gets it,” and affirms the value of childless-not-by-choice spaces like the one they are building. They also warn that the same supportive bubble can become too small and limit growth if it becomes someone’s whole world, and they gently encourage listeners to “breath...

In this interview, Steph (Stephanie Phillips), founder of World Childless Week, shares her path to childlessness: after leaving an abusive relationship, she and her future husband tried to conceive in her late 30s, received devastating news from a doctor at age 39, and declined NHS-funded IVF due to timing, low odds, and her inability to lose weight while grieving. She describes navigating shock,...

Host Elizabeth Tiglao-Guss reflects on a week of being sick at home and noticing unexpected reminders of what she and her husband, Victor, don’t have. She shares three moments that landed differently: a Facebook post claiming you don’t know love until you have children, a coworker telling Victor he “highly recommend[s]” having kids, and an Apple TV show, Shrinking, featuring a simplified adoption...

Host Elizabeth Tiglao-Guss speaks with a New York-based filmmaker about her multi-year journey through unexplained infertility, multiple IVF rounds beginning at age 38 in 2019, and the trauma of continuing treatment as the city shut down during the pandemic, including a failed transfer and chemical pregnancy. Lisa is the Co-Founder of The Otherhood Collective, a storytelling platform and community...