Dark and Enlightened

Today, I have another grief episode for you, but it's not from a sibling perspective--it is from a parent perspective. My friend, Pattie Vargas, lost her son, Joel around Thanksgiving in 2017. She talks about Joel and how different grief has been for her. As a side note, she is an amazingly strong woman and she has a great blog, The Resilient Journey, that you should check out (https://theres...

IT'S PISCES SEASON, PEOPLE! As your self appointed Pisces Queen, I welcome you to this glorious season. We're kicking March off with a great conversation with my friend, Mike Policar, about his chronic back pain. Mike's pain began in his late 20s and he discusses his journey on trying to find a way to manage his pain and still enjoy his life. Additionally, Mike hosts his own podcast...

This episode is going live on February 15th, which is my brother's birthday. Marc would have 32 this year. I have my sister, Alison Kane, back to discuss memories that we have of Marc. Initially, we wanted this to be a nice, feel good episode of all the good times we had with Marc and celebrate him. However, by the end, it gets all dark again and everything sucks because he is not here with u...

Schizophrenia. Substance Use Disorder. Multiple Sclerosis. All of these things on their own are tough to manage, but what if one person has all three of these conditions? Is that possible? Yes, yes it is. My friend, Tammie Lyons-Price, explains what it is like to live with all of it. She has never discussed this before with any people outside of family, close friends, and her therapist, so I am in...

My husband, Jordan, is back with me for another episode, but we're talking about some stuff that we are currently dealing with: recent mental health revelations. I discuss my recently diagnosed PTSD, anxiety, and depression, while Jordan discusses his recently diagnosed ADHD.  It is a lot for us to try and figure out, while trying to manage everything else in life, so we're both struggli...

This week, I have a conversation with my friend, Stephanie Brown, about her brother, Jason aka Boom. Stephanie lost Boom over a year ago due to liver and kidney failure, related to alcohol use. The convo was originally supposed to be centered around her grief, but as the conversation went on, it ended up being centered around Boom and his life. As dark as it sounds, I hope you enjoy hearing about...

I have alluded to this for many moons now and I am finally talking about it: my autoimmune disease. However, instead of droning on about it by myself for 2 hours, I switch it up a little bit. My husband, Jordan, interviews me about how my ITP (immune thrombocytopenia purpura) all began to how it is now.  You'll probably learn a lot more about platelets and steroids than you ever wanted to, bu...

The title is intended to be very nondescript because I am going the opposite approach of most podcasts and I'm not giving you the background or ending to this story.  I interviewed one of my oldest friends, Halley Valentine, about her life and some of the challenges she has faced--most notably, her alcoholism. We have a very candid and honest conversation  about a few stigmatized topics on to...

I'm 36. I'm married. I have no children. So, clearly there's something wrong with me? Well, that's a loaded question. There are many couples out there in the married, no children, and currently not trying box for a variety of reasons. Today, I discuss why it's so complicated with a special guest--my husband, Jordan Brown. We get into some really deep shit and a very intima...

This was a tough one to record, but it needed to be done. I guess you could call this the prequel to the grief episode and I talk about substance use disorder. I give a high level overview of it and then I discuss my personal experience with it when my brother, Marc, was going through it. Obviously I cry a bunch because it's some stuff I haven't thought about or talked about in a while,...

**I spoke in 3rd person when I posted my podcast and trailer description, but that felt really weird because I'm not The Rock and this isn't the WWE, so I'm going back to first person** This is the first OFFICIAL episode of Dark and Enlightened! In this episode, I am discussing grief. I lost my brother, Marc, on November 16, 2018. Grief can be a very lonely journey, so instead of ta...

Jaclyn gives a summary of what Dark and Enlightened is all about. Support the show