Dear Family,

What if the secret to feeling happier, healthier, and more fulfilled isn't a new wellness trend- but true connection? What if it's friendship? In this inspiring episode of Dear Family, host Rachel Steinman reflects on three transformative experiences that occurred in one memorable week that left her feeling exhilarated, hopeful, and literally and figuratively connected. Everything she cares about-...

Rachel Winter and Rachel Steinman are best friends, co-authors, and co-hosts of this special collab between the Dear Family, Podcast with Stay Forever Gold .    Rachel Winter is a writer, director, and an Academy Award®-nominated producer for Dallas Buyers Club. She produced LeBron James' biopic, Shooting Stars, and produced and directed the audio drama, Supreme: The Battle for Roe starring Maya H...

My So-Called High School Rank, premiering on HBO and HBO MAX, is a special documentary that gives an unfiltered view into the private loneliness and pressures of teenage life. This was especially true in March 2020 when students were forced to settle into new realities, feeling isolated and frustrated with so much out of their control. This timely documentary chronicles the creation of a musical t...

Kevin Hines is a storyteller, best-selling author, global public speaker, and award-winning documentary filmmaker. In the Year 2000, Kevin threw himself off the Golden Gate Bridge in an attempt to end his life. He needed his immense mental pain to end but regretted his decision the moment he jumped. Many factors contributed to his miraculous survival including a sea lion who kept him afloat until...

Dr. Ran Anbar is a pediatrician board certified in pulmonology who offers hypnosis and counseling services in La Jolla, California, and Syracuse, New York. He's past president, fellow, and approved consultant of the American Society of Clinical Hypnosis. He's here today to discuss the power of hypnosis, which has long been looked upon with confusion and skepticism. He shines a light on this underu...

Three years ago, I was nervous to put myself out so publicly with a brand new mental health podcast about family and secrets. I didn't know where it would take me or if anyone would listen or even care. All I knew was I wanted to cut generational trauma from family mental illness, I had a story to tell, and I wanted to hear others' stories. I never predicted a disruptive worldwide pandemic would s...

Erik and Chris Ewers are brothers and co-directors on a new Ken Burns PBS documentary, "Hiding in Plain Sight." The two-part, four-hour film is about the mental health crisis our youth are facing. It follows the journeys of more than 20 young Americans from all over the country and all walks of life. The first-person accounts show the seemingly insurmountable obstacles faced by those who live with...

Julian Sarafian was valedictorian and attended UC Berkeley at 17. He got an internship at The White House at 19 and at 20, was accepted at NYU Law before transferring to Harvard Law School. His high achievements and California license allowed him to practice law at what he thought was his dream job, something he'd worked his entire life for. But his mental health had other plans.   His social anxi...

Tembi Locke is an actor, an author, a screenwriter, and a producer who really knows how to connect with her audience. Her New York Times bestselling book, From Scratch: A Memoir of Love, Sicily, and Finding Home was Reese Witherspoon's 2019 Book Club pick. Reese loved it so much, she's executive producing the adaptation for a Netflix series where Zoe Saldana will star as Tembi.  Tembi's memoir, Fr...

Dr. Jonathan Goldfinger is a nationally recognized pediatrician and an advocate for mental health services for children and families, including in minority and low-income communities. His inclusive approach to health equity and policy has transformed countless lives. He joined Didi Hirsch Mental Health Services, an 80-year organization, as the CEO just months after the pandemic began in June 2020....

Jeanette Yoffe believes family is so much more than our blood relations. Her strong desire to become a trauma-informed psychotherapist with a special focus on adopted and foster care issues began with her own experiences of moving through the foster care system and being adopted. Jeanette lived with her birth family for the first year of her life until she was put into foster care due to her mothe...

Dear Ukrainian Grandparents,   When I watch the senseless human suffering in Ukraine with tears in my eyes, it's as if my dear Jewish-Ukrainian grandparents' history is being repeated. My family was the lucky ones who were able to escape as is evidenced by me, their granddaughter and great-granddaughter whose Ukrainian blood runs through me and is here today to be able to podcast/write this withou...

Clancey Cornell is an artist, mental health professional, memory worker, and advocate for the arts who considers herself a very nostalgic person. She grew up in a family that was very much about expansion and exploration, the daughter of creatives who raised her in Los Angeles before moving her to attend high school in Italy. She's traveled the world, volunteering in advocacy efforts to lift up th...

Michael Zibilich is a commercial real estate executive who resides with his wife, Gayle Zibilich, in Atlanta, Georgia. Michael and Gayle had their only child later in life, an astonishing blessing. Keller was a dream come true and as good a kid as you could imagine- a combination of strength and kindness, very mature, an athlete and expert white water kayaker, highly intelligent, and well-loved by...

Dr. Raghu Kiran Appasani is an Integrative Psychiatrist, Neuroscientist, and Social Entrepreneur focused on bridging the gap between western and eastern practices to create a wholesome society by taking a proactive approach to health. He was born and raised in the Boston area, living in rural India with his grandparents for two formative years when he was young. His father, a biochemist at Harvard...

When my daughter was about five years old, she announced, "I love myself the most." In generations past, her declaration may have been viewed as self-centered, selfish, or self-absorbed but I was beyond thrilled by her exuberant proclamation followed by her proud and genuine smile. The reason for my glee was because at her tender age, falling in love with herself would be the secret to her happine...

Katie Hanus is a mother and herbalist who some may say is not meant for our current modern cookie-cutter rushed world. She's the founder of The Handmade Life which offers herbal traditions, small-batch goods, consultations, and workshops. She shares her wisdom with us all today and on her blog, The Nature Wheel where she discusses her suburban homesteading and her two daughters' homeschool experie...

It's been said the two hardest days for parents are the first day home with their newborn and the first day home without their newborn adult. My oldest child has just flown the coop, left her nest, and started her own journey. She's in a new city two thousand miles from home, an independent young adult no longer under my roof. After moving her in and hugging her goodbye on her new campus, I'm here...

Good mental health does not have to be expensive but ignoring it can be. There's no denying mental health conditions can require therapy and/or medication but a majority of achievement is within our own hands. Listen to this short-solo podcast on how laughter, dancing, hydration, friendship, exercise, the outdoors, rest, love and more are mood-boosters. The following are 10 of the best things in l...

Julie Lythcott- Haims is a Black biracial woman born to an African American man and a White British mother. Because her parents violated rules and policy by daring to love, she's always questioned norms. She grew up knowing her existence was problematic in the eyes of some, which has stayed with her giving her the superpowers of compassion and kindness. She believes in humans and is deeply interes...

Aubert Bastiat is a father, husband, ceremonialist, and facilitator of sacred masculinity circles. He was born in Taipei to a Taiwanese mother and a White American father who was an English teacher. He was five years old when his parents separated after moving to California to briefly live with his paternal grandfather. When his father left and moved to Japan, he felt abandoned.   For most of his...

Rachel Lily Campbell, or RLC to her friends, grew up in Los Angeles, an only child with older parents who were in the exclusive art world. Born into a life of affluence, private schools, world travel, and celebrities, what she really yearned for was love and attachment from her parents. Highly gifted and misunderstood, she got into a lot of trouble, pushing boundaries. She was sent to the same reh...

Carson Tueller was raised in a religious Mormon and a military family. He and his five siblings moved from state to state across the U.S. every three years. He eventually established long-term residence in Utah, where he attended college before moving to New York City. Carson's life took an unexpected turn in 2013. The same year he came out as a gay man, he injured his spinal cord in a trampoline-...

Chrissy Blumenthal grew up in Arvada, Colorado.  She describes her childhood as pretty normal and uneventful until her parents divorced when she was nine years old.  Her mother struggled to make ends meet and tried to provide the best she could for Chrissy and her older brother Gary.  After high school, Chrissy took on a number of odd jobs to support herself, including a stint in mud wrestling.  A...

The day Taun Hall's son Miles was shot and killed by the Walnut Creek Police, she stepped into her life's work: creating change to protect families from a system that failed her son. On June 2nd, 2019, Miles Hall was having a mental health crisis because of his schizoaffective disorder. Because our mental health system is deeply flawed and doesn't support families whose adult children have a menta...