Feeding Our Young®

For Part 3 : Join recent grad and Northern California and Boone Street Zoo native Honored Guest Kenna Penelope Smith-Perkins as she talks about being a double major in psychology, how to advocate for yourself and others, academic boundaries, the intensity of nursing school, finding your safe spot, finding your community, “B” is for boundaries, and more! For Parts 1 and 2 : (explicit for content) F...

Join nurse and Georgia native Honored Guest Vanessa Arbuckle as she tackles topics such as coming from a brilliant family, her defining physical characteristic, simultaneously meaning business and being down to earth,  making the transition from working PetSmart and being a pre-veterinarian major to nursing, innovations in nursing, breaking through self-proclaimed introversion to confidently talk...

Continue with nurse and Georgia native Honored Guest Vanessa Arbuckle as she tackles topics such as working public school nurse leadership, improving and innovating, being willing to try anything, celebrating accomplishments, future plans (nursing, writing a book, leaning into her passion for art), asking all the questions, what inspires her most in life, being like Aragorn, the importance of self...

Join nurse, entrepreneur, nurse practitioner student, and Modesto, California, Reno, Nevada, and Jasper, Alabama native Honored Guest Ranessa Acosta as she describes her love of podcasts, nursing as a second career, her inspirational mother, starting as a new grad in cardiac ICU, being a travel nurse during COVID, becoming an infection preventionist, and more! Contact us: thanks@feedingouryoung.or...

Continue with nurse, entrepreneur, nurse practitioner student, and Modesto, California, Reno, Nevada, and Jasper, Alabama native Honored Guest Ranessa Acosta as she describes traveling for fun, her family coming full circle, how discharging a patient sparked her current passion, living a holistic lifestyle, the Institute of Functional Medicine, empowering women, fleeting motivation, habit stacking...

Join nurse and San Antonio, Texas native Honored Guest Corey Clark as she elaborates on Honored Guest husband’s first date story, and discusses being a pro-girls kind of girl, going to a private nursing school, how being “really smart” didn’t help in nursing school, her road to becoming a pediatric ER nurse, her “it’s not if, but when” philosophy regarding nursing mistakes, how nursing is harder t...

Continue with nurse and San Antonio, Texas native Honored Guest Corey Clark as she discusses the current state of corporate healthcare, relatively inexperienced nurses, her involvement in unions, being forced to prioritize task completion over patient connection, the burnt out new grad phenomenon, inspiring changes in working conditions thanks to unions, putting out “side fires” near the dumpster...

Join nurse and East Coast, Ventura, California, and San Antonio, Texas native Honored Guest as he chats about alphabet soup, accelerated learning, being an EMT, falling into both love and nursing, navigating personal challenges having multiple rainbow babies, and more! Contact us: thanks@feedingouryoung.org to send a note of appreciation to any of our honored guests - let them know how they touche...

Continue with nurse and East Coast, Ventura, California, and San Antonio, Texas native Honored Guest Garret Clark as he chats about traveling, learning Mandarin, ADHD as a superpower, being a lifelong learner, his father’s inspirational success story, how he overcame being a lazy student and trying teen years to became a pediatric ER trauma nurse, his brief time in the service, navigating nursing...

Join nurse and Arizona native Honored Guest Ashley Gonzalez Medrano as she talks about never forgetting nursing school, aging, the importance of family, dealing with Spokane winter as an Arizonan, the relaxing nature of volunteering, unreal nursing school expectations, celebrating passing the NCLEX, the difficulty of finding her first job, being non-judgmental in addiction medicine, future plans,...

Continue with nurse and Arizona native Honored Guest Ashley Gonzalez Medrano as she talks about how support in nursing school makes all the difference, praying with her patients, being your own worst critic vs. your number one advocate, having hype friends, making med errors, asking questions, putting patient safety first, the beauty of nursing as a career, sappers vs. zappers, and more! Contact u...

[Explicit Version - 15 swear words] Join tenured nurse and Foreman, North Dakota native Honored Guest Laura Kortus as she opens up about swearing in nursing, her five-year four-year degree (and “majoring” in cheer), not originally really wanting to be a nurse, her extensively rich career progression, her experience with nurses “eating” their young (and asking the host about the same), perfectionis...

[Clean/Censored Version] Join tenured nurse and Foreman, North Dakota native Honored Guest Laura Kortus as she opens up about swearing in nursing, her five-year four-year degree (and “majoring” in cheer), not originally really wanting to be a nurse, her extensively rich career progression, her experience with nurses “eating” their young (and asking the host about the same), perfectionism as a faul...

[Explicit Version - 10 swear words] Continue with tenured nurse and Foreman, North Dakota native Honored Guest Laura Kortus as she opens up about very deep topics including personal grief, disenfranchised grief, and hospice care; the accident that overshadowed her entire career, the disadvantage of not undergoing therapy for numerous years, debriefing codes as a nursing supervisor, the importance...

[Clean/Censored Version] Continue with tenured nurse and Foreman, North Dakota native Honored Guest Laura Kortus as she opens up about very deep topics including personal grief, disenfranchised grief, and hospice care; the accident that overshadowed her entire career, the disadvantage of not undergoing therapy for numerous years, debriefing codes as a nursing supervisor, the importance of taking t...

Join relatively recent new grad nurse and Eagle River, Alaska native Honored Guest Abbie Johnson as she discusses why she stayed in the city in which she studied, the life-changing addition of Tate to her family, how her health history helped her decide on nursing as a career, her rough transition into her chosen field, not giving up, making a "scary move," navigating nursing school as a...

Join relatively recent new grad nurse and Wyoming, and Battle Ground, Washington native Honored Guest Harlee Miller as she chats about her family (including the host?), her self-care routine, the touching story why she went into nursing, how she ended up in L&D, dealing with patient death, deriving joy from sorrow, being a nurse tech, not getting into nursing school the first time, working dur...

Join tenured nurse and Saskatchewan, Canada native Honored Guest Sherry Loubardias-Fassler as she pontificates about passing the NCLEX twice, why she wanted to become a nurse, her fascinating career progression over three decades, her team as a nurse educator, her brief stint in research, her family, her key to a happy relationship, having a “very high super self esteem,” and more! Contact us: tha...

Continue with tenured nurse and Saskatchewan, Canada native Honored Guest Sherry Loubardias-Fassler as she pontificates about how she approached teaching patients, learning in Canada, dealing with the first couple of years of nursing school, her opiniion on getting your bachelor's degree, almost failing a class about making your bed, how nursing school doesn't teach you how to be a nurse...

Join nurse, entrepreneur, and South African and Australian native Honored Guest Jeanelle Classen as she describes moving from one country to another in her teens, her desired careers prior to becoming a nurse, having “STS Syndrome,” what it takes to become a nurse in Australia, imperfect action, not taking “get used to it” for an answer, creating Nursing the Nurse, her six steps, Dr. Adam Fraser’s...

Join nursing student and Kāne'ohe, Hawai'i native Honored Guest Jenna Serikaku as she chats about Hawaiian cost of living, Hawaiian culture fostered by kama'āina, bouldering, writing, culture shock causing her to change the person she was, returning to her authentic self, post-graduation plans, what she loves most about nursing school, why nursing, overcoming the devastating failure...

Join nursing student and Tacoma, Washington native Honored Guest Aaron Danh as he waxes eloquent about his inspiring and unique summer job, treating nursing school as more than just school, not having a sense of community, studying abroad, building close relationships in school, the importance of mindfulness, imposter syndrome, being "assigned" in high school to a competitive scholarship...

After listening to a very special intro, join host Eric Miller as he celebrates how far the Feeding Our Young movement has come, gives thanks to the "village" that has contributed to that success, and casts vision for what lies ahead for the podcast, business, and movement in 2025! Contact us: thanks@feedingouryoung.org to send a note of appreciation to any of our honored guests - let th...

Join nursing student and Tri-Cities, Washington native Honored Guest Gracie Burck as she chats about science being her worst subject, familial "unlicensed health care workers," sources of inspiration, advantages of being a quiet person in nursing, her hero Noah, navigating mental health and physical health challenges during nursing school, learning how to say no, diving headfirst, making...

Join tenured nurse and California and Puyallup, Washington native Honored Guest Mikail Simmons as she discusses her fun way of celebrating passing the NCLEX exam, her fascinating career progression, burnout, why she was grateful she didn't give up on the career, having an ever-present "itch" to earn, being a "nurse parent," work-life balance, and more! Contact us: thanks@f...