Hope Comes to Visit

Send us Fan Mail What if the most difficult chapters of your life were actually preparing you for unexpected gifts? In this moving episode of Hope Comes to Visit , award-winning writer Maria de los Angeles shares how caring for her parents with Alzheimer’s taught her the very resilience, humility, and compassion she would later need to face her own esophageal cancer diagnosis. Maria speaks candidl...

Send us Fan Mail Grief doesn’t end with goodbye. For many, it’s followed by a quiet, exhausting weight no one talks about — the paperwork, the phone calls, the endless “to-do’s” that come when your heart has already been broken. When Adria Ferrier lost her mother after a five-year battle with cancer, she not only faced the deep ache of missing her, but also the overwhelming burden of navigating th...

Send us Fan Mail “Hope has to evolve and change.” These powerful words shaped the extraordinary journey of Martha Sharkey , Founder & CEO of Today is a Good Day — a nonprofit creating a lifeline for families navigating the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). When Martha and her husband, Paul, welcomed identical twin daughters at just 23 weeks, their world turned upside down. Claire weighed ba...

Send us Fan Mail What would your life look like if you used every single second with intention? This week on Hope Comes to Visit , I’m joined by Donald L. Dowridge Jr. , a man who embodies resilience, purpose, and what it truly means to live with hope. Donald’s early childhood was filled with pain most couldn’t imagine — abuse, neglect, and words no child should ever hear. But instead of allowing...

Send us Fan Mail What if the darkest moments of your life were actually preparing you for your greatest transformation? In this week’s episode of Hope Comes to Visit , I sit down with Valerie Rowekamp , whose story is a breathtaking testament to resilience, audacity, and the power of refusing to give up on hope. Valerie’s journey began in crisis: at just 22 weeks pregnant, her water broke, and doc...

Send us Fan Mail What happens when life breaks open in every direction? For Aimee Kandrac, it all came crashing down in a six-week period — empty nesting, a cancer scare, the end of her 23-year marriage, and selling her dream home. But from that breaking point came something extraordinary: “Amy 2.0.” In this episode of Hope Comes to Visit , Aimee shares how she rebuilt her life with new boundaries...

Send us Fan Mail “You were the most chosen.” These are the words Miranda Ward spoke to her son after he learned he was conceived through sexual assault. In this week’s episode of Hope Comes to Visit , Miranda shares her extraordinary journey from a moment of unthinkable violation to building a life defined by fierce love, protection, and healing. With courage, strategy, and an unshakable belief in...

Send us Fan Mail What happens when you set out on an 86-mile journey with no athletic background, no clear “why,” and only three days to complete it? For Ian Hawkins — Speaking and Storytelling Coach at Netflix — the answer was far more than sore feet. In this conversation, Ian shares his whirlwind trek along the historic Pilgrim’s Way from London to Canterbury Cathedral — a pilgrimage that most t...

Send us Fan Mail Grief shatters us in ways we never imagine possible until we're standing in its wreckage.  When Marty died suddenly, almost 2 years ago, on August 13, 2023, I found myself navigating the rawest form of pain while thousands of miles away in Greece with my children. The frantic journey home, the 17 days by his hospital bed, and the impossible decision to let him go fundamentall...

Send us Fan Mail What happens when your world breaks open… and you find a way to keep breathing anyway? In this deeply moving episode of Hope Comes to Visit , Danielle sits down with writer, speaker, and bold belief builder Kim Moldofsky , whose life changed forever after the loss of her son Isaac to suicide five years ago. Together, they explore the layered terrain of grief, motherhood, identity,...

Send us Fan Mail What happens when the life you asked for arrives — and it’s not what you wanted, but exactly what your soul needed? In this episode, I sit down with Holly Plont — a devoted mother of two, wife to her best friend, and a woman who found herself standing in the middle of the dream life she had worked so hard to build… only to realize it didn’t feel like home. We talk about the courag...

Send us Fan Mail What happens when the dream doesn't look the way you thought it would — but turns out even better? In this episode of Hope Comes to Visit , Danielle Elliott Smith sits down with former award-winning journalist and communications executive Marla Cichowski , who shares her powerful journey to becoming a single mother by choice (SMBC) . After nearly two decades reporting from th...

Send us Fan Mail (Because You Don’t Have to Hit Bottom to Choose a Better Life) Six years ago, I made one of the most powerful decisions of my life: I stopped drinking. Not because I hit bottom. Not because I lost it all. But because I was slowly losing myself . I was high-functioning. I was successful. I was spiraling — and smiling through it. Wine had become the way I coped. Until it wasn’t. Thi...

Send us Fan Mail There are conversations… and then there are the ones that stay with you. This is one of those. In this episode, I sit down with Dr. Dan Peters —psychologist, executive coach, author, and host of Make It a Great One —for a deeply honest and hope-filled conversation about the power of purpose, presence, and embracing your own evolution. We talk about: Letting go of expectations and...

Send us Fan Mail Hope in Action: A Story of Light and Consistency with the radiant @CarlaBirnberg There are people who show up with such unwavering integrity that you feel braver just being near them. That’s how I feel about Carla Birnberg. In this episode of Hope Comes to Visit, we explore what it means to lead a mission-driven life — one grounded in heart work, radical consistency, and a commitm...

Send us Fan Mail Finding Art, Hope, and Voice with Little Junior In this deeply personal episode, I’m joined by my friend Oliver — a gifted creative, devoted father, loving husband, social worker, and the heart behind the artistic identity Little Junior . By day, he serves his community with compassion and care. But within, lives a storyteller, a poet, a music producer, and a man who has fought to...

Send us Fan Mail A Conversation with Wendy Faith on Surrender, Truth, and Soul Recognition What happens when everything you’ve built no longer feels like you ? In this deeply honest episode, creative business coach, author, and late-in-life lesbian Wendy Faith opens up about what it means to walk away from a life that looks successful on the outside but feels misaligned within. After years as a pr...

Send us Fan Mail Before there was light, there was isolation and there was grief. There was loss, confusion, silence.  In this intimate first episode of Hope Comes to Visit , host Danielle Elliott Smith shares the deeply personal story behind the show — one rooted in the loneliness of struggles with alcohol and the decision to recover, the ache of sudden loss, the unraveling that followed, and the...

Send us Fan Mail In this powerful premiere interview of Hope Comes to Visit , Dr. Ashley Wellman shares her extraordinary story of heartbreak and healing after the sudden loss of her husband. With her four-year-old daughter by her side, Ashley began a journey through grief, rediscovery, and reinvention — one that led her to write a children’s book, fall in love again, and welcome a new baby into h...

Send us Fan Mail What happens when your entire sense of safety is rooted in certainty — and that certainty disappears? In this thought-provoking conversation, author, speaker, and business consultant Allison Carmen shares how her deep attachment to knowing what’s next became its own form of addiction — and how everything began to shift when she discovered the quiet, liberating power of maybe . Tog...

Send us Fan Mail What does it mean to be still here when the odds said you wouldn’t be? In this powerful episode, Tim McDonald shares his remarkable journey of being diagnosed with stage 4 colorectal cancer — a diagnosis that carries only a 15% five-year survival rate. Now, just shy of those 5 years, Tim is not only surviving… he’s thriving. With no sign of cancer , he opens up about the physical,...

Send us Fan Mail Step into the heart of Hope Comes to Visit with this special introduction from host Danielle Elliott Smith. In this short trailer, Danielle shares the intention behind the show and what you can expect from each episode. It's a gentle invitation into a space where grief, growth, and light are all welcome — and where hope shows up in the most unexpected ways. A soulful podcast...