Human Amplified

Most people leave their childhood fantasies behind, but Hannah Mermaid built an entire life around hers. In this episode of Human Amplified, the world-famous professional mermaid shares how a childhood obsession with mermaids evolved into a career in underwater performance art, freediving, ocean conservation, and environmental activism. What starts as a conversation about mermaid tails and swimmin...

This episode has been maintained in loving memory of Dan Strelan. Modern life trains people to override their instincts, disconnect from nature, and chase external validation while ignoring what their body and emotions are trying to communicate. Health coach Dan Strelan reflects on the deeper relationship between emotional health, nervous system regulation, creativity, spirituality, and authentic...

What happens when tattooing becomes more than art? Tattoo artists Jeff Barnard and Caitlyn Campbell explore the emotional side of tattoo culture, from memorial tattoos and scar coverups to free areola tattoos for breast cancer survivors at Golden Yeti Art Collective in Franklin, Tennessee. They discuss how tattoos help people reclaim their bodies after trauma, grief, abuse, and cancer, and why the...

What happens when your struggle with identity doesn’t fit the narrative people expect? For Winter Breedlove, gender transition was never a clean, linear story. It was tangled up with religious shame, sexual trauma, perfectionism, HIV stigma, heartbreak, addiction, family conditioning, and years of trying to survive inside an identity that never fully felt like her own. Winter opens up about what i...

Sex work is one of the most talked-about and least understood professions in modern society. Sex therapist Dr. Miro Gudelsky shares what she's learned from years of working with sex workers and their patrons. Together, we explore mental health, stigma, relationships, shame, identity, and the role of sex work in modern society. Whether you agree with the industry or not, this conversation challenge...

What happens after service ends? For many veterans, coming home is not the relief people imagine. It can mean losing structure, identity, purpose, and the sense of belonging that military life once provided. Marine veteran and Angels Alive founder Oscar La Madrid shares how immigrating from Peru, growing up in poverty in Georgia, and serving in the Marines shaped his mission to help veterans rebui...

At 370 pounds, Dustin Rochester knew his health was headed in the wrong direction. What he didn't realize was that food wasn't the real problem. Like many people, he had learned to use food for comfort, stress relief, and escape. The temporary relief was followed by frustration, guilt, and a cycle that felt impossible to break. A frightening doctor's appointment eventually forced him to confront t...

The future is easy to ignore when you assume you'll stay healthy. Nathan Peck doesn't have that option. Diagnosed with VCP disease, a rare inherited condition that can cause progressive muscle weakness, bone disease, dementia, and ALS-like symptoms, Nathan lives with the knowledge that his independence will likely diminish over time.  But instead of retreating, he has spent the last several y...

A doctor sat across from Mark Dant and told him his young son likely wouldn't live past age 12. In an instant, the future he and his wife imagined disappeared. What followed wasn't a story about medicine alone. It was a story about grief, fear, hope, persistence, and the ordinary decisions that eventually create extraordinary outcomes. Mark shares how a police officer with no scientific background...

Trigger Warning: This conversation includes discussions of addiction, trauma, childhood abuse, incarceration, depression, and suicidal thoughts. Please take care while listening and engage with this episode at your own pace if these topics are difficult for you. For years, Kevin Clark thought his problem was addiction. What he eventually discovered was that addiction was only part of the story. Lo...

What happens when boys grow up without a clear path into manhood? Mike Hutchinson (Hutch) expands on themes from his adoption story to explore masculinity, rage, emotional resilience, and the challenges facing men today. Drawing from his experiences with adoption, military service, martial arts, fatherhood, and faith, Mike shares how his understanding of masculinity was shaped by the people who ra...

At five years old, Mike Hutchinson learned a lesson that would quietly shape the rest of his life: relationships can disappear. What followed was decades of wrestling with questions many adoptees know well. Who am I? Where did I come from? Why was I given away? And how do those questions affect the way I connect with other people? Mike shares the reality of growing up in a closed adoption, the emo...

Grief is often associated with death, but loss has a way of showing up throughout life in places we don't always recognize. For Heather Burwell, the sudden loss of her husband while raising a young son became the beginning of a much larger exploration of grief, healing, authenticity, and what it means to keep living after life changes in an instant. Heather shares why she believes grief extends be...

When Meg Smidt married her husband, she became a mother to five children almost overnight. What followed was not only a crash course in parenting, but also an education in relationships.  Over the next two decades, Meg navigated blended family dynamics, co-parenting challenges, military deployments, adult children, in-laws, friendship changes, and the many transitions that reshape the people...

Growing up with alcoholic parents doesn't just affect childhood. It can shape the stories people tell themselves about love, worthiness, responsibility, and belonging long into adulthood. Katrina Lelli, life coach and mother of four, shares how growing up in an alcoholic home influenced her relationships, fueled her struggles with alcohol and codependency, and left her searching for validation in...

Divorce is often treated as the end of a relationship, but for parents, it's also the beginning of a new one. While many families navigate conflict, custody battles, or years of lingering resentment, some parents make a different choice. Not because the divorce was easy, but because their child's well-being matters more than winning, being right, or holding onto old hurts. Ed Rosenberger shares ho...

What happens when a marriage ends but the friendship remains? For Aly and Ed Rosenberger, divorce wasn't the end of their family. Instead, it became the beginning of a different kind of relationship. Today, they share holidays, communicate daily, support one another's relationships, and co-parent their son without a formal custody arrangement. Along the way, they've navigated difficult conversatio...

Children are remarkably good at filling in the blanks. When a parent leaves, the explanation isn't always clear, but the story a child tells themselves about that absence can linger for decades. For Mal Foster, growing up without a father shaped everything from his sense of self-worth to the way he approached relationships, health, and personal growth.  His story offers a thoughtful look at h...

Trigger Warning: This episode contains discussions of childhood abuse, depression, suicide attempts, suicidal ideation, psychiatric hospitalization, and suicide loss. Anger is often treated as something to suppress, control, or overcome. What we talk about less often is what might be hiding underneath it. Robin Land reflects on childhood abuse, depression, suicide attempts, a year spent in a psych...

It's easy to assume the way we see the world is the way it really is. What if we're actually seeing it through a lens shaped by our strengths, fears, experiences, and unconscious habits? In this conversation, Corey Hatfield explains how character strengths influence the way we think, connect with others, and make sense of the world. We discuss anxiety, cognitive dissonance, mindfulness, and the ch...

Long before launching the Hey Human podcast, Susan Ruth built her career around storytelling. As a songwriter, artist, and creative entrepreneur, she spent years exploring what motivates people, what shapes their beliefs, and why some conversations bring us closer while others drive us further apart. In this conversation, Susan reflects on the importance of being heard, what she learned from inter...

I’m your host, Brandi Fleck, and this is Human Amplified.  We’re on a mission to revamp society by amplifying your humanity.  We tell highly personal, experiential stories sprinkled with expert advice to uncover humanity at its most raw and messy, yet beautiful. We challenge you to dig deep, crack open, and spark your inner badass.  If you’re looking for connection, improved relatio...

We’re on a mission to revamp society by amplifying your humanity. THE WAY SOCIETY & (COUNTER) CULTURE IS...STARTS WITH YOU. Yes, the messy, but also the beautiful parts. So grab your cuppa Joe and settle in.  We’re gonna dig deep into our humanity to get real and raw about who we are and why. What we uncover will challenge you, but then it’ll spark your inner badass to blaze that next tra...

I’m going to be flying solo to talk to you about the 6 helpful habits to finding your purpose. This is a lesson in using introspection to nurture a relationship with yourself through 6 habits that are tools, which will help you reconnect with your true core self and values. Once you reconnect in that way, finding your purpose in life becomes much easier, leading to more positive experiences and fu...

Season 2 of the On Being Human podcast wraps up after running in parallel with natural disasters, the COVID-19 pandemic, and civil unrest. Host, Brandi Fleck, and Sound Engineer, Ryan Sauls reflect on the impact, the making of the music that underscored people's powerful stories, and how the voices were the most important part. We reflect on the highlights of the season, shout out to all the amazi...