I Don't Know How You Do It

What if the story you’re most afraid to tell is the one that holds the key to healing—not just for you, but for others too? Allison Lane has built a career helping authors, leaders, and everyday truth-tellers shape their stories and bring their messages into the world. A story strategist and messaging expert with a background in big-brand marketing, she now guides people through the vulnerable, tr...

Most people freeze in the face of grief. Jen Noonan walks toward it. As a licensed clinical social worker at The Children’s Room , Jen supports children, teens, and families after the death of a parent, sibling, or child. Her work is quiet, courageous, and sacred—the kind of care most people couldn’t imagine doing. But for Jen, this is the work that called her. In this conversation, we explore wha...

Nicola Kraus burst onto the literary scene as co-author of the global sensation The Nanny Diaries . But her story didn’t stop there—and in this episode, she opens up about what came next. From ghostwriting and caregiving to lead parenting and late-in-life bat mitzvah prep, Nicola shares the real-life experiences that shaped her new novel, The Best We Could Hope For . We talk about: What it’s reall...

In this powerful conclusion to our two-part series, we uncover the shocking truth behind Stacy's murder and follow Susan's extraordinary seven-year fight for justice. After three years of relentless investigation, Susan finally received validation that her sister was murdered by her husband, known only as "Diablo." But this breakthrough was just the beginning of an even longer...

In this gripping first installment of a two-part series, we meet Susan Altman, whose extraordinary story of sisterly devotion transformed into a seven-year quest for justice.  When Susan's sister Stacy was found dead in her bathtub with the shower running, authorities ruled the death "undetermined." But Susan's intuition told her something far more sinister had occurred – her s...

In this milestone 100th episode of "I Don't Know How You Do It," host Jessica Fein welcomes writer Ben Morton, whose powerful HuffPost essay about discovering he's intersex through a routine ancestry test captivated readers nationwide. Ben shares the phone call that changed everything and how this revelation provided the missing puzzle piece to questions he'd had his entir...

In this powerful episode, we sit down with Lynne Golodner, author of eleven books across multiple genres, who found her voice in midlife. When Lynn chose Orthodox Judaism in her twenties, she was drawn to its structure and meaning—but years later, a moment of clarity during a camping trip sparked her realization that this path no longer aligned with her authentic self. What began as a spiritual jo...

In this powerful episode, we sit down with Laura Bratton, author of Harnessing Courage , who transformed her journey of vision loss into a framework for resilience that anyone can apply to life's challenges. When Laura was diagnosed with a rare retinal disease at age nine, doctors could only tell her she would eventually lose her sight—they couldn't predict when. What began as a routine...

What if there were a roadmap for everything you need to know to take care of yourself and your family when you get a serious diagnosis for your child or someone you love? Now there is.  In this powerful episode, we sit down with Laura Lang-Ree, author of The Cancer Parents Handbook , who transformed her family's childhood cancer journey into a roadmap for other parents facing medical crises....

What would happen if you tried to live by Gandhi's principles in today's world? In this episode, we welcome journalist and author Perry Garfinkel, who embarked on an extraordinary 18-month journey to follow Mahatma Gandhi's six principles of moral living: truth, nonviolence, simplicity, faith, vegetarianism, and celibacy. Perry's experiment, chronicled in his book Becoming Gand...

In this irreverent, informative, and inspiring episode, Blair and Alana Kaplan of The Global Resilience Project share their journey through profound loss and how it sparked a global movement to help others strengthen their "resilience muscle." After losing both parents within a year—their mother to unexpected cancer and their father shortly after—they created a framework for resilience t...

In this powerful episode marking Rare Disease Awareness Day, we bring together two remarkable guests whose lives have been profoundly shaped by rare diseases. Erin Paterson, who carries the gene for Huntington's disease and cares for her father with the same condition, and Laura Will, mother to five-year-old Alden who has polymicrogyria, share their unique yet interconnected journeys. The con...

How do you rebuild your life after devastating loss? At age 12, Casey Mulligan Walsh lost both parents within months of each other. Relocated from suburban New Jersey to upstate New York, she spent years dreaming of creating the perfect family life she'd been denied. In this powerful episode, Casey shares how her search for belonging led her through marriage, divorce, and the tragic loss of h...

In this episode, Amanda McKoy Flanagan shares her journey through multiple losses, spiritual awakenings, and discovering how to break generational patterns of emotional protection. A New Yorker turned Colorado resident, Amanda opens up about losing five family members in three years, saving her marriage to a 9/11 first responder, and learning that what first appeared as emotional breakdowns were a...

On a TEDx stage in Concord, Massachusetts, two mothers met and discovered they shared a deep bond – both had lost teenage daughters. In this intimate conversation, Morgan Motsinger and I explore what happens when life's bubble of safety gets punctured, how to navigate ongoing loss while caring for a child with a degenerative disease, and why it's so important to give ourselves permission...

What does adventure mean to you? For Tim Brown, it once meant charging down ski slopes as a patrol member and catching waves as a dedicated surfer. But on February 13th, 2011, a devastating accident on the slopes left him quadriplegic at age 25. Rather than marking the end of his adventurous spirit, this became what Tim calls "the biggest adventure I'll ever have." Today, Tim isn&ap...

When Larry Carlat's 28-year-old son Rob died by suicide six years ago, Larry never imagined it would lead him to find his life's calling as a grief counselor, or to become, in his words, "the Pied Piper of psychedelics for grieving parents" In this raw and surprisingly hopeful conversation, Larry shares insights from his new book A Space in the Heart about what it means to be p...

What do you do when by age 30 you're the oldest living member of your family? Do you live in fear or take action? In this powerful and humorous episode, author Gila Pfeffer shares her journey as both a "previvor" and survivor of breast cancer. After losing her mother and grandmother to breast cancer, Gila took proactive steps to prevent the same fate, only to find cancer anyway – an...

Where do faith, terror, and wonder intersect? In this powerful episode, author James G. Robinson takes us on an extraordinary journey across continents as he fights to save his son's life, sharing the profound lessons he learned about faith, resilience, and finding wonder in life's most challenging moments. From an unexpected prenatal diagnosis to a daring medical transport across the Pa...

When John Cronin, a young man with Down syndrome, was graduating high school, didn't know what would come next. So he made what turned out to be a life-changing decision -- to start a business with his father.  What started with local deliveries and chocolate kisses has grown into a gigantic business that's revolutionizing how the world thinks about ability, employment, and spreading hap...

After her brother was killed by a suicide bomber in Afghanistan in 2009, Annie Sklaver Orenstein was heartbroken and unmoored. Standing in the grief section of her local bookstore, she searched for guides on how to work through her grief as a mourning sibling — and found nothing. Annie shares how alone she felt in her grief, driving her to write Always a Sibling: The Forgotten Mourner's Guide...

When my husband and started trying to have a baby, we never imagined our path to parenthood would include 25 fertility procedures, two gestational carriers, and multiple journeys to Guatemala. In this deeply personal episode, I share an excerpt of Breath Taking (what made it in and what didn't), about navigating years of IVF treatments, the complex emotions of working with a surrogate, and ho...

In a world where most of us run from difficult conversations, Dr. Shoshana Ungerleider is running towards them.  A physician, science journalist, public health advocate, and acclaimed film producer, Shoshana brings her unique multidisciplinary approach to transforming how we understand end-of-life care. As the founder of EndWell and executive producer of Oscar-nominated documentaries like "Ex...

Sometimes our life experiences are preparing us for what comes next in ways we'd never imagine. That's what happened to Joanne De Simone, a former professional dancer who used lessons from her dance training to help her navigate the challenges of raising two children with complex needs -- one with a rare, life-limiting brain malformation and one with autism. Joanne is a graduate of Hunte...

Rare disease advocate Mackenzie Abramson spent more than 20 years searching for her own diagnosis, facing intense medical gaslighting along the way. She endured 30 surgeries, a mental health crisis, and endless battles to be heard and taken seriously by the medical establishment. Yet Mackenzie refused to be dismissed. She earned her master's in public health and went on to work on global heal...