Last Day

Exercise is good for you. This feels universally true. Turns out, it’s not. For Melissa Guarnaccia, running marathons in her 20s was a healthy outlet and stress release, until the day her heart stopped beating and she collapsed on her front steps. As it turns out, the activity she loved most was destroying her body and taking years off her life. Stephanie talks with Melissa about living with massi...

Unrelenting anxiety can suck, but it can also make you excel on the job. For 25 years, Steve Chamberlin’s hypervigilance helped him climb the ranks of the U.S. Coast Guard. But his ability to trade feelings for focus came at a cost, one that affected both his psyche at work and his relationships at home. Steve walks Stephanie through how this high-stress lifestyle promised high rewards but culmina...

Laura Cathcart Robbins bares it all in her new memoir, Stash: My Life in Hiding. But for most of her life, she lied. A lot. Growing up in spaces where she felt out of place, she learned to hide key parts of herself, fabricate a persona, and push her problems way beneath the surface. Once she became a mother living in the world of the “Hollywood Elite,” Laura turned to Ambien to find relief from sl...

Jackie Danziger has long been a fixture of the Last Day production team. Her talents, vision, and discipline have kept pace with (and, let’s be honest, wrangled in) Stephanie’s antics — a feat in and of itself. But during this time of creative and professional achievement, Jackie was also going through an immense and private struggle. One day, everything was fine, and the next, she was forced to m...

Kate Greene is the sister of a funny brother and the daughter of two loving parents. She’s a lot like Stephanie, especially because she lost her brother Ryan to an overdose. Kate recounts the protective, fiercely loving relationship between them, the way her family orbited around Ryan’s chaos for years preceding his death, and the person she’s become in the years after. Turns out, that person love...

Last Day is back! But we’re doing things a little differently this time around, and we want to give you a sneak peek of what’s to come. Last Day is and has always been a show about the moments that change us, fundamentally and forever. So, each week, we’ll be bringing you a new story about someone’s “last day” — who they were before, and how they’ve found a way to exist in the after. We’ll laugh....

Today is the last day of the Last Day you know and love, and the first day for a new chapter. From now on, we’ll be bringing you new episodes weekly! Stephanie will sit down with a different person to explore a last day that changed them fundamentally and forever. Some last days are hopeful. Some are brutal. But at the heart of every last day is also a new beginning. Get ready to laugh/cry with us...

When you think of a hunter, what image comes to mind? Probably not a Patagonia-clad gun safety proponent like Tim Stevens. In this bonus episode, Tim leads the way on an elk hunt and shares what it means to take a nuanced stance on gun rights. Plus, we face the very real (and kind of icky) possibility of hauling fresh meat out of the Montana wilderness.    Resources:   To learn more about the peop...

“Gun violence survivor”– It’s an identity no one would ever want, but it describes more and more Americans these days. In the season three finale, we turn the spotlight on those who made it to the other side –– and are fighting back. Their goal? To make sure no one else has to endure what they did.   Resources:   To learn more about the people and organizations featured in this episode and access...

Inaction in the face of gun violence is deadly. So what can we do? This week, we meet the gun violence prevention activists who believe real change is within reach and that we can sell it to the majority of Americans – even if it means playing hardball with the politicians and corporations in power.  Resources:   To learn more about the people and organizations featured in this episode and access...

Who does the Second Amendment protect? In this episode, we trace its racist roots and learn why a former firearms executive blames the gun industry for sowing fear, division, and maybe even anarchy in our country.  Resources: To learn more about the people and organizations featured in this episode and access critical information about suicide and violence prevention visit: https://lastdayresource...

Suicide contagion, secure storage, and breakfast meats. This week, we figure out how to get cowboys to talk about their feelings with help from experts on the ground and suicide prevention advocates.    Resources:   Take the Man Therapy Head Inspection Check out the Gun Shop Project   To learn more about the people and organizations featured in this episode and access critical information about su...

Who’s to blame in the aftermath of a tragedy? This week, we meet a family asking that question after their beloved son died when his college failed to intervene.    Resources:   To learn more about the people and organizations featured in this episode and access critical information about suicide and violence prevention visit: https://lastdayresources.simvoly.com/.    Stephanie Wittels Wachs is th...

Violent crime is up in American cities. Does that mean it’s time to return to the aggressive policing of the 90s? Not exactly. How can we make our cities safer and empower communities with the tools they need to save more lives? This week, we travel from Atlanta to Los Angeles to Chicago to meet seasoned leaders who are taking an innovative approach to harm reduction, violence interruption, and vi...

Growing up in an Atlanta neighborhood that’s been “thrown away” and “forgotten,” Derriontae’s survival hinged on joining a gang and packing heat, so you might be surprised to also find him practicing yoga and tending to a vegetable garden. In this episode, we get our hands dirty at an urban farm dedicated to tackling the root causes of gun violence and poverty. It has all the signs of a feel-good...

This week, we’re pulling apart the idea of a “bad neighborhood” and learning about community trauma. We travel to Southwest Atlanta, where Sharmaine Brown’s son, Jared, was killed after being struck by a stray bullet. We dig into deescalation, changing identities, and old school parenting.   Resources:   To learn more about the people and organizations featured in this episode and access critical...

What do you do when the thing that makes your kid the happiest is also putting him in danger? Larry and Shannon Martell took the guns away after their son Austen suffered a traumatic brain injury - but you have to go back to normal eventually, right? In this episode, we travel to a Montana town of 272 people, sit down with a dad who wouldn’t have talked to us a year ago, and cry harder than we eve...

In episode 1, our team travels to Montana, where cowboy culture reigns supreme, everyone is armed, and 86% of firearm deaths are suicides. There, we meet a couple that represents all the contradictions at the root of America’s gun debate: One is a suicide prevention advocate, and the other is the most adamant Second Amendment supporter we’ve ever met. Plus, our team tries out shooting some big-ass...

Gun violence in America is a public health crisis, but the reality is that guns aren’t going anywhere anytime soon. So, how can we learn to live more safely in a country that has more guns than people? In this season of Last Day, we try to answer this question by traveling to Montana and Georgia. We talk to families who have lost loved ones to gun suicides and stray bullets and discover tangible s...

Season 2 Finale! We started this season on a bridge but told you not to get caught up in the romantic notion of saviors and last minute interventions. Suicide isn’t about one moment in time. But if you or someone you love is suicidal, a single moment can be the difference between life and death. So, this week we’re doing a toolkit episode all about crisis response. What do you do when help is need...

Did you know 1 in 4 suicides involve alcohol? Some studies actually place it closer to 40%. Where is the line between having a drink to decompress and getting black out drunk because you don’t want to exist? This week, we talk to Ana Marie Cox and Air Britt, about how alcohol helped them feel comfortable in their own skin...until it didn’t anymore. How do you go from waking up wanting to die, to f...

This week, Stephanie and Jackie are switching roles to answer a simple question: Was I a suicidal teen girl? We start in a closet, revisit a high school therapist, talk to a self-injury expert and watch a tortured student film festival entry. And crying. There’s lots of crying.    This episode features: Dr. Robin Hornstein & Dr. Janis Whitlock     Resources from the episode: Cornell Self-Injury &...

It turns out, there’s more to suicide prevention than crisis hotline numbers and inspirational memes. This week, we’re looking at the concept of upstream intervention - because the most effective way to convince someone to live is to help them create a life worth living. We explore the toll of historical trauma for American Indians and Alaska Natives, communities currently experiencing an unpreced...

This week we’re talking about ACEs - aka - Adverse Childhood Experiences. How do you move forward when there’s a lot of pain in your past? And how are you supposed to open up when you were raised not to air your dirty laundry?? We’re joined by WNBA superstar Chamique Holdsclaw who dealt with her parents addiction early on and Music Industry Exec Mike Heyliger who talks about navigating his LGBTQ i...

Imagine you’re six months pregnant with your first child and the person you love, the person with whom you’ve built a life, wakes you up in the middle of the night convinced there are people in the house. But...there aren’t. He’s convinced you’re being followed. But...you’re not. Where do you turn for help when your mental health crisis is invisible? Jenny Heddin took her husband to the emergency...