Moments That Define Us Podcast

Today is another solo episode. In recent weeks Iryna finished reading The Anxious Generation book by Jonathan Haidt and watched 2020 documentary " The Social Dilemma", two amazing and very informative pieces of work. In this episode Iryna discusses her take on the documentary an the book, growing up without technology ,the effect social media has on her life ,and why it is important to pay attenti...

Today's episode was recorded on April 27, which is Iryna and her husband's 11th wedding anniversary. This is a short solo episode where Iryna talks about her life as a mom, wife, friend and gives unsolicited life advice to anyone out there who needs it on marriage and relationships. She tells the story of how her and her husband met, why its ok to not like your partner sometimes, and how important...

In today's episode Iryna is joined by an amazing woman, author, film and culture critic Jonita Davis. In this episode we only scratched the surface of the amazing life this creative woman has lived. We talked about her writing process and should you stay in "one lane " as a creative, why it is important to speak up against injustice, especially in the state of world today. Jo was diagnosed with AD...

In today episode Iryna is joined by the founder of GraceFull Home, a Denver based furniture bank, EmilyJane Zahreddine. EmilyJane is a powerhouse, who saw a problem in her community and decided to create a solution. She launched her non profit in 2024 and already helped over 200 people in Denver metro area who are exiting homeless and need help furnishing their new home. EmilyJane spoke about how...

In today's episode Iryna is joined by Emily Mara, who is a personal trainer, accountability coach and the founder and owner of EMpower by Emily Mara https://www.empowerbyem.com/ . This conversation is extra special for many reasons. One of the reasons is in this episode Emily and Iryna talked about the beauty and challenges of motherhood. Emily lost her mom over 10 years and she spoke about lesson...

Michael Sykes is the founder of the organization called Equitable Solutions and the director of culture, equity and leadership for Denver Public Schools. This conversation was deep, meaningful, vulnerable and we talked about variety of topics. Michael was open enough to talk about his life in a very profound way, things he had to learn and overcome to become a person he is today. Michael wrote a b...

I had a pleasure of having a wonderful conversation with Karen Olson, the founder of national non profit organization call Family Promise. Karen joined me on the podcast to talk about her book "Mean For More" . In her book Karen captured her incredible journey from a single act of kindness to a lifetime of service. Karen wrote a beautiful story about her childhood and tragedy she experienced at a...

In today's episode Iryna is joined by an incredible fashion designer Michael Sullivan. Michael went all the way back to his childhood and talked about little Michael, his hopes and dreams for the future and how he is living that dream right now. Michael's grandfather was a big inspiration for him because of his impeccable style and his wisdom. Michael has been honoring his grandfather in his recen...

Bella and Iryna were invited to be part of the discussion panel on the Outlier's Edge Podcast. We discussed what it means to be an entrepreneur, obstacles we had to overcome to get to the place we are today and why failure is necessary and perfection is the killer of all joy. Visit https://niiamahashong.com/oepodcast/ to learn more about the ultimate Outlier behind the podcast and the outliers com...

Welcome to Season #4!!!!!! In the first episode of season 4, Iryna and Bella sat down for a beautiful conversation. They talked about why Bella has been MIA from the podcast, the loss she experienced last year that give her clarity on how to move forward and what's in store for the podcast this year. You don't want to miss this episode because there is big announcement on expansion within the podc...

In today's episode Iryna is joined by Denise Izso, the founder and host of Blacadian podcast. Through social media , Iryna and Denise became listeners of each other's podcast and finally decided to sit down for a conversation on Moments That Define Us Podcast. Denise was born and raised in Canada but both of her parents are from Barbados. She spoke about growing up in Canada , in a predominantly w...

We all spend money on a daily basis but do we really know what the organizations we support stand for? Who make those critical decisions for the company? Do they really represent community they serve and who they have on their board of directors and why that is so important to know for us as consumers ? In today's episode we sat down with Sara Finesilver , who is on of the founding partners of Boa...

Todays episode is a special one! Bella sat down with Iryna to talk to her about turning 40. They covered topics from aging and beauty to becoming more mature and caring less about what other people think of you. Bella took Iryna on a journey though her life, from looking back to her 20 and 30 to what lies ahead for the next decade. Iryna gave some very good advice to young people and shared some o...

In today episode we are joined by an incredible human Assetou Xango. They are a poet, an author , a coach and so much more.. In this conversation we discussed variety of topics from election and the state of our country today to creativity , writing and how being creative can be beautiful but also make us face everything in ourself we are scared to face. When it comes to creativity Assetou said, "...

Our guest today is Tennisia Littleton-Broberg. Tennisia is a survivor of many things but she is warrior. She love unconditionally and her family is everything to her. She opened her heart and soul on this episode and shared some of her defining moments. Tennisia has been surrounded by very powerful women in her family which is why she is a POWERHOUSE herself. Tennisia grew up with parents who were...

Do you ever feel like you don't belong? Are you trying to find your place in the world? The topic of today's episode is belonging. Its a sole episode without guests and without Bella, where Iryna is opening up about belonging as an immigrant living in the US. She tells a lot of stories from her life, living in US, being Ukrainian and how she found herself in the world. Today she is a confident and...

This week's episode is all about THE DEBATE! Bella & Iryna sprinkled this conversation with humor and laughter . They talked about a few quotes that resonated with them the most and what they agreed and disagreed with both candidates (oh should I say one candidate.......????). The conversation turned serious when they spoke about gun control, immigration and climate change. Let's all remember...

WELCOME TO SEASON 3!!!!!! We are starting season 3 with our Behind the Mic series. Today Iryna and Bella opening up about pressures we have in our society to be perfect in everything we do. To have kids or not to have kids, to get married or not get married? Am I a good mother? Do I have enough date nights with my spouse? Why is my body not perfect? What IS perfect body? Do you ever ask yourself a...

This is the last episode of season 2. Its called takeover of moments that define us podcast. Takeover happened when Roy (Iryna's husband) and Spencer (Bella's boyfriend) decided to be hosts for one episode and ask us, very deep and meaningful questions about the "why" behind the podcast and our vision for the future. We think you will learn different side of Bella and Iryna , why we stand what we...

In today's episode we continue the conversation with the survivor of domestic violence and sexual abuse, Kiah Peterson. This is part two. If you want to understand the whole story, listen to part one that was released last week. Kiah shared with us what happened to her after police showed up and arrested her. She spoke about just how awful our justice system is and how at one point a mental health...

This is a part one of two parts story of an incredible woman name Kiah Peterson , who survived domestic violence, sexual abuse , racial discrimination in the justice system , homeless and so much more. She shared her story in greater details in hopes to help other survivors. The name of the abuser and a couple of other peoples were not real. Unfortunately Kiah's story is one of many. If any of our...

This is a new edition of Behind the Mic with Bella & Iryna, where our fabulous hosts talked about self care. In this lighthearted episode Iryna and Bella give unprofessional advice to the listeners on how to take care of yourself on a very little budget or completely free. They talk about things that has worked for them and things that didn't (Iryna doesn't like taking a bath.....what? is she...

In today's episode we are talking about real estate and the process of buying a home but doing it in the right way We sat down with the amazing real estate agent Jessica Argo who spoke about her passion for real estate, especially helping first time home buyers and women own their first home. She shared with us how having teaching background helped her become a better real estate agent. Jessica ha...

This is part two of two part episode with the CEO of Judi's House Micki Burns. We continued talking about grief and bereavement. Micki talked about recourses Judi's House provides to families when explaining death to children. She emphasized how important it is to use correct language so kids can understand death. We also spoke about death by suicide and again using the correct language so kids ca...

Another incredible human that we had a chance to sit down for a deep and meaningful conversation. On today's episode we have Micki Burns, the CEO of Judi's House. "Judi’s House is a community-based nonprofit bereavement center for children and families with the vision that no child should be alone in grief." Micki has such a beautiful presence about her and having her on our podcast was an honor....