My Rejection Story

What if the kindest thing you can do for someone is reject them clearly, and the cruelest thing is to keep them hoping? In this solo episode, recorded from a Poddster booth at the 1 Billion Followers Summit in the UAE, Alice makes the case that a clean "no" beats a soft maybe every time. She opens with the situationship hot and cold, days of silence, then something romantic and the resea...

What if the spirit of self-sabotage isn't weakness at all, but a quiet strategy to make sure a loss never truly feels yours? Alice is joined by Steve Magness — performance scientist, coach to Olympians and military teams, and the high-school phenom who ran a 4:01 mile, chased Roger Bannister's ghost, and never broke four. In his book, Win the Inside Game , he speaks about choking under pre...

What if the first person to reject your book isn't a publisher — it's you? Alice is joined by Stacy Ennis — number-one bestselling author, founder of the Nonfiction Book School, and a writer who launched her career by deliberately collecting 29 rejections in 30 days. She talks about the second-grade rejection that branded her the "bad kid" in a tiny Christian school, the parent w...

What if the rejection that shapes you most isn't the one the world hands you — it's the one you learn to hand yourself? Alice is joined by Sabrina Pace-Humphreys — British ultra runner, author of *Black Sheep*, and co-founder of Black Trail Runners, the charity diversifying the UK's outdoor spaces. She grew up the only Black girl in a small Cotswold town; her Afro shoddily cut against...

What if the rejection you're dreading isn't the editorial rejection — it's the pitch you never bothered to fix?  In this solo episode of My Rejection Story, Alice goes from her earliest days as a student journalist — including a mortifying ghosting that ended with an editor telling her it would be "ill-advised, now and in her future career" to ever give an editor a deadline —...

Why does ADHD make rejection feel like physical pain in your chest? Why can a sharp comment, a missed look, or a workplace layoff trigger something that feels far older and deeper than the moment at hand? Alice is joined by Jesse J. Anderson — ADHD advocate, bestselling author of Extra Focus , and the guy who spent decades feeling like he didn't fit until his wife noticed his symptoms matched...

What if the worst rejection isn’t the one someone gives you — it’s the one you give yourself? Alice is joined by Jude Sack — magician since age four, Yale cognitive neuroscience grad, and the guy who flewacross the country to ambush YouTuber David Dobrik in an airport with a magictrick and a job pitch. The video went viral. But what makes Jude fascinating isn’t the stunt — it’s the philosophy unde...

Why does one rejection have the power to override dozens of wins? Why does your brain cling to the time you were told you're not good enough — and quietly use that story to limit what you try next? In this episode of My Rejection Story, Alice is joined by Dr. MH Pelletier (neuropsychologist, executive coach, and author of The Resilience Plan ) to explore why rejection is so hard, why resilienc...

What does it cost a child to grow up knowing who they are might be enough to lose their family? And when family rejection is the backdrop of your adolescence, how do you learn to trust that romantic love is even possible? In this episode of My Rejection Story, Alice is joined by Kenny Ethan Jones — British activist, model, author, and the first trans man to front a period campaign — to explore tra...

Why does spending a lifetime wondering what is wrong with you feel more personal than a medical oversight — why does it feel like confirmation? And what happens when a diagnosis finally arrives in your forties and reframes everything you thought you knew about yourself? In this episode of My Rejection Story, Alice is joined by Dari Crawford — fractional Director of Operations, Chief of Staff, and...

Why does one rejection have the power to override dozens of wins? Why does your brain cling to the time you were told you're not good enough — and quietly use that story to limit what you try next? In this episode of My Rejection Story, Alice is joined by Anne-Laure Le Cunff (neuroscientist and author of Tiny Experiments) to explore how the negativity bias shapes our response to rejection, why...

Why does rejection sometimes feel bigger than the moment itself? Why can a missed text, a declined invitation, or a breakup trigger something that feels far older and deeper than the situation at hand? In this episode of My Rejection Story , Alice is joined by Dr. Carol Chu-Peralta, clinical psychologist and trauma specialist, to explore the powerful link between rejection and abandonment. Togethe...

Why does heartbreak hurt so much? According to psychologist and bestselling author Guy Winch, it’s not just emotional—it’s biological. Heartbreak hijacks your brain like an addiction, making it one of the most painful experiences a person can endure. In this episode, Guy breaks down the science of heartbreak, the biggest mistakes people make when trying to move on, and why heartbreak needs a mourn...

What if the fear of rejection is actually a fear of being fully seen? In this poetic and soul-searching episode, author and spoken word artist Arielle Estoria opens up about what it means to grow beyond who the world expects you to be—and how devastating, liberating, and cyclical that journey can be. Best known for her viral Arielle Estoria poems, her book The Unfolding, and her ability to speak s...

Why does book rejection feel so personal—so final? Why does a book rejection letter have the power to stall a project for years, even when the idea still matters? And how do some authors seem to land book deals—sometimes before the book is even written—while others stay stuck in endless rejection cycles? In this episode of My Rejection Story , Alice is joined by Allison Lane, founder of Allison La...

What does it actually mean when someone cuts off their family — and why does family estrangement provoke such intense reactions from the outside world? In this short solo episode, Alice uses the recent public fallout involving Brooklyn Beckham, David Beckham, and Victoria Beckham as a cultural moment to explore family rejection and estrangement, one of the most misunderstood — and stigmatized — fo...

Why does rejection feel so threatening—sometimes even more destabilizing than physical danger? Why does losing approval, status, or belonging shake our confidence so deeply? And why does the fear of rejection seem impossible to fully “heal” or outgrow? In this episode of My Rejection Story , Alice is joined by Jeremy Sherman , an evolution and social science researcher who studies the origins of l...

In this episode, ADHD thought leader, author, and host of the Tracy Otsuka podcast joins Alice for a conversation about identity, rejection, and the quiet conditioning that teaches so many women to shrink. Drawing from her own story and the research behind learned helplessness psychology, Tracy explains why women with ADHD are especially vulnerable to internalizing criticism — and how those early...

In this powerful mini replay, positive psychology practitioner and author Jodi Wellman joins Alice for a conversation about mortality, motivation, and the brave work of actually living our lives instead of waiting for the perfect moment. Jodi — known for her viral TED Talk, her book You Only Die Once, and her work at Four Thousand Mondays — explains why death is a great motivator, and why many of...

Why does rejection hurt so intensely — even when the relationship was brief, online, or never fully real? Why do some rejections destabilize your entire sense of self while others barely register? In this solo episode, Alice breaks down exactly what rejection does to a person, why you may be taking rejection so hard, and how to recover with science-backed compassion. Alice opens with a story from...

In this episode, multicultural marketing strategist and founder of aam creative , Afshan Nasseri, joins Alice to unpack a quietly growing crisis among expats: the rise of loneliness in Dubai and the emotional reality of why it’s hard to make friends as an adult. Whether you’ve just moved to the UAE, you’re struggling to build community, or you feel disconnected despite being surrounded by people,...

In this episode, high-conflict divorce strategist and advocate Lisa Johnson joins Alice to unpack one of the most overwhelming and destabilizing experiences anyone can face: navigating divorce with a narcissist. Whether you're trying to divorce a narcissistic husband, divorce a narcissist wife, or find your footing after divorce after abusive marriage, Lisa offers clarity that is both deeply v...

In this episode, human relations professor and author Dr. Sterlin Mosley joins Alice to break down one of the most confusing and destabilizing experiences anyone can face: what happens when you reject a narcissist — romantically, sexually, emotionally, or otherwise. If you’ve ever wondered how to reject a narcissist safely, what narcissists do when you reject them, or why even highly intelligent p...

In this mini replay episode, therapist and bestselling author Whitney Goodman joins Alice for an unflinchingly honest conversation about toxic positivity — what it is, how it shows up, and why so many of us default to forced optimism instead of honest connection. Whitney Goodman, known online as @sitwithwit and the author behind the viral toxic positivity book, breaks down toxic positivity explain...

In this episode, novelist and writing instructor Eva Langston joins Alice to break open one of the most under-discussed truths in publishing: sometimes your book dies even after you’ve done everything “right.” After years in the query trenches, eight manuscripts, and dozens of literary agent queries, Eva finally landed representation — the milestone so many writers dream of. But what happened next...