My Stuttering Life

Happy 2nd Anniversary to the My Stuttering Life podcast!  This has been an amazing season with amazing guests.  I would like to thank all my guests for sharing their stories of adversity and triumphs, you are a true inspiration for all.  Season 3 will be filled with more amazing guests and some on-location live shows.  Thank you again and let's get started with Season 3.  Thank you to Noah Swiders...

This episode, Stuttering Is My Superpower, is a powerful episode for me because after decades of feeling shame and guilt because of my stutter, I'm realizing now that it is actually my superpower.   Thank you to Noah Swiderski (owner and producer of Briton Beats ) for your outro music. For more information on Briton Beats, click this link:  https://www.britonbeats.com/ Thank you to Epidemic Sound...

I have always wondered if sleep has a direct correlation to my stutter.  Recently I have been hearing about the benefits of sleep and the deficits from a lack of sleep.  I decided to conduct my own personal experiment to see if sleep had an impact on my stuttering.  Thank you to Noah Swiderski (owner and producer of Briton Beats ) for your outro music. For more information on Briton Beats, click t...

Today's featured guest is Juan Pablo Garcia.    Juan Pablo is from Paraguay and is 22 years old.  He is studying to become a computer scientist while also working a full-time job as a software developer.  Juan Pablo states, "I've stuttered for as long as I can remember, and I've had some days where I thought I could not even have a job because of my inability to properly communicate.  I am current...

Today's featured guest is Saif Mihyar. Saif is a 22-year-old Business Administration student who currently lives in Jordan.  Saif has a strong passion towards sports and a desire to help individuals who face hardship that may come along with speech disfluency.  I believe that there is healing in sharing and I would like to Thank Saif for sharing his story with us. For more information on Saif Mihy...

Today's featured guest is John McIntosh. John is 60 years old and is from Glasgow, Scotland, and has stammered for as long as he can remember.  After graduating with an honors degree in English Literature, John worked in social care for many years, mainly because he could not envisage entering a profession that made big demands on his speech.  At the age of 35, he was married with two young daught...

Today's featured guest is Xavier Thibodeaux.  Xavier is from Houston, Texas, and is a graduate from the University of Houston with a Bachelor of Science degree in Health and Human Performance with a specialization in human nutrition and dietetics.  His dream is to work for NASA as a researcher studying different and new ways to send food into space, prolonging food out there, and ways to grow food...

Stuttering and Finishing Your Sentences is a topic with extremely high opinions, and I would like to start the conversation.  When I ask PWS (people who stutter) if they allow others to finish their sentences, the responses are split right down the middle, 50/50.  For some it brings strong emotions and for others, it's a non-issue.  We are all different in our speech journey, but our common denomi...

Today's featured guest is Courtland Crain .  Courtland is 22 years old and an upcoming first-year Speech-Language Pathology Master's student at the University of South Florida in Tampa. He's been a person who stutters his whole life, and just recently found confidence and acceptance when he started college. His goal is to be a role model and inspiration for those who stutter, teaching the idea of...

Over the years I learned many tools and techniques to help me manage my stutter.  I know the reality that there is no cure for stuttering but these four things that I do on a daily basis has truly helped me in my journey.  I would like to thank Gloria, The Guru Warrior and Amelia for your feedback.  I am proud to be a part of this community.  The Podcast & YouTube Channel Mentioned in The Episode:...

Today's featured guest is Mike Wilson. Mike Wilson is originally from Atlanta, GA.    He is married with four kids between the ages of 3 and 10, and currently lives in Syracuse, NY.  He is a dentist and is the founder and owner of 5 dental practices in Upstate NY.  His hobbies include playing basketball, reading history, and listening to podcasts.  In this podcast episode, Mike discusses the impor...

Today's episode is about the importance of having a thick skin and moving forward.  For decades I let the opinions of others be my reality and I allowed that negativity into my life which caused me great pain and anguish.  Over the years, I learned to develop a thick skin so that any negative comments would bounce off me and that allowed me to keep moving forward with my life. Life is a celebratio...

I am so thankful to belong to a community of creators that are showing the world that if you have a stutter, know that you are not alone and that you have a community to support, inform and inspire you.  In this podcast, I am highlighting four books that have taught me a great deal about stuttering and inspired me as a person who stutters.  These are the four books I recommend if you are a PWS: Ra...

Today's featured guest is Will McClurg. Will is 36 years old and a medical sonographer specializing in pediatrics.  Currently, Will is involved in medical sales and clinical training.  Will has been stuttering since the age of 5 and states that it was terribly hard growing up.  He's had many doubts along the way about how his disability could hinder his success but continues to exceed his past exp...

Today's featured guest is Sherrikka Myers. Every 1 Voice Matters is a nonprofit designed to help kids break down communicative and social barriers such as stuttering, self-esteem, self-confidence and bullying to improve their quality of life. Founder, Sherrikka Myers, grew up stuttering in a single-family household with limited resources. She used the only resource available to her to control her...

Today's featured guest is Benjamin Schussheim. Benji Schussheim is a senior at Staples High School in Westport, Connecticut.  He enjoys jazz saxophone, piano, coding, and stuttering advocacy.  Benji began to stutter severely at 10 years of age and has been in speech therapy for six years at the American Institute for Stuttering with Dr. Heather Grossman. Over his junior year in high school, Benji...

This interview was recorded before Covid-19. Today's featured guest is Hakim Erwin. Mr. Erwin was born and raised in West Philadelphia, PA and graduated from Edward Bok High School in 1991.  An avid hip hop music lover in his teenage years through his mid-20s, he enjoyed a brief career in the music industry where he served as an audio engineer and an intern & assistant A&R representative with Ruff...

Today's featured guest is Sandeep Krishnakumar. Sandeep is a first year PhD student studying Human Factors and Ergonomics at Penn State University. His research is in the realm of engineering design, and he is particularly interested in design methods, human-centered design, and user experience. When he is not busy with schoolwork or research, Sandeep loves to experiment with new recipes in the ki...

Today's featured guest is Michaela Misskee Maia.  Michaela is German-Brazilian and is currently working as a Marketing Manager at a Software Company in Florida, where she lives with her husband. Growing up, Michaela and her family lived in places like Mexico City, Sao Paulo, Hong Kong and Frankfurt.  Even though she has been to speech therapists around the world, she would never see any real impro...

Today's world is changing due to the Covid-19 virus .  What we enjoyed in the past has now gone away; restaurants are closed, concerts cancelled, conferences cancelled, festivals cancelled, grocery store shelves are almost bare, and we must maintain social distancing to combat this virus and lower the infection rates.  If you are a PWS (person who stutters), the occasional excursions for take-out...

Today's featured guest is Jack Dinsley.  Jack states that he's had a stammer ever since he can remember.  Over the years, Jack has turned the negativity of having a stammer into something positive.  He's been involved with the performing arts since a young age, and that has turned into journalism over the years.  Jack is now in his third and final year at UCLan and has worked for the BBC Newsround...

This episode was recorded in Orlando, Florida, at the Podfest Expo 2020 ( podfestexpo.com ). I was honored to have spoken at the Pecha Kucha portion of the expo and my title was "The Stuttering Podcaster".  I spent months and months preparing for this 5-minute presentation where I discussed the origin of my podcast and the main component of it which is to raise awareness about Stuttering.  I also...

Today's featured guest is Matt Herdman.  Matt Herdman, a creator who lives in Oklahoma, is striving to make positive impacts on the world.  He recently had the opportunity to be a speaker at Oklahoma's first ever Next Gen Talks where he gave his speech, "What Stuttering Taught Me About Anxiety".  He graduated with a bachelor's in music with a focus in Musical Theatre and currently works in marketi...

Today's featured guest is Jurjen de Jong.  Jurjen is 26 years old and has stuttered since the age of 7.  He became involved in the world of people who stutter since attending a youth exchange that he joined last year in Italy. This inspired him to start the platform Stamily, where people who stutter can share their stories, raise awareness and form a community. Since last summer this platform is g...

Today's featured guest is  Cynthia Zmroczek .  Cynthia Zmroczek received her Masters of Science degree from West Virginia University and has been a speech language pathologist with the Department of Defense for the past 11 ½ years providing comprehensive services to active duty service members, retirees, and their families who have been injured as a result of a traumatic brain injury.  Her primary...