Resurface Podcast

Somebody we trusted to do a job stopped doing it. And when Rachel realized it, she had a decision to make. Sit quietly and hope for the best, or sit down with a laptop for 10 to 12 hours a day and do the work herself. In this episode of Resurface, we start with laughter, always, playing guess what Google auto-populates and finding out the internet is going through way more than we realized. We tal...

A $10,000 raise. An $837 overage. By year end, this family was $21,000 worse off. Not our story. I still had to tell it. Stephen goes through my whole medical mom bag / purse on camera. Plenty of laughs are had as usual. Then I tell you the story of a family living outside Detroit that I have never met, a family raising a disabled child with epilepsy and a son with severe ADD, and I walk through t...

We found out there's almost no data on babies who survive 25 minutes without a pulse. Turns out we're it. This week Rachel and Stephen put each other on the stand, married-couple-court style, running through guilty-or-innocent questions about hiding from their kids, fantasizing about being single, and who actually farts in front of who after 16 years. Then the episode pivots hard into the...

We put AI in the judge's chair and asked it to rule on our self-care habits. It had thoughts. A lot of thoughts. And then it turned on Stephen. We kicked off Episode 29 with a game: Stephen typed increasingly ridiculous questions into Claude about our household, our routines, and whether I should be committed, and I read the responses out loud. The answers got more honest and more pointed with...

We almost didn't film this one. A conversation online about disability gave us a reason to say something out loud again. In light of a public conversation about disability, down syndrome, and grief, We sit down to talk about something we live every single day: the worth of a disabled life. No names, no debate. They talk honestly about parenting our daughter Mila, who has severe disabilities fr...

Rachel's sister Kristina is back for Episode 27, and this time they're roasting their husbands. Why do men say "I was going to do that" only after you start doing it? Why do they call from the grocery store like they've been abandoned in the wilderness? Why do they spend so long on the toilet? In this episode, Rachel and Kristina play a game called "Husband or Dog?"...

Rachel’s sister Kristina joins Resurface for an episode that starts with sibling chaos and somehow ends up in the deepest parts of the family story. They talk about growing up as sisters, childhood punishments, birth order, husbands, cleaning, workplace red flags, and why anyone who says “we’re like a family here” at work should probably be watched carefully. But this episode also turns toward the...

Episode 25 starts with pet peeves, including Stephen calling from the grocery store, interrupted alone time, tipping culture, and more. We always choose to laugh first. Then we shift into a more serious conversation about raising a child with epilepsy. Rachel retells the story of Mila's first ever seizure, which was life threatening status epilepticus. We talk about how Mila’s diagnosis change...

In this episode we start by reacting to the viral back massage clip comments. We then talk about marriage after crisis, family after trauma, and what intimacy looks like when your world has been turned upside down. If you are parenting through stress, disability, medical uncertainty, or just trying to hold your family together while life keeps coming at you, this episode is for you. New episodes w...

In Part 2 of our Medicaid waiver hearing recap, we read more direct quotes from the hearing transcript, including the moments that still do not make sense to us. This episode picks up where our last one left off. After losing in court, we are going through the actual exchanges from the hearing, including testimony from medical providers, arguments made about Mila’s needs, and the way her disabilit...

In this episode of Resurface, we start the way we refuse to stop starting, with laughter, marriage banter, and another round of Agree or Disagree. We debate whether the higher earner should get more say over money, why “we need to talk” texts are morally wrong unless immediately explained, whether one parent should override the other’s discipline, and whether all men should know how to cook. Then...

This is about as raw and real as it gets - our daughter's hearing was denied. We will be back Tuesday with all of the details! New episodes weekly on Apple Podcasts and Spotify . If you listen on Apple Podcasts, leaving a review helps more families navigating trauma, special needs parenting, or hard seasons find this podcast — and the community around it. Download your free Get Helped and Be Helpe...

In this episode we open with a round of fun and funny questions and answers. We then move into the main topic where we talk about parenting a child with complex needs, the emotional weight of advocacy, and what it feels like to keep functioning when the system keeps pushing back. We discuss speech therapy, medical and developmental concerns, CAP/C, and the reality of trying to help your child whil...

In this episode we open with a round of questions and answers. They we move into the topic, talking about Rachel's trauma response she didn't see coming when her brain thought everything was fine. Rachel talks about what it actually feels like when PTSD lives in your body instead of your thoughts, and how she recognized it as a trauma response. Then Rachel ends up in the ER herself with chest pain...

Ten months ago, a doctor accused me of something awful and wrote it in our daughter's chart. I stayed silent. Today I'm speaking. Mila was four years old. She was six weeks out from her first seizure: status epilepticus that lasted at least 25 minutes. We were in the hospital for EEG monitoring during a medication wean when a neurologist asked me, to my face, why I wanted my daughter to ha...

We're making a decision that can't be undone. In this episode we take you inside our visit to UNC Children's Cochlear Implant Center; what we learned, what surprised us, and the moment we realized we were finally in the right place. We talk through why we chose one ear at a time, what happens when a child wakes up from cochlear implant surgery without any hearing, and the fears we have...

3 days before a court deadline, our daughter's lawyer left her case. In this episode, we talk about our fight with Medicaid , specifically CAP/C. We discuss the impact suddenly being left in the lurch has made, the upcoming battle ahead, and our fears about what this might mean. We will never stop fighting for our daughter, and fighting for her means we are also fighting for other children wit...

When two medical trauma survivors clash together and try to raise a family, it's not always easy. It's messy, complicated, emotional, and incredibly challenging. What happens when they do it on camera , in front of a microphone ? From bank account anxiety, to PTSD's affect on our marriage , to a fun and funny round of agree or disagree, we sit down and hash things out as a married coup...

Life is chaotic. So first, we laugh. In this episode of Resurface, we move from comedic relief into the real dynamics of marriage, parenting, and raising children in a medically complex family. We talk about: • Marriage communication in chaotic seasons • Parenting multiple children with competing needs • Balancing structure and survival • Identity shifts in fatherhood and motherhood • Sibling dyna...

48 hours after our last episode, we received another diagnosis about our daughter. This time, we are numb. We talk about the impact it has on her future, how doctors missed it for 5 years, and the impact it has on our marriage and family. This episode was not planned and is raw and real. We are a real life podcast. To hurt and heal alongside you. Follow Resurface for honest conversations about mar...

This wasn’t the episode we planned to record. We planned to film something completely different… and then an unexpected diagnosis changed that plan immediately. In this episode, we share what we learned from a recent neuropsychology evaluation, what it felt like to hear words like “unlikely” and “plateau,” and how that kind of information lands in a marriage. We talk honestly about fear. About gri...

Rachel tells a story that makes Stephen look completely unhinged… then immediately admits the thing that actually makes her rage. What follows is laughter, disbelief, and a moment where joking turns into something more honest than expected. This episode of Resurface is unfiltered, funny, and real — the way conversations actually sound when you stop editing yourself. 🎧 Topics in this episode: Ever...

In this episode of Resurface , Stephen and Rachel sit down to tell their story in their own words . After a viral clip of our content was taken out of context and spread online, followed by harsh commentary and assumptions, we open the episode by briefly addressing the misinformation, judgment, and online backlash they experienced. Then, we intentionally move away from the noise to do something mo...

What did marriage advice used to sound like when it was delivered with absolute confidence and no room for disagreement? In this episode, we read and react to real marriage advice from the mid-20th century, including excerpts from books, manuals, and magazine content that shaped expectations around marriage, behavior, and roles. Yes, all of it is real. We sit down and respond in real time, transla...

In this episode of Resurface , we switch things up and play Agree or Disagree , a fast-moving conversation where we react in real time to opinions couples argue about more than they admit. The topics range from marriage dynamics and parenting choices to everyday habits, pet peeves, and small disagreements that somehow matter a lot. Some of the questions are purely funny, some are unexpectedly hila...