The Life Shift | Pivotal Moments & Life Change

I wanted to share the new trailer for Grief and Light, hosted by my friend and former Life Shift guest, Nina Rodriguez. Nina created this show after the sudden loss of her only sibling, and it has become a beautiful space for honest reflections and conversations about life after loss. She explores grief as a lifelong companion, something that shapes us, teaches us, and walks beside us, rather than...

At 28, Dan MacQueen was thriving in London with career momentum, global travel, and Friday night pints. Then one morning on the tube, his vision went black. Days later, he was in emergency brain surgery. That should have been the turning point. But it was only the beginning. A massive brain hemorrhage, four weeks in a coma, and months of painful rehab left him having to relearn how to walk, talk,...

This episode originally aired in 2024 and is replayed for aHUS Awareness Day to raise awareness of atypical hemolytic uremic syndrome. What happens when survival meets the unexpected reality of a rare disease? In September 2024, Taylor Coffman first shared her powerful story on The Life Shift. After giving birth to her daughter, she experienced a life-threatening emergency that revealed a rare dis...

What happens when everything you’ve built feels like it’s built on the wrong foundation? Alan Lazaros was chasing all the right things on paper. The degrees. The job. The money. But a head-on car accident at 26, eerily similar to the one that killed his father when Alan was just 2, brought it all to a crashing halt. In that moment, he came face to face with who he really was, not just who he wante...

What happens when loss cracks you wide open and shows you who you’ve been all along? Britt Michaelian had built a beautiful, full life. She was raising her daughters, creating art, and moving forward. But when her mother passed away suddenly, Britt paused everything. Then, just as life began to settle, her sister was diagnosed with cancer. That second heartbreak brought a deeper reckoning. In this...

What happens when success on paper leaves you feeling completely empty inside? Kevin Palmieri had the dream life. The job. The car. The paycheck. But beneath the highlight reel, he was unraveling. In this conversation, Kevin shares the quiet spiral that nearly ended everything and the honest decision that changed his life for good. What started as a breakdown became a wake-up call. One that led hi...

What if grief could live beside joy instead of swallowing it whole? When Marie Alessi’s husband, Rob, died suddenly from a brain aneurysm while on a work trip, her life shattered in an instant. But instead of letting grief move in permanently, Marie made a quiet, powerful promise: to create the happiest life possible for her and their two young boys. What followed wasn’t perfect, but it was deeply...

In this special bonus episode of The Life Shift Podcast, I mark the 36th anniversary of my mom’s passing by sharing something deeply personal. Usually, I’m the one listening as guests reflect on their life-altering moments. But today, I turn the question back on myself. What would I tell the 8-year-old version of me – the boy who lost his mom in 1989 and had no choice but to grow up too quickly? I...

What happens when your earliest moments of intimacy are taken from you? In this raw and powerful conversation, author Kaila Yu shares the truth about a traumatic experience in her early twenties that splintered her sense of self. Raised in a household where emotions were rarely named, Kaila spent years seeking validation outside herself. When a modeling opportunity turned into a violent betrayal,...

What do you do when the world falls apart and your inner voice says, “Not yet”? Dr. Devin DeGreif shares a story so unimaginable it feels like fiction until you realize it is her truth. After the brutal loss of her mother, Devin unraveled, disassociated, and considered ending her life. But a thunderous inner "no" marked a turning point. What followed was a slow, intentional shift toward healing, s...

What if the bravest thing you can do is admit you’re struggling? When Jill Schulman walked into her ROTC unit ready to quit, she expected rejection. Instead, she was met with empathy. And that changed everything. In this powerful conversation, Jill shares the quiet, steady kind of bravery that helped her stay the course and eventually shape her life’s work. Learn how asking for help can be the mos...

What happens when your life splits in two more than once? Ash Perrow was a schoolteacher with a plan and a future he could see clearly. Then he held his stillborn daughter in his arms. That moment shattered everything. Years of survival, anxiety, and silence followed. Then a near-death experience cracked him open in a way nothing else ever had. And in that space beyond his body, he made a choice t...

What if the perfect time never comes? Katie Svoboda-Rini spent years waiting for things to settle before she could finally chase her dream. But life had other plans, including the loss of both parents, a lifetime of body shame, and a wildfire that didn’t burn her house down but still took almost everything. In the rubble of grief, burnout, and survival mode, Katie found something deeper than resil...

What happens when five grief-focused podcast hosts come together to speak grief out loud? This is a special recording of Giving Grief a Voice, a live panel hosted by Reimagine.org. In this heartfelt and honest conversation, five hosts share how telling and hearing stories of loss can bring comfort, connection, and hope. Together, we explore the cultural power of naming grief out loud and the pract...

Real people. Honest moments. Life, unfiltered. The Life Shift Podcast is a collection of candid conversations with people who’ve experienced the moment when everything changed – and chose to keep going. If you’ve ever felt stuck, cracked open, or quietly transformed, there’s probably an episode for you. Share this clip with your friends if you're a fan of The Life Shift – you never know who might...

This is a personal invitation to something meaningful. On Thursday, August 7, I’ll be part of a virtual panel hosted by Reimagine called “Giving Grief a Voice.” We’ll be talking about how grief-focused podcasts – including Grief is a Sneaky Bitch (Lisa Keefauver), Grief and Light (Nina Rodriguez), Life with Grief (Tara Accardo), Where I Am (Grant Garry), and The Life Shift – are helping to normali...

What if the memory that saved your life came from a letter you almost forgot? Michael Allison’s life has been anything but easy. From childhood abuse to combat in Iraq, the grief of loss to the silence of survival, Michael carried the weight of a thousand lifetimes before reaching a breaking point. Standing on a Florida bridge, he made a decision that would change everything. In this powerful conv...

What happens when the story you've believed for 35 years turns out to be incomplete? When Lisa Sugarman was ten, she was told her father died of a heart attack. But decades later, one unexpected question revealed a long-held secret that shifted everything. In this open and emotionally honest conversation, Lisa and I explore what it means to grieve someone twice, how silence can shape our stories,...

What do you do when the life you dreamed of looks nothing like the one you’re living? Jenny always knew she wanted to be a mom. But when her first child, Sarah, was born with special needs, the parenting story she had imagined began to unravel. For years, she carried invisible bricks of guilt, believing she had to fix what wasn’t broken. Everything shifted the day she gave herself permission to ju...

What if burnout wasn't the end—but the beginning of your most authentic life? After ten years in the classroom, Ryan Hennessey realized he was running on fumes. A powerful moment at a heart-led business retreat cracked something open in him and gave him the clarity he’d been chasing. He didn’t just walk away from teaching—he walked toward a life built on freedom, integrity, and impact. The exact m...

This episode includes discussion of suicide loss and grief. Please listen with care. -- What do you do when your life changes in an instant? When Donna Kendrick lost her husband to suicide, she was left standing at a painful crossroads – three young kids, a new house, and a future she could no longer picture. But by the light of a backyard bonfire, she made a vow: this would not be the end of her...

Can one quiet moment change everything you thought your future would be? When Mikelann Valterra sat across from her husband at their favorite sushi spot, she didn’t plan to end her marriage with a handshake. But that one act, quiet and deeply human, cracked open the life she had built and forced her to rebuild it from scratch. At 40, with her son by her side, she moved into her childhood bedroom a...

What do you do when the dream you’ve chased your entire life suddenly stops feeling right? By the age of 17, Miron Pingasov had raced at 150 mph, broken bones, lost a close friend on the track, and watched his childhood passion for racing turn into something more political than purposeful. Faced with the weight of expectation and the pull of something deeper, Miron made a decision most wouldn’t at...

This is episode 9 of my other podcast: It’s Okay If… Permission Slips for Mental Health, Self-Acceptance, and Growth --- Doing nothing can feel uncomfortable, especially when you care deeply about your work, your goals, or the people you're showing up for. But sometimes, pushing through becomes too much. This short reflection is a reminder that rest isn’t laziness. Taking a break isn’t a failure....

What if we treated everyone like they were stage four of something? We’re all carrying something we can’t always see. In this episode, I talk with author and storyteller Adam Erwin about what happens when we slow down and choose to lean in, to really see people instead of scanning past them. Adam shares the life-altering moment on a post-9/11 flight that changed how he moves through the world and...