This Person I Met

Welcome back to This Person I Met! My name is Kayla and I’m the host of this podcast. A few weeks ago, I got the chance to sit down and talk with Joe Halsch, the director of the Jim Toy Center in Ann Arbor, a community for queer folk and allies, as you might recall from our previous episode. In this continuation of Joe’s story, we further discuss nuances found within modern day queer media and its...

Welcome back to This Person I Met! My name is Kayla and I’m the host of this podcast. Since the release of Heated Rivalry, a show commissioned by Canada’s Crave and distributed by HBO Max originally written by Rachel Reid, queer media has had some of the greatest visibility I’ve personally ever seen in my life. From Young Royals to Red, White, and Royal Blue to Girls Like Girls to Leviticus, it se...

Welcome back to This Person I Met! My name is Kayla and I’m the host of this podcast. Tucked in a quiet corner of Ann Arbor, Michigan, The Safehouse is a refuge for any who may be facing intimate partner violence. At the head of the Safehouse is Christine Watson, who has long been an advocate for the protection and understanding of victims of domestic abuse, sexual assault, and other forms of inti...

Welcome back to This Person I Met! My name is Kayla, and I'm the host of this podcast. Following Judith, the founder of Center for Eating Disorders in Ann Arbor who starred in the previous segment, it seemed as if new perspectives could be incorporated in order to gain a better understanding of the increasingly prevalent issue at hand: disordered eating. While many may know textbook knowledge base...

Welcome back to This Person I Met! My name is Kayla, and I’m the host of this podcast. About 28.8 million Americans are currently affected by an eating disorder. That’s about 9% of the entire US population. And yet, nobody seems to truly understand what they are unless they actually struggle with one. Even then, stigma prevents many from ever reaching out and seeking support, or even realizing tha...

Welcome back to This Person I Met! My name is Kayla and I’m the host of this podcast. If you don’t know, this is the second part of Nikki’s story, where she dives into how she turned a past of abuse and trauma into what she describes today as “intentional living.” Nikki doesn’t hide from her past: she builds onto it and uses it as proof that she is worthy of all the happiness she has today. Now in...

Welcome back to This Person I Met! My name is Kayla and I’m the host of this podcast. When I approached Nikki, the first thing I noticed was how well spoken she was. Words flowed from her mouth so naturally and so coherently that I found it hard for me to keep up. However, behind her demeanor was a story riddled with trauma that made her the woman she is today, building a story that does not let h...

Welcome back to This Person I Met! My name is Kayla, and I’m the host of this podcast. A few weeks ago, I got the opportunity to sit down with Uzochi Nwauwa to talk about a topic that most of us avoid despite its inevitably: grief and the concept of death. Specifically, we talked about the scary, unavoidable thing that most of us will have to face at least once in our lives, grief, and how it impa...

Welcome back to This Person I Met! My name is Kayla, and I’m the host of this podcast. On my first snow day of the season, I drove 30 minutes to Ele’s Place, braving the iced highways to sit with Uzochi Nwauwa. Uzo, the bereavement coordinator for Ele’s Place, talked to me for nearly an hour about a topic that many, including me, shut our ears to: grief and death. Ele’s Place was founded by Betsy...

Welcome back to This Person I Met! My name is Kayla, and I'm the host of this podcast. Jaenika, like many others in the Delonis shelter in Washtenaw County and shelters around the country, never had a chance to run from unstable housing because she was born into it. The homeless issue within the United States has only grown since the pandemic, surging to record highs in 2024 of around 770,000 home...

Welcome back to This Person I Met! My name is Kayla, and I'm the host of this podcast. As you may have inferred from the title, this is the second part of "The Business of Being," our segment dedicated to a certain member of Unlock Highest Dimension, a nonprofit for "gathering people with spirit gifts around the world and opening their connection with the high dimensional wisdom of the Universe so...

Welcome back to this person I met! My name is Kayla, and I’m the host of this podcast. Recently, I had the chance to meet up with a close family friend. Upon first meeting her, it was easy to make assumptions in my head. She graduated from MIT with a degree in business. She’s worked with one of the largest investment banking companies in the US. She talks a lot about investing in stocks and advise...

Welcome back to This Person I Met! My name is Kayla, and I’m your podcast host. I’ve known Salem for around two years now. Our shared trauma of endless marching band rehearsals and similarities with flute led to a quick, close friendship. You’ll hear in this interview that it’s clear Salem is one of the funniest people I know and their presence is immediate comfort to all their friends, including...

Welcome back to This Person I Met! My name is Kayla, and I’m your podcast host. There are more similarities between an electrician and a professor of mechanical engineering than you may think. In our interview, Solomon Adera told me of his parent’s lack of education, and how their lack would inspire him to take advantage of any opportunity to learn and use it as a tool to climb upwards, even going...

Welcome back to this person I met! My name is Kayla, and I'm the host of this podcast. The voice you just heard is professor Allen Liu from the University of Michigan. As you may have heard from the news, the scientific pipeline is facing a major crisis. Since January, the federal government has terminated over 1600 active research grants, worth roughly 1.5 billion, proposing a 37% cut to the Nati...

Welcome back to this person I met! My name is Kayla, and this is the second part of Johnny Walker's story. As you may remember from the last episode, Johnny served 46 years and 13 days in jail for armed robbery, and a second charge, murder. Now, as the reentry specialist for A Brighter Way, he helps former inmates, who just like he did, struggle to find their place in the world after incarceration...

Welcome back to this person I met. My name is Kayla, and the voice you just heard is Johnny walker. He's the community engagement specialist from A Brighter Way, an organization serving formerly incarcerated people, assisting them in the tedious process of reentering society. Johnny and I sat down in the downtown library on a cold february afternoon, where he generously shared his story and new li...

Welcome back to this person I met! You might notice something new in this episode, or someone new. As you all may know, Maya, the host of this podcast, is off to college. And that means someone new has to take over. My name is Kayla, and I, coincidentally, am her younger sister! For the next few years, I will be the new podcast host, and I am beyond excited to share my experiences with you all. Th...

Hi, and welcome back to This Person I Met! Today’s interviewee is Jen Peacock, the policy director for the Michigan Center for Youth Justice, which is an organization focused on ensuring that youth in the juvenile justice system have equitable access to qualified legal representation. To give you some background, Michigan has a “decentralized system,” which means that juvenile court services and p...

Hello, and welcome back to This Person I Met! Continuing on with our series relating to the public education system, today’s guest is Sara-Beth Badalamente. She is the advisor for Huron High School’s newspaper (called the Emery), which I write and edit for! She’s also the advisor for the yearbook (called the Enthymion), a soccer coach, and also works on the Ann Arbor Public School teacher’s union...

Hello, and welcome back to This Person I Met! This episode is the second part of my interview with Mr. Sumerton, one of the principals at Huron High School. In this episode, we discuss some surprising effects of technology on students’ mental health, and other pitfalls of high school. It’s funny – we’d only planned to talk for 15-20 minutes, but ended up talking for an entire hour. Be on the looko...

Hello, and welcome back to This Person I Met! Today’s guest is Mr. Sumerton, one of the principals at Huron High School. This episode marks the start of a series I’m hoping to do, which will cover common challenges that high school students in my generation face, from mental health issues, to unhealthy academic peer pressure. Mr. Sumerton discusses these themes in this episode, along with how his...

Welcome back to This Person I Met! In today's episode, Jamie Tang talks about her relationship with the game of Go, an ancient Chinese board game that juxtaposes strategy, tactic, and culture. Music: "Music Is" by Pryces.

Welcome back to This Person I Met! In today's episode, Jaime Tang talks about her relationship with the ancient Chinese game of Go, a timeless board game juxtaposing strategy, tactic, and culture.

Hello, and welcome back to This Person I Met! Last episode, Linsay Calka – the managing director of Groundcover news – spoke about how her newspaper is an incredible way to help low-income and homeless individuals in our community, juxtaposed with excellent journalism.  This episode will showcase some authors of articles in past issues reading their own works. Bear Myths and Cultural Power by...