UNMUTED by The Lioness in the Darkness

Every family will one day say goodbye to someone they love. How we love each other before and after that goodbye matters. In this episode of Unmuted: Families, we're talking about one of the Darkest Days villains: Grief Ghoul. Grief Ghoul isn't a monster that causes death. Instead, Grief Ghoul represents the grief, sadness, confusion, and questions that can arrive after we've lost some...

What looked harmless isn't always harmless. A bike ride. A cactus. A question. Some stories take years to reveal what they were really about.

In honor of Men's Mental Health Month and Father's Day, I invited my husband, Kevin, to join me for a conversation. What followed became one of the most honest and meaningful episodes we've recorded. This was Kevin's first time ever being on a podcast, and together we explored topics that don't always get enough space in everyday life: mental health, fatherhood, relationships,...

Friends can make us laugh, help us feel included, and create some of our favorite memories. But sometimes friendships can be difficult. We may feel left out, hurt by someone's words, or blamed for something that wasn't our fault. In this episode of Unmuted: Families, we explore what it means to be a good friend, how to navigate friendship challenges, and why our value doesn't change ba...

Trigger Warning: This episode contains discussion of PTSD, death, grief, violence, and fears surrounding the sudden loss of loved ones. In this episode of UNMUTED, Brie reflects on the lasting impact of learning about the death of her online friend, Tomorrow, and how that loss awakened fears that had been quietly living beneath the surface for years. Through raw and honest reflection, she explores...

A reflection on the adults who quietly change a child's life, and the heartbreaking reality that love is not always enough to overcome the barriers created by the people around them. In this episode of UNMUTED, Brie explores the "Miss Honey" phenomenon - those safe, caring adults who see a child clearly, encourage them, believe in them, and offer the kind of steady presence every young person dese...

In this episode of Unmuted, Brie speaks about family, boundaries, accountability, and the grief that can follow when people choose replacement over repair. Many survivors are told that setting a boundary will heal a relationship. Sometimes it does. Sometimes it reveals something far more painful. That the people involved would rather fill the space you left than examine why you left it in the firs...

A reflection on grief, resilience, healing, community, and the unexpected moments that remind us we are not carrying life alone. In this episode of UNMUTED, Brie speaks openly about the past two weeks, including reading court documents connected to a friend who is no longer here, processing the emotions that followed a meaningful letter being torn apart, navigating the temptation of relapse, and s...

A reflection on childhood homes, family loyalty, betrayal, and the painful realization that some people never become who you hoped they would be. In this episode of UNMUTED, "Buttercup" shares what happened after discovering in February that a girl close to her own age is currently living in the house she called home from ages 10 to 14. What began as a simple piece of information quickly became so...

A reflection on shame, childhood innocence, religious messaging, and the lasting impact of being taught that something natural about yourself is something to fear. In this episode of UNMUTED, Brie shares a childhood memory that became far more significant than she understood at the time. What began as a simple moment between friends was met with intense adult reactions, leaving behind questions ab...

A raw audio recorded on the day Brie learned that an online friend known as Tomorrow had been listed deceased and that her ex-boyfriend had been arrested in connection with her murder. In this episode of UNMUTED, Brie reflects on the surreal emotional experience of receiving devastating news through a screen, the strange intimacy of online friendships, and the heavy silence that follows when someo...

A raw reflection on postpartum depression, emotional survival, and the experience of entering a psych ward during one of the most vulnerable periods of life. In this episode of UNMUTED, Brie looks back on the overwhelming emotional weight that followed childbirth and the reality of navigating postpartum depression while trying to survive internally for the sake of the people she loved. Through mem...

A raw reflection on childbirth, family dynamics, generational patterns, and the complicated emotional instinct to continue protecting people who never truly protected you. In this episode of UNMUTED, Brie speaks openly about experiences surrounding birth across multiple pregnancies and the emotional realizations that can surface while becoming a parent yourself. Through memory and reflection, she...

A reflection on fast labor, unmedicated birth, and the overwhelming emotional intensity of bringing a child into the world fully present for every moment of it. In this episode of UNMUTED, Brie shares the story of the birth of her youngest child - a rapid labor experience without pain medication, where fear, instinct, exhaustion, vulnerability, and strength all collided at once. Through raw reflec...

A personal reflection on childbirth, survival, and the complicated emotional experience of becoming a parent while still carrying unresolved trauma from your own past. In this episode of UNMUTED, Brie shares the story of the birth of her oldest child and the emotional reality of bringing new life into the world while navigating fear, hypervigilance, old wounds, and the quiet hope of wanting to cre...

A deeply personal reflection on pregnancy loss, grief, memory, and the emotional reality of loving someone whose life ended before the world ever had the chance to meet them. In this episode of UNMUTED, Brie speaks openly about the loss of her child, Brevin, after learning during the ninth week of pregnancy that there was no heartbeat. Through raw reflection and memory, she explores the surreal em...

A reflection on the quiet moments that stay with us - even when the other person may not remember them at all. In this episode of UNMUTED, Brie explores the idea that many of the memories shaping us are not dramatic events, but small moments charged with emotional meaning from one perspective and almost invisible from another. A sentence. A reaction. A look. An extended moment of silence. Tiny int...

A raw and deeply personal reflection on childhood roleplay, emotional confusion, silence, and the things children sometimes normalize because nobody around them stops to ask questions. In this episode of UNMUTED, Brie speaks openly about memories from childhood involving family-style roleplaying games, being assigned adult roles because of size and appearance, and a moment involving a childhood fr...

An exploration of the difference between silence and quiet - and the internal battle that can exist between them. In this episode of UNMUTED, Brie reflects on the feeling of carrying two conflicting parts inside herself: one desperate to survive, speak, create, and leave something meaningful behind… and another deeply afraid that her words are not important, powerful, or “enough” to truly matter....

A memory about long drives, talk radio, and the quiet moment a child realizes being heard is not the same thing as being listened to. In this episode of UNMUTED, Brie reflects on riding with her mother to run errands over an hour away, listening to Dr. Laura together as a form of bonding and routine. What once felt comforting slowly shifted into something more complicated - being pressured to keep...

A reflection on how certain trending sounds online can reopen emotional memories we thought we had already moved past. In this episode of UNMUTED, Brie talks about a current TikTok audio that unexpectedly pulled her back into memories of uncertainty, isolation, emotional numbness, and the strange feeling of watching the world become quieter almost overnight. Not every trigger looks obvious. Someti...

A quiet introduction to UNMUTED. Some spaces are built for performance. This one was built for honesty. Hello is the beginning of an audio archive for the thoughts people were taught to swallow - the quiet realizations, survivor thoughts, late-night reflections, and emotions that often live underneath the surface of everyday life. Thank you for being here. To support the mission of educating, heal...