Who We Become - Life Beyond Change

Amanda sits down with Hope Rose to explore trauma, survival, motherhood, and what it means to rebuild when life doesn’t just change—it completely unravels. Together, they talk about the devastating reality of intimate partner violence, navigating the family court system, and the unimaginable experience Hope describes as the legal trafficking of her child. But beyond the pain, this conversation is...

Amanda sits down with Erin Snow to explore the often unspoken space of after —after loss, after trauma, after life has shifted in ways you can’t undo. Together, they talk about what it means to stand in the wreckage when the world expects you to move on, how Erin transformed her own experiences of childhood trauma, divorce, and loss into something meaningful, and what it looks like to keep becomin...

Amanda sits down with Kiersten Hathcock to explore intuition, identity, reinvention, and what it means to trust yourself when life asks you to take a leap that doesn’t make sense on paper. Together, they talk about following an inner pull that defies logic — from building a business out of a garage to stepping into deeply unexpected work supporting law enforcement and grieving families. Kiersten s...

A physician who spent her career guiding women through pregnancy and birth, Dr. Buckheit suddenly found herself on the other side of care. A severe case of sepsis during pregnancy led to a life-threatening medical crisis and a preterm birth at 27 weeks, forcing her into a reality where expertise couldn’t protect her and control was no longer possible. Together, they talk about the emotional and ph...

Together, they talk about navigating pregnancy loss and the sudden passing of a sibling, how grief can feel isolating and disorienting, and what it looks like to slowly rebuild a life that no longer feels the same. Natasha shares how her faith, writing, and willingness to face her pain head-on became anchors in her healing.

At nine years old, Tiffany Yu lost her father and acquired a permanent disability in the same car accident. She has spent the decades since building one of the world's most prominent disability advocacy communities — and figuring out, layer by layer, who she actually is beyond everything that happened to her.

In this episode of Who We Become — Life Beyond Change , Amanda sits down with Abby Maslin to explore caregiving, grief, rebuilding, identity, marriage, and resilience after trauma.

You Don't Finish Becoming.  You Just Keep Doing It. A solo reflection on Season 1 — what it held, what it taught, and what it means to have built the space Amanda needed and couldn't find anywhere else.

When a cancer diagnosis arrives, it doesn't just change your health — it changes your work, your insurance, your income, your sense of stability. Monica Bryant has spent fifteen years making sure people know they have rights in all of those areas. This conversation is about what she built, what it cost her, and why she keeps going.

In this episode of Who We Become — Life Beyond Change , Amanda sits down with her mom, Aileen Smalling , to explore caregiving across generations, identity, faith, resilience, and what it means when the strong one becomes the one who needs care. Together, they talk about watching a mother fight cancer at six years old, stepping into the role of caregiver decades later for her own daughter during t...

In this episode of Who We Become — Life Beyond Change , Amanda Lentz sits down with Samantha Harris to explore identity, survivorship, self-advocacy, and rebuilding after a life-changing breast cancer diagnosis. Together, they talk about the emotional shock of being diagnosed despite multiple “clear” screenings, the overwhelming process of navigating treatment decisions as a young mother, and the...

Together, Amanda Lentz and Casey Kang talk about the shock of an unexpected leukemia diagnosis, the physical and emotional toll of treatment and relapse, and how survivorship can feel just as isolating as the illness itself. Casey shares what it really looks like to move beyond survival—and how she transformed her pain into purpose through her work with The Happier Hustle. This conversation is for...

Amanda sits down with Rhonda Payne to explore grief, resilience, caregiving, identity, and what it means to rebuild a life when everything changes. Together, they talk about walking through a mother’s cancer journey, facing a diagnosis of her own, and how Rhonda transformed unimaginable loss into purpose — ultimately stepping away from corporate life to build something entirely her own. This conve...

In this episode of Who We Become , Amanda Lentz sits down with Liz Vasquez to explore what it means to keep living — and keep advocating — in the wake of profound loss. Together they talk about how grief can quietly become a calling, why the world doesn't stop for a cancer diagnosis, and what it looks like to turn a deeply painful chapter into a life's mission.

In this episode of Who We Become — Life Beyond Change , Amanda sits down with Matthew Zachary to explore survivorship, identity, advocacy, disruption, and what it means to keep becoming after a life-changing diagnosis. Together, they talk about being diagnosed with a brain tumor at 21, losing the future he thought he was building as a concert pianist and composer, and how that rupture became the s...

In this episode of Who We Become — Life Beyond Change , Amanda sits down with Erica Neubert Campbell to explore grief, identity, survivorship, and how women reclaim their power after a breast cancer diagnosis. Together, they talk about the emotional weight of growing up with cancer already shaping her life after losing her mother to the disease, and how that history created years of anxiety leadin...

When Megan-Claire Chase — known to many as Warrior Megsie — began experiencing symptoms, she spent more than two years fighting to be believed. By the time she was finally diagnosed with Stage 2A invasive lobular breast cancer , the battle had already taken a deep emotional toll. In this episode of Who We Become — Life Beyond Change , Amanda sits down with Megan-Claire to talk about what survivors...

In this powerful episode, I sit down with the heart behind Pink Ink Tattoo, Tara Williamson, to explore her personal journey, the experiences that shaped her calling, and what led her to launch a business and foundation rooted in service and compassion. We explore the stories behind restorative tattooing, supporting survivors, and creating a space where people feel seen after trauma, illness, and...

In this episode of Who We Become — Life Beyond Change , Amanda sits down with Meredith Nye to explore grief, healing, caregiving, and how identity evolves after cancer. Together, they talk about the shock of an unexpected cancer diagnosis during a busy season of life, how Meredith navigated treatment while raising young children, and what it looks like to rebuild a sense of normalcy after treatmen...

In this episode of Who We Become — Life Beyond Change , Amanda sits down with Becky Horn , Executive Director of Pretty in Pink Foundation, to explore financial toxicity, survivorship, dignity, and what real support looks like during breast cancer treatment.

When Kimberly Stevenson sat in the doctor’s office and heard the words, “Do you want me to be blunt? This is cancer,” life changed instantly. But the hardest moment wasn’t the diagnosis. It was telling her kids. In this episode of Who We Become — Life Beyond Change , Amanda sits down with Kimberly — a wife, mom, realtor, and cancer survivor — to talk about what it’s really like to walk through ill...

Survival is often treated like an ending — a moment of relief, gratitude, and closure. But for many, survival is just the beginning of a much quieter, more complicated chapter. In this episode of Who We Become, Life Beyond Change , host Amanda shares her personal experience of survival and the identity shift that followed. She explores what it feels like to live in the aftermath — when treatment e...

We talk a lot about the moments that change our lives — the diagnosis, the loss, the decision that divides life into before and after . But we don’t talk enough about what comes next. In this episode of Who We Become, Life Beyond Change , host Amanda explores the quiet, often overlooked space after change — when the world expects you to move forward, but you’re still figuring out who you are now....

Life has a way of changing us in an instant — through illness, loss, caregiving, or moments that quietly divide life into before and after . In this opening episode of Who We Become, Life Beyond Change , host Amanda introduces the heart behind the podcast and the space it’s meant to hold. This is a place for honest conversations about identity, resilience, and what it means to move forward after l...