Yuliana Kim-Grant's Phoenix Tales

This week, Yuliana is joined by guest Laura Hill, who opens up the episode to talk about the moment she decided to leave her husband after 30 years of marriage. Having met when she was 19 and he was 10 years her senior, Laura had to mature at a young age, eventually realizing that she had a lot of growing to do, and that this needed to take place outside of her marriage.  Since then, she’s le...

This week on Phoenix Tales, Yuliana welcomes author, speaker, and former Associate Dean and Chief Communications Officer, Harvard Medical School, Gina Vild to the podcast. Gina talks today about losing her mother, her father’s stroke, and her own subsequent divorce, noting that her parents’ deaths played large roles in her decision to get a divorce. These events revealed to her that life is simply...

Sharon Simpson joins Yuliana today to talk about her work in the art industry and what it was like growing up in Belfast during the war. She opens up the conversation by talking about a tough time she went through when her husband’s new job forced her to move away from hers.  She notes that she felt worse, not because she lost an income, but because she lost her community.  Sharon goes o...

This week on Phoenix Tales, Yuliana talks to Leehe Segal, a jewelry designer and the owner of Bleecker and Prince. In their conversation, Leehe delves into her experiences in the Israeli army, what it was like delivering her second child at home, and moving to Singapore.  She starts today’s conversation by recounting her decision to have an at-home birth - delivering a baby under COVID protoc...

On this week’s episode of Phoenix Tales, Giulia Pline joins Yuliana today to discuss the skiing accident that changed her life mentally, physically, and emotionally.  An ex dancer turned yoga instructor, Giulia feels that the accident taught her to appreciate her body and its resilience.  After breaking her arm, collarbone, six ribs, puncturing her lung, and lacerating a liver in the acc...

Documentary filmmaker and author Ann Shin joins Yuliana on the podcast this week. Ann’s documentary My Enemy, My Brother was shortlisted for a 2016 Academy Award and nominated for an Emmy. Her previous documentary, The Defector: Escape from North Korea, won 7 awards including Best Documentary and Best Documentary Director at the 2014 Canadian Screen Academy Awards, a SXSW Interactive Award, and a...

On this episode of Phoenix Tales, Yuliana welcomes Kelly Fife, a psychologist in the public school system who hopes to help children who grow up with troubling family situations.  She opens the episode by describing the moment her father suggested that she attend her first Al-Anon meeting. Growing up with parents who abused alcohol, she notes that the chaotic nature of her household led her t...

On this week’s episode of Phoenix Tales, Yuliana welcomes Pam Reece to the show to talk about the moment when her father lost his job, his subsequent battle with Alzheimer’s disease, and how those events shaped her outlook on life. A  former yoga instructor who now offers her many skills to help women in corporate America achieve success, Reece opens today’s conversation by describing the len...

Yuliana welcomes New York City lawyer, Paola Garcia, to the podcast today.  After running away from her sheltered life and home in Mexico at the age of 18, Paola was forced to reckon with her status as a Mexican immigrant in the U.S. and American culture at large.  She recalls the shock she experienced when coming to the U.S. after growing up in the rather strict Mexican class system, an...

Rashanna Green joins Yuliana today as the pair discuss Green’s mother and her life-altering battle with late onset Schizophrenia. A Dartmouth graduate turned nonprofit executive and forest yoga lineage guardian, Rashanna details the moment she decided to institutionalize her mother, how that choice impacted her own psyche, and the stigma surrounding mental health in the black community. Green begi...

Joining Yuliana today is Rebecca Babcock, CPC, ELI-MP, CLDS. A career and executive leadership coach, Rebecca has an advanced degree in Human and Organizational Development and Group Dynamics from Vanderbilt University and over 20 years experience as a Sales and Marketing Executive at global blue chip companies and tech startups including Conde Nast (VOGUE, GQ, LUCKY and Glamour), eBay, Taboola an...

Author, grieving mother, quotidian philosopher and optimist, Maryanne O’Hara, joins Yuliana on the podcast today. A remarkably accomplished individual, Maryanne has earned her MFA from Emerson College, taught creative writing at both Enerson and Clark University, and has written short stories, the novel CASCADE , and the memoir LITTLE MATCHES. She has also suffered the loss of her beloved daughter...

This week’s very special guest is Michelle Lepp, a fully accredited NASM personal trainer and 500 hour yoga instructor with an emphasis in yoga therapeutics whose passion is helping others improve their physical and mental health. Michelle is also a cancer survivor, and today she shares her inspiring phoenix tale of how she was faced with her cancer diagnosis just weeks into her marriage, was unwi...

This week's episode of Phoenix Tales contains descriptions and discussion of sexual abuse and trauma. Listener discretion is advised. In today’s episode, Yuliana is joined by Gina de la Chesnaye, who shares her phoenix tale of surviving parental sexual abuse to become a humanitarian worker with traumatized communities. In her work, Gina draws on her own painful past to teach these communities how...

Today’s guest is Ellen Greenberg. a designer and the owner and director of Quick Culture, a global, art tour and cultural travel company. Among her other roles, Ellen has also been an instructor at the Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising, has guest lectured at UCLA, holds Docent Program certificates at both The Getty Center and LACMA, and is the author of Inside Chocolate , a pictorial...

Yolanda Colon, an executive in the finance industry, joins Yuliana today to share the tragic story of the stillborn death of her son and also how she found the strength and courage to take back her life after the brutal end of her 24-year marriage. Her story is one of courage and self-awareness which, as you will hear, has made her the phoenix that she is today. Yolanda begins by sharing the event...

What does it take to nurse a child with special needs? Author, shoemaker, and health advocate Christina Chiu knows just what it takes as her son was born with a rare syndrome. She joins Yuliana today to share her inspiring phoenix tale on how she takes on the challenges that come her way and how she continues to do what it takes to give her son the best life possible. Christina starts the conversa...

Kathy Casey sits down with Yuliana today to share her own phoenix tale of how she reinvented herself and followed her passion after losing a part of herself to her divorce and forced retirement. Both of these life events naturally had significant impacts upon Kathy and the path her life was following, Through courage and compassion, Kathy overcame these obstacles and today shares how this has fuel...

Joining Yuliana today is Sari Velar, a yoga teacher and yoga therapist, to share her incredible phoenix tale. Over 20 years ago, Sari turned to yoga as an alternative therapy after a life-threatening cancer diagnosis and a subsequent battle with an eating disorder and addiction. These days, Sari facilitates classes at local cancer and mental health treatment centers, hospitals, and with Warrior Fl...

Roni Jackson, Co-Founder of Red Flag Mania, joins Yuliana today to share her inspiring phoenix tale. Roni identifies and expands upon two inflection points in her life that altered her trajectory considerably. The first, losing her mother at a young age, and the second, being forced to give up her long time career, both had significant impacts upon her life, helping to shape her and become the res...

Functional medicine practitioner, Dr. Susan Lovelle, joins Yuliana today for a truly fascinating conversation. Currently the Founder and CEO of Premiere Wellness, Dr. Susan spent 14 years as a professional ballet dancer after which she became a physician specializing in plastic surgery. In her current role with Premiere Wellness, she is thrilled to now be supporting women to heal from the inside o...

Chiropractor, cookbook author, food blogger and healthy living proponent, Dr. Karen Lee, joins Yuiliana today to share her story of how she navigated being a child immigrant in a new country and having to take on the responsibility of caring for her brothers at a young age. This caring nature, developed over the years, helped form Dr. Karen’s love of caring for people which manifested itself throu...

Joining Yuliana this week is Coco Cohen, a leading fitness professional based in New York. Coco tells her courageous story of giving up her daughter for adoption to give her daughter the wonderful life that she, herself, was unable to provide. As any mother would testify, this has to be the most painful sacrifice a parent could make, and today, Coco reveals how she made this supremely difficult de...

Losing a parent has a devastating effect, and losing the parent to suicide can bring compounding grief and anger. On the show today, Liz Bailey, a solicitor living in London, joins Yuliana to discuss losing her father to suicide and how the work she put into dealing with it gave her the courage to step outside the shadow cast by this tragedy and forge a solid path to an inspiring llife filled with...

Joining Yuliana on the show this week is Meta Wagner, the author of What's Your Creative Type: Harness the Power of Your Artistic Personality , and an instructor of creative and communications writing at Emerson College. In addition to her writing and teaching careers, Meta has held executive positions in the marketing and public relations fields, receiving multiple awards from professional organi...