Chronically Candid

This week on Chronically Candid, Morgan sits down with Caleigh Haber, CF patient advocate and consultant, speaker, and founder of Fight2Breathe, a rare disease advocacy platform reaching over 100,000 people in 30 countries. Caleigh was born with cystic fibrosis, lives with CF-related diabetes, and has been through two double lung transplants. Morgan has followed her story online for years, and thi...

This week on Chronically Candid, Morgan sits down with Kirsten Michelle Cills — Philadelphia-native standup comedian, terminally ill cystic fibrosis (CF) patient, oxygen-tank-toting road warrior, and the kind of guest who makes you laugh two seconds before she wrecks you. Kirsten has headlined clubs and colleges across the country, opened for names like Judy Gold and Laurie Kilmartin, and picked u...

This week on Chronically Candid, Morgan sits down with Avalon George — Minneapolis-based writer and author of the debut middle grade novel Ivy Ever After , out this October — for a conversation that feels less like an interview and more like two old friends finally getting the chance to talk. Before diving in, Avalon shows off her yearly vision board tradition (this year's made a few months late,...

In this Fireside Friday, Morgan shares a quick life update — the twins started kindergarten this week, and while her daughter breezed in with old friends by her side, watching her son put on a brave face despite feeling some anxiety made her so proud and was a bittersweet realization of his budding maturity. Morgan reads her essay Fear and Joy: Two Sides of the Same Coin — a reflection on chasing...

PART TWO OF TWO | Trigger warnings: Emotional abuse, suicidal ideation In part one of this two-part conversation, Morgan sits down with Lindsay Lion Lord — neurodivergent, legally blind art witch and recent MFA graduate — to trace the arc of a life shaped by an evangelical upbringing that dimmed her light, an abusive psychological cult she escaped at 19, and the shunning that followed. They dig in...

PART ONE OF TWO | Trigger warnings: Emotional abuse, suicidal ideation Morgan sits down with Lindsay Lion Lord — neurodivergent, legally blind visual artist and recent MFA graduate in Fibres and Material Practices from Concordia University in Montreal — for a conversation that is raw, funny, and fiercely honest. Lindsay opens up about receiving her diagnosis of retinitis pigmentosa just as she was...

There's something quietly full-circle about this episode. Kelly Esparza — editor in chief of FLARE Literary Magazine , freelance editor, and writer living with lupus — was a stranger to Morgan until Kelly accepted her very first piece of published writing into FLARE . That single acceptance set something in motion. And now they're here, talking for the first time face to face (virtually), about wh...

Welcome to Fireside Friday! In this cozy, unfiltered solo episode, Morgan checks in with a few life updates before reading a poem close to her heart. She shares about the decision to step back from millennial nostalgia content on Instagram — a move that felt harder than it probably sounds, given how well it was performing. But when she fast-forwarded in her mind and asked where is this actually ta...

Morgan sits down with Lindsay Sparks — Registered Dietitian Nutritionist, certified intuitive eating counselor, sobriety mentor, mom of two, backyard chicken keeper, and self-described chronic over-sharer — for a conversation that wastes absolutely no time getting to the good stuff. Lindsay shares her story growing up in a military family, moving every four years, and being a deeply shy, highly se...

This week on Chronically Candid, Morgan sits down with Cindy Baldwin — disability activist, award-winning children's author of Where the Watermelons Grow and No Matter the Distance (the first novel about cystic fibrosis written by an author with CF), and founder of The Salty Pen, a writing support community for writers with CF across all genres and experience levels. The conversation they have is...

This week on Chronically Candid, Morgan sits down with artist and arts leader Kelly Yarbrough for a rich, wide-ranging conversation about what it means to truly belong to a place — and how art, curiosity, and a willingness to be a forever student can completely reshape the way you move through the world. Kelly — painter, drawer, MFA graduate of Kansas State University, and founder of the Tallgrass...

This week on Chronically Candid , Morgan sits down with writer Carrie Etzel for a layered, thoughtful conversation about growing up inside an authoritarian, evangelical subculture, unraveling purity culture and discovering who you are outside of that subculture when you have no 'blueprint' to follow. Carrie—essayist, Substack writer at Sister Swan , romance novelist, and mom of five—shares how nar...

In this episode of Chronically Candid, host Morgan Barrett talks with Book of the Month author Thea Weiss about writing her debut novel The Second Chance Cinema amid the grief of losing both of her parents and early motherhood. Morgan and Thea talk about forging ahead and taking creative leaps even when you don't feel completely 'ready', the importance of celebrating small wins, accepting rejectio...

Morgan turns 34 today! In this Fireside Fridays episode, host Morgan Barrett pauses to reflect on where she is now—six years into taking Trikafta, three weeks into sobriety, and committed to therapy work that’s teaching her how to finally feel safe in her body. Morgan reads a piece she wrote in 2021, about the times (pre-Trikafta) when every CF exacerbation put the brakes on whatever she had...

This episode of Chronically Candid feels like a cozy, heartfelt conversation between two Millennial women who genuinely get each other. Host Morgan welcomes Elizabeth Su —author, creator, and the mind behind the Everyday Millennial Oracle —and together they gently unravel what it means to acknowledge and heal our inner teen in a world that seems to ask us to disregard our feelings and experiences...

In this Fireside Fridays episode, host Morgan Barrett reflects on returning to the podcast after a long hiatus and marks a deeply personal turning point in her life. Looking back on the past three years, Morgan shares how her relationship with alcohol gradually became something she could no longer ignore—and how, after years of fear and hesitation, she attended her first Alcoholics Anonymous meeti...

In this episode of Chronically Candid , host Morgan Barrett returns after a year-long break to explore her long-held dream of becoming a published author through a heartfelt conversation with literary agent Jessica Berg of Rosecliff Literary. Morgan reflects on how chronic illness—especially her lifelong experience with cystic fibrosis—has shaped her creative voice and inspired her mission to buil...

Welcome to the Chronically Candid podcast! I haven’t recorded anything for a year, but I’m back with a solo episode! Life updates: Our kids are back at school full time & I’m back at work full time An Instagram post I chickened out of sharing  WRITING MY FIRST BOOK: How it’s going & answering the question, “What’s it about?” Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Get...

Hey, friends! It's been a while. Well, almost four months! This episode is a little life & mental health update, and some words on how I'm getting out of my own way and pursuing a lifelong dream of writing. The podcast is being featured at cff.org/blog , so I wanted to say hello to folks who may be listening for the first time. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Get f...

In episode 19 of the Makers, Dreamers, Doers podcast, Morgan talks with Jessica Grider, a fellow mom-of-twins (+ a singleton!), high school librarian, hobby gardener, and writer. Morgan and Jessica compare notes on their experiences with finding out they were having twins, twin pregnancy, C-section birth, (tandem) breastfeeding, and the emotions that come with weaning but knowing that it's 'time'....

In episode 18, Morgan sits down with Nancy O'Connor, the Executive Director at Growing Food Growing Health, a non-profit in Lawrence, Kansas which runs school gardens and a community garden at a women's residential drug addiction treatment center (Growing Food Growing Hope). Nancy shares her love for fresh, organic, locally-grown food through a conversation on how Growing Food Growing Health began...

In episode 17, Morgan sits down with her friend Farai Harreld to talk about breaking generational cycles, motherhood, home schooling, representation in education, and instilling a love for nature in children. Farai is a mother, spouse, writer, herbalist, and much more. Born in Zimbabwe, raised in Botswana, and now living in Kansas, she calls all three places home. Farai is thoughtful and intention...

A piece Morgan wrote for the Lawrence Times (never got published) about her favorite local coffee spot, La Prima Tazza. Instagram | Website Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Get full access to Chronically Candid at morgannbarrett.substack.com/subscribe Support my work by reading & subscribing to Chronically Candid on Substack at morgannbarrett.substack.com Hosted on...

For Episode 16, Morgan sits down with Tayanna (Tay) Nelson, the photographer and owner of GoodBodies, a KC boudoir photography business, and Hey Tay, a queer-focused KC wedding & portrait photography business. Morgan and Tay talk about why Tay's photography focuses on marginalized identities, what trauma-informed boudoir means & what it looks like in Tay's studio, unpacking society's body...

In episode 15 of the Makers, Dreamers, Doers podcast, Morgan talks with her longtime friend, Jess McLaughlin—In 2019, Jess suffered a serious mental health crisis that landed her in the hospital for months, rendering her catatonic and unable to communicate. Today, Jess is living a full life as a working mom and wife, fully recovered from her traumatic 2019 experience thanks to ECT (electroconvulsi...