No One Is Normal

Life rarely asks whether you're ready before it changes the plan. Bart Merrell knows that better than most. In this episode of the No One Is Normal Podcast , I sit down with Bart, known as The Side Hustle Samurai , to talk about resilience, entrepreneurship, financial security, and what happens when the future you expected suddenly disappears. Bart once planned to join the FBI and chase serial...

Most people don't wake up one day and intentionally build a life they don't want. It usually happens one small decision at a time. We put things off. We tell ourselves we'll deal with it later. We hope life somehow organizes itself while we stay busy reacting to whatever shows up next. Before long, months or even years have passed, and we're still wondering why nothing seems to change. In this epi...

There comes a point when surviving is no longer enough. You can check all the boxes. Build the career. Earn the degree. Get married. Have children. Accomplish everything you thought was supposed to make you happy. And still feel disconnected from yourself. In this episode of the No One Is Normal Podcast , I sit down with Brandi (Bee) Doyle , Army combat veteran, former nurse practitioner, coach, a...

There is a strange kind of confidence that can come from getting your life together. You become dependable. You build a career. You handle responsibility. People trust you. From the outside, it can look like growth, maturity, and self-awareness all rolled into one. The problem is that functioning well is not the same thing as seeing yourself clearly. In this episode of the No One Is Normal Podcast...

Most people never think about accessibility until they need it. They walk into buildings without wondering if everyone can get through the door. They make plans without thinking about whether the space was designed for everyone. They assume the world works because, for them, most of the time it does. In this episode of the No One Is Normal Podcast , I sit down with Jenna Udenberg , educator, autho...

People use the word normal like the definition is obvious. But most of us were handed that definition long before we were old enough to question it. In this episode of the No One Is Normal Podcast , I talk about the difference between what is familiar, what is healthy, and what people judge simply because they do not understand it. We explore how family, school, work, culture, trauma, disability,...

Some losses do not happen all at once. Sometimes they unfold slowly. Over years. Through caregiving, exhaustion, changing roles, and the quiet grief of watching someone you love slowly fade in front of you while life keeps moving around you. In this episode of the No One Is Normal Podcast , I sit down with Debbie Weiss to talk about caregiving, grief, burnout, identity, and what happens after surv...

Death changes more than the room. It changes the people standing in it. In this episode of the No One Is Normal Podcast , I talk about grief, funerals, family dynamics, and the things death exposes once there is no more pretending that time is unlimited. This is not a philosophical conversation about death from a distance. It is about the version people actually live through. The hospital rooms. T...

Addiction rarely starts with the substance. In this episode of the No One Is Normal Podcast , I sit down with Jennifer Chase , recovery coach, speaker, and founder of Rise Addiction Life Coaching , to talk about addiction from three perspectives: daughter of an alcoholic, addict, and mother of a child struggling with addiction. Jennifer shares how trauma, childhood instability, and years of emotio...

A lot of adulthood starts making more sense once you understand the emotional climate you grew up in. In this episode of the No One Is Normal Podcast , I talk about family life, instability, and the quiet ways childhood shapes who we become long before we have language for any of it. This is not about blaming family or putting private moments on trial. It is about understanding what happens when u...

There’s a point in life where everything can look fine on the outside… but internally, something feels completely off. In this episode of the No One Is Normal Podcast , I sit down with Randy Bishop to talk about identity, authenticity, and what it really means to start over later in life. Randy opens up about approaching 60 and realizing that despite a lifetime of experience, success, and roles he...

At some point, I had to stop asking how to become “normal” and start asking a different question: Now what? In this episode of No One Is Normal , I talk about what happens after the realization hits that normal was never really the goal in the first place. Because so many people spend years trying to force themselves into expectations, identities, careers, relationships, or lifestyles that were ne...

Healing is not a straight line. It is messy, frustrating, emotional, and at times feels impossible. After a six-part series sharing the reality of living through domestic abuse, Bonnie Hill joins me for a raw and honest conversation about what happens after survival. Because leaving is not the end of the story. In this episode of the No One Is Normal Podcast , Bonnie opens up about the healing pro...

This is Part 6 of 6 in Bonnie’s story. Healing does not begin the moment someone leaves. In many ways, that is where the real work starts. In the final chapter of Bonnie’s story, survival finally begins making room for something unfamiliar: peace. But healing is rarely simple. After years of fear, control, emotional exhaustion, and learning how to survive, rebuilding a life means learning how to t...

This is Part 5 of 6 in Bonnie’s story. Sometimes the moments that change our lives are not loud or dramatic. Sometimes they build quietly until one final sequence of events makes it impossible to ignore what has been true for far too long. In part five of Bonnie’s story, everything begins moving toward a breaking point. The emotional weight of survival reaches a place where difficult truths can no...

This is Part 4 of 6 in Bonnie’s story There comes a point in survival where exhaustion replaces hope. When surviving no longer feels temporary, and the weight of carrying everything alone begins changing who you are. In part four of Bonnie’s story, the downward spiral deepens. Fear becomes routine. Emotional exhaustion settles in. The distance between who Bonnie once was and who survival forced he...

This is Part 3 of 6 in Bonnie’s story. Some decisions leave marks that never fully disappear. Not because they were easy, but because survival sometimes forces choices no one should ever have to make. In part three of Bonnie’s story, the emotional toll deepens as fear, control, and instability begin shaping impossible decisions. The weight of survival grows heavier. The lines between hope, guilt,...

This is Part 2 of 6 in Bonnie’s story. Sometimes the hardest part about emotional abuse is that it rarely arrives all at once. It builds quietly. Slowly. Through confusion, manipulation, guilt, fear, and the constant feeling that maybe somehow everything is your fault. In part two of Bonnie’s story, the emotional weight deepens. What once felt manageable begins shifting into something harder to ex...

This is Part 1 of 6 in Bonnie’s story. Some wounds do not begin with violence. They begin quietly. Slowly. In the moments we dismiss, excuse, or explain away because we want to believe things will get better. In this deeply personal and emotional six-part series, Bonnie shares the beginning of a story that many people never fully understand from the outside. A story of survival that did not look d...

What would you do if your life changed overnight… twice? In this episode of the No One Is Normal Podcast , I sit down with Kirk McCarley just days after he was hit by a truck while cycling. With broken ribs, a concussion, and 16 stitches in his head, Kirk shares what it feels like to face life from a completely different perspective — again. This isn’t the first time. Kirk also opens up about surv...

Gratitude sounds simple until life gives me every reason not to feel it. In this episode of No One Is Normal , I talk about the difference between fake positivity and real gratitude. Not the social media version. Not pretending everything is perfect. Real gratitude is harder than that. It’s learning how to recognize what still matters while life is uncomfortable, uncertain, frustrating, or painful...

Some paths are shaped by talent. Others are shaped by the people who step in at the right time. In this episode of the No One Is Normal Podcast , I sit down with Olaolu Ogunyemi , United States Marine, author, and founder of Parent Child Connect , to talk about the role mentorship, failure, and environment play in shaping who we become. Olaolu shares how growing up in Louisiana, the right mentors...

There is a line in life most people never clearly see. The line between what we can control and what we cannot. In this episode of the No One Is Normal Podcast , I talk about what happens when we spend our lives trying to control everything except the one thing that is actually ours. Ourselves. I share personal stories about guilt, loss, relationships, and decisions that forced me to confront how...

Some struggles hide in plain sight. They can last for years, sometimes decades, while the outside world sees something completely different. In this episode of the No One Is Normal Podcast , I sit down with Robin Clare , bestselling author and creator of the Harmony Method , to talk about her journey through more than forty years of battling obsessive eating and bulimia. Robin shares how trauma, s...

There is a place most of us visit far more often than we admit. It is not our kitchen, our bedroom, or the office. It is the past. In this episode of the No One Is Normal Podcast , I talk about what it really means to stop living in the rearview mirror and start taking control of what comes next. For a long time, my past was not just something that happened. It became my explanation for everything...