Walking the Genetic Line

Episode summary Randi Eichenbaum was 19 when her mother died of ovarian cancer. Somewhere in those years she absorbed a quiet belief: this is going to happen to me too. Years later, a new OB-GYN recommended genetic testing based on her family history. The BRCA2 result came by phone from a third-party lab while she was at work, followed by an emailed PDF that no one walked her through. She put it i...

Episode summary In May 2022, at 30 years old, Jaclyn found a lump in her breast. Her doctor, seeing no family history and a young, healthy patient, suggested she wait a week and see if it was still there. Jaclyn didn't take no for an answer — she asked for a mammogram, and within a single day learned she had DCIS, an early-stage breast cancer. What came next moved at a speed she describes as "medi...

EPISODE SUMMARY Kathy Baker grew up in a family that, as she puts it, "looked like a poster for a BRCA mutation" — a sister diagnosed with breast cancer at 31, a mother with three primary cancers, a grandfather lost to aggressive prostate cancer, a great-grandmother lost to pancreatic cancer. And still, when genetic testing became available, Kathy said no. Not out of denial exactly, but out of a f...

EPISODE SUMMARY Sharsheret is the Hebrew word for chain. Not a ribbon, not a fight, not a cure — a chain. Twenty-five years in, that name turns out to be the most precise available description of the work: over 40,000 people who have shared their experience, peer matches made not by mutation status but by the specific thing you are afraid of, social workers and genetic counselors who answer the ph...

Episode Summary A visible tumor changed two lives at once. When Holly Taylor's sister was diagnosed at 45 with simultaneous stage 3 ovarian and breast cancer — tumors large enough to see with the naked eye, discovered only after years of avoiding care without health insurance — genetic testing entered Holly's life as an extension of her sister's crisis rather than a decision of her own. An initial...

Guest: Marleah Dean Kruzel, PhD Theme: Uncertainty as a Lifetime Companion, Not a Problem to Solve Episode Summary Marleah Dean Kruzel was 8 years old when her mother found a lump. What followed were years of surgeries, chemotherapy, radiation, and a childhood lived largely in hospitals — experiences that eventually became the foundation of a research career dedicated to understanding what previvo...

Guest: Natalie Samson Hart, MS, CGC, INHC Theme: Genetic Counseling as a Gateway to Whole-Person Care   Episode Summary Natalie Samson Hart didn't come to oncology genetic counseling through a tidy career trajectory. She came through loss, confusion, and proximity to illness — a brother whose neurodivergence led her toward the intersection of science and human connection, a father diagnosed with s...

Guest: Krista (Oncology Nurse Navigator) Theme: Self-Advocacy, ATM Mutation, Cancer After Previvorhood   EPISODE SUMMARY When Krista's mother was 48, she became the first known cancer diagnosis in their family. She tested negative for BRCA mutations and felt relief — relief that she wouldn't pass anything on to her children. Twelve years later, just before entering hospice, she was offered expande...

Guest: Ali Hall Theme: Queer Identity, Bodily Autonomy, and the BRCA Diagnosis Nobody Saw Coming Episode Summary When Ali Hall stole a 23andMe kit from a family white elephant exchange, she wasn't looking for anything life-changing. Five years later, an email arrived while she was picking her kid up from school: her results had been updated. She had a BRCA mutation. What followed wasn't panic — an...

Episode Summary Jennifer never knew her biological father growing up — and when she finally let him back into her life at 25, what he brought with him was a medical history that would change everything. Phone call after phone call, a new cancer. Eight-plus organ cancers. Over a hundred skin cancers. Years before anyone thought to offer him a genetic test. When Lynch Syndrome MSH2 was finally ident...

Host: Sara Champie, LCSW Theme: Navigating medical vulnerability, global instability, and nervous system overwhelm during hereditary cancer risk and treatment. Episode summary What happens when your body is healing, your life is medically uncertain, and the world around you feels like it's unraveling? In this solo episode, therapist Sara Champie explores a reality many people navigating hereditary...

Guest: Katie McMurray Theme: BRCA1, sisterhood, developmental trauma, and choosing preventative surgery in young adulthood Episode summary When Katie was 17, she lost her mother to breast cancer. Years later, genetic testing confirmed what she had long suspected: she carries a BRCA1 mutation. In this episode, Katie and Sara Champie explore what happens when grief resurfaces through genetic testing...

Guest: Ingrid Nishimoto, LCSW Theme: Inherited Narratives—Moving Beyond the Parent's Story to Claim Your Own Episode Summary When Ingrid Nishimoto was diagnosed with Peutz-Jeghers Syndrome at age 17, she wasn't just handed a medical management plan; she was handed a mirror of her father's life and early death. In this profound conversation with Sara Champie, LCSW , Ingrid explores the "Time Collap...

Guest: Sara Kavanaugh Theme: Living as a Previvor—Agency, Advocacy, and Reframing Anxiety After Genetic Testing Episode summary When Sara Kavanaugh learned she carried mutations in her MSH6 (Lynch syndrome) and Check2 genes, she moved from decades of health anxiety—and ambiguous uncertainty—to a new sense of empowerment and structure. In this dialogue with psychotherapist and fellow traveler Sara...

Guest: Sara Kourouma Theme: Loss, agency, and community—the emotional journey of living with BRCA2 Episode summary When Sara Kourouma discovered she carried the BRCA2 mutation as a young adult—after losing her mother to breast cancer at age 10—she was thrust into a landscape defined by uncertainty, risk, and the weight of generational loss. In this episode, Sara Champie sits down with Sara Kouroum...

Episode Summary When Beth Martinetti—Pilates instructor, mother of three, and lifelong student of her own body—discovered multiple genetic mutations at 45, it was the latest chapter in a lifetime shaped by both visible and invisible challenges. Beth shares her journey from adolescent injury and Ehlers-Danlos diagnosis, through complicated pregnancies, to a midlife cascade: mysterious symptoms, piv...

Guest: Dr. Corinne Menn Theme: Claiming agency in hereditary cancer risk, surgical menopause, and a new era of HRT care Episode summary When Dr. Corinne Menn —board certified OB/GYN, Menopause Society certified practitioner, 23+ year breast cancer survivor, and BRCA2 carrier—joins us, she brings unparalleled lived and clinical expertise to walking the genetic line. In this conversation, Dr. Corinn...

Guest: Martha Kaiser Theme: Walking with CDKN2A, Ancestral Discovery, and Agency in Rare Genetic Mutations Episode Summary When Martha Kaiser discovered she carries the rare CDKN2A gene mutation—known for elevating risks of melanoma and pancreatic cancer—her journey shifted from uncertainty, loss, and family trauma to active agency and deep exploration. In this conversation, she shares not only th...

🧬 Episode Summary In this solo episode, host Sara Champie, LCSW , explores one of the most common phrases in medicine and psychology— evidence-based care —and what it really means when we apply it to lived human experience. Sara walks us through the two definitions that often get conflated: evidence-based research , which measures outcomes in controlled studies, and evidence-based practice , whic...

Guest: Katherine Lewandowski Theme: Choosing care, surviving change, and finding a stronger self after prophylactic surgery Episode summary When Katherine learned at 43 that she carried BRCA2 —shortly after her father's metastatic prostate cancer diagnosis—she moved from shock and shame to decisive action. In this conversation, she shares how grief, meticulous research, and a values-aligned care t...

Episode Summary In this deeply moving conversation, we meet Lisa, a 50-year-old woman from the UK navigating her BRCA2 genetic mutation. After undergoing an oophorectomy and preparing for a double mastectomy, Lisa shares candidly about her journey through testing, family reactions, and the intimate decisions around reconstruction, femininity, and sexuality. Together, we explore how genetic testing...

Episode Summary: In this solo episode of Walking the Genetic Line , therapist and host Sara Champie invites listeners to explore a subtle but powerful distinction: the difference between external safety and internal security . Through a trauma-informed lens, Sara reflects on how our nervous systems constantly scan for safety—and how our earliest relationships shape the way we respond to uncertaint...

Episode Summary In this powerful conversation, Dr. LaDeana Jeane—naturopathic doctor and integrative oncology specialist—shares her expertise and personal story. LaDeana blends medical training with lived experience, offering a unique perspective on how hereditary cancer risk intersects with hormonal health, prophylactic surgeries, and long-term survivorship. She opens up about undergoing a bilate...

Episode Summary: In this solo episode, I explore one of the most debated areas of care for BRCA mutation carriers: hormone replacement therapy (HRT). While evidence—including the 2016 North American Menopause Society (NAMS) Practice Pearl—supports the use of systemic HRT for many BRCA carriers after risk-reducing surgery, fear and cultural stigma around hormones continue to shape medical recommend...

This podcast, Walking the Genetic Line, was made to create a container in which there are no right or wrongs about how to relate with genetic testing results. This space was made to explore how we are impacted hereditary cancer, what influences our experience, what we wrestle with— and FEEL—about this information. Danielle Service brought her raw, unfiltered truth to this interview: how genetic te...