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Take a deep dive into a featured guest’s personal history; the pivotal moments of their childhood and adulthood that defined them and the crucial and sometimes painful decisions they made that forever changed the course of their lives. Each episode of And Then Everything Changed is an intimate conversation; sometimes funny, sometimes profound. Hosted by Ronit Plank. More about Ronit: https://ronitplank.com More about WHEN SHE COMES BACK, a memoir: https://ronitplank.com/book/ More about HOME IS A MADE-UP PLACE, a short story collection: https://ronitplank.com/home-is-a-made-up-place/ Sign up for monthly podcast and writing updates: https://bit.ly/33nyTKd Follow on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ronitplank/
Episodes
Tuesday Aug 04, 2020
Tuesday Aug 04, 2020
In 2011, Lisa Keefauver’s husband passed away, leaving her a single mother to their 7-year old daughter. Just a few years later, Lisa sat by her close friend’s side as he succumbed to complications from Muscular Dystrophy. After these back-to-back losses Lisa, who has spent nearly 2 decades as a clinical social worker and narrative therapist, was inspired to gain a better understanding of how grief works and how she could support herself, her daughter, and others during their times of loss.
As the founder & CEO of Reimagining Grief and host of the podcast, Grief is a Sneaky B*tch, she has taken her experience overcoming deep personal loss and made it her mission to provide guidance to others when it comes to bereavement. In this episode, she unveils the common misconceptions about grief-- a topic so often misunderstood and ignored in our culture and communities yet something every person will experience in their lifetime, explains why the Stages of Grief model may not be helpful for healing, and takes a closer look at how we can show up for ourselves and for loved ones in these challenging times.
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Grief is a Sneaky B*tch Podcast
Stopped By For A Cup Of Coffee Article
Dive in and Breathe Deep Article
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Tuesday Jul 28, 2020
Tuesday Jul 28, 2020
Aspen Matis and her husband Justin had only been married three years when he went missing. On a cold November morning, he kissed Aspen goodbye and left to attend the funeral of a close friend but never came back.
She and Justin had met walking from Mexico to Canada when she was thru-hiking the Pacific Crest Trail, using the 2,650-mile journey to help her reclaim her body and spirit after being raped* freshman year of college**.
Aspen's first memoir Girl in the Woods is the story of that experience and her recovery which she wrote to heal and help spread awareness of the prevalence of campus assault. Her new memoir Your Blue is Not My Blue-A Missing Person Memoir is the story of how in searching for her husband she discovered a deeper purpose.
In this episode, Aspen shares what she's learned about happiness, the role creativity and writing have played in recognizing her place in the world, and how she's moved from a feeling of powerlessness to strength.
*Rape is the only violent felony that is almost never prosecuted. Only 3% of rape cases end in conviction
**Between one in four and one in five female students will be raped during their undergraduate educations.
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Rape Abuse & Incest National Network
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Tuesday Jul 21, 2020
Tuesday Jul 21, 2020
Just before she went off to college Ashlee's younger brother died in an ATV accident. With her soon-to-be-divorced parents grieving and her own uncertainty about how to cope with loss, she decided to leave for freshman year. Struggling once she was there, she dropped out and found work to help make her way while she figured out her future.
Within the next year, her mother would die by suicide and Ashlee spiraled into alcohol abuse and drug use. Unable to cope with her grief, Ashlee spent several years without hope and in a self-destructive cycle. But then like a light had turned on inside her, she decided that she didn't want to lose her girlfriend, she didn't want to stay trapped in a pattern of self-destruction, and she was ready to move on and build the life she wished for.
She rekindled her love of writing, enrolled back in school, made the President's List, and believes words are the most therapeutic a person has. In this episode, Ashlee talks about her losses and difficult years, her losses, and how she climbed her way out of her downward spiral.
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Tuesday Jul 14, 2020
Tuesday Jul 14, 2020
Five trips to detox, two inpatient rehabs, two outpatient programs, and getting fired from her dream job as a journalist for an alternative newspaper didn't ultimately keep Erica C. Barnett from drinking again.
She didn't experience a "rock bottom" moment that kept her from relapsing, a point of no return like the kind portrayed in movies and novels. It wasn't until she lost almost everyone and everything she cared about that she was finally able to stop.
Sober now for over five years, Erica joins Ronit to talk about her new memoir Quitter: A Memoir of Drinking, Relapse, and Recovery, share what she's learned about addiction, triggers, and twelve-step programs, and why she, like so many who have faced substance abuse, will always need to actively do the work of recovery.
Connect with Erica:
Quitter: A Memoir of Drinking, Relapse, and Recovery
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Tuesday Jul 07, 2020
Tuesday Jul 07, 2020
Her whole life, Natalie Que had learned to ignore the misgivings she'd felt about the Mormon church in which she'd grown up with her four sisters. And then, at the age of 29, she met a woman who had successfully left the church, and in one afternoon, Natalie's world blew wide open.
She realized that she'd been living her life in contrast to what she truly felt and believed and would never be able to go back. Her new understanding catapulted her apostasy, a massive transition within her marriage, and a deep knowing that her integrity would never let her stay in a religion where she felt had been lied to.
In this episode, Natalie recounts the rules of her upbringing and how she finally and permanently rejected them, what she and her husband went through when she left, and what she's created for herself and her children now, more than a decade later.
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Tuesday Jun 30, 2020
Tuesday Jun 30, 2020
Financial and home stability eluded Barbara Majeski’s family when she was growing up but even when they were shuffled between parents, she and her three siblings always had great love.
From an early age, Barbara took extra care of her younger brother Steven who was born with a genetically inherited neurological impairment called Fragile X, watching over him and keeping him safe. She was fourteen when urgent family circumstances threatened to separate her from Steven and that’s when she pledged to take care of him and protect him forever, ultimately raising her three children to also look out for him.
Her commitment to Steven anchored her during her fight with stage 3 cancer and inspired her to keep going even when she didn’t think she had anything left. In this episode, Barbara, now cancer-free for four and a half years, shares her and Steven’s story, how serving others has changed her life, and what she’s gained from the most difficult things she’s gone through.
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Tuesday Jun 23, 2020
Tuesday Jun 23, 2020
With women physicians losing childcare during the pandemic, gender equity in medicine has taken a giant step back.
Healthcare workers that were once overworked are now exhausted and facing supply shortages. And COVID-19 which should never have been a political issue has become one. The healthcare system needs a reboot, says Dr. Shikha Jain a board-certified hematology and oncology physician and the founder and chair of the Women in Medicine Summit and that reboot needs to be intentional.
She has made it her mission to work toward closing the gender gap in healthcare and nurture voices and organizations that need amplifying. In this episode, Dr. Jain shines a light on the myriad ways equity in medicine needs to improve, offers best practices for staying healthy this summer, and shares non politicized resources for coping with COVID.
Connect with Shikha:
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Episode Resources:
Women In Medicine Summit
IMPACT
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Tuesday Jun 16, 2020
Tuesday Jun 16, 2020
Juan Aleman spent his latchkey childhood missing his father who left when he was a baby. Besides spending a summer here and there with his father all he knew about him were the memories his older sisters shared of a man who had a drinking problem and hurt their mother.
Juan joined the army and had begun a family of his own when he and his father who was newly sober reconciled. At last, Juan got to know the man who had left him and they forged a close connection in the time they had left together.
In this episode, Juan shares the story of how he forgave his father for leaving, what parenting means to him, and how after years of drinking he got sober himself.
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Monday Jun 08, 2020
Monday Jun 08, 2020
A feminist before she knew what feminism was Lisa Butler grew up wondering why she and her mother were members of a strict Pentecostal church on the south side of Chicago, one that stripped women of their freedom and asked them to give up their power to the pulpit.
Lisa was a smart and motivated student with dreams for her future but had to put them on hold when she got pregnant at 16. Now a licensed clinical social worker with a special interest in the physical and emotional effects of chronic stress that black women experience living in dangerous neighborhoods, she works in private practice and has also mentored teen moms in Chicago to help them think critically and help better care for themselves.
In this episode, Lisa shares her views on oppression, how a lack of basic resources like jobs, quality healthcare, and education have perpetuated the cycle of poverty, and the work she's doing on What’s Left Behind, her documentary highlighting the moms and families of murdered young people lost to gun violence in Chicago.
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Monday Jun 01, 2020
Monday Jun 01, 2020
A reading of some of the names of black people slain by police violence or hate crimes.
#podcastblackout #BlackLivesMatter