Dr. Yemi Famuyiwa knew she wanted to be a doctor long before she knew what kind. It was during her third-year rotations at Emory that the answer became obvious. She'd had “a roaring blast” in her OBGYN rotation and couldn't imagine anything else. She went on to specialize in reproductive endocrinology and infertility, and has spent decades helping people navigate one of the most emotional experiences a person or couple can face. In this episode, she talks about what she's noticed inside that world — the science, the cultural pressures that leave women suffering in silence, and the grief that has no name.Nullam id diam metus. Interdum et malesuada fames ac ante ipsum primis in faucibus. Nullam interdum est erat, rutrum tristique ipsum cursus a.

• What it was like to guide her first baby into the world and how she hopes she never gets over it
• The cultural pressure on women in paternalistic societies to conceive, and what can happen when they can't
• Why men suffer in silence too, and how infertility can challenge a marriage
• Ambiguous loss: the grief that never ends and has no body to weep over
• Why infertility is rising worldwide — and why delaying childbearing is only part of the story
• What she wishes people understood about their own biology before it's too late

• The Quest for Fertility by Dr. Yemi Famuyiwa
• Dr. Nanette Wenger, cardiologist at Emory, who influenced her during medical school
• Grady Memorial Hospital, Atlanta
• Emory University School of Medicine

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In 2012, Chelsea Coulston had just moved to a new house in a new city with a newborn while her husband was deployed. She turned her focus to decorating her new rental home, and turned to the internet for help. But she wasn’t finding much to inspire her, since most of what existed was meant for people who could make permanent changes. So she started a blog called Making Home Base to share renter-friendly decorating ideas for military families. What followed was a 13-year front-row seat to how the internet went from a wholesome, free exchange of ideas to a massively profitable influencer industry — and why she ultimately walked away.

• How home bloggers were among the first to use Instagram — not to sell, but to send people back to their sites
• How the money worked: sidebar ads to Google AdSense to brand deals to sponsored posts, and what that means for authenticity
• Why Chelsea calls the creator economy the Wild West, and what it actually takes to keep up
• Why everyone with a following is an influencer now and why that comes with responsibility
• What made her walk away, and why she'd reset the whole thing to the early blogging days if she could

• Making Home Base — Chelsea's blog
• Making Home Base on Instagram
• Brick— an app designed to help people limit their time on social media

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Have you ever wondered how the people on reality TV get cast? Dr. Steven Stein is a psychologist who's spent twenty years helping make that call. Working behind the scenes of shows like The Amazing Race Canada and Big Brother Canada, he assesses who belongs, who can handle it, and what might happen when the cameras start rolling.

Hear Steven talk about:

• How casting works: the psychological assessments, the interviews, and how producers narrow thousands of applicants to a final cast
• The personality traits that drive people to apply for reality TV in the first place
• What it really means to be the "villain" and why the best ones know the difference between the game and real life
• The 12 reality TV archetypes he's identified and the quiz he's developed to find out which one you are
• Why social media has fundamentally changed what contestants experience after the show airs
• What reality TV has taught him about behavior, emotion, and how people perform under pressure

Mentioned in this episode:

• Multi-Health Systems (MHS) — Dr. Stein's company, which developed the EQ-i emotional intelligence assessment
• Yes, Chef with Martha Stewart — the cooking competition show Dr. Stein describes as one of the more intense sets he's worked on

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When Lisa Skinner was a teenager, she went to visit her grandmother, who began telling her frantic stories about birds living in her mattress and men trying to steal her jewelry. There were no birds, and there were no men, but Lisa would soon find out that her grandmother had Alzheimer’s disease.

That experience shaped the course of Lisa’s life and eventually led her into dementia care, where she’s spent decades helping families better understand what their loved ones are experiencing and how to care for them with compassion and dignity.

In this episode, Lisa shares what she’s learned from both her personal and professional experiences with Alzheimer’s and dementia, including why “joining their reality” can completely change the caregiving experience.

• The moment she first realized her grandmother had Alzheimer’s
• The difference between Alzheimer’s disease and the umbrella term dementia
• How her experiences with eight family members led her into dementia care
• Why traditional caregiving instincts often do not work with dementia patients
• What it means to “join their reality” instead of correcting them
• How person-centered dementia care can help families live more meaningful lives together

• Lisa Skinner’s latest book on Alzheimer’s and dementia care
• Lisa’s podcast and newsletter resources
• Lisa’s television show on dementia care

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Julie Melanson always knew she was adopted, but it wasn’t until she was 51 years old that she decided to search for her birth mother. She eventually found her, built a connection with both her mother and her birth siblings, and then lost her mother soon after. Julie reflects on what it was like to grow up as an adoptee, search for her mom, meet her for the first time, and get to know her during the time they had together.

• Growing up in a large extended family with 17 cousins and summers at the family lake house
• What her adoptive mother used to say about her birth mother
• Why she waited until 51 to begin searching for her birth family
• What it felt like to finally find and meet her birth mother
• Discovering similarities between herself and her biological relatives
• The complicated emotions of finding — and later losing — her birth mother

• Julie’s memoir, Not Yours To Keep, about adoption and her birth mother’s strength
• “The Prayer” by Josh Groban and Charlotte Church

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Note: This episode includes discussion of crime and the criminal justice system, including violent crime.

James Porfido spent years as a prosecutor, working to put accused criminals behind bars—until he made a pivotal shift and began defending them instead. Now, having seen the criminal justice system from both sides, he shares what changed his perspective, what most people misunderstand about fair trials, and why he believes the system doesn’t always deliver equal justice.

• His path from prosecutor to defense attorney, and what changed his perspective
• The meaning of “innocent until proven guilty” in practice
• The state’s obligation in a criminal case
• The role of a strong defense attorney in ensuring a fair trial
• Why he believes the justice system isn’t always equal
• What everyday citizens misunderstand about the legal system

• The Salem Witch Trials
• Framed, by John Grisham
• Unequal Justice by James Porfido

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This Earth Day, listen to one of the most earth-friendly guests from Tell Me What It's Like so far: Trash Wolf.

While there are lots of people who talk about helping the environment, Florida’s Trash Wolf took a different route. In 2022, Trash Wolf began prowling the streets, putting on a wolf suit to patrol his neighborhood and solve one specific problem: litter.

Since this episode first aired, Trash Wolf's anti-litter pack has doubled in size, illustrating that his unique approach to caring about the earth makes a lot of sense.

• The Origin Story: What finally pushed him to put on the mask, and why it was a wolf
• The Philosophy: How cleaning up trash teaches us about the world.
• The Call to Action: Why his mission is really about awareness, community, and taking that first step.

Mentioned in this episode:

• Trash Wolf on Instagram
• Trash Wolf on YouTube

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When JoAnne Chitwood graduated from nursing school, she wasn't sure what she actually wanted to do—until a hospice volunteer at the bedside of her patient told her, "JoAnne, you are a hospice nurse". She had never even heard the term, but she soon realized she was born for the role.

JoAnne has spent the past four decades at the bedside of the dying. In this episode, she shares the profound lessons learned from 40 years of end-of-life care: how to manage terminal anxiety, why death mirrors the birth process, and how "pouring love" into patients can lead to the most unexpected outcomes.

• How JoAnne discovered she was "born" for this hospice work
• Why the dying process is a mirror image of birth, as the body begins to "unwind" and nourish itself from within.
• Managing the many different facets of hospice nursing
• Why she doesn’t run from sadness
• Why forty years of witnessing "peaceful" transitions has completely removed her own fear of death.

• Please Help Me Die Well Book Series by JoAnne Chitwood
• The Highly Sensitive Person by Elaine Aron
• The Medicare Hospice Benefit

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