PODCAST · education
Bold Becoming
by Julie Browne
Bold Becoming shares overcoming identity loss stories after the rug's pulled out from under you. Earthquake events like divorce, loss of a loved one, your health, or a career or dream. "Invisible" stuff like losing your identity to addiction, domestic violence or incest. Even unexpectedly losing your sovereignty to motherhood. Engage in this rich tapestry of life's crushing personal issues as Julie showcases an audio mural of grief, pain, uncertainty ... strength, grit, courage ... and serendipity. Awesome content! Fun conversations!!
Episodes
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Ep. 134 Widowhood: A Wife’s Journey through Her Husband’s Cancer Diagnosis and after His Death
Carol came from a “medical family” and she herself worked as a physical therapist. So when her dear husband’s cancer diagnosis was given, she pragmatically got into gear and started checking off all the boxes needed for their journey forward. What Carol was completely unprepared for, and couldn’t...
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Ep. 133 One Conscientious Physician’s Journey to Finding Functional Medicine with Mohammad Mahboob Siddiqui
Mohammad was on his first job out of medical school when he realized it wasn’t going to work out. Working as a radiologist, one day he took matters into his own hands and began what would, decades later, be his job—giving lifestyle advice. That day he also recognized his need for a job with human...
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Ep. 132 Struggling to Embrace Her Femininity with Donna Star
Donna’s mom had breast cancer in the late 60’s early 70’s, right when Donna was coming of age. Right as her mom “lost her femininity,” Donna’s journey into embracing hers was nipped in the bud. Her identity, moving from a girl to a woman with breasts, was eclipsed by her mother’s ongoing struggle...
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Ep. 131 Ben Ankrom’s Journey with His Down Syndrome Son: Giving It All You’ve Got, and then Some
Ben and Nicole were in their mid twenties when they had their first child. The pregnancy was normal. So when Ethan, now 25, was born and the doctor told them he probably had Down syndrome, caught totally off guard, they “bawled” with grief. Ethan’s parents kicked into high gear very quickly to...
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Ep. 130 Against All Odds: Jeremy Schall’s Path to Freedom and Purpose
Fifty-four percent of incarcerated people in the United States have mental illness. Eighty-five percent of the prison population have an active substance use disorder or were incarcerated because of drugs. Jeremy Schall is one of these individuals. Coming from a family history with addiction and...
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Ep. 129 Forced Migration and Assimilation: Diana Restrepo’s Journey from Colombia to Safety
Diana lived in Colombia, South America, and was a pawn in a power control scheme that could have ended in kidnapping or death. A thriving 16-year-old, returning from an immersive, week-long community leadership training retreat, Diana found out she had to leave her home, community, and country...
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Ep. 128 Life on the Edge: A Mother's Story of the NICU and Far Beyond with Kristen “Kiki” Wilkinson
At 7+ months gestation, Kiki had a “super normal pregnancy” and she jumped on a plane across the country to attend a wedding. But her baby came early. Things went south from there and back in California, Kiki spent the next 6 months saving her son’s life. He didn’t have an immune system and had…
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Ep. 127 Persecution, Refugee Status, and Identity Transformation: Masha Malka’s Journey to Find Her
Two years before the USSR’s downfall, something unusual and unexpected happened. Masha’s family was given permission to leave. Because they were Jewish. Seventeen-year-old Masha left all she ever knew behind, forever, and lived the next five years as a refugee in Florida. Identity loss hit hard,...
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Ep. 126 Addiction, Divorce, and a Wife’s Refusal to Abandon Herself Any Longer with Marci Hawkinson
Marci, a mother of three, made a pact with herself: by her next birthday, she’d throw in the towel if her husband didn’t shape up. His unpredictability was unbearable and she couldn’t figure out what was causing it. Until he finally admitted to being addicted to drugs. Since he also refused...
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Ep. 125 Psychologist’s Journey through Depression, Anxiety, Suicidality, and Healing with Ardeshir Mehran
What happens when a Columbia-trained psychologist, working with high performers, cannot find a way to cure his own depression? He thinks of suicide. He wishes the train would take him out as he crosses the tracks some day driving home from work. And then one day doing his morning journaling, he...
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Ep. 124 A Migraine, a Suicide, and a Stroke: Heidi’s Story of Resilience with Heidi Lippold Churas
Heidi had her life planned out and was well on her way to her dream of working in the film industry. At 20, she was a straight A college student who went through every door opened to her. She was acing life and enjoying it. Until a friend died by suicide. And she cried so hard she got a migraine....
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Ep. 123 Reinvention after Bankruptcy, Divorce, Brain Tumor, and More with Gail Keyes-Allen
Married from ages 24-50, Gail felt like a confused teenager post divorce. She didn’t know how to talk to men, other than surface level or work-related communication. She also had to navigate finding housing with bad credit, due to her ex’s small business bankruptcy, on top of her mother’s,...
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Ep. 122 From a Bumping and Reacting Pinball Childhood to Peace through a Teen Pregnancy with Danielle Thompson
Danielle grew up in a chaotic environment with a low income family that moved almost every year, and a dad who drank and was verbally aggressive. Danielle was the one who fought back, and she carried her rebellious nature into adulthood, always standing up for the underdog. And in between all…
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Ep. 121 Following the Breadcrumbs of Motivation: Keeping Promises I Made to Myself with Annette Reid
Annette grew up with more “Don’ts” than you can shake a stick at. Her mother, diametrically opposite personality-wise than her father, never ceased instilling fear into her. It seems that in Mom’s book, life had no room for error. So rather than exploring and discovering who she really was…
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Ep. 120 You Can’t Knit with One Needle: Wendela’s Story of Learning to Crochet during Widowhood…and Their Family Journey with Autism
Wendy and her husband were very happily married when they found out that her husband, and two of their three children, were autistic. Around the same time, her third child was also struggling with disabilities connected to fibromyalgia. But rather than the autism diagnoses devastating her, they…
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Ep. 119 Supporting a Severely Intellectually Disabled Child: How Denial Fueled Advocacy and Success with Cathy Shields
Can denial ever be a good thing? It served Cathy Shields for twelve long years, as she adjusted to the fact that her daughter would never hit many developmental milestones. Denial may well have protected her in a positive way. It was what gave her hope. Hope allowed her to spend every single day...
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Ep. 118 Julia’s Story of Overcoming Family Dysfunction and Life-threatening Illness with Julia Stubbe
Julia’s fighting for her life…again. Surviving childhood physical and emotional abuse from alcoholic parents, and sexual molestation and voyeurism, from which her mother profited financially, she went on to survive a suicide attempt in her twenties, and most recently, an intestinal blockage. Now...
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Ep. 117 The Price of Using Ego as a Façade with Spencer Jones
Spencer grew up riddled with guilt and shame, so he did what he could to counter that—he inflated his ego. But keeping his ego inflated, to fill the void of feeling unworthy, required telling lies, even to himself, and hurting people he loved. From the outside he appeared successful in his…
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Ep. 116 How a Dolly Parton Figure Impacted Corbie’s Identity and How Her Mom Made it Exponentially Worse with Corbie Mitleid
Corbie’s had more than her fair share of challenges, beginning with a substance abusing mom who envied her for her intelligence and, from age eleven on, her Dolly Parton figure. Add to that, when her mom thought she’d had sex in high school, she called her a slut and told her she was only worth...
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Ep. 115 Reclaiming Herself After Her Husbands’ Narcissistic Personality Disorder Invaded Every Cell of Stephany Ann’s Psyche
Stephany Ann grew up in a family with healthy marital role modeling from her parents. She was also smart, capable, ambitious, successful, educated, became an attorney, and even won the governor's award for her work in domestic violence. So then, how did she end up in two abusive marriages with…
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Ep. 114 Parenting a Child with Seizure Disorder: How it Doesn’t Have to Define Who You Are with Roz Clark
Roz was making her big dream come true. In the spotlight, sharing her voice as a singer on stages the world over, her world changed when her 8-month-old son came down with seizure disorder. She gave up her career dream to become the advocate her son needed to ensure he received the medical care…
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Ep. 113 Teeter Tottering on Death’s Doorstep: Surviving a Stroke & Leukemia x3 with Casey Kang Head
Barely making it over the hospital threshold, at 31, Casey almost died. She had an aggressive form of leukemia with no great treatment protocol, and they got it into remission. And they did it the second time, but causing a stroke from the meds. And they did it a third time. Loss of control over...
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Ep. 112 Vision Beyond Sight: Jay Walker's Journey Through Darkness
Twenty-year-old Jay Walker has been in and out of hospitals all her life. Despite her health challenges, Jay was a regular person enjoying life. But when she was 15, she almost died due to intense swelling and left the hospital blind. She endured being in a no man’s land during the years it took…
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Ep. 111 Beyond Silence: The Road to Vulnerability and Healing with Simon Rinne
Simon started losing his true identity when he was eight. By thirteen, he was “full-blown” out of sorts with his mental health. But instead of talking about how he wasn’t okay and seeking help, he did what he’d learned boys do — suppress and try to ignore the parts of him that didn't fit the...
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Ep. 110 Reclaiming Self: A Story of Rediscovery and Resilience with Elizabeth Soto-Baez
When Liz married, she was on top of the world—happy, energetic, a go-getter, with all the right boxes checked off to launch the ideal life. She was fully alive, then turned into a shell. Shortly into the first months of marriage, Liz saw things clearly going in the opposite direction of her life...
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Ep. 109 Surviving War, Losing Self: Layla’s Odyssey with Layla Rahmeh
Layla Rahmeh enjoyed her life, tremendously, until she had to escape it. She came from a loving family, was well educated, and after surviving cancer, no longer took everything life has to offer for granted. But then war broke out in her country, Syria, and being who she was made her a target for...
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Ep. 108 Uncharted Healing: Jacqueline's Divine Detour with Jacqueline Goodwin
Jacqueline was a school counselor, going about a pretty regular life. Everything changed on a dime when she got an HIV+ diagnosis. She decided to use God, rather than modern medicine, with the results ending up in her favor. Not only did she get cured from HIV, her life blossomed in ways she…
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Ep. 107 Harnessing Pain for Growth: Alex's Journey to Authenticity with Alex Embree
Between 2019 - 2021, “I lost nearly every adult identity I had.” Meet Alex, who shares her transformation story through marriage, divorce, and a layoff, to come out overflowing with enthusiasm for life. This is the first time Alex shares her story publicly—her insights into harnessing pain…
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Ep. 106 Beyond the Wave: Raju's Journey from Tsunami to Transformation with Raju Panjwani
Raju has more unexpected identity loss events than you can shake a stick at. Today we talked about surviving the 2004 tsunami—the deadliest tsunami in history—while in Sri Lanka. Fortunately his whole family survived, but he’s had to work through a lot of trauma to come to terms with letting go…
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Ep. 105 Whisked Away: A Family's Odyssey Through Medical Uncertainty with Sarah Deschamps
Sarah only knew her baby was alive because she cried at birth. But then everything unraveled. In a rundown hospital in foreign country, without her husband allowed to be there for the birth, her baby was instantly whisked away with only a sentence of explanation. Sarah details her family’s…
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Ep. 104 From Darkness to Light: Debbie's Odyssey Through Trauma and Recovery
Ramming worthlessness into her head morning, noon, and night, Debbie’s father figure nipped her true identity in the bud. How wrong he was: Debbie became a pretty well functioning adult. Until a series of unwelcome, huge events, including surviving a mass shooting, turned her world upside down.…
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Ep. 103 Beyond the Surface: Trauma, Eating Disorders, and Body Image with Stephenie Farrell
For decades, Stephenie never knew who she was. She grew up in a home with addiction and abuse, and since birth, her mother struggled to figure out Stephenie’s unexpected weight gain. This sowed the seeds for Stephenie’s focus on weight and body image. By age 11, she was anorexic, and eating…
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Ep. 102 Andrea's Bully Boss: What it Looked Like, How She Managed, and How She Exited with Andrea Pass
Andrea was really good at her PR job before she started working for her bully boss, during, and after. But working for him took a huge toll on her self-perception, to the point where she questioned whether he was right that she wasn’t any good. Andrea endured 8.5 years of chronic tears and a...
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Ep. 101 Adapting through Dissociation to See Where It Delivers You Amid a Zero Sum Rat Race Mentality on Wall Street with Sara Roccisano
Be careful what you ask for. Sara’s friend invited her on a trip. She said she’d only go if she got laid off and the rest is history. Sara began a journey away from abuse and bad behavior caused from stress, pressure, ego, and the drive for money and accolades. Leaving sunk costs behind her, she...
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Ep. 100 What Do You Do When You’re Told Your Child’s Going to Die? with Andy Browne
I’m adding a new format where I interview parents of children with catastrophic medical diagnoses. These episodes won’t focus on identity loss, but rather parents’ journeys as they navigate this specific challenge. While identity loss is still inherent in many of these stories, it won’t be the...
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Ep. 99 Life Beyond Roles: Iryna's Odyssey of Self-Rediscovery with Iryna Ishchenko
Iryna went from being on an all-consuming academic tract to motherhood, wife, caretaker of her mom with cancer, and divorcee, and in the process found herself in a hopeless dark hole. “It felt like burned out land. Nothing alive there, like dry land with the cracked bottom when there’s no water…
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Ep. 98 When a Layoff Becomes a Magic Carpet Ride: One Woman’s Transition Story to a Better Life with Eugina Jordan
Eugina Jordan’s been through some tough identity transitions. She immigrated from Russia to have a better life, survived an emotionally abusive marriage, and most recently, transformed after an unexpected layoff. Surprisingly, this last identity loss catalyst, rather than feeling like the rug was...
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Ep. 97 Routines and Rules During COVID: How a Young Woman Beat the Downtime Blues After Being Furloughed with Jess Diamond
Jess was a typical twenty-three-year-old getting to know the contours of living independently. An interior designer, she was less than a year into her first job out of college when COVID hit and she was promptly furloughed. Unable to support herself and unsure of what to do next, she started a...
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Ep. 96 Broken to Transformed: A Journey to Reclaim Herself After Her Brother’s Death by Suicide
This is Part 2 of a two-part interview. Part one is about being the mother of a medically fragile child. Part 2 is about Stacey’s transformation around her brother’s death by suicide. Stacey wasn’t bent…she was broken. Her brother, who had bipolar and drug addiction, died by suicide in a jail…
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Ep. 95 with Stacey Short (part 1of 2)
Coming soon
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Ep. 94 with Nisanka Wickramarachchi
show notes coming soon! Bio I’m an average human being, a mother, a poet, a writer, a trauma survivor, and a coach and healer. I help parents who parent with a narcissistic partner or ex to preserve sanity, take their life back and support their children. My experience of growing up in highly...
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Ep. 93 Trailer Wife's Odyssey: Navigating Identity Abroad and Repatriated with Linda Mueller
When her husband got a job in Japan and she became a trailer wife, Linda was already a globetrotter. But now she gave up a successful corporate career to live in Japan with her husband. And she quickly found out how much of herself was wrapped up in her own career status. She was at a loss when...
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Ep. 92 (Part 2 of 2) — Unearthing a Jewish Refugee from Nazi-era Germany Family Story and Why Protecting Terry from Knowing the Truth Didn’t Work
This episode continues the conversation with Terry Mandel. It’s where the identity shift discussion really takes off…finding out she’s lost family members in the Holocaust, when for over 60 years she believed her family had been spared that atrocity. ---------------------------------------- As a...
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Ep. 91 Unearthing a Jewish Refugee from Nazi-era Germany Family Story and Why it Didn’t Work to Protect Terry from Knowing the Truth with Terry Mandel
As a very young child, Terry had a sixth sense about her reality as it related to her family history. Growing up in LA, she sensed there was something missing from her family’s immigration story and her family vehemently prohibited questions on this topic. As an older girl, when she learned of…
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Ep. 90 Amanda's Coping Evolution: Surviving to Thriving and Making Tough Choices with Amanda Kirkland
Amanda didn’t get the emotional support she needed growing up or for decades into adulthood. In fact, she was treated as if she was the source of her problems. In her twenties she became bulimic. In her thirties she estranged herself from her family and has been feeling better ever since. What…
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Ep. 89 Breaking Free from "Genetic Destiny" and Statistical Prognoses with Ornela Maric
At eight years old, Ornela Maric became a child living with a parent with a life-threatening illness. In 1980, her mom got breast cancer. The years that followed dramatically impacted Ornela’s identity, and who she grew up to become. The most profound impact would be on the power of mindset, and…
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Ep. 88 Researching Disease or Disease Reversal? Leaving Modern Medicine Behind to Cure Cancer with Patricia Loff
Patricia Loff remembers her first sign of illness: she got bags under her eyes when she was 10 years old. When she was about 15, she recognized something physical holding her back from reaching her pinnacle as an athlete. In her 20’s she was diagnosed with cancer. Patricia went through more...
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Ep. 87 Unraveling Identity: Quintina's Journey Through Sexual Exploitation and Survival with Quintina Sonnie - Part 2
This is Part 2 of a 2-part series. Be sure to listen to Part l. In Part 2, Quintina discusses how she’s in the 2% of people who don’t return to The Life (sex trafficking). She offers ideas around what we all can do to change this statistic and includes her educated opinions on the movie Sounds of...
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Ep. 86 Unraveling Identity: Quintina's Journey Through Sexual Exploitation and Survival with Quintina Sonnie
This is Part l of a 2 part series. Be sure to listen to Part ll next week. Quintina grew up in a dysfunctional family. She escaped the fate of her brothers—foster care and adoption. But by the time she was 20, she got caught between a rock and a hard place when she had to deal with untrue…
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Ep. 85 Unraveling Loss: Christina’s Journey Through Suicide and Heartbreak with Christina Ulrich-Jones
Christina Jones has more losses than you can shake a stick at. Today she talked about losing her son, Benjamin, to suicide. She speaks of her sense of guilt around signing the consent for him to join the military when he was 17 ½ and her sense of helplessness as he isolated himself more and more,...
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
Bold Becoming shares overcoming identity loss stories after the rug's pulled out from under you. Earthquake events like divorce, loss of a loved one, your health, or a career or dream. "Invisible" stuff like losing your identity to addiction, domestic violence or incest. Even unexpectedly losing your sovereignty to motherhood. Engage in this rich tapestry of life's crushing personal issues as Julie showcases an audio mural of grief, pain, uncertainty ... strength, grit, courage ... and serendipity. Awesome content! Fun conversations!!
HOSTED BY
Julie Browne
CATEGORIES
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does Bold Becoming have?
Bold Becoming currently has 151 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is Bold Becoming about?
Bold Becoming shares overcoming identity loss stories after the rug's pulled out from under you. Earthquake events like divorce, loss of a loved one, your health, or a career or dream. "Invisible" stuff like losing your identity to addiction, domestic violence or incest. Even unexpectedly losing...
How often does Bold Becoming release new episodes?
Bold Becoming publishes regularly with 151 episodes available. Check the episode list for the typical release schedule.
Where can I listen to Bold Becoming?
You can listen to Bold Becoming on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts Bold Becoming?
Bold Becoming is created and hosted by Julie Browne.
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