PODCAST · health
Real Human Moments Project
by TruthBeToldWorld with ILONA POKA
You smiled through it. Nobody knew how bad it really was.Real Human Moments is where people finally say the quiet part out loud.Stories of loss, diagnosis, breakups, job loss, and decisions still being carried. Sometimes support was there, and it wasn't the right kind. Sometimes only a couple of people ever knew the real story.Hosted by Ilona Poka, mental health educator, this is a space for the moments nobody prepared you for.If this sounds familiar, you're not alone.#RealHumanMoments #YouAreNotAlone
Episodes
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I Watched the Funeral from My Car with Alyssa Cline Spencer
Where does your grief go when the world says you weren't family? Alyssa Cline Spencer was a young foster care caseworker, still in grad school, when an 11-year-old boy with terminal brain cancer landed on her caseload. For three years she held his hand through MRIs, ER runs, and every hard...
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This Is My Life Not Yours | Ashley Griffin
What if being called “so strong” is why you never got to fall apart? Ashley Griffin lost Dallas, her 17-year-old dog, and three months later lost everything she owned in an apartment fire. She kept going, kept working four jobs, and kept smiling foreveryone who told her how brave she was, without...
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Cutting Wasn't About Dying with Janet Coburn
Have you ever been in so much pain that you felt nothing atall? For years, Janet Coburn did. She hid little white scars under a wristband, kept her feelings from the people closest to her, and was sure it could not be her brain because her brain worked great. In this honest conversation with…
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It Is The Valley In Which I Live - Jason Tuttle
What do you do when the life you planned and the life you got are two different lives? Jason Tuttle spent years being the strong one. He planned, he advocated, he showed up, and he kept every feeling in a locked room so his family could keep moving. Then one day the lock gave way. Listen as he...
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The Medical System Is Not There to Make You Better
What happens when the people meant to help you stop listening? Lisa spent decades learning to advocate for herself inside a medical system that kept dismissing her, through chronic pain, two fractured feet, a dislocated hip, and a cancer diagnosis that nearly went unseen. This episode is about…
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Abuse Doesn't Take Two to Tango
What happens when the people who were supposed to protect you become the danger itself? Dr. Lisa Dawn Fox built a life most people would call remarkable: surgical residency finished alone with a newborn, a career saving limbs other surgeons had given up on, sixteen years leading women through...
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I Will Never Be Over It
What happens when someone tells you it's time to move on, and you know in your body that you never will? Julie lost her husband Mike after a six month fight with cancer, and years later she is done pretending grief runs on anyone else's clock. A raw conversation about partnership,caregiving, and...
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I Didn't Want Anyone to See Me Like That
Too proud to let anyone see how bad it really got. Mike Robinson kept the mask on while everything underneath him was falling apart. This conversation follows what happened when pride finally gave way to the truth. If you're struggling right now, please reach out to someone you trust, or call or...
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I'm Leaving You With Nothing
What do you tell your daughter on your last night alive, when you believe you're leaving her with nothing? Rosemary Olender's father spent 63 years giving his kids everything except money, and on the night before he died, hethought that meant he'd failed them. This conversation is about what...
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I Teach These Skills. I Wasn't Able to Use Them.
Have you ever taught someone else exactly what they needed to hear, while quietly falling apart yourself? Sherri is a licensed clinical social worker who spent years helping others regulate their emotions. When her hormone therapy was pulled after 21 years, the skills she'd taught for a living...
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I Don't Know Why I Said That
What happens in the half-second before a scent pulls you completely out of the room you're standing in? Allison Stillman carries a story built from frankincense, a visionat the foot of the cross, and a fear so old it went back twenty-seven lifetimes. She spent ten years re-editing a book she was...
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25 Years Later, A 9/11 Dispatcher Remembers
Twenty-five years later, on the anniversary itself, here's Jimmy Raftery's own voice. He was a fire dispatcher on September 11th, taking nearly 700 calls in under two hours, some from people trapped in the towers as they burned. This is what he remembers, and what he carried after. If you or...
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No One Rewrites My Truth Again
Have you ever thought the apology was supposed to fix everything, and instead it was the moment you knew nothing ever would? For seventeen years, Christine carried a version of her life that no one around her could see, until the day a small kindness from the person hurting her became the proof...
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It's Not the Disability, It's the System
She was diagnosed with a learning disability before kindergarten. A psychiatrist told her she would have limited jobs. A teacher told her she would never handle college. Michelle Lee Steiner joins Real Human Moments to talk about growing up labeled the outcast, the bullying that escalated to...
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He Left Before Our Dance
What happens to a body that has spent decades scanning every room for safety? That question sits at the center of Kelley DeLovecchia's story. Conditional love in childhood. A father who left before their wedding dance. Two cancer diagnoses, and a third scare, that finally forced her to ask why…
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So, Is This a Death Sentence, or Is There Hope?
Have you ever answered devastating news with a plan instead of panic? Lisa did, twice. A divorce after 27 years of marriage. A cancer diagnosis nobody saw coming. And a mindset she had to rebuild from scratch to get through both. If you or someone you know is struggling, the 988 Suicide and…
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Keep It Moving
Have you ever kept moving because stopping wasn't an option? Jimmy Raftery spent 25 years as a fire dispatcher in New York City, taking the worst calls of people's lives and staying level through all of it, including 9/11 and a mass casualty fire on his final shift. This episode sits with what…
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No One Walks Beside Me
Have you ever shaken something off as an adult that would have broken you completely as a kid? Sam spent years learning to survive being different, then spent years learning what it costs to carry that. This is a conversation about the words that stick, the ones we tell ourselves we're over, and...
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I Lost All My Children That Day
Have you ever felt a flash of relief in the middle of the worst news of your life? Brenda's daughter Destiny was killed in 2021, and her case remains unsolved. In this episode, Brenda walks through the night she lost her, the nine days her family waited to confirm it was really her, and how she...
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I Thought I Was a Mistake
She thought she was a mistake. It took her decades to learn otherwise. Petra Williams joins Real Human Moments to talk about growing up with a rare condition, the bullying that followed her through school, and the moment a stranger's comment finally forced her hand. This one is about shame, and...
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I Was Thriving. I Still Thought About Dying.
Have you ever built the life you dreamed of, and still had the thoughts come back? Jenny Elinora talks about the gap between thriving and struggling, why the two aren't opposites, and what she's learned about staying connected to herself and to others through both. If you're struggling right now,...
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You're Either Winning or Learning
Have you ever spent your whole life trying to prove something to someone who is no longer there to see it? Josh Peacock was eight years old when a single afternoon reshaped how he saw himself, his family, and what strength actually looks like. In this episode, he walks through the years of…
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Nobody Talked About It, So I did
I was already fighting for my life at seven weeks old. That never really stopped. Welcome to Real Human Moments. In this launch episode, Josh turns the mic around on founder Ilona Poka for the story behind why this show exists: a childhood marked by silence and violence, and the decision to stop...
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
You smiled through it. Nobody knew how bad it really was.Real Human Moments is where people finally say the quiet part out loud.Stories of loss, diagnosis, breakups, job loss, and decisions still being carried. Sometimes support was there, and it wasn't the right kind. Sometimes only a couple of people ever knew the real story.Hosted by Ilona Poka, mental health educator, this is a space for the moments nobody prepared you for.If this sounds familiar, you're not alone.#RealHumanMoments #YouAreNotAlone
HOSTED BY
TruthBeToldWorld with ILONA POKA
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does Real Human Moments Project have?
Real Human Moments Project currently has 23 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is Real Human Moments Project about?
You smiled through it. Nobody knew how bad it really was.Real Human Moments is where people finally say the quiet part out loud.Stories of loss, diagnosis, breakups, job loss, and decisions still being carried. Sometimes support was there, and it wasn't the right kind. Sometimes only a couple of...
How often does Real Human Moments Project release new episodes?
Real Human Moments Project has 23 episodes. Check the episode list to see recent publication dates and frequency.
Where can I listen to Real Human Moments Project?
You can listen to Real Human Moments Project 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 Real Human Moments Project?
Real Human Moments Project is created and hosted by TruthBeToldWorld with ILONA POKA.
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