Hope Comes to Visit
Hope Comes to Visit is a soulful podcast that holds space for real stories, honest conversations, and the kind of moments that remind us we’re never alone. Hosted by author, speaker, and former TV journalist-turned-storyteller Danielle Elliott Smith, the show explores the full spectrum of the human experience — from the tender to the triumphant. Through powerful interviews and reflective storytelling, each episode offers light, connection, and presence for anyone navigating the in-between. Whether you’re grieving, growing, beginning again, or simply craving something real, Hope Comes to Visit will meet you right where you are — with warmth, grace, and the quiet belief that even in the dark, transformation can take root. New episodes drop every Monday, so you can begin your week with a little light, reflection, and hope.
Episodes
This episode includes honest discussion of addiction and legal consequences.
What does recovery look like when the compulsion won’t let go? In this conversation, I am privileged to sit with Kelli Bauer, who lives with kleptomania—an often-hidden addiction—and has paid steep personal and legal costs. This conversation is brave and vulnerable. We talk about the difference between “shoplifting” and a clinical compulsion, ...
Gentle note: we talk honestly about grief and child loss—please listen with care and kindness for yourself.
What does healing look like when the unthinkable happens? In this episode, I’m sitting with Melissa Hull—author, speaker, coach, fierce advocate, and Drew’s mom. After losing her son in a tragic drowning, Melissa has worked to choose a different ending for herself: love in motion, faith as a daily practice, grief...
Gentle heads-up: mentions of grief and loss.
If you’re new—welcome, I am so grateful you are here. If you’re back again for hope to visit—welcome home.
In this episode, I'm delighted to be chatting with K.T. Jay—the Amazon bestselling author of Inkbound Inheritance—to talk about imagination, healing through story, and the courage it takes to begin. We explore how grief shapes us, why stories can steady us, an...
I love conversations that make you want to show up for people. This is one of them.
Today’s guest is Danni Eickenhorst, the heartbeat behind Hustle Hospitality and some of St. Louis’ most beloved spots: Steve’s Hot Dogs, Steve’s Meltdown, The Fountain on Locust, and The Stardust Room.
Danni and I talk about what it really means to be “a neighborhood place”: paying people with dignity, creating spaces where everyone belo...
If you’re new—welcome. If you’re back—welcome home. Today I’m sitting down with my friend Melissa Clayton, founder & CEO of Tiny Tags—the personalized jewelry brand born at a kitchen table and now beloved by moms, worn by Meghan Markle, sold in Target stores nationwide, and (pinch-me) featured on Oprah’s Favorite Things 2025.
We talk about the quiet courage behind the milestones: bootstrapping for 15+ ye...
If you’re new here—welcome. If you’re back—welcome home. Today I’m sitting with my dear friend of 12+ years, Amanda Willson, a life coach and anxiety expert who has walked this road and now teaches the rest of us how to find steadier ground. This isn’t theory; it’s real tools for real life.
We talk about simple practices that change the moment you’re in: 4-7-8 breathing to settle your nervous system, the 5-4-3-2-1 sens...
A gentle heads-up: In this conversation, we name some hard things — including suicide and sexual assault. If that’s tender for you today, please listen with care, skip ahead, or come back when you’re ready. If you need support in the US, call or text 988.
Sometimes hope is a laugh you didn’t expect.
At 10:44 PM on November 2, 2015, Ron “Blake” Blake was ready to end his life. A split-second laugh during The ...
Hope isn’t the absence of fear—it’s the light that keeps you moving when fear won’t leave.
In this tender, no-fluff conversation, I sit with Sam Bonizzi, co-author of The Losses We Keep, as she shares how two missed miscarriages upended everything: the shock of hard news in an ultrasound room, the moment she fired a clinic that wouldn’t test her partner, and how she built a real support web—REI + acupuncture + th...
Some seasons of my life, loneliness wasn’t a passing mood—it was the air I breathed. I didn’t always call it by name, but my body did: tight chest, racing thoughts, that sense of being “with people” and still feeling alone. In this conversation, I sit down with Lucy Rose, founder of The Cost of Loneliness Project, to talk honestly about what chronic loneliness does to us—and how we can gently stitch connection back in...
If you’ve ever been told “it’s normal” when you knew it wasn’t—this episode is for you. I’m joined by Dr. Deb Muth—naturopathic doctor, functional medicine expert, and founder of Serenity Health Care Center—to talk about being seen at last: how to advocate for yourself, ask better questions, and get to root causes instead of living on prescriptions that never explain the “why.”
We dig into:
- Why women are diagnosed 4...
Pull up a chair and take a breath—then ask the question most of us avoid: who gets a seat at your table, and why? In this solo episode, I treat your table as a living metaphor for your energy, time, and love—and names what it takes to protect that sacred space without apology.
We get practical fast. You’ll hear clear, compassionate scripts for late-night crisis friendships, boundary-pushing relatives, and overflowing w...
Humor doesn’t just make us laugh—it hands us the mic. In this episode, Dr. Gina Barreca—award-winning professor, cultural critic, and bestselling author of Gina School—shows how wit turns grief into agency and outsiderhood into belonging. From losing her mother young to pioneering gender-and-humor studies, Gina traces the path where jokes become bridges and stories transform shame into connection.
We dig into how many ...
Content note: candid discussion of cancer diagnosis, surgery, radiation, chemotherapy, and recovery.
What if hope isn’t “it’ll be fine,” but “I can handle what comes”? That shift changed everything for Candice Suarez. In this conversation, Candice takes us inside a whirlwind season: a misread ulcer during COVID, a tongue-cancer diagnosis, surgery removing over half her tongue, a forearm graft, and weeks of radiation an...
What happens when you treat curiosity like a business plan and community like your bottom line? Maxine Clark—founder of Build-A-Bear and the force behind St. Louis’s Delmar Divine—talks about creating brands that hold people, not just products. We explore the question that keeps opening doors for her: “How can I help?” and the multiplier that guides her work—1+1=100.
Content note: pregnancy loss and medical trauma.
Entrepreneur and dad Richie Treadway joins me to talk about becoming a parent later in life, the moment everything fell apart—and the choice to keep going.
We don’t relive every detail; we sit with what it took to advocate, to grieve, and to try again.
Richie names the kind of love that “changes the way your heart works,” and defines hope as the resilience to ...
Actress Bellamy Young, from the hit TV shows Scandal and Brilliant Minds, joins Danielle to share the story behind her advocacy for liver disease—and the caregiving journey with her dad that began when he was diagnosed with cirrhosis and later hepatic encephalopathy (HE). Bellamy speaks candidly about shame, stigma, and the moment everything changed: realizing liver disease can affect the brain, memory, personality, a...
“I was doing what everybody told me to do… he can make eye contact and have a conversation—he can’t be autistic.”
Today, certified Master Life Coach and writer Karen Kossow gets real about the three-year journey to her son’s diagnosis—and what it means to parent neurodivergent kids while discovering your own neurodivergence. As part of the sandwich generation, Karen is supporting her children, noticing patter...
What happens when a woman’s pain is dismissed at one of the most vulnerable moments of her life?
For Jenny Hoffman, it nearly cost her everything. Just hours after giving birth to her daughter, Jenny hemorrhaged internally while medical staff brushed off her repeated cries for help. “I kept saying it really hurt,” she remembers, as Motrin was offered while she was losing over two liters of blood.
In this raw and powerfu...
For Brian Franklin, loss came in waves — the suicide of a childhood friend, a colon cancer scare, the discovery of a benign brain tumor, his wife’s breast cancer diagnosis, and the sudden heart attack of his closest confidant. At times, the weight of it all was nearly unbearable.
Yet Brian’s story isn’t defined by tragedy. It’s defined by his remarkable capacity to reinvent. Music became his therapy, his guitar a lifel...
The road through addiction and recovery is rarely straight — and for Jamie Felton, it’s been marked by both unimaginable loss and profound resilience.
By age 24, Jamie had accumulated three DUIs and found herself walking home from a blackout at 3:30 AM. That was the breaking point that led her to seek help — and on November 7, 2006, she began a journey that has kept her sober for nearly 19 years.
But sobriety didn’t shi...
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