The Now What Pod
Sharing the whole story behind real people who are putting their lives back together after they have fallen apart thenowwhatpod.substack.com
Episodes
Here's a little Valentine's Day love with a throwback to one of our favourite early episode and to remind you all that we love you.
CW: Attempted Suicide, Substance Use, Sex work
The Now What Pod talks with Kaitlin Bick, a survivor of domestic sex trafficking. Kaitlin shares her story from meeting her trafficker, developing a relationship with him, being trafficked, and finally leaving, and now advocating for others. ...
The Now What Pod chats with Leslie about the moment she decided to end her marriage. Despite being high school sweethearts, and married with 3 children, Leslie threw her husband out of the house after discovering he’d been cheating on her. Listen as Leslie describes how he began pulling away, the way he made her feel insignificant throughout their marriage, and how she found out he’d been unfaithful to her. Leslie talks about the c...
The Now What Pod sits down to chat with Kareema for another episode in our “Bad Boyfriend Month”. Kareema tells us the story of how her religious beliefs led her to getting married young to somebody she’d known for only 3 months. Kareema sensed early on that something wasn't right within her marriage, but ignored her intuition and tried to be patient. It wasn’t long before her husband had managed to isolate her from her friends and...
CW: Domestic Violence
Annesa has earned herself 400,000+ followers on TikTok for her advocacy against Domestic Violence. This week, she sits down with The Now What Pod to vulnerably share her own personal experience as a survivor. She tells us about being raised in a traditional Bengali family, how she met a man who sold her a dream and married him fast and young, only to have those dreams shattered a few weeks into the marria...
In this second episode of “Bad Boyfriend” Month, the Now What Pod sits down to chat with Bre about her past relationship with a narcissist. She walks us through their courtship and engagement, to finding out he’d actually been defrauding her.
Topics Discussed:
Love Bombing
Discovering she’d been defrauded
Breaking up
Getting back together
Lies and Manipulation
Rebuilding her finances
Picking h...
The Now What Pod talks with Heather about her experience of being in a long-term relationship with a serial romance scammer. She walks us through how they met and fell in love. They lived happily for a couple of years before things started to unravel, and she soon discovered his secrets.
Topics Discussed:
Meeting her boyfriend
Finding out his real identity
Reporting it to the Police
Confronting the Narci...
This week, The Now What Pod is joined by author Emily Barth Isler. Emily shares her story of being diagnosed and living with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD). She describes the challenges of learning to harness her OCD as a Superpower, including the painstaking decision to take or not take medication for it. The interview includes discussion of mental health and hormones, her journey with going on and off medication, being in th...
This week, Nathalie Cholette sits down to chat with The Now What Pod. Nathalie tells her story of starting out as a vibrant girl, in love with life, and of how, through endless expectations imposed on her from an early age, she lost her voice. Nathalie describes losing her identity, the decision to leave her marriage, and how she ventured to reconnect with her authentic self, and now seeks to inspire others to reclaim their voice.
...This week, The Now What Pod sits down to chat with @anotherstrongwidow, Janice Bell. Janice’s husband was diagnosed with cancer when she was pregnant with their third child. The following 6 months would be harrowing, as Janice cared for three children under four years old, and her ailing husband. Six months after his diagnosis, her husband died. Then, Janice herself began to experience unusual symptoms, and would have to fight to p...
Amber joins The Now What Pod to talk about supporting her children after the death of her ex-husband. Amber married her childhood sweetheart and had 3 beautiful children. After the dissolution of the marriage, her ex-husband succumbed to addiction and later died of an overdose. Amber talks about parenting her children through grief, and the burdens of solo-parenting.
Topics Discussed:
Life after divorce
Men's Ment...
Dr. E’Toyare “Torie” Williams joins The Now What Pod to share her expertise in the area of Adverse Childhood Experiences. In this episode, you’ll learn more about how what ACEs are, why they matter, and what your ACEs score is.
Topics Discussed:
What are ACEs?
Childhood Trauma
Generaltional Trauma
Getting therapy for ACEs
ACEs Awareness
The ACEs quiz: What’s your score?
Resources:
Diana joins The Now What Pod to share her story of surviving The Troubled Teen Industry. She describes herself the trauma she experienced as a child when her father was killed by a drunk driver, and how in part, that trauma led to her “acting out” as a teenager. Her mother, desperate for help, then sent Diana to a residential treatment program designed to reform youth. Diana would spend the next three years of her life enduring is...
Topics Discussed:
•Jen & Tesha spend some time...
Serena was born with a silver spoon in her mouth, but it tarnished. Her life fell apart when she was just four years old. After her parents divorce, Serena’s brother went to live with her father, while she remained with her mother. Then one day, when left unsupervised, her older brother died in a tragic accident. This event precipitated years of being bounced around between family members. Not living with her biological parents, Se...
CW: abortion
The Now What Pod is joined by post-abortion life coach, Amanda Star Kingsley. After an unexpected pregnancy, Amanda, a married mother of three, chose to have an abortion. Amanda discovered that this was a complex and emotional experience. In this episode, we discuss abortion laws, deciding to have an abortion, the stigma of abortion, abortion access, and healing after abortion.
Topics Discussed:
CW: Suicidal ideation, sexual abuse, alcohol abuse, domestic violence
Charlene joins The Now What Pod to talk about the impact that the sexual abuse she experienced as a child had on her. As a teen and adult, Charlene struggled with alcohol abuse, mental illness, and suicidal ideology. The one day, just 2 days before she planned to take her own life, everything changed. She flipped the script and was able to begin the hea...
Sherente, a Two Spirit member of the Narragansett tribe, joins The Now What Pod to share their story of overcoming the discrimination they faced when they decided to compete in a dance traditionally performed only by women. Sherenté talks about their two spirit identity and how they are breaking barriers while fighting for Indigenous visibility. Sherente takes the time to explain what it means to be a two-spirit and to teach us ab...
The Now What Pod talks with Instamom, Melissa Rainer. Melissa shared her motherhood journey, from stepmom, to bio mom, and then legal mom. Melissa dishes the real real of being a stepmom, and the challenges she faced before finally adopting her step children.
Resources:
Instamom Pod https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/instamom-podcast/id1587915577
About Melissa Rainer:
Melissa was a stepmom first, Bi...
This week, The Now What Pod meets with Megan Hillukka who is a bereaved mother, with 7 children, one who died at 15 months old. When Megan was 36 weeks pregnant her daughter, Aria, died. Megan was caught between saying goodbye to one child, while welcoming a new child into the world. In this episode, Megan shares her experience with the death of her daughter, and what she has learned about grief. She now uses her experience to coac...
Nova Reeves joins The Now What Pod to discuss the murder of her mother by “The Green River Killer”. As a child, Nova was frequently left responsible for the care of her younger sisters, while her mother struggled with drug use and undiagnosed mental health issues. Then, one day her mother disappeared and was never seen again.
In this episode, Nova shares the impact that her upbringing, and her mother’s murder has had on ...
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