Riffin' About Life with Brian R. King, MSW

Sometimes the habits that once helped you survive become the very things keeping you from fully connecting, growing, and moving forward.

In this honest conversation, Brian sits down with business owner, author, community leader, and former political candidate Denny LaVe. Denny reflects on how instability, separation, and loss during childhood shaped the way he approached vulnerability, relationships, responsibility, and success as a...

Every parent wants to believe they're making the right choices for their child. But what happens when all the advice, the strategies, and even the professionals seem to point you toward solutions that simply don't work?

In this thoughtful conversation, Brian sits down with Dr. Norrine Russell, parenting coach, educator, and founder of Russell Coaching for Students. As the mother of a neurodivergent son, she understands firsthand wha...

What happens when the life you recognize begins disappearing one piece at a time?

When relationships end, grief changes the shape of your world, and new information forces you to question parts of your identity you once believed were certain, it can feel like you have to rebuild yourself from the ground up.

In this deeply honest conversation, Brian sits down with speaker, storyteller, author, and talent leader Monae Evans. Monae shar...

What happens when you spend most of your life believing your needs don't matter?

In this deeply moving conversation, Brian welcomes relationship repair specialist, author, and speaker Danielle Bernock to explore how childhood trauma quietly shapes the stories we tell ourselves—and how those stories can follow us well into adulthood. Danielle shares pieces of her own journey from fear, shame, and feeling unseen to discovering a...

What if you spent years believing you were too much... too emotional... too distracted... too sensitive... only to discover your brain was never broken in the first place?

In this powerful conversation, Brian sits down with Samantha Foote, founder of Every Brain is Different, to explore what it's like to spend decades living with undiagnosed ADHD. After years of feeling like she was the problem—and navigating multiple misdiagn...

What if the one place you felt safest as a child was a stage?

For Heather-Ann Ferri, performing wasn't just a passion—it was a refuge. While enduring severe childhood abuse behind closed doors, dance became the one place where she could breathe, express herself, and momentarily escape a world that didn't feel safe.

But what happens when the applause fades and you're left facing the wounds you've spent a lifetime outrunning?

In t...

What happens when a dream you set aside years ago suddenly refuses to stay quiet?

Writer Tracey Thompson always loved stories, but raising children and handling the demands of everyday life left little room to pursue writing. Then one unexpected comment from her daughter sparked an idea she could not ignore. With no outline, no carefully mapped plan, and no certainty about where the story would lead, Tracey opened her laptop and beg...

What if love is not something you earn, exchange, or receive, but something you choose to embody?

After receiving her own cancer diagnosis and then losing her husband to pancreatic cancer just six weeks after his diagnosis, business coach, author, and *Love Is* podcast host Kim Sorrelle began questioning everything she thought she knew about life and love.

Her search became a 14-month experiment in living out the principles found in ...

What if the story you've been hiding is the very thing someone else needs to hear?

For decades, Ty Gipson believed he should handle life's hardships quietly. Diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes as a child, he endured kidney failure, multiple organ transplants, dialysis, and countless medical setbacks while trying to live as "normally" as possible. It wasn't until he finally shared his story with family that everything changed. His honest...

What if the traits you have spent years criticizing were never personal failures at all?

In this episode, Brian sits down with autistic neurodiversity life coach, parent coach, and author Danielle Sullivan for an honest conversation about what can happen when you finally gain the language to understand your brain.

Danielle shares how her child’s autism diagnosis led her to recognize herself in the research and reconsider years ...

What happens when the life you've built suddenly falls apart?

For Ralph Brewer, the collapse of his marriage became the beginning of a much deeper journey. Instead of staying trapped in blame, he learned to examine the patterns that shaped his relationships, confront his own codependency, and rebuild his identity from the ground up.

In this honest conversation, Brian R. King and Ralph explore why so many men lose themselves in relati...

There are moments in life that split everything into before… and after.

For Heather Hester, that moment came in the middle of the night when a terrifying phone call about her missing son turned into something she never expected… and everything changed.

What followed was a complete unraveling of beliefs, identity, relationships, and ultimately, a powerful rebuilding rooted in truth, love, and courage.

In this deeply hones...

Most people don’t think about their kidneys…

Until something goes wrong.

In this episode of Riffin’ About Life, Brian sits down with Dr. Matt Harmody to talk about a reality that affects millions of people—but often goes unnoticed until it’s serious.

Dr. Harmody shares his personal connection to kidney disease, watching his own father go through dialysis, and eventually stepping in as a donor.

What makes ...

You can build a life that looks successful on the outside…
and still feel like something’s missing.

In this episode of Riffin’ About Life, Brian sits down with David Marcus to talk about a question more people are quietly asking:

Why doesn’t success always feel the way we expect it to?

David shares his perspective on what happens when achievement, progress, and external validation don’t translate into...

What would you do if you gave everything, and still got told it wasn’t enough?

In this episode of Riffin’ About Life, Brian sits down with Russell Van Brocklen, whose story starts with a moment that could have ended everything.

After completing a high-level government internship, with accommodations approved by the state, Russell was given 15 credits of an A- recommendation.

His university changed it to an F.

That moment di...

What if the reason you’re stuck has nothing to do with motivation?

In this episode of Riffin’ About Life, Brian sits down with Nicole Tuxbury—podcaster, author, and systems expert—who breaks down a simple idea that challenges how most people approach productivity:

Motivation doesn’t just show up.

And if you’ve been waiting for it… that might be exactly why things feel stalled.

Nicole shares ho...

What would change…
if you finally understood why your brain works the way it does?

In this episode of Riffin’ About Life, Brian sits down with Tracy King, who spent decades building a career, raising a family, and navigating life—without knowing she was autistic and ADHD.

That clarity didn’t come until her early 50s.

And when it did, it didn’t just bring relief.

It brought questions.
Grief.
Refra...

What if the traits you’ve been told to “fix”…
were never the problem to begin with?

In this episode of Riffin’ About Life, Brian sits down with Gazit Chaya Nkosi for a conversation that challenges how we think about sensitivity, mental health, and what it means to live a “normal” life.

Gazit shares her journey growing up in a highly rigid, religious environment… navigating trauma, ...

What do you do when your life changes in a way you never saw coming… and there’s no roadmap for what comes next?

In this episode of Riffin’ About Life, Brian sits down with Laura Bratton, who began losing her vision as a teenager, gradually, unpredictably, and without answers.

What followed wasn’t just a physical adjustment.
It was a deep emotional reckoning.

Grief.
Anxiety.
Loss of identity.
And m...