The Life Shift: Real Stories of Life-Altering Moments

What does it mean to live a life that is never dull?

For Chris Jordan, the answer has been unfolding since he was twelve years old, standing in front of his grandfather’s headstone. Etched into the stone were six words his grandmother chose: It was never dull. What started as a simple phrase became a mantra that shaped every risk, every leap, and every choice Chris has made since.

• How a childhood vis...

What happens when the life you built suddenly unravels?

Dan Boettcher had the degrees, the career path, and the promise of a future in diplomacy. On paper, it looked perfect. But inside, he was falling apart – and one surreal moment in an airport lounge sent his world in an entirely different direction.

In this conversation, Dan shares what it means to start over when the future you planned is no longer p...

What happens when your world is shattered in an instant?

When Sally McQuillen lost her 21-year-old son Christopher in a tragic accident, her life split in two. In this conversation, she shares what it means to keep living with love and purpose while carrying unimaginable loss. Her story reminds us that grief and gratitude can sit side by side, and that choosing to keep your heart open is an act of profound cour...

I wanted to share the new trailer for Grief and Light, hosted by my friend and former Life Shift guest, Nina Rodriguez.

Nina created this show after the sudden loss of her only sibling, and it has become a beautiful space for honest reflections and conversations about lif...

At 28, Dan MacQueen was thriving in London with career momentum, global travel, and Friday night pints. Then one morning on the tube, his vision went black. Days later, he was in emergency brain surgery. That should have been the turning point. But it was only the beginning. A massive brain hemorrhage, four weeks in a coma, and months of painful rehab left him having to relearn how to walk, talk, and even smile...

This episode originally aired in 2024 and is replayed for aHUS Awareness Day to raise awareness of atypical hemolytic uremic syndrome.

What happens when survival meets the unexpected reality of a rare disease?

In September 2024, Taylor Coffman first shared her powerful story on The Life Shift. After giving birth to her daughter, she experienced a life-threatening emergency that revealed a rare disease call...

What happens when everything you’ve built feels like it’s built on the wrong foundation?

Alan Lazaros was chasing all the right things on paper. The degrees. The job. The money. But a head-on car accident at 26, eerily similar to the one that killed his father when Alan was just 2, brought it all to a crashing halt. In that moment, he came face to face with who he really was, not just who he wanted ...

What happens when loss cracks you wide open and shows you who you’ve been all along?

Britt Michaelian had built a beautiful, full life. She was raising her daughters, creating art, and moving forward. But when her mother passed away suddenly, Britt paused everything. Then, just as life began to settle, her sister was diagnosed with cancer. That second heartbreak brought a deeper reckoning.

In this convers...

What happens when success on paper leaves you feeling completely empty inside?

Kevin Palmieri had the dream life. The job. The car. The paycheck. But beneath the highlight reel, he was unraveling. In this conversation, Kevin shares the quiet spiral that nearly ended everything and the honest decision that changed his life for good. What started as a breakdown became a wake-up call. One that led him to become th...

What if grief could live beside joy instead of swallowing it whole?

When Marie Alessi’s husband, Rob, died suddenly from a brain aneurysm while on a work trip, her life shattered in an instant. But instead of letting grief move in permanently, Marie made a quiet, powerful promise: to create the happiest life possible for her and their two young boys. What followed wasn’t perfect, but it was deeply h...

In this special bonus episode of The Life Shift Podcast, I mark the 36th anniversary of my mom’s passing by sharing something deeply personal. Usually, I’m the one listening as guests reflect on their life-altering moments. But today, I turn the question back on myself.

What would I tell the 8-y...

What happens when your earliest moments of intimacy are taken from you?

In this raw and powerful conversation, author Kaila Yu shares the truth about a traumatic experience in her early twenties that splintered her sense of self. Raised in a household where emotions were rarely named, Kaila spent years seeking validation outside herself. When a modeling opportunity turned into a violent betrayal, she dissociate...

What do you do when the world falls apart and your inner voice says, “Not yet”?

Dr. Devin DeGreif shares a story so unimaginable it feels like fiction until you realize it is her truth. After the brutal loss of her mother, Devin unraveled, disassociated, and considered ending her life. But a thunderous inner "no" marked a turning point. What followed was a slow, intentional shift toward healing, spi...

What if the bravest thing you can do is admit you’re struggling?

When Jill Schulman walked into her ROTC unit ready to quit, she expected rejection. Instead, she was met with empathy. And that changed everything. In this powerful conversation, Jill shares the quiet, steady kind of bravery that helped her stay the course and eventually shape her life’s work.

• Learn how asking for help can be the ...

What happens when your life splits in two more than once?

Ash Perrow was a schoolteacher with a plan and a future he could see clearly. Then he held his stillborn daughter in his arms. That moment shattered everything. Years of survival, anxiety, and silence followed. Then a near-death experience cracked him open in a way nothing else ever had. And in that space beyond his body, he made a choice that changed hi...

What if the perfect time never comes?

Katie Svoboda-Rini spent years waiting for things to settle before she could finally chase her dream. But life had other plans, including the loss of both parents, a lifetime of body shame, and a wildfire that didn’t burn her house down but still took almost everything. In the rubble of grief, burnout, and survival mode, Katie found something deeper than resilience. S...

What happens when five grief-focused podcast hosts come together to speak grief out loud?

This is a special recording of Giving Grief a Voice, a live panel hosted by Reimagine.org. In this heartfelt and honest conversation, five hosts share how telling and hearing stories of loss can bring comfort, connect...

Real people. Honest moments. Life, unfiltered.

The Life Shift Podcast is a collection of candid conversations with people who’ve experienced the moment when everything changed – and chose to keep going.

If you’ve ever felt stuck, cracked open, or quietly transformed, there’s probably ...

This is a personal invitation to something meaningful.

On Thursday, August 7, I’ll be part of a virtual panel hosted by Reimagine called “Giving Grief a Voice.” We’ll be talking about how grief-focused podcasts – including Grief is a Sneaky Bitch (Lisa Keefauver), Grief and Light (Nina Rodriguez), Life with Grief (Tara Accardo), Where I Am (Grant Garry), and The Life Shift – ...