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This conversation is going to stay with me for a long time. Together, Josh and I walked the fine threshold between grief and storytelling, illness and healing, and I found myself feeling lighter and more stable when we finished.

In Josh’s words:

You can’t treat grief with a pill. But you can treat it with a story. Last week I spoke with @Kimberly Warner, author of “Unfixed,” a memoir about family identity and chronic illness. It turns out there is no separating the two. After Kim lost her father, she took a DNA test that revealed he wasn’t her biological dad after all. But her biological father had died, too. Those revelations set a complex cascade of grief in motion. Kim was grieving the man who raised her, whom she thought of as her real father, but the DNA test upended her sense of self. And then she never had a chance to meet her biological dad. By the time she discovered that he existed at all, he was already dead. In the midst of all that stress, she began experiencing vertigo. The ground beneath her feet felt like the deck of a boat on open water. There was a name for her illness – Mal De Débarquement Syndrome – but there was no cure. Doctors are impatient with chronic illness. Because there’s no fix, there’s no chance for them to play the hero. Symptoms present physically, but they might have mental or emotional roots that no pill can touch. That’s why illness narratives matter so much. By shaping their own story, finding order in their confusion and pain, a person who suffers from chronic illness can reclaim their own identity. Instead of being the patient who “failed” to respond to treatment, they can be the storyteller who extracts meaning from suffering. I know a little about grief. Before I left academe in 2021, I lost two grandparents and a cousin. My grandfather died of natural causes in January, my grandmother died of grief in August, and my cousin had a brain hemorrhage from COVID in October. Then I left a career that I’d formerly loved. The only thing that helped during that time was storytelling. I shared memories of the people I’d lost, perhaps to convince myself that I carried them with me still. And I wrote my way through my life transition, interviewing many others about their pivots from academe to industry, trying to see where I fit in that new story. Grief breaks you in a thousand different ways. You can't put yourself back together again in quite the same shape. There’s not much medicine can do to help. But without storytelling, you might never put yourself back together at all.

Thank you j.e. moyer, LPC, Sean Talbeaux, Lor, and many others for tuning into my live video with Joshua Doležal! Join me for my next live video in the app.

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A juicy teaser:

Kimberly: Some people might see like this story of yours is actually a true redemption arc, you know, like, Oh, she solved this resolved this. So I’m curious, how does the broken part, how do the broken parts still live in you? And how do you hold them differently? Like, do you relate? Like, do you still visit self-doubt and depression? Absolutely. And all that stuff. And so what’s transformed with how you relate to those parts of yourself?

Nan: I’m not afraid of it anymore. I’m not afraid of it anymore. If I feel myself getting sad, which is different than depression... I ask the sadness what it wants me to know. If I start to feel depressed, I say, what’s the message? What do you want me to know? If I get angry, there’s always that curiosity that will kick in.

And for those who don’t yet have a copy in their hands, my book Nan mentioned is available for purchase!

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What a tender, joyous celebration. The festivities were abundant with laughter and tears, and overflowing admiration for my publisher Empress Edition’s & Alisa Kennedy Jones game-changing vision and artistry. ❤️❤️❤️

I never imagined a simple reading from my Unfixed launch party would ripple like this, but here we are. This book was born on Substack, chapter by chapter, held and then lifted by a community of readers who walked with me long before a publisher ever came calling. And then Empress Editions appeared, a publishing revolution created by midlife women for midlife women, born from a single question in a book club: What if we all hired each other? What if we finally centered the stories traditional publishing sidelines? Empress is flipping the entire model so midlife authors keep the lion’s share of their work, yes—but more than that, they’re building a movement to amplify the voices of women whose lives are anything but finished. I’m honored that Unfixed found its home with them, and that this Substack community has been the current carrying us forward. If you feel called to read the memoir or support the work of Empress, links are below.

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"I'm no fan of myself. I've learned to tolerate myself. Like, okay, this is who I am. I don't know if anybody runs around and goes, gosh, I'm so glad I'm me. So, I don't have that, but there is an acceptance, and I think that gets better as you get older, and I think it's easier as you get older… but when I write I get to be my best self."

-Adam Nathan, writer

Ah, dear listener, what a delight awaits you today!

Before you plunge into the words below, I urge you to find a cozy nook, perhaps wrap yourself in a blanket, and instead of reading, close your eyes and listen. In this interview, the extraordinary Adam Nathan brings to life poignant excerpts from his oeuvre. Through his lyrical cadence, he leads us into imagined realms where humor hangs with mystery, play lives alongside compassion, and pain, love, and redemption reign as royalty.

He speaks of the tender moment when his mother read to him in his youth, feeling "as supple as a tiger cub in his mother's mouth." I suspect you, too, may find that same warmth enveloping you. Adam, no stranger to the full spectrum of human emotion, crafts stories that gut and mend, reminding us that to feel—even the sharpest of pains—is far superior to numbness. From that raw experience, the heart transforms, becoming more than mere anatomy; it evolves into a vessel of shared vulnerability and grand humanity.

And speaking of grand, Adam has embarked on a monumental journey: to write 100 stories in 100 months—an astonishing span of 8 1/3 years fueled by relentless creativity and fervor. He's nearing the completion of his first ten, which we discuss in our conversation. I implore you to seek them out in their entirety. They will haunt you, tickle you, and join you at the kitchen table, urging you to question assumptions, live more authentically, and cultivate gratitude for this magnificent thing we call life.

"This is my third act. This is where I feel I contribute and where I feel something that I'm leaving behind is special. Nobody really cares whether I'm writing a hundred stories or six or a thousand. But I'm telling myself, look, you have a hundred stories to say It – It with a capital "I" – and if you live that long, the hundred stories are what you're saying life means to you."

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"Writing is the most true to myself that I can be."

"To me, it's just exhilarating, the notion that you can have a seed of an idea and then the only way to find out where the plot is going to go is by inhabiting those characters and the situation and just writing it and finding out. And that's pretty much how I do everything when I write."

-Nathan Slake, writer, scientist, dreamer

Occasionally, I'll discover a writer whose prose tastes like food—nourishing food, delicious food. Phrases that slow me down, descriptions to savor, sentences that land in my body like sun-warmed blackberries: complete and whole, yet always leaving me wanting more.

Nathan Slake is one of those writers. While his professional life is spent within the walls of academia, teaching and researching immunology, his soul resides in storytelling. I've found a kindred spirit, a brother-from-another-mother, in Nathan. I nodded throughout our conversation like a bobblehead as I related to his experiences of being a "slow bloomer," his love for "slow reading," and the not-so-slow exhilaration of creating and writing without a map, where deep listening precedes strategizing.

Nathan is someone to keep on your radar, friends! His imagination and craft are already captivating the minds and hearts of many readers. And while he humbly admits to only "discovering his soul" in his 30s—largely due to a deliberate cultivation of attentive presence and deep conversations with his wife Josephine—this soul is already a mosaic of memorable landscapes and characters, all grappling with poignant themes on the nature of consciousness and what it means to be human.

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"I love that imagination gives us access to certain kinds of truth that don't exist in the factual world. There is sometimes way more truth we can explore in fiction than we are able to in our very limited lived experiences."

-Gail Marlene Schwartz, author, queer mom, persistent student of collaboration

When Gail Marlene Schwartz posted a section from her debut novel Falling Through the Night on Substack, I knew I'd found a woman unafraid to "go there." I fell in love with her characters immediately—unhinged, messy, complex but never far-removed from the love that bonds them to one another. I devoured the novel in under a week and wished upon finishing I could invite all her characters over for a home-cooked meal. And while that didn't happen, I did get to spend an hour with their sparkling creator and I was equally nourished and enlivened by the occasion. Gail's passion to explore personal experiences, particularly in relation to motherhood and mental health, through the lens of fiction is so infectious and playful that I'm near convinced to veer from non-fiction myself. Author Siri Hustvedt once said, "Writing fiction is like remembering what never happened," and Gail's vast remembering calls in a theater of archetypes who bruise and then embrace, unravel and then mend, each written with such humanity and care that it's easy to feel an emotional recognition, our own unfinished stories rememberingand rewriting possibility in tandem.

Falling Through the Night just won the National Indie Excellence Award in the LGBTQ Fiction category for 2024 so a hearty congratulations is in order. I'm including a synopsis below that may help orient you throughout our conversation, though you certainly don't need to have read the book to follow Gail's hard-earned and enduring reflections on identity, friendship, disability, mental health, family and fulfillment.

Audrey Meyerwitz wants to fall in love and have a family. But for this queer 30-something insomniac who's struggled with Generalized Anxiety Disorder since childhood, it's a goal that's far from simple. When best friend Jessica, a recovering alcoholic, helps introvert Audrey with a profile on SheLovesHer, Audrey takes that scary first step toward her lifelong dream. Through online dating, immigrating to Canada, and having a baby with Down Syndrome, she struggles and grows. But when Audrey unearths a secret about her mother, everything about her identity as a mother, a daughter, and a person with mental illness ruptures. How do we create closeness from roots of deep alienation? With humor, honesty, and complexity, Audrey learns that healthy love means accepting gains and losses, taking off the blinders of fantasy, and embracing the messiness that defines human families.

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"By experiencing deeply and profoundly the grief, I floated on this ocean of loss. And I felt saved in my life by that."

-Mary Tabor, author (Re)Making Love: A Memoir, The Woman Who Never Cooked, Who by Fire

When I read anything by Mary Tabor, I do it slowly. Deliberately. I liken the experience to being deeply engrossed in a 5000 piece, handcrafted jigsaw puzzle, each piece just as important and gorgeous as the final image. But there's more. Solving this puzzle will reveal something I've never known about life, so while I must go slowly, there's also an urgency. I know I speak in metaphor but I've spent days trying to find the exact words to describe the incomparable experience of reading Mary. It will change you. You will make discoveries. You will feel her own necessary vulnerability hand-in-hand with your own. Her words will guide you along the vertiginous cliff of love, loss and uncertainty with an assured hand that says "It's painful, but that very pain will save you."

Mary's Substack Only Connect is a confluence of her spanning knowledge and experience as an author, professor, radio show host, and columnist, where she shares her serialized memoir (Re)Making Love, fiction, and essays about the arts, books, movies, and all things literary. "Only Connect" is the epigraph to E.M. Forster's Howard's End and she claims it's the best advice she ever got, living this truism not only through nurturing intimacy with writers on Substack but also through her staggering ability to weave together stories of her own pain and seemingly disparate subjects and literary forms. Mary is a one-woman light show of synaptic connections and it was an honor to join the shimmering display for an hour to learn more about her creative process, why she believes writing is a journey of self-discovery and how to find levity in the face of heartbreak and the unknown.

Mary is also "accidentally funny," and in between Mary's poised, wisdom-sharing, we burst into fits of laughter, so get ready to learn, feel inspired, and smile.

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"You can come to a place in your life where you run out of resilience because you're in such an adversarial relationship with your body. And so it's about how to recast and reframe and re-narrativize a body that loves you, a body that can speak to you and say, "This one thing that's here is a part of you, and it's pushing you to be the person you were meant to be."

-Alisa Kennedy Jones, tv writer, author, publisher

Alisa is one smart, witty, electrifying cookie. I started reading her two columns The Empress and Gotham Girl early last year and learned very quickly to not have liquids nearby while reading. She is a one woman, laugh-out-loud, tragicomedy act and infuses her work with infectious, tinkering curiosity, humility and self-compassion that might just be the #1 super-smoothie to getting through life with sanity intact.

After developing epilepsy during peri-menopause—the first in a series of grand mal seizures that she likens to "swallowing a bolt of lightening"—Alisa was forced to use her powers of reimagining to develop a more expansive, empowering perspective from the frontlines of a brain that derails, and often detonates, her life's plans. From ground zero, instead of falling prey to despair, over-and-over-again, Alisa brushes herself off and uses her experiences to get honest and "get bigger"—sharing her voice, advocating for women's rights and healthcare, challenging the Hollywood narrative to portray more realistic stories of neurodivergence, and championing women in midlife to embrace "the messy middle—a highly generative, creative time—one in which we can source real agency in our aging."

In her deeply engaging and heartfelt book Gotham Girl: Interrupted, Alisa writes that auras feel like "someone reaches into her brain and kneads it with stars" and post-seizure she's supercharged with creative euphoria, so it was a delight to gaze upon her 13 trillion synaptic connections where multiple reconstructive facial surgeries, being trapped inside a Van Gogh painting, mothering herself through uncertainty, mothering her daughters through trauma, and refusing submission in a largely male-dominated industry are all fodder for living a wild and wonderful life.

 

 

 

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"There are times when I'm with someone at the end of their life or I'm with a tiny bird and there is that moment where I'm just like Oh, Oh yeah, I think there's some God here. I love more deeply because of death and birds."

-Chloe Hope, end-of-life doula, baby bird carer, author of Death & Birds

 

Sharing time with Chloe this past month felt like a forest bath, a Maranasti "death awareness" meditation, and an expanse of dancing fireflies. I found myself numerous times throughout our conversations wanting to reach into the computer screen and bear hug her beautiful existence as she discussed her work as an end-of-life doula, a baby bird carer, and the way these two extremes demand the gift of her attention.

Bringing oneself into the present isn't always easy, and Chloe is the first to admit this, but instead of refusing the distracted and disjointed parts, she recognizes that presence doesn't need to look a certain way. Sometimes it involves falling apart and being present to discomfort. Other times it requires gratitude and recognizing the brevity of everything. For Chloe, presence is less a state of eternal Zen and more a refined attention to what is and then allowing that attention to reveal the inherent preciousness and sacredness of everything. Her Death & Birds column is a soaring contemplation on the sacred—transforming, expanding, reminding and restoring her many readers through her unflinching commitment to experiencing truth.

At some point in our lives, we all will be initiated into the language of impermanence, some through tragedy and others through death of a loved one or terminal illness. Often the deepest lessons in life come through hardship. While others cower, Chloe draws near. She stands on the cliff, teeters on the vital tension of opposites and through the alchemy of her attention, resolves duality into hushed and screaming beauty.

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Heather Kennedy, also known as Kathleen Kiddo, joins me for a deeply honest, funny, and tender conversation about living with Parkinson’s, invisible illness, and the strange spiritual terrain of a body that no longer behaves the way it once did. We talk about suffering as teacher, humor as survival, the pressure to make illness sound inspirational, and the quiet difference between fighting and allowing. Heather reflects on Parkinson’s as both poison and gift, on becoming a “human Rorschach blot” for other people’s fears and projections, and on what it means to live well right now, in the moment that matters. We also wander into advocacy, art, adaptation, motherhood, medicine, shame, gut health, healing, and the possibility of finding peace not after the storm, but in it. I GENUINELY LOVE THIS WOMAN.

Thank you Amy Gabrielle, Nan Tepper, Eileen Dougharty, , Monica Ticknor, and many others for tuning into my live video with Kathleen Kiddo! Join me for my next live video in the app.

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"Must the alternative to mindfulness be some kind of zombie existence, a living death? That's not cool. And frankly, I don't believe that's how it works—so often we stumble on beauty, grace and insight in our darkest and ugliest moments. It's ALL life, every minute of it, for everyone, everywhere."

• Mr. Troy Ford, author

Windows and mirrors are often used to describe the diversity, or lack of, found in media and how stories can portray social group characteristics like culture, race, religion, disability, gender, or sexual orientation. After spending a much-too-short hour last week with Mr. Troy Ford exploring everything from writer's block and mental health to toxic masculinity and creating inclusive narratives, I surmise that his storytelling doesn't stop with reflective, 2-dimensional portals; Troy builds nests—safe, places of congress, nourishment and growth where humans are validated and upheld in their unique complexity rather than boxed into perpetual stereotypes.

Not dissimilar to himself, Troy's characters are soft-spoken, gentle, empathic and longing to find their place in this world. Whether he's sharing through witty (and not uncommon laugh-out-loud) essays, his brilliant, heart-wrenching, serialized novel Lamb, or building QStack—a necessary platform and directory on Substack for underrepresented writers—Troy's hard-earned wisdom and light-hearted, vulnerable charm are warm invitations for us all to alight in his nest of belonging.

At the end of our interview I only half-joke about wanting to wrestle and drink tea with Troy, and after listening, I'm certain you will too.

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"Language. I burn it to stay warm."

-Bertus Meijer

Interviews aren't supposed to be this fun. My conversation with Bertus felt more like hanging out in a sandbox with an old friend, making castles and then destroying them with just as much delight.

But describing my sandbox mate is a bit of a challenge, and I think he prefers it this way. Bertus Meijer is an imaginative, free-spirited, deeply intelligent polymath whose spanning creativity is born from the dynamic unknown. If I could summarize the gestalt of Bertus in one word it would be "freedom." Freedom from conditioning, freedom from the known, freedom from boxes, labels, expectations and assumptions. In his essays, his mind simultaneously reaches beyond and pierces the present; renewing and surprising itself in a dynamic, improvisational dialog with its surroundings.

Because language itself is limited, perhaps a list of descriptives can at least point us in the general direction, as perfectly illustrated in Bertus' self-description:

Outcast, savant, jack of all trades, self-taught, intuitive, ambidextrous, introvert, performer, non-academic, fool, writer, thinker, holistic, mystic...but then again if it can be named...

"…but then again, if it can be named…"

So with that challenge ahead of us, Bertus and I enter into a mind-bending, thrilling ride of a conversation—using words and "putting names" to the imagined that both he and I might prefer to leave in the visual and sensorial realms. Together we explore the challenge of language to convey and honor the creative impulse that precedes it, expressing one's originality in a world that wants us to conform, the meaning and importance of living unfixed, and how creatives can learn to lean in and trust the playful unknown.

If you haven't already, treat yourself to the wonder of Bertus' illuminating and liberating body of work, including his serialized epic TCOTNK—a beautiful, imaginative adventure into living authentically, without cultural conditioning, finding one's tribe and living within the aliveness of collective creativity.

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"I think the solve for humanity, if there is a solve, is empathy. If there was a way to put an empathy chip in every single human, so many of our problems would go away."

• Ben Wakeman - author, musician

Today's interview is with author Ben Wakeman, a brilliant and stirring author and musician whose songs, short stories, essays, novels, and immersive audio, to name a few, explore deeply thought-provoking themes. For the sake of our Unfixed audience, in this interview I explore his serialized speculative fiction novel Memory of My Shadow, a gripping tale of technological advancement, human emotion and the perfectly flawed code of sentient beings that redeem us in the end. It is a stunning example of human fallibility/vulnerability and how it interfaces with technology.

Reading this novel, I was bowled over by the detailed, plausible universe Ben builds and the philosophical implications that flourish within it. It is a masterful allegory about love as the penultimate code, one that predates understanding and complexity, and how it intuits what is most needed to save us.

If you haven't already, please take a moment and subscribe to Ben's spanning, illuminating, (and wholly entertaining!) body of work.

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What a joy to gather LIVE this morning with Gail and Troy to celebrate their beautiful new books on launch day! We wandered through so many layers—storytelling, fiction vs. nonfiction, collective authorship, and the deep truths that live beneath our words. A rich thread on masculinity sparked thoughtful reflections from the audience, adding even more depth to the conversation. If you missed us live, here’s the recording—come on in and be part of this momentous day and celebration of friendship and creativity.

Thank you j.e. moyer, LPC, Sean Talbeaux, Lor, B.K. (Kate) Jackson, and many others for tuning into my conversation today with Gail Marlene Schwartz and Mr. Troy Ford!

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Dogs are unspoken healers. For some, they offer companionship, to others they act as an essential lifeline. In this episode, two women living with chronic illness explore the joy and purpose dogs brought into their lives. Morgan was born with spastic diplegia cerebral palsy, while Jennifer developed debilitating autoimmune diseases. For Morgan, her service dog Dewey became her reason to get out of bed every day and gain more independence. For Jennifer, a desire to bring joy to others caused her to found Pile of Puppies, a non-profit that connects puppies to children living with chronic illness. The two discuss the remarkable abilities dogs have, and the times they've witnessed their comfort and healing firsthand. Dogs are the beautiful blessing that taught them that joy and light can always be found, even in hardships.

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Dads are often likened to superheroes. Tireless providers and valiant protectors, they've rightfully earned the comparison. Some dads, however, are actual superheroes fighting battles every day. Single dad Anthony Sanchez visibly dons his cape, while dad Brian Langhans wears his costume underneath. Despite different journeys, both men uncovered their powers in a similar way – through a sudden, life-changing disability. Brian was diagnosed with Crohn's disease after a car accident, while Anthony was paralyzed from the chest down after a motorcycle accident. It was at rock bottom that they discovered inner strength and an outward purpose of being role models for their children.    In this episode, Brian and Anthony discuss the steep learning curves that came with their disabilities. Brian had to learn how to balance fatherhood and work with an unpredictable body. Anthony had to figure out alternatives to once simple tasks from the confines of his wheelchair. Together the two discuss how a shift in mindset and the desire to be a role model for their children empowered them to turn their can'ts into cans. Anything is possible with a little faith, determination and most importantly, support. Even the greatest superheroes need help too.

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HIV/AIDS, mental illness, and activism. Three topics rooted in stigma that become more complex when they intersect with another taboo topic – women. Not many dare to step into these challenging arenas, but for two prolific activists, Dawn Averitt and Melody Moezzi, fighting for better care for women has been their life's work. In this episode, Dawn and Melody share their parallel journeys into activism. What started as a small flame at an early age ignited into full-blown passion for advocacy after they received life-changing diagnoses. Dawn was diagnosed with AIDS. Melody with Bipolar disorder. Both didn't have access to the proper care they needed and were forced to fight for it, turning their rage into action, developing needed programs, and raising awareness that has helped transform the lives of countless women living with HIV/AIDS and mental illness. Together, they discuss the importance of destigmatizing activism. They talk about how activism does not require big, heroic actions, but rather small steps that can create a ripple of change across our shared humanity.

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Having a chronic illness as a young adult can be isolating. Healthy peers don't understand and the medical world feels designed for older people. Then one day, you find people like you online. These online communities weren't always there – a few brave pioneers paved the way for these safe spaces to take flight. In this episode, Stefanie Grant and Jenny McGibbon discuss how they started sharing their health journeys online in their early 20s. For both Stefanie, who has facial pain disorders and Fibromyalgia, and Jenny, who has Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME) and Short Bowel Syndrome, their blogs began as a personal outlet during a time they felt alone in their health battles. As their journeys evolved, so did their blogs, becoming online communities that now serve thousands. Together, they discuss their responsibilities as leaders within the space, the delicate balance that exists between positivity and authenticity, and how they attempt to hold space for others while recognizing everyone has a different lived experience.

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Most of us don't like to think about the end until we're forced to. In this episode, two men suddenly confronted with their own mortality talk about the grace they found on the other side of suffering. Dylan, a writer and Chinese medicine doctor, was diagnosed with ALS in 2017. Pierre, a Buddhist Chaplain specializing in end-of-life care, was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer. Together, the two discuss the transformative growth and meaning they found when they learned to let go and embrace their circumstances. Sometimes the greatest lessons in life come from the greatest hardships; it's our choice whether we're open to receiving the beauty that blooms from pain.

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Sometimes our heroes aren't legendary figures, they're the ones right in our home. Bethany Cook's world shattered when she was diagnosed with Narcolepsy and Cataplexy on the brink of young adulthood. Her mother, Tamara Cook was there to catch her as she fell into grief. As Bethany faced loss of identity, Tamara dealt with the loss of loved ones.  Together the two have marched side-by-side in the battlefield of life while caring for each other's needs. In this episode Bethany, a grad student pursuing psychology, and her mother Tamara, founder of the nonprofit Heart 4 Children, dive into their unbreakable bond that developed out of an unexpected place: mutual suffering. Tamara explains how she was able to draw on her own life experiences to be the compassionate caregiver her daughter needed. Bethany recounts the ways her mother was a steady anchor during turbulent times with her chronic illness, offering just the right balance between encouragement and listening. It's an intimate conversation on grief, acceptance and what it looks like to care for others in their time of need.

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In this episode, Kimberly Warner sits down with novelist-turned-memoirist Rachel Weaver to talk about what it really means to live inside a body that won’t cooperate—and how you keep building a life anyway.

Rachel shares what it felt like to release her memoir Dizzy after years of writing fiction (“it felt like I left my diary out”), and why hearing “me too” from strangers has made the exposure worth it. Together, Kimberly and Rachel trace the brutal, invisible reality of long-term dizziness and vestibular migraine: the brain fog, the relentless appointments, the medical gaslighting, and the deep loneliness of suffering that doesn’t show up on a scan.

They also explore what illness clarified rather than simply took away—especially around self-reliance, relationships, and the slow, vulnerable practice of letting other people in. Rachel talks about the rare doctor who could read subtext, see her suffering, and keep treating her even when insurance refused to pay—restoring her faith in clinicians and in care.

Threaded through it all is Alaska: the wild, quiet vastness Rachel returned to in her mind when her nervous system was overloaded, and the way landscape can become a kind of medicine. She shares how she kept writing through the worst years—literally training herself to write with her eyes closed on yellow pads as an act of survival and escape.

Finally, Rachel describes the metabolic migraine research that helped change her life after COVID knocked her symptoms back to square one: glucose testing, continuous glucose monitoring, and a medically supervised keto-to-carb-threshold protocol that helped move many participants from chronic to episodic migraine—bringing her own symptoms down to just a few days a month.

A candid, funny, and fiercely tender conversation about illness, hope (and how it can hurt), resilience, and the surprising ways suffering can spin you—“in the most arduous of ways”—into a world of kindness.

Thank you Francesca Bossert, Kaylene Johnson-Sullivan, Lor, and many others for tuning into my live video with Rachel Weaver! Join me for my next live video in the app.

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The number of illnesses that qualify as mysterious is staggering. They also predominantly affect women. In this episode, author Sarah Ramey and Physician Assistant and professor Brianna Cardenas draw from a well of wisdom as patient advocates with mystery illnesses to explore the gender inequities, biases, and systemic barriers to getting proper care. They discuss how patients must stand their ground in seeking proper care within a broken healthcare system that often tells us it's all in our heads. With no magic bullet to "slay the dragon" these women are reframing the heroes' journey into the heroine's journey – a process of drawing strength and wisdom from the darkness and emerging to guide others into a new paradigm that recognizes the value of being unfixed. 

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Life is traumatic. But some of us get an extra whopping dose of it, especially before we've learned tools to help us navigate. In this episode, our guests explore the connection between the nervous system and chronic illness – how being stuck in fight, flight or freeze can lead to long-term physiological consequences. Former family physician and trauma specialist Veronique Mead and trauma survivor Kristy Boyd share their research and personal stories living with chronic illness, illustrating that it's not "all in your head." Together they explore the nuances and types of triggering events that can reawaken early physiological patterns and how to befriend our way to a healthier life, despite traumatic events.

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Tessa and Zoe don't just share the same last name. At only 9 years old, Zoe "pooped in a blender" to save her aunt Tessa's life via fecal transplant. Today, Zoe is a high school student with her sights set on medical school alongside managing her own disability of hearing loss, and Tessa just published her first book that offers solidarity and wisdom from her rollercoaster ride with Crohn's disease. In this episode, Tessa and Zoe open up about their donor-recipient relationship, the deep insights they've gleaned from each other's physical challenges, and the fine line patients walk in not over-identifying with their disease while not living in denial of it. They discuss how acceptance ebbs and flows in their lives, at times leaning more into fixing, and late-night doom scrolling, while at other times embracing what is and advocating for what's right.

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Todd is a competitive rower who medaled at the US National Championships and is now training to qualify for the 2021 Paralympics. Susan is also a competitive rower, became an Olympic coach in 2004 and also a photographer and painter. Susan is also a competitive rower, became an Olympic coach in 2004 and also a photographer and painter. They currently share most days together in training.  They were also both diagnosed a few years ago with degenerative diseases. Todd is learning to strike the balance between toughness and rest… something that has taken on new meaning post-Parkinson's. And Susan, as his coach, looks to find workarounds to the challenges his body presents while learning to adapt to her own limitations with Multiple Sclerosis. The two seasoned athletes explore how training fits into life with chronic illness, how the meaning of strength has changed for them, and how all of us can adapt and find creative solutions to life's obstacles.

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Dr. Annie Brewster is an internal medicine doctor, founder of Health Story Collaborative and professor at Harvard. Rachelle Alford is a former ER nurse, dancer and artist. Both live with chronic illnesses. Both strongly believe in the transformational power of sharing one's story. Story-telling heals. And by healing, we mean it empowers, connects and helps us find purpose and meaning through some of the hardest of times. When a doctor delivers a diagnosis, it's usually the end of the story. But for the patient, a diagnosis is just the starting point. A patient must walk away and begin the long, winding journey of integrating this diagnosis into their life, relationships and identity. In this episode, Annie and Rachelle explore the power of patient narrative from the perspective as patients and as providers. Through sharing their health narratives and encouraging others to do so, they explore how they are turning their messes into messages, the barriers to listening and sharing in our current healthcare system, and how the process of story-telling helps us identify and articulate the new-found strengths and perspectives that are born from our brokenness. Research shows that storytelling is healing for both story sharers and listeners. The trials we endure could be someone else's survival guide and ultimately remind us all that we are not alone.

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After being diagnosed with transverse myelitis, CEO of the Argosy Foundation, Jeneye Abele, turned to comedy as a lifeline while adapting to the unpredictable and demanding nature of her medical condition. Like a magic pill, she finds laughter helps her transcend physical discomfort. In this episode, she talks with Dr. Joel Goodman, Founder and Director of the HUMOR Project, about how laughter can help carry us through the most difficult times. Together, they reflect on how an attitude of humor doesn't mean you have to be a comedian. The simple act of choosing to laugh at ourselves and see things with childlike curiosity and light-heartedness can give us perspective on otherwise overwhelming situations. Positive humor connects us, builds confidence and has various healing properties. And bonus, it just feels darn good to laugh.

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Webster dictionary defines sustenance as a "something that gives support, endurance, strength." In this episode, award-winning author and speaker Elissa Altman joins writer, speaker and disability advocate Elizabeth Jameson as they discuss the role of sustenance in their own lives. It is safe to say, this bedrock of support has been stripped from both of them in unique ways throughout their lives. Elizabeth, through the disease progression of MS that has her now living as a quadriplegic. And Elissa, through a contentious and traumatic relationship with her mother's mental illness. Together, they both reflect on what it takes to transform lack into abundance and bitterness into generosity of spirit.

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Kimberly Warner is a filmmaker and the director/producer of the Unfixed documentary and award-winning docu-series. She is also the reason the Beyond My Battle Podcast now bears its new name – the Unfixed Podcast. In this episode, Kimberly talks about her journey living with a rare, neurological condition called Mal de Débarquement Syndrome. Mostly, we talk about why she needed to find others who were learning to thrive with their incurable conditions... and make a film about them.

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Receiving a diagnosis is equally as difficult for those who love us. In this episode, we speak with two caregivers who provide their perspectives on what it was like to get that diagnosis for their child, how they initially responded, and how they went on to find community and care for themselves so they could be the best caregiver possible. We also speak with a licensed mental health counselor who talks with us about how any caregiver can address feelings of helplessness, how to support a loved one effectively, and the importance of practicing self-care to avoid burnout.

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What does it take to own our illness? Why are some people more able to transform a not-so-great situation into something inspiring? In this episode, we speak with three guests who have been able to take their diagnoses and make the most of them to help themselves and others. We also speak with a clinical psychologist who specializes in the characteristic all three guests share – resilience – and who helps us understand the ways we accept our flaws and doubts in order to change the way we see ourselves and ultimately thrive with chronic illness

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A tiny Wi-Fi glitch tried to take us out at the start… but we left it unfixed (obviously) and rolled right into one of the sweetest, funniest conversations.

This episode of Unfixed: Uncut is with Monica Ticknor , the founder of Charter Book Club Adventures—aka the woman who casually slid into my DMs with an idea that was basically: “Want to do a virtual book club… and then end it on a freaking sailboat?” And yes, I immediately said: are you kidding me, YES!

We talk about Monica’s roots as a junior high teacher and coach, the kind who made books feel like doorways and classrooms feel like circles you actually want to sit in. She shares the story that lit her up as a kid (The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle), the teachers who shaped her, and the way she now designs book clubs as immersive, personal voyages—not “read chapters 1–4 and report back,” but slow down, reflect, and let the book meet your real life.

Monica walks us through her R.E.A.D. framework—Reflect, Explore, Adventure, Discover—including captain’s logs, “catching the wind” action steps, and a final-week love letter to yourself (which… yes, made me a little shivery). But why should that surprise me? Monica is an honest-to-god angel.

Also: it’s my birthday in this episode, so there’s an orange Crush cake to honor my beloved Tang—who, for the record, is thriving in his new home.

If you’ve ever wanted reading to feel more like belonging… welcome aboard.

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Whether you're in a relationship or not, you know the unique challenges of finding and maintaining partnership when living with an illness or disability. From the way we see ourselves, to the way others see us, love is both a personal and interpersonal experience. Many find themselves unattractive, burdensome, or unworthy of this basic human need when seeking a companion. Others struggle to communicate effectively while in a relationship. In this episode, we present you with all angles by sharing stories of those in relationship and out. Our guests touch on the ways expectation, communication, trust, and self-worth play into seeking and sustaining a healthy relationship despite illness, disability, or caregiving. We also speak with a couples' therapist who explains the science behind relationships, advice for those looking for a relationship, and ways to ensure your current relationship is equipped to deal with adversity.

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At some point, we've all experienced how art can transform our state of mind. Whether it is through painting, poetry, or pottery, art is one of the oldest tools for soothing our souls and communicating. In this episode, we share the stories of three artists who use art to cope with chronic illness and channel their feelings in a variety of ways. We later speak with an art therapist who discusses the therapeutic nature of creative expression, how art-making helps us be more present, and why it is such a powerful tool for those living with health challenges and caregivers.

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We made this special episode in an effort to support our community through the many changes and challenging emotions the COVID-19 outbreak stirs up. Pre-existing health conditions, accessibility, and caring for others have been central themes of the coronavirus pandemic. Those most vulnerable (or caring for those most vulnerable) are taking great precaution, and are faced with great fear and frustration. In this episode, we provide you with an outlook on managing that fear – one that might allow us to see the coronavirus as a catalyst for slowing down, stepping back, and prioritizing self-care. We virtually sat down with Dr. Selma Nemer, a clinical psychologist with a wonderful perspective on the many ways this pandemic can ease our health and play a role in healing, both personally and globally. Dr. Nemer closes the episode with a helpful exercise of deep meditative breathing to start easing anxiety and boosting our immune systems.

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Self-compassion has become a widely studied and embraced method of extending kindness not just toward our current circumstance, but toward ourselves while experiencing it. Self-compassion is an appealing practice for those living with illnesses and disabilities as it releases common criticisms, shame, and feelings of imperfection while building a sense of understanding and acceptance. For caregivers, self-compassion helps avoid burnout, in effect nurturing the relationships with those we care for. In this episode, we speak with three guests who found the benefits of compassion during their journeys with Familial Adenomatous Polyposis (FAP), Multiple Sclerosis, and caring for a loved one with Lyme Disease and chronic pain. We also speak with Dr. Ann Saffi Biasetti, a somatic psychotherapist using the science of Mindful Self-Compassion (MSC) to help soothe critical thoughts (especially towards our bodies) and reclaim a loving connection with ourselves. Ann closes this episode with a meditative self-compassion practice to start reducing inner criticism right now.

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Hundreds of studies prove that the millennium-old practice of mindfulness positively impacts one's health, specifically for those with illnesses or caregiving responsibilities. In this episode, three guests share stories of how they turned to mindfulness to find peace with chronic migraine, chronic fatigue syndrome, and being a parent of a child with muscular dystrophy. Later you'll hear from a Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction teacher who explains how mindfulness works, the importance for those with health challenges, and how to incorporate it into your daily life.

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Anxiety. Sadness. Anger. Fear. Receiving a life-altering diagnosis is often accompanied by overwhelming emotions. In our first episode, you'll hear the stories of three guests who received the news of multiple sclerosis, retinitis pigmentosa, and Lyme disease with chronic pain, respectively. Our guests touch on how their diagnosis impacted everything from self-worth and identity, to relationships and new behavior. Later in this episode, you'll hear from a mental health professional who explains these responses, as well as the effectiveness of communication and supportive relationships during stressful times.

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In this conversation, Leah Johansen, M.D. centers her work on the power of asking the right question. Rather than chasing solutions, she invites us to identify the core question—or limiting belief—quietly shaping our lives beneath the surface. From this root inquiry, she explains, patterns of thought, behavior, health, and relationship naturally unfold. By bringing conscious attention to that central question, we create the conditions for clarity, regulation, and genuine change. The conversation frames healing not as fixing what’s broken, but as uncovering and gently rewriting the story from which everything else extends—allowing transformation to ripple outward, personally and collectively.

Thank you Adam Jennings, Ann Collins, shannon kennedy, Karen C-Collector of Books 📖, Monica Ticknor, and many others for tuning into my live video with Leah Johansen, M.D.! Join me for my next live video in the app.

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In this joyful, intimate conversation, Kimberly Warner reunites with artist and writer Elizabeth Jameson—whose work many listeners may remember from the original Unfixed docu-series and their later collaboration, MS Confidential. Together, they explore what it means to live inside an “imperfect body” without reducing that life to tragedy or inspiration.

Elizabeth shares how she once refused to look at her MRIs—“horrifying” proof of a progressive disease—until she made a radical pivot: transforming those clinical images into art, reclaiming her medical data and finding unexpected beauty in brain folds that resemble calligraphy. As MS progressed and she became quadriplegic, she adapted again, turning toward writing, speaking, and the ongoing practice of “making friends” with her body.

The conversation moves through reinvention, intimacy, and agency: how to articulate what you need when your body changes; how caregiving reshapes relationships; how swearing can be its own kind of medicine; and how aging, in a strange way, can become a homecoming—“I love getting older because I’m now normal.”

What emerges is not a neat lesson, but a lived philosophy: let it suck when it sucks, stay curious, keep redefining intimacy, and notice the people around you who make your life possible. A gathering full of grit, tenderness, laughter—and the kind of gratitude that feels like oxygen.

Thank you Nan Tepper, Francesca Bossert, Maura, Jay, Kathleen Kiddo, Monica Ticknor and many others for tuning into my live video with Elizabeth!

More about Elizabeth:

Elizabeth is a vibrant illustration of grace and grit, real chutzpah, turning lump of coal into diamonds and MRI’s into works of art. In other words, she is an artist and writer exploring what it means to live in an imperfect body as part of the shared human experience.

Elizabeth Jameson’s journey with multiple sclerosis has spanned over three decades, but before being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, she worked as a public interest lawyer, representing incarcerated children and later advocating for kids with chronic illnesses and disabilities to receive the medical care they needed.

As her own disease progressed, she began transforming her MRIs into art — reclaiming her medical data and turning those clinical images into invitations for deeper, more human conversations about illness and disability. Her work now lives in permanent collections across the U.S. and internationally, including the National Institutes of Health, major universities, and medical schools.

Due to the progression of MS, she is now quadriplegic and can no longer create visual art without assistance. She writes and speaks widely about living with illness and disability. Her essays have appeared in The New York Times, The British Medical Journal, WIRED, and MIT’s Leonardo Journal. Her piece “Losing Touch, Finding Intimacy” was also included in the New York Times anthology About Us.

She gives talks around the country — including a TEDx talk called “Learning to Celebrate and Embrace Our Imperfect Bodies” — and her new book, An Intimate Journey, comes out later this spring that chronicles the various art methods the artist has used to understand her relationship with a disease that continues to advance: textile paintings, solar plate etchings, embroideries, and digital renderings created from the clinical data that she initially refused to face. Jameson has often referred to her MRIs as containing a secret language she yearns to comprehend.

You can view her expansive, extensive art and writing collections here.

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This conversation with the brilliant David Roberts kept circling back to insecurity, not the dramatic kind, and not financial, but the quieter feeling of being a little outside things. Of not quite knowing how to perform confidence, how to bluff, how to talk the talk. David reflects on how that lack of ease stayed with him even as his career advanced, and how, in hindsight, it may have saved him. Rather than hardening into certainty or ego, that self-doubt tempered him. It kept him oriented toward home, toward family, toward listening and learning. He has a philosopher’s mind, always turning ideas over, always curious, more interested in learning than arriving. What emerges is a portrait of a different kind of hero: someone shaped by vulnerability, softened at the edges, and oriented toward connection rather than conquest. In a world that rewards certainty and performance, this felt like exactly the kind of voice we need.

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Living with early-onset Parkinson’s, writer Eileen Dougharty has turned what she can’t fix into a full-on creative rebellion. In this salty, tender conversation, we talk about death & bucket lists, deep brain stimulation & love thugs, and why most things are actually small things when it comes down to it. Eileen reminds us that saying I love you might be the fiercest act of defiance.

Thank you Nan Tepper, Holly Starley, Francesca Bossert, Lor, and many others for tuning into my live video with Eileen Dougharty! Join me for my next live video in the app.

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