Explore every episode of the podcast Different Chapters

What if joy isn't something we have to earn?

After exploring some of life's heavier experiences in The Chapters We Carry, we're turning the page toward something a little lighter... Joy.

In this episode, we reflect on the moments that make us feel most alive, from childhood memories and unexpected laughter to finding freedom in being ourselves. We explore how our relationships with joy have changed as we've grown, why we sometimes postpone happiness until life looks a certain way, and what it means to build a life that feels genuinely fulfilling.

Along the way, we share stories about family traditions, motherhood, relationships, personal growth, and the little moments that remind us how beautiful ordinary life can be. We even get into a few hilarious memories from growing up together!

We also explore a question that has stayed with us: What if experiencing more joy isn't about adding more to our lives, but creating more opportunities to enjoy the lives we're already living?

Because joy doesn't require a perfect life. It can exist alongside uncertainty, challenges, and change.

Maybe joy isn't something we need to chase. Maybe it's something we can make more room for.

No matter where. No matter what. We'll meet you here.

Some chapters change more than our circumstances. They change the way we understand our bodies, our safety, and ourselves.

In Part Two of The Chapters We Carry, Naomi shares two chapters that changed her in very different ways: developing Long COVID and living with chronic illness, and a later experience that fundamentally changed her relationship with safety.

We talk about grieving a body and a life you once knew, learning to live within limits you never chose, and the uncertainty of building a future when you don’t always know what your body will be able to give you. Naomi also shares what it has been like to move forward after experiencing harassment and interpersonal violence—when your mind knows the danger has passed, but your body is still learning to believe it.

Together, we explore what it means to rebuild trust in your body and yourself, to create new experiences of safety, and to accept that healing doesn’t always mean becoming unaffected by what happened.

Because maybe the goal isn’t to put every difficult chapter down.

Maybe it’s learning that we can carry what changed us and still keep writing.

Content note: This episode includes conversations about chronic illness and Long COVID, depression and suicidal thoughts, harassment and interpersonal violence, trauma responses, anxiety, and mental health. Please listen in whatever way feels supportive for you.

No matter where, no matter what. We’ll meet you here.

Some chapters end, but that doesn’t mean we leave thembehind.

In Part One of The Chapters We Carry, Emily shares some of the chapters that have shaped who she is today. We talk about infertility and IVF, the complicated mix of fear and hope that followed her into pregnancy and motherhood, and what it means to get the ending you desperately wanted while still carrying everything it took to get there.

We also explore the experiences that taught her to fear rejection and abandonment, how people-pleasing became a way of trying to feel safe, and the slow work of learning that she doesn’t have to abandon herself to keep someone else.

This conversation is about the things we carry long after a chapter has ended—the fear, grief, gratitude, pride, and wisdom that become part of who we are.

Because carrying something doesn’t mean you’re still livingin that chapter. Sometimes, it just means that chapter came with you.

This is Part One of The Chapters We Carry. In Part Two, Naomi shares the chapters she carries, including chronic illness, trauma, safety, relationships, and learning to trust her body and herself again.

Content note: This episode includes conversations about infertility, IVF, pregnancy complications and fear of pregnancy loss, childhood experiences, anxiety, rejection, abandonment, and mental health. Please listen in whatever way feels supportive for you.

No matter where, no matter what. We’ll meet you here.

What happens when life doesn't look the way you thought it would?

In this episode, we talk about the lives we once imagined for ourselves, and what happened when reality took us somewhere different. We reflect on relationships, the compromises we've made along the way, the timelines we thought we were supposed to follow, and the moments that forced us to reconsider what we actually wanted.

For one of us, the life we imagined took longer and a very different path to arrive. For the other, letting go of the life she thought she would have became part of creating something entirely new.

We talk about what it means to feel behind, how our expectations can shape the choices we make, and the difference between compromising with someone and compromising yourself.

Because sometimes the chapter you didn't expect isn't necessarily the one you would have chosen, but it can still teach you something about who you are, what you want, and where you're going next.

What chapter are you in today?

Every chapter begins somewhere.

In our first episode, we share the story behind Different Chapters—why we started this podcast, why these conversations matter to us, and what we hope you'll find here.

We talk about the different paths that have brought us to this moment and introduce the question that will begin every episode:

What chapter are you in today?

Because we've learned that you don't have to be in the same chapter to walk alongside someone. Wherever life has taken you, we're so glad you're here