Explore every episode of the podcast The Shadows We Cast
| Title | Pub. Date | Duration | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Undertow | 09 Jun 2026 | 00:45:32 | |
Kelly Campbell's life changed forever when her best friend Emma was killed in a car accident in 2007. What followed was years of unprocessed grief, trauma, and pushing forward—building a successful career while quietly struggling beneath the surface. In this episode of The Shadows We Cast, Jenn sits down with leadership and legacy coach Kelly Campbell for an honest conversation about grief, burnout, identity, and the hidden emotional currents that shape our lives. Kelly shares how the loss of her best friend, followed by the sudden death of another close friend years later, forced her to confront the grief she had spent years avoiding. Together, Jenn and Kelly explore why grief remains such a difficult topic in our society, how loss can impact our mental health long after the initial event, and what it means to find purpose and meaning after life's hardest transitions. This conversation is a powerful reminder that grief isn't something to fix or rush through—it is something to honour, navigate, and ultimately integrate into our lives. In this episode, we discuss:
About Kelly Campbell Kelly's journey into mental health advocacy was shaped by profound personal losses. After losing her best friend Emma in a 2007 car accident, and later her good friend Susan in 2024, Kelly discovered her calling in supporting others through life's most challenging transitions. Following a 16-year career in federal public service, Kelly left government in 2024 to focus on guiding individuals, families, and organizations through personal transformation and lasting change. She currently serves as Senior Manager of Stakeholder and Government Relations for Matthew Perry House while operating her own legacy coaching practice. As an ICF-Credentialed Leadership and Legacy Coach, Kelly combines executive expertise with deep emotional intelligence, believing that legacy flows through personal, familial, and systemic dimensions—like water carving enduring channels across landscapes. She joined Bereaved Families of Ontario – Ottawa Region first as a volunteer in 2023, then as Board Director in 2025, channeling her experiences into support for others navigating grief. Connect with Kelly
Host/Producer/Writer/Director: Jenn St John Editor: Andrew Schiller If this episode spoke to you, share it with someone who might need to hear it too. Subscribe, leave a review, or just send a little love—your support helps these conversations reach the people who need them most. | |||
| Belonging | 02 Jun 2026 | 00:51:53 | |
In this episode of The Shadows We Cast, I sit down with Nikki Glahn, Founder and Executive Director of Barrie Families Unite, a grassroots organization dedicated to ensuring individuals and families have access to essential needs with dignity, compassion, and respect. What began as a local Facebook group during the uncertainty of the COVID-19 pandemic has grown into a powerful community-driven movement supporting people experiencing poverty, housing insecurity, illness, trauma, addiction, and other life-altering challenges. Through practical support, community connection, and a commitment to preserving dignity, Barrie Families Unite has become a lifeline for many in the Barrie area. But this conversation is about more than community services. It's about the role connection, dignity, and belonging play in our mental wellbeing—and how healing is often supported not only through professional care, but through the communities that surround us. Together, Nikki and I explore the connection between poverty and mental health, the hidden toll of chronic stress and survival mode, and the ways community care can help restore hope when people feel isolated or overwhelmed. We discuss stigma, systemic gaps, the importance of meeting basic needs, and why belonging is far more than a feeling—it can be a powerful form of healing. This conversation is a reminder that mental health doesn't exist separately from the conditions people are trying to survive inside of. Safety matters. Stability matters. Dignity matters. And sometimes the most meaningful support comes from knowing you're not alone. In this episode, we discuss: • The origins of Barrie Families Unite during the pandemic About Nikki Glahn Nikki Glahn is a community-driven leader, creative thinker, and advocate for purpose-led work. Nikki brings clarity, compassion, and strategic vision to projects she leads. She is known for her ability to build meaningful connections, translate big ideas into practical action, and guide teams through growth with integrity and care. Rooted in a deep belief in equity, sustainability, and community wellbeing, her leadership style is collaborative and people-centred, balancing structure with creativity and accountability with empathy. Nikki is committed to creating environments where people feel empowered and respected. She is a proud mom of 2 amazing humans, a wife to one lucky guy and a dog mama to our furry family member. She enjoys travel, camping, curling, skiing, hiking and spending time with people who fill her cup! Connect with Barrie Families Unite Website: www.barriefamiliesunite.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/barriefamiliesunite/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/barrie-families-unite-b752872a1/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@teambfu2939 Host/Producer/Writer/Director: Jenn St John Editor: Andrew Schiller If this episode spoke to you, share it with someone who might need to hear it too. Subscribe, leave a review, or just send a little love—your support helps these conversations reach the people who need them most. | |||
| Re-release: Gone | 24 Mar 2026 | 01:06:29 | |
Some endings arrive slowly. Ours did not. In this final episode of Season 1, my sisters and I share the most personal part of our story—the goodbye. After years of surviving our mom’s untreated mental illness and addiction, and then finding our way back to her during her recovery, we were finally in a good place. A healthy place. A place where laughter came easy and trust was being rebuilt. And then, in 2017, we lost her. Diagnosed with terminal lung cancer just two months before she passed, our mom’s final chapter was fast, devastating, and unexpectedly filled with grace. Two weeks after her diagnosis, our beloved Aunt Terry was diagnosed with the same illness. And within ten months, our dad passed away too, leaving us grappling with wave after wave of loss. This episode is about those final months with our mom. The hospital visits and hospice care. The late-night humor that kept us going when there were no more answers left to find. The tension between wanting to save her and learning, finally, how to just be with her. It’s about what it means to love someone fiercely—even when that love was hard-won and complicated. And it’s also about the legacy she left behind. About the strength we found in each other, and how grief shaped us into something softer, stronger, and more honest. All season long, we’ve been pulling back the curtain on what it means to grow up in the shadow of mental illness and addiction—and how, even in the aftermath, healing is possible. This final chapter closes that story for now, but it also opens the door to what comes next. Thank you for walking with us through the messy middle of our lives. Thank you for holding space for these conversations. And thank you for reminding us that even in the hardest endings, love remains. Original aired on July 8th, 2025 Host/Producer/Writer/Director: Jenn St John Editor: Andrew Schiller If this episode spoke to you, share it with someone who might need to hear it too. Subscribe, leave a review, or just send a little love—your support helps these conversations reach the people who need them most. | |||
| Re-release: Rebuild | 16 Mar 2026 | 00:54:31 | |
This week on The Shadows We Cast, my sisters, Kate and Teresa, and I return for Part 3 of our story — the chapter where things began to change. After years of boundaries, heartbreak, and distance, our mom started to seek real, consistent help. It wasn’t a sudden transformation. It was slow, uneven, and at times, fragile. But it was the beginning of something new. In this conversation, we talk about the earliest signs of her recovery and what it looked like to slowly let her back in — not just into our lives, but into our trust. We share moments that felt healing, moments that tested us, and how her role as a grandmother became the unlikely bridge back to connection. There’s grief here — for what never was — but also so much beauty in what we found when we stopped trying to hold everything together and started meeting her where she was. We weren’t trying to fix her — we were simply hoping she’d choose help. And when she finally did, something in all of us shifted, too. Originally aired on July 1st, 2025 Host/Producer/Writer/Director: Jenn St John Editor: Andrew Schiller If this episode spoke to you, share it with someone who might need to hear it too. Subscribe, leave a review, or just send a little love—your support helps these conversations reach the people who need them most. | |||
| Re-release: Shift | 11 Mar 2026 | 00:47:53 | |
In this final chapter of our second sister series, my sisters Kate, Teresa, and I reflect on the slow, complicated shift—the one that happened in our mother’s final years, and the one we had to make in ourselves to survive and heal. We talk about what it was like to be adults with a mother still deep in the storm of untreated mental illness and addiction, and how we eventually found our way to firmer ground. We explore the boundaries we had to set, the pain of waiting for change, and the quiet hope that crept in when she finally began to seek help. She didn’t become someone new—but she did begin to come home to herself. This episode is about recognizing the moments when something begins to shift—internally and externally. It’s about separating a person from their illness. About forgiving without an apology. And about choosing to heal, even when the past still echoes. If you’ve ever loved someone who struggled, or if you’ve felt stuck in a story that wasn’t changing, this conversation is for you. Originally aired on June 3rd, 2025. Host/Producer/Writer/Director: Jenn St John Editor: Andrew Schiller If this episode spoke to you, share it with someone who might need to hear it too. Subscribe, leave a review, or just send a little love—your support helps these conversations reach the people who need them most. | |||
| Re-Release: Boundary | 09 Mar 2026 | 00:38:33 | |
In this powerful follow-up to last week’s episode, we continue our sister series exploring early adulthood after growing up with a parent facing untreated mental illness and addiction. This chapter focuses on the emotional impact of setting boundaries with our mother—while becoming parents ourselves. I’m joined by my sisters, Kate and Teresa, as we share personal stories of trauma, family estrangement, childhood emotional neglect, and the moment each of us realized we couldn’t protect our mother and protect our children at the same time. We talk about the ripple effects of living with someone who struggled with mental illness, substance use, and unresolved trauma—and how we each made the painful but necessary choice to break the cycle. We also explore how those early experiences shaped our mental health journeys and led us into careers in social work, child protection, and community-based care. This conversation touches on trauma-informed parenting, mother-daughter boundaries, family systems, and healing from generational dysfunction. It’s an honest, emotional, and ultimately empowering episode about reclaiming agency, redefining family, and choosing something healthier—one decision at a time. Originally aired on May 27th, 2025. Host/Producer/Writer/Director: Jenn St John Editor: Andrew Schiller If this episode spoke to you, share it with someone who might need to hear it too. Subscribe, leave a review, or just send a little love—your support helps these conversations reach the people who need them most. | |||
| Re-release: Tethered | 20 Nov 2025 | 00:35:33 | |
This is the first of a three-part series exploring the messy, complicated years of early adulthood—when my sisters, Kate and Teresa, and I began to navigate the emotional weight of our mom’s mental illness and addiction in a new way. We weren’t estranged yet. But the tether was fraying. In this episode, we reflect on the years after leaving home—when we were starting careers, becoming parents, and building lives of our own. We were still trying to stay close to our mom through letters, phone calls, and hope. But we were also beginning to feel the cost of that closeness: the resentment, the confusion, and the exhaustion of trying to stay connected to someone whose pain kept spilling over. We talk about what it meant to set boundaries before we really knew how, how our relationships were impacted, and how we slowly came to realize that love alone wasn’t enough to hold it all together. This conversation is raw and real—and a reminder that sometimes the hardest part of growing up is learning how to stop breaking yourself to keep someone else whole. Originally released: May 20 2025 Host/Producer/Writer/Director: Jenn St John Editor: Andrew Schiller If this episode spoke to you, share it with someone who might need to hear it too. Subscribe, leave a review, or just send a little love—your support helps these conversations reach the people who need them most. | |||
| Re-release: Becoming | 11 Nov 2025 | 00:42:31 | |
Ever wonder what it’s like to grow up desperate to escape, but terrified to leave the ones you love behind?
This episode dives into the emotional cost of a childhood shaped by instability, addiction, and undiagnosed mental illness. We reflect on the toll it took on our sense of identity, our relationships, and our ability to feel safe in the world. While the journey into early adulthood is explored more fully in the next series, this conversation begins to unpack the long shadow of survival mode—and what it took to make it out. ORIGINALLY RELEASED: April 22, 2025 Host/Producer/Writer/Director: Jenn St John Editor: Andrew Schiller If this episode spoke to you, share it with someone who might need to hear it too. Subscribe, leave a review, or just send a little love—your support helps these conversations reach the people who need them most. | |||
| Re-release: Survival | 28 Oct 2025 | 00:39:42 | |
Survival: Sisterhood, Poverty, and the Moments That Shaped Us In this second episode of The Shadows We Cast, I sit down again with my sisters, Kate and Teresa, to pick up where we left off—navigating the turbulence of growing up with a mother struggling with undiagnosed and untreated mental illness. This chapter explores what survival really looked like for us: wearing the same pair of pants to school, learning to stretch a dollar, and facing down emotional chaos masked behind closed doors. We talk about poverty—not just as a lack of money, but as a feeling that seeps into your self-worth—and how those early years shaped our work ethic, independence, and empathy in ways we couldn’t understand at the time. We reflect on the adults who tried to help, the ones who looked away, and the small kindnesses that made a difference. Through journal entries, raw memories, and hard truths, we revisit the instability of our Arizona and Missouri years—moments marked by addiction, unsafe environments, and emotional whiplash. This isn’t just a story of pain. It’s a story of resilience, of love between sisters, and of the moments that cracked something open in us—and, ultimately, helped us find our way home. If you’ve ever wondered how people survive chaos—or how they begin to rebuild—this conversation invites you in. This episode was originally released on April 12th, 2025. Host/Producer/Writer/Director: Jenn St John Editor: Andrew Schiller If this episode spoke to you, share it with someone who might need to hear it too. Subscribe, leave a review, or just send a little love—your support helps these conversations reach the people who need them most. | |||
| Re-Release: ORIGIN STORY | 21 Oct 2025 | 00:46:09 | |
In this deeply personal first episode of The Shadows We Cast, I sit down with my two sisters, Kate and Teresa, for a raw, revealing conversation about our early years—growing up with a mother whose mental illness shaped every corner of our childhood. We talk about what poverty looked and felt like, how instability became our norm, and the adults who tried—sometimes successfully, sometimes not—to keep us safe. This isn’t just a story of hardship. It’s a story of sisterhood: how we held each other up, how we made it out, and how we’re still making sense of it all. From small-town Canada to the deserts of Arizona, from hiding emotions at our school desks to navigating unsafe home environments, this episode travels the geography of our early lives with honesty, humour, and a lot of heart. We speak openly about the things that were hard to name back then—parentification, addiction, emotional neglect—and the fierce love and resilience that got us through. Whether you’ve lived something similar or are just trying to better understand the shadows that follow us from childhood, this conversation invites you in. This episode was originally released on April 5th, 2024. Host/Producer/Writer/Director: Jenn St John Editor: Andrew Schiller If this episode spoke to you, share it with someone who might need to hear it too. Subscribe, leave a review, or just send a little love—your support helps these conversations reach the people who need them most. | |||
| Gone | 08 Jul 2025 | 01:06:29 | |
Some endings arrive slowly. Ours did not. In this final episode of Season 1, my sisters and I share the most personal part of our story—the goodbye. After years of surviving our mom’s untreated mental illness and addiction, and then finding our way back to her during her recovery, we were finally in a good place. A healthy place. A place where laughter came easy and trust was being rebuilt. And then, in 2017, we lost her. Diagnosed with terminal lung cancer just two months before she passed, our mom’s final chapter was fast, devastating, and unexpectedly filled with grace. Two weeks after her diagnosis, our beloved Aunt Terry was diagnosed with the same illness. And within ten months, our dad passed away too, leaving us grappling with wave after wave of loss. This episode is about those final months with our mom. The hospital visits and hospice care. The late-night humor that kept us going when there were no more answers left to find. The tension between wanting to save her and learning, finally, how to just be with her. It’s about what it means to love someone fiercely—even when that love was hard-won and complicated. And it’s also about the legacy she left behind. About the strength we found in each other, and how grief shaped us into something softer, stronger, and more honest. All season long, we’ve been pulling back the curtain on what it means to grow up in the shadow of mental illness and addiction—and how, even in the aftermath, healing is possible. This final chapter closes that story for now, but it also opens the door to what comes next. Thank you for walking with us through the messy middle of our lives. Thank you for holding space for these conversations. And thank you for reminding us that even in the hardest endings, love remains. Host/Producer/Writer/Director: Jenn St John Editor: Andrew Schiller If this episode spoke to you, share it with someone who might need to hear it too. Subscribe, leave a review, or just send a little love—your support helps these conversations reach the people who need them most. | |||
| Rebuild | 01 Jul 2025 | 00:54:31 | |
This week on The Shadows We Cast, my sisters, Kate and Teresa, and I return for Part 3 of our story — the chapter where things began to change. After years of boundaries, heartbreak, and distance, our mom started to seek real, consistent help. It wasn’t a sudden transformation. It was slow, uneven, and at times, fragile. But it was the beginning of something new. In this conversation, we talk about the earliest signs of her recovery and what it looked like to slowly let her back in — not just into our lives, but into our trust. We share moments that felt healing, moments that tested us, and how her role as a grandmother became the unlikely bridge back to connection. There’s grief here — for what never was — but also so much beauty in what we found when we stopped trying to hold everything together and started meeting her where she was. We weren’t trying to fix her — we were simply hoping she’d choose help. And when she finally did, something in all of us shifted, too. Host/Producer/Writer/Director: Jenn St John Editor: Andrew Schiller If this episode spoke to you, share it with someone who might need to hear it too. Subscribe, leave a review, or just send a little love—your support helps these conversations reach the people who need them most. | |||
| Release | 26 May 2026 | 00:30:32 | |
In this episode of 'The Shadows We Cast', Jenn sits down with David Granirer — counselor, stand-up comic, and founder of Stand Up For Mental Health™ — to explore what it means to live for decades without language for what you’re carrying, and how laughter, storytelling, and connection can become unexpected pathways toward healing. Host/Producer/Writer/Director: Jenn St John Editor: Andrew Schiller If this episode spoke to you, share it with someone who might need to hear it too. Subscribe, leave a review, or just send a little love—your support helps these conversations reach the people who need them most. | |||
| Matrescence | 24 Jun 2025 | 00:46:27 | |
What if becoming a mother wasn’t just a life event — but a radical transformation of self? This week on The Shadows We Cast, Jenn sits down with Jessie Harrold — doula, coach, author, and founder of Imaginalia — to explore the complex and rarely named process of matrescence. Like adolescence, matrescence is a profound identity shift that touches every layer of our being: emotional, physical, spiritual, and cultural. And yet… we’re barely talking about it. Together, they unpack: · What matrescence actually is — and why we all need language for it · Why radical change often begins with grief · How to “mythologize” your story rather than pathologize your pain · What Jessie calls the “gooey middle” — the messy, necessary in-between of identity transformation · Why small practices, like Jessie’s “Five Things” check-in, can become lifelines through transition This episode touches on the thresholds we all cross: motherhood, menopause, grief, healing, and the quiet reckoning of asking, Who am I now? Whether you’re navigating change yourself or supporting someone who is, this conversation offers insight, compassion, and the reminder: you’re not broken. You’re becoming. Learn more about Jessie and her work at www.jessieharrold.com, and follow her on Instagram @jessie.es.harrold. Host/Producer/Writer/Director: Jenn St John Editor: Andrew Schiller If this episode spoke to you, share it with someone who might need to hear it too. Subscribe, leave a review, or just send a little love—your support helps these conversations reach the people who need them most. | |||
| Alive | 17 Jun 2025 | 00:39:17 | |
CONTENT WARNING: This episode includes candid discussion of depression, burnout, and suicidal ideation. Please listen with care and prioritize your well-being. What does it mean to truly feel alive after you’ve nearly lost yourself? This week, I’m joined by Rachel Molenda — DJ, entrepreneur, and founder of Reunion, a women’s dance party movement rooted in joy, community, and remembering who you are. But before Rachel was creating space for others to heal and dance, she was navigating a deep, disorienting depression that brought her to the brink. In this conversation, she speaks honestly about what it was like to be in that place — when even getting through the day felt impossible — and how music, movement, and community slowly helped her find her way back to herself. We talk about:
Rachel's courage in sharing her story is a powerful reminder that joy and sorrow aren’t opposites — they’re companions. That remembering who you are sometimes begins when everything else has fallen away. And that healing doesn’t always happen in stillness — sometimes it happens in motion. Learn more about Rachel and her work:
Host/Producer/Writer/Director: Jenn St John Editor: Andrew Schiller If this episode spoke to you, share it with someone who might need to hear it too. Subscribe, leave a review, or just send a little love—your support helps these conversations reach the people who need them most. | |||
| Blueprint | 10 Jun 2025 | 00:56:07 | |
What if the way you love, fight, avoid, or people-please wasn’t a personality flaw—but a survival blueprint? In this episode, I sit down with trauma-informed therapist Laura Fess, founder of VOX Mental Health, for a powerful conversation about what really happens to our nervous system when we grow up in survival mode—and how those early patterns shape our adult relationships, attachment styles, and mental health. We explore: I also share a journal entry from when I was 15, written during a pivotal turning point in my family’s story. It’s conflicted and searching, filled with the kind of quiet hope that surfaces when you're desperate for change but not sure it will come. It’s vulnerable, reflective, and the perfect opening to this layered conversation about pain, healing, and how we can slowly carve new paths—machete in hand—toward something different. If your story includes trauma, survival mode, or the long journey of trying to feel safe again, this one is for you. 🔗 Connect with VOX Mental Health: Host/Producer/Writer/Director: Jenn St John Editor: Andrew Schiller If this episode spoke to you, share it with someone who might need to hear it too. Subscribe, leave a review, or just send a little love—your support helps these conversations reach the people who need them most. | |||
| Shift | 03 Jun 2025 | 00:47:53 | |
In this final chapter of our second sister series, my sisters Kate, Teresa, and I reflect on the slow, complicated shift—the one that happened in our mother’s final years, and the one we had to make in ourselves to survive and heal. We talk about what it was like to be adults with a mother still deep in the storm of untreated mental illness and addiction, and how we eventually found our way to firmer ground. We explore the boundaries we had to set, the pain of waiting for change, and the quiet hope that crept in when she finally began to seek help. She didn’t become someone new—but she did begin to come home to herself. This episode is about recognizing the moments when something begins to shift—internally and externally. It’s about separating a person from their illness. About forgiving without an apology. And about choosing to heal, even when the past still echoes. If you’ve ever loved someone who struggled, or if you’ve felt stuck in a story that wasn’t changing, this conversation is for you. Host/Producer/Writer/Director: Jenn St John Editor: Andrew Schiller If this episode spoke to you, share it with someone who might need to hear it too. Subscribe, leave a review, or just send a little love—your support helps these conversations reach the people who need them most. | |||
| Boundary | 27 May 2025 | 00:38:33 | |
In this powerful follow-up to last week’s episode, we continue our sister series exploring early adulthood after growing up with a parent facing untreated mental illness and addiction. This chapter focuses on the emotional impact of setting boundaries with our mother—while becoming parents ourselves. I’m joined by my sisters, Kate and Teresa, as we share personal stories of trauma, family estrangement, childhood emotional neglect, and the moment each of us realized we couldn’t protect our mother and protect our children at the same time. We talk about the ripple effects of living with someone who struggled with mental illness, substance use, and unresolved trauma—and how we each made the painful but necessary choice to break the cycle. We also explore how those early experiences shaped our mental health journeys and led us into careers in social work, child protection, and community-based care. This conversation touches on trauma-informed parenting, mother-daughter boundaries, family systems, and healing from generational dysfunction. It’s an honest, emotional, and ultimately empowering episode about reclaiming agency, redefining family, and choosing something healthier—one decision at a time. Host/Producer/Writer/Director: Jenn St John Editor: Andrew Schiller If this episode spoke to you, share it with someone who might need to hear it too. Subscribe, leave a review, or just send a little love—your support helps these conversations reach the people who need them most. | |||
| Tethered | 20 May 2025 | 00:35:33 | |
This is the first of a three-part series exploring the messy, complicated years of early adulthood—when my sisters, Kate and Teresa, and I began to navigate the emotional weight of our mom’s mental illness and addiction in a new way. We weren’t estranged yet. But the tether was fraying. In this episode, we reflect on the years after leaving home—when we were starting careers, becoming parents, and building lives of our own. We were still trying to stay close to our mom through letters, phone calls, and hope. But we were also beginning to feel the cost of that closeness: the resentment, the confusion, and the exhaustion of trying to stay connected to someone whose pain kept spilling over. We talk about what it meant to set boundaries before we really knew how, how our relationships were impacted, and how we slowly came to realize that love alone wasn’t enough to hold it all together. This conversation is raw and real—and a reminder that sometimes the hardest part of growing up is learning how to stop breaking yourself to keep someone else whole. Host/Producer/Writer/Director: Jenn St John Editor: Andrew Schiller If this episode spoke to you, share it with someone who might need to hear it too. Subscribe, leave a review, or just send a little love—your support helps these conversations reach the people who need them most. | |||
| Support | 13 May 2025 | 00:20:16 | |
Unmasking Mental Health: Real Support, Real Change with CMHA’s Liz Grummett In this special Mental Health Week episode, Jenn sits down with Liz Grummett of CMHA Simcoe County to explore what it really means to unmask mental health. With over 20 years of experience in outreach, crisis response, and education, Liz shares how connection, compassion, and accessibility are transforming lives—from youth to seniors, farmers to families, and everyone in between. Together, they talk about:
This episode also features a moving journal entry from Jenn’s mother—reminding us how the masks we wear to protect ourselves can also disconnect us. Whether you're a caregiver, a person in recovery, or someone simply trying to feel a little less alone, this is a powerful listen about showing up, speaking out, and making mental health support more human. Visit cmhastarttalking.ca to learn more about CMHA Simcoe’s programs and services. Host/Producer/Writer/Director: Jenn St John Editor: Andrew Schiller If this episode spoke to you, share it with someone who might need to hear it too. Subscribe, leave a review, or just send a little love—your support helps these conversations reach the people who need them most. | |||
| Voice | 06 May 2025 | 00:42:17 | |
In this moving and deeply honest conversation, Sophie Grégoire Trudeau joins Jenn to talk about what it means to heal—individually, in our relationships, and across generations. With wisdom, warmth, and vulnerability, Sophie reflects on her own mental health journey, from childhood trauma to eating disorders, motherhood, and having her voice through it all. They explore the ripple effect of inherited trauma, the critical role of self-compassion, and how building emotional resilience begins with honest conversations. Sophie shares the tools she returns to—like morning body tapping, breathwork, and grounding practices in nature—and speaks candidly about the messiness of healing, the power of female connection, and the importance of being seen and heard. This episode is a heartfelt reminder that growth can come through pain, that we’re never alone in our struggles, and that when we speak our truth, we give others permission to do the same. To learn more about Sophie’s work, visit sophiegregoiretrudeau.com Host/Producer/Writer/Director: Jenn St John Editor: Andrew Schiller If this episode spoke to you, share it with someone who might need to hear it too. Subscribe, leave a review, or just send a little love—your support helps these conversations reach the people who need them most. | |||
| Seen | 29 Apr 2025 | 00:52:01 | |
In this powerful and emotional episode, maternal mental health advocate Candice Thomas shares her raw journey through postpartum depression, suicidal ideation, and ultimately—hope. After nearly losing herself in the early days of motherhood, a simple act of kindness changed everything and set her on a path to create real, lasting change. Candice opens up about the barriers mothers face when seeking mental health support, the life-saving importance of being seen, and how her experiences led her to found Barrie’s Flora’s Walk and expand Evergreen Wellness Studio to better serve women in her community. We talk about the urgent need for systemic change in maternal mental health care, the ripple effects of trauma—and healing—and why advocacy, action, and community are the keys to moving the needle forward. This conversation is a reminder that no one should have to navigate the darkness alone, and that one voice, one question, one act of compassion can save a life. If this episode resonates with you or brings something difficult to the surface, please don’t sit with it alone. If you're in Canada, you can call or text 988 for free, confidential mental health support, 24/7. Connect with Candice and support Flora’s Walk across Canada:
Host/Producer/Writer/Director: Jenn St John Editor: Andrew Schiller If this episode spoke to you, share it with someone who might need to hear it too. Subscribe, leave a review, or just send a little love—your support helps these conversations reach the people who need them most. | |||
| Becoming | 22 Apr 2025 | 00:42:31 | |
In the final chapter of this three-part sister series, we look back at the breaking point that changed everything. Joined once again by my sisters Kate and Teresa, we reflect on our final years living under the same roof with our mom—years marked by addiction, instability, and the slow unraveling of the only structure we knew. From her escalating substance use to a devastating car accident that nearly took her life, we talk about the moment we thought things might finally change… and what happened when they didn’t. This episode dives into the emotional cost of a childhood shaped by instability, addiction, and undiagnosed mental illness. We reflect on the toll it took on our sense of identity, our relationships, and our ability to feel safe in the world. While the journey into early adulthood is explored more fully in the next series, this conversation begins to unpack the long shadow of survival mode—and what it took to make it out. Host/Producer/Writer/Director: Jenn St John Editor: Andrew Schiller If this episode spoke to you, share it with someone who might need to hear it too. Subscribe, leave a review, or just send a little love—your support helps these conversations reach the people who need them most. | |||
| Embedded | 19 May 2026 | 00:54:06 | |
Misty Pratt, author of All In Her Head: How Gender Bias Harms Women’s Mental Health, joins Jennifer St John for a layered conversation about women’s mental health, systemic bias, emotional inheritance, and the stories that become embedded in our bodies, relationships, and nervous systems over time. Together, they explore how women’s distress has historically been misunderstood, medicalized, and dismissed — from the legacy of hysteria to modern conversations around burnout, anxiety, mental load, and nervous system overwhelm. Misty reflects on her grandmother’s late-life psychotic break, her own experiences with panic attacks and anxiety, and the long process of understanding what her body had been trying to say before she had language for it. Jennifer shares reflections from her own family’s journey as the two discuss intergenerational trauma, invisible labor, somatic healing, and the pressure many women feel to “hold it all together.” This conversation explores: This episode is thoughtful, honest, and deeply validating — especially for listeners who have ever felt like their exhaustion, anxiety, or overwhelm was something they simply needed to “fix” within themselves. Connect with Misty Pratt: Host/Producer/Writer/Director: Jenn St John Editor: Andrew Schiller If this episode spoke to you, share it with someone who might need to hear it too. Subscribe, leave a review, or just send a little love—your support helps these conversations reach the people who need them most. | |||
| Survival | 12 Apr 2025 | 00:39:42 | |
Survival: Sisterhood, Poverty, and the Moments That Shaped Us In this second episode of The Shadows We Cast, I sit down again with my sisters, Kate and Teresa, to pick up where we left off—navigating the turbulence of growing up with a mother struggling with undiagnosed and untreated mental illness. This chapter explores what survival really looked like for us: wearing the same pair of pants to school, learning to stretch a dollar, and facing down emotional chaos masked behind closed doors. We talk about poverty—not just as a lack of money, but as a feeling that seeps into your self-worth—and how those early years shaped our work ethic, independence, and empathy in ways we couldn’t understand at the time. We reflect on the adults who tried to help, the ones who looked away, and the small kindnesses that made a difference. Through journal entries, raw memories, and hard truths, we revisit the instability of our Arizona and Missouri years—moments marked by addiction, unsafe environments, and emotional whiplash. This isn’t just a story of pain. It’s a story of resilience, of love between sisters, and of the moments that cracked something open in us—and, ultimately, helped us find our way home. If you’ve ever wondered how people survive chaos—or how they begin to rebuild—this conversation invites you in. Host/Producer/Writer/Director: Jenn St John Editor: Andrew Schiller If this episode spoke to you, share it with someone who might need to hear it too. Subscribe, leave a review, or just send a little love—your support helps these conversations reach the people who need them most. | |||
| Origin Story | 05 Apr 2025 | 00:46:09 | |
A Sister Conversation About Childhood, Coping, and Connection In this deeply personal second episode of The Shadows We Cast, I sit down with my two sisters, Kate and Teresa, for a raw, revealing conversation about our early years—growing up with a mother whose mental illness shaped every corner of our childhood. We talk about what poverty looked and felt like, how instability became our norm, and the adults who tried—sometimes successfully, sometimes not—to keep us safe. This isn’t just a story of hardship. It’s a story of sisterhood: how we held each other up, how we made it out, and how we’re still making sense of it all. From small-town Canada to the deserts of Arizona, from hiding emotions at our school desks to navigating unsafe home environments, this episode travels the geography of our early lives with honesty, humour, and a lot of heart. We speak openly about the things that were hard to name back then—parentification, addiction, emotional neglect—and the fierce love and resilience that got us through. Whether you’ve lived something similar or are just trying to better understand the shadows that follow us from childhood, this conversation invites you in. Host/Producer/Writer/Director: Jenn St John Editor: Andrew Schiller If this episode spoke to you, share it with someone who might need to hear it too. Subscribe, leave a review, or just send a little love—your support helps these conversations reach the people who need them most. | |||
| Trailer | 05 Apr 2025 | 00:05:42 | |
Podcast Trailer: The Shadows We Cast Welcome to The Shadows We Cast—a podcast about the legacies we inherit, the stories we carry, and the light we create in the process. Hosted by mental health advocate, writer, and speaker Jenn St. John, this series opens the door to raw and real conversations about living through, loving through, and learning from mental health challenges. In this short preview, Jenn shares what listeners can expect each week: deeply personal stories, journal readings, candid interviews with guests ranging from family members to public figures, and a commitment to unmasking mental health—one brave conversation at a time. If you've ever felt like you were navigating the dark without a map, this podcast is here to say: you're not alone. Let’s talk about the shadows—and the adaptability that rises from them. New episodes drop every Tuesday. Host/Producer/Writer/Director: Jenn St John Editor: Andrew Schiller If this episode spoke to you, share it with someone who might need to hear it too. Subscribe, leave a review, or just send a little love—your support helps these conversations reach the people who need them most. | |||
| Regulate | 12 May 2026 | 01:07:05 | |
In this episode, Jenn St John sits down with psychotherapist and trauma expert Jenifer Freedy for a deeply grounding conversation about nervous systems, survival patterns, and what it really means to regulate. Together, they explore how chronic stress, trauma, and emotionally unsafe environments shape the way we move through the world long after the original danger has passed. Jenifer shares powerful insights into the nervous system — including the now widely recognized “fight, flight, freeze” responses — and explains why so many of us live stuck in states of hypervigilance, shutdown, over-functioning, or emotional exhaustion without fully understanding why. Jenn and Jenifer also talk candidly about parenting, grief, high-functioning survival, and the ways unresolved wounds can quietly surface in relationships and everyday moments. Throughout the conversation, Jenifer offers compassionate, practical tools for slowing down, reconnecting with the body, and learning how to return to ourselves with less shame and more awareness. This episode is a reminder that regulation isn’t about perfection or staying calm all the time. It’s about understanding that our nervous systems learned to protect us — and that healing begins when we stop seeing those responses as failures, and start seeing them with compassion. Topics discussed include: About Jenifer Freedy: Connect with Jenifer: If this episode resonated with you, please consider following, sharing, or leaving a review. These conversations help remind people they are not alone. Host/Producer/Writer/Director: Jenn St John Editor: Andrew Schiller If this episode spoke to you, share it with someone who might need to hear it too. Subscribe, leave a review, or just send a little love—your support helps these conversations reach the people who need them most. | |||
| Legacy | 05 May 2026 | 00:38:53 | |
In this episode, I sit down with Caitlin Morrison, Executive Director of the Matthew Perry House, to talk about the experience of loving someone through the illness of addiction — and what it means to carry that experience forward after loss. There’s a version of this story we don’t talk about very often. The one where someone you love spends years struggling, finally finds their way to recovery… and then is gone. Together, we explore what families often carry behind the scenes: the early signs that something isn’t quite right, the cycles of hope and disappointment, and the emotional weight of trying to support someone you can’t “fix.” This conversation also moves beyond the personal into something deeply hopeful — the work Caitlin is leading through the Matthew Perry House, a first-of-its-kind transitional housing initiative in Ottawa focused on long-term, community-based recovery. Grounded in the understanding of addiction as a medical illness, this model addresses a critical gap in care: what happens after treatment ends. This is a conversation about love, grief, understanding — and legacy. In this episode, we talk about:
About Caitlin: Caitlin Morrison is the Executive Director of the Matthew Perry House, carrying forward her brother Matthew Perry’s legacy by advocating for long-term recovery support. With a deep commitment to breaking down stigma and improving access to resources, Caitlin has played a pivotal role in the development of the Matthew Perry House Ottawa, a first-of-its-kind transitional housing initiative. Learn more: 🌐 https://matthewperryhouse.ca 🎧 Follow, share, and help these conversations reach more people. Host/Producer/Writer/Director: Jenn St John Editor: Andrew Schiller If this episode spoke to you, share it with someone who might need to hear it too. Subscribe, leave a review, or just send a little love—your support helps these conversations reach the people who need them most. | |||
| Embodied | 28 Apr 2026 | 00:42:54 | |
In this episode of The Shadows We Cast, I sit down with Tychon Carter for a conversation about identity, self-trust, and what it really means to come back to yourself. Tychon shares his experience of growing up feeling misunderstood — navigating early messages around masculinity, emotional expression, and what it meant to be “right” or “wrong.” We talk about the identity shift that comes in early adulthood, especially when something that once defined you suddenly falls away — and the quiet, often confusing experience of feeling misaligned, even when everything looks “good” on the outside. Tychon reflects on how his time on Big Brother Canada became an unexpected turning point — not because of the game itself, but because of what happens when the noise disappears and you’re left with your own instincts. Throughout this conversation, we explore vulnerability, emotional literacy, and the process of rebuilding self-trust — including the powerful work of forgiving the version of yourself who had to survive. We also talk about the small, practical ways we can begin to reconnect with ourselves — from noticing what we feel, to creating routines that support both our mental and physical well-being. This is a conversation about embodiment — about learning to listen, to trust, and to return to who we are beneath everything we’ve been taught to be. ABOUT TYCHON CARTER Tychon Newman-Carter is a Canadian speaker, mental health advocate, and community builder, widely known as the first Black winner of Big Brother Canada and a contestant on The Amazing Race Canada. Beyond television, Tychon has built a platform centered around emotional awareness, personal growth, and self-trust. Through his work, he shares openly about his own experiences navigating identity, masculinity, and mental health — using storytelling, humor, and lived experience to make these conversations more accessible. His work also explores intergenerational trauma and anti-Black racism within African-Canadian communities, while emphasizing the importance of mindfulness, meaningful relationships, and purposeful routines as foundations for resilience and well-being. Connect with Tychon
Host/Producer/Writer/Director: Jenn St John Editor: Andrew Schiller If this episode spoke to you, share it with someone who might need to hear it too. Subscribe, leave a review, or just send a little love—your support helps these conversations reach the people who need them most. | |||
| Inheritance | 21 Apr 2026 | 01:04:57 | |
Amanda Patrick joins me for a conversation about inheritance—what we’re given, what we absorb, and what we eventually have to decide to do with it. In this episode, Inheritance, Amanda shares the story of her childhood—marked by poverty, neglect, and profound loss—and the long, complex path of what it means to carry that forward into adulthood. At just 13 years old, Amanda experienced a tragic event that would shape the course of her life. What followed were years of survival—leaving home at 15, navigating instability, masking pain, and building a life from the ground up without support. But as Amanda shares, survival is only one part of the story. This conversation explores what we inherit—not just from our families, but from the environments we grow up in. The patterns we learn. The coping mechanisms that once kept us safe. And the difficult, often painful work of deciding what we keep… and what we lay down. We talk about:
Today, Amanda is the co-founder of LADR Consulting, a speaker, and the founder of Gift-a-Family—an initiative that has raised over $200,000 to support children who might otherwise be overlooked during the holidays. Her story is not linear. It’s not simple. But it is deeply human. And at its core, it’s about this: We don’t get to choose what we inherit. GUEST INFORMATION Amanda Patrick is a business strategist and co-founder of LADR Virtual Assistants, where she helps entrepreneurs streamline operations and build scalable systems. She is also a speaker and philanthropist, and the founder of Gift-a-Family, a community initiative that has raised over $200,000 to support hundreds of children. Through her “Drop the Mask” presentations, Amanda works with youth to build confidence, resilience, and self-trust. She’s also a proud mom and pickleball enthusiast. Connect with Amanda: CONTENT NOTE This episode includes discussions of childhood trauma, neglect, addiction, and suicidal ideation. Please take care while listening and choose a time and space that feels supportive. SUPPORT RESOURCES If this episode brought something up for you, you don’t have to sit with it alone. Canada: Call or text 988 Host/Producer/Writer/Director: Jenn St John Editor: Andrew Schiller If this episode spoke to you, share it with someone who might need to hear it too. Subscribe, leave a review, or just send a little love—your support helps these conversations reach the people who need them most. | |||
| Unstuck | 14 Apr 2026 | 00:48:57 | |
In this episode of The Shadows We Cast, I sit down with Christina Orfanakos, MSW, RSW—Registered Social Worker and founder of Grace North Therapy—for a conversation about attachment, survival patterns, and what it really means to begin feeling safe again. Some patterns don’t start with us. We talk about the ways early experiences—especially those shaped by silence, unpredictability, or emotional disconnection—can shape how we move through the world as adults. And how those same patterns that once protected us… Christina brings both professional insight and deep compassion to this conversation, grounded in her work with women and mothers navigating overwhelm, burnout, and disconnection. Her approach is rooted in attachment theory and the belief that meaningful change happens when we feel seen, understood, and supported. We also explore:
This is a conversation about understanding—not fixing. About Christina: Connect with Christina: Host/Producer/Writer/Director: Jenn St John Editor: Andrew Schiller If this episode spoke to you, share it with someone who might need to hear it too. Subscribe, leave a review, or just send a little love—your support helps these conversations reach the people who need them most. | |||
| Known | 07 Apr 2026 | 00:40:18 | |
Season 2 opens with a powerful conversation about connection, regulation, and breaking cycles. In this episode of The Shadows We Cast, Jennifer St. John sits down with clinical psychologist, bestselling author, and renowned speaker Dr. Jody Carrington. Known for her bold, honest, and deeply human approach to mental health, Dr. Jody’s work focuses on one essential truth: we are wired for connection — and healing happens in relationships. Together, Jennifer and Jody explore emotional regulation, empathy, and the long ripple effects of growing up in environments shaped by mental illness and addiction. Through Jennifer’s lived experience and Dr. Jody’s clinical insight, this conversation unpacks how trauma shapes our nervous systems, why empathy requires context, and how safe relationships can help us break intergenerational cycles. In this episode we explore:
About Dr. Jody Carrington Learn more about Dr. Jody:
This episode includes discussion of addiction, mental illness, trauma, and suicidal ideation. Host/Producer/Writer/Director: Jenn St John Editor: Andrew Schiller If this episode spoke to you, share it with someone who might need to hear it too. Subscribe, leave a review, or just send a little love—your support helps these conversations reach the people who need them most. | |||