All The Wiser

When Jessica Ekhoff gave birth to her son, the last thing she planned for was a mental health crisis. The signs were there within days of delivering, but with no history of mania, it was easy to overlook the obsessive, grandiose thinking, the hyperfixation and impulsivity. Eventually, a terrifying delusion landed Jessica in a psychiatric ward where she was able to get a diagnosis and receive treatment. Post-recovery, Jessica is sharing her story through her book: Super Sad Unicorn: A Memoir of Mania. Her mission is to shine a light on postpartum bipolar disorder, and tell those who are affected that they are not alone. 

In this episode:

• Reflecting on the first signs of bipolar disorder.
• The disparity between who you are as a person and what is happening with the mental health of your brain.
• What led to starting in-patient treatment.
• Receiving a proper diagnosis and experiencing the mania and delusions that come with it.
• The importance of validation and support of others with similar experiences.

Stay connected to Jessica:

Book: Super Sad Unicorn: A Memoir of Mania

Facebook: Jessica Ekhoff

Instagram: @JessicaEkhoff

Charity Donation: Postpartum Support International

Subscribe to All The Wiser  wherever you listen to podcasts - we’re on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and more! That way you’ll never miss an episode. 

We’d love to hear what you think about the show, too - it helps us know what stories are resonating with you. Head over to Apple Podcasts to write your review!

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Christy interviews Kimi about her favorite moments and memories from Season 4 in this week's mini-episode. We dig into finding guests, key ingredients for a successful episode, and Kimi's dream for All The Wiser in 2023. Additionally, she shares how the stories on her show have changed her, helping her surrender what she can't control and take control of what she can.

Follow the show at @allthewiserpodcast on Instagram.

Keep the conversation going! Join our new Facebook group and connect with other listeners like you!

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Austin Hatch is one in a million. Scratch that. One in 3.4 million. Those were odds that an MIT statistician gave of him surviving the plane crash that killed his mom and two siblings. But then, just days after being accepted to play basketball for his dream school, the University of Michigan, Austin was in a second plane crash – this one claiming the lives of his dad Steve and his step-mom Julie. Yet with all this loss, Austin has found a way to keep living by finding ways to honor the family he loved. His gratitude for life and his message of creating your legacy every day has inspired people all over the world to reconcile living while coping with tragedy. 

In this episode:

• Legacy is your day to day actions.
• The importance of staying busy in the wake of tragedy, loss and trauma.
• Honoring the life of someone you lost by contributing to the world.
• Living a life that is defined by what is beyond tragedy.

Stay connected to Austin:

Website: www.austin-hatch.com

LinkedIn: Austin Hatch

Twitter: @AustinHatch30

Charity: Erin’s House

Subscribe to All The Wiser  wherever you listen to podcasts - we’re on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and more! That way you’ll never miss an episode. 

We’d love to hear what you think about the show, too - it helps us know what stories are resonating with you. Head over to Apple Podcasts to write your review!

Stay in the know with all things All The Wiser! Sign up for our newsletter for personal reflections from Kimi, new episodes, and recommendations from our team!

Don't forget to join our new Facebook group to continue the conversation and meet others in our community.

Kimi and Christy talk about Yusuf Dahl's radical transformation from prison inmate to Ivy League scholar. They discuss what attributed to Yususf's ability to adapt and ultimately thrive - a clear internal vision, a sense of purpose, patience and the knowledge that he was loved.

As a public defender in juvenile dependency court, Christy shared an emotional story about representing a father who also underwent a radical life transformation. A dad who overcame decades of addiction to keep custody of the daughter he adored. 

Whether it's big or small, Yusuf's stories, and almost all of the stories on this podcast, are a testament to our innate ability to change our lives and shed the parts of ourselves that no longer serve us.

Follow the show at @allthewiserpodcast on Instagram.

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Stay in the know with all things All The Wiser! Sign up for our newsletter for personal reflections from Kimi, new episodes, and recommendations from our team!

He knew he was loved by his mother, and because she loved him, Yusuf Dahl knew he was worth something. Growing up in a food insecure and financially unstable household in Milwaukee taught Yusuf what not to do in order to be a successful adult. Those lessons made him a profitable drug dealer. After landing in prison, however, Yusuf began applying himself in a new way. The investment in himself set him up for a future he never could have imagined, including a degree at Princeton, a real estate career, and a mission to make housing more affordable and available for everyone.

In this episode:

• The right to affordable housing.
• The influence our parents and guardians have on us.
• How we view our community matters.
• The role demographics plays in the trajectory of your life.
• Learning to respond to challenges and adversity with optimism.

Stay connected with Yusuf:

Websites: 

www.yusufdahl.com

www.realestatelaballentown.com

Article: Strom Thurmond blocked me from renting a home

Twitter: @YusufDahl

Instagram: @yusufdahl

Charity Donation: The Petey Greene Program

Subscribe to All The Wiser  wherever you listen to podcasts - we’re on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and more! That way you’ll never miss an episode. 

We’d love to hear what you think about the show, too - it helps us know what stories are resonating with you. Head over to Apple Podcasts to write your review!

Stay in the know with all things All The Wiser! Sign up for our newsletter for personal reflections from Kimi, new episodes, and recommendations from our team!

Don't forget to join our new Facebook group to continue the conversation and meet others in our community.

I’m really excited to share with you a special episode from another podcast I love and think you will too. It’s called a Family Secrets hosted by Dani Shapiro. 

In this episode, "Somebody's Daughter", Ashley’s father is imprisoned when she’s eight months old. She has no real context for him until she visits him for the first time, when she’s seven. They forge as best a relationship they can, writing letters, and talking on the phone. It’s not until she’s fourteen when she discovers why he’s in jail. What she learns is shattering and confirms to her that the world is not always a safe place.

Kimi shares a message of love, gratitude, and permission to prioritize self-care as the holiday season begins. 

Follow the show at @allthewiserpodcast on Instagram.

Keep the conversation going! Join our new Facebook group and connect with other listeners like you!

Stay in the know with all things All The Wiser! Sign up for our newsletter for personal reflections from Kimi, new episodes, and recommendations from our team!

In part two of this series, Ken Coll recounts his experience raising Matthew and surviving the stabbing that nearly took his life. 

A few years after adopting baby Matthew, it became clear to Tom Boulet and his husband Ken Coll that something wasn’t right. Matthew had severe behavioral issues and an oppositional, defiant nature that had him bouncing from school to school. Still, Tom and Ken left no stone unturned to get Matthew the care and treatment he needed. After finishing high school and attending a few years of college, Matthew returned home one summer and attempted to kill both Tom and Ken, stabbing them a combined 31 times in the middle of the night. After a miraculous recovery, Tom and Ken share reflections on parenting a child with mental illness and how they found meaning and purpose and a renewed devotion to each other amid tragedy. 

In this episode:

• Falling in love two months after divorce and an unexpected diagnosis.
• The difficult entry of their adopted son, Matthew, into the world.
• Navigating the special needs for a child with aggression. 
• Deciding that a diagnosis will not define him.
• Leaning into the power of the way we choose to view things.

Stay connected to Ken:

Website: www.gardensbyken.com

Facebook: Ken Coll

Instagram: @coll_ken

Charity Donation: AIDS Project LA

Subscribe to All The Wiser  wherever you listen to podcasts - we’re on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and more! That way you’ll never miss an episode. 

We’d love to hear what you think about the show, too - it helps us know what stories are resonating with you. Head over to Apple Podcasts to write your review!

Stay in the know with all things All The Wiser! Sign up for our newsletter for personal reflections from Kimi, new episodes, and recommendations from our team!

Don't forget to join our new Facebook group to continue the conversation and meet others in our community.

*Rebroadcast* (originally aired 5/14/19)

In honor of National Family Caregivers Month, we celebrate caregivers around the world including Kimi’s friend, and All The Wiser guest, Michel Varisco Gleason. Today we are re-airing their intimate conversation from 2019. #teamgleason #nationalfamilycaregivermonth

Mom, wife, artist and one of my all time favorite people, Michel Varisco, cozies up with All The Wiser on a couch in her native New Orleans. Michel walks us through the day of her husbands terminal diagnosis, finding out she was pregnant a month later and what it was like to watch a documentary about her life in a packed theater at Sundance Film Festival. She opens up about the pressure of living up to false expectations, the realities of life as a full time caretaker to her husband and newborn baby, their decision to have a second child and how her darkest days inspired her work as an artist.

In this episode:

• Learning her husband, Steve, is terminally ill
• The truth about care-taking for someone you love 
• Having her life filmed for a feature length documentary
• Creating unexpected and beautiful art in the walls of a hospital

Stay connected with Michel:

• michelraevarisco.com
• Gleason trailer
• Team Gleason



Subscribe to All The Wiser  wherever you listen to podcasts - we’re on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and more! That way you’ll never miss an episode. 

We’d love to hear what you think about the show, too - it helps us know what stories are resonating with you. Head over to Apple Podcasts to write your review!

Stay in the know with all things All The Wiser! Sign up for our newsletter for personal reflections from Kimi, new episodes, and recommendations from our team!

Don't forget to join our new Facebook group to continue the conversation and meet others in our community.

A few years after adopting baby Matthew, it became clear to Tom Boulet and his husband Ken Coll that something wasn’t right. Matthew had severe behavioral issues and an oppositional, defiant nature that had him bouncing from school to school. Still, Tom and Ken left no stone unturned to get Matthew the care and treatment he needed. After finishing high school and attending a few years of college, Matthew returned home one summer and attempted to kill both Tom and Ken, stabbing them a combined 31 times in the middle of the night. After a miraculous recovery, Tom and Ken share reflections on parenting a child with mental illness and how they found meaning and purpose and a renewed devotion to each other amid tragedy. 

This is a two-part series. Part two will be available on November 16th, 2022

In this episode:

• Raising a child with mental illness.
• Learning to ground their relationship in friendship.
• Clarity of purpose and direction on the other side of pain.
• How to honor and heal each part of ourselves after a traumatic experience.
• The role forgiveness and humor play in recovery.

Stay connected with Tom:

Facebook: Tom Boulet

Instagram: @TomBoolayinLA

Charity Donation: Crisis Text Line

Subscribe to All The Wiser  wherever you listen to podcasts - we’re on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and more! That way you’ll never miss an episode. 

We’d love to hear what you think about the show, too - it helps us know what stories are resonating with you. Head over to Apple Podcasts to write your review!

Stay in the know with all things All The Wiser! Sign up for our newsletter for personal reflections from Kimi, new episodes, and recommendations from our team!

Don't forget to join our new Facebook group to continue the conversation and meet others in our community.