Right after college, Sally Schwager booked a one-way ticket to Japan, speaking not a single word of Japanese. Remarkably, she stayed twelve years, training in Noh theater and hosting a national radio show. But the more fluent and famous she became, the more she felt like a “celebrity freak.”

So she booked another one-way flight back to Manhattan, where she fell into a deep depression. That collapse led to finding her heart’s work as a therapist, interfaith minister, and restorative justice advocate. 

Her B-Side story: Reinvention isn’t as a single dramatic leap, but a needle deepening in its groove.

"I felt I was the stupidest man on the planet."

After 18 years as a Gannett staff cartoonist, David Jacobson walked away from a prestigious job and a steady paycheck to pursue glassblowing in rural Maine, a decision even he thought was foolish.

In this first episode of B-Side Tales, Marcia Heath talks with David about what it really costs to start over later in life. He opens up about his struggles to build a solvent business as an artist, his gratitude for the guardian angels who supported him, and his astonishment at where a string of “stupid” decisions has led him.

B-Side Tales is a podcast about quiet renegades who leave a conventional path to live in a manner more suited to their true nature and particular talents.

#glassblowing #storytellingpodcast #BSideTales #SecondActCareers #careerreinvention #creativeburnout

One weekend, Marcia Heath lost her memories. Not metaphorically—completely. When they came flooding back, she realized her high-pressure career was making her sick and miserable. So she left.

B-Side Tales begins there, a show about quiet renegades.

In this podcast, Marcia sits down with people who walked away from conventionally successful lives to build something more honest, improvisational, and fulfilling.

Rather than polished reinvention stories, you’ll hear about the raw human moments that often look foolish to others: why people make the leap, what they put at risk, and what awaits them on the other side.

A podcast about the unruly richness a single life can hold.

Host: Marcia Heath, author of "Little Giant" and director of the film, "Why a Lawyer and a Scientist Risked It All for a Surf Shop."

Subscribe: https://marcianheath.substack.com

Book: https://littlegiantbook.com