Besties with Breasties Podcast

When cancer treatment ends, the emotional and physical toll on a relationship is just beginning — and almost nobody is talking about what comes next in the bedroom. In this episode, Beth and Jes sit down with Angela Skurtu, a licensed marriage and family therapist, certified sex therapist, and founder of Open Bedroom Doors, to unpack one of the most quietly painful topics facing survivors: rebuilding intimacy after a major health crisis.

The conversation goes far beyond "schedule a date night." Angela makes the case that hustle culture is quietly destroying relationships — that couples running on empty can't access the play, creativity, and presence needed for a fulfilling sex life. She introduces her "Built to Last" framework, challenging and inviting couples to embrace creative sexuality where intimacy doesn't have to look one specific way to count.

The hosts get deeply personal. Beth opens up about the exhaustion of midlife and Jes speaks to the body image struggles survivors face and the difficulty of slowing down when your whole life runs on a regimented to-do list. Angela reframes the guilt so many women carry, explaining that a lost libido isn't a personal failure — it's a nervous system in shutdown, protecting itself from burnout.

Whether you're navigating post-cancer intimacy, midlife hormonal changes, or simply feeling disconnected from your partner and your own body, this episode offers compassion, practical tools, and the permission to not have it all figured out.

Learn more or support Faith Through Fire at: faiththroughfire.org

Connect with Angela Skurtu: https://www.openbedroomdoors.com/contact

Companies mentioned in this episode:

• Faith Through Fire
• Thrivent Gateway Financial Group

Are we protecting our kids — or preparing them for adulthood?

Beth and Jamie unpack the epidemic of young adults who can't manage their own lives — from the 25-year-old who still gets chauffeured by mom to the son who went no-contact after his parents sold the house they bought him. Spoiler alert: the hosts aren't blaming the kids.

The Besties swap hilarious personal stories (Beth letting her son sleep through his alarm and face his furious boss), debate whether "follow your passion" is terrible advice, and remind us that confidence doesn't come from being protected — it comes from failing, getting back up, and maybe doing a few chores along the way.

They also dig into the harder questions: How do we support our kids' mental health without removing every challenge? And how do we raise young people who are confident enough to make decisions, handle disappointment, work hard, and find their own sense of purpose?

Learn more or support Faith Through Fire at faiththroughfire.org

Companies mentioned in this episode:

• Faith Through Fire
• Thrivent Gateway Financial Group

When you've faced a life-altering cancer diagnosis, the big questions become impossible to ignore: What's the meaning of all this? What happens after we die? Does any of it matter? In this episode, Beth and Jamie dive headfirst into the conversation that makes some people uncomfortable — faith. Not faith as a set of rules or Sunday performances, but faith as a living, breathing relationship with someone they believe is actively present today.

They get honest about what it feels like when people think you're “crazy" for claiming to hear from God, why Jesus demands a response instead of offering a comfortable middle ground, and how the desire for autonomy keeps so many people from exploring something that could change everything. Beth opens up about her own surrender moment — the instant she stopped trying to carry the weight alone and let her life shift into what she calls "Technicolor."

They also explore the surprising data: Christianity is exploding globally — while American affiliation has been shrinking. But there's a twist. Younger generations, drowning in unprecedented anxiety and skeptical of institutions, are showing a renewed hunger for spiritual meaning. Jamie shares what she's seeing in her own community, with her kids and their peers gravitating toward faith in growing numbers.

Whether you're a devout believer, a skeptic, or somewhere in between, this episode is an open invitation to ask the hard questions and keep seeking. As Jamie says: "Keep listening to your gut. Keep seeking, and you will find Him."

Learn more or support Faith Through Fire at faiththroughfire.org

Companies mentioned in this episode:

• Faith Through Fire
• Thrivent Gateway Financial Group

Midlife can quietly pull couples apart—kids, careers, aging parents, health scares—until you’re roommates managing a life instead of partners living one. In this episode, Beth and Jes sit down with Chris and Jodi Gibbs of Still Hot After Kids, a couple married 30+ years who almost lost each other in that grind… and fought their way back.

Chris’s body hit a wall after 40: anxiety, panic attacks, an ER/ICU scare, and a lifestyle built on 60–70-hour weeks and gas-station food. Jodi was raising four girls (including twins), carrying the emotional load, and feeling alone even when he thought he was “husband of the year.” They name what so many midlife couples feel but rarely say out loud—depletion, resentment, fear of change—and how fear can keep people stuck in a life that no longer fits.

They share the pivots that saved them: selling the dream home, changing jobs, building a business together in real estate, choosing health side by side (yes, including morning hot-tub biohacking), and rebuilding connection through small, consistent habits—shared routines, non-sexual touch, real compliments, and time that isn’t only logistics.

If you’re in the thick of “survival mode” and wondering whether the spark can come back, this conversation is honest, practical, and hopeful. You don’t need a perfect past to build a stronger next chapter—you need both people willing to try.

Connect with Chris & Jodi:

Still Hot After Kids on TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook

[email protected]

stillhotafterkids.com

Learn more or support Faith Through Fire at faiththroughfire.org

Companies mentioned in this episode:

• Faith Through Fire
• Thrivent Gateway Financial Group

In this episode of the Besties with Breasties podcast, hosts Beth Wilmes and Jes sit down with Lisa, a member of the Faith Through Fire community, for a raw conversation in their relationship series. Lisa shares the story of falling in love in college, building what looked like an idyllic marriage, and then facing breast cancer in 2007 — a diagnosis that, thirteen years later, she'd come to see as the moment that quietly exposed cracks in her relationship that had been there all along.

She walks through the slow unraveling that followed: a husband who shut down instead of opening up, a move that stripped away their support system, a hidden past, and eventually a betrayal that led to divorce in 2020. Lisa gets honest about starting over after decades of security, the isolation of losing friends and community, and the daily, deliberate choice to forgive — even when she didn't want to. She credits a DivorceCare class, her faith, and a commitment to doing the "contrary" thing (choosing peace over bitterness) for helping her rebuild a life she's genuinely proud of today.

A candid, hopeful episode for anyone who has questioned a relationship in the wake of a health crisis — or anyone navigating divorce and wondering how to come out the other side whole.

Learn more or support Faith Through Fire at faiththroughfire.org

Companies mentioned in this episode:

• Faith Through Fire
• Thrivent Gateway Financial Group

Hosts Beth Wilmes and Jamie dive into the surprisingly tricky topic of oversharing — both in everyday life and in the middle of a breast cancer journey. Beth (more traditional) and Jamie (a "recovering over-sharer") swap stories about where they each draw the line with their husbands, from farting etiquette to who gets to see medical drains and incisions, and debate whether keeping a little mystery in a marriage makes it stronger or just creates distance.

The conversation turns more personal as they unpack a listener's message from a husband who says he misses "the mystery" after years together, and Jamie opens up about the tension between vulnerability and protecting her own privacy after treatment. Beth also shares a moving story about her sister's decade-long struggle with chronic illness dominating her family life, and the hard conversation she had about it.

Along the way: practical communication tips for couples navigating medical stress — setting time limits on health talk, using check-in cues, and being honest about each partner's needs. The episode closes on the idea that whether you're an oversharer or a keep-it-close type, good communication is what makes a relationship work.

Learn more or support Faith Through Fire at faiththroughfire.org

Companies mentioned in this episode:

• Faith Through Fire
• Thrivent Gateway Financial Group

What does it really mean to survive breast cancer?

Beth sits down with Amy Brace and Jenna Sartorius — co-founders of the Pink Power Hour podcast — for an honest, unfiltered conversation about life after a diagnosis. Amy is navigating the long-term side effects of treatment, including reconstruction that failed and hormone-induced hair loss. Jenna has been living with stage IV metastatic breast cancer — including a brain tumor she had surgically removed — for over three years, carrying a weight most people around her would never guess. Together, they're proof that survivorship looks nothing like the pink ribbon suggests.

In this episode, the group digs into why society softens breast cancer, the "forced vulnerability" of looking visibly ill, and the very real identity crisis that follows treatment. They also share how they found each other through a documentary, built a podcast from scratch, and are now co-authoring a children's book — Love Stays — written from the perspective of their kids about a mom with metastatic breast cancer.

Plus: a Boobs in the News segment that goes somewhere none of us expected (trust us), and a conversation about what "less pity, more power" actually looks like in everyday life.

Learn more or support Faith Through Fire at faiththroughfire.org

Companies mentioned in this episode:

• Faith Through Fire
• Thrivent Gateway Financial Group

Find Amy and Jenna: pinkpowerhour.org

Book launch: Love Stays — available NOW!

Beth and Jamie get real about one of the loneliest feelings during breast cancer treatment — when the people around you just aren't showing up the way you hoped. But instead of writing them off, the duo explores a reframe that changes everything: what if it's not that people don't care, but that you're expecting the wrong kind of support from them?

They break down five distinct types of support — social, emotional, informational, esteem, and tangible — and share personal stories about the friends, family members, and unexpected humans who showed up in each of those ways during their own diagnoses and treatment.

Jamie recalls getting a spontaneous tattoo with a friend on the very day she was diagnosed. Beth talks about the friend who didn't ask permission — she just told her when to show up at the gym. And they dig into why emotional support is the rarest and hardest kind to give, and why that's actually okay.

The episode closes with a powerful shift in perspective: stop measuring people by what they're not giving you, and start recognizing what they are good at — because when you put people in their lane, you stop feeling abandoned and start feeling held.

Also: Olympic rowers may be competing in a crocodile-infested river in 2032. Beth and Jamie have thoughts.

Learn more or support Faith Through Fire at faiththroughfire.org

Companies mentioned in this episode:

• Faith Through Fire
• Thrivent Gateway Financial Group

Beth and Jamie tackle one of the most painful and seldom-talked-about sides of a breast cancer diagnosis: when your biggest expected supporter becomes your biggest source of stress. Inspired by a real anonymous scenario shared by a listener, they unpack what's really going on when a loved one's fear shows up as control — from fighting over wigs and GoFundMes to taking over medication routines.

In this candid and deeply relatable episode, Beth and Jamie discuss:

• Why a cancer diagnosis doesn't create relationship problems — it magnifies the ones already there
• How fear disguises itself as control (and why that still isn't okay for the person in treatment)
• The hidden burden of managing someone else's emotions while fighting for your own life
• Why asking for help feels so shameful — and what happens when you finally let people show up
• How to set boundaries without guilt, protect your peace without over-explaining, and separate someone's intentions from their impact

Plus, Beth and Jamie share honest personal stories about family dynamics, therapy breakthroughs, and the surprising freedom that comes from simply saying what you need.

Whether you're in treatment, supporting someone who is, or just navigating a complicated relationship — this one's for you.

Learn more or support Faith Through Fire at faiththroughfire.org

Companies mentioned in this episode:

• Faith Through Fire
• Thrivent Gateway Financial Group

In this episode, Beth and Jamie sit down with Dr. Renata Sledge — who, for the record, thinks her own name sounds like a supervillain — an assistant professor of social work and licensed clinical social worker whose research focuses on the deeply human side of healthcare.

Renata spent 15 years watching patients surrounded by doctors, family, and friends who all wanted to help — and yet still feeling profoundly alone. That gap between wanting to be supported and actually feeling it sent her back to school for her PhD, and it's the question at the heart of this conversation.

Together, they unpack:

• Why "shared decision-making" in medicine is treated as a single moment when it actually unfolds over weeks — and how that misunderstanding leaves patients stranded
• How women are socialized to mute their own needs before cancer, and why that doesn't just disappear after a diagnosis
• The invisible weight of what patients carry into a diagnosis — rocky marriages, job loss, grief — and how that shapes every treatment decision
• Why the healthcare system structurally fails the patients who need it most, and who has to step in to fill that gap
• The power and limits of self-advocacy, especially when someone's whole life has taught them that asking for help leads nowhere

Jamie gets personal about her experience as a lifelong people-pleaser who had to go back and re-advocate for herself mid-treatment. Beth reflects on the "silent strugglers" — the women who look resilient on the outside while quietly falling apart — and how even her own nurse navigator didn't see it coming.

This is a conversation about what it would look like if the system actually treated the whole person, not just the disease.

Learn more or support Faith Through Fire at faiththroughfire.org

Connect with Renata Sledge: https://www.umsl.edu/sswpbs/social-work/directory/sledge-renata.html

Companies mentioned in this episode:

• Faith Through Fire
• Thrivent Gateway Financial Group