Bodacious Tenacity

Rev. Dr. Phillippa Phaneuf, pastor of North Chili United Methodist Church near Rochester, New York, came out as transgender to her congregation last November. She posted the video on Facebook so church members who missed the service wouldn’t be confused the next Sunday, and it went viral.

On this episode of Bodacious Tenacity, Pastor Phil and I talk about growing up in a fundamentalist Pentecostal home, why her first instinct in coming out was to care for her congregation, the one person she was most afraid to tell and why she calls fear “a junk food emotion.”

Please like and subscribe to support the podcast, and sign up for the newsletter for more info about our guests and links to new episodes the day they drop: https://bodacioustenacity.com/

Find me on Instagram @BodaciousTenacityPodcast

Find me on TikTok @BodaciousTenacityPodcast ​

Journalist and disability rights advocate Melissa Blake has been doing things she’s afraid of her whole life. Born with Freeman-Sheldon Syndrome, a genetic bone and muscular disorder, she had more than 26 surgeries starting in childhood.In this episode of Bodacious Tenacity, Melissa talks about starting college convinced she couldn’t do it, the parents who cheered her on, being afraid to interview people as a young journalist and the woman on a bus who was surprised she had a job.In 2019, after Melissa wrote an op-ed for CNN, trolls mocked her appearance and one said she should be banned from posting photos of herself. Melissa answered with more selfies, and in 2020 posted one every day for 366 days under #MyBestSelfie. She talks about what it’s like to be vulnerable online and what she’s still afraid to do.Melissa’s writing has appeared in The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, and she is the author of Beautiful People: My Thirteen Truths About Disability (link in comments).Follow Bodacious Tenacity on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bodacioustenacity/ Follow Melissa on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/melissablake81/

Lorenz Hemicker is a German journalist whose grandfather, Ernst, was an SS officer who served at Rumbula, where roughly 25,000 Jews were murdered outside Riga, Latvia in 1941. When Lorenz was a little boy, his father told him his grandfather had "served with distinction" but Lorenz never really knew what that meant.Years later, Lorenz (who became a journalist) searched for the truth about what his grandfather had done, tracking down archives, interrogation transcripts and eventually meeting with survivors. The investigation took over a decade and resulted in a deeply moving book.In this episode, Lorenz talks about what drove that search, what he found and the two moments along the way when fear caught up with him.Lorenz's book about his search, Mein Großvater, der Täter ("My Grandfather, the Perpetrator"), is currently available in German only.

CONTENT NOTE: This episode includes brief discussion of past suicidal thoughts. Please listen with care. Support resources are included in the episode description.In 2024, Ben Stone underwent planned brain surgery called arteriovenous malformation (AVM) to remove a tangled, abnormal mass of arteries and veins. Following the surgery, faces became distorted. Ben had developed prosopometamorphopsia or PMO, a rare perception disorder, and palinopsia, a group of vision symptoms that cause you to keep seeing something even when it’s not there.For a year following his surgery, Ben dealt with depression and often cried himself to sleep because he felt like a different person. He refers to that person as Ben 2. Our conversation centers on Ben’s fear and the philosophical questions that came with feeling like a different person. Ben also reflects — often humorously — on how his visual distortions affect everything from grocery shopping to online dating.I first learned about PMO in 2023 from Dr. Brad Duchaine, a Professor and researcher at Dartmouth College. I subsequently wrote a story about Dr. Duchaine’s work for Scientific American: A Rare Visual Disorder Twists Faces Out of Shape.If you or someone you know is having suicidal thoughts, call one of the numbers below or your local emergency number.United States: Emergency 911 / Suicide Hotline 988United Kingdom: Emergency 999 / Suicide Hotline 0800 689 5652 / NHS Help for suicidal thoughtsPortugal: Emergency 112 / Suicide Hotline 21 854 07 40 and 8 96 898 21 50

Content note: This episode includes brief discussion of self-harm and past suicidal thoughts. Please listen with care. Support resources are included below.

For years, Leeann Bongiorno went from doctor to doctor searching for relief from debilitating chronic pain, and no one could fix her. As treatment after treatment failed, she lost more than her mobility. She started to question what her life was worth if she could no longer cook for her family, care for her home or pick up her own grandchildren.In this episode, Leeann and I talk about the years she spent in pain, the guilt and fear that came with it and the moment everything changed: when UCSF pain medicine specialist Dr. Prasad Shirvalkar of UCSF looked at her and said, "I'm going to stick with you."This is a conversation about pain, identity, being believed and what it looks like to keep going when there's no easy fix in sight.I first met Leeann when I wrote this story for UCSF Magazine: Can We Train Our Brain to Unlearn Chronic Pain?_______________________________________________________________If you or someone you know is suicidal, call one of the numbers below or your local emergency number.United States: Emergency 911 / Suicide Hotline 988

988 Suicide & Crisis LifelineUnited Kingdom: Emergency 999 / Suicide Hotline 0800 689 5652 NHS Help for suicidal thoughts
Portugal: Emergency 112 / Suicide Hotline 21 854 07 40 and 8 96 898 21 50

Sasha Karelsky was in Turkey working through her own depression when a gut feeling told her to check her boyfriend's location. What she found cracked her world open. This week on Bodacious Tenacity, Sasha shares how her worst fear becoming real led her across the world, and to a new life in London.

Miguel Olave had no business background, no industry connections and no plan — until Romeo's TikTok went viral and he decided to figure it out anyway. What started as one bold move turned into landing huge brand deals with names like Dr Pepper, negotiated entirely on instinct.Then Miguel did something even bigger: he gave away some of his potential earnings. This episode is about what happens when you stop waiting to feel qualified and just go for it. If you've ever sat on an idea because you didn't have the "right" background, Miguel's story is proof that sometimes the only requirement is showing up and figuring it out as you go.

On this episode, Cory Young talks about persisting through fear when he nearly drowned in a surfing accident that broke his neck and how he has continued to push through addiction, depression, PTSD, suicidal thoughts and someone attempting to set him on fire.

In our premiere podcast episode, Abigail Washington discusses how she persisted through the fear of becoming a teenage mother, and how she has continued to push herself outside of her comfort zone.

In our first Street Stories, part of the ‪@BodaciousTenacityPodcast‬, Amanda tells her story of persisting through the fear or brain surgery — and how it changed her life.

When were you afraid to do something and did it anyway? Reach out via our socials to share your story.