In this week’s episode Broderick is in conversation with Louisa Peck. Raised a staunch atheist, Louisa Peck rejected her 1982 Near-Death Experience (NDE) as a hallucination in order to continue her alcoholic, ego-driven lifestyle – until the same voice that had been present in her NDE broke into her consciousness twelve years later to redirect her life's course. Louisa’s parents had urged her to excel academically, physically, and socially – but they couldn’t pass on what they didn’t possess: an appreciation for self-honesty and the humility it cultivates. At 34, when she arrived home after driving there blind drunk at 80 mph, not caring what might result, her angel broke into her consciousness with two stern messages: 1) This is the last time I can help you, and 2) You DO know right from wrong. A month later, Louisa attended her first 12-step meeting and today has 29 years sober.

Her book, Die-Hard Atheist: From NDE Denier to Full-on Woo-Woo -- Against my Will, recounts not only her experience on the other side during her cardiac arrest, but also unfolds the after-story of how increasingly frequent communications from her angel guided her to embrace the sacred work of everyday love, kindness, and compassion as the framework of a joy-filled life.