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Ringing the bell doesn't mean the journey is over; it means a different, harder, quieter one is just beginning.
In this episode, Amy Steinhour and Kristen Beck sit down with Harriet Cabelly, licensed clinical social worker, speaker, and author of two books, including Light Through Darkness: Miracles Along My Cancer Journey, to talk about what actually happens after treatment ends, and why the support so often disappears exactly when survivors need it most.
Drawing from Viktor Frankl's Man's Search for Meaning, her own Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma diagnosis, and decades of clinical work with people navigating critical life transitions, Harriet unpacks post-traumatic growth, the grief that lives inside illness, and why rebuilding a life after cancer is nothing like resuming the one you had before.
Things You Will Learn:
Tools / Frameworks Covered:
Timetamps:
(0:00) Introduction and Welcome
(1:20) How Harriet Got Into Mental Health
(4:44) Defining Post-Traumatic Growth
(7:17) Post-Traumatic Growth vs. Toxic Positivity
(9:23) What to Do When You're Stuck in the Bad
(11:24) When Harriet Got Her Own Diagnosis
(12:01) Having the Tools Doesn't Mean You Don't Need Them
(12:53) Why Support Disappears at the Worst Moment
(17:00) What Supporters Can Do Post-Treatment
(19:00) The Fine Line Between Checking In and Overwhelming
(21:22) Rebuilding a Sense of Self After Cancer
(23:44) What Survivors Grieve Most
(25:43) Grief Before the Rebuild
(28:47) Paying It Forward as a Survivorship Framework
(29:21) From Both Sides of the Couch
(30:46) Harriet's Books
(31:45) Comfort Food Close
(32:59) Closing Thoughts
#cancersurvivorship #posttraumaticgrowth #askingforhelp #emotionallabor #giftwellsoon
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Nobody hands you a roadmap when a parent gets diagnosed with cancer, and nobody tells you there's a free, magic-filled summer camp waiting for your kids.
In this episode of the Let Me Know If You Need a Podcast, Amy Steinhour and Kristen Beck sit down with Ashley Borniger, Camp Kesem advisory board member, camp parent, and triple-negative breast cancer survivor, to talk about what it actually looks like to parent through a cancer diagnosis, and what happens when your kids finally get a space that's entirely their own.
Ashley shares the full story: diagnosed at 40, two kids in kindergarten and fourth grade, four months into a new city, and a daughter old enough to Google her oncologist's credentials before Ashley had even processed the news herself. She didn't find Camp Kesem through a resource list. She found it while hooked up to chemo, laptop open, because her mom heard about it on the radio.
Things You Will Learn:
Tools / Frameworks Covered:
Timetamps:
(0:00) Meet Ashley Borniger and Camp Kesem
(1:05) Ashley's Diagnosis: 40th Birthday, Two Kids, Brand New City
(4:35) How They Found Camp Kesem
(6:44) Ashley's Daughter: The Old Soul Who Googled the Oncologist
(9:36) What Camp Kesem Actually Is and How It Works
(13:08) The Surprises Nobody Warned Her About
(16:47) Were the Kids Hesitant?
(20:07) Who Is Eligible and How to Find Your Local Chapter
(24:25) How Kesem Fundraises
(26:32) Ashley's Advice to Newly Diagnosed Parents
(28:03) Comfort Food: The Meatloaf That Changed Everything
#CommunityCare #AskingForHelp #EmotionalLabor #IllnessRealTalk #CampKesem
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Most support shows up at diagnosis and disappears by month two. But ALS caregivers are in it for years. In this episode of Let Me Know If You Need a Podcast, hosts Amy Steinhour and Kristen Beck sit down with Tanya Hageman and Dawn Delaloye from ALS Family of Faith.
They walk through what an ALS diagnosis actually looks like and what it means to be the person doing the caregiving when the endpoint is not recovery. The conversation gets honest about caregiver burnout, the moment when friends stop showing up, what it looks like to ask for help across a five-year journey, and why “let me know if you need anything” is the one thing that doesn't cut it.
Things You Will Learn:
Tools / Frameworks Covered:
Timetamps:
(0:00) Introduction and Welcome
(1:07) Origin Stories: How Tanya and Dawn Found This Work
(2:40) What Is ALS Family of Faith and How Does It Work?
(6:30) Staying Light in a Heavy Space
(8:06) What an ALS Diagnosis Actually Looks Like
(11:58) Long-Term Support: Staying With Families After Loss
(14:40) Caregiver Burnout in Terminal Illness
(17:54) Navigating Communication Between Patient and Caregiver
(20:39) How to Show Up for the Long Haul
(23:31) Asking for Help Is Not a Burden
(26:02) Comfort Food and Closing Thoughts
#CommunityCare #AskingForHelp #CaregiverBurnout #IllnessRealTalk #EmotionalLabor
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Most of us were never taught how to grieve. And it turns out, that's not an accident. In this episode of Let Me Know If You Need a Podcast, Amy, Kristen, Kristen Beck and thanatologist Michelle Desmond dig into the science behind grief in ways that are grounding, validating, and genuinely useful for anyone navigating illness, caregiving, or loss.
Michelle left a 15-year career at Starbucks to get her master's degree in death, dying, and bereavement because her own concentrated experience of loss made her realize how little any of us actually know about the thing that will happen to all of us. She breaks down anticipatory grief, disenfranchised grief, and why the phrase “at least” quietly tells someone their pain doesn't measure up. She also explains why we became a society that doesn't talk about death, what corporate leaders consistently miss when supporting grieving employees, and why grief is about integration.
Things You Will Learn:
Tools / Frameworks Covered:
Timetamps:
(0:00) Introduction
(1:43) Michelle's Career Shift: From Starbucks to Grief Science
(5:01) What Thanatology Actually Is
(6:08) Why Evidence-Based Grief Work Matters
(9:10) What People Used to Ask Michelle Before She Had Credentials
(11:47) Anticipatory Grief: Grieving Someone Who's Still Alive
(16:53) GiftWellSoon Sponsor
(17:09) Disenfranchised Grief: When Your Loss Goes Unrecognized
(20:06) How to Create Safe Space for Hidden Grief
(22:26) Grief in the Workplace: What Leaders Get Wrong
(25:34) Why We Were Never Taught to Grieve
(30:04) What Michelle Wants Leaders to Know
(33:05) What Michelle Is Hopeful For in the Field
(36:16) Where to Find Michelle and Her Book
(36:52) The One Thing Never to Say to Someone Grieving
(38:05) Comfort Food and the Lasagna Vindication
(39:52) The Starbucks Order
#grief #anticipatorygrief #caregiving #communityCare #giftwellsoon
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The hardest part of cancer isn't always the treatment. It's what happens after everyone stops asking.
In this season two opener of Let Me Know If You Need a Podcast, Amy Steinhour and Kristen Beck get personal about survivorship: what it actually means, why the medical system tends to drop patients the moment treatment ends, and why the silence that follows a bell-ringing celebration can be its own kind of loss.
Amy shares her recent melanoma diagnosis, the psychological gut-punch of reading bad news through a patient portal, and what it feels like to have your body image completely transformed with almost no one willing to name it out loud.
Kristen opens up for the first time about her own health scare, her atypical lobular dysplasia diagnosis, five years on Tamoxifen, and the scanxiety that quietly runs in the background of her life every six months.
Things You Will Learn:
Tools & Frameworks Covered:
#survivorship #scanxiety #askingforhelp #communityCare #giftwellsoon
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Survivorship does not begin when cancer treatment ends. It begins at diagnosis and continues through every step that follows.
In Season 2 of Let Me Know If You Need a Podcast, we are creating space for honest, compassionate conversations about navigating treatment, adjusting to life afterward, and all the ways cancer can affect your physical, mental, emotional, social, and financial well-being.
We will talk about the hard parts, the unexpected parts, and the experiences that do not always come up in the doctor’s office—so that wherever you are in your journey, you can feel a little more seen, understood, and less alone.
Because survivorship is not simply about being alive after cancer. It is about learning how to live through everything that comes with it.
Season 2 begins tomorrow with our first episode. Follow the show and join us as we start this next chapter together.
#CancerSurvivorship #LifeAfterCancer #CancerSupport #CancerCommunity #SurvivorStories #CancerAwareness #LetMeKnowIfYouNeedAPodcast
What happens when two podcast hosts decide they've been too serious? They put on snuggies, make up fake listener questions, and tell the story of the stolen Fruitopia bottle that almost got them suspended in high school.
Amy and Kristen cover dog voices performed for strangers, Kristen's secret death doula ambitions, why big tech sucked the life out of her, and the exact components of a proper charcuterie situation. No guests, no frameworks, no emotional labor. Just two friends in fleece who think you've earned a laugh.
Tune in and let us be ridiculous for a while.
Things You Will Learn:
Tools & Frameworks Covered:
#letslaugh #askingforhelp #podcasthumor #afterdark #emotionallabor #giftwellsoon #snuggie #caregiverlaughs #realconnection
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Most people assume that having health insurance means having access to healthcare. Kay Hsu is here to dismantle that assumption with receipts, rage, and a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist on speed dial.
In this episode, Amy Steinhour and Kristen Beck sit down with Kay Hsu, a stage four metastatic breast cancer patient, ten-year survivor, Canadian-born tech and creative executive, and one of the most quietly ferocious patient advocates you'll ever hear. Kay shares the full arc: a diagnosis at 35 that arrived during a work dinner, a whirlwind year that included getting engaged, harvesting embryos, and starting chemo, and a decade of navigating a healthcare system that keeps moving the goalposts.
The conversation turns sharp when Kay describes the moment that changed everything: a medical director at her insurance company told her she wasn't eligible for a standard PET scan because she'd been stable. She was a stage four cancer patient. She was furious. And she did something about it.
You'll also hear an honest, grounded conversation about what it actually feels like to keep working through chemo, how depression can accumulate slowly over six years of medication side effects without anyone naming it, and why the healthcare navigation gap doesn't just make people's lives harder; it makes people die.
Things You Will Learn:
Tools & Frameworks Covered:
#AskingForHelp #CommunityCare #Caregiving #IllnessRealTalk #EmotionalLabor
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When Julie Rudman was diagnosed with breast cancer in July 2023, she quickly realized something unsettling: even with strong support, medical access, and privilege, finding practical help was still harder than it should have been.
In this episode, Amy Steinhour and Kristen Beck talk with Julie about how that experience led her to create The Breast Cancer Club, a Kansas City-based nonprofit built to make breast cancer support more accessible, practical, and local. Julie shares how one survivor’s advice to ‘pay it forward’ became the spark for everything that followed.
They talk about the real gaps people face during treatment, from transportation and language barriers to the cost of recovery items, bras, groceries, and everyday support. Julie also reflects on privilege, post-traumatic growth, and why building community matters just as much as building resources.
Things You Will Learn:
Tools & Frameworks Covered:
#AskingForHelp #CommunityCare #Caregiving #IllnessRealTalk #EmotionalLabor
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Alex Owens found a lump in the most normal moment: brushing her teeth, hand under her arm, and then that sharp, hard marble feeling you can’t un-feel. In the span of one appointment, a manual exam became a mammogram, became an ultrasound, and then a doctor walked into a dark room and said the sentence out loud: You have cancer.
In this conversation, Amy, Kristen, and Alex get honest about what support actually looked like: friends flying in for a week, deep one-on-one time that strengthened relationships, and the practical truth that ‘let me know if you need anything’ can feel like homework.
Alex shares the language shift that helped most: specific offers with a timeframe, and options that don’t require someone in crisis to manage your helpfulness. DoorDash gift cards. Frozen meals. A clear ‘I can do X this week.’
Things You Will Learn:
Tools & Frameworks Covered:
#AskingForHelp #CommunityCare #Caregiving #IllnessRealTalk #EmotionalLabor
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From the publisher's feed