Major life transitions like divorce and death often pull people into conflicts they never anticipated — and don’t recognize themselves inside. These conflicts rarely arise from ignorance or bad intent. They arise when fear, loss, identity disruption, and unresolved history collide with systems that force decisions before people are ready.

In this episode, we explore the paradox at the heart of these disputes: why intelligent, capable, well-intentioned people behave in ways that feel out of character, escalate instead of resolve, and make decisions they later regret. We look beneath the surface of “money fights” to examine what’s really driving them — and why these conflicts are far more predictable than people realize.

This episode sets the foundation for the series by reframing conflict not as personal failure, but as a patterned human response to vulnerability, loss, and perceived threat.