MY FIRST YEAR

In today’s episode, we hear from Sabine, a 28-year-old OBGYN in her second year of residency in New York City. Sabine’s path to medicine began as a volunteer EMT and eventually led her to medical school, where she wrote 136 essays for her applications. She talks about whether shows like Grey’s Anatomy and The Pitt accurately portray medicine, and how residency has changed her understanding of what it means to be a good doctor. Sabine also shares what it’s like to deliver difficult news, work 24-hour shifts, and navigate burnout, while still having a full, well-rounded life outside of work.

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Hosts Sophia and Casey interview Katie Shepherd, a Brooklyn-based writer and podcast producer originally from North Carolina, about her first year of motherhood with her son, Dean. Katie describes always assuming she’d have kids, getting pregnant quickly at 36, pushing back on the “geriatric pregnancy” label, and needing a doctor with a more humane communication style. 

She shares how her overachiever expectations clashed with the relentless “fail, pivot” reality of parenting, alongside a difficult pregnancy and a preeclampsia diagnosis that led to a three-day induction, a failed epidural, and ultimately a C-section a month early. Katie reflects on bringing Dean home without nearby family support, navigating task-sharing and guilt when she returned to work while her husband provided more childcare, and experiencing postpartum depression marked by intrusive fears and insomnia helped by therapy and medication. She reflects on unexpected joys, evolving partnership, and motherhood as an expansion of self.

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In this episode of My First Year, hosts Sophia and Shareen interview Washington native MacKenzie Kermoade, an international environmental governance professional and musician (Mack Marcel) living in Copenhagen. 

MacKenzie traces her path from a nature-centered childhood near Seattle to studying environmental policy and global climate law, ultimately leading to her role as coordinating officer at the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea. She describes falling in love with Daniel, whom she met when he was a Danish exchange student at her high school. She also recounts the family reunification process that brought her to Denmark in March 2022, and how COVID-era job uncertainty and Brexit shaped their decision to move. MacKenzie shares first impressions of Denmark’s cleanliness, biking culture, safety, and social insularity, plus challenges learning Danish and adapting to norms like janteloven and collectivism. She found community through Copenhagen’s open-mic scene, forming the Mack Marcel project and completing a debut EP, while reflecting on homesickness, identity, and the importance of approaching life abroad with humility and curiosity.

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🎙️ A Special Encore Episode 

We’re revisiting one of the most moving conversations from My First Year as a Father.

SOPHIA and A.C. Valdez sit down with acclaimed novelist and essayist Thomas Greene for an intimate conversation about fatherhood and unimaginable loss. Thomas reflects on becoming a father to his daughters, Sarah and Jane, how caring for Sarah and creating bedtime stories helped him become a “dad,” and Jane’s premature birth and six months in the NICU. He also speaks candidly about grief and how losing a child shaped his family, his writing, and his understanding of fatherhood.

This is a conversation about fatherhood, storytelling, caregiving, grief, resilience, and the relationships that remain with us through every chapter of life.

🏆 My First Year as a Father is a 2026 Signal Awards winner

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In today’s episode, co-hosts Sophia and Rosabelle speak with Kayla, a 2026 graduate of Cooper Union School of Engineering in New York City. Kayla describes growing up in a competitive, tight-knit town with strict parents, a childhood centered on swimming and academics, and early pressure—starting in kindergarten—to get good grades and attend a top college. At Cooper Union in Manhattan, she experienced the intensity of engineering coursework, the lack of privacy in a tiny campus, shifting friendships, and the need for boundaries. Kayla reflects on gaining confidence in herself and her abilities in a male--dominated environment and using her voice to stand up for others on campus. Plus, what she wishes she knew going into college, and how her first year helped shape her confidence and the values she carries into her life today.  

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In today’s episode, we speak with Aaron, a sophomore at the University of Florida. Born in Lima, Peru and raised in Miami, Aaron describes growing up in a largely Hispanic community, learning English quickly after moving to the U.S. with his mother, and enduring intense academic pressure that led to burnout and heated conflicts about leaving home. Unable to afford out-of-state options and facing guilt tied to his mom’s sacrifices, he chose UF and found freedom to be himself and build an LGBTQ friend circle. He describes balancing classes, internships, and a job at Starbucks, while pursuing public relations and journalism, and shares advice about exploring college while staying true to yourself.

Be sure to check out other episodes in the My First Year series, wherever you get your podcasts.

🌐Follow the series wherever you listen to podcasts and join our growing community at sophiamedia.co.

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For all the students arriving at college for the first time this week, hear from Shreya, a University of Georgia student, writer, poet, and founder of the autism advocacy nonprofit Color Me Blue.

Shreya reflects on leaving behind the familiarity of home, adjusting to college as an introvert, and finding a group of friends who made her feel truly seen. She shares how poetry helped her process the transition, why she decided it was okay to “care too much,” and how stepping outside her comfort zone opened doors she never expected.  

From choosing UGA over her dream of New York City to navigating homesickness, friendship, ambition, and what she calls “future nostalgia,” Shreya’s story is about learning that you don’t need to have your whole future figured out to embrace where you are right now.

You can check out Shreya’s Substack: https://substack.com/@shreyasophie

And her latest poetry book on Amazon📚 https://www.amazon.com/Stars-Puddles-Clouds-My-Eyes/dp/B0FPXRQJLK?ref_=ast_author_mpb

And follow her on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shreyasophie/ 

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 Learn more: https://sophiamedia.co/MyFirstYear

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Nikki lost her husband Rob to cancer when she was only 46. She talks about leaving her first marriage where she was a self-described tradwife and young mom of three, meeting Rob with whom she had a profoundly close bond and a beautiful marriage, losing Rob to colon cancer, working through grief and anger, and continuing embracing love and life following Rob's passing.

Nikki met Rob when they were rival Speech and Debate coaches for two of the strongest teams in Oregon. They bonded over their shared love of literature and language and fell deeply in love. Together, they raised their son, Justus, and Nikki’s three daughters from her first marriage, and taught together in Oregon, Brazil, and across the world during their 20-year relationship.

In 2022, Rob learned that he had stage-four colon cancer and was given about 11 months to live. During their remaining time together, Nikki and Rob were radically honest with each other and resolved to bond as much as they could before he passed.

Under Brazilian law, Nikki had eight days of bereavement leave before she had to return to work. She describes what those first few weeks felt like: supporting their 12-year-old son, finding a widowhood community through writing, learning Rob’s guitar to honor his memory, and building a new home while keeping Rob present in her daily parenting and conversations.

You can find Nikki on Substack: https://nikkidarling.substack.com/ 

And follow her on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nikitafeminista/ 

Be sure to check out other episodes in the My First Year series, wherever you get your podcasts.

🌐Follow the series wherever you listen to podcasts and join our growing community at sophiamedia.co.

▶️ www.youtube.com/@MyFirstYearSeries

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Email [email protected] and share your own transformative first year with us.

Sophia and Adoley interview Catherine about immigration and adapting to life in the US. Catherine, born in the UK to immigrant parents (a Scottish-descended father born in Canada and an Irish mother who moved to London at 16), describes growing up feeling like an only child and being accustomed to migration stories amid UK-Irish tensions in the 1970s–80s. She recounts meeting her American husband Andrew in 2010, having their son Matthew in 2012, and maintaining a long-distance relationship until deciding to immigrate in the US. Their spouse visa process during COVID took over two years, included prior visa-interview anxiety, a bureaucratic “glitch,” and intervention via a White House contact and their congressperson. Catherine discusses Matthew’s adjustment, her own challenges making friends, moving their dog, and later becoming a US citizen, valuing the Constitution and voting for the first time. 

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What does it feel like to leave behind everything you've ever known—and begin again?

My First Year in America is a new podcast from Sophia Media exploring the deeply personal stories of immigrants and the first year that changed their lives.

Through intimate conversations, our guests revisit the excitement, uncertainty, fear, discovery, and transformation of starting over in the United States. They reflect on the people they left behind, the challenges they faced, the moments that shaped them, and how that first year changed their identity, relationships, and sense of self.

Because sometimes, a single year can change everything.

My First Year in America premieres September 4.

🌐Follow the series wherever you listen to podcasts and join our growing community at sophiamedia.co.

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