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This story originally aired on March 10, 2018. Queen Mae Butters has worked side by side with death for about 30 years. She’s a hospice nurse, meaning she cares for people at the end of their lives and helps them transition from life to death. That may sound like sad work -- and it is, says Butters. But it’s so much more than that. “At the beginning of my career I really felt like death was the thing we were against, and we were all trying to keep death from happening. And now … I don’t see

This story originally aired on March 10, 2018. Gray hair is one of the inevitable timestamps of life, and Ashley Gross has noticed a few springing up on her head lately. Or rather, her kids have noticed, and enjoy pointing them out. This didn't seem like such a big deal, until she noticed that there tend to be relatively few prominent women who let their gray show. Hair colorants are a multi-billion dollar industry that seems to target women's insecurities about aging. They also reinforce a

This story originally aired on March 10, 2018. Elliot Cossum struggles, like many of us, with work-life balance. The difference is he works in an unusual profession. It started for Cossum in Iraq, in one of Saddam Hussein’s captured palaces, where Cossum was serving in the U.S. Army. His job was to man the phone lines there (including the line that reached directly to the Oval Office). He would frequently hear explosions and artillery blasts outside, and once in a while the palace itself would

One evening in July 2017 in Spokane, Jennie Heideman was scrolling through Facebook when a post jumped out at her. It said a family with two little kids needed shelter for the night. The family that needed help was a couple with an infant and young child. They were living in a broken down car. The weather was very hot. Daytime temperatures were well into the 90s. This family had moved to Spokane to start a new life. They had jobs, but they also had debts they were trying to pay down. They couldn

We start by hearing from host Gabriel Spitzer's sons, who talk about the challenges and empathy that come with being older and younger brothers. Then, a woman shares experiences and lessons learned from her older brother , who has bipolar disorder. Next, a woman makes a career out of helping kids who have Down syndrome . Finally, a young man finds a journal his brother kept in middle school, and writes a poem for him .

Israel Joyner grew up in a family of five boys, which he describes as basically like a herd of crazed cats. “Imagine they zoom down the hallway clawing every single wall, with colored pencil, holes, whatever they can do. That was my house,” Israel says.

Sasha Im says her brother, Thomas, was always tired when they were growing up. He would come home from school, drop his backpack on the floor, and sleep for long stretches of time. During his waking hours, Thomas experienced much more intense emotions.

One evening in July 2017 in Spokane, Jennie Heideman was scrolling through Facebook when a post jumped out at her. It said a family with two little kids needed shelter for the night.

Kids travel from as far as Spokane to see Dr. Rebecca Partridge at her clinic in Issaquah. Caring for people with Down syndrome, and their families, is her mission. Six years ago, she started the clinic with Virginia Mason Hospital. It’s the only one of its kind in the Northwest, focusing on the unique medical needs of children with Down syndrome, a chromosomal disorder.

Xolie Morra Cogley is a musician in Seattle, and leader of the band Xolie Morra and the Strange Kind. “I’ve always been into music since I was very little," Cogley says. "And so music, I think, really helped to move me in a more social direction, because I didn’t really do a lot of talking when I was little. But I developed a communication skill using music that helped me fit into certain groups. So I didn’t have to have conversations. I was just playing music.” Using music as a sort of language