Unspoken Lives Podcast

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At 42 years old, Bryan Blackmon packed up his life in Texas and moved to California to chase a lifelong dream. Instead, he found himself battling drug and alcohol addiction, experiencing homelessness, and sleeping in his car with no clear way forward.

Then an unexpected encounter with an 85-year-old woman named Elaine changed everything.

In Part 1 of this two-part conversation on Unspoken Lives Podcast, Bryan shares the reality behind his struggles with substance abuse, the circumstances that led him to homelessness, and the remarkable friendship that began when he was searching for a place to live.

Despite growing up in a loving family, Bryan began experimenting with alcohol and drugs as a teenager. His addiction followed him into adulthood, eventually taking him down a path he never imagined. Even while working in California, he struggled to find stability and spent months living out of his car.

Just as he was beginning to wonder how much longer he could keep going, he met Elaine, a woman who had experienced heartbreaking losses of her own. Neither could have known how much their lives were about to change.

In this episode, you'll hear:

• How Bryan's struggles with alcohol and drug addiction began at an early age.
• Why he moved to California at 42 to pursue his dreams.
• The reality of experiencing homelessness while working and battling addiction.
• The emotional toll of isolation, shame, and trying to hide his struggles from loved ones.
• How a chance encounter with Elaine led to an unlikely and life-changing friendship.
• Why one person's compassion can offer hope when someone feels they have nowhere left to turn.

Bryan's story is a powerful reminder that we never truly know what someone else is going through, and that even the smallest act of kindness can have an extraordinary impact.

This is Part 1 of Bryan's story. In Part 2, Bryan shares the moment that changed his perspective on sobriety, his journey toward recovery, and how he is now using his experiences to encourage others through the Crab Crew community.

Connect with Bryan Blackmon

Learn more about Bryan, Elaine, the Crab Crew community, and Bryan's personal transformation program.

Website: https://crabcrewlife.com

Find Bryan's TikTok, Instagram, and other social media links through his website.

Every life has a story worth telling. Unspoken Lives Podcast, hosted by Kelsey Billingsley, shares real stories of resilience, faith, identity, loss, healing, purpose, and the moments that change us. Follow the show on your favorite podcast app, visit unspokenlivespodcast.com, and follow @unspokenlivespodcast on Instagram. 

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What happens when everything you've believed about your life turns out to be wrong?

Millie spent 42 years believing her father had abandoned her. Albert spent those same years unaware that his daughter was alive. Their emotional reunion in Peru finally brought them together, but it also opened the door to decades of unanswered questions, lost time, and difficult emotions.

In Part 2, Millie shares what it was like to return home after meeting her father and begin processing the truth. She opens up about the grief of losing 42 years together, her complicated relationship with her mother, and the difficult journey toward forgiveness.

Albert reflects on the years he missed with Millie and his four grandsons, while the two share how their faith helped them navigate the pain and uncertainty. Their story takes another unexpected turn when Albert is granted permission to move to the United States, giving them the opportunity to finally build the relationship they had both been missing.

Through heartbreak, forgiveness, and faith, Millie and Albert are learning to cherish the time they have together and find joy in the relationship they're building today.

In this episode, you'll hear about:

• The emotional reality of discovering that everything you believed about your past wasn't true
• Navigating forgiveness, grief, and the pain of lost time
• How faith and second chances helped a father and daughter begin rebuilding their relationship

Start with Episode 052, Part 1, to hear how their story began.

Every life has a story worth telling. Unspoken Lives Podcast, hosted by Kelsey Billingsley, shares real stories of resilience, faith, identity, loss, healing, purpose, and the moments that change us. Follow the show on your favorite podcast app, visit unspokenlivespodcast.com, and follow @unspokenlivespodcast on Instagram. 

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For 42 years, Millie believed her biological father never wanted her. Meanwhile, her father, Albert, had spent decades believing the child he lost had never been born.

At just 12 years old, Millie discovered that the man she had grown up calling Dad wasn't her biological father. She was told her real father didn't want daughters, and she carried that belief into adulthood. Thousands of miles away in Peru, Albert had spent years searching for Millie's mother, unaware that his daughter was growing up in the United States.

Their lives continued separately, each carrying a very different understanding of what had happened. Millie eventually reconnected with a sister she barely knew, but the truth about her father remained hidden.

Everything changed when an unexpected trip to Peru brought Millie face to face with the man she had spent her entire life believing didn't want her.

In Part 1, Millie and Albert share their separate experiences, the secrets that kept them apart, the role faith played throughout those years, and the emotional reunion that neither thought would ever happen.

In this episode, you'll hear about:

• How a single lie shaped a daughter's understanding of her father for 42 years
• Two very different experiences of loss, separation, and unanswered prayers
• The unexpected circumstances that brought a father and daughter together after four decades

Their story continues in Episode 053, Part 2.

Every life has a story worth telling. Unspoken Lives Podcast, hosted by Kelsey Billingsley, shares real stories of resilience, faith, identity, loss, healing, purpose, and the moments that change us. Follow the show on your favorite podcast app, visit unspokenlivespodcast.com, and follow @unspokenlivespodcast on Instagram. 

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After 50 episodes of asking others to share their stories, I'm finding out just how difficult it can be to sit on the other side of the microphone.

This week, my husband Kyle takes over as host of Unspoken Lives Podcast, and I'm the guest.

We talk about why I started this podcast, what I've learned from the people I've interviewed, and how my faith has shaped the person I am today. I also share a deeply personal part of my childhood that I once believed I would never tell anyone.

This wasn't an easy conversation for me to have, and releasing it feels even more vulnerable. Still, after hearing so many guests open up about their own experiences, I felt it was time to share part of mine.

We also talk about marriage, motherhood, the impact of listening to others, and what I hope our children learn from watching us pursue something we believe in.

My hope is that this conversation encourages someone to feel a little less alone and reminds them that their story matters, too.

Content Note: This episode includes a personal discussion of childhood sexual abuse and its lasting impact.

Every life has a story worth telling. Unspoken Lives Podcast, hosted by Kelsey Billingsley, shares real stories of resilience, faith, identity, loss, healing, purpose, and the moments that change us. Follow the show on your favorite podcast app, visit unspokenlivespodcast.com, and follow @unspokenlivespodcast on Instagram. 

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For six months, Melody Wilson knew the name of her biological father but wasn’t ready to contact him. She had imagined just about every way it could go wrong. Then, before she ever made a move, a message appeared in her 23andMe account from Dennis, one of the unexpected DNA matches from Part 1.

Dennis was her biological uncle, and things moved quickly from there. He called his brother Jimmy and told him he had a daughter he never knew existed. Jimmy’s reaction was nothing like Melody had prepared herself for. He cried tears of joy and said words she never expected to hear: “We’ve always wanted a girl.”

Five days later, Melody was standing on Jimmy’s doorstep. What started with two unfamiliar names on a DNA test had led her to a biological father, five half-brothers and a large Greek family ready to welcome her. Melody shares what those first meetings were like, how her family grew without replacing the people who had always been family, and how the experience ultimately expanded her sense of identity and belonging.

The story also led Melody to think differently about what family could look like in her own future. She shares her decision to freeze her eggs, how a difficult experience in California led her to explore fertility care in Spain, and why her own experience eventually inspired her to create AZA Fertility.

In this episode, we talk about:

• The unexpected 23andMe message that connected Melody to her biological family
• Her biological father’s reaction to learning he had a daughter
• Meeting Jimmy just five days later and discovering five half-brothers
• Finding belonging in a family she never knew existed
• How the discovery affected her identity and existing family relationships
• Why “leave room for it to be good” became such an important part of her story
• Freezing her eggs in Spain and the experience that inspired AZA Fertility

Connect with Melody:

AZA Fertility:
https://azafertility.com/

AZA Fertility Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/azafertility

Melody’s Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/meljoywil/

Every life has a story worth telling. Unspoken Lives Podcast, hosted by Kelsey Billingsley, shares real stories of resilience, faith, identity, loss, healing, purpose, and the moments that change us. Follow the show on your favorite podcast app, visit unspokenlivespodcast.com, and follow @unspokenlivespodcast on Instagram. 

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Melody Wilson took a 23andMe test expecting to learn a little more about her ancestry. Nearly a year later, she logged back in and noticed something she had completely missed the first time: two names she had never seen before, both sharing about 25% of her DNA, roughly the same amount she shared with her own brother.

Naturally, Melody started digging. One search led to another, then another. Late-night research, family trees and an obituary started connecting dots she never knew existed. Suddenly, a Christmas-gift DNA test was pointing toward an entire side of her family she had never known and a biological father she had never met.

The discovery was especially surprising because Melody had never questioned who her biological father was. She had spent more than 30 years knowing one version of her family story. Now she had new names, new questions and a decision to make about whether she wanted to find out where they might lead.

In Part 1, Melody shares the twists of figuring out what those DNA matches actually meant, the moment everything started to click and what it felt like to realize her family story was much bigger than she had always known. Finding his name was one thing. Deciding whether to open the door to whatever might be waiting on the other side was another.

In this episode, we talk about:

• The 23andMe results Melody almost missed
• Two unexpected DNA matches that changed everything
• Piecing together clues through family trees, Google searches and an obituary
• Discovering the identity of a biological father she never knew existed
• Navigating identity, family and all the emotions that come with an unexpected DNA discovery
• Deciding what to do when finding an answer suddenly creates a whole new set of questions

Connect with Melody:

AZA Fertility: https://azafertility.com/

AZA Fertility Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/azafertility

Melody’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/meljoywil/

Every life has a story worth telling. Unspoken Lives Podcast, hosted by Kelsey Billingsley, shares real stories of resilience, faith, identity, loss, healing, purpose, and the moments that change us. Follow the show on your favorite podcast app, visit unspokenlivespodcast.com, and follow @unspokenlivespodcast on Instagram. 

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 Lisa Espinoza made a commitment to write every day for the year following the loss of her 25-year-old son, Chandler. What began as a way to process her grief and honor her son eventually became her book, First, Brush Your Teeth: Grief and Hope in Real Time, and helped Lisa put words to something she had already been learning to live: the power of taking the next small step.

Lisa shares why she wanted her writing to show grief as it really was, including the first Mother’s Day, Thanksgiving and Christmas without Chandler. She didn’t want to offer a how-to or put a neat ending on child loss. She wanted someone walking through grief to be able to see that another step was possible. 

That idea became the heart of First Brush Your Teeth. Some days, moving forward may simply mean getting out of bed, walking to the sink and brushing your teeth. Lisa explains why the next small step doesn’t only apply to grief. Hard seasons take many forms, and sometimes looking at the entire mountain makes moving forward feel impossible.  

Lisa also talks about finding purpose in helping other people feel less alone, why real stories matter, and the role faith continues to play in the way she approaches difficult seasons. Her closing encouragement is simple: don’t focus on the whole mountain ahead. Find the one small step that can move you forward today. 

This is a conversation about grief, resilience, faith, moving forward after loss, finding purpose through pain, and taking the next step when life feels overwhelming.

Connect with Lisa:
https://www.lisaespinoza.com/

Find Lisa’s book:
First Brush Your Teeth: https://www.lisaespinoza.com/first-brush-your-teeth

🎧 Listen to Unspoken Lives Podcast: https://www.unspokenlives.com/#listen

Hosted by Kelsey Billingsley | Unspoken Lives Podcast

Every life has a story worth telling. Unspoken Lives Podcast, hosted by Kelsey Billingsley, shares real stories of resilience, faith, identity, loss, healing, purpose, and the moments that change us. Follow the show on your favorite podcast app, visit unspokenlivespodcast.com, and follow @unspokenlivespodcast on Instagram. 

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Lisa Espinoza’s life changed when her 25-year-old son, Chandler, was struck by a car while riding his bike to work. Eighteen days later, Lisa stood beside his hospital bed, held his hand, and watched him take his last breath. 

Lisa shares who Chandler was beyond the tragedy that took his life and what it has meant to grieve the loss of a child while learning how to keep living. She opens up about the unpredictable nature of grief, why she no longer believes grief follows a linear path, and what she learned about allowing yourself to feel the pain rather than trying to push it away.  

One question eventually became an important part of the way Lisa carried Chandler with her: What would honor Chandler? A friend even gave her a ring engraved with WWHC as a reminder. Lisa began asking herself what it could look like to continue living while still honoring the son she loved and missed. That question eventually led to another idea that would shape her life and her writing: taking the next sacred small step, even when that step is simply brushing your teeth.  

Lisa also shares the role faith played during Chandler’s 18 days in the hospital. Christmas was approaching, and she found herself holding onto one truth above everything else: Emmanuel. God is with me. 

This is a conversation about child loss, grief, faith, motherhood, and learning to live alongside a loss that will always be part of you.

Connect with Lisa:
https://www.lisaespinoza.com/

🎧 Listen to Unspoken Lives Podcast: https://www.unspokenlives.com/listen

Hosted by Kelsey Billingsley | Unspoken Lives Podcast

Every life has a story worth telling. Unspoken Lives Podcast, hosted by Kelsey Billingsley, shares real stories of resilience, faith, identity, loss, healing, purpose, and the moments that change us. Follow the show on your favorite podcast app, visit unspokenlivespodcast.com, and follow @unspokenlivespodcast on Instagram. 

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After losing his wife, Laurie, Ryon Harms became a young widower and single father trying to figure out what life after loss was supposed to look like.

Ryon had spent ten years building a life with Laurie, loving her through an extraordinarily difficult illness and eventually becoming a father to their daughter, Sky. Losing Laurie meant grieving the person he loved while also learning how to navigate a future he never expected to face without her. Ryon shares the complicated emotions that followed her death, raising Sky as a single father, dating as a widower, and slowly discovering who he was in this new chapter of his life.

A trip to Chile eventually introduced Ryon to Angela, and an unexpected connection quickly became something much deeper. Ryon began to understand that finding love again didn't mean replacing the love he had with Laurie or trying to recreate it. His love for Angela was entirely its own, and as their relationship grew, so did the realization that he had found someone he wanted to build the next chapter of his life with. What began as a chance meeting became another great love story Ryon never could have predicted.

Ryon's story explores grief, widowhood, life after losing a spouse, single fatherhood, dating after loss, finding love again, and the beautiful possibility that sometimes lightning really can strike twice.

Hosted by Kelsey Billingsley | Unspoken Lives Podcast

Connect with Ryon Harms:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryonharms/
Writing: https://www.ryonharms.com/

Listen to Unspoken Lives Podcast:
https://www.unspokenlives.com/listen

Every life has a story worth telling. Unspoken Lives Podcast, hosted by Kelsey Billingsley, shares real stories of resilience, faith, identity, loss, healing, purpose, and the moments that change us. Follow the show on your favorite podcast app, visit unspokenlivespodcast.com, and follow @unspokenlivespodcast on Instagram. 

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What does it look like to build a life with someone when you know tomorrow isn't guaranteed?

Ryon Harms and Laurie were young and in love when a medical crisis changed everything. After years of unexplained swelling and debilitating pain, Laurie’s scans eventually made their way to a doctor at Harvard, who told her family that she had essentially been walking around with a broken neck. 

Ryon left his life in San Francisco and drove through the night to be by her side. After a nearly 14-hour surgery to rebuild her spine, the surgeon delivered news no one was prepared for: Laurie had two years to live. 

Ryon and Laurie chose to build a life anyway.

They married, settled into life together and eventually became parents to their daughter, Sky. As the two-year mark came and went, Laurie was still there. For a time, life even began to feel normal again. 

In Part 1, Ryon shares the love story that shaped his life, the uncertainty they learned to live with and what happened when the future they thought they had escaped suddenly became uncertain all over again.

It’s a story about choosing to live today when you know tomorrow isn't guaranteed, and just how much life can happen in the time you’re given.

Connect with Ryon:

Website & writing: ryonharms.com
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/ryonharms

Every life has a story worth telling. Unspoken Lives Podcast, hosted by Kelsey Billingsley, shares real stories of resilience, faith, identity, loss, healing, purpose, and the moments that change us. Follow the show on your favorite podcast app, visit unspokenlivespodcast.com, and follow @unspokenlivespodcast on Instagram.