For 24 years, Reese Wilson believed that if something felt wrong in her marriage, the problem had to be her — she just wasn’t trying hard enough, wasn’t seeing things clearly. It took a stack of her own recorded conversations, a cup of coffee handed to her in the wrong color mug, and years of quietly rebuilding a life from scratch to learn the opposite was true: her instincts had been right all along. Reese is the author of a forthcoming memoir, written like a psychological thriller, about recognizing a covert narcissist after two decades inside the relationship and the slow work of trusting her own perception again. The book, out this fall, is a companion to her site, unstoppable-life.com. In this episode, Reese and James talk about the ordinary moment that finally broke the spell (a black coffee cup, after 24 years of him knowing she prefers white porcelain), the friend who overheard a manipulative phone call and validated a reality Reese had started to doubt, and what it actually took to rebuild an identity and a career in her late 40s selling used cars. She shares the red flags she watches for now, why she tells stories instead of giving advice — a lesson she learned from her own mother — and why healing isn’t a single moment but thousands of ordinary Tuesdays.

Shownotes with Chapters:

00:00 — The Cold Open: “Anytime someone makes you question your reality...” — the red flag Reese leads with. 00:52 — Guest Introduction: 24 years of marriage, a memoir written like a psychological thriller, and the difference between self-trust and self-confidence.

02:00 — The Book’s Backstory: No firm release date yet — Reese is hoping for October. “Kind of a psychological thriller” that’s really a memoir. 02:39 — Recognizing the Narcissism After 24 Years: Always assuming the fault was hers, until she recognized her partner as a covert narcissist — and what it took to accept that. 08:29 — When Self-Trust Started Eroding: Recording her own conversations because she could no longer trust her memory of them. 10:19 — The Receipts: Proof that her recollection had been right all along. “I can trust my memory.” 11:06 — The Coffee Cup Moment: A black mug after 24 years of white porcelain, and the questions that exploded in her head. 13:05 — Asking for the Divorce: She took his hand and asked — and instead of agreeing, he became the victim. 14:18 — Rebuilding an Identity From Scratch: From stay-at-home wife and mom to selling used cars during COVID. 17:28 — Friends Finally Find Out: “We knew you had a hard time sometimes, but we had no idea the extent of it.” 18:15 — A Friend Overhears the Manipulation: A psychiatric emergency, a phone call, and the moment someone else validated a reality Reese had started to doubt. 20:43 — When the Nervous System Reset: Why healing isn’t one moment — it’s learning to react differently to the same triggers. 22:09 — Remarried and Safe: What it feels like when the shoe isn’t always about to drop anymore. 23:29 — Hyper-Aware in Dating: Spotting toxic behavior early — and the internal work that made that possible. 24:00 — Red Flags to Watch For: “Anytime someone makes you question your reality or your version of things.” 26:12 — What She Hears Over and Over: The recurring themes from readers and strangers at speaking engagements. 28:37 — The Tuesday Theory: Why self-trust is built in reps, not in one big breakthrough. 30:21 — Habits People Have Adopted: Including a jar full of tiny wins, opened once a year. 31:05 — Naming It: How writing, and re-writing, the book worked like exposure therapy. 34:00 — Learning to Dream Again: A women’s conference, a speaker who lost her place twice, and the moment Reese thought, “I could do that.” 36:49 — Recovering in Public: It’s not the fumble that matters — it’s the recovery. 37:09 — Her Inner Circle Reacts to the Book: The friend who asked if she was sure she wanted to put this out there. 40:26 — Why She Tells Stories Instead of Giving Advice: The Long John Silvers token machine and the lesson her mother taught her.

43:35 — What She’d Say to Someone Standing Where She Once Stood: Not advice — a story. 44:18 — The Narcissism Book She Slammed Shut: Checked out of the library fifteen years before she was ready to read it. 46:22 — Not Can They Change — Will They: Why leaving was, in its own way, a gift. 47:49 — Learning Doesn’t Obligate You to Act: Advice for someone just starting to educate themselves. 49:40 — Where to Find Reese: unstoppable-life.com — and how to be notified when the book drops.

Resources Mentioned:

Reese’s hub — all of her social links, and where to sign up to be notified when the book drops. https://unstoppable-life.com/

Craig Meriwether is a hypnotherapist who works with the 95% of the mind that talk therapy often can't reach — the subconscious. His core idea: the anxiety, anger, and self-sabotage that won't budge aren't malfunctions. They're old protective instructions, written by a scared child to survive a specific moment, still running decades later in a life where they no longer fit. Craig breaks down why hypnosis is just a brainwave state everyone slips into daily (daydreaming at your desk counts), why most clients arrive only after years of talk therapy, EMDR, and self-help books, and why a single session can move faster than 80 weekly appointments — because it works with the subconscious directly.

James and Craig also dig into why a generation's nervous-system baseline shifted from boredom to anxiety, how algorithms are built to trigger rage because rage keeps you scrolling, and what a Harvard study on broken legs proved about the mind's role in physical healing. Craig closes with one of psychology's wildest examples of belief reshaping the body: multiple personality disorder, where eye color can shift with identity.

Shownotes with Chapters:

00:00 — Cold Open: The Vegas Hypnotist Question: Why hypnotists pick the extrovert up front, never the introvert hiding in back. 03:37 — “You Fix Yourself”: Hypnotherapy doesn't fix you — it gets you access to the part of you that already knows the problem. 04:04 — The 95/5 Split: Conscious mind is 5% of you. The subconscious runs the other 95% — on purpose. 04:51 — The Filing Cabinet: Every hurt gets filed away and quietly shapes your patterns, whether it was last month or 50 years ago. 05:57 — Instructions Written by a Child: Hide, go small, stay quiet kept a kid safe — it breaks down for the adult still running it. 08:41 — Symbols, Dreams, and the Cheeseburger Nightmare: Why hypnotherapy speaks in metaphor — and why your body can't tell a real threat from an imagined one. 10:11 — One Generation, Boredom to Anxiety: How fast the baseline nervous-system state has shifted. 11:37 — The Sunday New York Times Test: One 1980s paper held more info than someone got in an 1800s lifetime. Now imagine today's feed. 12:50 — The Wine Bar Story: Two 20-somethings spend an entire dinner across from each other, silent, on their phones. 13:51 — Built for Rage: Platforms are engineered to trigger anger — outrage keeps people on the device longer than anything else. 18:28 — The Heroin Relapse Problem: Healing from a session doesn't stick if you're dropped back into the same environment. 19:20 — The Garden Metaphor: The most productive thing for a fried nervous system is often rest, not more effort. 20:15 — Your Brain Eats 20% of Your Oxygen: Why breathing into your abdomen actually changes your stress response. 24:35 — Who Actually Ends Up in This Chair: About 85% of clients arrive after years of talk therapy, books, and EMDR. 26:03 — Hypnosis Isn't Mind Control: The same daydreamy state you're in during a boring meeting — not a Manchurian Candidate move. 27:23 — You've Already Hypnotized Yourself: The core reframe: you need de-hypnotizing from a response you already installed. 29:34 — Self-Sabotage and the Secondary Gain: Why part of a person can unconsciously need to keep the problem they say they want solved. 31:03 — The Empty Chair Technique: Gestalt-style dialogue with a younger you can unwind a pattern set decades ago. 33:27 — The Real Placebo Effect: What pharmaceutical trial design accidentally proves about how much healing comes from the mind. 35:06 — Broken Legs, Healed 40% Faster: The Harvard hypnotherapy study on physical recovery time. 36:30 — Belief and the Body: Multiple Personality Disorder: Eye color and medication tolerance can shift with identity — what that reveals about belief. 39:53 — Deleting the Apps: Craig and James on both quitting social media. 41:52 — Flip the Ratio: 15 minutes of doom-scrolling, 10 hours of self-care — instead of the reverse. 44:10 — How to Actually Get Started: Craig's real first step for a new client, and why most sessions are over Zoom.

Resources Mentioned:

Website: https://craigmeriwether.com/

Free eBook: https://craigmeriwether.com/free-e-book/

After raising five kids, Laurie Kirk found herself asking a question a lot of parents eventually face: who am I now? Her answer came through acting first, then writing, and eventually her first novel, a psychological horror-thriller called Baby Marvin. In this conversation, Laurie and James talk about what it looks like to build a creative life in your fifties, the family history that shaped her writing, and the forgiveness work she's done with a father who left when she was young. She also shares how she turns ideas into finished books and scripts without outlines, deadlines, or waiting for the "right" time to start.

Whether you're sitting on a story you've never told or wondering what your next chapter looks like once the kids are grown, this episode is a reminder that it's never too late to become someone new, and that everyone's story is worth telling, even if someone else has to help you write it down.

Shownotes with Chapters: 00:49 — Guest introduction. 01:44 — Welcome, and James introduces the idea of a "third act." 03:07 — Laurie pushes back on three-act structure and explains the seven-act framework she was taught. 04:36 — What prompted Laurie to start acting, then writing, after her kids left home.

05:28 — The guided meditation that led to a life-changing discovery. 07:00 — Laurie describes the lifelong loneliness that disappeared once she understood its source. 09:34 — How the discovery shaped her drive and her approach to parenting. 11:03 — Laurie talks about her father leaving when she was a child, and the forgiveness work that followed. 15:45 — Learning she's a medium, and what that ability looks like in daily life. 19:11 — Writing Baby Marvin and realizing how much of her own story was in it. 24:02 — What Laurie has learned from staying in touch with family members who have passed. 31:54 — Her writing process: no outlines, no notes, just starting. 35:46 — Reviews of Baby Marvin, the book's 1960s setting, and what's next for Laurie. 39:27 — Where to find Laurie and the book online. 40:08 — Laurie's closing message to anyone who has felt more alone than they think they should.

Resources Mentioned:

Website: https://www.thelauriekirk.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thelauriekirk/

TitTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thelauriekirk