Content Warning: This episode discusses suicide, schizophrenia, grief, and depression.

James Longman is a veteran television news reporter who has reported from war zones like Ukraine and the Middle East for many years. You may have seen him on ABC World News Tonight, Good Morning America, or Nightline. But it took a special, much more personal investigation to get some answers for his father’s suicide and the schizophrenia and depression that preceded it. Given his own experiences with depression, James also wanted to know how much of mental health is environmental and how much is the genetic code handed from family. That effort led to James Longman’s book, The Inherited Mind: A Story of Family, Hope, and the Genetics of Mental Illness. James offers the insight he’s gained on his own family as well as what he’s learned about what science says about the human brain’s role in mental health. It’s a moving conversation with a great deal of hope if you’re trying to figure out yourself or your family.

Content Warning: This episode discusses obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and conversion therapy.

Kelly and Devin had a great "meet cute" story. They were counselors at a Christian summer camp, fell in love, spent all their time together, then kept it going long distance and finally got married. Kelly knew that Devin had undergone "conversion therapy" to try to rid himself of his attraction to men but everyone, including Devin, had chalked up those thoughts to an obsessive-compulsive disorder. And besides, their church taught them that homosexuality isn't real so being gay wasn't possible. Four and a half years into their marriage, however, the truth about Devin's sexuality, made itself known to him and then to Kelly. Beard: A Memoir of a Marriage is Kelly's 2026 Minnesota Book Award winning story of a marriage that was undertaken under mutually held beliefs that ultimately finds its way to an inconvenient truth. Kelly, who is remarried now and has a 12-year-old daughter, tells us about how her first marriage was full of love and, in fact, sexually active but ultimately ended with a parting involving a chance bar encounter and smoking a whole pack of cigarettes in flip-flops during a Chicago winter.

Content Warning: This episode discusses child abuse, substance abuse, sexual abuse, and eating disorders.

Every child assumes their family life is normal because they have nothing to compare it to. Still, high school English teacher and author Bridey Thelen-Heidel started to piece together that life with her mom was pretty unusual. Maybe it was the endless succession of dangerous boyfriends her mom had or the rampant drug use or the 22 moves before graduating high school or the time her mom left her home alone at age 9 for several days. Maybe it was the abuse. Certainly, being told that Bridey, age 11, was to be the “father” for a new half-sister was pretty different. Bridey, the author of the memoir Bright Eyes, shares how she survived this environment and early parentification to make her own way in the world, draw close to some family members, and draw hard boundaries with others. She also tells of the stable life she built, including 25 years as a caring teacher and the mother of a daughter who has always known stability.

Here's a TEDx talk she gave called ROB The Trauma, Steal Back Your Life.