This week, Meagan and Nora head back to 1985 and the family’s move to a remote house in the woods of southern Oregon. What starts as a beautiful new beginning quickly turns into one of the most chaotic and difficult chapters of their lives.

In this episode:

• Life lately: prom dresses, graduation plans, and launching adult kids
• Meagan tells the story of driving to Oregon at 16 with a chicken, kittens, a dog, two teenagers she barely knew, and a ticket for going 88 mph
• Living in a stunning house with no money, no plan, and no adult supervision
• Losing pets to the Oregon wilderness—and what those losses still mean
• What it's like to be the kid holding everything together while the adults fall apart
• A staged car crash, insurance money, and moral gray areas
• One magical memory: the Ashland Shakespeare Festival and a woman in a unicorn costume
• How race, privilege, and poverty collided in their family’s story
• The return to LA, motel living, and the Challenger explosion

Themes:

• The invisible weight of being “the responsible one”
• The ways white privilege protected their mother—and how that legacy shows up now
• Survival, sibling loyalty, and the cost of keeping secrets
• What it means to look back on these stories with love, anger, and clarity

Content note: This episode includes discussion of poverty, food insecurity, pet loss, and an insurance scam. There is also honest reflection on the role of white privilege in the family's story.