Stories Episodes

"There's no expiration date on reinventing yourself." – Kirsten Telan

“Language is powerful in terms of how we describe things, and if we don't have any positive words, it's really hard to talk about it in a positive way that can help reshape how people are thinking about it.” – Dr. Corinne Auman

“Whatever genre you want to write in, whatever you want to do. Your art is important, and it deserves to exist in the world.” – Amy Lou Jenkins

“We just felt like, you know what? If we don't do it now, we're never going to do it because too many people wait until they get older and then they never end up leaving.” – Alison Gieschen

“Your thoughts create your life.” – Lisa B. Schermerhorn

“Imagine it's your last day on Earth. What song would you write?“ – Greig Watts

“So many people live in the past as if there's going to be a do over, or as if they're like the phone we use where we watch a video, and it's got that little button that says you can go back 10 seconds. That's not how life is. And when we're hanging out in the past, we're missing what's happening in the present.” – Tom LeNoble

“One thing I try to do in all of my novels, no matter how serious they are, I like to have comic relief. I like to have the reader smile and go, ‘oh, that's funny’.” – Adele Royce

“As I unpacked that with them in their interviews, some of them came to tears because something that is so personal and what some people discounted outside of the walls as something emotional, actually had value and meaning outside of the walls of that church and into very hard-hitting corporate America.” – L. Michelle Smith

“I never forgot that. That was asked of me in July of 1971. I had just left medical school. I was in Ohio. I was one of 35 doctors, but I was the only black doctor, and I was asked that question. And so how do you how do you forget that?” – Dr. Otto E. Stallworth Jr.

“Get comfortable being a little uncomfortable and raise your hand and say, yes, and you'll be amazed you do those two things of where life can take you.” – Alex Boylan

“There is a reason why I'm writing her story. So, I gave myself permission to write her story to get all these feelings out of me. And once I gave myself permission to do that, I did not stop writing.” – Laura Frost

“You deserve to be treated with kindness, and it starts by first being kind to yourself.” – Rosie Aiello

“It's always important to speak up for yourself and to define for yourself what you will and will not tolerate.” – Dr. Beverly Daniel Tatum

“Beauty truly does come from within…and a glow can't be purchased.” – Liane Marie Lambert

“At the same time in which, he kind of like crushed my dream a little bit. He gave me permission to dream a new one, a different one, which in the end, looking back five, six years later, I appreciate.” – Regina Linke

“Even if it doesn't mean anything to you, it means something to the person that you're writing for, and it means something to the person who's reading the story.” – Dr. Rhonda M. Lawson

“It just takes a different mindset and a different approach and a different way of saying yes to yourself…I learned to say yes to myself and say, give it a chance. See what happens.” – Heike Yates

“When we don't do the inner work as leaders, then we tend to lead from a place of fear and control and ego, as opposed to a place of compassion and love and shared purpose.” – Jane Marie Chen

“If you have a very empty but very conscious mind…then anything can happen in that mind.” – Stan Lai, PhD.

“I'm not afraid of the beast. I am the beast.” – Bria Rose

“Living is a progressive art.” – Dr. Candy Campbell

"There's no better way than to call your own bullshit, then to write your own story through the hardest and messiest parts of your life. Because as time passes, and as hindsight tends to be, you can finally see yourself clearly.” – Becca Eve Young

“Talking is so critical in healing and maintaining memories. There were things I knew about my mom, but we really didn't do it on a regular basis, and a lot of those memories were lost.” – Julie Corn