Trigger Warning: This episode discusses traumatic brain injury, drunk driving, substance use and addiction (including heroin), overdose, sexual assault, not caring whether you live or die, psychiatric hospitalization, a serious car crash, and the overdose death of a close friend.

At 15, Rachel was flying through the air at Worlds. Cheer wasn't her hobby. It was her whole life. Then one summer evening, a drunk driver ran a stop sign and hit her while she was crossing on her bike. She jumped up and told everyone she was fine.

She wasn't. The brain injury nobody could see took her grades, her muscle memory, her sport, and her friends. What came after took her to places her family still can't fully talk about. In this conversation, Rachel talks about the years she barely remembers, the parents who never stopped showing up, and the surprisingly ordinary moment she finally walked away.

This is a story about teen addiction, invisible injury, regret, and what it looks like to build a quiet life after years of chaos.

For The Hayters is a podcast that normalizes hard conversations. Listener discretion is advised.

Interview, narration, and editing by Becky Hayter, with post-production, scripting, and sound design by Emily Nadal.

Don’t forget to subscribe, like, and share to help us continue bringing these stories to light.

🔹 New episodes drop every Sunday!

🔹 Join our community! patreon.com/beckyhayter

🔹 Follow us on Instagram: @forthehayters

🔹 Submit your story: info@forthehayters.com

🔹 Grab some merch! beckyhayter.com

🔹 A KILLR Network podcast! killrentertainment.com

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Confession: I took out a personal loan this month. After working SO hard to get where I am, I had to go back ten steps because our old house has not sold and the credit card interest was starting to scare me. I'm telling you because this show is about being honest about money, even when it's embarrassing. I'm also telling you because Alex has opinions about how to do it right.

Then we get into the conversation nobody wants to have until they're forced to. What happens when your parents retire and realize they don't have enough? Are you supposed to help? And how do you do that while you're paying your own mortgage, raising kids, and trying to save for your own retirement? Alex and I have lived this one with our own family, so we're getting real about it.

The Solution

Medicare is not free: Part B alone runs about $202.90 a month in 2026, before deductibles, coinsurance, prescriptions, dental, vision, and hearing.

Long-term care is a need, not a place: Whether it's assisted living (median cost around $6,200 a month) or someone checking in on Mom once a day, it costs money and someone has to provide it.

Three questions before you help: Is this an emergency? Is there a sustainable solution? Can you actually afford it without wrecking your own future?

Don't create your kids' problem: If you sacrifice your retirement to fund your parents', you might be handing the same crisis down a generation.

If you're 50 and behind: Know your numbers, estimate what retirement will really cost, plan for healthcare and housing, and have the family conversation now.

This week's homework

Pick one parent, partner, or even just yourself and ask three questions. How much is saved for retirement? What happens if someone needs long-term care? What do you expect from family financially? Write down the answers, even if they're scary. Especially if they're scary.

Patreon members get Alex's full retirement expense checklist and the complete list of questions to ask your parents.

Connect with us

Join the Hayters on Patreon for early episodes, bonus content, and the full checklist: patreon.com/beckyhayter

Questions for Alex? Email us at info@forthehayters.com

Money is emotional. And you deserve to feel safe with it.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Trigger Warning: This episode discusses human trafficking, sexual violence, child sexual abuse and exploitation, organ harvesting, ritual violence against children, and domestic abuse. A content note comes before the hardest section. Listener discretion is advised.

Korrin's mornings look like a lot of ours: breakfast, the childcare handoff, nine-month-old twins who need everything at once. Somewhere between the bottles, there's a call from Uganda and a trip to Ecuador to plan. Korrin is a former Marine Corps cryptologic linguist, an attorney, a volunteer prosecutor, and the founder of Lantern Rescue, an organization fighting human trafficking in 18 countries.

In this conversation, Korrin talks about going from an insurance job she couldn't stand to a Russian language school in Monterey, to studying for the LSAT by flashlight in the back of a truck in Haiti. She explains why most trafficking victims don't know they're being trafficked, why those viral "almost got trafficked at Target" posts do more harm than good, and what happened after the night a woman we're calling Rosa was found.

This is a story about the worst things people do to each other, told by someone who refuses to look away and still goes home and makes dinner.

For The Hayters is a podcast that normalizes hard conversations. Listener discretion is advised.

Interview, narration, and editing by Becky Hayter, with post-production, scripting, and sound design by Emily Nadal.

Don’t forget to subscribe, like, and share to help us continue bringing these stories to light.

🔹 New episodes drop every Sunday!

🔹 Join our community! patreon.com/beckyhayter

🔹 Follow us on Instagram: @forthehayters

🔹 Submit your story: info@forthehayters.com

🔹 Grab some merch! beckyhayter.com

🔹 A KILLR Network podcast! killrentertainment.com

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.