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We sit with creator Deborah Weed to explore how love, loss, and art can coexist, and why self-worth must be defined from within. Her stories of hospice dignity, cross-country wandering, and the evolution of Paisley the Musical point to a courageous path back to voice and purpose.

• holding grief and joy in the same body
• caregiving as dignity and soul polishing
• the year of firsts and self-permission to feel
• self-worth versus self-esteem and why it matters
• fear as information, not a prophecy
• Paisley the porcupine and the cost of self-erasure
• reclaiming power when only one quill remains
• parenting, special needs, and a different kind of proud
• real connection beyond social media

“Thank you for listening and watching as we're uh we're on YouTube and a bunch of radio stations and TV stations out there too. So uh thank you for being a part of Real Talk with Tina and Ann. And as always, there is purpose in the pain and there is hope in the journey, and we will see you next time.”

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Tina and Ann explore gratitude that tells the truth in crisis: not a list, but a lifeline beside cancer, caregiving, and long grief. Kara Lockwood’s story and Robert Emmons’ research anchor practical ways to find small joys that help us keep showing up.

• Cara Lockwood’s remission story and irreverent wisdom
• Robert Emmons’ research on gratitude and resilience
• Fake gratitude versus honest, wound-aware gratitude
• Tiny joys during treatments, caregiving and daily stress
• Holidays, nostalgia and shifting traditions after loss
• Building a psychological immune system with habits
• Boundaries, clarity and stepping away from toxicity
• Practical toolkit: one-line journal, gratitude texts, asking for help
• Agency and taking back ownership during hard seasons
• Grounding practice and closing words for weary hearts

You can reach Cara and her books at Tanamachi: Rom-Com Author & Your Next Great Read!

Robert Emmerson's website and books: Gratitude Works – Robert Emmons, Ph.D., Director

If our episode helped you, please share it with someone who might be in a hard season

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Fear is not the enemy, until it starts running the show. In this episode, we sit down with USA Today bestselling author Cara Lockwood (aka Cara Tanamachi) to discuss her book, There Is No Good Book for This But I Wrote One Anyway: An Irreverent and Brutally Honest Guide to Crushing Breast Cancer, a refreshingly honest and laugh-out-loud take on navigating cancer.

A mom of five in a blended family and a survivor of stage 1 HER2+ invasive breast cancer, to unpack how medicine, humor, and unapologetic self-advocacy helped her get through sixteen months of treatment.

Cara Lockwood brings the same sharp wit and tender honesty from her book into this conversation as we talk double mastectomy decisions, reconstruction realities, naming the fear, picking out new boobs with her husband, and why laughter can steady your hands without ever replacing chemo.

This is not a story about pretending cancer is funny. It is about refusing to let fear have the final word. Cara shares what it looks like to sit with terror, tell the truth about your body, advocate fiercely in exam rooms, and still find moments of levity that make the unbearable survivable.

We talk about the emotional whiplash of diagnosis, the pressure to “stay positive,” the exhaustion of being brave, and the power of saying what you actually feel instead of what makes other people comfortable. This conversation is for anyone walking through cancer, caregiving, chronic illness, or any season where survival feels heavy and laughter feels risky but necessary.

If you have ever needed permission to laugh through tears, to ask better questions, to trust your instincts, or to take up space in your own healing, this episode will meet you right where you are.

Subscribe, share with someone who needs it, and leave a review to help more listeners find honest conversations like this. What question about cancer, fear, or healing do you want us to tackle next?

If you are a survivor or knows someone who is or if you just know someone who is going through a very difficult time, this episode will lighten your load and help you to find a smile.

You can reach Cara and her books at Tanamachi: Rom-Com Author & Your Next Great Read!

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We trace a life rebuilt through acceptance, humor, and purpose, from paralysis and autism advocacy to grief, faith, and the daily practice of choosing better. The path moves from why to how, from pity to power, and from isolation to community through Pathfinders for Autism.

• tracking tiny gains with a “better than yesterday” list
• Madison’s autism story and early ABA access
• founding Pathfinders for Autism and scaling resources
• parallel paths planning and an acceptance turning point
• music, wheelchair dancing, and family humor as fuel
• accessibility barriers and choosing agency over pity
• faith, the “black chair,” and honest anger with God
• reframing grief as “adventures with uncertain outcomes”
• blended family grace and looking for people’s sparkle
• unresolved anger, taking out the pin, moving forward
• living fully with unanswered questions and daily effort

Visit PathfindersforAutism.org to search resources by age and need
Books available at BeckyGalli.com and major booksellers
Subscribe to Thoughtful Thursdays on BeckyGalli.com

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Some stories don’t fit inside neat arcs. Rebecca Galli’s life holds a brother gone at 17, a son who passed at 15, two children with special needs, and sudden paralysis nine days after divorce. What unfolds is not a list of tragedies but a blueprint for living when certainty disappears: short morning rituals that steady the mind, phrases that reframe pain, and a practice of choosing the next right step even when the path splits.

We dig into parallel paths, a therapist’s tool that changed everything. Instead of waiting for clarity, Rebecca plans two futures at once—the hope path and the reality path—so she keeps moving whether life opens or closes. That motion shows up everywhere: in how she shifted from why to how after hard news, in how she built a support boat that changed over time, and in how she tracks the power of better by noticing one small improvement each day. Her father’s wisdom—let your love be larger, you will always walk with a limp, but you will walk—becomes a way to honor wounds without being defined by them.

Rebecca also turns personal need into public good. A yellow flyer about ABA in Madison’s backpack leads to Pathfinders for Autism, a resource that now serves tens of thousands with training, sensory-friendly events, and a searchable database for families. Acceptance doesn’t mean shrinking your life; it can free you to build a new one. When therapy no longer promised walking, she made a “big toe moment” decision to stop, then poured that time into candlelit dinners, playlists, and presence with her kids. Humor keeps showing up too—snow angels in a wheelchair, van mishaps ending in tears of laughter—proof that joy can coexist with grief.

If you’re navigating caregiver burnout, special needs parenting, grief, or abrupt change, you’ll leave with practical tools: start mornings with intention, plan in parallel, assess your capacity, curate your crew, and let love be larger than the storm. Subscribe, share this conversation with someone who needs it, and tell us the line you’ll carry into tomorrow.

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We follow a wrong turn that became a mission and explore how dignity-based service transforms both givers and receivers. Gil shows how housing, education, and reciprocity can turn charity into equity, and why true joy is found when we serve.

• enlightened self-interest and why service elevates the giver
• rent-to-own housing tied to education and community service
• girls’ scholarships and mentorship reducing dropout and pregnancy
• reciprocity models that replace pity with dignity
• volunteers becoming guardian warriors and bridge builders
• policy ideas beyond walls, from vetted work programs to pathways
• interdependence, brain science of giving, and a new border symbol
• practical ways to sponsor, volunteer, and support safely

If this episode moved you, please share it. Support Rancho Fleas if you are able. And keep asking yourself the question: what can I do from where I stand to make sure fewer lives are treated as if they matter less?

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We bring the border into focus as a lived place, not a line, and confront how wealth disparity, US demand, and policy choices shape human lives. Gil Gillenwater shows why enlightened self interest, housing with dignity, and education beat walls and fear.

• wealth disparity between $18 an hour and $14 a day
• the border as community, not an abstract boundary
• enlightened self interest as a guiding principle
• youth loneliness, consumerism, and loss of purpose
• how US drugs, guns, and corporations fuel violence
• post 9 11 militarization and the Devil’s Highway
• predation and the cost of crossing
• from charity to reciprocity in service work
• Rancho Feliz housing plus education model
• measurable outcomes and middle class mobility

You do not want to miss it. Join us next week for part two with Gil Gillenwater.

Book: Hope on the Border

Rancho Feliz Charitable Organization

Real Talk with Tina and Ann

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A single weekend can reroute a life. When Deborah Meyerson, a tenured Stanford professor, suffered a stroke that stole her speech and altered her body, she and her husband, Steve Zuckerman, had to reimagine everything—career, communication, purpose, and the very shape of partnership. What began as an “it’ll pass” blip became a blueprint for growing forward, not going back.

We dig into what aphasia actually is—beyond speech—and how it reshapes identity, relationships, and daily life. Deb shares how writing the second edition of Identity Theft: Rediscovering Ourselves After Stroke became both research and therapy, drawing on dozens of survivor and care partner stories to reveal two truths: recovery can keep unfolding for years, and identity work is as essential as physical rehab. Steve opens up about care partnership without resentment, the constant calibration of boundaries, and why permission to grieve is inseparable from permission to grow.

You’ll also hear about Stroke Onward, their nonprofit pushing the healthcare system to support the emotional journey of recovery, and the Stroke Onward Community Circle (SOCC)—an interactive hub connecting survivors, families, and clinicians with free resources, conversation, and advocacy. We explore technology that extends agency and hope: an AI-generated voice that amplifies Deb’s talks, a neural sleeve that improves gait, and a newly approved vagus nerve stimulation implant that pairs with intensive therapy to accelerate learning and function. The thread through it all is practical wisdom: find the “why” beneath your old “what,” meet people where they are, and build a life you can love in tandem.

Subscribe, share this story with someone who needs it, and leave a review to help others find these conversations. Then visit strokeonward.org to explore resources, join the community, and keep the movement toward whole‑person recovery growing.

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