When Jane Fischer’s daughter Suzy was born in 1974, doctors said she would never walk, talk, or learn. Suzy spent the next five decades proving them wrong. It wasn’t until Suzy was in her late 30s that the family finally learned the name for what she’d been living with all along: Joubert syndrome, a rare genetic disorder. Today, Suzy works in a preschool and lives on her own with support. In this episode, Jane discusses what it was like to raise a daughter with disabilities, push past the doctors’ predictions, and help Suzy build a life of her own.

- Jane Fischer on Tell Me What It’s Like

• The day Suzy was born, and the doctors’ advice to send her away
• Finding help for a child with disabilities before Google
• How raising Suzy tested her marriage
• Shadowing Suzy at school, and the difference between inclusion and tolerance
• Why doctors call Suzy a medical miracle
• How a decades-long mystery was finally named Joubert syndrome
• What she’d go back and tell herself in that hospital room

• If You Knew Suzy: Pushing Past the Boundaries of Never by Jane Fischer
• Joubert syndrome
• ECLC of New Jersey
• Maplebrook School
• Jespy House

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For more than 25 years, Dr. Tiffany Troso-Sandoval has treated women with breast and gynecological cancers. Throughout her practice, she’s realized that women going through cancer need more than treatment. They need to understand their care, stay organized, and have the right support around them so they can be active participants in their own care. In this episode, she talks about why she became an oncologist, what it’s really like on the doctor’s side of the room, and how she’s helping patients feel empowered."

- Dr. Tiffany Troso-Sandoval on Tell Me What It's Like

• How watching her mother’s frustration with her grandmother’s doctors shaped her path
• Walking out of the LSAT and choosing medical school instead
• What it’s like to deliver hard news, and how she handles the emotional weight
• How cancer treatment has changed over 25 years, and is like “night and day”
• The day she spent her lunch hour organizing a patient’s records into a binder – and why
• Why telling a friend or family member to “call me if you need anything” doesn’t work, and a better way patients can ask for help

• Calming the Cancer Chaos by Dr. Tiffany Troso-Sandoval
• Dr. Troso's website
• Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center

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Dr. Winston Vickers has spent decades studying one of America's big cats, the mountain lion. He's tracked them, collared them, and even studied their poop, all to help Southern California's mountain lions survive. A veterinarian who went back to school mid-career to study big cats, he shares what it's like to come face to face with a mountain lion, why highways are pushing some populations toward extinction, and why killing one lion doesn't solve the problem.

- Dr. Winston Vickers on Tell Me What It’s Like

Hear Dr. Vickers discuss:

• How he went back to school to study mountain lions after a 20 year vet career
• How you trap a mountain lion (it involves roadkill)
• The diseases threatening them, from avian flu to feline leukemia
• How one freeway split a population and led to dangerous inbreeding
• What scat-sniffing dogs reveal about what lions eat
• What it was like to collar his first mountain lion
• Close encounters with mountain lions
• Why "you can't kill your way out of the problem"
• Why there seem to be more lions in the suburbs
• Why mountain lions keep whole ecosystems in balance

Mentioned in this episode:

• Learn more about the California Mountain Lion Project at UC Davis
• Listen to A Path for Mountain Lions by The Nature Conservancy, featuring Dr. Vickers
• View the mountain lion tracker

About Dr. Vickers:

Dr. T. Winston Vickers is a wildlife research veterinarian with the UC Davis Wildlife Health Center and the Institute for Wildlife Studies. For 20 years he directed or co-directed mountain lion studies across California, and he has studied mountain lions and other wildlife for 23 years. His work focuses on why mountain lions die, how they move, road crossings, genetics, and how they interact with people.

- Dr. Winston Vickers on Tell Me What It’s Like

In the Season 2 finale, military spouse Kandi Hart joins the show to discuss what she's learned about building community after decades of moves. She and Stacy talk about what it takes to thrive in every new place, including the mindset you need, the tactics that can work, and how sometimes community starts with just one person.

"I will immediately walk up to somebody, and I will ask them about themselves. I'll say, 'Tell me about your family.'"

• Why Twentynine Palms — a base most people dread — became a place her whole family asked to go back to
• The party mistake that humbled her and changed how she thinks about inclusivity
• How she went from a shy kindergartner who cried every morning to the first person to grab the microphone in any room
• Why she thinks showing up at someone's door still matters more than any Facebook group
• How to build your community when you're not in a military bubble

Mentioned in this episode:

• Twentynine Palms, California

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Charles Grimes has spent nearly 30 years as a business psychologist, helping leaders understand themselves so they could lead others well. But he’s also been trying to understand himself, with therapy, courses, and numerous self-assessment tools. But it wasn't until he was 65 — when a friend made a casual, throwaway comment — that the missing piece finally clicked into place. He had Asperger's. The diagnosis didn't feel like bad news. It felt like freedom.

• What his friend said that set the whole thing in motion and why he didn't dismiss it
• What "masking" is, and the exhausting work of hiding in plain sight for decades
• The conductor who walked into rehearsal and transformed a mediocre choir without saying a word - and what this has to do with leadership
• What fell into place when he looked back at his life through the new lens of his diagnosis
• Learning about love and connection later in life — and why he thinks it's never too late

• A Question of Leadership by Charles Grimes
• The National Autistic Society — where Charles went for his formal assessment

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Mentioned in this episode:

Help Others Discover the Show

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When soccer coach Scott Martin contracted a rare illness that took his hands and parts of his feet, it took the way he coached the game as well as his confidence. What followed was years of depression, discrimination, and self-doubt, until he finally found his way back to the game that he loves.

• What it was like to wake up from a month-long coma and learn what had happened to his body
• Why he skipped past the emotional reality of his illness and what that cost him
• The discrimination he faced trying to return to coaching
• What it was like to address his disability with his new team of 12-year-olds
• How he rebuilt his confidence, and what playing from the heart really means

• Play From Your Heart by Scott Martin
• The Five Stages of Grief by Elisabeth Kübler-Ross

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Mentioned in this episode:

Help Others Discover the Show

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Dr. Yemi Famuyiwa knew she wanted to be a doctor long before she knew what kind. It was during her third-year rotations at Emory that the answer became obvious. She'd had “a roaring blast” in her OBGYN rotation and couldn't imagine anything else. She went on to specialize in reproductive endocrinology and infertility, and has spent decades helping people navigate one of the most emotional experiences a person or couple can face. In this episode, she talks about what she's noticed inside that world — the science, the cultural pressures that leave women suffering in silence, and the grief that has no name.Nullam id diam metus. Interdum et malesuada fames ac ante ipsum primis in faucibus. Nullam interdum est erat, rutrum tristique ipsum cursus a.

• What it was like to guide her first baby into the world and how she hopes she never gets over it
• The cultural pressure on women in paternalistic societies to conceive, and what can happen when they can't
• Why men suffer in silence too, and how infertility can challenge a marriage
• Ambiguous loss: the grief that never ends and has no body to weep over
• Why infertility is rising worldwide — and why delaying childbearing is only part of the story
• What she wishes people understood about their own biology before it's too late

• The Quest for Fertility by Dr. Yemi Famuyiwa
• Dr. Nanette Wenger, cardiologist at Emory, who influenced her during medical school
• Grady Memorial Hospital, Atlanta
• Emory University School of Medicine

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Mentioned in this episode:

Help Others Discover the Show

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In 2012, Chelsea Coulston had just moved to a new house in a new city with a newborn while her husband was deployed. She turned her focus to decorating her new rental home, and turned to the internet for help. But she wasn’t finding much to inspire her, since most of what existed was meant for people who could make permanent changes. So she started a blog called Making Home Base to share renter-friendly decorating ideas for military families. What followed was a 13-year front-row seat to how the internet went from a wholesome, free exchange of ideas to a massively profitable influencer industry — and why she ultimately walked away.

• How home bloggers were among the first to use Instagram — not to sell, but to send people back to their sites
• How the money worked: sidebar ads to Google AdSense to brand deals to sponsored posts, and what that means for authenticity
• Why Chelsea calls the creator economy the Wild West, and what it actually takes to keep up
• Why everyone with a following is an influencer now and why that comes with responsibility
• What made her walk away, and why she'd reset the whole thing to the early blogging days if she could

• Making Home Base — Chelsea's blog
• Making Home Base on Instagram
• Brick— an app designed to help people limit their time on social media

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• Follow Tell Me What It’s Like in your favorite podcast app
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Mentioned in this episode:

Help Others Discover the Show

Enjoying Tell Me What It’s Like? Leaving a rating and review in your podcast app helps more listeners discover the show. Thanks for supporting thoughtful conversations and perspective-driven storytelling.