Welcome back to This Person I Met! My name is Kayla, and I’m the host of this podcast.

About 28.8 million Americans are currently affected by an eating disorder. That’s about 9% of the entire US population. And yet, nobody seems to truly understand what they are unless they actually struggle with one. Even then, stigma prevents many from ever reaching out and seeking support, or even realizing that they might have one. As you’ll be able to tell by my comments during this segment, the topic of eating disorders is a little personal to me. Not because I suffered from one, but because one of my close family members did, which eventually led to her hospitalization. And so, this episode is dedicated to one simple question: defining an eating disorder. Talking to Judith Banker, the founder and president of Center for Eating Disorders in Ann Arbor, Michigan, felt like I was in a counseling session myself. Even as somebody who witnessed the spiral in somebody else in such close proximity, I quickly realized through our conversation that the complexity of an eating disorder is not something that can quickly be unpacked. Today, I still struggle to understand what happened to my family member and why it did. Despite this complexity, it remains ever important for further treatment, research, and support to be developed for the millions that need it. Treatment is a necessity for saving millions of lives, people that could potentially be your parent, sibling, or neighbor…eating disorders do not discriminate, and they are unafraid to tear through one’s life and harm them in ways that are still misunderstood.

Without further ado, here’s Judith.

Welcome back to This Person I Met! My name is Kayla and I’m the host of this podcast.

If you don’t know, this is the second part of Nikki’s story, where she dives into how she turned a past of abuse and trauma into what she describes today as “intentional living.” Nikki doesn’t hide from her past: she builds onto it and uses it as proof that she is worthy of all the happiness she has today. Now in her 50s, she fights for others like her who deserve to heal and build their own future on their own accord with her education in social work, nonprofit called the Worthy Brown Girl Network, and podcast, The Worthy Well by Nikki G. If you haven’t listened to the first segment, now’s the time to do so.

Without further ado, here’s the last part of Nikki’s story.

Welcome back to This Person I Met! My name is Kayla and I’m the host of this podcast.

When I approached Nikki, the first thing I noticed was how well spoken she was. Words flowed from her mouth so naturally and so coherently that I found it hard for me to keep up. However, behind her demeanor was a story riddled with trauma that made her the woman she is today, building a story that does not let her past define who she is now. Nikki, now working with A Brighter Way, an organization helping the previously incarcerated, turned her past into the change she wants to see today as the founder of her own nonprofit, the Worthy Brown Girl Network and even her own podcast, The Worthy Well Podcast with Nikki G. Her story reverberates one powerful message: all of us are worthy of healing and building a future dedicated to personal happiness, no matter our past and the trauma we believe we will never be able to move past.

Due to the length of her segment, Nikki’s story will be split into two episodes: one tackling her background and past traumas, and another where we discuss what she has learned and how she is moving forward as she shares insights on self-worth.

Welcome back to This Person I Met! My name is Kayla, and I’m the host of this podcast.

A few weeks ago, I got the opportunity to sit down with Uzochi Nwauwa to talk about a topic that most of us avoid despite its inevitably: grief and the concept of death. Specifically, we talked about the scary, unavoidable thing that most of us will have to face at least once in our lives, grief, and how it impacts children. This is the second part of Uzo’s story, where we dive into specifics on how society can better approach those who are grieving and slowly take down the barriers that prevent us from facing death not just for ourselves, but for the sake of others. If this is your first time listening to her, I suggest you take a look at the first part of this segment. Without further ado, here’s Uzo.

Welcome back to This Person I Met! My name is Kayla, and I’m the host of this podcast.

On my first snow day of the season, I drove 30 minutes to Ele’s Place, braving the iced highways to sit with Uzochi Nwauwa. Uzo, the bereavement coordinator for Ele’s Place, talked to me for nearly an hour about a topic that many, including me, shut our ears to: grief and death.

Ele’s Place was founded by Betsy Stover and her husband following the death of their daughter, known as Ele. The organization was created in the interest of youth dealing with grief and the concept of death, an idea that many young minds have yet to truly define and absorb. Death is the thing that we do not talk about. It’s “passing away,” “kicking the bucket,” “biting the dust,” but it truly is just what it is. Dying.

In this episode, Uzo talks about how grief differs from person to person, and specifically how it affects children. She is blunt about death and how to go about helping those dealing with grief, those existing on, as she said, “a completely different timeline” as those that are not. The world moves on when a loved one dies, but how do you move with it when the one who you loved is no longer in the same world that is still pushing forward? What does existing in this new timeline without them look like? And to a child, what does this feel like, and how can we support those who have yet to formulate even the idea of death?

Due to the length of our conversation, this will be the first of two episodes dedicated to Uzo and her work. Without further ado, here’s Uzo.

Welcome back to This Person I Met! My name is Kayla, and I'm the host of this podcast.

Jaenika, like many others in the Delonis shelter in Washtenaw County and shelters around the country, never had a chance to run from unstable housing because she was born into it. The homeless issue within the United States has only grown since the pandemic, surging to record highs in 2024 of around 770,000 homeless persons in the country.

When I first saw Jaenika coming through the door to the interview room, I noticed she had a notepad full of notes she had taken to prepare and was ready by the first question, which surprised me, because most interviewees came empty handed except for the experts. She looked well put together and proper. She mentioned holding jobs in the medical field and having children who went to good universities and who had successful families of their own. To me, she seemed like a regular person I might meet at the supermarket. And yet, her story reverberated the simple message of empathy in a raw way that I admittedly have never truly opened myself up to to hear in such a light, and her words begged that humanity choose to be kind, to listen to others, and to help those who were never given the opportunity to help themselves.

After our interview, I continued my conversation with Jaenika and I asked her if there was anything else people like me could do to help. She told me to listen. To see with my own eyes the struggle of others, and to hear the stories of those less fortunate. To give warmth not just through blankets and donations of food, but empathy. The simplest and most seemingly obvious answer that has been drilled into us since we were kids, one that we as a society have yet to embrace as not just a concept, but a necessity.

Welcome back to This Person I Met! My name is Kayla, and I'm the host of this podcast.

As you may have inferred from the title, this is the second part of "The Business of Being," our segment dedicated to a certain member of Unlock Highest Dimension, a nonprofit for "gathering people with spirit gifts around the world and opening their connection with the high dimensional wisdom of the Universe so they can complete their calling and return to the N-dimensional Universe," as stated in their mission statement.

In this episode, we continue out conversation on the necessities of such an organization in a time where it seems as if modern beliefs trump spiritual ones and dive into the intricacies of both managing and enjoying being part of such an organization.

This will be the final part of her story, closing off this unique segment.

Welcome back to this person I met! My name is Kayla, and I’m the host of this podcast.

Recently, I had the chance to meet up with a close family friend. Upon first meeting her, it was easy to make assumptions in my head. She graduated from MIT with a degree in business. She’s worked with one of the largest investment banking companies in the US. She talks a lot about investing in stocks and advises me to start saving when I am young. By the end of our first few days together, I naively thought I knew her entire character. It turns out, I couldn’t have been more wrong.

In this episode, she talks of her interest in the higher dimensions of the universe, as well as her role in the nonprofit “Unlock Highest Dimension,” which helps discover individuals with special gifts. As our conversation progresses, she dives into the idea of the “N-dimension,” as well as soul and spirit, which help forge the connection between our physical bodies and the infinite universe.

Despite my months of work with this podcast, her story served as another reminder that I never truly know until I ask. As a quick heads up, due to the length of our conversation, this story will be split into two segments.