After growing up queer with a complicated father in the 1960s, a man forges his own path, identity and career in the arts, but suddenly, after a routine surgery, he wakes up unable to move. . Today’s episode featured John Killacky. You can find out more about John by going to johnkillacky.com with links to his book, “because art: commentary, critique, & conversation” as well as links to some of his films. "I was so used to being adaptive, resilient, always seeing the horizon ahead....The com...
Aug 16, 2022•56 min•Season 12Ep. 242
A woman falls deeply in love with a married man in her close friend’s circle, when suddenly an unthinkable event throws everything into question. . . “Of all the cruel things for the universe to do…Why? Why on earth would the universe do this, and what is this supposed to teach me? What does it mean?” Today’s guest requested to remain anonymous, but if you’d like to reach out to her, you can email at tues228@gmail.com Content/Trigger Warnings: graphic bodily injury, explicit language Producer: W...
Aug 09, 2022•51 min•Season 12Ep. 241
“It’s like trying to go into like a dark cave with a rope attached to you so that you can find your way back and then losing that the end of the rope.” Producer: Whit Missildine Episode Summary: Following a tumultuous upbringing, a woman begins confronting the complexities of her identity and self-destructive tendencies, when all of a sudden, devastating bouts of Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder begin to consume her life. Social Media: Instagram: @actuallyhappening This Is Actually Happening Disc...
Jul 26, 2022•48 min
“My personhood had been shattered into a thousand pieces that I and my family were left to pick up one at a time.” Today's episode features Olivia Wilder. You can find out more about Olivia on Instagram @all.in.amputee Producer: Whit Missildine Episode Summary: After self-medicating for years to cope with the emotional aftermath of an abusive, religious upbringing, a woman goes in for a minor surgery, and when she emerges, everything has changed. Social Media: Instagram: @actuallyhappening This ...
Jul 12, 2022•46 min
“These are open ended wounds that you have to patch up, but how do you patch them up? How do you make it okay.” Today’s episode featured Diamond Garrett. Diamond is currenting starting a small business to provide products, services, and resources for disabled individuals to make their lives easier as wheelchair users. If you’d like to donate to support her vision and her small business, go to gofund.me/444f5605 . You can also find out more about Diamond by following her on Instagram @diamondsg_ ...
Jun 21, 2022•58 min•Season 11Ep. 240
“Living in a constant state of anxiety does something to you…I’m not able to live, I’m not able to love, I’m not able to thrive.” Today's guest requested to remain anonymous, however, if you'd like to reach to him, you can email at: k.parker007@live.com. Producers: Whit Missildine Episode Summary: A boy grows up in a household devastated by AIDS, opening a downward spiral of loss and a path of resilience. Social Media: Instagram: @actuallyhappening This Is Actually Happening Discussion Group on ...
Jun 14, 2022•51 min•Season 11Ep. 239
“You were in this abyss of darkness and the hardest part was not knowing…not knowing at all if you’re going to live or die or when or how.” Today's episode featured Marina Nemat. You can find out more about Marina and her story by going to marinanemat.com . There you can find contact information and more about her two books, 'Prisoner of Tehran', and 'After Tehran: A Life Reclaimed.' Her books are also available on Amazon, Simon & Schuster and Bookshop.org. Producers: Whit Missildine, Andrew...
Jun 07, 2022•1 hr 10 min•Season 11Ep. 238
“We had such a sense of safety and comfort and then…it was like everything changes and you can’t go back.” Today's guest requested to remain anonymous. But if you'd like to reach out to her, you can email at ca.hummingbird.1970@gmail.com . Producers: Whit Missildine Episode Summary: A woman struggles to find herself among her mother’s multiplying crises that always seem to find a new rock bottom. Social Media: Instagram: @actuallyhappening This Is Actually Happening Discussion Group on Facebook:...
May 31, 2022•55 min•Season 11Ep. 237
“When there’s some trauma, you have a poison within you….If you leave it there it’s going to ferment and take over your life and your body….You need to take this out by speaking it.” Today's episode featured Sonia Acevedo. If you'd like to reach out to her, you can find her on LinkedIn Under Sonia Acevedo - AKA Sony: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sonia-acevedo-aka-sony-6352aa29/ . If you'd like to contribute to help her get out of debt, you can find the GoFundMe campaign set up for her by Imelda J...
May 24, 2022•1 hr 1 min•Season 11Ep. 236
“A family tree is not permanent…You’re allowed to trim some branches.” Today’s guest requested to remain anonymous. But if you’d like to reach out to her, you can email at thisisactuallyhappening235@gmail.com Producers: Whit Missildine, Jason Blalock Episode Summary: After growing up with a patriarchal Christian family, a woman grapples with her father losing touch with reality when his delusions begin to dramatically unravel the family narratives Social Media: Instagram: @actuallyhappening This...
May 17, 2022•52 min•Season 11Ep. 235
“To feel like at any moment something tragic could happen put me in a deep, deep cloud as far as who I am, what can I be, and what could I have been.” Today’s guest requested to remain anonymous. But if you’d like to reach out to him, you can email at njsfil1972@gmail.com Producers: Whit Missildine, Jason Blalock Episode Summary: Growing up Jewish and surviving the twin traumas of domestic abuse and antisemitic bullying, a man finally establishes a new life for himself, when devastating loss thr...
May 10, 2022•49 min•Season 11Ep. 234
“It honestly felt like my whole life had just gone from this amazing color filled motion picture to just going into something so black and white…just feeling so alone all of the time.” Today’s episode featured Evelyn. You can reach out to her through email at everetdev@gmail.com Producers: Whit Missildine, Sara Marinelli Episode Summary: Growing up in a loving Mexican immigrant family in the US, everything changes in a young girl’s life when a home invasion, abandonment and unprocessed losses mo...
May 03, 2022•43 min•Season 11Ep. 233
“The feeling of unknowing while you’re going through that is probably the strongest, most terrifying feeling I’ve ever felt.” Today’s episode featured Matt Boman. You can find out more about Matt on Instagram @studioboman , on his website, studioboman.com, and you can check out his car’s tik tok page @the_namastang . If you’d like to contact him directly, you can email him at matt@studioboman.com Producers: Whit Missildine, Jason Blalock Episode Summary: A man suffers a serious injury after a dr...
Apr 26, 2022•52 min•Season 11Ep. 232
“I was just terrified, just the not knowing what was happening or what was even going on in my own body…and I was so confused and hurt and scared.” Producers: Whit Missildine, Sara Marinelli Episode Summary: Just before coming into adolescence, a young girl experiences an unspeakable trauma, but a bigger horror begins once she reveals her secret. Social Media: Instagram: @actuallyhappening This Is Actually Happening Discussion Group on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/201783687561039/ W...
Apr 19, 2022•46 min•Season 11Ep. 231
“It’s just terror, it’s just fear with no object…It’s so purely guttural and instinctive it’s almost like the prey of a tiger…the moment that it knows it’s about to be ripped apart.” Today's episode featured Neil Woods. You can find out more about Neil by going to neilwoods.net, where you can also find links to his two books: Good Cop, Bad War and Drug Wars, with more about his own experience and about the War on Drugs in Britain. To find out more about his organization, LEAP, or Law Enforcement...
Apr 12, 2022•56 min•Season 11Ep. 230
“I felt like I went through a portal into this evil place…and I immediately knew that we were in a whole different world.” Today’s storyteller requested to remain anonymous. However, if you’d like to contact her, you can reach out through email at foundatsea9@gmail.com Producers: Whit Missildine, Sara Marinelli Episode Summary: Growing up evangelical in the Purity movement of the 1990s, a woman constructs the ideal life, when piece by piece, her image of family, marriage and her identity begin t...
Apr 05, 2022•48 min•Season 11Ep. 229
“Because so much of my life when I’d seen things happening I’d been told that it wasn’t really happening, I think my brain kind of formed to think that reality was not real.” Today’s guest requested to remain anonymous, but if you’d like to contact her, you can email at: kbojangles5@gmail.com. Producers: Whit Missildine, Andrew Waits Episode Summary: A woman struggles to break out of her role caretaking a father who was haunted by his experiences in Vietnam, but when both of their worlds unravel...
Mar 29, 2022•51 min•Season 11Ep. 228
“What it felt like was - I am absolutely here, but this is not happening to us…This is not happening at all.” Today’s episode featured John W. Evans. John is the author of three award-winning books. His poems and essays appear in Slate, The Missouri Review, ZYZZYVA, Poets & Writers, and have been listed as Notable in Best American Essays . He is the Nancy Draper Lecturer of Creative Nonfiction at Stanford University. His author website is www.johnwevans.com . Producers: Whit Missildine, Jaso...
Mar 22, 2022•48 min•Season 11Ep. 227
“I would look in the mirror and my eyes wouldn’t focus because it was like my brain wasn’t registering that that was me…I literally saw a stranger in the mirror.” Today's episode featured Grace Hartman. You can find out more about Grace on Instagram @graceAhartman or contact her through email at grace@hartman.net . Producers: Whit Missildine Episode Summary: Soon after coming into adolescence, a woman develops flu-like symptoms of an unknown illness that continue to progress until it alters her ...
Mar 15, 2022•45 min•Season 11Ep. 226
“People who are grieving a serious loss, and you’re staring into the abyss, they understand intimately the loss that we are all going to face, what we all will see.” Today's episode featured Frank Vaughan. If you'd like to reach out to Frank, you can email him at f.vaughan@verizon.net . Producers: Whit Missildine, Andrew Waits Episode Summary: At the peak of his life, having built a successful marriage, family and career, a man faces a series of compound losses that put him through a dark night ...
Mar 08, 2022•44 min•Season 11Ep. 225
“I didn’t get a chance to know who I was or who I should have become, and I will never know that person.” Producers: Whit Missildine, Andrew Waits Episode Summary: After a girl is saved from her abusive father, she finds solace in her mother’s protection, but when her mother meets a new man, an even greater menace threatens to take everything. Social Media: Instagram: @actuallyhappening This Is Actually Happening Discussion Group on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/201783687561039/ Webs...
Mar 01, 2022•51 min•Season 11Ep. 224
“Now I know that half of me it’s a lie where does that leave me who am I who is this person it’s like you entirely lose your identity and I feel like I almost have to start again to figure out who I am because I lost it.” Producers: Whit Missildine, Jason Blalock Episode Summary: A woman who always felt different is compelled to hold a shocking secret that could shatter the family illusion. Social Media: Instagram: @actuallyhappening This Is Actually Happening Discussion Group on Facebook: https...
Feb 22, 2022•45 min•Season 11Ep. 223
“If life is so fragile, death can come to you anytime any day in any place.” Producers: Whit Missildine, Andrew Waits Episode Summary: A man who always felt like he didn’t belong in his own house wakes up one morning to a surreal tragedy. Social Media: Instagram: @actuallyhappening This Is Actually Happening Discussion Group on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/201783687561039/ Website: www.thisisactuallyhappening.com Website for Andrew Waits: andrdewwaits.com Content/Trigger Warnings: m...
Feb 15, 2022•44 min•Season 11Ep. 222
“All that stuff I went through, the abuse, the physical, verbal, everything was not rock bottom for me….Me realizing that I was being abusive to people I loved, that was my rock bottom.” Producers: Whit Missildine, Jason Blalock Episode Summary: A woman struggles to free herself from the catastrophic consequences of an obsession with a man she cannot leave Social Media: Instagram: @actuallyhappening This Is Actually Happening Discussion Group on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/20178368...
Feb 08, 2022•45 min•Season 11Ep. 221
“I just thought this is not happening, like how could this be happening? This isn’t supposed to happen…I felt like it was my fault.” Producers: Whit Missildine, Jason Blalock Episode Summary: An obstetrician must find healing and forgiveness after an unexpected tragedy opens old wounds. Social Media: Instagram: @actuallyhappening This Is Actually Happening Discussion Group on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/201783687561039/ Website: www.thisisactuallyhappening.com Website for Andrew Wa...
Feb 01, 2022•51 min•Season 11Ep. 220
“It’s never given that you’re going to be here tomorrow or in the next hour. You’ve got to respect that and you’ve got to live your life accordingly.” Producers: Whit Missildine, Jason Blalock Episode Summary: A man goes on a duck hunt with his friends, when a freak accident changes everything. Social Media: Instagram: @actuallyhappening This Is Actually Happening Discussion Group on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/201783687561039/ Website: www.thisisactuallyhappening.com Website for A...
Jan 25, 2022•50 min•Season 11Ep. 219
“Is this really happening? Like, is this really my reality? I’m questioning myself as to whether or not I was crazy and had I really seen what I just saw.” Producers: Whit Missildine, Andrew Waits Episode Summary: Growing up in a strict, sheltered household, a woman must confront a new reality when her older sister, who was the glue of her family and her identity, begins to fall apart. Social Media: Instagram: @actuallyhappening This Is Actually Happening Discussion Group on Facebook: https://ww...
Jan 18, 2022•51 min•Season 11Ep. 218
“We are not necessarily who we think we are…There are more paradoxes in life than things that make sense.” Today’s episode featured Kim. You can find out more about her and her writings at her Myth and Medicine blog on Patreon: patreon.com/mythandmedicine Producers: Whit Missildine, Andrew Waits Episode Summary: From the ashes of her own descent into severe mental illness, a nurse finds resilience to face her job’s gravest challenges. Social Media: Instagram: @actuallyhappening This Is Actually ...
Jan 11, 2022•53 min•Season 11Ep. 217
“Time stopped while my brain was trying to catch up, and I was horrified I was confused I was bewildered I was panicked…just a wave of all of that came over me.” Today’s episode featured Kate Solberg. You can find out more about Kate on Instagram @ka.solberg03 Producers: Whit Missildine, Matt Volla Episode Summary: After her first marriage falls apart, a woman has a second chance at a dream family, but growing suspicions lead her to unimaginable revelations. Social Media: Instagram: @actuallyhap...
Dec 14, 2021•55 min•Season 11Ep. 216
“I was like a walking dead. I was just a shell, but I couldn’t stop…my soul was gone.” Producer: Whit Missildine Guest: Kenneth Ginlack Sr. Episode Summary: Growing up in the projects and a broken home, a man learns survive on the streets through dealing drugs and brutal violence, when a desperate moment leaves him with a choice that changes everything. Today’s episode featured Kenneth Ginlack, Sr. Kenneth has been the Director of Outpatient Programs for Milwaukee County Behavior Health Division...
Dec 07, 2021•1 hr 1 min•Season 11Ep. 215
