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Real Talk with Tina and Ann
Tina and Ann met as journalists covering a capital murder trial 18 years ago. Tina is a broadcaster, mom of three boys, and caregiver to her mom. Ann has a master's in counseling and has worked in the jail system, was director of a battered woman's shelter/rape crisis center, worked as an assistant director at a school for children with autism, worked with abused kids and is currently raising her three children who have autism. The duo share their stories of overcoming and interview people who are making it, despite what has happened. This is more than just two moms sharing their lives. This is two women who have overcome some of life's hardest obstacles. Join us every Wednesday as we go through life's journey together. There is purpose in the pain and hope in the journey!
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Featured Episodes
40
Sept. 24, 2025
What Happens When Everything You Know Is a Lie? An Interview with novelist Leslie Rasmussen
Send us a text What happens when everything you believe about your family turns out to be a lie? In this gripping conversation with novelist Leslie Rasmussen, we dive deep into her latest work, "When People Leave, Love Lies and Finding the Truth" – a story that will resonate with anyone who's ever questioned their family narrative. Leslie, whose impressive career spans from writing for comedy legends like Roseanne Barr and Drew Carey to publishing award-winning novels, crafts a tale that's b...
25
June 3, 2026
Adassa the Voice of Encanto: What if the Detour is the Path
Send us Fan Mail Disney magic rarely shows you the part where the dream takes an unplanned detour. Our guest, Adassa, the Golden Globe, Oscar, and Grammy-winning artist who voiced Dolores in Disney’s Encanto, tells the full behind-the-scenes story: the 20-plus years of sacrifice, the moves and setbacks, and the mindset that kept her working like the promise was still real even when life said otherwise. We talk about what it felt like to watch The Little Mermaid and suddenly see a futu...
6
Feb. 12, 2025
When the one hurting you is in your own home: An interview with author Victoria Ellen Part 1
What if the person who vowed to love and protect you was the very one orchestrating your pain? Join us on Real Talk with Tina and Ann as Ann sits down with Victoria Ellen, the courageous author of "Painting in the Rain: A True Story of Trickery and Triumph." Victoria shares her chilling journey of surviving domestic abuse at the hands of her former husband, Daryl—a charming facade that masked a controlling and dark nature. Together, we unravel the complex web of deception often hiding behind rel
1
Jan. 7, 2026
When Your Own Body Throws a Plot Twist: A Survival Comedy with Best Selling Author Cara Lockwood
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 unapol
37
Sept. 3, 2025
MentalHappy: Tamar Blue’s Mission to Make Mental Health Available to All
Send us a text Tamar Blue, founder and CEO of Mental Happy, shares how she transformed her personal struggles with anxiety into a groundbreaking digital platform for accessible mental health support. Her HIPAA-compliant service provides expert-led support groups where people of all backgrounds can find community healing without financial barriers or stigma. • Turning personal pain into purpose by creating the mental health community she needed • Breaking cultural barriers where mental health...
19
May 7, 2025
What Doesn't Kill You Makes You Quotable
A 93-year-old powerhouse and her equally remarkable daughter share wisdom gleaned from lives spanning Depression-era hardship, wartime childhood, personal loss, and professional reinvention in this captivating Mother's Day conversation. Meet Gwen Borden and Amy Goober, co-authors of "My Mother Always Says: 25 Lessons for Finding the Silver Lining"—women whose combined 150+ years of experience offer profound insights on resilience. Gwen's extraordinary journey began when she was born during t...
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April 22, 2026
From Invisible Courage to Visible Success: The Michael Yang Story
Send us Fan Mail A life can look “successful” from the outside and still be held together by courage you never see. We sit down with Michael Yang, author of *Coming Alive on the Ride*, to trace the real roots of his drive: family history shaped by Japanese occupation, the Korean War, poverty, and a homeland still divided. He names the ache as “han” and explains how it echoes through generations, even when families do everything they can to protect their kids from the worst of it. From there,...
46
Nov. 5, 2025
From Grief to Justice on Death Row: Sophia Laurenzi’s Journey
Send us a text We share Sophia Lorenzi’s path from losing her father to suicide to investigating death row cases, tracing how grief, stigma, trauma, and systems shape lives. The heart of the talk: seeing people fully, not as problems to fix, and building care long before crisis. • how invisible crisis can exist alongside visible treatment • rising suicide rates despite reduced stigma and why access still lags • 988 as vital crisis care and why prevention must start earlier • community-based ...
25
June 18, 2025
When Going Back to Your 10-Year-Old Self Changes Everything: A Journey You Didn’t See Coming with Author Amy Weinland Daughters
When Going Back to your 10-year-old self, Changes Everything! What would happen if you suddenly woke up in 1978 face-to-face with your 10-year-old self? In this captivating conversation, award-winning author Amy Weiland-Daughters shares the remarkable journey behind her book "You Cannot Mess This Up," a time-travel memoir that beautifully blends nostalgia, humor, and profound emotional healing. Amy reveals how what began as "a funny back-in-time book" unexpectedly transformed into a therapeu
7
Feb. 11, 2026
Belonging Begins Before Permission: Nancy Shear Part 2 | Creativity, Mentorship, and Life Inside Music
Send a text The room changes when a true maestro enters—yet the most revealing stories often happen offstage. We sit down with Nancy Shear to explore the hidden lives behind classical music’s brightest names and the personal courage it takes to step through doors that weren’t built for you. From a conductor who needed worship more than love to a cellist whose wild openness defied a regime, this is a lived portrait of power, devotion, and the craft most people never see. Nancy takes us inside...
43
Nov. 16, 2023
Didn't speak or learn to eat until 12: One Chippewa Indian boys quest from being told he would never speak and learn to a doctorate in Special Education
Born with a severe Cleft Palate, half a nose and told he would never learn, Dr. Don Bartlette has a story of overcoming and hope. He lived in a small shack in North Dakota. His father left him and his mother because of his disabilities. Don would steal to eat and his best friends were the rats. "One White Woman," he states, believed in him, changing his life forever. This man who didn't even speak until the age of 12, became valedictorian of his high school and got his doctorate in Special Educ
52
Dec. 10, 2025
Border of Hope: I love the Me I See in You with Gil Gillenwater
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, g...
34
Aug. 28, 2024
From Orphanage to Olympic Strength: The Inspiring Life of renowned sculptor and drummer Jon Hair Part 1
Join Ann as she sits down with John Hair, a sculptor with a portfolio that includes prestigious commissions for the US Olympic Committee and the US Air Force Academy and the Emmy Hall of Fame. Jon has had 170 public art commissions including couple in Shanghai and Beijing. He has sculpted public figures such as Mr. Rogers, Frederick Douglas, Richard T. Greener, President Obama, Rosa Parks and many more. He has also sculpted the famous Olympic Strength. Listen to part one as Jon shares his exper
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March 25, 2026
Returning to the Place that Made you: Identity and finding Lost Memories with Mario Cartaya
Send us Fan Mail This week’s episode is one everyone needs to hear—a story of miracles, identity, and the kind of closure most people never expect to find. In his book Journey Back into the Vault: In Search of My Faded Cuban Childhood Footprints, Mario Cartaya shares a life that began in Havana and was forever changed when he fled Cuba at just eight years old. He went on to build an extraordinary life in the United States as a celebrated architect, shaping communities across South Florida and...
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March 11, 2026
Raising Resilient Kids Begins with Regulated Parents with Clinical Psychologist Dr. Kate Lund
Send a text Today we’re talking about something every parent wants for their kids but often struggles to build in the middle of real life—resilience. We’re joined by clinical psychologist and author Kate Lund, whose work focuses on helping families move away from perfection and toward emotional strength that actually lasts. Her books Bounce: Help Your Child Build Resilience and Thrive in School, Sports, and Life and Step Away: The Keys to Resilient Parenting explore how small shifts in parent...
41
Oct. 1, 2025
Building Kids Who Can Stand on Their Own: A Recipe for Raising Today’s Youth
Send us a text Randi Crawford, certified life coach and TEDx speaker, joins us to share her “Pickleball Parenting” philosophy. It is a fresh, practical approach to raising resilient kids who can face challenges with confidence and independence. In this episode, Randi talks about the ways modern parenting often misses the mark and how small changes can make a big difference: Stop smoothing the path. Over-involvement robs children of the chance to build grit and quietly tells them, “I don’t bel...
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April 15, 2026
Parenting Redefined: A Brain-Based Parenting Conversation with Dr. Kristen Cook
Your child throws the sandwich, melts down on the floor, and you can feel every set of eyes in the room. We know that moment, and we also know the shame spiral that comes right after it. Today we’re sitting with Dr. Kristen Cook, pediatrician, mom, and author of Parenting Redefined: A Guide to Understanding and Nurturing Your Child's Behavior to Help Them Thrive, to replace that spiral with something more useful: a brain-based, trauma-informed way to understand child behavior...
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Jan. 15, 2025
Finding Kind with Kari Baker: Parenting Children with Invisible Neurological Differences
Join us for an inspiring and heartfelt exploration into the world of parenting children with neurological differences. Our guest, Kari Baker, shares her courageous journey from a thriving career in financial services to her new path as an advocate for invisible neurological differences. Through candid anecdotes, Kari reveals how her son Brady’s diagnosis of autism and ADHD reshaped her family’s life and led her to establish Kind Families, a community aiming to support parents navigating similar
Recent Episodes
49
Oct. 4, 2026
Growth at the Speed of Safety
Send us Fan Mail Your brain can know you’re safe while your body still lives like danger is one corner away. That gap is where so many trauma survivors get stuck and it’s why “just move on” advice can feel impossible. We get honest about what happens when the nervous system doesn’t get the memo, how survival responses become personality, and why growth after trauma happens at the speed of safety, not pressure. We talk through the ways trauma can reshape expectation as much as memory: bracing...
48
Sept. 30, 2026
He Slept in a Train Station and Still Showed Up for School: A Story of Unbelievable Resilience with Rich Dunning
Send us Fan Mail Silence can keep you alive, until it starts taking your life from the inside. We sit down with International Award Winner, Rich Dunning, author of Silence Was My First Language, and trace the path from a childhood in the Bronx surrounded by poverty, evictions, and relentless violence to the hard-won beginnings of a future he refused to surrender. Rich shares what it’s like to live under an abusive stepfather he calls Scarface, where safety depends on reading footsteps, predi...
47
Sept. 23, 2026
A Mother’s Story Of FASD Advocacy And A Daughter’s Spark part 2
Send us Fan Mail Ann sits down with Jodee Kulp to tell her daughter Liz’s story and to pull out the practical lessons families need when they are raising a child with FASD, , trauma histories, or any kind of neurodivergence. We talk talk about strength-based opportunities that helped Liz create meaning, and how the disability system can still punish competence by threatening supports the moment someone shows what they can do with accommodations. Then the conversation turns to the dangerous ...
46
Sept. 16, 2026
A Mother’s Story Of FASD Advocacy And A Daughter’s Spark
Send us Fan Mail A child can be hospitalized, overwhelmed by noise and light, judged for “behavior,” and still find a way to sparkle. We’re joined by Jodee Kulp, author, speaker, and longtime fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD) advocate, to talk about her daughter Liz and the reality of living with prenatal alcohol exposure. Liz’s life refuses the usual storyline of limits: she creates workarounds on top of workarounds, finds ways to write when reading is hard, shows up to dialysis in col...
45
Sept. 9, 2026
Living with FASD part 2
Send us Fan Mail Shame thrives in silence, and FASD has been surrounded by silence for far too long. We pick up Part Two of my conversation with RJ Formanek, where we get honest about what living with fetal alcohol spectrum disorder actually feels like day to day: the hidden resilience, the crashes, the relationships that only go so far when “I love you” feels unsafe, and the long work of becoming okay with yourself. We dig into practical, trauma-informed realities that families and ad...
44
Sept. 2, 2026
FASD: From Someone Who Lives It
Send us Fan Mail The most dangerous myth about Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) is that you can “tell” by looking at someone. We sit down with RJ Formanek, founder of Flying With Broken Wings and co-creator of Red Shoes Rock, to talk about what FASD actually looks like across a lifetime and why so many adults live for decades without a diagnosis, support, or even the right words for what’s happening in their brains. We get personal about the stuff that rarely makes it into the he...
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Recent Blog Posts
Oct. 4, 2026
Growth at the Speed of Safety
Growth at the Speed of Safety: Why Healing After Trauma Looks Different For a long time, I measured progress the way most of us are taught to measure it. How much did I accomplish? How well did I handle something? Did I push through? Did I keep…
Sept. 14, 2026
Loving Differently Tool Belt
We All Build a Tool Belt One of the biggest themes in Loving Differently is the idea of a tool belt. Life gives us things we never asked for. Loss. Rejection. Trauma. Disability. Grief. Parenthood. Mistakes. Relationships. Failure. Start…
July 30, 2026
Making Purpose Louder Than Pain
Making Purpose Louder Than Pain Pain has a way of demanding our attention. It interrupts our lives, changes our plans, steals our confidence, and often convinces us that what happened to us is the most important thing about us. Trauma can become s…
About the Hosts
Ann Kagarise
Writer/Podcaster
What do I say about myself? I love telling other people's stories, but hmmmm...Let me think.
When I think about my life, I have so many chapters. I am a very compartmentalized person.
I am first of all a mom of 5 kids. Yep...5!
I am a grandma to 5 beautiful children! All gingers lol.
I am a writer, author, podcaster, oh my gosh...I've been a journalist, columnist, hard news writer for print. I have actually won quite a few awards for my writing.
I am a photographer. I LOVE getting the money shot and capturing life! I do have a website called Spectrum Photography, but I have it offline more than on because I cannot figure out how to make the pictures work on Etsy lol. I'm not good at that kind of stuff.
I very much am an autistic individual, ADHD and dyslexic. Yep I got it all lol. I'm not that great a executive functioning, but I have many great ideas! I am trying to put things into fruition, but it just takes me longer and I probably make more mistakes, but I don' give up!!!
I have had many lives in the working world. I've worked in the jail system with helping women and talking with them, praying with them. I was the director of a battered woman's shelter/rape crisis center. I oversaw the crisis hotline at the center. I worked with abused boys. I was an Assistant Director at a school for kids with autism. I was a head swim coach for 12 years. Yep--former swimmer myself lol.
I was adopted. I've adopted 5 kids. And if you want to know the history of my crazy buffet of a family lol...I will tell you, but not here. You will have to join the podcast and hear it on there. I do share about my life. But you have to tune in.
That’s me in a nutshell… okay, maybe more like a cracked, slightly dented nutshell rolling down the yellow brick road chasing a dream. Lions and tigers and OH...Wi-Fi... oh Wait—where was I? Oh right. I was raised in the glorious pre-phone days of the '70s and '80s—back when we had to actually write letters, lick stamps, and pray our crush was home to answer the phone that was attached to the wall. No internet, no cell phones, and “lol” wasn’t a thing (though we laughed out loud just fine without it). But hey, us vintage folks? We adapt... lol.
Give me a call or message me. I'll answer.
Real Talk with Tina and Ann
Host--Tina!!
Tina is an amazing Radio personality in the morning! She has been a journalist for decades and brings her own spice to the podcast!
She is a mom of three boys and brings her wit and wisdom to the podcast when Ann and Tina banter and bring real life to your listening ears!