Épisodes

  • Policing Era
    Dec 12 2025

    Catherine dives into her "policing era" - a time when she believed she was right about everything and everyone else was wrong. From picketing to lecturing friends about their life choices, she shares how her strict Catholic upbringing led her to judge others' bedrooms, politics, and personal decisions. But this embarrassing chapter became her greatest teacher in humility. Through divorce, bankruptcy, loss, and the forgiveness of those she hurt, Catherine learned that life's hardest lessons are often our most transformative ones.

    💬 What You'll Hear

    The Policing Era Begins: Growing up in a strict Catholic household where church was never missed, even on vacation in the Wyoming wilderness

    Charismatic Catholic College: Transferring to a more religious school hoping it would complete her, while secretly meeting a "spicy guy" on the baseball field

    Justifying Everything: Using faith to justify living poor, submitting to her husband, homeschooling, and judging everyone else's choices

    The Judgment List: Picketing, lecturing friends about premarital sex and cohabitation, and warning people they'd burn in hell

    The Contrast: Being front and center with her kids (the beautiful part) while exhausting herself policing everyone else's lives

    Humble 101: Life's classroom teaching humility through divorce, bankruptcy, loss, public shame, and parenting alone

    The Power of Forgiveness: Every single person she policed - friends and family - still loves her and watched her evolve

    Receiving Love: Learning that true love means being forgiven and getting a second chance, which healed her nervous system

    Different Lessons Now: Moving from major life lessons to micro-focused heart work, like not caring what her kids do as a reflection of her

    The A/B Student: Now handling life's tests (like a surprise $500 IRS bill) with calm instead of panic

    Takeaway
    Your most embarrassing era might become your greatest teacher. When you think you're the judge of everyone else's choices, life will enroll you in Humble 101 until you learn the lesson. The people you hurt with your judgment can teach you what real love looks like through their forgiveness. Everyone is in the school of life, just in different classrooms with different teachers. The sooner you learn your lessons, the less they appear on the test. Humility is the most beautiful of the virtues.

    ⚖️ Disclaimer
    These stories are mine — told through my eyes, my lens, and my lived experience. Each person moves through life in their own way. I own these stories, and I share them to inspire us all to live truthfully, freely, and as our most authentic selves.

    🌿 Connect with Catherine
    If this episode made you reflect on a time when you judged others or needed forgiveness yourself, share it with someone who showed you grace when you didn't deserve it.

    Follow Catherine on Instagram to keep following the story.

    Theme Song Written and Composed by Trevor Lynch and Michaela Dennis and recorded by Trevor Lynch in Chicago IL
    Photo: Baumgardner Studio Yakima, WA
    Production: Red Trux Productions Snohomish, WA

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    20 min
  • Love
    Nov 21 2025

    Catherine opens up about love in its many forms - from the exhausting performance-based love of her past to the transformative power of being loved "just because." She vulnerably shares the profound loss of her partner David during COVID, how grief became a catalyst for change, and her journey to finding love again with someone who teaches her she doesn't need to perform to be worthy.


    💬 What You’ll Hear

    • Agape Love: Understanding unconditional love and how it was the only love Catherine felt comfortable giving
    • Performance-Based Love: Growing up believing she had to earn love through achievements, appearance, and over-giving
    • The Comparison Trap: Watching friends in effortless relationships while she obsessed over perceived flaws
    • Dating Disasters: From the guy with the clinker in his eyelash to repelling men who actually wanted to love her
    • Meeting David: Finding someone who loved her in her "broken divorced self" without requiring performance
    • March 23rd, 2020: The devastating day David died suddenly of a heart attack during the first day of COVID lockdown
    • Moving Through Grief: Walking to move grief through her body and the mistakes of dating too soon
    • Leveraging Loss: How David's death became the catalyst for coming home to herself
    • Back to the Apps: Four months later, downloading dating apps and learning about ENM and poly via Google
    • Finding Love Again: Meeting her current partner who teaches her "this is not a call to action" - she can simply receive

    Takeaway


    Love doesn't require performance. You don't have to earn it through achievement, appearance, or over-giving. The exhausting pattern of proving your worth can be broken. Sometimes profound loss becomes the catalyst for discovering you're worthy of love simply for being who you are. Finding home within yourself first allows you to show up authentically in relationships - and that's when real love finds you.


    ⚖️ Disclaimer

    These stories are mine — told through my eyes, my lens, and my lived experience. Each person moves through life in their own way. I own these stories, and I share them to inspire us all to live truthfully, freely, and as our most authentic selves.


    🌿 Connect with Catherine

    If this episode made you reflect on the ones you love, share it with them to let them know how much they mean to you.

    Follow Catherine on Instagram to keep following the story.

    Theme Song Written and Composed by Trevor Lynch and Michaela Dennis and recorded by Trevor Lynch in Chicago IL
    Photo: Baumgardner Studio Yakima, WA
    Production: Red Trux Productions Snohomish, WA

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    33 min
  • God, Google, and My Newfound Faith
    Oct 31 2025

    Episode Summary:
    In one of her most vulnerable episodes yet, Catherine opens up about questioning and ultimately transforming her deeply held religious beliefs. From her strict Catholic upbringing to searching the Bible for a way out of her marriage, she reveals how Google became her unexpected lifeline — and how she discovered a more personal, loving faith that allowed her to live authentically without fear of eternal punishment.

    💬 What You’ll Hear

    • Religious Foundations: Growing up with Jewish, Mormon, and Catholic influences in a deeply structured household
    • The Sacred Marriage Trap: How the concept of mortal sin kept her feeling bound by duty and shame
    • Searching for an Exit: Reading Scripture daily, desperate to find freedom beyond the belief that only death could release her
    • Google as Savior: How simple searches became her lifeline toward clarity, autonomy, and truth
    • Faith vs. Freedom: The internal tug-of-war between religious obligation and personal liberation
    • Catholic Friends’ Advice: The well-meaning counsel that told her there was “merit in suffering” — and how she chose otherwise
    • The First Night Alone: The counselor’s words that led to a powerful moment of peace and self-discovery
    • Newfound Spirituality: Discovering a faith that’s personal, nonjudgmental, and rooted in love instead of fear

    Takeaway

    “I thought I was walking away from God — but I was really walking toward the version of Him that had been waiting for me all along.”

    ⚖️ Disclaimer

    These stories are mine — told through my eyes, my lens, and my lived experience. Each person moves through life in their own way. I own these stories, and I share them to inspire us all to live truthfully, freely, and as our most authentic selves.

    🌿 Connect with Catherine

    If this episode touched your spirit or helped you see faith through a different lens, share it with someone who’s finding their own way back to themselves.

    Follow Catherine on Instagram to keep following the story.

    Theme Song Written and Composed by Trevor Lynch and Michaela Dennis and recorded by Trevor Lynch in Chicago IL
    Photo: Baumgardner Studio Yakima, WA
    Production: Red Trux Productions Snohomish, WA

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    14 min
  • Mustaches, Orthotics, and Diets
    Oct 10 2025

    Episode Summary:
    In this raw and relatable episode, Catherine opens up about the early insecurities that shaped her self-image — from mustache teasing in the cafeteria to size 11 orthotics and Weight Watchers at age ten. With humor, vulnerability, and heart, she explores how childhood experiences and cultural conditioning can twist our self-perception — and what it takes to finally wear our confidence right-side-out.

    💬 What You’ll Hear
    The Mustache Chronicles: Cruel cafeteria comments, endless electrolysis, and finally embracing the razor with pride

    Big Feet, Big Problems: Size 10–11 shoes in fifth grade while friends wore ballet flats

    Diet Culture at 10: Growing up on Weight Watchers and learning to detach self-worth from the scale

    The Weigh-In Moment: A sixth-grade memory that shaped how she saw herself

    Missing Out on “Normal”: The ache of not fitting beauty standards or getting the “cute boyfriends”

    Reframing the Narrative: Turning “flaws” into features and finding power in difference

    Entertaining the What-Ifs: Practical ways to challenge the limiting beliefs we inherited about our bodies

    Takeaway
    “I spent years trying to fit into a world that told me I was too much, too big, too hairy — until I realized maybe the world just needed to learn to use razors.” :)

    ⚖️ Disclaimer
    These stories are mine — told through my eyes, my lens, and my lived experience. Each person moves through life in their own way. I own these stories, and I share them to inspire us all to live truthfully, freely, and as our most authentic selves.

    🌿 Connect with Catherine
    If this episode made you laugh, cry, or see yourself a little differently, share it with someone who needs that reminder today.

    Follow Catherine on Instagram to keep following the story.

    Theme Song Written and Composed by Trevor Lynch and Michaela Dennis and recorded by Trevor Lynch in Chicago IL
    Photo: Baumgardner Studio Yakima, WA
    Production: Red Trux Productions Snohomish, WA

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    14 min
  • The Sweater Metaphor
    Oct 10 2025

    Episode Summary:
    In this deeply personal and powerful premiere episode, Catherine introduces herself and the profound metaphor that changed everything — realizing her sweater, and her life, had been on backwards. What started as a simple wardrobe moment in her closet became a revelation about living authentically versus living according to others’ expectations. Through honesty, humor, and heart, Catherine explores how turning her sweater around became the start of turning her life around.

    💬 What You’ll Hear
    The Origin Story: How a simple wardrobe moment became a life-changing metaphor

    Breaking the Silence: Catherine’s journey from people-pleasing to finding her voice

    Religious Constructs: Growing up with rigid beliefs and learning to question everything

    Marriage & Motherhood: Navigating 24 + years of marriage while losing herself

    The Divorce Decision: Why leaving felt like the hardest — and scariest — moment of her life

    Rebuilding from Nothing: From $27,000 a year to financial independence

    Unexpected Love: Finding romance, then meeting grief through unexpected loss, and healing after heartbreak

    Living Authentically: What it means to finally live with your sweater turned the right way around

    Takeaway
    “Sometimes that itch just becomes normal — until you realize you have a choice. You can turn it around.”

    ⚖️ Disclaimer
    These stories are mine — told through my eyes, my lens, and my lived experience. Each person moves through life in their own way. I own these stories, and I share them to inspire us all to live truthfully, freely, and as our most authentic selves.

    Theme Song Written and Composed by Trevor Lynch and Michaela Dennis and recorded by Trevor Lynch in Chicago IL
    Photo: Baumgardner Studio Yakima, WA
    Production: Red Trux Productions Snohomish, WA

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    29 min
  • Backward Sweater Trailer!
    Sep 25 2025

    Meet Catherine - a 59-year-old mother of seven and Gigi of three who spent decades feeling like something was just... off. Itchy. Uncomfortable. Wrong.

    Until she discovered her life's sweater had the tag in the front.

    In this powerful trailer, Catherine introduces the metaphor that changed everything and invites you into her world of messy, meaningful transformation. From religious constructs to failed marriage, from financial struggles to finding authentic love - her journey proves it's never too late to turn your sweater around.

    Theme Song Written and Composed by Trevor Lynch and Michaela Dennis and recorded by Trevor Lynch in Chicago IL
    Photo: Baumgardner Studio Yakima, WA
    Production: Red Trux Productions Snohomish, WA

    Voir plus Voir moins
    2 min