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A gentle heads-up: In this conversation, we name some hard things — including suicide and sexual assault. If that’s tender for you today, please listen with care, skip ahead, or come back when you’re ready. If you need support in the US, call or text 988.

Sometimes hope is a laugh you didn’t expect.

At 10:44 PM on November 2, 2015, Ron “Blake” Blake was ready to end his life. A split-second laugh during The Late Show with Stephen Colbert interrupted the plan—and it changed everything. In this conversation, Blake and I talk about what came next: PTSD after sexual assault, dissociative amnesia, and a 10-year, one-human mission to gather stories on giant foam boards. Today there are 522 boards covered with 34,000+ names, poems, prayers, jokes, and equations. Proof that we belong to each other.

I love this talk because it’s not shiny; it’s honest. We sit with the hard and notice where the light still gets in. If you’re in a long night—or love someone who is—I hope this feels like a hand on your shoulder.

In this episode:

• “10:44 PM” — the laugh that stopped a suicide plan
• What dissociative amnesia felt like from the inside
• 522 boards, 32 Sharpies, and why being heard can be medicine
• A student at SDSU who chose to stay because Blake showed up
• Why his “symbolic goal” (getting on The Late Show) still matters

Find Blake: Instagram @blakelateshow | Documentary I AM (Sinconus Studios)

If you’re in crisis (US): Call/text 988 or visit 988lifeline.org

Thank you for listening to Hope Comes to Visit. If this conversation helps, follow the show, share it with someone who needs hope today, and leave a review - it helps others find their way to these conversations.

New episodes drop every Monday, so you can begin your week with a little light and a lot of hope.

For more stories, reflections, and ways to connect, visit www.DanielleElliottSmith.com or follow along on Instagram @daniellesmithtv and @HopeComestoVisit

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Some seasons of my life, loneliness wasn’t a passing mood—it was the air I breathed. I didn’t always call it by name, but my body did: tight chest, racing thoughts, that sense of being “with people” and still feeling alone. In this conversation, I sit down with Lucy Rose, founder of The Cost of Loneliness Project, to talk honestly about what chronic loneliness does to us—and how we can gently stitch connection back into our days.

We weave together science and story: cortisol and inflammation, yes—but also travel schedules that hollow you out, the “life quakes” that upend everything, and the small, human habits that actually help. If you’ve ever felt unseen in a crowded room (hi, same), this one’s for you.

What we get into:

• Chronic vs. passing lonely: how to tell when it’s a blue day…and when it’s a pattern your body is carrying.
• Stress biology, plainly: why loneliness spikes cortisol, chips away at immunity, and raises risks for heart disease—and possibly dementia.
• Gendered patterns: how many women and men are socialized to buffer loneliness differently (and what to do about it).
• Free connection practices: ask better questions, listen longer, volunteer shoulder-to-shoulder, check on one person today.
• For kids & teens: signs teachers/parents can watch for—and simple ways to bring a child back into the circle.
• Hope with boundaries: when hope fuels healing…and when it keeps us stuck in something that isn’t changing.

If this meets you where you are, share it with someone who might need the language—and the nudge—to reconnect. And as always, I’m glad you’re here.

Connect with Lucy Rose and learn more about the Cost of Loneliness Project.

Thank you for listening to Hope Comes to Visit. If this episode resonated with you, please follow, rate, and share the show — it helps others find their way to these conversations.

New episodes drop every Monday and Friday, so you can begin and end your week with a little light and a lot of hope.

For more stories, reflections, and ways to connect, visit www.DanielleElliottSmith.com or follow along on Instagram @daniellesmithtv and @HopeComestoVisit

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If you’ve ever been told “it’s normal” when you knew it wasn’t—this episode is for you. I’m joined by Dr. Deb Muth—naturopathic doctor, functional medicine expert, and founder of Serenity Health Care Center—to talk about being seen at last: how to advocate for yourself, ask better questions, and get to root causes instead of living on prescriptions that never explain the “why.”

We dig into:

• Why women are diagnosed 4–5 years later than men for many conditions—and what to do about it in real time.
• The difference between normal vs. optimal labs (think vitamin D and thyroid) and how ranges can hide what you’re feeling.
• Practical advocacy: what to ask when a provider orders “a full workup,” which tests that usually aren’t included, and how to prepare.
• Hormones 101: broken sleep, irritability, brain fog—how progesterone, thyroid, and nutrient levels actually play together.
• Everyday detox & environment: simple ways to lower exposures (fresh air, air purifiers, lemon water, NAC, vitamin C) and why new homes can make you feel worse before better.
• When to get a second (and third) opinion—and why you should go outside the same hospital system.
• Dr. Deb’s personal story reversing a scary MS diagnosis by uncovering infections, mold, and toxins—and the hope that offers.

If you’re navigating symptoms that don’t add up—or you’ve stopped going to the doctor because you’re tired of being dismissed—this conversation offers language, next steps, and a reminder: you are the expert on your body.

Links

• Dr. Deb Muth: serenityhealthcarecenter.com | FB group “She Knows” | Book: Seen at Last

If this helped, share it with a friend who needs a little light, follow the show, and leave a quick review so more people can find these stories.

Thank you for listening to Hope Comes to Visit. If this episode resonated with you, please follow, rate, and share the show — it helps others find their way to these conversations.

New episodes drop every Monday and Friday, so you can begin and end your week with a little light and a lot of hope.

For more stories, reflections, and ways to connect, visit www.DanielleElliottSmith.com or follow along on Instagram @daniellesmithtv and @HopeComestoVisit