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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