Essays & Podcasts
This page brings together essays and conversations that explore what it looks like to make decisions under pressure—survival, self-permission, grief, and rebuilding a life that fits.
Across these pieces, I return to the same questions: how you know when something is no longer working, what it takes to leave, and how you begin again from there.
Essay Publications & Interviews
These essays and interviews appear in national and literary publications and explore the decisions people make under pressure—safety, autonomy, grief, and survival.
I write at the intersection of lived experience and public consequence, with an emphasis on clarity, safety, and refusing simplified narratives about harm, responsibility, and resilience.
Feb 4, 2026
A lethality assessment after I left my abuser scored my partner an 8 out of 10 for risk of future violence. If I had chosen to continue our pregnancy five years earlier, it would have been a 10.
In this essay, I write about the role access to abortion played in my survival—and the quiet, often invisible calculations people make when deciding whether to stay, leave, or endure. This piece examines reproductive autonomy not as politics, but as a matter of safety, timing, and the ability to stay alive.
April 12, 2026
In this interview with CanvasRebel, I share the story of a moment that changed the trajectory of my work: choosing to ask for an opportunity before I felt ready. What followed shaped my publishing path, but more importantly, it reframed how I think about risk, visibility, and timing.
This piece explores the internal calculus behind high-stakes decisions, and the often uncomfortable reality that the moments that matter most rarely come with certainty.
Podcast Appearances
These conversations explore what it looks like to make decisions under pressure—leaving, grief, identity, and starting over.
In these interviews, I speak from inside those moments: how you know when something is no longer working, what it takes to leave anyway, and how you begin again when the life you had no longer fits.
Mar 24, 2026 | Episode 414
Grief doesn’t end—it changes shape, and sometimes it still lets you laugh.
“I Still Share Cosmic Jokes With My Dead Best Friend”
In this conversation, I talk about what it means to live with grief that doesn’t resolve—and why I no longer see it as something to “get over.” We explore how grief evolves, how connection continues after loss, and the unexpected ways it can remain a source of meaning, humor, and relationship.
Feb 9, 2026 | Episode 177
What it actually takes to leave—and who you have to become after.
In this conversation, I speak about leaving an abusive relationship and the long process of rebuilding identity afterward. We explore how lived experience becomes a framework for helping others navigate trauma, recovery, and self-preservation.
Feb 2, 2026 | Episode 176
What it means to stay human when everything around you starts to break.
In this episode, I speak about witnessing community-level disruption in Minneapolis and what it means to hold onto humanity and connection in moments of collective instability. The conversation moves between chaos and care—how both can exist at the same time.
Dec 15, 2025 | Episode 28
It turns out your younger self doesn’t go away—she just waits for you to listen.
In this conversation, we talk about poetry, friendship, and the early experiences that shape how we learn to trust ourselves. I share work from my younger years and reflect on how those early voices still echo in the writing I do now.
Oct 12, 2025 | Episode 21
Leaving a life that worked on paper to build one that actually fit.
In this episode, I talk about leaving a long corporate career to write—and what it meant to choose a life that felt uncertain but necessary. We explore grief, reinvention, and the role of truth-telling in building something new.
October 7, 2025 | Episode 1
The moment everything shifted—and what it took to rebuild from there.
In this conversation, I share the moment that disrupted the trajectory of my life and work, and how I began rebuilding from there. We talk about clarity, courage, and the small decisions that ultimately shape transformation.