It Wasn't the End. It Was the Beginning of the Next Thing.

At 59½, James Logan was diagnosed with stage 4 metastatic colorectal cancer that had spread to his liver. The prognosis: six months to two years. Twenty-five months later, he has reached no evidence of disease twice, written a book, and is training for the Ironman World Championship in Kona, Hawaii.

Rachael Paskvan spent years as one of the only women in executive protection — protecting public figures around the globe, then leading executive travel security and large-scale event logistics at one of the world's largest tech companies. She never waited for an invitation. She just walked in.

In this episode of Who We Become — Life Beyond Change, Amanda Lentz sits down with Jenny Blake to explore identity shifts, reinvention, grief, and what it truly means to rebuild when life no longer fits the version of yourself you once knew.

Together, they talk about the hidden grief that comes with change, the emotional cost of career pivots, and the deeply human experience of feeling untethered during seasons of transition. Jenny shares her journey from leaving college early to work at a startup, building a successful career at Google, becoming an entrepreneur, and ultimately navigating the uncertainty and loss that came during the pandemic.

This conversation is for anyone standing at the edge of change — especially those who feel caught between gratitude and restlessness, or who are quietly questioning whether the life they built still reflects who they are becoming.

Content note: This episode discusses sexual assault, coercive control, gaslighting, and the physical effects of trauma. Please take care of yourself as you read. If you are in a difficult situation right now, the National Domestic Violence Hotline is available 24/7 at 1-800-799-7233 or by texting START to 88788.

✨ Episode Overview

The Body That Kept Receipts

Loren Galese spent years carrying something she didn't yet have words for. The manipulation, the distortion of her own reality, the slow unraveling in her body — none of it had a name yet. It does now. She has written all of it in her memoir, and she has become the therapist she needed then.

There’s a story you’ve been telling yourself.

It usually shows up quietly — in the middle of the night, or right before something big.
The one that says: This is just who I am. This is just how things go for me.

But what if that story isn’t the truth?

What if it’s just the version you inherited…
or the one you built to survive?

In this episode of Who We Become, I sat down with JD Mergolo, founder of Storyhouse — a space built at the intersection of storytelling and mental health. And this conversation? It didn’t stay on the surface.

Because neither of us are interested in surface-level.

The Part Most People Don't Know

Shannon Miller has seven Olympic medals, nine world championship medals, and fourteen halls of fame. In 2011, she was diagnosed with a rare form of ovarian cancer. The medals are what most people know. This conversation is about everything that came after them.

In this episode of Who We Become — Life Beyond Change, Amanda sits down with Betsy Vereckey to explore reinvention, courage, and what it looks like to rebuild your life when nothing is working the way you planned.

Together, they talk about divorce, starting over, and the unexpected decision that changed everything — leaving New York City for a small town in New Hampshire she only knew as her dog’s hometown. Betsy shares how that leap created space for healing, creativity, and ultimately, a completely new life.

This conversation is for anyone who feels stuck, is navigating a major life transition, or is quietly wondering if it’s time to walk away from what no longer fits.

Together, they talk about navigating depression while parenting, breaking generational silence around mental health, and learning how to explain big emotions to a young child, how Kendall transformed her experience into a shared language of “clouds,” and what it looks like to keep becoming — even when life doesn’t go as planned.

This conversation is for anyone who is parenting while struggling, feels the weight of invisible expectations, or is learning how to live more openly with their mental health.

In this episode of Who We Become — Life Beyond Change, Amanda sits down with Hope Rose to explore trauma, survival, motherhood, and what it means to rebuild when life doesn’t just change—it completely unravels.

Together, they talk about the devastating reality of intimate partner violence, navigating the family court system, and the unimaginable experience Hope describes as the legal trafficking of her child. But beyond the pain, this conversation is about something deeper: self-trust, reclaiming power, and learning how to live forward when your life looks nothing like you planned.

Amanda sits down with Erin Snow to explore the often unspoken space of after—after loss, after trauma, after life has shifted in ways you can’t undo.

Together, they talk about what it means to stand in the wreckage when the world expects you to move on, how Erin transformed her own experiences of childhood trauma, divorce, and loss into something meaningful, and what it looks like to keep becoming—even when there’s no clear path forward.

This conversation is for anyone who feels stuck in the aftermath, carrying emotions they don’t have words for, or searching for a place to be fully seen and heard.