The Life Shift | Pivotal Moments & Life Change

Matt Gilhooly
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The Life Shift shares real and honest conversations about the moments that change us. Host Matt Gilhooly sits with guests as they tell true stories of life-changing events, unexpected challenges, and quiet awakenings that shaped who they are today. Each episode offers meaningful and candid storytelling about grief, healing, resilience, identity, and growth. These are the personal stories that remind us what it feels like to be human. These are the turning points that stay with us. If you are drawn to personal growth, emotional well-being, or stories of how people rebuild after loss, this show offers a gentle place to land. Listeners come for the life changes. They stay for the connection. New episodes every Wednesday and Sunday. For more information, please visit https://www.thelifeshiftpodcast.com

  1. Grief, Ancestors & Cuba: Finding Your Mother Again

    1D AGO

    Grief, Ancestors & Cuba: Finding Your Mother Again

    Maybe you know this feeling. Someone died and you kept going, because that was what you were supposed to do. You stayed busy, you stayed capable, and somewhere along the way you convinced yourself that you had handled it. Rebe Huntman lost her mother to cancer at 19. The grief counselors told her to move forward. So she did, with discipline and determination and a full, successful life. But 30 years later, on the edge of turning 50, she realized she had never actually let herself miss her. Not really. This episode follows Rebe's pilgrimage to Cuba, a country where the dead are not gone, where ancestors are spoken to daily and the veil between worlds is treated as thin and navigable. What she found there, in the dances, in the drumming, in the quiet workroom of a spiritist in El Cobre, was not magic for its own sake. It was permission. Permission to stop moving past her grief and start staying in it. What You'll Hear: How Rebe mastered the art of moving forward and the cost it quietly carriedThe moment in Cuba when her understanding of death, grief, and ancestry completely shiftedWhat it felt like to reimagine the hospital room scene she had been carrying for 30 yearsHow a country with a different relationship to death gave her a new way to love her motherThe small, daily rituals she brought home from Cuba and what they have meant for her healingWhy showing up fully as yourself can become a quiet gift to everyone around you Guest Bio: Rebe Huntman is a writer, former Latin dancer, and choreographer who has spent her career at the intersection of movement, storytelling, and spirit. She spent decades running a professional dance company and teaching college and high school before turning her full attention to writing. She splits her time between Delaware, Ohio and San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. Her debut memoir, My Mother in Havana: A Memoir of Magic and Miracle, was published in 2025 and chronicles her transformative pilgrimage to Cuba in search of her mother and herself. Find her at rebehuntman.com and on Instagram @rebehuntman. Listen and follow: www.thelifeshiftpodcast.com/follow Subscribe to the newsletter: https://thelifeshiftpodcast.beehiiv.com/ grief after mother's death, ancestral healing, Afro-Cuban spirituality, pilgrimage and transformation, learning to talk to the dead, disenfranchised grief, mother loss, life after 50 identity, Santeria and healing, memoir of magic and grief

    56 min
  2. Living With MS: Finding Strength From the Inside Out

    4D AGO

    Living With MS: Finding Strength From the Inside Out

    Maybe you have had a moment where your body tried to tell you something and you looked the other way. A small signal, easy to explain away. This episode is for anyone who has ever dismissed a whisper, and then had to reckon with what that whisper was trying to say. Shruti grew up as a working mom in Melbourne, living a normal, full life, when tingling in her feet gradually became something she could no longer ignore. Over years, that quiet signal grew into a diagnosis of multiple sclerosis, a progression from walker to wheelchair, and a complete reshaping of her career, her home life, and her sense of self. What she found on the other side was not what most people might expect. She found strength, not the performed kind, not the kind someone else told her she had to have, but a deep, steady resilience that rose out of the hardest circumstances of her life. This is a conversation about what it means to carry an invisible illness through a world that cannot see it. It is about traveling alone to Kerala to try Ayurvedic therapy on nothing but hope. It is about reliving your hardest moments to write a memoir, and about looking back at all the worry you carried before, and finally letting it go. What You'll Hear: How Shruti's MS symptoms progressed over nearly a decade before a turning point shifted her entire lifeWhat it felt like to lose her job, her mobility, and her previous identity, and how she moved through thatThe solo trip to Kerala for Ayurvedic treatment, and what she found there beyond the therapy itselfHow writing her memoir, My Invisible Battles, helped her discover a version of herself she had never met beforeThe connection between stress, chronic illness, and finally releasing the need to overthink everythingWhy she believes strength is not something anyone can teach you, and where it actually comes from Guest Bio: Shruti Ghate is an author and mother of two based in Melbourne, Australia. After years of living with multiple sclerosis, she published her memoir, My Invisible Battles, to offer guidance and solidarity to others navigating an invisible autoimmune illness. Her work is grounded in the belief that sharing our stories can reach farther than we imagine. Find Shruti and her book at www.shrutighate.com, and on Amazon Kindle worldwide. Listen and follow: www.thelifeshiftpodcast.com/follow Subscribe to the newsletter: https://thelifeshiftpodcast.beehiiv.com/ living with multiple sclerosis, invisible illness, chronic illness resilience, autoimmune disease journey, progressive MS, finding strength, wellness memoir, identity after diagnosis, invisible battles, caregiver support MS

    44 min
  3. Part of Me Died That Day: Learning to Live After the Worst Day of Your Life

    MAY 6

    Part of Me Died That Day: Learning to Live After the Worst Day of Your Life

    There is a particular kind of grief that does not announce itself. It arrives in the middle of an ordinary drive, through a phone ringing on a Sunday afternoon, in the voice of a stranger delivering news your brain simply refuses to hold. If you have ever felt the world keep moving while you were standing completely still, this episode will find you. Stephen Panus lost his 16-year-old son Jake in August 2020, on a weekend trip that started with a peace sign from the driveway and ended in a parking lot, screaming to the sky. What followed was not a clean journey through stages. It was survival. One hour, then one day. The weight of holding a family together when you could barely hold yourself. The rage that comes when someone else’s carelessness takes everything. And the strange, hard-won realization that forgiveness was not about letting anyone off the hook. It was about releasing himself. In this conversation, Stephen talks about what grief actually does to a body, a marriage, a family. How his wife and son experienced the same loss and walked entirely different paths through it. How the Jake Panus Walk On Scholarship grew from a house full of flowers into something that keeps his son’s name alive in the world. And what it means to show up for someone in pain, when there are no right words and showing up is the only thing that matters. What You’ll Hear: The moment Stephen received the phone call that changed everything, and what happened in the minutes afterThe complexity of grief when anger, self-blame, and love are all happening at the same timeWhy the second year of grief was harder than the first, and the role of therapy in keeping his family togetherHow the Jake Panus Walk On Scholarship grew from an impulse to honor a son into a living legacyThe difference between knowing you lost someone and actually accepting itWhat Stephen would say to anyone who doesn’t know what to do when someone they love is suffering Guest Bio: Stephen Panus spent his career as a sports marketing executive, building brands behind the scenes. In August 2020, his 16-year-old son Jake was killed in a car accident on Block Island, Rhode Island. In the years since, Stephen has become a speaker, an author, and the creator of the Jake Panus Walk On Scholarship, a series of three scholarships honoring Jake’s spirit of compassion and lifting others. His book, Walk On, is available now and all proceeds support the scholarships. Stephen lives in Connecticut with his wife Kelly and son Liam. https://www.stephenpanus.com/ Listen and follow: www.thelifeshiftpodcast.com/follow Subscribe to the newsletter: https://thelifeshiftpodcast.beehiiv.com/ Keywords: child loss grief, father losing a son, grief and forgiveness, sudden loss, grief guilt shame, surviving the loss of a child, grief therapy, learning to live after loss, grieving father, walk on scholarship

    56 min
  4. Coma at 14: Learning to Walk, Talk, and Trust Yourself Again

    APR 28

    Coma at 14: Learning to Walk, Talk, and Trust Yourself Again

    There's a moment in Nick Prefontaine's story where the doctors step outside the hospital room to deliver news they don't think he can hear. His mom stops them. She knows better. Even in a coma, she believes her son is taking things in. That one act of belief, quiet and firm and unwilling to accept the ceiling others had set, shaped everything that came after. Nick was fourteen when a snowboarding accident put him in a coma for three weeks and rewrote the map his future was supposed to follow. The doctors said he might never walk, talk, or eat on his own again. What they didn't know was that Nick was already setting a different goal. Before he could even form words, he was mouthing them. He was going to run out of that hospital. This episode is about what it looks like to recover not just a body, but a sense of self, a purpose, and a calling. Nick shares the four-part framework he unknowingly used at fourteen and has spent decades refining. It's not a system built for winners. It's built for people in the middle of the worst thing that's ever happened to them. What You'll Hear: The snowboarding accident that changed everything and the series of unlikely moments that kept Nick aliveWhat his mother did in the hospital room that set the tone for his entire recoveryThe internal voice Nick heard before he could speak, and how he's learned to trust it as an adultThe STEP system: Support, Trust, Energy, Persistence, and how Nick applied it without knowing itThe long quiet after the fanfare faded, and what it felt like when regular life resumedHow Nick finally said yes to the calling he'd been putting off for years and what happened when he did Guest Bio: Nick Prefontaine is a speaker, coach, and founder of Common Goal. At fourteen, a snowboarding accident left him in a coma with injuries so severe that doctors doubted he'd walk again. He did. He ran. And eighteen months later he was door-knocking in neighborhoods, beginning a career in real estate that would eventually make room for the work he was always meant to do. Today, Nick works one-on-one with trauma survivors, accident victims, and people in the middle of life crises, sharing the STEP system he used to recover and helping others find their next step when they can't see it yet. You can find him and download the full STEP system at nickprefontaine.com/step. Listen and follow: www.thelifeshiftpodcast.com/follow Subscribe to the newsletter: https://thelifeshiftpodcast.beehiiv.com/

    57 min
  5. Control: What the NICU Took and What It Gave Back

    APR 21

    Control: What the NICU Took and What It Gave Back

    Maybe you've felt it too. That sense that if you just did everything right, the story would unfold the way it was supposed to. That the checklist would protect you. That the guardrails were there for a reason. Evan Boyer followed the plan. He was competitive, driven, self-focused in all the ways that tend to work well in corporate America. And then Christmas morning 2021 arrived, and the plan was gone. His wife was rushed to the OR. His daughter was born eleven weeks early, two pounds and six ounces. And Evan sat alone in a hospital room for an hour, waiting for news about whether both of them were okay. Seventy days in the NICU has a way of teaching you things no checklist ever could. For Evan, it planted a seed. And when a second pregnancy and a professional setback arrived at the same time, that seed broke open. He left his corporate job, launched his own PR firm, and started building something that felt like his, for the first time. What You'll Hear: What it felt like to stand beside his daughter in a hazmat suit, not knowing if his wife was okayHow seventy days in the NICU quietly rewired his relationship with controlThe moment two life events collided and made staying put feel riskier than leavingWhat the first slow days of entrepreneurship actually looked like (and why he doesn't pretend it was seamless)How he found community in the NICU parent world by simply reaching out when he was scaredWhy he thinks the version of him sitting in that waiting room needed to hear that change is okay Guest Bio: Evan Boyer is the founder and CEO of Leaders PR, a boutique public relations firm he launched after years in corporate communications. A husband, father of two, and former competitive golfer, Evan lives in North Carolina and brings a grounded, energy-forward approach to everything he does. He is active on LinkedIn and can be reached at evan@leaderspr.com or leaderspr.com. Listen and follow: www.thelifeshiftpodcast.com/follow Subscribe to the newsletter: https://thelifeshiftpodcast.beehiiv.com/

    53 min
  6. Addiction and Recovery: When the Hero Asks for Help

    APR 14

    Addiction and Recovery: When the Hero Asks for Help

    Maybe you've built your whole life around being the one who shows up. The one who runs toward the hard thing when everyone else steps back. You know the feeling of being needed. What you might not know is how long you can keep that up before you lose track of who you actually are underneath it all. Dr. Tony Dice spent years chasing the highest version of that identity, from a remote mountain town in Northern California to the Navy SEALs, from the brotherhood of elite service to the unraveling of a nine-year addiction. What looked like strength from the outside was quietly hollowing out everything beneath it. And the moment it all became undeniable wasn't some dramatic public collapse. It was a phone pushed under a bed. A call from a daycare. A son who needed him, and a room he couldn't leave. This conversation is about what happens after that moment. Tony has been in recovery for fifteen years, earned his doctorate, returned to the very treatment center that saved his life, and built a career helping veterans, law enforcement, and high performers face the thing they've been outrunning. His story doesn't wrap up neatly, and he wouldn't want it to. It just points somewhere real. What You'll Hear: The moment Tony's addiction became undeniable, and why he couldn't get out of that roomHow the identity of "the hero" became both a lifeline and a trapWhat the decision between the SEAL teams and his addiction actually felt like in the bodyThe small, unlikely moment in a treatment center that redirected the rest of his lifeWhy he believes addiction is far more universal than most people are willing to admitWhat it feels like to watch someone's guard finally come down, and why that's the work he was built for Dr. Tony Dice is a Navy SEAL veteran, 15-year recovery advocate, professor of counseling at Old Dominion University, and founder of Bishop and Dice Defense, a veteran-owned business that pairs tactical training with mental health services. He is the author of After the Trident, a raw, memoir-style account of shame, addiction, and the recovery model he developed over more than a decade of working with high performers. https://bishopdicedefense.com/ Listen and follow: www.thelifeshiftpodcast.com/follow Subscribe to the newsletter: https://thelifeshiftpodcast.beehiiv.com/

    1 hr
  7. Identity: What a Stroke Couldn't Take

    APR 7

    Identity: What a Stroke Couldn't Take

    Some shifts don't arrive all at once. They come slowly, over days and years, asking you to let go of things you weren't ready to release. If you've ever had to reimagine who you are after something took a version of you that you loved, this episode will feel like a hand on your shoulder. Deb Meyerson was 53, healthy, and doing meaningful work as a Stanford professor when a stroke began on a drive to Lake Tahoe. What followed wasn't a quick recovery. It was a slow reckoning with the body, the voice, the professional identity, and the quiet realization that some parts of the old life weren't coming back. Her husband Steve walked every step alongside her, navigating his own grief as a care partner while trying to hold the family together. Together, they eventually found a way to transform the loss into something that now helps thousands of stroke survivors feel less alone. This is a conversation about the kind of grief that doesn't announce itself. The kind that shows up on your happiest days and in your proudest moments, reminding you of the distance between who you were and who you are now. It's also a conversation about what it looks like to keep creating meaning when the old map no longer works. What You'll Hear: How Deb's stroke unfolded slowly over a Labor Day weekend, and what the overnight "slow fall off a cliff" felt like for both of themThe moment three years in when Deb had to leave Stanford, and how that second loss broke something openWhat it actually means to hold multiple identities at once after trauma, and how Deb navigated the "yes and" of still being herselfThe grief cycles that don't end, including the morning after their grandson was bornHow writing a book became the most affordable therapy Deb never expected, and what led them to start Stroke OnwardWhat Steve learned about being a care partner, and why that role is so rarely seen or supported Guest Bio: Debra Meyerson is a stroke survivor, author, and co-founder of Stroke Onward, a nonprofit dedicated to supporting stroke survivors and care partners through the emotional journey of recovery. A former tenured professor at Stanford, she wrote Identity Theft with her son and husband Steve after her own experience of rebuilding identity in the wake of a stroke and aphasia. Steve Zuckerman brings decades of experience in business, economic justice, and nonprofit leadership to his role as co-founder and care partner. Together, they work to ensure that the emotional side of stroke recovery gets the attention it deserves. Listen and follow: www.thelifeshiftpodcast.com/follow Subscribe to the newsletter: https://thelifeshiftpodcast.beehiiv.com/

    1h 3m
  8. Family Secrets: When the Truth You Always Sensed Finally Has a Name

    MAR 31

    Family Secrets: When the Truth You Always Sensed Finally Has a Name

    Some stories start with a loss so early that you don't even have the words for what happened. You just carry it. You carry it into every room, every relationship, every quiet moment where something feels off but you can't name why. That's where Wendy's story begins. She was seven years old when her father died, and nobody sat down to explain it. Nobody said you're allowed to be angry. Nobody said you can talk to him in the moon and the stars. The world just kept moving, and she learned to move with it. What Wendy didn't know until she was 62 is that her instinct of not quite belonging had an answer she hadn't even thought to look for. A DNA test. A buried secret. A biological father who had come to her house while her dad was at work, and a mother who had spent a lifetime protecting everyone except the one person who most needed the truth. This is a conversation about what it costs to grow up without language for your own grief. It's about the way a body holds on to what a family refuses to say out loud. And it's about what happens when the truth, as painful and as complicated as it is, finally lands. Wendy wrote her memoir, My Pretty Baby, as a call to action, not just a personal story. Because 64% of adults have experienced some form of adverse childhood experience, and most of them were never given permission to talk about it. What You'll Hear: What it felt like to lose a parent at seven when no one gave grief a nameThe moment in an acting class in her 20s when 20 years of buried anger finally surfacedHow growing up with an alcoholic stepfather shaped her sense of self and blameThe DNA discovery at 62 that reframed her entire life and answered the question she didn't know she'd been askingWhat it means to feel validated by the truth, even when the truth comes too late for some conversationsWhy she wrote My Pretty Baby as a call to action and what she hopes readers carry with them Guest Bio: Wendy B. Correa is a writer, yogi, speaker, and advocate for honest conversations about adverse childhood experiences. Her memoir, My Pretty Baby, traces her journey through childhood loss, family dysfunction, and the identity-shifting discovery that her biological father was not who she believed him to be. She is committed to breaking the silence around ACEs and helping others find language for the things they were never allowed to say. You can find her at www.wendybcorrea.com and on Instagram at @WendyBCorrea. Listen and follow: www.thelifeshiftpodcast.com/follow Subscribe to the newsletter: https://thelifeshiftpodcast.beehiiv.com/

    53 min
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The Life Shift shares real and honest conversations about the moments that change us. Host Matt Gilhooly sits with guests as they tell true stories of life-changing events, unexpected challenges, and quiet awakenings that shaped who they are today. Each episode offers meaningful and candid storytelling about grief, healing, resilience, identity, and growth. These are the personal stories that remind us what it feels like to be human. These are the turning points that stay with us. If you are drawn to personal growth, emotional well-being, or stories of how people rebuild after loss, this show offers a gentle place to land. Listeners come for the life changes. They stay for the connection. New episodes every Wednesday and Sunday. For more information, please visit https://www.thelifeshiftpodcast.com

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