Notes from the Edge

Gamut Podcast Network
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Notes From the Edge is where polished stories end and the truth begins. Hosted by writer, trauma educator, executive advisor, and author Lisa Lacy, this globally ranked podcast explores survival, identity, trauma, addiction, recovery, leadership, relationships, and reinvention through raw, deeply human conversations. No scripts. No small talk. Just the stories we were taught to hide, the roles we performed to survive, and the truths that set us free. What did you perform in order to survive? Welcome to the edge. www.lisalacy.com

  1. 23 hr ago

    Edge Note: Why does chaos feel like home?

    Why can peace feel more uncomfortable than the crisis you spent years trying to escape? Lisa Lacy, trauma educator and host of Notes From the Edge, explores one of trauma’s strangest contradictions: the nervous system can mistake what is familiar for what is safe. In this solo episode, Lisa gets personal about becoming extraordinarily good at functioning inside chaos, from building a high-pressure career around competence and crisis management to constantly monitoring the emotional weather around her. She explores what happens when the emergency finally ends, but your body is still waiting for the next one, and why ordinary moments of safety can become part of retraining the nervous system. In this episode: Trauma, hypervigilance and the nervous systemWhy peace can feel boring, suspicious or unsafeWhen competence and productivity become survival strategiesOverfunctioning, caretaking and monitoring other people’s emotionsThe difference between connection and intensityWhy stable relationships can initially feel unfamiliarLearning to tolerate other people’s disappointmentResting without feeling like you have to earn itTeaching the nervous system that calm is safeHow ordinary can eventually begin to feel like freedom Connect with Lisa: www.lisalacy.com What did you perform in order to survive?  Welcome to the Edge. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

    Edge Note: Why does chaos feel like home?

  2. 1 day ago

    Edge Note: What Did We Forget After Kindergarten?

    What did we know at five years old that we somehow forgot along the way? Tiffany Dennison is a kindergarten and first-grade educator with 22 years of experience whose work centers on play, belonging and social-emotional development. Her classroom offers a fascinating reminder that children may understand some of the fundamentals of being human long before adults complicate them. In this conversation, Tiffany and I talk about what happens when children are given enough time to actually play, why belonging and emotional safety have to come before learning, and what five-year-olds can teach adults about repairing conflict without dragging yesterday’s resentment into today. We also get into screen time, storytelling, nervous-system regulation and Tiffany’s own journey of recognizing and releasing people-pleasing. In this episode: Play-based learning and why unstructured play mattersSocial-emotional learning and childhood developmentBelonging, emotional safety and nervous-system regulationHow children repair conflict differently than adultsThe effects of screens on connection, creativity and attentionStorytelling as a tool for learning and human connectionWhat adults model for children without realizing itPeople-pleasing, identity and learning to listen to your bodyWhy slowing down may be one of the most important things children can teach us Connect with Lisa Lacy https://www.lisalacy.com What did you perform in order to survive? Welcome to the Edge. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

    Edge Note: What Did We Forget After Kindergarten?

  3. 2 days ago

    What Happens When Success Stops Working? Male Isolation, Emotional Healing & Personal Accountability with Daniel Sterling

    Writer and memoirist Daniel Sterling spent much of his life chasing achievement, recognition, and the next version of success until he discovered that some of the hardest work a man can do happens in the few inches between his head and his heart. Daniel and Lisa talk about the childhood hunger to be seen that fueled his drive, from becoming a top U.S. alpine ski racer to television, filmmaking, and screenwriting, and what happened when that identity finally stopped sustaining him. They dig into male emotional isolation, the mentor who helped Daniel rebuild his life through self-study and accountability, and why raising emotionally whole boys requires adults willing to examine their own patterns first. In this episode: Male isolation and why emotional connection can be so difficult for menAchievement, validation, and using success as a substitute for feeling seenMidlife emotional collapse and rebuilding identity beyond performancePersonal accountability, self-awareness, and dropping defensivenessCommunication and healthier relationshipsRaising boys into emotionally whole menWhy a meaningful apology requires changed behaviorLetting go of ego and discovering who you are beyond accomplishments Connect with Daniel Sterling: https://daniel-sterling.com Connect with Lisa Lacy: https://www.lisalacy.com What did you perform in order to survive?  Welcome to the Edge. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

    What Happens When Success Stops Working? Male Isolation, Emotional Healing & Personal Accountability with Daniel Sterling

  4. 3 days ago

    What If Your Identity Was Built on a Secret? Late-Discovery Adoption, Family Secrets & Reclaiming Identity with Al Isaacs

    What happens when everyone in your family knows the truth about your life except you? Al Isaacs, author of Finding Mary Smith and longtime comedian and improv teacher, joins Lisa Lacy to talk about discovering at 52 that he had been adopted and what happens to identity when the foundation of your own story suddenly shifts. Al takes us inside the ordinary phone call from his mother’s oncologist that accidentally exposed a secret his family had kept for more than five decades, and the search that followed through DNA, genealogy, Search Angels and the trail of a folk singer named Mary Smith. The conversation also moves into imposter syndrome, forgiveness, the power of improv’s “yes, and,” and the painful cost of family secrets, including the conversations we may lose when truth is withheld. In this episode: Late-discovery adoption and identityFamily secrets, truth and belongingGray-market adoption in the late 1960sDNA testing, genealogy and Search AngelsSearching for a biological mother decades laterImposter syndrome and reclaiming identityForgiveness without erasing what happenedHow “yes, and” helped Al keep moving when he wanted to give upThe memories and relationships family secrecy can cost us Connect with Al: AlIsaacs.com Finding Mary Smith is available in paperback, eBook and audiobook. Connect with Lisa: LisaLacy.com What did you perform in order to survive? Welcome to the Edge. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

    What If Your Identity Was Built on a Secret? Late-Discovery Adoption, Family Secrets & Reclaiming Identity with Al Isaacs

  5. 4 days ago

    Are you performing your worth? Trauma, Treatment-Resistant Depression & ECT with Simone Bowyer

    What if the traits you think are your personality are actually things you learned to do to survive? Simone Bowyer is a writer and founder of The Light Within Collective, whose work explores what she calls the “language of survival,” the patterns we develop to feel safe, loved, worthy, and less likely to be abandoned. In this conversation, Simone and I talk about perfectionism, hyper-independence, control, and overachievement as survival adaptations rather than simply personality traits. She shares her experience with severe treatment-resistant depression, years of psychiatric treatment, and ultimately electroconvulsive therapy, or ECT, which she describes not as a cure, but as something that finally created enough space for her to consider life beyond the darkness. We also take the conversation into the workplace, exploring why we cannot simply leave our wounds at home, what human-centered leadership can look like, and why psychological safety matters when the person who appears to be your highest performer may actually have a nervous system that never learned it was safe to stop. In this episode: • How childhood trauma can become perfectionism, people-pleasing, control, and hyper-independence • Treatment-resistant depression and Simone’s experience with ECT • Why recovery does not erase survival patterns overnight • Performing worth in order to feel lovable and avoid abandonment • Trauma, the nervous system, and high achievement • Psychological safety and human-centered leadership in the workplace • Why healing is not linear and does not have a timeline • Simone’s book, Chasing Light, and finding color again after years of depression • Moving from asking “What is wrong with me?” to asking “What did I learn to do to survive?” Connect with Simone Bowyer: The Light Within Collective https://lightwithincollective.co.za Connect with Lisa Lacy: https://lisalacy.com What did you perform in order to survive? Welcome to the Edge. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

    Are you performing your worth? Trauma, Treatment-Resistant Depression & ECT with Simone Bowyer

  6. 5 days ago

    Would You Look Away? A Family’s Attempt to Escape Nazi Germany & the Cost of Being a Bystander with Ruth Stitt

    Would you look away? Ruth E. Stitt is an author and licensed counselor whose family’s preserved letters from Nazi Germany reveal how persecution can unfold gradually, how difficult escape can become, and what happens when ordinary people decide whether to remain bystanders or stand up. In 1938, Ruth’s grandmother in Bridgeport, Connecticut received a letter from relatives in Berlin desperately searching for a way out of Nazi Germany. What followed was five years of correspondence filled with hope, fear, bureaucracy, attempted immigration, love and devastating loss. In this conversation, Ruth and Lisa go beyond the question, “Why didn’t they just leave?” They explore the financial, legal, political and emotional barriers Jewish families faced while trying to escape, the psychology of denial as danger slowly becomes normalized, and what fear and grief do to human beings under extraordinary pressure. They also talk about the choice that can remain when nearly everything else has been taken away: how we respond, who we love and whether we are willing to speak when someone else is being dehumanized. In this episode: • Holocaust history and life inside Nazi Germany • Jewish refugee immigration and the barriers to escape • Family letters documenting persecution as it unfolded • Denial, fear, grief and psychological survival • Why “Why didn’t they just leave?” misses the complexity of displacement • Choosing love when control has been stripped away • Turning documented family history into historical fiction • The difference between a bystander and an upstander • Moral courage, dehumanization and the responsibility to speak • Letting go of perfection, overachievement and the need to always have the answer Content note: This conversation includes discussion of the Holocaust, persecution, forced displacement, psychological trauma and profound loss. Connect with Ruth E. Stitt: https://scripturecomesto.life Find Ruth’s books on Amazon by searching Ruth E. Stitt. Connect with Lisa Lacy: https://lisalacy.com What did you perform in order to survive? Welcome to the Edge. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

    Would You Look Away? A Family’s Attempt to Escape Nazi Germany & the Cost of Being a Bystander with Ruth Stitt

  7. 6 days ago

    Are old patterns running your life? Self-Awareness & Personality with Arky Jones

    What if the patterns you keep repeating are not who you are, but behaviors you learned long ago and never stopped to question? Arky Jones, creator of Personality Peek, joins Notes From the Edge to explore how self-awareness can help us recognize the patterns quietly shaping our choices, relationships, work, and identity without turning personality into another label or box.  This conversation gets practical fast. Lisa and Arky talk about what happens when we realize we have been living according to other people’s expectations, how toxic workplace dynamics can make us feel powerless, and why taking ownership sometimes starts with something as small as documenting your work, protecting your attention, or changing one percent of a pattern instead of trying to reinvent your entire life overnight. In this episode: Personality as a mirror instead of a labelSelf-awareness and recognizing unconscious patternsPeople-pleasing and living without full authorship of your lifeStoicism and focusing on what you can actually controlToxic workplace dynamics and protecting your workBoundaries, attention, and deciding what you are willing to giveWhy honesty with yourself matters more than the personality resultArky’s “one percent” approach to practical personal growthMoney, debt, freedom, and intentional decision-makingHow small conscious choices can change the direction of your life Personality Peek is designed to help people identify strengths, blind spots, and behavioral patterns without treating personality as something fixed or diagnostic.  Connect with Arky Jones: https://personalitypeek.com Connect with Lisa Lacy: https://LisaLacy.com What did you perform in order to survive? Welcome to the Edge. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

    Are old patterns running your life? Self-Awareness & Personality with Arky Jones

  8. 12 Sept

    What if the traits that make you successful stop working? Complex Trauma, High Achievement, Attachment & Nervous System Survival with Dr. Christopher Barker

    Dr. Christopher Barker is a clinical psychologist and author whose work explores complex trauma, attachment, and one powerful idea: high functioning and psychological health are not always the same thing. In this conversation, we dig into what happens when competence, independence, perfectionism, and overachievement become survival adaptations. We talk about why you can intellectually know a relationship is unhealthy and still feel pulled toward it, why “energizing” can sometimes be mistaken for love, and how the nervous system can keep anticipating danger long after the original threat is gone. In this episode: • Complex trauma and high achievement • Attachment injuries in childhood and adulthood • Perfectionism vs. healthy ambition • Hypervigilance and waiting for the other shoe to drop • Why “activated” may be more useful than “triggered” • Trauma-informed relationships and finding safe support • Why healing may be better understood as repair • Rebuilding choice, trust, and freedom through repeated experiences Maybe the goal isn’t to get rid of every survival strategy that got you here. Maybe it’s simply to stop letting it run the company. Connect with Dr. Christopher: https://drchristopherbarker.com Connect with Lisa:  https://www.lisalacy.com What did you perform in order to survive? Welcome to the Edge. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

    What if the traits that make you successful stop working? Complex Trauma, High Achievement, Attachment & Nervous System Survival with Dr. Christopher Barker
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About

Notes From the Edge is where polished stories end and the truth begins. Hosted by writer, trauma educator, executive advisor, and author Lisa Lacy, this globally ranked podcast explores survival, identity, trauma, addiction, recovery, leadership, relationships, and reinvention through raw, deeply human conversations. No scripts. No small talk. Just the stories we were taught to hide, the roles we performed to survive, and the truths that set us free. What did you perform in order to survive? Welcome to the edge. www.lisalacy.com

Information

  • Creator
    Gamut Podcast Network
  • Years Active
    2026
  • Episodes
    106
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Lisa Lacy
  • Show Website
    Notes from the Edge