50 First Dates with Chris HVMMINGBYRD

HVMMINGBYRD
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  • MENTAL HEALTH

🎙 50 First Dates with Chris HVMMINGBYRD I was a lifestyle and wedding photographer—then brain surgery changed everything. Now, with aphasia, prosopagnosia and memory loss, every day feels like a first date. This podcast is a space for healing, humor, and heart. I’ll share my recovery journey and invite others to tell their stories too. We’re building a community of love, laughter, and second chances—one first date at a time.

  1. MAY 3

    I Can’t Change the World, But I Can Try — So This Is Me Trying

    Hi, it’s Christopher…and this space… it’s not about perfection—it’s about truth, lived experience, and the courage to speak when your voice has had to be rebuilt. Today, I had the pleasure of sitting down once again with my great friend, Victoria Charles—an incredible social worker whose insight, compassion, and lived experience bring so much depth to this conversation. Together, we dive into something heavy… but necessary. We’re talking about vicarious trauma—the kind that doesn’t always belong to you at first…but finds a way to live in your body anyway. The kind social workers carry.Medical providers absorb.First responders witness.And even the kind we meet just by being human… in a world that doesn’t pause.It’s like secondhand smoke—you didn’t light it… but you’re still breathing it in. We explore how burnout isn’t just exhaustion—it’s information.A signal.A moment asking professionals to pause, to seek support, to relearn care… for others and for themselves. Because no one is meant to do this alone. What does it mean to actually work as a team?To consult before acting?To ask questions without fear?To ask for training before chaos arrives?There is no such thing as a dumb question…especially when someone’s life is part of the answer. I share why I chose peer counseling—because I lived the gaps. I lived the silence.I lived the “broken telephone” of care. There was a time I was nonverbal…and my sister had to become my voice.My advocate.My bridge to the world. And I still think about that—what happens to the ones who don’t have that? I remember feeling like…an animal in a zoo. FedSleptMoved through routinesRepeated days without understandingAlive… but not included. So this is also a call—to professionals: Keep people alive, yes.But don’t forget to see them.To listen to them.To teach them how to advocate for themselves again. Because survival without understanding…can feel like another kind of loss. We also step into the realities of discrimination—especially within the LGBTQ+ community in healthcare. The extra questionsThe assumptionsThe quiet biasThe loud harmAnd how even that becomes another layer of trauma—not just personal, but systemic. We talk about what meaningful support actually looks like: Not performanceNot checking boxesBut consistencyPresenceCare that doesn’t disappear after dischargeBecause the truth is…the hospital can feel like a stage.Everyone shows up when it’s urgent. But when the patient leaves?That’s when things can get heavier.Lonelier.More complex. And that’s where support should continue—not fade. This episode is layered.It’s honest.It’s uncomfortable in the ways that matter. And it’s rooted in one belief: We may not be able to change everything…but we can change how we show up. So this—this conversation,this reflection,this voice— This is me trying. brighter days are coming RESOURCES: *National Domestic Violence Hotline (1800-799-7233) *San Diego Family Justice Center (619-533-6000) *North County Family Justice Center (760-290-3690) *Mandated Reporters (1800-344-6000) *Child Protective Services (CPS)(1858-560-2191) *Adult Protective Services (APS) (1800-339-4661) **sandiegocounty.gov https://www.stroke.org/en/stroke-groups/stroke--brain-injury-group?utm_source=perplexity https://biausa.org/public-affairs/media/virtual-support-groups?utm_source=perplexity Themes: #ThisIsMeTrying#VicariousTrauma#BurnoutRecovery#HealthcareVoices#SocialWorkMatters#PeerSupport#BrainInjuryAwareness#TBIRecovery#PatientAdvocacy#ListenToPatients#HealthcareReform#InvisibleRecovery#SurvivorVoice#WarriorMindset#HealingOutLoud#LGBTQHealthcare#EquityInHealthcare#TraumaInformedCare#MentalHealthAwareness#ChronicIllnessJourney#DisabilityAdvocacy#HumanCenteredCare#BeyondSurvival#ConsistencyInCare#AfterTheHospital#CommunityHealing#SpeakWithPurpose#PodcastVoices#StoryAsMedicine#HVMMINGBYRD

    1h 29m

  2. APR 19

    Engineering Your Life

    What does it mean to engineer your life—not for perfection, but for survival, healing, and truth? In this episode, I sit down with a woman engineer whose perspective reshaped how I understand structure, intention, and design—not just in systems, but in how we live, love, and heal. Together, we explore how engineering principles can translate into everyday life: how we build relationships, how we adapt under pressure, and how we create environments that actually support us. This conversation moves through intentional friendships, emotional intimacy, and the awareness we begin carrying from childhood. We talk about how relationships feel in your body—and how choosing who you let close becomes a form of self-respect. Through her lens of engineering and my lived experience of recovery, we connect the dots between structure and softness, logic and emotion, survival and design. We reflect on: How engineering thinking applies to healing and daily lifeIntentional friendships and emotional boundariesInner child awareness and re-parentingHumor as resilienceHolding dual truths at onceCultural identity, immigration, and navigating professional spacesSpeaking openly during politically heavy timesDesigning your physical space (light, temperature, layout) to support recoverySocial media, language, and how the body prioritizes survivalWe also challenge normalized ideas—from culture to routine—and ask: If you could design a city rooted in healing, culture, and intention… what would it look like? This episode is where engineering meets humanity—where structure meets feeling—and where we begin to see that healing itself is something we can design with care. 🔗 Resources Mentioned 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline (Call or Chat) → Call or text 988 (24/7, free, confidential)OSHA Workplace Mental Health Resources → Mental health guides, workplace stress support,SAMHSA Cultural & Community-Based ResourcesOccupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA)#EngineeringYourLife #WomenInEngineering #HealingJourney #IntentionalLiving #InnerChildHealing #MentalHealthAwareness #TraumaRecovery #EmotionalIntimacy #Resilience #CulturalIdentity #LifeDesign #PodcastHealing engineering your life podcast, intentional friendships, inner child healing, emotional intimacy, trauma recovery, engineering mindset in daily life, women in engineering podcast, mental health and design, immigrant identity, cultural diversity, resilience and humor, nervous system healing, trauma and relationships, life design, healing environments

    1h 40m

  3. APR 6

    Hopeful Realism.

    This episode is called Hopeful Realism. There was a chapter of my life where everything turned upside down…and somehow, I was still expected to move like nothing happened. People would say, “he’s so lucky,”but they didn’t see the silence I was holding…the confusion, the fear… the moments where my own mind didn’t feel like mine. I was showing up to weddings, to photoshoots—while my brain was fighting something I didn’t even understand yet. A brain abscess.A stroke.Aphasia.Prosopagnosia—face blindness. I remember asking myself…why does everyone look like strangers?Why do I feel like a stranger to myself? The world kept spinning…but I felt completely still. This episode is me putting those pieces together—honoring the version of me who survived it…and finding hope inside something that once felt impossible to understand. Resources/ Books The Brain That Changes Itself: Stories of Personal Triumph from the Frontiers of Brain Science-Norman Doidge M.D.  Don't Believe Everything You Think-Joseph Nguyen The Brain's Way of Healing: Remarkable Discoveries and Recoveries from the Frontiers of Neuroplasticity-orman Doidge M.D. My Stroke of Insight: A Brain Scientist's Personal Journey-Jill Bolte Taylor  Hopeful Realism: Surviving Aphasia, Stroke & Face BlindnessHopeful Realism | Brain Injury, Identity Loss & HealingHopeful Realism: When the World Feels Unfamiliar After StrokeHopeful Realism: My Story with Aphasia & Prosopagnosia#HopefulRealism#BrainInjuryRecovery#AphasiaAwareness#Prosopagnosia#FaceBlindness#StrokeSurvivor#BrainHealth#NeuroRecovery#InvisibleIllness#MentalHealthAwareness#HealingJourney#SurvivorStory#DisabilityAwareness#NeurodivergentVoices#PodcastLife#StorytellingPodcast#RecoveryJourney#ChronicIllness#MindBodyConnection#Resilience

    1h 2m

  4. MAR 16

    Empathy You Can’t Learn in a Textbook

    In this conversation with Victoria an amazing social worker, we speak about the kind of empathy you cannot learn from a textbook. You learn it by living through something that rearranges your entire life. After surviving a stroke and brain surgery, I found myself standing in shoes I never imagined wearing. Suddenly I understood the quiet moments inside hospital rooms, the vulnerability of patients, the strength of caregivers, and the emotional weight carried by those who support healing every day. In this episode we explore: • what empathy truly feels like when you become the patient• the process of unlearning your old self so you can relearn life again• the ego — and how it convinces us we are right instead of inviting us to understand others• why stroke survivors and peer counseling can change recovery in powerful ways• meeting patients exactly where they are in their journey• why every recovery story deserves its own pace and space We also talk about something many people overlook: boundaries. Empathy is powerful, but it cannot become your entire identity. Sometimes healing means stepping indoors, resting, limiting contact, and communicating clearly with the people who support you. Recovery also taught me something unexpected. A stroke forced me to build emotional muscles I never knew I had. In many ways I feel older, wiser, humbled by life — like someone who has lived seventy years of lessons in a shorter amount of time. This conversation is about lived experience, compassion, and honoring the journey of every survivor, caregiver, and healer walking their own path. And sometimes, when life feels beautiful again, remembering to make a wish when the moment arrives — when a blue jay flies by, when a butterfly appears, or when a HVMMINGBYRD crosses your path. Because those moments remind us we are still here. stroke recovery journeystroke survivor storybrain surgery recoveryempathy in healthcaresocial worker empathystroke survivor mental healthpeer counseling stroke survivorspatient centered carecaregiver empathy and boundarieshealing after strokeliving with disability storytrauma recovery and resilience #StrokeSurvivor#BrainSurgeryRecovery#EmpathyInHealthcare#PatientCenteredCare#StrokeRecovery#HealingJourney#DisabilityAdvocacy#CaregiverSupport#NeuroRecovery #Socialworker

    1h 30m

  5. FEB 7

    Remember Being a Kid, So We Don’t Become Mean Adults

    In this episode, we talk about remembering what it felt like to be a kid — so we don’t grow into mean adults. We explore the lived experience of being on the autism spectrum without clarity or confirmation, and how not knowing, being misunderstood, and misreading the world can quietly turn into trauma. For many autistic adults, the absence of language, diagnosis, or understanding isn’t neutral — it becomes its own form of PTSD. This conversation moves through autism, PTSD, late-identified neurodivergence, and the emotional weight of growing up misunderstood. We reflect on childhood sensitivity, adult survival, and how staying connected to our younger selves can protect empathy, curiosity, and kindness — even after trauma. This episode is for autistic adults, trauma survivors, late-diagnosed or self-identified individuals, and anyone who has ever felt out of sync with the world but still chose compassion. https://www.abacenters.com/autism-and-ptsd-overlapping-symptoms/?utm_source=chatgpt.com In the U.S.: Call or text 988 — the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline (24/7 free support) https://www.autismspeaks.org/mental-health-resources?utm_source=chatgpt.com #Autism #PTSD #Neurodivergent #MentalHealth #TraumaHealing #AutisticAdults #MentalHealthPodcast #NeurodivergentPodcast #PodcastCommunity #StorytellingForHealing #CreativeHealing

    1h 31m

  6. JAN 8

    Made Out of Titanium (Well… At Least Part of My Skull Is)

    In this reflection, I talk about discovering another unexpected chapter in my healing story — an ischemic stroke I didn’t even know I had until last month. It was terrifying to learn about something I had already lived through without understanding it at the time. I felt the symptoms. I experienced the confusion, the fear, the disconnect — but I believed it was all part of the brain abscess. Something still didn’t make sense. There was a missing puzzle piece. This was it. I share what it feels like to find out, long after the fact, that I am also a stroke survivor — and how naming it brought clarity, grief, validation, and a deeper understanding of my body and brain. This episode is about: • Living through medical trauma without full answers • Finding truth after confusion • Humor as survival (yes… Dumbo energy) • Learning that I am not just one diagnosis — I am many things, and I am still here This reflection is part of my commitment to bringing awareness to stroke symptoms, brain injury, and the quiet realities survivors carry — especially when those experiences go unseen or unnamed. If you’ve ever felt like something didn’t add up in your body or your story — this one is for you. ischemic stroke stroke survivor story brain injury recovery medical trauma awareness brain abscess recovery stroke symptoms invisible illness neuro recovery journey healing after stroke patient advocacy #StrokeSurvivor #IschemicStroke #BrainInjuryAwareness #MedicalTrauma #HealingOutLoud #PatientVoice #NeuroRecovery #DisabilityAwareness #SurvivorStory #50FirstReflections 🐦‍🔥

    52 min

  7. 12/14/2025

    When the Rose Petals Fall

    In this episode of 50 First Dates with Chris HVMMINGBYRD I reflect on illness, healing, boundaries, and the people who show up — and the ones who don’t. After surviving a stroke and brain surgery, I learned that time becomes sacred, conversations deepen, and tolerance for emotional weight disappears. This episode explores gratitude without obligation, detachment as protection, and the quiet grief of realizing who only stays for the good moments. It’s a reflection on choosing your environment, honoring the beauty of pain, and returning to purpose — even after life changes everything. If you’re navigating recovery, grief, friendship shifts, or redefining your boundaries, this episode is for you. stroke recovery podcast brain surgery healing journey setting boundaries during illness friendship and healing gratitude without obligation emotional boundaries photographer recovery story trauma healing reflections chronic illness and relationships personal growth podcast #50FirstReflections #HealingJourney #StrokeRecovery #BrainSurgerySurvivor #BoundariesAreNecessary #ChoosingMyWorld #EmotionalHealing #FriendshipAndHealing #GratitudeWithoutObligation #CreativeResilience #PhotographerLife #LifeAfterTrauma #PersonalGrowthPodcast #RealConversations

    1h 25m

  8. 12/04/2025

    Like the First Time

    Today’s episode is stitched with memory — dance floors, college hallways, and the wild way life circles us back to our people. We met at eighteen, two kids in a dance class who had no idea the world would bend and twist us into who we are now. Years passed, and somehow she found her way back into my orbit — right into the studio where I was teaching my own class… just two days before my stroke. And then the hospital. The silence. The fear. The soft grounding of someone who didn’t flinch. While some friendships disappeared, she stayed — not out of duty but out of a kind of loyalty that feels rare in this lifetime. She witnessed the recovery, the regressions, the laughter in the middle of crisis, and the strange moments where it felt like nothing had changed at all. Today, we dive into what real friendship looks like: communication that saves you, presence that steadies you, and laughter that reminds you you’re still here. Let’s step into this reflection together. brighter days are coming #FriendshipMatters #HealingJourney #StrokeSurvivor #AphasiaAwareness #RealConnection #WitnessingEachOther #EmotionalHealing #PodcastHealing #BrainSurgeryRecovery #SurvivorVoice #HVMMINGBYRD

    1h 59m
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🎙 50 First Dates with Chris HVMMINGBYRD I was a lifestyle and wedding photographer—then brain surgery changed everything. Now, with aphasia, prosopagnosia and memory loss, every day feels like a first date. This podcast is a space for healing, humor, and heart. I’ll share my recovery journey and invite others to tell their stories too. We’re building a community of love, laughter, and second chances—one first date at a time.

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