The Life Shift | Conversations About Life Before and After

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 Tuesday. For more information, please visit https://www.thelifeshiftpodcast.com

  1. Mental Health: Learning to Live on the Other Side of Breaking

    2D AGO

    Mental Health: Learning to Live on the Other Side of Breaking

    There are moments that don't give you any warning. You're living your life, things are working, and then something happens that makes you question every single thing you thought you knew. Including yourself. That's where Chris Magleby found himself in 2017. A small piece of a pot brownie triggered a full psychotic episode, one that landed him zip-tied in his front yard, fighting cops he didn't recognize, hearing sounds that weren't there. It was terrifying. And it was, in a strange and quiet way, the beginning of something. Chris spent the next two and a half years working through acute anxiety, a manic episode, and the slow, painful process of rebuilding a relationship with his own mind. What came out the other side was a man who understood the difference between controlling life and actually living it. Now he's channeling all of that into Mindless Labs, a mental health startup built for people who know what it feels like to be lost inside their own heads. What You'll Hear: How a childhood marked by his parents' divorce shaped his relationship with control and safetyThe night a psychotic episode cracked everything open, and what those terrifying hours felt like from the insideWhy the two and a half years after were, in some ways, harder than the episode itselfHow Chris found his way to mindfulness, meditation, and Eastern philosophy as tools for survivalThe difference between pushing through and actually feeling your way throughWhat it means to turn your hardest experience into something that might help someone else find the light Guest Bio: Chris Magleby is the co-founder of Mindless Labs, a mental health startup with an apparel line that funds mental health resources and an app built around professional-led content for people navigating their own mental health journeys. He's been married for nearly 22 years, is a father, and brings to all of it a hard-earned understanding of what it means to fall apart and come back differently. You can find him and Mindless Labs at mindless.org or on Instagram at @mindlesslabs. Listen and follow: www.thelifeshiftpodcast.com/follow Subscribe to the newsletter: https://thelifeshiftpodcast.beehiiv.com/ Mentioned in this episode: Pre-Order "still HERE: True Stories of the Moments That Changed Everything" This episode is brought to you by *still HERE: True Stories of the Moments That Changed Everything* by Matt Gilhooly. Matt is the creator and host of The Life Shift Podcast. Over four years and more than 240 episodes, he has sat with strangers and asked them about the moments that changed everything. *still HERE* is what he found. Over 100 true stories. Eight sections. One listener making sense of what it all means for the rest of us. The Kindle version is available for preorder right now. The physical book drops March 31st. Grab the ebook here: http://start.thelifeshiftpodcast.com/still-here-ebook Or search *still HERE* by Matt Gilhooly on Amazon.

    59 min
  2. Domestic Violence: Breaking the Silence Men Are Taught Not to Break

    MAR 17

    Domestic Violence: Breaking the Silence Men Are Taught Not to Break

    Some of us spend years learning how to look okay when we are not. We get good at reading rooms, making ourselves small, keeping quiet. Not because we want to, but because it felt like the only way to stay safe. If that sounds familiar, this episode might feel like someone finally said the quiet part out loud. Eugene Z. Bertrand grew up navigating a home shaped by domestic violence. For most of his childhood and into early adulthood, survival meant masking. It meant saying he was fine when he was not. It meant watching and waiting and staying alert. And then, just days after graduating college, something happened that nearly took his life. And the most unsettling part was how calmly he described it afterward. In this conversation, Eugene talks about what it felt like to say it out loud for the first time, to sit with radical acceptance, to forgive not because the other person deserved it but because he did. He talks about EMDR therapy, about the friends who held space for him, about vulnerability as a superpower, and about the book he wrote, five to ten pages a day, just to keep moving forward. What You'll Hear: What it felt like to grow up in a home where uncertainty was the norm, and how that silence shaped who Eugene becameThe moment he almost lost his life, and why it took a friend's reaction to help him truly understand what had happenedHow radical acceptance and EMDR therapy helped him move through trauma without staying trapped in itWhat it actually felt like to choose forgiveness, including the morning after when he was not sure he had made the right callWhy Eugene believes vulnerability is your greatest superpower, and what happens when you finally stop hiding your storyHow writing a book became a form of healing, and what he hopes other survivors of domestic violence find when they read it Guest Bio: Eugene Z. Bertrand is a survivor, author, and social work student at Columbia University. He is the author of Resilience: Breaking the Chains, a fiction-based exploration of domestic violence and the long road toward healing. Eugene is a mentor, speaker, and passionate advocate for vulnerability as a form of strength and for creating spaces where survivors, especially men, feel safe enough to tell the truth. If Eugene's story moved you, send him a message at eugenezbertrand.com or pick up his book, Resilience: Breaking the Chains, on Amazon. And if you want more conversations like this one, subscribe to this newsletter and never miss an episode. Listen and follow: www.thelifeshiftpodcast.com/follow Subscribe to the newsletter: https://thelifeshiftpodcast.beehiiv.com/ Mentioned in this episode: Pre-Order "still HERE: True Stories of the Moments That Changed Everything" This episode is brought to you by *still HERE: True Stories of the Moments That Changed Everything* by Matt Gilhooly. Matt is the creator and host of The Life Shift Podcast. Over four years and more than 240 episodes, he has sat with strangers and asked them about the moments that changed everything. *still HERE* is what he found. Over 100 true stories. Eight sections. One listener making sense of what it all means for the rest of us. The Kindle version is available for preorder right now. The physical book drops March 31st. Grab the ebook here: http://start.thelifeshiftpodcast.com/still-here-ebook Or search *still HERE* by Matt Gilhooly on Amazon.

    49 min
  3. Existing vs. Living: A Mother's Journey Back to the World

    MAR 10

    Existing vs. Living: A Mother's Journey Back to the World

    There is a version of grief that nobody warns you about. It is not the loud kind. It is the quiet kind, the one that creeps in slowly until one day you are walking your dogs on a trail you love and you realize you no longer feel connected to the ground beneath your feet. That moment, as small and ordinary as it sounds, was the one that changed everything for Dianette Wells. Dianette has lived her life reaching toward something higher. She grew up in flat Southern California, looking at snow-capped mountains from her backyard and knowing, in the way some people just know, that she was meant for something beyond what she had been handed. That instinct led her to Mount Whitney, to Kilimanjaro, to all seven summits, and eventually to ultramarathons across the world. Movement was not just her passion. It was her language, her therapy, her way of sorting through whatever life threw at her. And then her son Johnny died. He was 23. He was a wingsuit pilot and a base jumper and the kind of person who had climbed the seven summits before he was legally allowed to do most of the things he loved. His death stripped the sparkle from the world for a long time. And Dianette had to find her way back, not to who she was before, but to someone who could hold the grief and still choose to live. What You'll Hear How a girls' trip up Mount Whitney cracked open a hunger for adventure that Dianette had never known she hadThe quiet devastation of losing her son, Johnny, and how grief made the world feel physically differentWhy she believes year two of loss is harder than year one, and what finally shook her out of just existingHer honest take on grief without a roadmap, and why there is no right way to do any of itHow movement, travel, and even a plant medicine journey became her path back to herselfWhat it means to honor someone you lost without feeling obligated to perform that grief for the world Guest Bio Dianette Wells is an adventurer, author, and mother who has spent decades pursuing the kinds of experiences that most people only dream about. She has climbed the Seven Summits, run ultramarathons around the globe, and lived in Malibu before relocating to Park City, Utah, where altitude and single-track trails became both her home and her healing. After losing her son Johnny Strange at age 23, Dianette channeled her grief into continued movement, memory-making, and writing. Her book, Another Step Up the Mountain, is available at dnatwells.com and is now moving to a new publisher, Flint Hills Publishing. Johnny's story is documented in the film American Daredevil on Peacock and Born to Fly, Johnny Strange on Tubi. https://dianettewells.com/ Listen and follow: www.thelifeshiftpodcast.com/follow Subscribe to the newsletter: https://thelifeshiftpodcast.beehiiv.com/ Mentioned in this episode: Pre-Order "still HERE: True Stories of the Moments That Changed Everything" This episode is brought to you by *still HERE: True Stories of the Moments That Changed Everything* by Matt Gilhooly. Matt is the creator and host of The Life Shift Podcast. Over four years and more than 240 episodes, he has sat with strangers and asked them about the moments that changed everything. *still HERE* is what he found. Over 100 true stories. Eight sections. One listener making sense of what it all means for the rest of us. The Kindle version is available for preorder right now. The physical book drops March 31st. Grab the ebook here: http://start.thelifeshiftpodcast.com/still-here-ebook Or search *still HERE* by Matt Gilhooly on Amazon.

    49 min
  4. Unsaid: The Stories That Disappear Before We Think to Ask

    MAR 3

    Unsaid: The Stories That Disappear Before We Think to Ask

    There is someone in your life whose story you have not asked about yet. Maybe you keep meaning to. Maybe you figure there is time. This episode is a quiet reminder that time is the one thing none of us actually have on hold. Cristian grew up in Paraguay, surrounded by family lunches that stretched into the afternoon, stories layered on top of stories, and a kind of closeness that most of us only read about. He carried all of that with him, through Stanford, through Google, through the blank whiteboard moment of figuring out what he was actually supposed to build. And then, a few weeks before a trip home to finally sit down with his grandmother and record her story, she had a stroke. The conversation he had been saving for later became one he would never have. What came out of that loss was not just a product. It was a reckoning. Cristian built Autograph, an AI-driven platform that interviews people about their lives, so that the stories we keep meaning to capture do not quietly disappear. This episode is about grief, yes. But it is also about what happens when you stop waiting and decide to become the author of your own life. What You'll Hear: Why the stories we never say out loud are the ones we lose foreverHow growing up in Paraguay shaped the way Cristian thinks about family, identity, and belongingThe moment his grandmother's stroke became the catalyst for everythingWhat it actually feels like to become the main character of your own storyHow grief and technology can hold hands without losing the human partWhy your story matters, even if you have never once believed that it does Guest Bio: Cristian Cibils Bernardes is the founder of Autograph, a platform that uses AI to help people record, preserve, and share their life stories with the people who matter most. He grew up in Paraguay, studied symbolic systems at Stanford, and worked at Google before stepping back to figure out what he was actually building toward. The answer, it turned out, had been waiting in his own family all along. Learn more at autograph.ai. --- Listen and follow: www.thelifeshiftpodcast.com/follow Subscribe to the newsletter: https://thelifeshiftpodcast.beehiiv.com/ Mentioned in this episode: Pre-Order "still HERE: True Stories of the Moments That Changed Everything" This episode is brought to you by *still HERE: True Stories of the Moments That Changed Everything* by Matt Gilhooly. Matt is the creator and host of The Life Shift Podcast. Over four years and more than 240 episodes, he has sat with strangers and asked them about the moments that changed everything. *still HERE* is what he found. Over 100 true stories. Eight sections. One listener making sense of what it all means for the rest of us. The Kindle version is available for preorder right now. The physical book drops March 31st. Grab the ebook here: http://start.thelifeshiftpodcast.com/still-here-ebook Or search *still HERE* by Matt Gilhooly on Amazon.

    1h 4m
  5. Grief: Learning to Stay Open When Everything Hurts

    FEB 24

    Grief: Learning to Stay Open When Everything Hurts

    If you have ever loved someone so deeply that the thought of losing them rearranged everything, this conversation is for you. It is for the moments when you try to stay steady while the ground is already shifting beneath you. It is for the quiet questions that surface when life no longer follows the plan you thought you were living. Kathleen Quinn shares a story shaped by devotion, sudden illness, and the long unfolding of grief. She speaks about caring for her husband through a devastating diagnosis, about choosing presence over denial, and about the many small decisions that come with loving someone at the end of their life. This is not a story about moving on. It is a story about staying open. About learning how grief and joy can exist side by side. About discovering that the life you are living now may still hold meaning, tenderness, and purpose. This episode is a gentle reminder that there is no correct way to grieve. Only your way. And that honoring what was lost does not mean closing yourself off from what still remains. What You’ll Hear Loving someone through a terminal diagnosis without turning them into a patientThe quiet weight of anticipatory grief and how it shows up unexpectedlyChoosing presence in moments that feel unbearableLetting go of rules about how grief is supposed to lookStaying open to life after loss without rushing yourselfHow grief reshaped her relationship with worth, joy, and purpose Guest Bio Kathleen Quinn is a mindset coach and former philanthropy leader at Stanford. After more than three decades working closely with high-achieving and high-net-worth individuals, she now helps people explore the deeper questions of worthiness, wealth, and fulfillment. Drawing from her professional experience and personal journey through loss, Kathleen guides clients through meaningful transitions rooted in self-trust, clarity, and impact. Listen and follow: www.thelifeshiftpodcast.com/follow Support the show for ad-free and early-release episodes: www.patreon.com/thelifeshiftpodcast Subscribe to the newsletter: https://thelifeshiftpodcast.beehiiv.com/ Mentioned in this episode: Pre-Order "still HERE: True Stories of the Moments That Changed Everything" This episode is brought to you by *still HERE: True Stories of the Moments That Changed Everything* by Matt Gilhooly. Matt is the creator and host of The Life Shift Podcast. Over four years and more than 240 episodes, he has sat with strangers and asked them about the moments that changed everything. *still HERE* is what he found. Over 100 true stories. Eight sections. One listener making sense of what it all means for the rest of us. The Kindle version is available for preorder right now. The physical book drops March 31st. Grab the ebook here: http://start.thelifeshiftpodcast.com/still-here-ebook Or search *still HERE* by Matt Gilhooly on Amazon.

    1h 1m
  6. The Small Moments That Quietly Change Your Life | Bonus

    FEB 22 ·  BONUS

    The Small Moments That Quietly Change Your Life | Bonus

    This episode is part of The Things We Carry, a solo series shaped by the themes that stay with me after more than two hundred conversations on The Life Shift. Today I am talking about the small moments that end up changing everything. Not the dramatic events we can point to, but the quieter shifts. The split second where you choose something different. The small yes or no that later becomes a turning point. The thought you almost ignore until it finally lands. In this reflection, I talk about the tiny, almost invisible choices that shape who we become. The gentle nudges. The slow clarifying moments. The things that do not look important at the time but reveal themselves later as the start of a new chapter. Change is rarely loud. Healing is rarely obvious. Most of the time it happens underneath the surface, long before we can name it. If you are feeling stuck or wondering when your own shift will show up, I hope this episode helps you notice what is already happening inside you. Look for the little things. The small questions. The subtle pull toward something new. Those moments matter more than you think. They might be the beginning of your next life. Mentioned in this episode: Pre-Order "still HERE: True Stories of the Moments That Changed Everything" This episode is brought to you by *still HERE: True Stories of the Moments That Changed Everything* by Matt Gilhooly. Matt is the creator and host of The Life Shift Podcast. Over four years and more than 240 episodes, he has sat with strangers and asked them about the moments that changed everything. *still HERE* is what he found. Over 100 true stories. Eight sections. One listener making sense of what it all means for the rest of us. The Kindle version is available for preorder right now. The physical book drops March 31st. Grab the ebook here: http://start.thelifeshiftpodcast.com/still-here-ebook Or search *still HERE* by Matt Gilhooly on Amazon.

    6 min
  7. Grief: Making Something Beautiful From What Broke

    FEB 17

    Grief: Making Something Beautiful From What Broke

    Some moments do not ask to be fixed. They ask to be felt. To be witnessed. To be held gently until something inside us loosens just enough to breathe again. In this conversation, I sit with someone who understands that grief is not something to get over. It is something to learn how to live with. Day shares what it was like to lose his father, lose a relationship, and find himself standing in a quiet in-between space where nothing felt stable. Instead of rushing through that season, he slowed down. He listened. He followed a small impulse into the woods. And in doing so, he discovered a way to turn pain into presence. This episode is about thresholds. About endings and beginnings that overlap. About how creativity, ritual, and attention can help us stay open when life changes shape. It is an invitation to soften your grip, trust what is unfolding, and remember that even in loss, something meaningful is still possible. What You’ll Hear Why grief is not just an emotion but a skill we can learnThe power of slowing down when life feels unrecognizableHow ritual and creativity can help metabolize lossLearning to hold endings without closing your heartThe quiet role of pleasure in times of deep heavinessFinding meaning in the space between goodbye and hello Guest Bio Day Schildkret is an award-winning queer author, artist, ritualist, and teacher known for Morning Altars, a practice rooted in nature, art, and ritual. His work helps people navigate change, grief, and life transitions with intention and care. Day teaches internationally and creates spaces where people can slow down, remember what matters, and reconnect to themselves through creativity and presence. Sign up for Day’s Newsletter: https://www.morningaltars.com/ Morning Altars Teacher Training: https://www.morningaltars.com/teachertraining Purchase Hello, Goodbye: https://www.morningaltars.com/hellogoodbye Purchase Morning Altars https://www.morningaltars.com/morningaltarsbook/1 Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/morningaltars/ ---- Follow us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/morningaltars Listen and follow: www.thelifeshiftpodcast.com/follow Support the show for ad free and early release episodes: www.patreon.com/thelifeshiftpodcast Subscribe to the newsletter: https://thelifeshiftpodcast.beehiiv.com/ Mentioned in this episode: Pre-Order "still HERE: True Stories of the Moments That Changed Everything" This episode is brought to you by *still HERE: True Stories of the Moments That Changed Everything* by Matt Gilhooly. Matt is the creator and host of The Life Shift Podcast. Over four years and more than 240 episodes, he has sat with strangers and asked them about the moments that changed everything. *still HERE* is what he found. Over 100 true stories. Eight sections. One listener making sense of what it all means for the rest of us. The Kindle version is available for preorder right now. The physical book drops March 31st. Grab the ebook here: http://start.thelifeshiftpodcast.com/still-here-ebook Or search *still HERE* by Matt Gilhooly on Amazon.

    58 min
  8. What It Really Feels Like to Start Over | Bonus

    FEB 15 ·  BONUS

    What It Really Feels Like to Start Over | Bonus

    This episode is part of The Things We Carry, a solo series shaped by the themes that stay with me after the conversations on The Life Shift. Today, I am talking about starting over and the quiet moments when someone realizes life cannot keep going the way it has been. These beginnings rarely look dramatic. They show up as discomfort, restlessness, or a small truth that refuses to stay quiet. They arrive long before anything changes on the outside. In this reflection, I talk about how starting again is usually a slow noticing rather than a bold leap. It is the moment you finally pay attention to the shift happening beneath the surface. It is the small decision to move toward something more honest, even when your legs feel shaky. Beginning again asks for honesty, patience, and a willingness to let go of the version of you that no longer feels true. If you are standing in your own starting point, I hope this episode meets you gently. You do not need to rush, leap, or reinvent your entire life. You only need to listen to what is pulling you and honor the direction that feels right. Starting over is not a failure. It is a sign that you are paying attention. And that is enough. Mentioned in this episode: Pre-Order "still HERE: True Stories of the Moments That Changed Everything" This episode is brought to you by *still HERE: True Stories of the Moments That Changed Everything* by Matt Gilhooly. Matt is the creator and host of The Life Shift Podcast. Over four years and more than 240 episodes, he has sat with strangers and asked them about the moments that changed everything. *still HERE* is what he found. Over 100 true stories. Eight sections. One listener making sense of what it all means for the rest of us. The Kindle version is available for preorder right now. The physical book drops March 31st. Grab the ebook here: http://start.thelifeshiftpodcast.com/still-here-ebook Or search *still HERE* by Matt Gilhooly on Amazon.

    5 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 Tuesday. For more information, please visit https://www.thelifeshiftpodcast.com

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