Mandy on the Mountain

Amanda H Shook, M.Ed.
  • 5.0 (4)
  • Society & Culture
  • Updated Daily

Hosted by Mandy on the Mountain — The Appalachian Dandelion. Southern stories, soul healing, and dandelion truths from a mountain woman who lost herself in the middle of trauma and grief—and is finally finding her way back home. This podcast is rooted in Appalachian grit, grace, and the prayers her mother whispered long before she left this world. Even now, those prayers, and the strength of the ancestors before her, are still being answered. This space is for the ones who have carried too much, survived too much, and grown tired of pretending they’re fine. If you’re rebuilding yourself piece by piece, walking toward God, peace, and your own spirit again… you’re home here. A place where weary hearts can rest, root, rise, and remember who they are.

  1. 1d ago

    Don’t Miss the Whole Mountain Waiting on One Tree

    What if the life you’re waiting for is passing through the life you already have? After a frightening accident involving her son and his girlfriend, Mandy finds herself back beneath the autumn mountains, noticing the leaves, and something she hadn’t expected: room for joy. A tombstone shaped like a leafless tree brings peace to a decision she couldn’t face after losing her mother. A love letter from Californication raises a question about the moments we let slip away. With mountain humor, faith, and tender honesty, Mandy reflects on what we hold on to, what we’re ready to release, and the beauty we can still notice with unfinished business on our hearts. You can give your heart time. Just don’t miss the whole mountain waiting on one tree.

  2. Sep 22

    Before the Woods Grow Quiet: When Life Changes in a Split Second

    Two devastating accidents struck her son, his girlfriend, and her son’s father within hours, dividing an ordinary day into everything that came before and everything that followed. In this deeply personal yet universal episode of Mandy on the Mountain, Mandy reflects on the fragile gift of survival and the faith that was already waiting when life came to a sudden stop. Against the changing light of the autumn equinox, she draws wisdom from black bears preparing for winter, bees gathering for the hive, trees releasing their leaves, and the message of Gordon Korman’s Restart. Through grief, gratitude, healing, and renewal, Mandy considers what people can gather before the woods grow quiet and how they can begin again when the season changes without permission. This heartfelt episode reminds listeners that gratitude does not deny suffering, faith is more than an emergency call, and the darkest place they enter may not be a grave at all. Sometimes it is a den, a shelter where new life is quietly growing.

  3. Sep 12

    Life Will Humble You Real Quick

    Have you ever looked back at a storm and wondered how you survived it? In this deeply honest episode, Mandy explores what it means to be humbled, to loosen your grip on what you cannot control, and to remember the people, prayers, and ordinary moments that carried you through. With a guitar strap mistaken for a lifeline, stones of remembrance, a childhood home, stars above a park, and extra pickles, she connects heartbreak, faith, surrender, and the quiet joy of being alive again. This episode is for anyone learning to look back without going back, to remember enough to stay humble, and to let go of enough to stay free.

  4. Aug 27

    The Coat of Many Colors Dolly Parton Left Behind

    When Mandy first heard that Dolly Parton had died, the news reached her mind before it reached her heart. But as she began connecting the dots, she realized Dolly had been woven through her life all along. From her mama’s love of “Islands in the Stream,” her Papaw’s admiration, and her granny’s jealousy, to Dolly Parton fractions, the Imagination Library, a gifted young baker, and a bubbly girl Mandy still remembers as her Coat of Many Colors girl, every memory became another piece of the story. This deeply personal Appalachian tribute looks beyond the wigs, rhinestones, and beauty to celebrate Dolly’s intelligence, faith, generosity, and extraordinary ability to make people feel seen. She loved people, not categories of people. She did not have to understand someone’s world to recognize the gift inside them. Dolly remained deeply rooted in her own faith and Appalachian identity while opening her heart to everyone. When Miss Moody asked little Dolly to “tell me more,” Dolly answered with a dream. She spent the next eighty years answering through her music, her work, and the way she loved others. Then, through the Imagination Library, she placed books into children’s hands and gave them the freedom to imagine dreams of their own. What begins as a collection of memories becomes a coat stitched together with music, laughter, education, grief, faith, imagination, and home. Dolly Parton did not merely leave us songs. She left us a coat big enough to cover everyone.

  5. Aug 14

    I Wonder… What If a Restart Isn’t Going Back?

    This is Mandy’s longest podcast yet, and maybe that’s fitting, because this isn’t an episode meant to be rushed. It might even be one worth saving and coming back to. It begins with a word so ordinary that most of us probably haven’t stopped to think about what it really means: wonder. We say it every day. I wonder what happened. I wonder what they meant. I wonder what comes next. But what happens when we stop long enough to wonder about wonder itself? In Restarting Wonder, Mandy takes one seemingly simple word and follows it somewhere unexpected, through a classroom reading Restart, handwritten journals and unanswered questions, childhood imagination, technology, boredom, grief, an old friendship, faith, silence, identity, and the versions of ourselves that existed before life became quite so loud. Along the way comes an unsettling question: What if all those empty moments we’ve worked so hard to eliminate were never really empty? What if boredom was giving us something? What if staring out a window, sitting on the porch, driving without something playing, or simply having nowhere else for our minds to go was where we learned to imagine, create, remember, pray, and wonder? This isn’t an argument against technology. It’s an invitation to remember something deeply human. Because sometimes a restart doesn’t mean going backward. Sometimes it means getting quiet enough to reach back for the pieces of yourself that are still worth carrying forward: your curiosity, your imagination, your softness, your faith, your capacity for awe, your wonder. Forty minutes. One little word. And a trail of questions that may stay with you long after the episode ends. Save this one. Come back to it. Listen when you’re driving, sitting on the porch, or when life finally gets quiet for a little while. And when it’s over, maybe don’t immediately reach for the next thing. Sit there for a minute and wonder. Who were you before life got so loud? And who might you become if you made room for wonder again? Enjoy the ride.

  6. Jul 30

    🎥 BIG ANNOUNCEMENT | To My Beautiful Freedom Riders

    For the first time ever… Mandy on the Mountain is coming to video as Ms. Shook After months of sharing stories through nothing but a microphone, Mandy is stepping in front of the camera. This episode marks the beginning of a new chapter and is dedicated to the students who have taught her more about courage, resilience, and hope than many adults ever have. As another school year begins, she reflects on butterflies in the chrysalis, lightning bugs speaking in Morse code, lilies in the field, and the quiet lessons nature has been teaching all summer long. She hopes her students looked up from their phones once in a while. She hopes they wandered outside. She hopes they noticed that the greatest classroom has never had four walls. Most of all, she hopes they remember this: Don’t rush the chrysalis. You may have to begin again. Growth is often invisible before it’s beautiful. Whether you’re headed back to school, starting over, or simply trying to become the person you were created to be, this episode is for you. Thank you for listening. Thank you for believing in this little podcast. And welcome to the next chapter of Mandy on the Mountain. Enjoy the ride.

  7. Jul 26

    What the Coffee Beans Knew

    Some stories don’t just make you think. They stop you in your tracks. A grandmother. Three pots of boiling water. An egg. A potato. Coffee beans. It sounds simple, until you realize it isn’t. In this episode, Mandy explores why stories have been passed from generation to generation, why they’re woven throughout the pages of the Bible, and why they have the power to teach us in ways that facts alone never can. If you’ve ever wondered why a song, a story, or a single conversation has stayed with you for years, this episode may change the way you think about learning, resilience, and what happens when life turns up the heat. Sometimes the simplest lessons become the ones we carry forever. Enjoy the ride.

  8. Jul 24

    Calamity

    What if a single word could change the way you see your own life? In this episode, Mandy reflects on the word calamity and how a documentary about the American chestnut tree unexpectedly became a lesson about resilience, legacy, and hope. From an old barn that became a cherished table in her home to the living roots of a tree that refuses to quit sending up new shoots, she explores the idea that what appears to be the end of the story rarely is. This isn’t a history lesson about trees. It’s a conversation about people. About the roots we can’t see, the legacy we leave behind, and the quiet reminder that even after life changes the landscape, purpose can still take on a new shape. Sometimes all we need is a fence post to lean on. Sometimes we need someone to remind us who we are. And sometimes, hope is already growing beneath the surface.

See All (121)

Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
4 Ratings

About

Hosted by Mandy on the Mountain — The Appalachian Dandelion. Southern stories, soul healing, and dandelion truths from a mountain woman who lost herself in the middle of trauma and grief—and is finally finding her way back home. This podcast is rooted in Appalachian grit, grace, and the prayers her mother whispered long before she left this world. Even now, those prayers, and the strength of the ancestors before her, are still being answered. This space is for the ones who have carried too much, survived too much, and grown tired of pretending they’re fine. If you’re rebuilding yourself piece by piece, walking toward God, peace, and your own spirit again… you’re home here. A place where weary hearts can rest, root, rise, and remember who they are.

Information

  • Creator
    Amanda H Shook, M.Ed.
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    121
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Amanda H Shook, M.Ed.
  • Show Website
    Mandy on the Mountain