At the Brink with Erica Brinker

Erica Brinker

At the Brink is a podcast about the inflection points that define a life and career. The pivots no one saw coming. The decisions made under pressure. The stories people rarely tell out loud. Each episode is a conversation with a leader, founder, artist, parent or advocate who has lived through a moment that changed everything — and chose to talk about what actually happened. Not because those stories are easy. Because they are real. At the Brink explores reinvention, resilience and the defining moments that reshape who we become. Hosted by Erica Brinker. This show began as something personal. When her son Luca died suddenly at four months old, everything reorganized. What she found in the years that followed was that the people who looked the most composed were often carrying the most. At the Brink exists because those conversations deserve a stage. Business inquiries and guest bookings: hello@atthebrinkmedia.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Episodes

  1. 6d ago

    She Started from Zero in Three Countries. Then She Did It Again After Divorce. | Alexia Bertsatos

    Alexia Bertsatos left Greece at 18 with almost nothing. She studied architecture and interior design in London, pivoted to real estate during the 2008 crash, moved to Arizona for graduate school and met the man she would marry. She became a stay-at-home mom and spent nine years caught between guilt about not working and guilt about not being with her kids enough. When the marriage ended, Alexia had no professional track record in the United States, two children under eight and a divorce she didn’t see coming. She had to figure out bills, careers and identity all at once. In this conversation, she talks about what starting over actually looks like when you’ve done it three times in three countries, why she chose not to be the victim of her own story and what her kids were watching the whole time. Executive Producer: Sara Glassman Follow At the Brink: Instagram @at.the.brink.media | YouTube @AtTheBrinkPodcast Follow Alexia: Instagram @realestate.by.alexia | Website: alexiabertsatos.com www.atthebrinkmedia.com | hello@atthebrinkmedia.com Here you go: At the Brink is a premium podcast hosted by Erica Brinker featuring raw, intimate conversations about defining moments — the question at the show's core: was there a moment when your story split into a before and after? New episodes every Wednesday. Website: www.atthebrinkmedia.com Email: hello@atthebrinkmedia.com Instagram: @at.the.brink.media Executive producer | Sara Glassman Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    She Started from Zero in Three Countries. Then She Did It Again After Divorce. | Alexia Bertsatos

  2. Jul 1

    Her Daughter Was 8. The Doctor Said Cancer. | Melody Orak

    On an ordinary afternoon in March 2022, Melody Orak got a phone call that split her life in two. Her eight-year-old daughter Elilai had a bone tumor. What the doctors said would be 12 rounds of chemotherapy became 28. Then 33 consecutive days of radiation. Then nine months of fighting a disease that still treats children with protocols developed in 1956. In this episode, Melody sits down with Erica Brinker to talk about what it actually takes to hold everything together when your child’s life hangs in the balance: the impossible choices made for an eight-year-old, the moment she shaved her own head, the day Elilai’s body said it couldn’t take any more, and the bittersweet reality of remission three years later. Plus: the hype song that gets Elilai through middle school, why scan anxiety is real, and a toast you won’t forget. Executive producer: Sara Glassman Follow At the Brink: Instagram @at.the.brink.media | YouTube @AtTheBrinkPodcast www.atthebrinkmedia.com | hello@atthebrinkmedia.com Here you go: At the Brink is a premium podcast hosted by Erica Brinker featuring raw, intimate conversations about defining moments — the question at the show's core: was there a moment when your story split into a before and after? New episodes every Wednesday. Website: www.atthebrinkmedia.com Email: hello@atthebrinkmedia.com Instagram: @at.the.brink.media Executive producer | Sara Glassman Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    Her Daughter Was 8. The Doctor Said Cancer. | Melody Orak

  3. Jun 24

    She Got Sober, Got Divorced, Got Fired. Then Peloton Called. | Johanna Ricouz

    Most people know Johanna Ricouz as one of the newest Pilates instructors on Peloton, the one with the tattoos, the nails, the hip hop and the mouth. What they don’t know is what it took to get there. Johanna grew up in New Jersey, trained as a classical ballet dancer at an all-Black school, started using drugs young, got married at 21, divorced at 25, got sober, worked three jobs (nightlife, modeling and teaching Pilates at $23 a class), got fired from the club, and then built a career in wellness that she never planned but couldn’t stop building. In this conversation, Johanna talks about what her ballet teacher taught her about effort and excuses, the moment she realized she could just show up and be taken care of, teaching Pilates inside a women’s prison through the nonprofit 300 Letters, how Peloton DM’d her during the darkest stretch of her infertility journey, what it means to be a stepmom to a child she met at four, and why she told both Peloton and Lululemon upfront: this is who I am and none of it is going to change. She also shares where she is in her IVF journey and the stigma around infertility in Black and brown communities, and closes with her signature toast: here’s to doing no harm and taking no shit. Follow At the Brink: Instagram @at.the.brink.media | YouTube @AtTheBrinkPodcast Follow Johanna: Instagram @junglejohanna | Peloton: Johanna Ricouz Executive producer: Sara Glassman www.atthebrinkmedia.com | hello@atthebrinkmedia.com Here you go: At the Brink is a premium podcast hosted by Erica Brinker featuring raw, intimate conversations about defining moments — the question at the show's core: was there a moment when your story split into a before and after? New episodes every Wednesday. Website: www.atthebrinkmedia.com Email: hello@atthebrinkmedia.com Instagram: @at.the.brink.media Executive producer | Sara Glassman Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    She Got Sober, Got Divorced, Got Fired. Then Peloton Called. | Johanna Ricouz

  4. Jun 17

    His Son Was Beaten Three Times. The System Called It Bullying. | Rick Kuehner & Katey McPherson

    Rick Kuehner is a Navy veteran and single father who moved to Gilbert, Arizona, because it was rated the second safest city in America. His son Tristan was a competitive swimmer, a good-looking kid with a nice car. Starting in his freshman year, Tristan was beaten at a bus stop, attacked in a school bathroom and jumped by a group of strangers in an In-N-Out parking lot. Each time, Rick reported everything. Each time, the system treated it as kids being kids. When threats followed Tristan to a second school and a group of kids showed up at their house, Rick made the hardest decision of his life: he sent his son to Europe to live with his mother, because it was the only place he felt safe. What Rick didn’t know was that the group targeting his son was part of a loosely connected network of 40 to 90 teenagers across 16 schools in the East Valley. They called themselves the Gilbert Goons. They recorded their beatings, uploaded them to a Snapchat channel called Pound Town, and operated with near-total impunity. In October 2023, they beat a boy named Preston Lord and left him to die in the street. Katey McPherson is a former school administrator turned youth advocate who had been tracking the violence before most people knew the name. Together with Rick and hundreds of other parents, she helped organize the Upstanders, a community group that crowdsourced evidence, pressured local government and ultimately helped pass Preston’s Law, an Arizona statute that created a new felony category for swarming attacks. In this conversation, Rick and Katey talk about what the system looks like from the inside when it fails, what it took to make a community listen and what Rick’s family is still living with today. Follow At the Brink: Instagram @at.the.brink.media | YouTube @AtTheBrinkPodcast www.atthebrinkmedia.com | hello@atthebrinkmedia.com Here you go: At the Brink is a premium podcast hosted by Erica Brinker featuring raw, intimate conversations about defining moments — the question at the show's core: was there a moment when your story split into a before and after? New episodes every Wednesday. Website: www.atthebrinkmedia.com Email: hello@atthebrinkmedia.com Instagram: @at.the.brink.media Executive producer | Sara Glassman Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    His Son Was Beaten Three Times. The System Called It Bullying. | Rick Kuehner & Katey McPherson

  5. Jun 10

    He Came Out at 13. They Sent Him Away. | Joey O’Donnell

    Joey O’Donnell grew up in central Phoenix, raised by his Pentecostal minister grandparents. They built over 30 churches across the valley. They ran food banks. They took in every kid in the neighborhood. They were, by every measure, people of deep and active faith. When Joey came out at 13, they sent him to a facility in Texas they told him was a visit to cousins. It was a conversion therapy center. He was placed alongside people being treated for drug addiction and sexual disorders. He was 13 years old. He figured out what he needed to say to get out, went home, got a girlfriend, and performed being straight for the next three years. What Joey didn’t know until years later was the story of his Uncle George. George was his grandfather’s brother, a man who spoke five languages but stuttered and shuffled when he walked. The family said he’d been hit in the head during his medical residency. At George’s funeral, Joey learned the truth: George had been caught in bed with another man in the 1940s, and his own mother had him lobotomized. In this conversation, Joey talks about what it’s like to grow up performing faith while hiding yourself, the moment a woman walked down the aisle and confronted his pastor, how a chance encounter at a Circle K at 16 changed his life, and what 30 years with his partner Fredrik have taught him about love, forgiveness and building a life on your own terms. Follow At the Brink: Instagram @at.the.brink.media | YouTube @AtTheBrinkPodcast www.atthebrinkmedia.com | hello@atthebrinkmedia.com Executive producer: Sara Glassman Here you go: At the Brink is a premium podcast hosted by Erica Brinker featuring raw, intimate conversations about defining moments — the question at the show's core: was there a moment when your story split into a before and after? New episodes every Wednesday. Website: www.atthebrinkmedia.com Email: hello@atthebrinkmedia.com Instagram: @at.the.brink.media Executive producer | Sara Glassman Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    He Came Out at 13. They Sent Him Away. | Joey O’Donnell

  6. Jun 3

    She Sees Dead People. This Is What They Say. | Erika Gabriel

    Erika Gabriel was seven years old when she started telling her parents about a little boy she could sense in their new house. They assumed it was an imaginary friend. Then they found out a child had actually drowned on the property. For years Erika tried to outrun what she was. She studied theater, moved to Los Angeles, searched through every religion she could find. Then came a dark night of the soul that forced her to stop running and turn around. She has now been working as a professional spiritual medium for nearly two decades, with thousands of readings behind her and features in The New York Times, Forbes, Goop and InStyle. In this conversation, Erika explains what actually happens during a reading, why she calls herself “just a straw,” how spirit guides work on their own timeline (not ours), what she has learned about grief from sitting with hundreds of grieving parents, and why she will never tell someone that everything happens for a reason. She also talks about religion and mediumship, the celebrities who won’t let her use their names, the reading that led a woman to her mom’s neighbor and a job, and what she would tell her terrified seven-year-old self. Follow At the Brink: Instagram @at.the.brink.media | YouTube @AtTheBrinkPodcast Follow Erika Gabriel: Instagram @spiritualmediumerika | Podcast: You Are Not Alone Executive producer: Sara Glassman www.atthebrinkmedia.com | hello@atthebrinkmedia.com Here you go: At the Brink is a premium podcast hosted by Erica Brinker featuring raw, intimate conversations about defining moments — the question at the show's core: was there a moment when your story split into a before and after? New episodes every Wednesday. Website: www.atthebrinkmedia.com Email: hello@atthebrinkmedia.com Instagram: @at.the.brink.media Executive producer | Sara Glassman Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    She Sees Dead People. This Is What They Say. | Erika Gabriel

  7. May 27

    She Lost Her Son. Then She Built This. | Erica Brinker

    Every episode of At the Brink begins with someone else’s story. This one is different. This is the story behind the show. Erica Brinker lost her four-month-old son Luca to SIDS in December 2015. In the aftermath, the people closest to her went quiet. Friends stopped calling. Her own mother never said Luca’s name, afraid it would ruin a good day. And Erica, who had spent her career performing capability in boardrooms and on stages, found herself in a kind of silence she’d never experienced. So she did something unexpected. She threw a party. Every year on the anniversary of his death, she asked people to do a good deed in Luca’s name and bring canned goods for a food pantry. She launched a blog called Inspired by Luca. She started building a platform for honesty in a world that kept looking away. In this conversation, Erica talks about who she was before Luca, what grief actually felt like, the five-year infertility journey that followed, the birth of her son Sayers, and why she walked away from a decades-long corporate career to create At the Brink. Interviewed by executive producer Sara Glassman. Follow At the Brink: @atthebrinkmedia Follow Erica: Instagram @official.erica.brinker | LinkedIn: Erica Brinker www.atthebrinkmedia.com | hello@atthebrinkmedia.com Here you go: At the Brink is a premium podcast hosted by Erica Brinker featuring raw, intimate conversations about defining moments — the question at the show's core: was there a moment when your story split into a before and after? New episodes every Wednesday. Website: www.atthebrinkmedia.com Email: hello@atthebrinkmedia.com Instagram: @at.the.brink.media Executive producer | Sara Glassman Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    She Lost Her Son. Then She Built This. | Erica Brinker

  8. May 20

    She Was Lost in Motherhood. Then She Found a Start Line. | Jennifer Vollmann

    Jennifer Vollmann gave up a career running a global education nonprofit to become a stay-at-home mom. She loved her daughter. She also had no idea who she was anymore. The play dates, the dinner parties where everyone talked about their jobs, the loneliness — she was disappearing into a life she’d never wanted. Then she signed up for a triathlon at 35. She won her age group. Eight years later, she’s competed at four Ironman World Championships and became one of the first three women to make the time cutoff at the Himalayan Triathlon. She also got divorced, started over with everything she owned in two trucks and built a coaching business from scratch. Plus: the mindset framework she teaches every client, the Mother’s Day note from her daughter that says it all and a toast to freedom. Here you go: At the Brink is a premium podcast hosted by Erica Brinker featuring raw, intimate conversations about defining moments — the question at the show's core: was there a moment when your story split into a before and after? New episodes every Wednesday. Website: www.atthebrinkmedia.com Email: hello@atthebrinkmedia.com Instagram: @at.the.brink.media Executive producer | Sara Glassman Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

  9. May 13

    She Kept His Secret for 20 Years | Hilary Simon

    When Hilary Simon was 14, her parents sent her to an all-girls boarding school in the Berkshires to keep her safe. Instead, she was groomed and abused by a history teacher who had been doing it for over a decade before she arrived — and would continue for years after. The school knew. Other students reported it. A girl was expelled for speaking up. Nothing changed. In this episode, Hilary sits down with Erica Brinker to tell the full story — the grooming, the silence, the fawning response that shaped her survival, the therapist who abused her when she finally tried to get help, and the phone call 20 years later that changed everything. She and fellow survivor Melissa Ferris brought criminal charges, went public in Vanity Fair and are now fighting to close a legal loophole in Massachusetts that still allows teachers to claim a student consented. Plus: what the courtroom felt like, the trauma response nobody talks about, and a toast to burning it all down. If you or someone you know needs support: RAINN National Sexual Assault Hotline: 1-800-656-HOPE (4673) 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline: Call or Text 988 Here you go: At the Brink is a premium podcast hosted by Erica Brinker featuring raw, intimate conversations about defining moments — the question at the show's core: was there a moment when your story split into a before and after? New episodes every Wednesday. Website: www.atthebrinkmedia.com Email: hello@atthebrinkmedia.com Instagram: @at.the.brink.media Executive producer | Sara Glassman Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

  10. May 6

    The Secret the Wealthy Won’t Tell You | Tari Thomas

    Tari Thomas spent 15 years building a real estate portfolio while working in corporate America at Fortune 100 companies. She bought her first house at 24, scaled to multiple properties across states, survived the Great Recession and built a co-living business from scratch. Then she walked into a conference and discovered that an entire world of investing — private funds, syndications, commercial assets — had existed all along. No one had ever pointed her toward it. In this episode, Tari sits down with Erica Brinker to talk about what it felt like to realize access had been withheld, the year that nearly broke her — an assault, the recession, losing $50K and totaling two cars — and how faith carried her through all of it. Today she manages over $40 million in real estate assets and as the founder of Passive Investment Flight Club, making sure women and people of color don’t stay in the dark the way she did. Plus: why asking for help is harder than building a portfolio, what her grandmother would think of all this, and a toast to the season she’s in now. Here you go: At the Brink is a premium podcast hosted by Erica Brinker featuring raw, intimate conversations about defining moments — the question at the show's core: was there a moment when your story split into a before and after? New episodes every Wednesday. Website: www.atthebrinkmedia.com Email: hello@atthebrinkmedia.com Instagram: @at.the.brink.media Executive producer | Sara Glassman Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

  11. May 6

    She Was #1 in the World — Then Walked Away | Ashlie Molstad

    Ashlie Molstad went from a corporate desk at Nike to becoming the #1 Beachbody coach in the world — twice. She went viral in 2016 for a body-positive photo that landed her in People magazine and on CNN. But at the top of her game, she felt empty. The goals she’d spent her whole life chasing stopped meaning anything. In this episode, Ashlie sits down with Erica Brinker to talk about living with depression while performing success, walking away from a seven-figure career that no longer aligned with who she was, and what life coaching taught her about the difference between being driven and being free. Plus: Taylor Swift as a life philosophy, what she hopes her kids say about their childhood, and a toast you’ll want to steal. Ashlie Molstad 🔗 https://ashliemolstad.com 📸 @ashliemolstad Here you go: At the Brink is a premium podcast hosted by Erica Brinker featuring raw, intimate conversations about defining moments — the question at the show's core: was there a moment when your story split into a before and after? New episodes every Wednesday. Website: www.atthebrinkmedia.com Email: hello@atthebrinkmedia.com Instagram: @at.the.brink.media Executive producer | Sara Glassman Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

  12. Season 1 Trailer

    At the Brink with Erica Brinker Trailer

    The moments that change everything. At the Brink is a premium podcast hosted by Erica Brinker about the inflection points that define a life. The decisions made under pressure. The pivots no one saw coming. The stories we rarely tell out loud. Leaders, founders, executives, artists, parents, advocates. They have built companies, broken barriers, survived the unthinkable and reinvented themselves on the other side of it. At the Brink brings you into those conversations — the ones that go past the resume and into the room where the real decision happened. New episodes every Wednesday on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and YouTube. 🔗 Website: www.atthebrinkmedia.com 📧 hello@atthebrinkmedia.com 📸 Instagram: @at.the.brink.media Here you go: At the Brink is a premium podcast hosted by Erica Brinker featuring raw, intimate conversations about defining moments — the question at the show's core: was there a moment when your story split into a before and after? New episodes every Wednesday. Website: www.atthebrinkmedia.com Email: hello@atthebrinkmedia.com Instagram: @at.the.brink.media Executive producer | Sara Glassman Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    At the Brink with Erica Brinker Trailer

Trailer

Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
2 Ratings

About

At the Brink is a podcast about the inflection points that define a life and career. The pivots no one saw coming. The decisions made under pressure. The stories people rarely tell out loud. Each episode is a conversation with a leader, founder, artist, parent or advocate who has lived through a moment that changed everything — and chose to talk about what actually happened. Not because those stories are easy. Because they are real. At the Brink explores reinvention, resilience and the defining moments that reshape who we become. Hosted by Erica Brinker. This show began as something personal. When her son Luca died suddenly at four months old, everything reorganized. What she found in the years that followed was that the people who looked the most composed were often carrying the most. At the Brink exists because those conversations deserve a stage. Business inquiries and guest bookings: hello@atthebrinkmedia.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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