WHYLD - Podcast for Bold Authentic People (And Those Who Wish They Were)

Have you ever questioned feeling pity for someone with a disability? 

This conversation might make you do just that. 

Kara Scott had been confronted for years with strange neurological symptoms and vague diagnoses that would make a spelling champion break a sweat. Her life changed for good when, on the flight home after a family vacation, paralysis hit from her chest down. She has got every reason to resent her fate, or so one might think. But she won’t buy that...

Can you imagine sharing life with more than one partner? 

Find the love of your life, get married, buy a house, have kids. This default notion of a desirable, successful path in life is a common theme in society. In this picture, a monogamous “escalator” type relationship plays a central role. 

However, vowing sexual exclusivity to, loving and living with one partner only is not the sole option. It is estimated that about 4-5 % of people living in the U.S...

Did you know that up to 1 in 4 recognized pregnancies end in miscarriage?

This is something few know about. In school during sex education, we learn how to avoid pregnancies. However, the other side of the medal is rarely spoken about: How to deal with not being able to get pregnant or the child never making it through to being a new, miraculous life on this planet...

How much are you willing to sacrifice in order to hide your „imperfections“? 

We all do it at times. We throw our energy, time, and an impressively creative charade of excuses onto the things we feel insecure about, ashamed of, or „not ready yet“ for. We willingly trade our dreams, opportunities, and belief in ourselves for a chance to hide our imperfections from the people around us...

Are you holding open the door for fate to enter or do you push it close? 

Sometimes we win, sometimes we lose. Sometimes we hit obstacles, sometimes miracles lift us across them.  

In this episode, musical theatre performer Romeo Salazar shares his experience of losing the stage to perform on during the Covid pandemic. In this juicy, textured conversation we contrast seemingly mere luck and helping fate find you through your active being and doing...

⁠Do you doubt you live up to people's expectations of you?
Do you tend to belittle your own successes?

Welcome to the club of many.⁠

⁠Sometimes we call it modesty, sometimes we speak in the name of realism, sometimes we claim to acknowledge the support of others.⁠

But frankly: oftentimes we simply cannot accept our own greatness...

Do you show your true self at work and in all your relationships?   

You do not need to struggle with your gender identity to experience difficulties in answering YES to that question. Being ourselves first and foremost – and not what we think is expected of us in our many social roles – can be a courageous act. 

For Anastasia Biefang, the first transgender commander of the German Armed Forces, it took decades to stop pushing her inner truth back down...

Can you be the same person at work that you are at home? 

Before brushing off this question, pause and reflect. Why should you even ask yourself this? Why shouldn’t you be able to be yourself at work? Why should this be important, after all? 

 Workplaces are spaces in which we spend a whole lot of our time. It’s where we show up, challenge ourselves and others, learn, experience setbacks, laugh, fight, inspire, join forces, burn or bore out...

Who needs to do something about it? 

For Delia Botea, the answer was “Me.” 

In Romania, a country where there are 600 000 stray dogs roaming the streets, waiting to be captured and very likely killed, Delia made a choice: If no one helps these poor, often malnourished, injured, sick, abandoned souls… she must do it. Once scared of dogs herself, she started rescuing one dog at a time and had all of her family members host one...

How can you tell a season is ending? 

That’s a question I have asked myself for 19 episodes of WHYLD Podcast ???? 
When I first started this podcast, I guess it felt calming to have a built-in drop out option, a natural end in case this creative endeavour was going nowhere. The opportunity to say anytime: “Hey, this is the last episode of Season 1… and you happen to have to wait for some 2 years for the next season to go live”...