Phoenix Lessons Podcast

After growing up in the shadow of his parents’ painful divorce and a distant relationship with his father, David Goldberg made a promise to himself: his children would never experience the same loss and instability he did. For years, that promise shaped every decision...

Would you jump out of a perfectly good airplane? Amanda and Cami would... and they’ve discovered that skydiving has a lot more to teach us about life than you might expect. What makes us willing to step out of the plane, trust the parachute, and embrace the unknown?...

What happens when you lose your mother at a young age? Move to a new country alone at 18? Or face the end of a marriage while raising two young children? For Ronit Molko, life brought one fire after another. But instead of asking, “Why me?” she chose a different...

When you survive childhood by being as good as possible, the drive to achieve and please often follows you into adulthood. What coping strategies once kept you safe but have outlived their purpose?

From fleeing a war-torn homeland to navigating the chaos of a drama-filled family, Reza Farahan learned early that life rarely follows a straight path. Through every setback, his mother instilled one unwavering belief: no matter the challenge, he would find a way to...

When you're faced with a choice, do you play it safe? Do you think about the future before the moment? Or are you the type to leap first and figure it out on the way down? Life constantly asks us to choose between caution and risk. Experience can make us wiser—but it...

For years, Daniella Capitano lived with a secret that fueled pain, silence, and addiction. Growing up in a home marked by abuse and hidden truths, she learned to numb her emotions rather than face them. But everything changed when she decided to reclaim her voice. In...

Plot vs Theme. Fact vs Feeling. What vs So What. The events of our lives may seem straightforward—but the meaning we make from them is where the real story unfolds. In this episode, Cami and Amanda explore the difference between what happened and what it means, and...

After losing her home and everything she owned in the Palisades fire, screenwriter Firdosi Wharton-Ali faced the unimaginable: a chance to begin again from nothing. But instead of only rebuilding what was lost, she chose to reimagine what her life could become. First,...

Can men and women really be “just friends”? As When Harry Met Sally declared, “the sex part always gets in the way,” cross-gender friendships have always carried a certain cultural tension. But are we still stuck in that narrative? This week, Cami and Amanda unpack...

Ashley Borden—celebrity fitness coach and no-nonsense truth-teller—has built a career helping others transform their lives. But her own story is just as powerful. Like many of us, she’s faced breaking points, burned it all down, and rebuilt from the ashes more than...

What does it really mean to be “old?" Is there a moment when you’re supposed to hang up your soccer cleats, retire your dance shoes, or put away the baseball mitt for good? This episode challenges the idea that aging has to mean slowing down or settling for less. Yes,...

Meet Final Straw — our bold new series hosted by the incredible Mindi Rivin. Every transformation has a breaking point. That split-second when something inside you snaps and you think: I’m done. The job, the relationship, the city, the version of yourself you’ve...

Would you run a marathon? Now imagine running two back-to-back—no breaks, no excuses, just grit. Cami doesn’t just test her limits—she obliterates them. After a decade of dreaming, training, and refusing to quit, she’s finally conquered a 50-mile ultramarathon. But...

Creativity isn’t reserved for artists—it’s something every one of us needs. But what happens when you feel burned out, like the fire has gone out and you’re left standing in the ashes with no energy, motivation, or ideas? The truth is, creativity doesn’t return all at...

Danielle’s master’s degree project took her to Thailand, where she interviewed current and former sex workers. One woman’s answer changed her life forever. Twelve years later, Danielle and her co-founder Nee created Shared Space for All, an organization dedicated to...

After escaping a high-control religious environment, Heidi Fischbach dedicated her life to helping others not just survive—but truly thrive. She holds a master’s degree from Harvard and multiple professional certifications, equipping her to help clients reset their...

Do you have a goal, resolution, or “focus” guiding your year? Even with the best intentions, what happens when you miss a day or fall off track? Cami and Amanda share an honest, uplifting conversation about staying focused on what matters, finding grace when you...

Kristi Lyn Reddy is one of the strongest women we know—and we know a lot of strong women. She rescued herself and her daughter from domestic violence, built a successful real estate business, won a hard-fought battle with cancer, and recently returned to school to...

Goals? Resolutions? Bucket lists? How do we decide what’s actually worth chasing—and what “success” even looks like for us? In this episode, we explore how to set meaningful goals, define our own finish lines, and create realistic plans to get where we want to...

Wills and trusts attorneys sit at a rare intersection of law, family, and mortality. They see the practical realities of what happens when someone dies—but also the emotional, often messy human side of it. From that vantage point, someone like Amelia Heath can offer...

It’s incredibly painful when your grief is still raw but the world around you seems to have moved on. That mismatch—between your inner reality and others’ expectations—can make you feel isolated, defective, or misunderstood. But nothing is wrong with you. Grief is not...

Mindi Rivin spent much of her adolescence searching for herself on the streets, navigating instability and hardship. Eventually, she found safety and a sense of purpose at a local community college, where she began to rebuild her life. As a young adult, she became...

Why is it so hard to talk about sex? And if it’s such a struggle, why do we keep coming back to it? This universal experience often leaves us questioning ourselves, our desires, and our relationships. What messages did we absorb as children that now keep us...

Kyle Firstenberg has lived through a series of Phoenix moments—periods of profound transformation where life demanded he rise from the ashes and reinvent himself. Each chapter forged a stronger, more intentional version of who he is. The result? A man who now chooses...

Amanda and Cami explore how stepping out of your comfort zone can open your eyes to new possibilities, help you get unstuck, and move through the ashes of what’s no longer serving you. One of their favorite tools for transformation? Travel—not the vacation kind, but...

We all make bad bargains. We stay in relationships for security or stay in jobs for fear of change while living with consequences that are just too high. Bad bargains keep us stuck in the ashes and make it almost impossible for us to move forward and soar again. How...

Cami and Amanda talk about times and ways music helps them tap into their deep joy. When we are sitting in the ashes, we often distract ourselves from the pain and discomfort, which can be health... to a point. Learn the difference between distraction and turning your...

Shannon Knight is a psychotherapist, host of The Tarot Diagnosis podcast, and the creator The Symposium, a community of tarot and psychology. Can you use symbolic tools to help you through the ashes?  Shannon is also the author of two work books, with a third coming...

How do you talk to your beloved aunt about politics? What do you do when a good friend says something you cannot imagine they believe? We live in polarizing times. But that doesn't mean we have to lose out on relationships which are important to us! Cami and Amanda...

Cami and Amanda talk about what how even the helpers need help from time to time. Where do you turn when hope that you have held onto (sometimes for ages) in a certain area fades away? How do you know when to let go of hope and look for another answer?  

Brooke Warner is passionate champion of authors and co-host of the Write-minded podcast. She started her publishing career in 2000 and worked for traditional publishers for 13 years. In 2012, she left her job as Executive Editor of Seal Press to co-found She Writes...

Cami and Amanda riff on how hard it is to be patient in the ashes. How do you handle not knowing what is coming next or when that next phase will begin?   

Colleen Haggerty, author of A Leg to Stand On: An Amputee's Walk Into Motherhood, discusses her journey through losing her leg in a car accident and subsequent path to forgiveness and freedom. Colleen now uses her hard-won wisdom to help others as a Soul Tender. Find...

Have you ever been in a long conversation with someone only to discover that the words or phrases you are using mean something totally different to the person across the table than they mean to you? We certainly have. So we're doing a series of episodes about some of...

One of Bobby McFarland’s Phoenix moments led him to become a living kidney donor, a UNOS Transplant Living ambassador, and the leader of a living donors’ climb up Kilimanjaro. Stacey Solain was working with organizations providing clean water access around the globe...

The classic story of Beauty and the Beast (or Phantom of the Opera or Twilight or 50 Shades of Grey) has been popular for centuries. But how does this idea that the female can and needs to be quiet, good, pure enough, love strongly enough to turn the beast into a...

Ash Rodriguez, a Seattle-based award-winning food writer, photographer, author of three cookbooks, and host of the James Beard nominated series, Kitchen Unnecessary, talks about her spiritual journey beyond the world of food. She’s getting in touch with where our food...

Cami, with the help of her brothers, built a yurt on a piece of property formerly owned by her grandparents. This experience, which she expected to navigate alone and 'off of the grid,' became a moment of reconnection for the whole family. Cami and Amanda explore the...

We all face challenges in life. Caraline (of caralinesadventure) faced a devistating and debilitating accident all-to reminicent of a childhood trauma. Undaunted and determined to rise from the ashes as a powerhouse woman and stellar mom, she rose to become an...

We all face obstacles which slow our progress. We may also have unrecognized support which can us fly towards our destination more quickly. Does it matter which we focus on? Cami and Amanda talk about how our natural, human tendency to focus on the headwinds of life...

Who controls your life? Lauren Trantham (Ride My Road) and Tom Perez (Epik Project), the team that brings you The Masculine Wilderness podcast, talk about their personal stories of undoing and remaking themselves which led them to their work in countering human...

The story of King Arthur, Sir Gawain, and the Lady Ragnell tells the tale of kings, knights, and curses leading us to some deep truth about female agency. What do women want? And how does the power of their choices effect the patriarchal world around them? Put...

Garth Neufeld, a psychology professor, podcaster, speaker, and life coach, joins the show to discuss his personal Phoenix moments and how the basic cycles within our lives give us built-in opportunities to create new versions of ourselves and fly again in service to...

Phoenix lessons are the stories and teachings of those who can show us how to climb out of the ashes and fly again. Cami and Amanda unpack the Phoenix story and the stages of the life/death/life cycle that we all experience from time to time. Is there something in...