Episodes

  • Transforming Grief Into Meaning: How Stories and Art Support Children After Suicide with Ryan Abramowitz

    Transforming Grief Into Meaning: How Stories and Art Support Children After Suicide with Ryan Abramowitz
    Nov 4 2025
    What happens when a child loses someone to suicide — and the adults around them are silent because they don’t know what to say? In this episode, we explore that question through art, science, and story.Australian author and illustrator Ryan Abramowitz joins Hope Illuminated to share how he transformed his own loss — the suicide of his father — into the award-winning picture book Elegy for an Elephant. Through watercolor, poetry, and animal allegory, Ryan helps children step into grief without being swallowed by it. for more information on this episode go to https://www.sallyspencerthomas.com/hope-illuminated-podcast/156
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    46 mins
  • Sowing Hope in Rural America: Tackling the Farm Mental Health Crisis with Monica Kramer McConkey

    Sowing Hope in Rural America: Tackling the Farm Mental Health Crisis with Monica Kramer McConkey
    Oct 28 2025
    In this powerful and deeply compassionate episode, Dr. Sally Spencer-Thomas talks with Monica Kramer McConkey, one of the nation’s leading voices on rural and agricultural mental health, about the silent crisis facing farm families across America.Monica brings both clinical expertise and lived experience—she grew up on a farm in northwestern Minnesota and has spent over 30 years supporting agricultural communities through depression, addiction, and suicide loss. Together, Sally and Monica explore the intersection of isolation, economic pressure, and cultural stoicism—and how resilience, connection, and tailored interventions are changing lives across rural America.Listeners will gain insight into how we can bridge the urban-rural divide in mental health, build suicide-safe communities, and sow hope where it’s needed most. For more information on this episode go to https://www.sallyspencerthomas.com/hope-illuminated-podcast/155
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    46 mins
  • Tech for Transformation: Building Mental-Health Skills with AI Tools that Work – with Alex Willis

    Tech for Transformation: Building Mental-Health Skills with AI Tools that Work – with Alex Willis
    Sep 30 2025
    Ever wondered how to partner with AI tools without losing the human element, or how to integrate mental health skills into daily workflows? This episode delivers.A former NFL Tampa Bay Buccaneer who once battled the silent pressure of “lonely at the top,” Alex Willis now helps construction leaders build safety cultures where both bodies and minds are protected. Alex shares his personal turning point -- how experiencing depression and isolation during his NFL years shaped his mission to protect what matters most: people.In this episode of Hope Illuminated, Alex and I explore how AI-powered tools -- used wisely, not as a replacement for human care -- can spark more effective conversations when mental health concerns arise at work.Hear how one innovator is proving that technology, blended with empathy and evidence, can move us beyond awareness into real skill-building. for more information on this episode go to https://www.sallyspencerthomas.com/hope-illuminated-podcast/154
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    47 mins
  • Healing the Healers: Moral Injury, Privacy, and Pathways to Hope with Corey Feist

    Healing the Healers: Moral Injury, Privacy, and Pathways to Hope with Corey Feist
    Sep 9 2025
    Healthcare workers give their all, but too often, the system gives little back when it comes to protecting their mental health. In this Hope Illuminated episode, I sit down with Corey Feist, Co-Founder & CEO of the Dr. Lorna Breen Heroes’ Foundation, to talk about moral injury, systemic solutions, and the strategies that actually work.Together, we unpack how confidential peer support, equal privacy protections in mental health care, and humane re-entry pathways can restore dignity and safety to those who care for us. Corey’s work has helped drive landmark federal legislation, shift national culture, and spark movements that reach over 1.5 million healthcare workers.This episode isn’t just for healthcare leaders. If you care about building psychologically safe workplaces —in medicine or beyond — you’ll walk away with actionable strategies for protecting wellbeing, reducing stigma, and honoring the humanity of workers everywhere. For more information on this episode go to https://www.sallyspencerthomas.com/hope-illuminated-podcast/153
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    1 hr and 1 min
  • The Youth Suicide Prevention Breakthrough We’ve Been Waiting For: The Sources of Strength Story

    The Youth Suicide Prevention Breakthrough We’ve Been Waiting For: The Sources of Strength Story
    Jul 29 2025
    In this powerful episode, Scott LoMurray, TIME100 Health honoree and CEO of Sources of Strength, shares how his organization has transformed youth suicide prevention through peer leadership, strength-based storytelling, and community-driven culture change. We unpack the evidence, the vision, and the movement that’s shifting suicide prevention from reaction to resilience. for mor einformation on this episode go to https://www.sallyspencerthomas.com/hope-illuminated-podcast/152
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    45 mins
  • The Power of Time -- Slowing Down to Save Lives in Suicide Prevention with Gergö Hadlaczky

    The Power of Time -- Slowing Down to Save Lives in Suicide Prevention with Gergö Hadlaczky
    Jul 8 2025
    What if the most powerful suicide prevention tool we have… is time?In this groundbreaking episode, suicide prevention expert Dr. Gergö Hadlaczky shares insights from science, strategy, and lived experience about how creating time—even just a few minutes—can change the trajectory of a suicidal crisis.We explore the rapidity of suicidal crises, how emotional intensity and suicidal thoughts often pass with time, and why time-buying can often help people win the internal debate around living or dying.Time gives people a second chance at life and a fighting chance to survive. For mre information on this episode go to https://www.sallyspencerthomas.com/hope-illuminated-podcast/151
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    44 mins
  • Technology of Survival -- How Emotions Like Fear, Grief, Anger, and Guilt Keep Us Alive with Russell Peterson

    Technology of Survival -- How Emotions Like Fear, Grief, Anger, and Guilt Keep Us Alive with Russell Peterson
    Jun 24 2025
    Why do we fear emotions, particularly in cultures where strength is defined by stoicism? What if we reframed emotions not as liabilities, but as essential survival systems?When are get stuck in our emotions like fear, grief, anger, and guilt, we’re not failing. Our emotions are over-functioning. Emotional systems have evolved "fail-safe" systems; they won’t stop to help us survive. And while that keeps us alive, it can also overwhelm us. In this powerful episode of Hope Illuminated, I sit down with Russell Peterson, a counselor, military mental health specialist, and wilderness survivalist. Russell introduces his compelling “Technology of Survival” framework, illustrating how emotions such as fear, grief, anger, and guilt have evolved to keep us alive.When emotions are seen through a survival lens, we begin to understand their purpose, reduce shame, and reclaim our humanity.For more information on this episode go to https://www.sallyspencerthomas.com/hope-illuminated-podcast/150
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    49 mins
  • Time to Get Noisy -- What Construction Can Teach Us About Suicide Prevention in Every Industry with Sebastian Ison-Jacques

    Time to Get Noisy -- What Construction Can Teach Us About Suicide Prevention in Every Industry with Sebastian Ison-Jacques
    Jun 10 2025
    In this episode, we explore one of the most urgent yet often overlooked crises facing high-risk industries: suicide in construction. Our guest, Sebastian Ison-Jacques, brings a powerful blend of personal experience, academic research, and sector insight to this critical conversation. From digital construction to workplace mental health, Seb’s mission is to expose what’s broken and help build something better. for more information on this episode go to https://www.sallyspencerthomas.com/hope-illuminated-podcast/149
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    44 mins