Her whole life Pardis Mahdavi tried to belong — in the US, then in Iran. And finally decided to be a bridge between two cultures but it took an arrest by the morality police and a crisis of identity to get there.

Sisters Rasha Pecoraro and Yvette Gentile are carrying their mother's torch shining the light on the darkness after coming to terms with the fact that their great grandfather was the prime suspect in the most notorious unsolved murder of the 20th century.

A nurse teaches health professionals how to orchestrate death after her two year old son died. She learned she had to experience his death with all her senses before she accepted it.

As a pediatric anesthesiologist, for many years Michelle Grua believed only what she could see, hear, and touch. She trusted data and research. But when her dead husband reached out from beyond the grave in ways she could not deny, she had to reconcile science with the supernatural.

Czarina Salido helps Native girls get to space camp because as a child she found solace in the stars but no one looked like her in her math and science classes.

After hating her body for 35 years Adiba Nelson became a burlesque performer celebrating her curves and scars to show her daughter, who was born with a disability, how to embrace her own body.

Stephanie Keeler raises her two boys with fierce honesty after her own mother hid her depression. But it took facing her own suicidal ideations before understanding how her mom got to such a dark place.

Kiersten Parsons Hathcock became a reluctant medium after she discovered an unexpected psychic talent. Today Kiersten helps investigators around the country solve missing children cases, and the spirits have helped Kiersten uncover and heal from her own traumatic past.

Just a few months before her baby was due Maria del Carmen’s own mother died. Still grieving the loss of her mom after her daughter’s birth she spiraled into postpartum depression. It was in a moment of despair that she realized she needed two things: to connect with other mothers and her mother’s recipes.

Before she even knew the word for intergenerational trauma Manpreet Johal Bernie could see it in her own family. It wasn’t until her father died that Manpreet read a self help book about loving herself that she realized she didn't. Today Manpreet coaches people through their own intergenerational trauma using mind body techniques.

In her twenties Amy Downs was living what she called a complacent, shallow existence. She felt empty and alone. When she discovered her husband couldn’t fix her life, she coped by eating. It wasn’t until tragedy struck on April 19, 1995, that she turned her life around.

Yuchi is one of more than 3,000 endangered indigenous languages. Many Native American tribes offer language classes to elementary school students, but linguists say the best way to learn is starting at birth. Halay and Jiles Turning Heart have banned English from their home in an attempt to save Yuchi.

Josephine Ensign has dedicated her life to improving health and social inequities for people marginalized by poverty but it was only after becoming homeless herself that she realized how she could work with people experiencing homelessness and make a difference.

Marcia Tullous grieved her old life when she gave everything up to homeschool her highly sensitive kid but as she nurtures her son she heals herself as well.

For many years Andres Dre Adauto created space for people to express themselves in Flagstaff. So when he was involved in a devastating bicycle accident, his community showed up for him.

When Kelly Vaughn was growing up she learned – as so many girls do – to always be nice. t wasn't until a scary experience in college that she realized "nice" doesn't get you out of the worst case scenario.

After two decades Miguel Gonzalez is speaking out about his family’s struggles to get asylum from Colombia in the United States, because he dreams of the day when he and his family don’t have to live and work in the shadows.

Jay Shifman has made it his mission to end stigma surrounding addiction and help people tell their own stories because he was over diagnosed and over medicated to the point of two suicide attempts before he told his story and found a way out.

Annette McGivney was overwhelmed with grief when her dog Sunny died because she unconditionally supported Annette through complex PTSD but Annette discovered a new dog could honor Sunny.

Life coach Makini Smith created a podcast to amplify women’s voices but she had to find her own first.