About
“We all have two lives. The second begins the moment we realize we have only one.”
Stories of people who have faced darkness and how those moments transformed them.
2 Lives has been featured on Apple Podcasts shows “WE LOVE,” ranked fourth in the personal journals category, and listed among “Spotify’s Top Episodes.” The show has won several awards including a silver Signal Award for best indie podcast, a runner up International Women’s Podcast Award and a Viola Award for best digital storytelling.
In 2020, Laurel Morales reported for NPR and KJZZ's Fronteras Desk on the devastating impacts the pandemic had among the Navajo. At one point the tribe had the highest infection rate in the United States.
In her reporting she met Navajo nurse Marquerita Donald and other survivors. As she listened to their stories she knew they deserved more time and attention. So she pitched an in-depth, character-driven podcast to KJZZ and called it 2 Lives.
The station heard from hundreds of listeners in lockdown who said they were desperate for new ways to feel connected and inspired. They were drawn to these stories of resilience, courage, and hope.
Laurel felt so strongly about the podcast and long-form storytelling she wanted to continue it.
Now new episodes can be found every other week on Apple, Spotify, or your favorite podcast platform.
About Laurel Morales
For two decades Laurel reported on wildfires, climate change, and the extraction industry for NPR and the Fronteras Desk. The daily deadline pressure covering such intense issues took its toll in the form of migraines and secondary PTSD. In 2020 she kept coming across individuals who'd wrestled with darkness and transformed as a result. It was those people who inspired her to shift focus to the internal landscape and launch 2 Lives.
She has won national awards for her reporting and writing including a national PRNDI award for Earth+Bone and a national Edward R. Murrow award for her coverage of Arizona's deadliest wildfire.
She's collaborated on several projects including the multi-award winning "Tracing the Migrant Journey" series. She can be heard on NPR, the Fronteras Desk, Code Switch, Here & Now, Science Friday, Marketplace, and National Native News. 2 Lives is her fourth podcast.
See more about Laurel’s writing here.
About Valerie Shively
Production Assistant - When she was little, she wanted to be a writer, a photojournalist, a pilot, a horse vet, a person who could speak French, and a mom. When she graduated college, she became an English teacher. While teaching, she had weird dreams of being a person who worked on a team to help share stories – a storyteller. Valerie is lucky enough to say she has dipped her toe in some, and cannonballed into other dreams, except horse vet. (Lucky for the horses that one didn’t take.) Valerie comes to 2 Lives and story production out of photography, teaching, and parenting. She is a writer at heart, and even more at heart, is her belief that shared stories are powerful medicine.