The Fortytellers

“Hitting rock bottom” was a memorable line from my guest in this episode of The Fortytellers. He apologetically called that line “a cliché”, which is certainly is not! After battling years of depression, loneliness, debt, and an addiction to gambling, Chesty Kemper spent a long period of time where every day he talked himself out of suicide. He finally made it through one fateful day where he could have ended his life and instead decided to live. Now what? Chesty began a long period of...

Who would have thought that sneaking out of your parents’ house on a snowy winter night and running across a major interstate freeway might not be a great idea? Perhaps the only thing that provokes more anxiety is having to tell your parents about it. Unless, of course, you are in your forties. The perspective you get in your forties is unlike any other. Let’s not call it “midlife” which seems so structured and final. Our forties are a time for looking backward and looking forward with fresh...

In this third installment of The Fortytellers, we hear Mike’s story pick up from where we left off after high school: The growing relationship with Chris, now his husband, and the nail-biting and emotional journey that started with their desire to have kids and led them through their decision to work with a surrogate and welcome into the world their beautiful twins, Sean and Maggie.

In the second episode of The Fortytellers, I talk with Nyla Fritz, the principal of a middle school near Seattle. Much of Nyla’s teaching career – in fact, much of her life – was irreversibly impacted by the death of her younger brother, who lost his life in a school shooting 20 years ago at the age of 14.