Best Harper Spero Podcasts (2024)

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128. The Quiet Epidemic with Special Guest, Ally Hilfiger 33:10

1y ago33:10

33:10

I moderated a panel discussion at ReelAbilities Film Festival on The Quiet Epidemic, an eye-opening film about Lyme disease that highlights the emotional toll of patients’ journeys with the illness and the scientific facts of the disease. During the panel I spoke with the film’s Emmy-winning producer Chris Hegedus, who helped the directors bring th…

1
127. Ilana Jacqueline, Fighting the War Against Medical Gaslighting 32:45

1y ago32:45

32:45

Author and patient advocate Ilana Jacqueline experienced medical gaslighting from a young age. At age 19 she was diagnosed with Hypogammaglobulinemia, a rare immunodeficiency. While navigating young adulthood with an invisible illness, Ilana also faced lots of medical gaslighting, encountering doctors who shamed her out of seeking care. Ilana has d…

1
126. Melissa Coulier, Finding a Holistic Approach to Lupus and Life 36:27

1y ago36:27

36:27

Melissa is a functional fitness instructor, photographer, and Lupus warrior. After living her whole life in pain, Melissa was finally diagnosed with Lupus in 2006. She began a variety of treatments that helped combat her symptoms, but the physical and mental toll of pain and treatment left Melissa in a place of exhaustion, depression and self-pity.…

1
125. Akiva Zablocki, Helping Families with Hyper IgM Find Community and Care 38:07

1y ago38:07

38:07

Akiva Zablocki is a former healthcare consultant and the founder of the Hyper IgM foundation. When Akiva’s son Idan was just eight months old, he was diagnosed with Hyper IgM, an incredibly rare genetic mutation that severely compromises the immune system. After three years of diligent research and advocacy, Akiva and his wife were able to obtain a…

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124. Melissa Aives and Danielle Scaramellino, Navigating Invisible Illness With My Best Friends 41:08

1y ago41:08

41:08

Join me for a very special episode where I sit down with my best friends, Melissa Aives and Danielle Scaramellino, as we reflect on a life-changing moment eleven years ago when I underwent a life-threatening surgery, introducing my friends to a world of uncertainty about my health. Despite our close bond, they had never witnessed this side of me, l…

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123. Jamie Nicole, Creating Support for the BIPOC Community Living with Autoimmune Diseases 54:44

1+ y ago54:44

54:44

Jamie Nicole is a highly regarded certified health coach dedicated to helping individuals achieve optimal health through complementary medicine and holistic health lifestyle changes. Her passion for health and wellness was sparked when she witnessed the transformative power of holistic health in her own life. After being diagnosed with Hashimoto's …

1
122. Kate Milligan, The Power of Determination, Community, and Asking Questions 49:30

1+ y ago49:30

49:30

Kate Milligan is an Emmy-nominated producer, writer, speaker, storyteller, and founder of 1 Girl Revolution: a multimedia platform dedicated to highlighting the authentic stories of everyday women and girls who are changing the world through their lives. Diagnosed with Job’s Syndrome at a young age, Kate faced years of uncomfortable symptoms that d…

1
121. Dr Alex Truong, Highlighting the Unaddressed Long-COVID Symptoms and Trauma 38:33

1+ y ago38:33

38:33

Dr. Truong is a pulmonary and critical care trained physician with 12 years of experience as assistant professor at Emory Midtown Hospital. Since August of 2020, he and Dr. Adviteeya Dixit have been running the Emory Post-COVID clinic where they care for patients with lingering symptoms from their COVID infection. Dr. Truong’s passion for helping p…

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120. Marina Khidekel, Designing an Anxiety-Soothing Product that Hugs Back 47:26

1+ y ago47:26

47:26

Marina Khidekel created Hugimals World, a TIME Best Inventions- winning line of weighted stuffed animals that "hug you back" to ease anxiety and bring calm. Prior to becoming a founder, Marina was a health & wellness journalist. She previously worked at Arianna Huffington’s workplace well-being enterprise SAAS startup Thrive and held senior editori…

1
119. Erica Domesek, DIY expert opens up about hidden mental health struggles 46:30

1+ y ago46:30

46:30

By Harper Spero, Erica Domesek

1
118. Melissa Bernstein, Utilizing Verses and Creativity to Make Meaning of Existential Depression 49:26

1+ y ago49:26

49:26

Melissa Bernstein, co-founder of Melissa & Doug, discusses her struggles with existential depression and how she uses writing and creating to cope. She also talks about the importance of embracing all emotions, utilizing daily practices for resilience, and creating her latest company, Lifelines, to help people be more present and get more in touch …

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Mental Health Awareness Month Tribute 3:13

1+ y ago3:13

3:13

A brief reminder about Mental Health Awareness Month and the tribute to my friend, Phil Kohn. Join the monthly Made Visible Writing Session on May 24th here.

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117. Dr. Michelle Chung, Acknowledging and Healing Our Pandemic Trauma 41:36

1+ y ago41:36

41:36

We’re 3+ years into the COVID-19 pandemic and it’s impossible to deny that life still doesn't feel quite the same as pre-pandemic. We’re all saddled with the trauma of a life-threatening illness, the isolation and fear we experienced. In honor of Mental Health Awareness Month, clinical psychologist Dr. Michelle Chung helps us navigate this new worl…

1
116. Allison Raskin, Debunking Common Misconceptions about OCD 41:59

1+ y ago41:59

41:59

Surely we’ve all heard someone say, “Oh, I’m so OCD!” at least once in our lives. But what is it really like to live with this clinical diagnosis? How is everyday life managed, and how often does it affect people and their ability to live an uninterrupted, fulfilled life? In honor of Mental Health Awareness Month, Allison Raskin, noted podcaster, w…

1
115. Harper Spero, Sharing My Own Invisible Illness Story 21:46

1+ y ago21:46

21:46

This episode provides an in-depth look into my life navigating a rare primary immunodeficiency, Hyper IgE Syndrome after ten years of not being diagnosed and almost three decades of hiding my condition. I share all the bumps along the way to launching Made Visible, and the how and why behind the show. For more information about my journey, what I'm…

1
114. Jacqueline & Alexa Child, Dating with a Disability and Invisible Illness 40:01

1+ y ago40:01

40:01

Dating on an app is challenging. But have you experienced dating on mainstream apps while also living with a disability, chronic, or invisible illness? After disclosing that she was disabled on mainstream dating apps, Jacqueline Child would often be ghosted and disappointed in the dating experience. Jacqueline and her sister Alexa decided it was ti…

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113. Kate Washington, Caring For Yourself While Caregiving For Your Loved One 49:21

1+ y ago49:21

49:21

Almost all of us will assume a caregiving role for a close loved one at some point in our lives. When is the correct time to start mentally preparing? Do you think you'd feel comfortable administering treatments that deeply affect your loved one's quality of life? How do these people balance caregiving and their careers? Kate Washington, author of …

1
112. Dr. Christiane Wolf, Managing Pain With Meditation 46:15

1+ y ago46:15

46:15

Have you ever tried meditation to help manage chronic pain? After realizing that meditation, mindfulness, and compassion practices are transformational in how we relate to what is happening to us, Dr. Christiane Wolf found a passion in teaching it to others. Internationally known as a Mindfulness and Insight Meditation teacher, she explains the con…

1
111. Dr. Stella Safo, Debunking Stigmas about HIV and Advocating Equitable Healthcare for All 43:17

1+ y ago43:17

43:17

In this episode, Dr. Stella Safo, a board-certified HIV primary care physician and the founder of Just Equity For Health, talks about healthcare redesign and equity. She discusses her personal journey into healthcare and how her commitment to social justice led her to found her company. She also dives into the stigma surrounding HIV and chronic ill…

1
110. Isaac Zablocki, Coping with Dysgraphia and Advocating for Change Through Film 42:05

1+ y ago42:05

42:05

Step into the life of Isaac Zablocki as he shares his personal journey of living with dysgraphia - a neurological condition that affects one’s ability to write. Isaac opens up about how his experience with dysgraphia has helped shape his professional career as the co-founder of ReelAbilities, a groundbreaking film festival that celebrates the talen…

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Bonus: Exclusive Essay Readings from Laura Frégeau & Lindsay Ellis 11:28

1+ y ago11:28

11:28

This bonus episode of the Made Visible podcast features the exclusive readings of two powerful essays written by students of the Made Visible Writing Class. Laura Frégeau's "Seeking Care" takes a humorous tongue-in-cheek approach to the task of finding a caregiver for her future needs, listing specific requirements for the ideal candidate. Lindsay …

1
109. The Power of Processing Through Writing 48:08

1+ y ago48:08

48:08

Before I could learn how to live with my invisible illness, I needed a way to process what I was going through. So I created what I wished had existed for me, the Made Visible Writing Class. A safe place where people living with invisible illnesses could write, share and connect with one another while confronting life’s challenges through writing. …

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108. Serena Wolf and Katie Dalebout, Approaching Anxiety with Vulnerability and Laughter 59:46

1+ y ago59:46

59:46

By Harper Spero

1
107. Lara Bloom, Supporting People with Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome While Elevating Global Awareness 35:59

1+ y ago35:59

35:59

Join Lara Bloom and host, Harper Spero, for a special IG Live event on March 1st at 11:00AM EST! Follow @madevisiblestories on Instagram to tune in. Before being diagnosed with Ehlers-Danlos syndrome at 24 years old, Lara Bloom endured 12 years of undiagnosed pain and mysterious symptoms. According to Lara, who is now the president and CEO of The E…

1
106. Akilah Cadet Advocating for Herself As She Searches for a Primary Diagnosis 35:53

1+ y ago35:53

35:53

Join Akilah Cadet and host, Harper Spero, for a special IG Live event on February 22nd at 12:30pm EST! Follow @madevisiblestories on Instagram to tune in. Akilah has been diagnosed with pericarditis, coronary artery spasms, and orthostatic hypotension, but she’s still searching for a reason why she’s experiencing intense and chronic pain on the lef…

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105. Devri Velazquez, Living with Takayasu's Arteritis and Embracing Advocacy Through Owning Her Identity 38:14

1+ y ago38:14

38:14

Join Devri Velazquez and host, Harper Spero, for a special IG Live event on February 15th at 11:00am EST! Follow @madevisiblestories on Instagram to tune in. When Devri Velazquez was diagnosed with Takayasu's arteritis at 20 years old, the prognosis was devastating. Doctors didn’t think she would live to age 21. On today’s episode, we talk about wh…

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104. Hannah Olson, Showing Employers (and Beyond) the Value of Hiring People with Chronic Illness and Disability 27:01

1+ y ago27:01

27:01

Join Hannah Olson and host, Harper Spero, for a special IG Live event on February 8th at 12:00pm EST! Follow @madevisiblestories on Instagram to tune in. When employers come to Hannah Olson and ask her why they should hire people who have chronic illness, she has a lot to say. Hannah is the founder is Chronically Capable, a platform that connects p…

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103. Genevieve Gorder, Designing a Life with Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis and Lyme Disease 53:27

1+ y ago53:27

53:27

Join Genevieve Gorder and host, Harper Spero, for a special IG Live event on February 1st at 11:30am EST! Follow @madevisiblestories on Instagram to tune in. Interior design star Genevieve Gorder wants to live in the light, not in her illness. What does that mean, exactly? For Genevieve, who has both Lyme disease and Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, it mea…

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102. Ally Hilfiger, Changing the Lenses on Her Experience with Lyme Disease 41:38

1+ y ago41:38

41:38

Join Ally Hilfiger and host, Harper Spero for a special IG Live event on January 25th at ***2pm EST!*** (Rescheduled from 12:30pm EST) Follow @madevisiblestories on Instagram to tune in. Ally Hilfiger was bitten by a tick at age seven and battled severe physical and neurological symptoms throughout her childhood, but she wasn’t diagnosed with Lyme …

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Announcing exciting news about Made Visible 3:04

2y ago3:04

3:04

Tune in to hear more about the latest happenings with Made Visible. Follow @madevisiblestories on Instagram Check out our services, writing classes and offerings at www.madevisiblestories.comBy Harper Spero

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90. About winter solstice 2021, with Virginia Rosenberg 55:57

3y ago55:57

55:57

Fall is ending. 2021 is ending. The podcast season is ending. (The pandemic does not seem to be ending.) And our resident astrologer Virginia Rosenberg is back on the podcast to share about many things of note going on in the cosmos. The big highlights: there’s Pluto/Venus conjunction in Capricorn this month, a Venus Retrograde, and Saturn and Uran…

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89. About harmony (and why I’m taking a sabbatical), with Elissa 40:01

3y ago40:01

40:01

What does harmony mean to you? For me, it’s about living in alignment with and acceptance of all that’s going on. In this last solo episode of the season, I share how - slowly but surely - over the past six months I’ve started really listening to the voice inside of me that’s letting me know I need a big break. I’ll explain my plans to take a sabba…

1
88. About looking out for each other, with Harper Spero 49:57

3y ago49:57

49:57

In 2012, Harper Spero learned she had a tumor in her lungs the size of a golf ball. After her subsequent surgery and that transformational experience, Harper began taking radically good care of herself. This included changing her health routines, and also starting her own business so she could be in charge of her work habits. When the pandemic hit,…

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87. About grit and redemption, with Coss Marte 53:04

3y ago53:04

53:04

When he was 23 years old, Coss Marte was removed from the streets of the Lower East Side and sentenced to 7 years in prison. In jail, Coss quickly learned that he was in extremely poor health. So he started working out in his cell and in the prison yard. Soon other inmates joined him. Then, an organization called Defy Ventures showed up at the faci…

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86. About talking to people you disagree with, with Josh Trent 1:47:21

3y ago1:47:21

1:47:21

One day this fall, I was scrolling through my Instagram feed, when I saw a post from my friend Josh. It was a screenshot of Texas Governor Greg Abbott’s response to President Biden’s mask mandate. Gov. Abbott wrote “Biden’s vaccine mandate is an assault on private businesses” and below in the caption Josh wrote “I DO NOT comply.” My first thought w…

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85. About resistance, with Elissa 42:41

3y ago42:41

42:41

When you think of the word resistance, what comes up for you? My guess is that you (and most of us) think of resistance as something bad; as something to be avoided. But let’s ask a different question: What is resistance good for? I would argue that resistance - which I’ll define as the experience of feeling pressure between ourselves and something…

1
84. About elevating disability pride, with Tiffany Yu 56:51

3y ago56:51

56:51

Tiffany Yu is on a mission to elevate disability pride. Through the work of her social enterprise Diversability, as well as her social media platforms, speaking, and writing, Tiffany is working not just to lift the stigma about disability, but to celebrate it. In this episode, Tiffany shares her own disability origin story, and together we discuss …

1
83. About staying creative and inspired, with Sean Brennan 51:48

3y ago51:48

51:48

Sean Brennan is my friend and collaborator, an incredible musician, and the editor of this podcast. And today I’m bringing him in front of the mic to share with us about his creative process. A lot of us have been taught that being creative and making art requires diligence and routine. Sean’s here to argue that routine can often be the enemy of cr…

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82. About fall (equinox) 2021, with Virginia Rosenberg 56:41

3y ago56:41

56:41

Virginia Rosenberg is back for her quarterly visit as the resident astrologer of the Find Your Voice, Speak Your Truth podcast. This episode comes to you in the middle of Mercury Retrograde, and also includes a discussion of the major 2021 transit of Saturn square Uranus, plus entering the Age of Air. These major movements in the sky lead us to ask…

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81. About balance, with Elissa 45:11

3y ago45:11

45:11

When you hear the word ‘balance,’ what do you think of? Work-life balance? Balancing on one leg? Balancing your checkbook? Welcome back to a new season of the podcast... this month our theme is Balance, and in this episode, I want to encourage you to examine your understanding of that idea. You may think balance is a fixed, perfect center point tha…

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80. About navigating conflict, with Danielle Faitelson 1:05:59

3y ago1:05:59

1:05:59

Today’s episode continues to document my journey to understand the Israel-Palestine conflict. I’m so lucky to be talking with my best friend Dani, who lives in Israel, and with whom I had a disagreement last month. You may remember hearing me mention that I re-posted a meme about the Israel-Palestine conflict on Instagram, and that a friend texted …

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79. About summer solstice 2021, with Virginia Rosenberg 57:09

3+ y ago57:09

57:09

Sunday, June 20th is the summer solstice, and our resident astrologer Virginia Rosenberg is back on the podcast. It continues to be a time of epic proportions in the cosmos… just to start we are coming out of an eclipse season and Mercury has been in retrograde once again. If you feel like life is one big swirl, or like the stories upon which you’v…

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78. About peace and the Middle East, with Tracy Alexander 1:29:59

3+ y ago1:29:59

1:29:59

Tracy Alexander was working as a news reporter in her home country, Australia, when she got a call about a job in Israel. Excited for the opportunity to help shape a more conscious narrative in one of the most contentious regions of the planet, she accepted the job. But four years later Tracy found herself leaving the news altogether, disheartened …

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77. About compassion, my Jewish identity, and the Middle East, with Elissa 57:06

3+ y ago57:06

57:06

As a Jewish American, the past few weeks of strife in the Middle East have brought to the surface feelings of confusion that I have never taken the time to sort through. In the wake of all of it, I find myself doing research about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that I was never willing to do before, and making stumbles along the way. I share my s…

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76. About the people who shaped you, with Eric Toda 43:35

3+ y ago43:35

43:35

Eric Toda has an impressive resume: He is currently the Global Head of Social Marketing at Facebook. He has been a leader at Nike, Snapchat, Gap, and Airbnb. Recently he penned a viral op-ed for Ad Week imploring advocacy for the Asian American community. And also very importantly, Eric was one of the boys who attended my Bat Mitzvah in 1998. In th…

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75. About your story medicine, with Jumakae 59:41

3+ y ago59:41

59:41

What is the story within you that needs to be told? June Kaewsith, also known as Jumakae, can help you find it. And here’s why it’s important to do that: there’s immense healing possible when we are in tune with our own stories, and also the stories of our ancestors. Stories allow a deeper level of understanding. And as Jumakae points out in this e…

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74. About your genuine brand voice, with Sophia Sunwoo 53:21

3+ y ago53:21

53:21

Sophie Sunwoo is a true entrepreneur. When she was a punk-rock college kid, she got annoyed with buying band t-shirts that didn’t look good on women. So she started a business and accidentally struck gold. After exiting, she next moved into running a social impact organization fixing broken water systems in Cameroon and India. Most recently, Sophia…

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73. About connection, with Elissa 39:55

3+ y ago39:55

39:55

As we’re emerging from lockdown, we’ll be experiencing a newfound sense of connection to each other after a prolonged period of disconnection. How do we navigate this? How do we find ways to more authentically connect to each other in our workplaces and beyond? In this episode, I share a Body-Mind Centering framework that helps us understand the im…

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72. About cultivating self-love, with Ko Im 47:41

3+ y ago47:41

47:41

Ko Im knows self-love. She knows it because she practices it. She knows it because she writes about it. And she knows it because she’s worked hard to cultivate it. In this episode, Ko shares how recent events affecting the AAPI community have led her to speak up and out - namely in an OpEd for Newsweek - and at the same time have required her to di…

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71. About returning home to ourselves, with Danellia Arechiga 43:13

3+ y ago43:13

43:13

Danellia Arechiga is a birth and post-partum doula, and a vocal liberation guide. This gives her a deep understanding of the canals at both ends of the body. It also means she’s intimately familiar with how important it is to find freedom, whether you’re birthing a child or your voice. In this episode, Danellia shares how connecting to our own inna…

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