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“People loved my mother. She nearly killed me.” With that stark paradox, we open a story that refuses easy answers. Sadie Green grew up in rural Minnesota with a cleft palate that required surgeries and a mother who was celebrated by neighbors while inflicting severe, escalating abuse at home. Decades later, Sadie returns to the pages she wrote in her thirties—memories captured during a winter of solitude—to understand how fear is rooted in her body and how fear has shaped her relationships and sense of self.

We move between lived memory and documented fact: hospital notes from the University of Minnesota, five surgeries paid for by proud parents with little money, and a rare removal from the home in 1970.

Pam and Sadie examine the nature of memory, why doubt is normal for survivors, and how evidence—medical records, witnesses, removal—can steady a story but not remove the doubt that family denial thrives on.

If you value survivor-led storytelling and conversations that make space for complexity, press play and stay with us as the series unfolds. Subscribe, share this episode, or leave a review with one takeaway that stayed with you.

Special Thanks to our supporters, who have made this podcast possible.

• Lucy Mathews Heegaard: Audio Engineer
• Terry Gydesen: Photographer

• Polly Kellogg
• Kate Tillotson
• Dawn Charbonneau
• Jacob Wyatt
• Molly Tillotson
• Julian Bowers
• Wendy Horowitz
• Pat Farrell
• Lynette Tabert
• Laura Jensen
• People's Farm Collective

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A single sentence on a phone call—“We only have one daughter”—can divide a life in two. We sit down with Sadie to follow the arc from being erased by her family’s story to authoring her own during a winter spent alone in a Wisconsin cabin: a wood stove, a dog, a wary cat, and a stack of notebooks. Stillness pulls up images she has outrun for years, and the only way through is to let the questions stay.

Sadie walks us through the mechanics of memory work—starting in third person to protect herself, making a “grocery list” of scenes, and slowly shifting into the first person as ownership returns.

We also push against a popular myth: that reconciliation with family is always the preferred goal. Sadie explains why distance was her survival, how “she went crazy” became the convenient cover story, and why some doors must stay closed to keep a life intact.

If this story resonates, share it with someone, subscribe for future chapters, or leave a review to help others find the show.

Special Thanks to our supporters, who have made this podcast possible.

• Lucy Mathews Heegaard: Audio Engineer
• Terry Gydesen: Photographer

• Polly Kellogg
• Kate Tillotson
• Dawn Charbonneau
• Jacob Wyatt
• Molly Tillotson
• Julian Bowers
• Wendy Horowitz
• Pat Farrell
• Lynette Tabert
• Laura Jensen
• People's Farm Collective

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A cold November garage, a basement chair, and a girl counting footsteps—that’s where Sadie’s story begins. We walk through the fear along with the stubborn spark of imagination: a belief that somewhere else this would not be happening. The narrative moves from hiding to hunger, showing how neglect and control can live side by side—how a parent can starve you and still track your every move, turning everyday items like socks and sweaters into weapons for punishment.

A grandmother leaves food in a shed and proves that love can be small and still life-saving. We also face the most difficult truths: a father whose gentle nature could not interrupt cruelty, and the sentence that stings across decades—“it seemed like you enjoyed punishment.” We examine how family systems protect themselves with denial and how poverty and medical debt magnify stress.

If this resonates, follow the show, share this story with someone, and leave a review to help others find it.

Special Thanks to our supporters, who have made this podcast possible.

• Lucy Mathews Heegaard: Audio Engineer
• Terry Gydesen: Photographer

• Polly Kellogg
• Kate Tillotson
• Dawn Charbonneau
• Jacob Wyatt
• Molly Tillotson
• Julian Bowers
• Wendy Horowitz
• Pat Farrell
• Lynette Tabert
• Laura Jensen
• People's Farm Collective

Send a text

A clean green shoebox of sugar donuts sits on a teacher’s desk, and a hungry girl can’t stop staring. From that memory, we follow Sadie back to a one-room schoolhouse in rural Minnesota, sneaking in from the woods after the bell, wearing somebody else's clothes, and where a teacher saw everything. It begins with food and shame but unfolds into a wider portrait of community, power, a grandmother's courage, and others who try to help when help feels dangerous.

Decades pass, and then a hallway meeting becomes a reckoning: the teacher arrives with a cane and a perfect memory. She names the cruelty and refuses, even now, to soften the story to spare anyone's pride.

We honor the educators who see what others miss, who keep notes, and who stand their ground under community pressure.

If this story moves you, follow the show, share it with a friend, and leave a review to help others find these conversations. Your voice helps keep survivors’ stories heard.

Special Thanks to our supporters, who have made this podcast possible.

• Lucy Mathews Heegaard: Audio Engineer
• Terry Gydesen: Photographer

• Polly Kellogg
• Kate Tillotson
• Dawn Charbonneau
• Jacob Wyatt
• Molly Tillotson
• Julian Bowers
• Wendy Horowitz
• Pat Farrell
• Lynette Tabert
• Laura Jensen
• People's Farm Collective

Send a text

A pink bedroom, a pot-bellied stove, and a snowfall that turns a farmyard into a fairytale—Sadie walks us through a time when tenderness and harm lived side by side. She characterizes trauma echoing across a lifetime.
Along the way, Sadie honors loyalty to siblings who remember differently, showing how denial can be a survival tool for others, and why telling the truth need not be cruel. She describes how limited resources and a lack of intervention can normalize abuse over time.

Listen, share with someone interested in trauma and healing, and leave a review to help others find this story.

Special Thanks to our supporters, who have made this podcast possible.

• Lucy Mathews Heegaard: Audio Engineer
• Terry Gydesen: Photographer

• Polly Kellogg
• Kate Tillotson
• Dawn Charbonneau
• Jacob Wyatt
• Molly Tillotson
• Julian Bowers
• Wendy Horowitz
• Pat Farrell
• Lynette Tabert
• Laura Jensen
• People's Farm Collective

Send a text

A child learns the rules of a house long before anyone writes them down. The story isn’t told for shock; it’s told to understand how a nervous system adapts when home becomes a surveillance state and love looks like control.

We unpack how chronic abuse trains the mind to expect loss after joy and silence after need, and why seemingly small anchors—magazines, a transistor radio, Dylan's blowing in the wind—can be lifelines. If you’ve ever felt guilty for wanting or scared when life gets good, this conversation offers company.

If this resonates, subscribe, share with someone who needs it, and leave a review with one thing you want to reclaim this year.

Special Thanks to our supporters, who have made this podcast possible.

• Lucy Mathews Heegaard: Audio Engineer
• Terry Gydesen: Photographer

• Polly Kellogg
• Kate Tillotson
• Dawn Charbonneau
• Jacob Wyatt
• Molly Tillotson
• Julian Bowers
• Wendy Horowitz
• Pat Farrell
• Lynette Tabert
• Laura Jensen
• People's Farm Collective