I’m so excited to share the very first episode of my new interview series, What It’s Really Like with Molly Burke! In this series, I sit down with incredible people to hear their stories and uncover what it’s really like to live their lives — the parts you don’t always see.For our first episode, I couldn’t have asked for a better guest than Cassidy Huff — one of just 150 people in the world with her rare diagnosis and someone who has had a surgery every six months until she was 17. Cassidy’s honesty, sass, and perspective make this the perfect way to kick off the series.
What It's Really Like To Be Paralyzed After A Car Crash, featuring Chelsie Hill. Chelsie is a professional dancer, community leader, content creator, wife, and mother. She is also a serial entrepreneur. She founded Rollettes, a Los Angeles–based wheelchair dance team committed to education, disability representation, and female empowerment; Rollettes Experience, the largest women’s empowerment weekend for women and children with disabilities; and the Boundless Talent Showcase, a showcase competition for all genders, disabilities, and talents. She also launched the Boundless Babe Society, a virtual mentorship program designed to help women around the world level up in life by providing tools, community, and leadership development. At 17 years old, Chelsie was involved in a drunk driving accident that resulted in a spinal cord injury and paralysis from the waist down.
Molly sits down with Ross Minor, an award winning accessibility consultant in gaming, media, and technology, for a candid conversation about the night that changed his life 20 years ago. In this episode, they discuss the horrific day Ross lost his sight, reintegrating back into society, and his healing journey to discover the person he has become 20 years later.
Join me for this in-depth conversation with the one and only Kamie Crawford.
In this episode, I talk to the dynamic and unstoppable Chan Plante. Learn about her journey going from being a young, healthy woman to having two strokes and losing an eye in her 20’s!
Join me for my conversation with Victoria Garrick Browne, a Forbes 30 Under 30 recipient, TEDx speaker, and former Division I athlete turned mental health advocate, creator, podcast host, and speaker.
In this episode of What It’s Really Like, host Molly Burke welcomes her best friend of ten years, Bradon Schwartz, for a deeply personal and vulnerable conversation. Braden shares his complex journey growing up in a hyper-insular Seventh-day Adventist community, where homeschooling and strict religious rules defined his early world. The discussion takes a raw turn as Bradon reflects on the sexual abuse he suffered as a child. He candidly describes how his family initially framed this trauma as the "reason" for his sexuality, leading him to spend years suppressing his true self. Bradon details the highs and lows of his slow coming-out process, including a phase of dating women—and even Miss Idaho—to prove he was straight before finally owning his identity at 19. Molly and Bradon revisit the "lore" of their friendship, from their initial bonding hike to Bradon’s eventual marriage. A major highlight of the episode is the reconciliation with Bradon’s family.
I’m so grateful to have been able to sit down and have this powerful conversation with the beautiful and wise Shalom Blac! She is such an icon and an incredible woman, content creator, and mama!
In this episode, Molly interviews her own parents about their experience raising her as a child slowly going blind.
Lucy Edwards and I got real and vulnerable about our shared experience of going blind in our teens.
On today’s episode of What It’s Really Like, I sat down with Jen Montzingo to discuss her extraordinary journey of living with dwarfism, being put up for adoption by her wealthy birth parents at just three months old, growing up in a group home before being adopted by loving parents with dwarfism, and later navigating a life-changing spinal cord injury that left her paralyzed. Jen shares her lived experience with disability, abandonment, adoption, resilience, identity, and rebuilding her life through unimaginable challenges. This powerful conversation explores ableism, family rejection, trauma, perseverance, and what it truly means to overcome adversity while redefining your own story.
On today’s episode of What It’s Really Like, I sat down with Brandon Farbstein to talk about his experience navigating life as both queer and disabled. We discuss identity, bullying, self-acceptance, dating, representation, and the unique challenges that come with existing at the intersection of multiple marginalized communities. Brandon also opens up about growing up with dwarfism, finding confidence, and what he wishes more people understood about disability and LGBTQ+ experiences.