Notes from the Edge

Latest Episodes:

Who Are You Without the Role? Survival Performance, Masculinity, Midlife Reinvention & Narrative Liberation with Jon Symes Sep 24, 2026

Show notes

What if the person you became to survive is no longer the person you want to be?

In this episode of Notes From the Edge, Lisa Lacy sits down with speaker and leadership consultant Jon Symes to explore the unconscious stories we build around identity, masculinity, success, leadership, and survival.

Jon calls this work Narrative Liberation: recognizing the roles and beliefs we adopted to navigate life, then deciding which ones still belong to us.

They talk about the cost of being “the strong one,” the provider, the good guy, the high performer, or the person who always has it together. Jon also shares how early survival adaptations can begin, including changing the way he walked as a boy to avoid social judgment and carrying that performance for nearly twenty years.

Together, Lisa and Jon explore midlife reinvention, masculinity, people-pleasing, leadership, family roles, authenticity, and what happens when the identity that once protected you starts costing you pieces of yourself.

In this episode:

• Survival performance and identity

• Narrative Liberation

• Masculinity and provider pressure

• Midlife reinvention

• The “good guy” mask

• People-pleasing and self-abandonment

• Leadership and authenticity

• Family roles and inherited stories

• Reclaiming the parts of yourself you learned to hide

Connect with Jon Symes:

https://www.wholeandfree.me

Connect with Lisa Lacy:

https://www.lisalacy.com

What did you perform in order to survive?

Welcome to the Edge.

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What Does the FBI Teach You About Being Human? From Pastor to FBI: Faith, Trauma, Survival & Human Behavior with Eric Robinson Sep 23, 2026

Show notes

What happens when a pastor trades the pulpit for a 24-year career inside the FBI?

Eric Robinson spent 12 years in Christian ministry before becoming an FBI Special Agent, eventually serving 15 years as a SWAT operator and working investigations involving counterterrorism, crimes against children, gangs, drugs, financial crime, civil rights violations, political corruption, and national security.

But this conversation isn’t really about badges, guns, or cases.

It’s about what happens to your understanding of human beings when you’ve spent decades sitting across from victims, informants, criminals, survivors, and people living through some of the darkest circumstances imaginable.

In this episode of Notes From the Edge, Lisa Lacy and Eric Robinson talk about:

• Going from the pulpit to the FBI

• 24 years inside federal law enforcement

• What ministry taught Eric about interviewing, trust, and human behavior

• Witnessing trauma without losing your humanity

• Why context matters when we judge another person’s choices

• The relationship between trauma, circumstance, crime, and survival

• Why mentorship and nonjudgmental support matter

• The psychological weight of believing you have to be perfect

• Dropping the mask Eric wore as a pastor

• Fear, competence, repetition, and learning to trust yourself

• Why making the “wrong” decision doesn’t have to destroy your life

• Humanizing people without excusing harmful behavior

• Choosing curiosity over judgment

• Why Eric believes we need more kindness in difficult conversations

• His upcoming book chronicling the unlikely journey from preacher to FBI Special Agent

Eric’s story is a reminder that people are almost always more complicated than the headline, the crime, the job title, the mistake, or the label we’ve been given.

Sometimes understanding another human being starts with getting curious enough to ask what happened before we decide who they are.

Connect with Eric Robinson:

https://preachertobreacher.com

Connect with Lisa Lacy:

https://www.lisalacy.com

What did you perform in order to survive?

Welcome to the Edge.

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What If Behavior Isn’t the Problem? Childhood Trauma, Adoption, Nervous System Regulation & Trauma-Informed Parenting with Bryan Post Sep 21, 2026

Show notes

What if the behavior we’re trying to stop is actually trying to tell us something?

Bryan Post is a child behavior expert and creator of the Fear to Love Method whose work challenges parents to see difficult behavior not as defiance, but as communication from a nervous system experiencing stress, fear or unmet needs.

In this conversation, Bryan and Lisa explore what changes when adults stop trying to control behavior and start looking underneath it. They unpack why a stressed parent cannot regulate a stressed child, how consistency creates safety, and why the feelings we learned to suppress in childhood can continue driving our reactions decades later. Bryan also shares his “Reflect, Relate and Regulate” approach and a powerful story illustrating what can happen when a parent gets curious about the fear beneath a child’s behavior instead of immediately trying to correct it.

In this episode:

Childhood trauma and nervous system regulation
Trauma-informed parenting and difficult behavior
Adoption, attachment and emotional safety
Why punishment and control can intensify stress
Parent self-regulation and co-regulation
How childhood survival patterns follow us into adulthood
Grief, emotional healing and unresolved trauma
Reflect, Relate and Regulate
Moving from fear-based reactions toward connection
Why behavior can be an opportunity rather than a problem

Connect with Bryan:

www.feartolove.com

Connect with Lisa:

www.lisalacy.com

What did you perform in order to survive?

Welcome to the Edge.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Edge Note: Why does chaos feel like home? Sep 20, 2026

Show notes

Why can peace feel more uncomfortable than the crisis you spent years trying to escape?

Lisa Lacy, trauma educator and host of Notes From the Edge, explores one of trauma’s strangest contradictions: the nervous system can mistake what is familiar for what is safe.

In this solo episode, Lisa gets personal about becoming extraordinarily good at functioning inside chaos, from building a high-pressure career around competence and crisis management to constantly monitoring the emotional weather around her. She explores what happens when the emergency finally ends, but your body is still waiting for the next one, and why ordinary moments of safety can become part of retraining the nervous system.

In this episode:

Trauma, hypervigilance and the nervous system
Why peace can feel boring, suspicious or unsafe
When competence and productivity become survival strategies
Overfunctioning, caretaking and monitoring other people’s emotions
The difference between connection and intensity
Why stable relationships can initially feel unfamiliar
Learning to tolerate other people’s disappointment
Resting without feeling like you have to earn it
Teaching the nervous system that calm is safe
How ordinary can eventually begin to feel like freedom

Connect with Lisa:

www.lisalacy.com

What did you perform in order to survive?

Welcome to the Edge.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Edge Note: What Did We Forget After Kindergarten? Sep 19, 2026

Show notes

What did we know at five years old that we somehow forgot along the way?

Tiffany Dennison is a kindergarten and first-grade educator with 22 years of experience whose work centers on play, belonging and social-emotional development. Her classroom offers a fascinating reminder that children may understand some of the fundamentals of being human long before adults complicate them.

In this conversation, Tiffany and I talk about what happens when children are given enough time to actually play, why belonging and emotional safety have to come before learning, and what five-year-olds can teach adults about repairing conflict without dragging yesterday’s resentment into today. We also get into screen time, storytelling, nervous-system regulation and Tiffany’s own journey of recognizing and releasing people-pleasing.

In this episode:

Play-based learning and why unstructured play matters
Social-emotional learning and childhood development
Belonging, emotional safety and nervous-system regulation
How children repair conflict differently than adults
The effects of screens on connection, creativity and attention
Storytelling as a tool for learning and human connection
What adults model for children without realizing it
People-pleasing, identity and learning to listen to your body
Why slowing down may be one of the most important things children can teach us

Connect with Lisa Lacy

https://www.lisalacy.com

What did you perform in order to survive?

Welcome to the Edge.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

What Happens When Success Stops Working? Male Isolation, Emotional Healing & Personal Accountability with Daniel Sterling Sep 18, 2026

Show notes

Writer and memoirist Daniel Sterling spent much of his life chasing achievement, recognition, and the next version of success until he discovered that some of the hardest work a man can do happens in the few inches between his head and his heart.

Daniel and Lisa talk about the childhood hunger to be seen that fueled his drive, from becoming a top U.S. alpine ski racer to television, filmmaking, and screenwriting, and what happened when that identity finally stopped sustaining him. They dig into male emotional isolation, the mentor who helped Daniel rebuild his life through self-study and accountability, and why raising emotionally whole boys requires adults willing to examine their own patterns first.

In this episode:

Male isolation and why emotional connection can be so difficult for men
Achievement, validation, and using success as a substitute for feeling seen
Midlife emotional collapse and rebuilding identity beyond performance
Personal accountability, self-awareness, and dropping defensiveness
Communication and healthier relationships
Raising boys into emotionally whole men
Why a meaningful apology requires changed behavior
Letting go of ego and discovering who you are beyond accomplishments

Connect with Daniel Sterling:

https://daniel-sterling.com

Connect with Lisa Lacy:

https://www.lisalacy.com

What did you perform in order to survive?

Welcome to the Edge.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

What If Your Identity Was Built on a Secret? Late-Discovery Adoption, Family Secrets & Reclaiming Identity with Al Isaacs Sep 18, 2026

Show notes

What happens when everyone in your family knows the truth about your life except you?

Al Isaacs, author of Finding Mary Smith and longtime comedian and improv teacher, joins Lisa Lacy to talk about discovering at 52 that he had been adopted and what happens to identity when the foundation of your own story suddenly shifts.

Al takes us inside the ordinary phone call from his mother’s oncologist that accidentally exposed a secret his family had kept for more than five decades, and the search that followed through DNA, genealogy, Search Angels and the trail of a folk singer named Mary Smith. The conversation also moves into imposter syndrome, forgiveness, the power of improv’s “yes, and,” and the painful cost of family secrets, including the conversations we may lose when truth is withheld.

In this episode:

Late-discovery adoption and identity
Family secrets, truth and belonging
Gray-market adoption in the late 1960s
DNA testing, genealogy and Search Angels
Searching for a biological mother decades later
Imposter syndrome and reclaiming identity
Forgiveness without erasing what happened
How “yes, and” helped Al keep moving when he wanted to give up
The memories and relationships family secrecy can cost us

Connect with Al: AlIsaacs.com

Finding Mary Smith is available in paperback, eBook and audiobook.

Connect with Lisa: LisaLacy.com

What did you perform in order to survive?

Welcome to the Edge.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Are you performing your worth? Trauma, Treatment-Resistant Depression & ECT with Simone Bowyer Sep 17, 2026

Show notes

What if the traits you think are your personality are actually things you learned to do to survive?

Simone Bowyer is a writer and founder of The Light Within Collective, whose work explores what she calls the “language of survival,” the patterns we develop to feel safe, loved, worthy, and less likely to be abandoned.

In this conversation, Simone and I talk about perfectionism, hyper-independence, control, and overachievement as survival adaptations rather than simply personality traits. She shares her experience with severe treatment-resistant depression, years of psychiatric treatment, and ultimately electroconvulsive therapy, or ECT, which she describes not as a cure, but as something that finally created enough space for her to consider life beyond the darkness.

We also take the conversation into the workplace, exploring why we cannot simply leave our wounds at home, what human-centered leadership can look like, and why psychological safety matters when the person who appears to be your highest performer may actually have a nervous system that never learned it was safe to stop.

In this episode:

• How childhood trauma can become perfectionism, people-pleasing, control, and hyper-independence

• Treatment-resistant depression and Simone’s experience with ECT

• Why recovery does not erase survival patterns overnight

• Performing worth in order to feel lovable and avoid abandonment

• Trauma, the nervous system, and high achievement

• Psychological safety and human-centered leadership in the workplace

• Why healing is not linear and does not have a timeline

• Simone’s book, Chasing Light, and finding color again after years of depression

• Moving from asking “What is wrong with me?” to asking “What did I learn to do to survive?”

Connect with Simone Bowyer:

The Light Within Collective

https://lightwithincollective.co.za

Connect with Lisa Lacy:

https://lisalacy.com

What did you perform in order to survive?

Welcome to the Edge.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Would You Look Away? A Family’s Attempt to Escape Nazi Germany & the Cost of Being a Bystander with Ruth Stitt Sep 16, 2026

Show notes

Would you look away?

Ruth E. Stitt is an author and licensed counselor whose family’s preserved letters from Nazi Germany reveal how persecution can unfold gradually, how difficult escape can become, and what happens when ordinary people decide whether to remain bystanders or stand up.

In 1938, Ruth’s grandmother in Bridgeport, Connecticut received a letter from relatives in Berlin desperately searching for a way out of Nazi Germany. What followed was five years of correspondence filled with hope, fear, bureaucracy, attempted immigration, love and devastating loss.

In this conversation, Ruth and Lisa go beyond the question, “Why didn’t they just leave?” They explore the financial, legal, political and emotional barriers Jewish families faced while trying to escape, the psychology of denial as danger slowly becomes normalized, and what fear and grief do to human beings under extraordinary pressure. They also talk about the choice that can remain when nearly everything else has been taken away: how we respond, who we love and whether we are willing to speak when someone else is being dehumanized.

In this episode:

• Holocaust history and life inside Nazi Germany

• Jewish refugee immigration and the barriers to escape

• Family letters documenting persecution as it unfolded

• Denial, fear, grief and psychological survival

• Why “Why didn’t they just leave?” misses the complexity of displacement

• Choosing love when control has been stripped away

• Turning documented family history into historical fiction

• The difference between a bystander and an upstander

• Moral courage, dehumanization and the responsibility to speak

• Letting go of perfection, overachievement and the need to always have the answer

Content note: This conversation includes discussion of the Holocaust, persecution, forced displacement, psychological trauma and profound loss.

Connect with Ruth E. Stitt:

https://scripturecomesto.life

Find Ruth’s books on Amazon by searching Ruth E. Stitt.

Connect with Lisa Lacy:

https://lisalacy.com

What did you perform in order to survive?

Welcome to the Edge.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Are old patterns running your life? Self-Awareness & Personality with Arky Jones Sep 15, 2026

Show notes

What if the patterns you keep repeating are not who you are, but behaviors you learned long ago and never stopped to question?

Arky Jones, creator of Personality Peek, joins Notes From the Edge to explore how self-awareness can help us recognize the patterns quietly shaping our choices, relationships, work, and identity without turning personality into another label or box.

This conversation gets practical fast. Lisa and Arky talk about what happens when we realize we have been living according to other people’s expectations, how toxic workplace dynamics can make us feel powerless, and why taking ownership sometimes starts with something as small as documenting your work, protecting your attention, or changing one percent of a pattern instead of trying to reinvent your entire life overnight.

In this episode:

Personality as a mirror instead of a label
Self-awareness and recognizing unconscious patterns
People-pleasing and living without full authorship of your life
Stoicism and focusing on what you can actually control
Toxic workplace dynamics and protecting your work
Boundaries, attention, and deciding what you are willing to give
Why honesty with yourself matters more than the personality result
Arky’s “one percent” approach to practical personal growth
Money, debt, freedom, and intentional decision-making
How small conscious choices can change the direction of your life

Personality Peek is designed to help people identify strengths, blind spots, and behavioral patterns without treating personality as something fixed or diagnostic.

Connect with Arky Jones:

https://personalitypeek.com

Connect with Lisa Lacy:

https://LisaLacy.com

What did you perform in order to survive?

Welcome to the Edge.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.