Cracking Open with Molly Carroll

I'm recording this intro from a very quiet house. I just dropped off my daughter, my last kiddo, at college. On the drive home, it hit me: I feel most at ease and most alive as a mom in the everyday moments. Running errands. Cheering at games. Hearing the car pull in at night. Being a mom has certainly come with plenty of worry and sleepless nights, but I feel most grounded when I'm with my kids and my husband.

As much as I miss them, I'm so grateful my kids are out living their lives, and I'm stepping into a new season of my own. Part of that is accepting that I can't hold on to them forever, or protect them from everything.

That's exactly why this week's conversation hit so close to home. I sat down with my friend and fellow Bend local, Claudia Hinz, to talk about her novel Safekeeping, the story of a Dallas mom fighting to keep her son out of a reinstated military draft, and learning the hard way that we can't keep the people we love safe. Sometimes the greatest gift is letting go.

In this episode

• How the seeds of Claudia's new book Safekeeping were planted when Claudia was a little girl, overhearing her psychologist father host Vietnam veterans and POW/MIA families in their living room
• Stepping away from her broadcast journalism career to raise three kids, and the honest resentment that can come with that kind of sacrifice
• What it means to mother an adult child, and the hard truth that we can’t keep our children safe, no matter how much we love them or what resources we have
• Why so many veterans told Claudia that no one had ever asked about their experiences
• The surprising connection between Tenley and Privately, a young combat veteran, and why it’s really about being seen
• Five novels, a decade of rejections, and how to keep coming back to the page when you feel black and blue

About Claudia

Claudia Hinz lives in Bend, Oregon. She graduated from Harvard and received her MA in English from Southern Methodist University. She worked as a television reporter for network affiliates in Northern California, Seattle, and Dallas. Her work has been published in The Christian Science Monitor, Women Writers, Women’s Books, Story Magazine, The Boston Globe, 1859 Oregon’s Magazine, Bend Lifestyle Magazine, and BLUNTmoms.

When Claudia said love is being seen and held for who you are in a particular moment, I felt it in my bones. This moment, for me, is learning who I am beyond the driveway and the sidelines. I’m so grateful you’re here with me for it, because one thing I’ve learned as a mom and a human is that I can’t do life alone!

xo,
Molly

P.S. Look whose podcast was featured in Maria Shriver’s newsletter, The Sunday Paper... mine! 🙌

Connect with Claudia

• Get the book: Safekeeping
• Website and upcoming events: https://claudiahinz.net/
• Instagram: @claudiahinzauthor
• Book clubs: Claudia would love to join your discussion, virtually if you’re outside Central Oregon.

Work with Molly

• New website: https://molly-carroll.com/
• Therapy and coaching: I’m accepting new clients and specialize in breaking stuck patterns, coping with anxiety and depression, navigating life transitions, and creating more joy and balance. Schedule a session
• Speaking: Bring me to your company or conference to speak on connection and personal and professional success. Learn more at molly-carroll.com.

Support the podcast

After three years and over 100 episodes, this podcast is still self-funded. Even $5 a month helps cover hosting, editing, and prep. Join on Patreon

Stay connected
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I've interviewed over 100 people on this podcast, and this conversation hit me in a way none of the others have. It made me reflect deeply on my life and what is still holding me back. And if you've ever been curious about plant medicine, or want to learn anything about it, this is the episode to listen to.

Part of what hit me may be timing. I'm taking my daughter, my last kid, to college the day before you hear this episode. One day I'm scared and in tears, and the next I feel a little free, hearing a voice say, "It's your time, Molly, to get back more of you, your marriage, your career." It's a hodgepodge of emotions, and Kat's reassuring, loving, and wise voice gave me real comfort in this time of transition.

And oh my gosh, did this episode ever quench my thirst for answers about plant medicine!

Content note: This episode includes a firsthand account of a suicide attempt, plus discussion of addiction, trauma, and death. Please listen with care.

Kat is not only extensively trained in plant medicine, but she's also remarkably knowledgeable about its effects, its healing potential, and the laws surrounding it. She speaks to it medically, physically, emotionally, and spiritually, with a reported 1,000+ ayahuasca ceremonies behind her.

But I'd encourage anyone to listen, even if you're not interested in plant medicine, because she also talks about how to function in this world as a human. You'll hear morning and evening rituals, daily practices, and tips and tools to feel more balanced, joyful, and alive.

About Kat

Kat Courtney is a pioneer in the modern plant medicine space and a traditionally trained Ayahuasquera and Huachumera with over two decades of professional psychedelic experience. She apprenticed for 10+ years in the Shipibo-Conibo and Quechua-Lamista traditions, and she's the author of Plant Medicine Mystery School Vol 1. She leads Master Plant Diets in person and remotely, offers shamanic coaching, and is a certified death doula.

In this conversation, she shares the moment her life cracked open in her early 20s, how ayahuasca became the missing piece in her healing, and why she believes the hardest moments of our lives hold the greatest gifts.

In this episode:

• Surviving a suicide attempt and choosing to go on “a mission to heal”
• Why your pain is valid, even when it doesn’t match your life story
• SSRIs as a life raft vs. plant medicines as a way to “close trauma loops”
• Ibogaine for addiction and trauma work
• The four Cs of shadow work: crisis, clinical, cultural, and chemical
• Kat’s Colorado arrest and the future of plant medicine legality

Practices for everyone

• Morning: Take an hour before email and screens to check in with yourself and set an intention.
• Evening: Name your best win of the day and let your body release the rest.
• Ongoing: Catch the inner critic, work with your dreams, and ask, "Does this bring me joy and comfort?"

Kat's four questions for any facilitator

• Who trained you, and for how long?
• What's the hardest thing you've been through, as a participant and a facilitator?
• How do you handle it when someone says they don't feel safe in your space?
• What's your protocol if someone has a psychotic break or a very hard experience?

Taking my last kid to college is cracking open an old identity for me as a mom, and it's making me look at my life through a different lens. Listening to Kat reminded me that there are so many ways to do that deeper work: plant medicine, daily rituals, therapy, time in nature.

What stuck with me most is that I can't just wait for life to do it for me. I need to step in and do the reflection myself, so that my life is rich and full with or without my kids in the house. I hope this conversation leaves you feeling the same way, whatever transition you're in and whichever path feels right for you.

xo

Molly

Promo Information:

Work with Kat

• Plant Medicine Mystery School Vol. 1 (book): https://www.plantmedicinepeople.com/
• Plant Medicine People retreats and programs: https://www.plantmedicinepeople.com/

Website + Social

• Website: https://www.plantmedicinepeople.com/
• Ibogaine clinic: https://basseibogaine.com/
• Instagram: @theafterlifecoach
• Instagram: @plantmedicinepeople
• YouTube: Kat Courtney

Molly Carroll:

Website | Instagram | Facebook

Now accepting new therapy clients!Schedule Here

This episode reflects the guest's personal experiences and opinions and is not medical advice. Plant medicines can interact dangerously with medications, including SSRIs, and many are illegal in the U.S. If you're struggling, please reach out to a mental health professional or a crisis line such as 988 in the U.S.

Quick heads up: we are talking about grief, death, and all that we can learn from this deep topic today.

I know, I know, stay with me. Because we spend so much energy avoiding the one thing that's guaranteed to happen to all of us: death.

But I am learning death doesn’t have to be so heavy. It can actually bring so much more light into our lives: perspective, gratitude, appreciation.

Those of you who know me or have listened to this show know that I lost both of my parents when I was in my 40s, and I’ve lost friends along the way too. Now, with my own kids heading off to college, I’ve been feeling so many emotions, grief being one of them. So when Karen and Jen reached out to come on the podcast, it was a resounding yes.

Karen Callahan and Jen Tadjedin are death doulas who left careers in tech and advertising to help people navigate dying, grief, and end-of-life planning work they both came to after losing people close to them. On this episode, we talk about what a death doula actually does, why we’re so afraid of this conversation, the paperwork nobody wants to fill out but everyone’s grateful for later, and the woo-woo stuff too: mediums, dreams, and the ways our people keep showing up after they’re gone.

In this episode

• What a death doula actually does: part medical advocate, part care manager, part emotional support, far bigger than just being there at the very end
• Their origin stories: Karen after losing both parents within two years; Jen after a hospice training changed everything
• The Peace of Mind workshop: five components, and why the conversations matter more than the paperwork
• Why we’re so afraid of death and the couple whose workshop became the tipping point to move to San Diego finally
• Grief has no timeline: Karen on the “foggy” first year, and why compassion beats any schedule
• The medium, the dream, and what comes after personal stories that reshaped what they believe happens next
• Healing relationships after death ritual, unfinished business, and why some healing only comes after someone’s gone

Even though death still scares me, I love finding the time and space to actually talk about it. Every time I do, I walk away feeling more peaceful, more light, and more grateful for the life I get to live right now. I hope this conversation gives you a little bit of that too.

Resources & links

• Karen Callahan & Jen Tadjedin’s website
• Peace of Mind Workshop
• Peace of Mind Workbook
• Book mentioned: Advice for Future Corpsesby Sallie Tisdale

Work with Molly: https://calendly.com/mollycarroll/coaching

If you’re ready to do the meaningful work of truly knowing and accepting yourself, I’m currently accepting new therapy clients. I specialize in helping people:

• Break stuck patterns in relationships or life decisions
• Develop coping strategies for anxiety and depression
• Navigate life transitions with clarity and purpose
• Create more joy, balance, and healthy habits

A note from Molly: For three years, I’ve poured my heart into this podcast, creating over 100 episodes. I’ve funded everything myself to focus on meaningful conversations, but to keep bringing you the quality content you deserve, I need your help.Even $5 a month, less than a coffee, helps cover hosting, editing, and prep time. If this podcast has supported you, would you consider joining? Support here

Stay Connected with Molly:
Follow on Instagram
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If this episode brought something up for you, I’d love to hear about it — leave a comment or send me a message. And if you know someone who needs this conversation, share it with them.

I’ve been sitting with a strange kind of grief lately, the kind that comes from something good. Both my kids will be in college soon, and I know how lucky I am to say that. Still, I keep hearing the same thing from everyone around me. “Molly, this is your time!”

Some days that’s true. I feel free, open, like a whole new chapter is standing right there waiting for me. Other days my heart aches just thinking about the quiet house. No one asking me to make them a sandwich. No shower running in the morning, no dishes thrown in the sink because someone was rushing out the door. That sound, that mess, I miss it before it’s even gone.

So I needed today’s conversation more than I realized when I sat down to record it.

My guest is Kathy Eldon, and her opening line to me set the tone for everything that followed. Don’t despair, don’t give up. There’s no way out, but through.

Kathy’s life has been one long act of reinvention, from a conservative upbringing in Iowa, to a journalist in Nairobi, to a mother who lost her 22-year-old son Dan, a Reuters photojournalist killed while covering the crisis in Somalia. She has since built Creative Visions Foundation, which has incubated more than 400 projects across five continents and touched over 100 million people. She’s the author of 17 books, including her memoir In the Heart of Life, which cracked me wide open before we even hit record.

In our conversation, Kathy shares:

✨ How being cracked open again and again, by apartheid, by divorce, by grief, became the shape of her entire life rather than something to recover from and move past.

✨ What she has learned about grief after losing Dan, including why the second year was harder than the first, and the one piece of advice she gives everyone who is grieving.

✨ How she turned unimaginable loss into Creative Visions, and what it looks like to give your creative spark to something bigger than yourself.

We also talk about her noisy spirits, her visits with psychic mediums, and her simple, powerful closing words: find a path to joy.

This conversation is for anyone standing at the edge of a new chapter, whether it’s an empty house, a loss, or a version of yourself you’re not sure how to leave behind. Kathy’s story is proof that the cracks are not the end. They’re where the light gets in.

🎧 Tune in now to listen.

xoxo

Molly

https://molly-carroll.com/

Resources & Links:

• Read Kathy’s memoir, In the Heart of Life.
• Learn more about Creative Visions Foundation
• Learn more about Kathy Eldon

Work with Molly: https://calendly.com/mollycarroll/coaching

If you’re ready to do the meaningful work of truly knowing and accepting yourself, I’m currently accepting new therapy clients. I specialize in helping people:

• Break stuck patterns in relationships or life decisions
• Develop coping strategies for anxiety and depression
• Navigate life transitions with clarity and purpose
• Create more joy, balance, and healthy habits

A note from Molly: For three years, I’ve poured my heart into this podcast, creating 90 episodes. I’ve funded everything myself to focus on meaningful conversations, but to keep bringing you the quality content you deserve, I need your help.

Even $5 a month, less than a coffee, helps cover hosting, editing, and prep time. If this podcast has supported you, would you consider joining? Support here

Stay Connected with Molly: Follow on Instagram; follow on Facebook

This fall, my youngest, my last one, leaves for college. Twenty-one years of being a mom, and I’m standing at the edge of a chapter I don’t know how to close. When my son left two years ago, I was a wreck. Shame that I was “too attached,” fear of who I am when mothering isn’t my daily identity, questions about my marriage, my life, my self.

So when Jodie Patterson agreed to come back on the podcast, the timing felt like more than coincidence.

This is Jodie’s third time on Cracking Open: she was episode 2, back before I knew what I was doing, andepisode 65. She’s a friend, and a voice this podcast keeps coming back to. And this time, I felt how much we’ve both shifted since we last talked.

Jodie Patterson is an award-winning, globally recognized author, activist, beauty explorer, and mother of five. She was the first Black person to chair the Human Rights Campaign Board, our nation’s largest LGBT organization, and speaks widely on identity, gender, race, and radical parenting. Her memoir, The Bold World, was called “marvelous” by Alice Walker, and her children’s book, Born Ready, was gifted to every public school in Kansas. She also co-founded two beauty companies, works with Mount Sinai Hospital on health disparities and transgender medicine, and has been recognized by the United Nations as a Champion of Change.

Here’s what we got into.

✨Slow down internally, then respond from your highest self

The night before we recorded, one of Jodie’s adult children texted asking her to back off on the weekly check-ins. Her first instinct was hurt. Instead of firing back, she put the phone down, cried a little, and responded from a steadier place: “I’ll slow down, I’m a phone call away, and when you shift, I’ll shift with you.” One of the best examples of parenting adult children I’ve heard on this show.

✨Mothering as an internal revolution

We box ourselves in as much as the world boxes us in, and the deepest revolution is internal. Raising five kids across different relationships, cultures, and identities has taught Jodie that gender, faith, and family are far more fluid than she was raised to believe.

✨Two years without a lover

After a family near-death experience, Jodie stopped dating entirely for two years, not from lack of desire, but because energy is finite. She described it like moving houses and finally seeing what’s been under the carpet for years. What she found is the foundation for how she’s dating now, at 55, with a clarity she didn’t have before.

✨Healing versus fixing

Jodie’s daily practice isn’t about optimizing; it’s about healing what’s underneath instead of numbing it:

• Stretching before she’s even out of bed
• Ten minutes on a vibration plate
• Weight training and an hour walking her dogs
• Whole foods, less caffeine
• Plant medicine and clinical ketamine therapy, used intentionally and under care

✨Hustle down, flow up

I shared the phrase my solopreneur friends coined: hustle down, flow up, and Jodie lit up. Less ambition to write the next book or chair the next board. More interest in what makes her feel alive: alone time, surfing for the first time in Costa Rica, tree hugging.

✨Humility, earned

Jodie said something I won’t forget: she’s had to earn her children’s respect and companionship, the same way she’d earn it with anyone she loves. That humility has softened her — while her boundaries have only gotten clearer.

I came into this episode carrying so much about my own transition twenty-one years of identity wrapped up in being someone’s mom. Talking to Jodie didn’t hand me answers, but it did something better: she gave me permission to be me again. If you’re standing at your own edge of letting go, I hope this conversation gives you that same permission.

Jodie, thank you for trusting me with this conversation again. Listen to the full episode wherever you get your podcasts, and if you missed Jodie’s first appearance, go back to episode 65.

🌱 Purchase Jodie’s book The Bold World here, and Born Ready here. Follow Jodie on Instagram.

Love,
Molly

🌱 Please consider supporting the Cracking Open podcast on Patreon.

RESOURCES & LINKS:

Molly Carroll:

Website | Instagram| Facebook

Now accepting new therapy clients!
If you’re feeling stuck, navigating change, or craving more purpose and peace, I’d love to support you. Learn more or schedule a sessionhere.

I don't know about you, but even though I use AI almost every single day, there is still a part of me that gets nervous about it.

I love nothing more than sitting across from a friend with a cup of coffee, driving in the car with my kids and husband to Seattle to see a World Cup Game (yep, I went), or being out in nature with nothing but my own thoughts, no machine, no screen, just me. I am deeply passionate about human connection. So passionate that I did a TED talk on The Power of Human Connection.

So when I think about what AI might mean for how we relate to each other, it concerns me. And yet here I am, using AI daily, and if I am honest, loving it. That conflict lives inside of me, and it is exactly what led me to this conversation with today's guest, Jack Swift.

I met Jack about two years ago. I was up in the hills outside of Los Angeles, spending the day at a conference on human performance, and at dinner that night I ended up sitting next to Jack.

Within minutes we were talking about Jungian psychology, Internal Family Systems, and the nature of the soul.

That is just who Jack is.

He goes deep fast, and with such warmth that you don’t realize how far you have gone until you come up for air. Something about him immediately put me at ease about what it means to be human in this moment.

Jack grew up in Hope, Arkansas (yes, the same town as the Clintons), where something was planted in him early around service and possibility. That thread carried him to West Point as a DI athlete, to the Army as an Airborne Ranger, into institutional finance, and eventually to co-found and lead TIFIN. On this AI-native fintech platform, he grew the team from 30 to over 300 people and oversaw JPMorgan's acquisition of 55ip. When Jack talks about AI, he is not theorizing. He has lived it from the inside.

And yet what strikes me most about Jack is not his resume. It is that alongside all of that, he co-founded Sangha, a community I am lucky enough to be part of. A collective of heart-centered leaders, small circles of people who meet regularly, grow together, and integrate their inner work into every part of life. It tells you everything you need to know about who Jack really is.

What makes his story so human is that through his success, he was also quietly struggling. Leaning on alcohol to numb emotions he didn’t have words for, stuck in fight-or-flight, measuring his worth by what the world reflected back to him. He shares all of this openly, including the one moment with his daughter that finally changed everything. That part of our conversation stopped me in my tracks.

Here is a taste of what we get into:

✨Leading from the inside out and why knowing your own truth is the most important leadership skill right now
✨The “resentment trap” and what a story about music in a car taught me about relationships
✨Why “I don’t know” and “I made a mistake” are the two most powerful things a leader can say
✨How Jack uses AI agents as thought partners, including helping his own son figure out his next career chapter

If you have ever worried about jobs, wondered what to tell your kids to study, or felt like this technology is moving faster than you can keep up with, this episode is for you. Jack does not dismiss that fear. He meets it with honesty and reframes it in a way that gave me hope.

As someone who carries caution around what AI means for human connection, I can tell you this conversation with Jack left me feeling more hopeful about AI, about people, and about life itself.

xo

Molly

Jack’s Resources and Links

• Level 7 Leadership: The Blueprint for the Human+Machine Era by Jack Swift, and L7 AI agent at https://l7leadership.com/
• LinkedIn
• Website
• Sangha

🎧Listen now on Apple Podcasts

🎧Listen now on Spotify

Love,
Molly

🌱 Please consider supporting the Cracking Open podcast on Patreon.

RESOURCES & LINKS:

Molly Carroll:

Website | Instagram | Facebook

Now accepting new therapy clients!
If you’re feeling stuck, navigating change, or craving more purpose and peace, I’d love to support you. Learn more or schedule a sessionhere.

I recorded this episode in the middle of one of the most emotional weeks of my life. My daughter Cora was three days from graduating high school, and I found myself at backyard parties where the conversation kept drifting to the same familiar places: the weather, work, the kids.

And I felt that quiet ache I believe so many of us are carrying right now. The longing for something deeper. More real. More connected.

So that’s what today’s episode is about: how we find the courage to have more connection.

Something Is Shifting

Because I think we all feel it. This quiet ache underneath the busyness of our lives. We reach for our phones in line for coffee instead of turning to the person next to us. We text instead of call. We scroll instead of sit. We show up to gatherings and perform a version of ourselves the edited, polished, “I’m fine” version instead of actually arriving in all our beautiful messiness.

And from this? We feel less connected. More lonely. More invisible.

Here’s what I’ve learned in 25 years as a therapist: loneliness isn’t about being alone. You can be surrounded by people at a party, in a marriage, in an office full of colleagues and still feel profoundly unseen. The opposite of loneliness isn’t proximity. It’s depth.

And the data tells us loneliness is worse for your health than smoking, obesity, or high blood pressure. Anxiety and depression are the highest ever, and we are more likely to die from feeling lonely. The epidemic is real.

But here’s what I know after 25 years of sitting with people in my office: loneliness is not the problem. It’s the symptom. Connection is the medicine. And the prescription? COURAGE.

The courage to ask a real question. To say the true thing. To let someone love you back. So here are the four pillars of courage to create more connection and therefore more LOVE.

The Four Pillars of Courage for Connection

✨1. Ask for Help

Here’s the thing about asking for help: we avoid it because we think it makes us look weak or like a burden. A Harvard and Wharton study found the number one reason people don’t ask for help: it makes us feel incompetent.

But here’s what the research actually shows. When you ask someone for help, they see you as more competent. They trust you more. And this is the part I love so much: they feel like they matter.

I have been a therapist for decades, and I still feel resistance every single time I walk into my own therapist’s office. But this week, in the middle of all the graduation chaos, I asked a couple of friends for help. And I felt the weight lift. I wasn’t just giving love anymore. I was letting people give me love back.

Next time someone asks how you’re doing, try this instead of “fine”:

• “I’ve been wrestling with something lately. Can I get your take on it?”
• “Honestly, I could use some advice. I’ve been dealing with something hard.”

Watch what happens to their face. Watch their eyes change. You just told them they have something real to offer you. You just allowed them to love you.

✨2. Be Authentic

I know authenticity gets thrown around so much it almost loses its meaning. So here’s what I actually mean by it: tell the truth. Not the highlight reel, not the LinkedIn version. The real one.

I was on a walk with a dear friend recently, and I could feel she’d been carrying something heavy for months. I kept holding back, not wanting to push. But finally I said: “I see something going on with you. I feel like you’re carrying something hard. Can I be here for you?”

She was honest. She cried. And then I could share my own fears about Cora leaving for college. We walked away closer than we’d been in years.

Try slipping one of these into your next conversation:

• “What’s been the hardest part of your week?”
• “If you’re being totally honest, how are you?”

People might pause. It might get a little uncomfortable. The Buddhists teach that we need to get comfortable with the uncomfortable.

✨3. Make Change

Yes, the world is noisy. Yes, our phones, schedules, and the general chaos of life are real. But we still get to choose where we spend our time and if we want to connect on a deeper level.

It is our responsibility to create the rituals, the invitations, the conversations for more connection. A month ago I challenged myself to walk up to a table of strangers, young, hip, athletic mountain bikers, and ask if they’d be on my podcast. My heart was pounding. But when I did, they looked up. They smiled. They felt seen.

And at a graduation party recently, I stopped a new friend and said, “I’m challenging myself to go deeper at these parties. So here’s my question: in a year from now, what do you want to be celebrating?”

We both got quiet. Then she said: “I want to be celebrating that I don’t worry as much. That I’ve let go of the weight I carry around my kids and my divorce. That I’m finally celebrating who I am.”

That is the kind of conversation that stays with you. That’s the one you remember.

✨4. Be in Service: Show Up to See, Not Just to Be Seen

Most of us walk into a room carrying some version of the same quiet anxiety: Do I look okay? Will people like me? Am I enough? You are not alone in that. I feel it every time too.

But what if you walked in with just one question in your heart:

“Who in this room needs to feel less alone today?”

That is the shift. That is everything. When you become the person who asks the real questions, who listens without fixing, who makes eye contact and says “tell me more,” you become magnetic. Not because you performed well. Because you made someone feel like they mattered.

Some of my favorite questions to bring to any gathering:

• “What’s something you wish more people asked you about?”
• “What’s the best thing that’s happened to you in the last month?”
• “How do you want to live?”

I heard that last one recently from a son speaking at his father’s funeral. I haven’t stopped thinking about it since.

This Is the Moment

We keep waiting for the right time to have the real conversation. The right setting. The right moment. The right person to go first.

There is no right time. This is the moment.

By the time you read this, Cora has already graduated. The cap, the gown, the ugly crying it’s all happened. And I can tell you that the conversations I will carry from this season are not the ones about the weather. They’re the ones where someone looked me in the eye and asked something real.

At your next gathering, be the one who goes first. Ask the brave question. Sit with the pause. Put down your phone and let it go somewhere.

The world doesn’t need more small talk. It needs more of you the real, brave, loving, beautifully messy, imperfect you.

That is the magic

xo

Lots of love, Molly

I found Emma through Maria Shriver's newsletter, and her words stopped me cold:

"I no longer want more. I want to be wild."

I felt my whole body exhale. Because I knew exactly what she meant. The TED Talks, the books, the funnels, the coaching groups, I had all of it. And so did Emma. And somewhere underneath all of it, we both heard the same quiet voice saying: this isn't it.

This conversation is for anyone who has ever felt that way.

Meet Emma Tynan

Emma Tynan is an Irish writer whose work explores belonging, the inner life, and contemplative practice through lived experience. She lives in the Pacific Northwest and is currently writing her first book, Brave Words. She also facilitates international luxury retreats in devotion to St. Mary Magdalene, and before all of this, she founded an international life coaching company that served thousands of students worldwide for over a decade.

What We Get Into

Closing a decade-long business in a single afternoon. Emma got her name on the office door and two weeks later heard four words rise up within her, standing outside her son's school: give me everything. She sent the emails that same day.

Her son Eli and the gift inside the unexpected. Emma's youngest is autistic. His becoming was an invitation to grieve, surrender, and release everything she thought life was supposed to look like. She homeschooled him for a year, with hot chocolates, forest walks, and a chalkboard in the dining room. She'd do it ten times over.

Distraction disguised as productivity. Years of funnels and Facebook ads, chasing the next strategy while a voice in her heart kept saying the same thing: write the book. I felt this in my bones.

Mary Magdalene and reclaiming what's true. Emma's work centers on restoring Mary Magdalene's real story, scholar, apostle, prophet, not the fiction she was branded with for centuries. In Ireland, this history is not abstract. It's in the bones of the culture.

What wildness really means. Not resistance. Belonging. The part of us we were taught to tame, that's the part that knows who we really are.

Quotes I'm Still Thinking About

✨"It was distraction disguised as productivity and scaling and growth."
✨"The thing you're most afraid to admit that's the thing that's going to liberate you."
✨"The tendrils of my soul want to touch the real earth to move not outward, but inward."

Her writing will move you. I promise.

📖 Subscribe to her Substack 🌿https://www.thelightscript.com/📷 Instagram: @emmatynan_

If this landed somewhere in you, share it with someone who needs to hear it.

Molly Carroll:

Website | Instagram | Facebook

Now accepting new therapy clients! Schedule Here

What does it mean to truly lead not just in a boardroom, but in your relationships, your family, and your own inner life? In this deeply moving episode, therapist and host Molly Carroll sits down with Thomas Droge, executive coach, Chief Mindfulness Officer, mindfulness speaker, and author of The Leader Within, to explore the practices that create real, lasting transformation.

Thomas brings over three decades of integrated medicine, qigong, meditation, and contemplative work into a raw, honest conversation about shadow work, living your core values, the healing power of human connection, and what happens when life cracks you open without warning.

You'll hear Thomas share the moment his wife came out of surgery paralyzed — and what that crisis revealed about love, presence, and showing up. This episode is for anyone feeling stuck, disconnected, or searching for deeper meaning in a noisy world.

Topics covered:

• Shadow work and embracing your "evil twin"
• How to identify and live by your core values (the precepts practice)
• Leadership as a human skill — for parents, teachers, and everyday people
• The psychology of not wanting to be a burden
• Ancient wisdom for modern mental health
• Mindfulness in the workplace and startup culture
• Finding your path when the template doesn't fit

🎧 Tune in now to listen.

xo

Molly

🌱 Please consider supporting the Cracking Open podcast on Patreon.

Resources and Links

Thomas Droge:

Website | Instagram | LinkedIn | Facebook

The Leader Within — available now wherever books are sold.

Molly Carroll:

Website | Instagram | Facebook

Now accepting new therapy clients! Schedule Here

You got a NO this week.

Maybe more than one. Someone said no to you. Or your kid came home with that look on their face. Or you've been trying and trying, and the door just won't open.

Here's what the research tells us: your brain processes social rejection in the same region as physical pain. Neuroscientist Naomi Eisenberger found that the anterior cingulate cortex — the part that lights up when you're physically hurt — lights up identically when you're rejected. You are not being dramatic. You are being human.

And your brain doesn't distinguish between a big no and a small one. The strawberries being out of stock. The email that never came back. Your nervous system treats them all the same way. The small nos stack. By noon, your threat response has been firing all morning — and your fear brain starts whispering: maybe you're not enough. Maybe you should stop trying. That is not wisdom. That is fear doing its job.

A no is information about that moment. It is not a verdict on your worth.

When it happens to someone you love. When your child doesn't make the team, isn't invited to the party, comes home with that look — it hits differently. Research shows that when someone we love is rejected, our brains register it as if it happened to us. Add the helplessness of not being able to take it from them, and it's a lot to carry. So: feel your own pain first. Then sit with them. Listen. Show them what it looks like to get back up. How you handle your nos is teaching everyone around you how to handle theirs.

Four tools for the no you're holding:

1. Name which no it is. A not yet has a crack in it — soft language, an open door, worth showing up for again. A real no feels different in your body: clear, final, repeated. Releasing a real no isn't defeat. It's clarity. It frees up every ounce of energy you've been spending on a closed door.

2. Write it out. Unprocessed nos become stories — nothing works out for me, I always get passed over. Those aren't facts. They're feelings. Write it out and watch it lose its grip. Naming an emotion reduces its intensity and moves you from fear brain back into thinking brain.

3. Burn it. Write it down, read it one last time, say out loud: "This does not define me" — and burn it. Watch it turn to ash. Can't burn it? Tear it up. Delete it. The point is the conscious choice to let it go.

4. Ask what it's making room for. What could this no be redirecting you toward? What are your yeses now? And if all you can write is I don't know yet, but I trust something is coming — that is enough. That is the whole practice.

Every no you have ever survived is proof that you are still here. Something good is ahead of you. I really believe that.

Now go find your magic. 🤍 — Molly

🌱 Please consider supporting the Cracking Open podcast on Patreon.

RESOURCES & LINKS:

Molly Carroll:

Website | Instagram | Facebook

Now accepting new therapy clients!
Learn more or schedule a session here.

Whenever someone asks me for a word that describes how I want to live, my answer is always the same.

Freedom.

Not just personal freedom, but freedom in my mind, my body, and my spirit. Maybe that comes from being raised Catholic, or maybe it’s simply my wild spirit that has never wanted to be contained.

So when I read Shaka Senghor's How to Be Free: A Proven Guide to Escaping Life’s Hidden Prisons, I knew I needed to have him back on the podcast.

Because this message isn’t just for people who have been behind bars. You don’t need a prison cell to feel imprisoned.

It’s for anyone lying awake replaying something they wish they could let go of. Anyone who can’t move past a loss. Anyone whose carefully built walls are keeping even joy out.

Shaka Senghor is known for his remarkable journey from solitary confinement to the C-suite. He is a New York Times bestselling author, a resilience teacher, and one of the most powerful voices we have on transformation, healing, and justice.

In his latest book, he names the hidden prisons that keep us stuck. They are not made of concrete and steel, but of grief, anger, shame, and fear.

And here is the truth that changes everything.

These prisons have doors.

In This Episode, We Explore

Grief
Shaka begins his book with grief for a reason. We talk about loss in a deeply human way, including the death of his beloved dog and his brother. In one of the most moving moments of our conversation, he shares how he refused to let his dog’s passing go unacknowledged, even taking legal action against the care center responsible. This is grief met with both love and accountability.

Anger
What does it mean to be the master of your emotions rather than a prisoner of them? He reframes anger as something that, when understood, can become a source of power and agency rather than destruction.

Shame
In one of the most courageous moments of the conversation, Shaka speaks openly about sexual abuse as a man and the silence that surrounds it. At a time when so many men carry this in isolation, his willingness to name it matters deeply.

Hope and Joy
There is light here, too. This conversation is not just about surviving. It is about learning how to live. He reminds us that joy is not something we earn after suffering. It is available to us now.

Shaka spent nineteen years in the Michigan prison system, including seven years in solitary confinement. Since his release, he has become a leading voice on resilience, healing, and personal transformation. His work has been featured on Oprah’s Super Soul Sunday, and How to Be Free is a roadmap for anyone who has ever felt stuck.

Which, if we’re honest, is all of us.

Hidden prisons are real. They are built from our pain, our past, and the stories we carry about who we are.

But as he reminds us through both his life and his work, the door is always there.

You just have to be willing to walk through it.

🎧 Tune in now to listen.

With love,
Molly

🌱 Please consider supporting the Cracking Open podcast on Patreon.

RESOURCES & LINKS:

Shaka Senghor

Website | Instagram

How to Be Free — available wherever books are sold

Molly Carroll:

Website | Instagram | Facebook

Now accepting new therapy clients!
Learn more or schedule a session here.

Welcome to Molly's Magic.

I’m Molly.
A mom, a therapist, an author, a podcast host, and a TED speaker.
The alchemy of these roles has brought me here.

Molly's Magic is simple.
Short, meaningful, and doable steps to help you move closer to your goals.

Who is Molly's Magic for?

This is for the part of you that knows you are capable of more but cannot quite name what is getting in the way.

The part of you that feels stuck.
That senses something bigger is waiting.
That is ready, even just a little bit, to explore what that could look like.

The Story Behind Molly's Magic

I was not always the smartest, the most athletic, or the most beautiful person in the room.

But I have always had something else.
A deep, steady belief that things can happen for me in life.

And a lot of the time, they do.

From meeting the Dalai Lama, to walking into a fully booked restaurant and somehow getting a table, to getting into a Taylor Swift Eras Tour show on the floor with no ticket.

Over time, my kids started calling it Molly Magic.

What I Know to Be True

After 25 years as a therapist, and from living my own messy, beautiful, complicated life, this is what I know.

You have the magic too.

And I also know what gets in the way.

An unregulated nervous system.
A mind stuck in fight or flight.
The voice that tells you that you are not enough, or that there is not enough.
The pressure to be perfect.
Old stories that feel like truth.
Blame.
Staying stuck in the past.

These things do not just keep you unhappy.
They block your magic.

What Molly's Magic Is

Molly's Magic is about finding your magic.
Living your magic.
And gently moving the things out of the way that are keeping you from it.

You are not going to feel magical every day.
There will be hard days. Hard seasons. Moments when nothing feels possible.

You are okay when you are not okay.
And that is part of this, too.

This is about possibility and acceptance in the same breath.
Daily ritual and real therapeutic tools.
Self-love. Real, imperfect, practiced self-love.

Because when you learn to truly love yourself, you create more space for connection, for joy, and for magic in your life.

Every month, I will share one tool.
One shift.
One piece of wisdom.

Something I have learned over 25 years in the therapy room and, often, the hard way in my own life.

Short. Simple. Actionable.
Something you can begin before you even finish your coffee.

So welcome to Molly Magic.

And welcome home to you.

If this landed for you, share it with someone who might need it.

If you want more, subscribe to Cracking Open so you never miss an episode, and come find me so we can keep the conversation going.

You do not have to do any of this alone.

🎧 Tune in now to listen.

With love,
Molly

🌱 Please consider supporting the podcast on Patreon.

RESOURCES & LINKS:

Molly Carroll:

Website | Instagram | Facebook

Now accepting new therapy clients!
Learn more or schedule a session here.

Welcome back to Part 2 of our 100th episode.

If you have not listened to Part 1 yet, pause here and go back. Truly.

Tommy, Lisa, René, Leo, and Cora brought everything. And your responses told me just how deeply it landed.

You shared that Tommy reminded you that everything you need is already inside of you.
That Lisa’s story made you want to start something new at 60.
That René’s story changed the way you see single moms and families of three.
That after listening to Cora, you wanted to sign up for her workshop on overcoming toxic friendships. Honestly, same.
And that Leo left you feeling more hopeful about your own life.

I could not have asked for more than that.

And now, we continue.

Because there are more stories to tell.
More moments to sit with.
More truth to witness.

In this second half, you will hear from some of the people who have held me together for decades.

Charlotte Hardwick, my most trusted confidante, reflects on what 100 episodes of this podcast have taught her.

Noelle Teuber, who has been running beside me, both literally and figuratively, for 15 years, shares about loss and what it means to find love again on the other side.

My husband, Adam Carroll, opens up about navigating life’s biggest transitions and what it truly means to believe in yourself when the path is not clear.

Bowen Teuber speaks honestly about the loneliness and challenge of transitioning to college and how he found himself in the middle of it.

And then there is me.

Because if I am going to ask the people I love most to crack open on this microphone, it only feels right that I do the same.

I share what it meant to show up for René after she lost Jason and how, in that moment, our group of friends became something more than friendship.

We became family.

These are not famous voices or household names.

They are the people who show up.
The people who stay.
The people who love.

And somewhere in these conversations, my hope is that you hear yourself.
That you feel a little less alone.
And that you are reminded:

Cracking open, that beautiful, messy, courageous act of being human, belongs to all of us.

🎧 Tune in now to listen.

With love,
Molly

🌱 Please consider supporting the Cracking Open podcast on Patreon.

RESOURCES & LINKS:

Molly Carroll:

Website | Instagram | Facebook

Now accepting new therapy clients!
Learn more or schedule a session here.

In this special two-part 100th episode, you’ll hear something a little different—the everyday, deeply human stories of the people closest to me.

From navigating the loss of a husband to the tender uncertainty of leaving home for college. From launching a business to discovering a passion for a sport you never imagined trying at 50. From the journey of growing from boy to man, to finding resilience after heartbreak, to the quiet but powerful work of building strong friendships.

These are not famous voices or household names—and that is exactly the point.

Because cracking open doesn’t belong to the extraordinary few.
It belongs to all of us.

My hope is that somewhere in these conversations, you hear yourself. You hear your own story. And maybe, just maybe, you feel a little less alone in yours.

But to understand why this episode means so much to me, you have to know a little about the journey that brought us here.

One Hundred Episodes

One hundred episodes.
I still have to pinch myself writing those words.

When I started this podcast, I had one question I couldn’t stop thinking about:

What is your cracking open moment—and how did it change you forever?

I had no idea that question would lead me to 99 of the most extraordinary people I’ve ever had the privilege of sitting with.

From Jodie Patterson and David Nichtern, who said yes when I had absolutely no idea what I was doing… to Fr. Greg Boyle of Homeboy Industries, Mary Pipher, Shaka Senghor, Elizabeth Lesser, Dr. Mary Claire Haver, Dr. Dan Siegel, Terry Real, Dr. Lisa Miller, Tami Simon, Dr. Ellen Langer, Cory Richards, Suneel Gupta, and so many more whose wisdom has changed me forever.

Guests who overcame heroin addiction, grief, incarceration, and unimaginable loss. Guests who returned a second time because one conversation wasn’t enough. Guests who became dear friends.

Every one of those 99 guests trusted me with their cracking open stories—with their vulnerability, wisdom, and kindness—and they will forever be woven into the fabric of this podcast.

And for that, I am deeply grateful.

Because here’s the truth:
I’m not Joe Rogan.
I’m not Mel Robbins.
I’m not a celebrity who decided to start a podcast.

So every single time someone said yes to me—trusted me with their time and their story—I jumped up in pure joy.

Coming Home

For episode 100, I wanted to do something that felt true to why I started this podcast in the first place.

So I turned to the people who know me best—and asked them the same question I’ve asked every guest:

What was your cracking open moment?

You’ll hear from my husband of 22 years, Adam Carroll, my son Tommy Carroll, my daughter Cora Carroll, and my brother Leo Rowen.

You’ll also hear from the friends who have held me together for decades.

Charlotte Hardwick, René Mitchell, Lisa Bermudez, Noelle Teuber, and Bowen Teuber.

My Team

And none of this would exist without my team.

Natalie, Kevin, and Chloe: this is yours too.

Ninety-nine episodes of strangers who became teachers, teachers who became friends, and stories that cracked me wide open in ways I never expected.

And now episode 100—coming home to the people who have been cracking me open my entire life without even knowing it.

It feels exactly right.

If this episode moves you, please share it with someone you love.
And if you haven’t yet, subscribe so you never miss a Cracking Open moment.

We’re just getting started.

🎧 Tune in now to listen.

With love,
Molly

As we approach our 100th episode, I’ve been revisiting a few conversations that have stayed with me long after the microphones were turned off.

Bill Valentine’s episode was re-released because of the way he shared heart-centered, real-life wisdom while facing the end of his life. And today, I’m re-releasing my conversation with Serena Dugan for a different—but equally powerful—reason.

Over the years, people have stopped me on the streets of my hometown of Bend to tell me that Serena’s words gave them the courage to finally write the book that had been living inside them… or to leave a corporate job and start a small design company to help people feel more alive in their homes.

These two episodes remind us that our "cracking open" moments come in many forms. Sometimes they arrive through confronting mortality, and sometimes they arrive through choosing to trust our creativity and make brave, life-altering changes.

Serena is a beacon of authenticity and creative courage. She is an artist and textile designer based in Sausalito, California. With a background in both psychology and fine art, Serena has spent over 20 years shaping her voice as a painter, product designer, and the Chief Creative Officer of Serena & Lily, the home and lifestyle brand she founded in 2004.

In 2020, she launched Serena Dugan Studio, her namesake collection of fabrics and wallpapers. Her art-driven textiles draw inspiration from around the world—from the breezy jet-set spirit of Capri in the ’50s, to South American basket-weaving traditions, to the colorful mid-century architecture of Mexico City. Most recently, Serena collaborated with Erik Lindstrom on a line of rugs inspired by her artwork.

In our conversation, we explore what it really means to trust your creative instincts, make decisions from your inner knowing, release ego, and find your way forward through grief and loss. This episode is both grounded and expansive—a reminder that creativity lives within all of us when we remain open to change and willing to listen to ourselves.

Serena also speaks honestly about the value of making mistakes, starting over, and remembering that our achievements do not define who we are. As she so beautifully shares:

“At the end of my days, I’m not going to look back on Serena and Lily and think that is my greatest success. I’m not going to look back on my textile collection and say that is what I’m most proud of. At the end of the day, it’s the people I’m surrounded by that give life meaning. The rest of this is just our path to love.”

This conversation is a gentle but powerful reminder that our creative work, our businesses, and our accomplishments are simply vehicles. The true masterpiece is how we love and connect with others along the way.

If you’ve been waiting for permission to start that project, make that change, or trust the creative voice that’s been quietly calling you forward—let this episode be your catalyst.

🎧 Tune in now to listen.

With love,
Molly

🌱 Please consider supporting the Cracking Open podcast on Patreon.

RESOURCES & LINKS:

Serena Dugan:

Website | Instagram

Molly Carroll:

Website | Instagram | Facebook

Now accepting new therapy clients!
Learn more or schedule a session here.

In times of uncertainty, we need reminders of what truly matters. Today’s episode is a profound lesson in hope, love, and perspective—one that gently calls us back to presence, connection, and grace.

This is a re-release of my conversation with Bill Valentine, who passed away peacefully at home on October 21, 2022. I felt deeply called to bring this episode forward again. It’s exactly what we need right now.

This conversation isn’t about fear or loss—it’s about living without regret, being fully present because life is fleeting, and holding hope for the future.

Many people say the most precious gift we can give is our time. Bill understood this in a way few ever do. When we recorded this episode, he was living with stage four terminal pancreatic cancer, and he chose to spend some of his remaining time with us.

Bill was the only guest I’ve ever interviewed without doing extensive research beforehand. I wanted to meet him heart to heart. As it turns out, that choice mirrored one of his greatest realizations: who we truly are has nothing to do with what we’ve accomplished.

Bill was a husband and a father of four boys. His focus had narrowed to what mattered most—love, relationships, and presence.

In this conversation, Bill shares what his days looked like, what cancer was teaching him, and the lessons he wanted his sons to carry forward. He speaks openly about participating in his own living funeral—receiving love, hearing how he mattered, and discovering that he was, and always had been, enough.

He also shares how psilocybin treatment helped him come to terms with his diagnosis and arrive at a simple, powerful truth: the meaning of life is to give and receive love. This is the legacy he left behind.

“It shouldn’t take a terminal disease for you to wake up to your obligation to live a full life—and at the center of that are other people.”
— Bill Valentine

Bill was one of the greatest teachers to ever join Cracking Open. His wisdom, humility, and open heart continue to ripple outward.

Rest in peace, Bill.
Thank you for everything you taught us.

🎧 Tune in now to listen.

Love,
Molly

🌱 Please consider supporting the Cracking Open podcast on Patreon.

RESOURCES & LINKS:

Molly Carroll:

Website |Instagram | Facebook

Now accepting new therapy clients!
If you’re feeling stuck, navigating change, or craving more purpose and peace, I’d love to support you. Learn more or schedule a session here.

Throughout my life, clients and friends have often described me as a bridge—a bridge between science and spirituality, between practical cognitive tools and trusting your intuitive voice, between deep compassion and what I lovingly call “getting Nebraska on you” (a little tough love and real accountability).

Maybe you’ve felt that tension too. Wanting concrete strategies you can rely on, while also sensing there’s a deeper wisdom guiding you—something you can’t always explain, but you know is there.

That’s exactly why I’m so excited to share today’s conversation with MaryAnn DiMarco on the Cracking Open podcast.

MaryAnn is an author, motivational speaker, and internationally recognized psychic medium and spiritual teacher known for her refreshingly grounded, relatable approach. With humor, heart, and real-world wisdom, she helps people develop their intuitive gifts and trust the guidance that’s already speaking to them.

In This Episode, We Explore

✨ MaryAnn’s personal journey of becoming a psychic medium—and learning to trust her own gifts
✨ How to tune into your guides and intuitive voice for clarity, comfort, and grounded decision-making
✨ Her concept of your “universal team of besties”—energies here to offer breadcrumbs of wisdom and help illuminate your soul’s purpose
✨ Why trusting benevolent guidance is the foundation of intuitive listening
✨ The power of language and curious questioning as tools for getting unstuck and moving forward

MaryAnn has been featured on beloved podcasts, including Dear Gabby, The Marie Forleo Podcast, Sibling Revelry, Small Medium at Large, and Language of Love. She also leads sold-out workshops, group programs, and one-on-one mentorship for lightworkers, empaths, and those wanting to deepen their connection with Spirit.

She’s the author of several books, including Believe, Ask, Act, Medium Mentor, and one of my personal favorites, The Guide(s) Book—a beautiful roadmap for connecting with your guides and understanding life’s journey with Spirit by your side.

Talking with MaryAnn feels like meeting someone who speaks both of my languages. We’re building the same bridge—between the seen and unseen, the practical and the mystical, the mind and the soul.

What struck me most is how aligned our approaches to transformation are. We both believe real change happens when we take grounded, accountable steps with our own two feet—while also trusting the spiritual guidance illuminating the path ahead.

Whether you’re using evidence-based tools or learning to listen to your guides, both are pointing to the same truth: You don’t have to choose between practical action and intuitive wisdom.

Real growth happens when we walk the bridge that honors both—and meet ourselves, and our highest potential, right in the middle.

🎧 Tune in now to listen.

With love,
Molly

🌱 Please consider supporting the Cracking Open podcast on Patreon.

RESOURCES & LINKS:

​​​​​​​MaryAnn DiMarco

Website | Instagram | Facebook | YouTube

The Guide(s) Book
Mapping Out Life’s Journey with Spirit by Your Side
Listen on Audible

Molly:

Website |Instagram | Facebook

Have you ever had one of those months where you just can’t climb out of a dark hole? That was my October and November.

My son had a health scare (instant compassion for every parent walking that road), I wasn’t sleeping—wide awake at 3 a.m. every night (thank God for a dear friend who meets me at Starbucks at 5 a.m.)—and I felt completely unmotivated and uninspired by my work. Not fun.

I’m sharing this because maybe you’ve been there too. And here’s the gift hidden inside those seasons: wisdom.

What did I learn? Compassion for myself. Humility that I will never “have it all together.” Trust that this, too, shall pass. And it did pass. The light returned—beginning with the conversation you’re about to hear with Dr. John Price. It was medicine for my soul, and I know it will be for yours too.

Meet Dr. John W. Price

Dr. John W. Price is a licensed psychotherapist, Jungian scholar, and modern-day mythmaker devoted to bridging psychology and spirituality in service of deep transformation. He holds a Master’s in Clinical Psychology and a Doctorate in Jungian Psychology and co-founded The Center for Healing Arts and Sciences in Houston with his wife, Leila-Scott Price.

Before dedicating his life to healing, John spent a decade as a professional musician—a journey that immersed him in both the highs of creative success and the depths of self-destruction. Becoming a father marked a powerful turning point, when the soul’s call overtook ambition and led him to his true purpose: guiding others through life’s great initiations—grief, identity collapse, spiritual awakening, and the long return to wholeness.

He now serves as President of the Board at the Jung Center of Houston, teaches at the Esalen Institute, and hosts The Sacred Speaks podcast—where he explores depth psychology, spirituality, mysticism, and meaning with guests like Richard Rohr, Anne Lamott, and Thomas Moore.

In This Episode We Explore

✨ John’s own “cracking open” story—from life as a rock musician to his awakening as a soul-centered psychotherapist
✨ How fatherhood transformed his ambitions into a deeper calling to serve
✨ Practical wisdom for navigating the dark night of the soul with grace and courage
✨ How men’s vulnerability and shadow work can become catalysts for collective healing
✨ Our candid exchange where I challenge John to fully step into his leadership as a bridge between psychology, spirituality, and the modern masculine

This conversation is rich with laughter, depth, and truth—but above all, hope.
John is a luminous guide whose presence reminds us that even in darkness, we are never alone.

If you’re walking through your own “dark night,” or simply feeling lost, uninspired, or uncertain, this episode is your lifeline. John offers not quick fixes or toxic positivity, but grounded wisdom:
You’re not broken—you’re breaking open.

Press play and remember—the light isn’t just coming; it’s already within you, waiting to be rediscovered.

🎧 Tune in now to listen.

With love,
Molly

🌱 Support the Cracking Open podcast here.

RESOURCES & LINKS:

Dr. John W. Price
Website | Substack | Instagram | YouTube

The Center for Healing Arts & Sciences

The Open Gate Program

From the moment Maggie Doyne and I joined our Zoom call, there was an instant recognition—a connection of the heart. We share a love of children, the Oregon coast, and a deep commitment to living in service. Interviewing her was a powerful reminder of what’s possible when one person follows the quiet call of compassion.

At just 18 years old, Maggie took what was meant to be a simple gap year—and turned it into her life’s mission. Traveling through India and Nepal, she witnessed a young girl lifting two stones together to build a road. In that moment, she literally said, “I was cracked open”.

With her life savings of $5,000, Maggie moved to Nepal and co-founded the BlinkNow Foundation with her Nepali partner, Tope Bahadur Malla. Their vision was clear: to provide children with a safe home, medical care, education, and love—so they would grow into adults with a social conscience and the skills to end cycles of poverty and violence.

Working hand-in-hand with Tope and a team that’s 90% Nepali, they built a children’s home for over 100 kids, a school for 350 students, and a women’s center and health clinic for the Kopila Valley community. Maggie’s work has been honored with the 2015 CNN Hero Award and recognition from the Dalai Lama.

In this conversation, Maggie shares how a single decision changed her life forever—the joys and challenges of mothering 100 children, sustaining her mission through loss, and the importance of working alongside the local community. She also opens up about a period of deep grief that reshaped her path and strengthened her purpose.

Maggie Doyne is a modern-day Mother Teresa—a lighthouse of hope redefining what family means in our world today. She reminds us that one person, with an open heart and unwavering commitment, can create ripples of change that transform entire communities.

Whether you’re seeking inspiration to answer your own calling or simply want to witness love in action, this conversation will leave you moved, motivated, and believing in the power of one heart to change the world.

🎧 Tune in now to listen.

With love,
Molly

A note from Molly

For three years, I’ve poured my heart into this podcast, creating 90+ episodes. I’ve funded everything myself to focus on meaningful conversations—but to keep bringing you the quality content you deserve, I need your help.

Even $5 a month—less than a coffee—helps cover hosting, editing, and prep time. If this podcast has supported you, would you consider joining? Support here: https://www.patreon.com/14800380/join

Your support keeps these unrushed, transformative conversations coming.

RESOURCES & LINKS:

Maggie:

Support BlinkNow’s Mission
Kopila Valley Children’s Village
— Nearing completion of a new, eco-friendly campus in Surkhet, Nepal.
Kopila Valley School
— Top 10 finalist for the World’s Best School prize

Watch the Film
Between the Mountain and the Sky

Learn More About Maggie
Official Website

Facebook | Instagram | LinkedIn | YouTube

Molly:

https://molly-carroll.com/

Instagram | Facebook

What happens when one of your dearest friends also happens to be one of the people you admire most in your professional world? That’s exactly the conversation I get to have today—and I couldn’t be more thrilled.

This week's guest on the Cracking Open podcast, Nicole Meier, isn’t just a brilliant creative—she’s family. We’ve raised our kids together, navigated the loss of our parents side by side, and cheered each other on as our careers evolved. She’s been a confidant, a mentor, and, without exaggeration, a savant in her craft.

Nicole is a certified book coach, developmental editor, and author of four novels whose work has been featured by Booklist, Refinery29, BookBub, and PopSugar. She hosts The Whole Writer podcast for emerging authors, and is a co-founder of Book Works, where she and her partner combine book coaching and branding insight to guide writers to expand their creative community and connect with ideal readers.

✨ In this episode, Nicole shares how she found her way back to creativity while raising three kids (including twins!), supporting aging parents, and juggling all the roles so many of us know too well. Once her kids were in school, she made a powerful choice: to reclaim her voice. Writing became her lifeline—and along the way, she discovered lessons in commitment, boundaries, and courage.

✨ She also gets real about resistance—the sneaky excuses that keep us from doing the work we’re meant to do. Whether it sounds like, “I’ll start when the kids are older,” or “I don’t want people to judge me,” Nicole reminds us that resistance is just fear in disguise.

✨ This conversation is packed with practical wisdom—how to structure your creative day, silence your inner critic, and build your confidence through simple daily actions.

And here’s the beautiful truth Nicole offers: creativity isn’t a luxury or a someday dream. It’s a vital practice that keeps us connected to who we truly are.

So grab a pen and paper for this one—you’ll want to take notes. Whether you’re a writer, entrepreneur, parent, or simply someone ready to stop making excuses, this episode will remind you that your creative spark never left you. It’s just waiting for you to choose it.

🎧 Tune in now to listen.

With love,
Molly

A note from Molly

For three years, I’ve poured my heart into this podcast, creating 90 episodes. I’ve funded everything myself to focus on meaningful conversations—but to keep bringing you the quality content you deserve, I need your help.

Even $5 a month—less than a coffee—helps cover hosting, editing, and prep time. If this podcast has supported you, would you consider joining? Support here: https://www.patreon.com/14800380/join

Your support keeps these unrushed, transformative conversations coming.

RESOURCES & LINKS:

Learn more about Nicole Meier here: http://nicolemeier.com/

Follow Nicole on Substack: https://nicolemeierwrites.substack.com/

Check out Book Works: http://bookworks.co/

Work with Molly: https://molly-carroll.com/

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