That Wasn‘t Supposed to Happen

In sixth grade the biggest news to hit the hallways was the engagement between the English teacher and the janitor. Each were fairly young and more than fairly gorgeous and when Ms. Bindrim, the English teacher, had told us she lived in a garden apartment I immediately assumed she lived like the cast of Melrose Place. Since 1995 I think I have always wondered what my teachers did outside of school. Today--for any kids like me--I get to feed that curiosity. Join me as we get a history lesson from a middle school history teacher, not in noteworthy events but in a life well-lived. Matt tells the tale of coming of age as a touring musician but finding just as much (if not more) contentment becoming a teacher. Matt takes us on the tour bus, the hotel rooms, to college, to teaching middle schoolers, to his best-gig-yet, being a dad. Oh, and he doesn't hesitate to roast me along the way. If that doesn't sell this story, I don't know what could.

Five months after her second child was born, Michelle started to do that thing we are all told not to do (and we all equally can't help but do): she compared her babies one to the other. Baby 1 was active, exploratory, babbling as early as anyone can remember. Baby 2 was quiet, seemed uninterested, appeared helpless. The differences were too many to ignore and by eight months, Colton, Baby 2, was referred for developmental physical therapy. But that was just the beginning. Michelle Hutchinson's son was diagnosed with an incredibly rare condition known as 48XXXY. The entire Hutchinson family would soon begin a life filled with multiple therapy appointments, travel for medical services, and a crash course in rare diseases and research funding. With full plates yet fuller hearts, the Hutchinsons started a non-profit to raise funds both for families facing rare diagnoses and for medical researchers to continue their work studying these conditions. This is a story about the unexpected, sure, but it's more a story about seeing a need and serving it. For Colton, for rare conditions, for families like their own, Michelle started Colton's XXXtraordinary Cause. And she's not the only Hutchinson out there raising awareness. Join Michelle Hutchinson and I...and special guest Ella Hutchinson for an XXXtraordinary story about love and service and community and hope.

Nicole Palma showed signs of extreme, unexplained fatigue as early as elementary school. She'd receive a precise diagnosis in her twenties. A tale 'as old as time,' it seems, a woman misdiagnosed, misjudged, altogether missed. And that's just the beginning of the story. Nicole and I leave few stones unturned this week as we look at life with medical anomalies, with disabilities, with compounding stressors. From fighting for the diagnosis, to fighting for her job. From navigating new ailments to new 'band-aids.' We talk family and friends and lovers who believe us and those that don't. We talk some of the sweetest memories of leisurely New York walks and the painful reality that those days are gone.  We ended our previous episode with a realization that the world wasn't built with all bodies in mind. Nicole Palma gives voice, today, to all the ways it surely wasn't, to all the ways it weighs on her mind.

Sequestered twice over (once in the the throes of parenthood, again in the ache of a pandemic), Kiersten Greene found a lifeline on roller skates. An activity they loved in their youth, the practice of starting anew turned into a daily meditation, a discipline, a port for someone unmoored by back-to-back episodes in losing their identity. An Assistant Professor who has been studying Digital Literacy since we were picking Top Ten friends on our MySpace pages, Kiersten turned to Instagram to document their progress on four, tiny wheels. And then they fell. Hard. Broken bones are more than broken bones when they sweep you off your feet. Sequestered now a third time, Kiersten had to sit still, ache, heal, and surrender. Their partner took over every aspect of daily life, carrying the weight of a family and Kiersten's broken ankle/heart on his back. Kiersten watched in awe and discomfort. Join accomplished author, professor, and ROLLER SKATING BADASS Kiersten Greene and I, and see what happens when you are forced to slow down and eventually start back up again.

My best friend has this best friend that is the perfect amount of intimidating. They call her "HardCory" and for years I have been in awe. Cory is full of confidence, with more than enough talent, personality, and damn-good-stories to back it up. Like when college didn't go according to plan and she still made it in the fashion industry, without the major major labels are looking for. She achieved the dream of leaving the nightmare that is the LIRR. Making Manhattan, for a time, her HOME. And now she's on to even wilder adventures. Join Cory and I as we reminisce over Long Island childhoods, as we navigate NYC versus LA living, and as we pay homage to the supportive mother who laid the groundwork for it all.  Here is Cory Casella: prolific designer, forever NY It-Girl, loudest laugher I know.

My 9th grade boyfriend once bought me roses from Waldbaum’s. (Waldbaum’s—if you don’t know—was Long Island’s premier grocer in the 90’s.) He must have been nervous they wouldn’t last as he asked the cashier, “are these, like, gonna die?” And the cashier—without looking up or at my boyfriend—replied, “all things die…eventually.”   Welcome to the final episode of That Wasn’t Supposed to Happen, where your host is now the guest, and our producer is role-playing as Roast Master. We’ll revisit each episode and hold them up to the Rorschach. What did we see then? What do we see now? What does it mean when the show shows us something we didn’t think we’d see? Are we Megans? Are we Jeans? Are we cashiers, unfazed by the passing of time, of things coming to end? I know who I’m not.   The roses died…eventually. But this show isn’t going to. New guests, new stories, new social constructs to question, in September.

In September of 2017, Michelle Horton was instructed to pick her niece and nephew up from a local police station. She had few further details. In the days that followed, Michelle was shuffled between meeting her sister’s confidant, to meeting lawyers, to learning the ins and outs of the local jail, to learning—little-by-little—the reason her sister was even in one.   This week, we hear the story of criminalized survival from the family member who lives through its damages. From her quick-study in legal defense, to raising her sister’s children, to witnessing, now, three trials, Michelle’s life has been wholly centered on saving her sister. And she won’t be stopping there.   Come for an exclusive interview with the tenacious sister of Nicole Addimando. Stay for the stories Michelle and I refuse to stop telling.

Megan and I lived in the same house, though not at the same time. It was a house we would each leave but pained us both to do so. Though I did it before the house, and she after, this wasn’t the only experience in hard goodbyes for either of us…especially when for the better.   Listen to Megan recall the relationship that broke her up, that may have led to her tumor, that left her in need of two dollars. While fighting cancer and recovering from surgery Megan toiled to get her “life before” back. She ended up creating an inspiring “life after”.   Come for the toe-dip-conversation into abusive relationships and the risk of leaving. Stay for the wisdom we all need from Megan.

On Friday, March 13, 2020, teachers and students in New York State parted ways for the weekend. The weekend would turn into a mandated two-week lockdown. And the two-week lockdown—for public schools—wouldn’t end until the following September. Lockdowns, Zoom tiles, hybrid models, and synchronized instruction tasked teachers with the impossible. Truly. But teaching—I have learned—is simply empathy in action, and Campbell and her peers continued to love, to teach, and to let go.   Join Jenesis Campbell and I as we look at the life that led to her teaching career. From the safety her elementary school provided, to the bonds she forged with her teachers, Campbell always knew she wanted to do for other kids what was done for her. It was always about more than long division. Come for a better understanding of pedagogy pre-pandemic. Stay for the ways we’ve all grown since.

Monica Ayres gave birth to her and her partner Jim’s first child on March 10, 2020. Their home state of New York would begin full lockdown mere days later. An inherently isolating time in normal circumstance, Monica’s postpartum experience was broad brushed in profound loneliness. There were no visitors, no meal trains, no relentless check-ins, no casual chats to take her mind off nursing, or diapers, or the fact that the body keeps contracting days after the birth (what gives?!). Though together, the family entered their “it takes a village” chapter …alone.   In this episode, you’ll hear about Monica’s childhood home filled with cousins, and aunts, and uncles, and grandparents, and friends that adopted Monica’s mom as their own. When we get to the start of her daughter’s life, the contrast is palpable.  Come for a story of grace under pressure, the art of honoring your obstacles while acknowledging the way through them. Stay for our laughs, bad jokes, worse pop culture references, tears, and (of course) the anthem to Nora, and all babies born in a plague.   THAT WASN’T SUPPOSED TO HAPPEN is produced by Doug Wortel, at Spillway Street Studio. Cover art is by Natalie Renganeschi. To tell your story on our show, email us [email protected]    I'll never say anything happens for a reason, but it is reason enough to talk about it.