The Human Experience Podcast Por Jennifer Peterkin arte de portada

The Human Experience

The Human Experience

De: Jennifer Peterkin
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Can you pinpoint a moment in time when your life changed? Maybe it wasn’t a moment, maybe it was a complicated chain of events that led you to where you are today. Or maybe, it was a generational impact that started before you were even born. Regardless of what it contains, all humans have a story. And those stories are the building blocks of who we are, at our very core. Join host, Jennifer Peterkin - lover and collector of stories, as she interviews humans from all walks of life. Tune in every week to hear stories of love and loss, triumph and defeat, and all that exist in between.

 Biografías y Memorias Ciencias Sociales
Episodios
  • Property of the Revolution: One Cuban Refugee's Story of Loss, Legacy, and the Power of Intergenerational Storytelling | Ana Flaster

    Property of the Revolution: One Cuban Refugee's Story of Loss, Legacy, and the Power of Intergenerational Storytelling | Ana Flaster
    Mar 24 2026
    What does it mean to carry a country inside you — one you were forced to leave before you were old enough to understand why? In this deeply moving episode, Jennifer sits down with Ana Flaster, Cuban-American author of Property of the Revolution, to explore the story that shaped her entire life: fleeing Cuba as a child in 1967, arriving in the snowy mill town of Nashua, New Hampshire with one suitcase and a family that refused to let loss have the last word.Ana recounts the visceral moment she stood outside her childhood home in Havana as a banner was nailed across the door reading "Property of the Revolution", and the decades of storytelling, grief, humor, and resilience that followed. She and Jennifer dive into what it truly means to be a refugee (not just an immigrant), the multi-generational Cuban household that became Ana's entire world and moral compass, and how the women of her family rewrote their trauma into a survival story rooted in pride and laughter.They also explore the realities of how the Cuban Revolution has been romanticized and misrepresented in American classrooms, the unique identity struggles of being Cuban American in a country that doesn't always know how to hold that complexity, and why Ana believes stories are the only real antidote to division. This is a conversation about belonging, memory, and what we owe the people who carried us here.📍 This episode was recorded in Concord, New Hampshire.MEET ANA FLASTERAna Hebra Flaster was just shy of her sixth birthday when her family fled post-revolutionary Cuba, in 1967, and settled in Nashua, New Hampshire. She graduated from Smith College and was a software consultant before beginning her writing career. Her essays have been published by the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the Boston Globe, among other national print and online media. Her commentaries and storytelling have aired on national broadcasts of NPR’s All Things Considered and PBS’s Stories from the Stage.Property of the Revolution, her first book, has won early recognition in several international writing competitions, including being shortlisted in the 2023 Restless Book’s New Immigrant Writing Prize and the 2022 Cintas Creative Writing Fellowship, and first place in the 2025 International Book Awards (Creative Nonfiction) and the 2025 Discovery Book Awards (Nonfiction overall). After forty years in the Boston area, Ana recently moved back home to southern New Hampshire with her husband, Andy, and their Havanese pups, Luna and Beny Moré.CONNECT WITH ANA📘 Facebook: facebook.com/anahebraflaster📸 Instagram: @anahebraflaster✉️ Substack: anahflaster.substack.com📖 Book: Property of the Revolution — available wherever books are sold💼 LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/anahebraflaster🌐 Website: anacubana.com🐦 X / Twitter: @AnaHebraFlasterKEY TAKEAWAYSHere's what stayed with us long after this conversation ended:Stories are not just nostalgia, they are survival. For Ana's family, retelling the stories of Cuba wasn't about living in the past. It was how they processed grief, preserved identity, and gave their children something solid to stand on. The stories kept them alive in ways no amount of material stability could.Children sense injustice before they have the words for it. Standing outside her locked Havana home at age five, Ana didn't have the vocabulary for revolution or displacement, but she knew something deeply unfair had happened. That early, wordless recognition never left her, and it became the driving force behind her life's work.The refugee experience doesn't end at arrival. Ana draws a sharp and important distinction between immigration and refuge: refugees flee, often with nothing, knowing they will likely never return and may never see their loved ones again. That particular grief doesn't resolve. It travels with you, and it shapes every generation that follows.The women who spin the survival story are also the ones quietly grieving. Ana's mother, grandmother, and aunt transformed their trauma into a story of triumph — "We beat Castro, look at us go." But behind closed doors, they were crying in dark rooms. Both things were true at once: the resilience and the grief. Holding that complexity is how they protected their children.History written by the victors can silence an entire community's truth. Ana encountered the romanticized version of the Cuban Revolution in her own college economics classes, and she pushed back. The propaganda around figures like Fidel and Che has obscured what most Cubans actually wanted and what they actually lost. Telling the fuller, more complex story is itself an act of resistance.We are drowning in data and starving for wisdom. One of the most striking lines of the conversation: "We're drowning in data and starving for wisdom." Ana sees storytelling, especially from older generations, as the antidote to the noise, fear, and tribalism that fragment us. Wisdom lives in the ...
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    1 h y 32 m
  • The Year of Dating Yourself: How One Woman Chose Herself — and Changed Everything | Abby Rosmarin

    The Year of Dating Yourself: How One Woman Chose Herself — and Changed Everything | Abby Rosmarin
    Mar 10 2026
    What happens when you stop looking for love and start finding yourself? In this episode, Jennifer sits down with author and New Hampshire transplant Abby Rosmarin in Concord, NH, to talk about the year that changed her life: 2023, the Year of Dating Herself.After a string of tumultuous relationships that left her gaslit, depleted, and sitting in a bathtub wondering how she got there, Abby made a radical decision — to spend an entire year intentionally single, intentionally present, and intentionally devoted to her own company. The result? A healing journey she never could have predicted, a book, and a relationship she never knew was possible.From solo concerts and dining alone for the first time to impulsive ear piercings and sunrise coffee dates by the lake, Abby shares the raw, funny, and deeply human story of what it looks like to truly date yourself — awkwardness, check-engine-light moments, and all. She and Jennifer also dive into the pressures women face around singlehood, the power of therapy and self-reflection, codependency and healing, and what it really means to show up for yourself before you can fully show up for anyone else.📍This episode was recorded in Concord, New Hampshire.MEET ABBY ROSMARINAbby Rosmarin is the author of The Year of Dating Myself: How My Solo Tour Healed More Than Just My Heartbreak. Her work has been featured in the Huffington Post, Bustle, the Bangalore Review, and others.CONNECT WITH ABBYBook: The Year of Dating Myself InstagramKEY TAKEAWAYSYour story doesn’t start in a vacuum. The patterns in our adult relationships almost always trace back further than we think. Recognizing those echoes, without shame, is the first step toward changing them.Dating yourself is an act of intention, not circumstance. Abby didn’t just “be single”, she committed to a structured, year-long practice of taking herself out, showing up for herself, and treating her own company as something worth investing in.Self-care doesn’t have to be grand. Some of Abby’s most meaningful moments were a $5 coffee and a sunrise at the lake. Romanticizing the small things is a skill and a gift you can give yourself any day.You’re not being watched as closely as you think. One of the most liberating lessons of solo adventures? Nobody is paying as much attention to you as your anxiety says they are. Do the thing anyway.Codependency is quiet — until it isn’t. Abby reflects on how deeply her sense of identity had become wrapped up in romantic relationships, and how the year of dating herself helped her find, and keep, her own ground.Loneliness is real, and it’s survivable. Being intentionally single doesn’t mean you won’t miss romantic love. It means you learn you can miss it and still be okay.You don’t have to wait until rock bottom. Dating yourself isn’t just for the heartbroken. Whether you’re in a relationship or not, carving out time to be with yourself makes you a better partner, friend, and human.Compassion is curiosity. When asked what compassion means to her, Abby’s answer was beautifully simple: instead of painting someone with a one-dimensional brush, get curious about what they might be carrying.________________________________________STAY CONNECTEDThe Human Experience Podcast | Instagram | FacebookThe Human Experience Legacies | InstagramConnect with Jennifer on Substack | LinkedInSupport the Podcast
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    1 h y 28 m
  • When Dreams Change: Cheryl Johnson on 45 Moves, Motherhood, and Learning as Transformation

    When Dreams Change: Cheryl Johnson on 45 Moves, Motherhood, and Learning as Transformation
    Feb 24 2026
    What happens when the dream you've chased your entire life finally comes true—only to discover it's not actually what you wanted after all?In this conversation, host Jennifer Peterkin sits down with Cheryl Johnson, a woman who has moved 45 times across 8 states, visited all 50 states, and learned that life's greatest gifts often come disguised as detours.Cheryl's story begins at age 8 on an airplane, helping flight attendants pick up trash and dreaming of a glamorous life in the skies. For over a decade, she applied relentlessly to airlines, facing rejection after rejection until her tenacity—and some creative phone book detective work—finally paid off.But becoming a flight attendant during the chaos of 1980s airline deregulation was just the beginning. Marriage, motherhood, financial struggles, and personal challenges tested Cheryl in ways she never anticipated. Through constant moves, difficult relationships, and moments when she didn't know where help would come from, Cheryl discovered something profound: the job she'd dreamed about since childhood wasn't her calling. Motherhood was.Now settled on 8 acres after a lifetime of motion, remarried for 25 years, and deeply invested in family history, Cheryl reflects on what it means to let go of what you thought you wanted in order to embrace what life is actually offering you.This is a story about tenacity and transformation, about the courage to pivot when circumstances demand it, and about learning that true compassion means getting down in the hole with people rather than just throwing them a rope from above.📍This episode was recorded in Manassas, VACONTENT WARNINGThis episode contains discussions of:Domestic violence and physical abuseAttempted suicide MEET CHERYL JOHNSON:With a life marked by a broad array of cultural experiences and extraordinary circumstances, Cheryl Johnson has found her greatest lessons outside of a traditional classroom. Her unique path, which includes relocating countless times and navigating the distinct challenges of being married to a person who was blind, has equipped her with a rare perspective. Cheryl invites you to explore her motivational story of adaptation, proving that every twist and turn is an opportunity to learn and grow.CONNECT WITH CHERYL:LinkedInKEY TAKEAWAYS:Tenacity pays off—but flexibility matters more: Cheryl chased her flight attendant dream relentlessly, but her willingness to pivot when life demanded it brought her the most fulfillment.Dreams can change, and that's okay: What you want at 8 (or 18, or 28) doesn't have to define you forever. Cheryl discovered motherhood was more satisfying than her childhood dream career.Moving doesn't have to mean losing relationships: Cheryl made lifelong friends in Alaska after only 5 years and reconnected 20+ years later as if no time had passed.Assumptions about disabilities are often wrong: Cheryl's blind first husband downhill skied, rode bikes, walked everywhere, went hunting, and mowed lawns—defying every stereotype.Religious/spiritual differences in marriage create significant challenges: The rift between Cheryl's deep faith and her first husband's lack of it was a constant source of conflict.Financial naivety can have devastating consequences: Giving their lender all their savings the night before closing left them with nothing during a vulnerable time.Domestic violence often escalates: The first incident of physical abuse (thrown up stairs) was a warning sign—15 years later, it escalated to near-fatal violence.Divine intervention shows up in unexpected ways: Cheryl's youngest daughter saying "Jesus told me to come home" saved her mother's life.Community and family support are survival necessities: Without her parents and family, Cheryl would have been homeless multiple times.Age gaps in relationships aren't automatic deal-breakers: Cheryl (38) and her second husband (25) have been married 25 years and built a stable, happy life together.Transformation is the goal of learning: Cheryl's mantra is that learning isn't about acquiring information—it's about allowing experiences to transform you.Travel changes how you see the world: Pictures can't capture the feelings, culture, and experiences of being in a place—you have to be there.Compassion means getting in the hole with people: Referencing Brené Brown, Cheryl defines compassion as not just helping from a distance, but climbing down into someone's struggle with them.You can't preserve what you don't share: Despite living incredible stories, Cheryl's own children don't remember events they were central to—oral storytelling and recording matter.Every season has its purpose: From constant travel to settling on 8 acres with too many dogs, each season of life offers different gifts.________________________________________STAY CONNECTEDThe Human Experience Podcast | Instagram | FacebookThe Human Experience Legacies | InstagramConnect with Jennifer on Substack | LinkedInSupport the Podcast
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    1 h y 19 m
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