Today we’re going to talk about family estrangement, and the impact it undoubtedly has.

Our guest, Maggie Frank-Hsu, is a poet, essayist and editor from San Diego who runs Estranged, a Substack newsletter devoted to exploring parent, child and sibling estrangement with a focus on understanding, not blame. Her poetry has appeared in Whale Road Review, Pidgeonholes, and Beaver Magazine. She received her masters from the Columbia School of Journalism, and her reporting has appeared in Business North Carolina, Gourmet, PublishersWeekly and smithsonian.com. A former ghostwriter, she’s currently at work on her first book, a memoir.

Maggie and I have a little bit in common in that we are both estranged from our fathers. And maybe we were abandoned, too. Maggie has done her work and research on family estrangement, and comes at it from a place of non-judgment. Listen in, and be sure to subscribe to her wonderful 'stack.

https://maggiefrankhsu.substack.com

https://instagram.com/maggiefrankhsu

https://maggiefrankhsu.com

Full episodes are available to paid subscribers of A Sassy Little Substack. Subscriptions start at $5/mo or $40/yr. For more information, visit A Sassy Little Substack.

The podcast is written, produced and edited by Sandra Ann Miller. If you are interested in becoming a guest, please visit the Contact page at SassyLittlePodcast.com.

Music: Shower Beer by GG Riggs

For a full transcript, please visit https://asassylittle.substack.com

Full episodes are available to paid subscribers of A Sassy Little Substack. Subscriptions start at $5/mo or $40/yr. For more information, visit A Sassy Little Substack.

The podcast is written, produced and edited by Sandra Ann Miller. If you are interested in becoming a guest, please visit the Contact page at SassyLittlePodcast.com.

Music: Shower Beer by GG Riggs

Probably one of the best documentaries on cults is the recent Max, four-part docu-series, "Breath of Fire". The series (which waves plenty of red flags throughout) follows both the high-control organizations of Yogi Bhajan (his face used to grace the box of Yogi Tea) and Guru Jagat, founder of RA MA Institute. How did good people get from doing Kundalini yoga and wanting to make the world a better place, to finding themselves in abusive cults? Gaslighting on both sides of the yoga mat takes place. Listen in.

https://stephaniesarkis.com/

https://www.facebook.com/StephanieSarkisPhD

https://www.instagram.com/sarkisphd/

Full episodes are available to paid subscribers of A Sassy Little Substack. Subscriptions start at $5/mo or $40/yr. For more information, visit A Sassy Little Substack.

The podcast is written, produced and edited by Sandra Ann Miller. If you are interested in becoming a guest, please visit the Contact page at SassyLittlePodcast.com.

Music: Shower Beer by GG Riggs

You can find Rebecca at:

The Hot Desk on Substack

@the_hotdesk on Instagram

http://www.rebeccalow.co

Full episodes are available to paid subscribers of A Sassy Little Substack. Subscriptions start at $5/mo or $40/yr. For more information, visit A Sassy Little Substack.

The podcast is written, produced and edited by Sandra Ann Miller. If you are interested in becoming a guest, please visit the Contact page at SassyLittlePodcast.com.

Music: Shower Beer by GG Riggs

In all fairness, when I came up with the 'Just Us' concept to close out Q4 of 2024, I was coming from a place of deep optimism. Well, F me completely, right? LOL. (Insert crying emoji here.) But we can't let ourselves lose our place, our grace or our happiness because of things outside of our control. So, along with everything is easy and being so lucky (because, in so many ways, we are), let's get ourselves ready for anything good! xo

Full episodes are available to paid subscribers of A Sassy Little Substack. Subscriptions start at $5/mo or $40/yr. For more information, visit A Sassy Little Substack.

The podcast is written, produced and edited by Sandra Ann Miller. If you are interested in becoming a guest, please visit the Contact page at SassyLittlePodcast.com.

Music: Shower Beer by GG Riggs