Surviving Chronic Illness: Life in a Body That Rebels
Surviving Chronic Illness: Life in a Body That Rebels is a lived experience podcast about surviving sarcoidosis, heart failure, rare disease, and the strange daily reality of having a body that does not always cooperate.
Hosted by Tate, a private chef, writer, husband, pet parent, and long-term sarcoidosis survivor, this podcast is not about miracle cures, medical lectures, or pretending that a positive attitude fixes everything. It is about the honest middle of chronic illness: the fatigue, fear, grief, humor, stubbornness, absurdity, and small victories that come with surviving day after day.
These are first-person stories about illness, identity, marriage, work, memory, resilience, and learning how to live inside a life that changed without asking permission. Some episodes are reflective. Some are funny. Some are angry. Some are tender. All of them come from the lived experience of someone still figuring it out in real time.
This podcast is for people living with chronic illness, sarcoidosis, rare disease, heart failure, autoimmune conditions, invisible illness, or any body that feels like it has gone off-script. It is also for caregivers, spouses, family members, and friends who want to better understand what illness feels like from the inside.
If you are tired of toxic positivity, pity, miracle-cure noise, and being told to “just stay strong,” you are in the right place.
This is a podcast for the sick, the tired, the stubborn, the scared, the sarcastic, the hopeful, and everyone trying to build a life in a body that rebels.
Surviving Chronic Illness: Life in a Body That Rebels
Latest Episodes
The Strange Math of Chronic Illness: What Sarcoidosis Taught Me About Expectations
People sometimes ask how anyone living with sarcoidosis can stay positive day after day. The answer isn’t motivation, inspiration, or some magical personality trait. It’s something quieter… something most people miss entirely.
The Smoking Backpack: Chronic Illness in Public
A doctor’s waiting room is usually boring. Mine briefly turned into a low-budget suspense film because my portable oxygen backpack looked like it was smoking. Living with sarcoidosis and chronic illness means getting used to equipment, routines...
MiniCast: When the Wild Speaks: The Night a Fox and a Crow Changed Everything
On a quiet sunset drive, I stumbled into a raw moment between a fox and a crow—two wild creatures locked in instinct and mystery. What began as an ordinary evening turned into a reflection on survival, intuition, and the strange ways nature mir...
Getting an AICD: What the Surgery Felt Like From the Hospital Bed
Getting an AICD implanted is not just a procedure. It is the moment heart failure stops sounding like a diagnosis on paper and starts feeling real in your body. In this episode, I share what it was actually like to hear I needed an implantable ...
The Day the Hospital Treated Me Like a Human Being
Hospital visits can start to feel like rehearsed disappointment when you live with sarcoidosis, heart failure, and the long, exhausting reality of chronic illness. I know that feeling well. So when I went to Westchester Medical Center for a rig...
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