Some people make you feel calmer just by the way they talk. Dido Balla is one of those people and the conversation goes straight to what actually helps when life is loud, fast, and constantly activating your nervous system.

Dido shares his story growing up in Cameroon, how curiosity shaped him, and why asking “why” can be the kindest starting point when you don’t love how you reacted. Jill and Dido talk about emotional regulation as a real life skill, what it means to feel “okay,” and why feeling safe in your body matters more than controlling the outside world.

They also get practical with a simple framework Dido uses, awareness, regulation, and fitness, along with tools that are free and accessible like breath, sound, touch, and reframing. There’s honesty about trauma, boundaries, and the difference between being nice and being truly kind.

Contact Jill K. Bershad, LMHC, CAP

• Email: jill@jillbershad.com
• Website: jillbershad.com
• Instagram: @jillkbershad.lmhc
• Facebook: jillkbershad

Jill Bershad sits down with Danica Bajaj, a 23-year-old Duke graduate and Robertson Scholar whose life changed after losing her brother to terminal brain cancer. That loss sent her searching for meaning, and gratitude became the thread she followed through science, spirituality, and the land itself.

Danica shares what it was like to spend days in silence at a Buddhist temple in Japan, to live and work in a tiny town in New Zealand where community and sustainability are inseparable, and to keep asking strangers around the world one simple question: what are you grateful for?

Together, Jill and Danica talk about the kind of gratitude that does not bypass pain, the difference between forcing positivity and building a real practice, and the quiet shift from why was he only given 30 years to he was given 30 years and that was the gift. They also reflect on grief, time, connection, and why slowing down with others around a table can make people feel safe enough to tell the truth.

Contact Jill K. Bershad, LMHC, CAP

• Email: jill@jillbershad.com
• Website: jillbershad.com
• Instagram: @jillkbershad.lmhc
• Facebook: jillkbershad

Jill sits with Mary Eckstein, a Holocaust survivor who has lived through war, displacement, the loss of nearly her entire family, the death of her husband after 63 years of marriage, and the loss of her son. Mary speaks plainly about fear, hunger, survival, grief, and what it has meant to keep going without turning away from life.

This is not a conversation about inspiration or silver linings. It is a quiet, honest reflection on resilience as something practical and lived. Mary shares what it was like to be eight years old during the Holocaust, how she rebuilt a life from nothing, why she chose to keep working after loss, and how focusing on the good moments helped her move forward without denying the pain.

They talk about memory, responsibility, grief, aging, and the choice to stay present even when days are hard. A steady, thoughtful conversation about what it means to live fully, one day at a time, after experiencing unimaginable loss.

Contact Jill K. Bershad, LMHC, CAP

• Email: jill@jillbershad.com
• Website: jillbershad.com
• Instagram: @jillkbershad.lmhc
• Facebook: jillkbershad