Hidden Chapters: Real Stories that Bring Light to the Hidden Parts of Life

A Year of Lessons You Can Actually Use | Hidden Chapters Podcast Season 3 Finale

Send me a message via text or voicemail! [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2463085/fan_mail/new] Hidden Chapters Season 3 Finale +  One Year Anniversary Reflection 🎉 In this Season 3 finale and one-year anniversary episode of Hidden Chapters, I find myself looking back at everything this first year has held. What started as a simple idea to create space for storytelling has grown into something far deeper than I ever expected. Through every conversation, every guest, and every hidden chapter shared, I’ve been changed just as much as the stories I’ve heard. This episode is a reflection on the lessons I didn’t know I was learning along the way, woven together with guest voices from Season 3 that bring those moments back to life in real time. As I reflect on this year, I share three core lessons that have shaped me as both a host and a human: *  Learning how to listen differently and see people more fully  *  Realizing I am not starting over, I am starting from experience  *  Understanding that my voice and my story already hold purpose  Throughout this episode, you’ll also hear moments from past guest conversations that helped shape these lessons, including stories of resilience, loss, faith, identity, healing, and transformation. From Adrian’s leadership lesson born from hardship, to Dan’s perspective on what it means to keep going, to Zulma’s reminder that it is never too late to begin again, and Mick and Laura’s reflections on faith, courage, and purpose, each voice adds depth to what this year has meant. This episode is both a reflection and a pause. Because after this season, Hidden Chapters will be taking a short summer break with my family. This space is not ending, it is simply resting and making room for what is next. Behind the scenes, I will be stepping into a new season of growth, exploring new conversations, new guest spaces, and even opportunities beyond the mic. Season 4 is already forming, and when it returns, it will carry everything this first year has taught me forward. Until then, thank you for being part of this journey. For listening. For sharing space with these stories. And for reminding me that stories matter more than we often realize. Audio clips from Season 3 guests:  * Arian Cruz                  Episode 5  : https://www.buzzsprout.com/2463085/episodes/18699538 [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2463085/episodes/18699538] * Dan MacQueen      Episode 12 https://www.buzzsprout.com/2463085/episodes/18952215 [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2463085/episodes/18952215] *Zulma Williams      Episode 4 :https://www.buzzsprout.com/2463085/episodes/18720648 [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2463085/episodes/18720648] *Mick Wienholt       Episode 6 :https://www.buzzsprout.com/2463085/episodes/18856637 [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2463085/episodes/18856637] * Laura Bratton       Episode 7 :https://www.buzzsprout.com/2463085/episodes/18855244 [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2463085/episodes/18855244] Support the show [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2463085/support] 🌐  Visit my website: https://hiddenchapterspodcast.com/  [https://hiddenchapterspodcast.com/]and stay connected!  🎙️  Want to be a guest on Hidden Chapters: Real Stories that Bring Light to the Hidden Parts of Life? Send me a message on PodMatch, here: https://www.podmatch.com/hostdetailpreview/genevievekruger [https://www.podmatch.com/hostdetailpreview/genevievekruger]  🎵 Background Music: "In Time" by Folk_acoustic from Pixabay

Part 2: She Found Her Son After 50 Years and Then Lost Him Again

Send me a message via text or voicemail! [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2463085/fan_mail/new] If you haven’t listened to Part 1 yet, start there, it’s the foundation for everything in this episode. 🎙️  Episode Summary PART 2 In Part 1, Laura Engel shared what happened in 1967: the pregnancy, the unwed mothers’ home in New Orleans, the forced goodbye, and the fifty years of silence that followed.  In Part 2, everything changes.  In 2016, Laura submitted her DNA to Ancestry.com. A few months later, her firstborn son,  the one she’d been told to forget, actually found her. What followed was five years of reunion: of learning who he had become, of introducing him to family, of filling in the gaps on both sides. And then, in 2021, she lost him again in a way she never saw coming.  She almost didn’t publish the book. In this episode, Laura talks about what changed her mind, what her story has meant to the thousands of adoptees and birth mothers who found themselves in its pages, and why she’s still speaking for all the women who can’t yet. 🎧  What We Talk About in This Episode * The DNA test that changed everything and the moment Laura realized her son had found her * What the reunion with Richard was like after 49 years apart * The grief of losing Richard in 2021 and what she calls “the most complicated grief I’ve ever lived through” * Why she almost pulled the book from publication after he died and what made her say yes 📖  Laura's Hidden Chapter Moment After Richard died, Laura’s husband Gene said something to her that she couldn’t shake. She told him she wished Richard had never found her. And he said: "don’t ever say that again. Because look what you learned. Look what you got. You loved him. He loved you. And we have three grandchildren we never would have known existed." That’s the hidden chapter in all of this. Not just the shame, not just the grief, but the love that was there the whole time, even in the parts that hurt the most.   🔗 Resources Mentioned: * Laura’s memoir: You’ll Forget This Ever Happened by Laura L. Engel: available on Amazon and through She Writes Press * Laura’s website and the Family Secrets podcast episode where she first shared her story: lauralengel.com * Adoption Knowledge Affiliates: adoptionknowledge.org — education and support across the adoption triad * CUB – Concerned United Birthparents: cubirthparents.org — support for birth parents * Adoptee Rights Law Center: adopteerightslaw.com — check your state’s current law on original birth certificate access * ISRR – International Soundex Reunion Registry: isrr.org — mutual consent reunion registry * DNA Detectives on Facebook — volunteer search angels to help adoptees and birth parents connect * Alliance of Hope for Suicide Loss Survivors: allianceofhope.org * 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline: call or text 988 Support the show [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2463085/support] 🌐  Visit my website: https://hiddenchapterspodcast.com/  [https://hiddenchapterspodcast.com/]and stay connected!  🎙️  Want to be a guest on Hidden Chapters: Real Stories that Bring Light to the Hidden Parts of Life? Send me a message on PodMatch, here: https://www.podmatch.com/hostdetailpreview/genevievekruger [https://www.podmatch.com/hostdetailpreview/genevievekruger]  🎵 Background Music: "In Time" by Folk_acoustic from Pixabay

Part 1: She Was Told to Give Up Her Baby and Never Speak of It Again

Send me a message via text or voicemail! [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2463085/fan_mail/new] 🎙️  Episode Summary PART 1:  Laura Engel was seventeen when she got pregnant, unmarried, in Mississippi in 1967.  Her family sent her to an unwed mothers' home in New Orleans for five months.  She signed papers she didn't want to sign. She then came back home to her parents house and was expected to just keep going on with her life.    She did that...for fifty years. 🎧  In Part 1 of our conversation,  Laura shares what her experience of being pregnant, the months living at the home, and what the next fifty years looked like carrying a child she never forgot.  We end on a cliffhanger: the son she had to give away, Jamie, now named Richard, finally found her!   📖 Laura's Hidden Chapter Moment:  The pregnancy, the unwed mother home, and giving up her baby, are all parts people can only imagine.  The hidden chapter is what came after.  Laura walked back into her life and nobody every spoke of it again. Not because she'd healed, but because that was how it was supposed to be.  🔗 Resources & Links Include these in your episode show notes so listeners who connect with Laura’s story can find support and community: Laura’s Links • Website: lauralengel.com (includes a Starter Guide for finding a lost loved one) • Book: You’ll Forget This Ever Happened available on Amazon and through She Writes Press • First podcast appearance: Dani Shapiro’s Family Secrets — available on Laura’s website Adoption & Birth Parent Resources • CUB (Concerned United Birthparents): cubirthparents.org — support for birth parents • Adoption Knowledge Affiliates: adoptionknowledge.org — education and advocacy across the adoption triad • ISRR (International Soundex Reunion Registry): isrr.org — mutual consent reunion registry • DNA Detectives (Facebook group) — volunteer search angels to help adoptees and birth parents connect • Adoptee Rights Law Center: adopteerightslaw.com — advocacy for open original birth certificates For Adoptees Seeking Records • Many states are gradually opening access — check your state’s current law at adopteerightslaw.com/map • Ancestry.com and 23andMe DNA testing remain powerful tools for connection Grief & Suicide Loss Resources • Alliance of Hope for Suicide Loss Survivors: allianceofhope.org • American Foundation for Suicide Prevention: afsp.org  |  Crisis line: 988 Podmatch.com [https://www.joinpodmatch.com/genevievekruger] Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you. Support the show [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2463085/support] 🌐  Visit my website: https://hiddenchapterspodcast.com/  [https://hiddenchapterspodcast.com/]and stay connected!  🎙️  Want to be a guest on Hidden Chapters: Real Stories that Bring Light to the Hidden Parts of Life? Send me a message on PodMatch, here: https://www.podmatch.com/hostdetailpreview/genevievekruger [https://www.podmatch.com/hostdetailpreview/genevievekruger]  🎵 Background Music: "In Time" by Folk_acoustic from Pixabay

Surviving a Brain Hemorrhage and Starting Over Twice: Dan MacQueen on Recovery, Discipline, and Resilience

Send me a message via text or voicemail! [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2463085/fan_mail/new] 🎙️ Episode Summary:   At 28, Dan MacQueen was living his best life in London- working in tech, traveling in Europe on weekends, active and untethered.  Then a string of worsening headaches led to an optometrist appointment that uncovered a dangerous buildup of pressure in his brain caused by a non-cancerous cyst.  What followed was emergency brain surgery, a massive brain hemorrhage on the operating table, and four weeks in a medically induced coma.  When Dan woke up, he couldn't walk, couldn't talk, and had lost significant weight and muscle.  He spent months relearning the basics, speech, movement, balance, before slowly rebuilding his life.  Then in 2015, just as he was finding his footing again, a second brain surgery set him all the way back to the beginning.   In this conversation, Dan talks about what recovery actually looked like from the inside. The nights in the ICU when the silence gave way to fear. The small victories that kept him moving forward.  The discipline he built when motivation wasn't enough. And the mindset shifts that turned some of his hardest moments into his greatest lessons. Today,  Dan is a speaker who brings those lessons to teams and organizations around the world and he's still navigating the effects of his brain injury a decade later.   📖 Dan's Hidden Chapter  Dan's hidden chapter wasn't a single turning point.  It was a decision he made over and over again when no one was watching: the decision not to let go.  Not in the ICU. Not in the rehab center at three in the morning.  Not after the second setback brought him all the way back to the beginning. Each time, he made the same quiet choice to keep going. To take the next step even when the road ahead wasn't clear.  What makes that remarkable isn't that Dan is extraordinary. It's that he'd be the first to tell you he isn't. His brain scans came back average.  And he carries that like a badge of honor because if an average person can do this, the rest of us have fewer excuses than we we think.   💛  Why this episode matters and who needs to hear it This episode is for anyone in the middle of something hard who isn't sure they have what it takes to get through it. It's for the person who has already overcome one thing and just got hit again. It's for anyone who relies too heavily on motivation and keeps waiting to feel ready. And it's for the person who needs permission to stop controlling the things they can't control and start moving on the things they can. You don't need a brain hemorrhage to need this conversation,  but if Dan got through his, you might just be able to get through yours. Resources and Mentions * The Boy, the Fox, the Horse and the Mole — Charlie Munger * Epictetus — Stoic philosopher, "It's not what happens to you but how you think about it that matters" * Iron Mike Tyson — "Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth" * Rich Roll — "Follows action" * Tim Ferriss — "Win the morning, win the day" * Whoop Strap — strain and recovery tracker Dan uses daily Connect with Dan MacQueen 🌐 www.macqueendan.com Support the show [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2463085/support] 🌐  Visit my website: https://hiddenchapterspodcast.com/  [https://hiddenchapterspodcast.com/]and stay connected!  🎙️  Want to be a guest on Hidden Chapters: Real Stories that Bring Light to the Hidden Parts of Life? Send me a message on PodMatch, here: https://www.podmatch.com/hostdetailpreview/genevievekruger [https://www.podmatch.com/hostdetailpreview/genevievekruger]  🎵 Background Music: "In Time" by Folk_acoustic from Pixabay

What Real Inclusion Looks Like: Disablity, Ableism, and Advocacy with Jenna Udenberg

Send me a message via text or voicemail! [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2463085/fan_mail/new] 🎙️  Episode Summary What does real inclusion actually look beyond good intentions and surface level awareness?  In this episode, I get to sit down with educator, author, and accessibility advocate Jenna Udenberg, founder of Above and Beyond with U, for an honest conversation about disability, ableism, and what true advocacy requires. Jenna shares her experience living with juvenile idiopathic arthritis and unpacks the realities that often go unseen, including the pressure to be labeled “inspiring,” the complexity within disability culture, and the emotional weight of navigating a world that wasn’t built with accessibility in mind. We talk about the difference between performative inclusion and real, lived inclusion, and the deeper internal work it takes to recognize and dismantle ableism in our everyday lives. This conversation invites you to rethink accessibility, challenge your assumptions, and consider what it really means to see people fully.  📖 Jenna’s Hidden Chapter Jenna’s hidden chapter is the part of her story before she had the language to understand her own identity. It’s the years of navigating a world that didn’t fully see or reflect her experience. Before discovering disability culture. Before realizing she didn’t have to earn belonging by being palatable, agreeable, or “inspiring.” That chapter led her to a pivotal moment of self-recognition, where she could finally look at herself and see her whole identity clearly. That truth now shapes the work she does and the way she shows up in advocacy. 🎧  Who This Episode Is For It’s for educators, parents, advocates, and leaders who want to move beyond performative inclusion and step into something more honest and impactful. It’s for those living with chronic illness or disability who are still navigating what it means to fully embrace their identity. And it’s for anyone willing to sit with discomfort, reflect honestly, and do the deeper work of understanding themselves and others. You don’t have to have a disability to be part of this conversation. Resources Mentioned * Jenna's Memoir: Within My Spokes — available on Amazon [https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CXXXXXX] * Above and Beyond with U (Nonprofit): aboveandbeyondwithu.org [https://aboveandbeyondwithu.org/] * Disability Culture Resources: disabilityculture.org [https://disabilityculture.org/] Connect with Jenna 🌐 aboveandbeyondwithu.org [https://aboveandbeyondwithu.org/]  Support the show [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2463085/support] 🌐  Visit my website: https://hiddenchapterspodcast.com/  [https://hiddenchapterspodcast.com/]and stay connected!  🎙️  Want to be a guest on Hidden Chapters: Real Stories that Bring Light to the Hidden Parts of Life? Send me a message on PodMatch, here: https://www.podmatch.com/hostdetailpreview/genevievekruger [https://www.podmatch.com/hostdetailpreview/genevievekruger]  🎵 Background Music: "In Time" by Folk_acoustic from Pixabay