interviews and podcasts
The Sensitive Warrior
Doreen Lang, HSP Coach, Healthcare and Energy Professional, and host of The Sensitive Warrior, interviews Jodi about her newly-released best selling memoir, ONE FROM EACH COLUMN: My 46-Year Trek from Abusive Childhood to Elusive Motherhood, and her remarkable life story that unfolds on every page. Doreen delved into Jodi's book, as well as her work as a keynote speaker and online course creator in her mission to support and empower people to overcome trauma, realize long-standing dreams, and navigate life's toughest challenges, as Jodi did when she faced infertility and succeeded in building her unique family.
This episode features speaker and author Jodi Mitchel Tolman who shares how she and her husband navigated multiple paths over six years to build their family after facing challenges with fertility. Their family ultimately consisted of three children: one genetic child from a previous marriage, one adopted daughter, and one son born via donor egg. Now all grown, Jodi was inspired to write their story in her recently released book, ONE FROM EACH COLUMN: My 46-Year Trek from Abusive Childhood to Elusive Motherhood.
Throughout the conversation, Jodi details the various paths she took, starting with miscarriages, followed by unsuccessful IUI and three rounds of IVF using her own eggs. She recounts her “hair-raising” adoption story, while emphasizing that this traumatic experience is infrequent and not the norm in adoption. She also shares the successful journey of having her youngest son via donor egg at age 46.
Jodi’s story not only tells of her road to parenthood, but explores how her early challenging life experiences fostered the resilience needed to overcome obstacles in family building. A key takeaway from Jodi’s advice is that the ultimate goal is parenting and that there is zero difference in how you love a child, regardless of the road they took to find their way home.
Candy O'Terry, known as Boston's Beloved Radio Voice, was inducted into the MA Broadcast Hall of Fame in 2024, and is the recipient of 65 national and local awards. She interviews Jodi, who reveals the many mistakes and regrets along her path, and the incredible triumphs in her life. Her secret weapon? Resilience! "An unstoppable force of nature, Jodi discusses her experience navigating the challenging waters of infertility and building her beautiful family with three children: one born "naturally," one adopted, and one born from a donor egg when she was forty-six." These days, she and her husband, Jay, talk to people in the throes of infertility, answering their questions and sharing their inspiring story. Jodi's memoir, ONE FROM EACH COLUMN: My 46-Year Trek from Abusive Childhood to Elusive Motherhood is available here.
Joseph Shrand, MD, is Lecturer in Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and an adjunct Faculty Member at Boston Children's Hospital. Dr. Shrand developed the groundbreaking strength-based model called the I-M Approach which suggests a fundamental paradigm shift, moving away from pathology to viewing a patient at a current maximum potential, based on respect. Jodi guests on his podcast, The Dr. Joe Show: Exploring Who We Are and Why We Do What We Do. "We hear speaker and author Jodi Tolman's amazing story of how she recovered from childhood trauma, utilized her anger for positive change, and became a mother to three children by three different means, well after fertility faded." (Jodi's interview begins at timestamp 12:40.)