The Importance Of Audio

A year of back-to-back losses can stop a life’s wheel from turning. After losing Laura to breast cancer and Pearl to lung cancer, I share how grief collided with art, why my body forced hard boundaries, and how a doctor’s warning reframed love, funerals, and the right to heal. This is a candid account of breaking down, learning to breathe again, and slowly rebuilding a creative practice—one verse at a time—until an EP became an album that honors memory without staying trapped in it.

I talk about Asleep at the Will as both title and truth: when the wheel jams, faith and community can help it turn again. I open up about studio days that ended in tears, the moments that finally held steady, and the way Lora’s presence still sits in the room ³while the producer tweaks the mix. Along the way, we celebrate the power of testimony: my niece’s brave story about depression, an artist’s journey, and even an animal rescue advocate whose work reminds us compassion is a discipline. Those voices have reached more ears than I ever expected, proving that honest stories travel far.

This show is audio-only by design. I grew up on radio, and I want attention on voice, not visuals—something you can take to work, on a drive, or on a walk. No paywall to listen. Following is free and keeps you close to new episodes on breast cancer awareness, lung cancer advocacy, mental health, and the everyday acts that help us keep going. If this resonates, follow the show, share it with someone who needs courage today, and leave a review to help these stories find the next person who’s ready to speak up.

Music

Show end

Chapters

• 1:48 Welcome & Mission for Cancer Awareness
• 2:24 Personal Losses and Laura’s Story
• 3:48 Nervous Breakdown and Creative Recovery
• 5:28 Album Vision: Asleep at the Will
• 6:37 Grief in the Studio: Learning to Sing Again
• 9:48 Pearl’s Passing and Medical Advice
• 12:33 Why Sharing Testimony Matters
• 14:28 Audience Reach and Guest Impact
• 16:29 Why This Show Is Audio-Only

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 1:10

Well hello there. Happy, happy Monday. I'm Regina Soren. Thank you so much for uh listening to my podcast. And thank you so much to the guests that I've already had on my um show so far. We got some really great guests coming up, and we got some uh more uh topics and things that we need to discuss uh during this uh breast cancer uh month and next month in November is lung cancer. Now I'm kind of focused on cancer because um I've lost several family members to cancer and um it is um it's this is a very touchy topic to me, but at the same time I think God has given me me the strength. Um but this topic is very needed at this time, and again, because I have family, you know, they say it's in your history, cancer, that's what they say, but I don't claim it. But um I lost two sisters to cancer, one to breast cancer. Uh Laura was my music partner. Um, we did everything together. Um, everything. Everything you can imagine we did together. Um we we were like twins. And um and our bond was so tight that when she passed away of breast cancer in July of 2020, I had a nervous breakdown. A lot of people don't know that. Some people know it, a lot of people don't know that. Um it took me a long time um just starting to go back into the studio to record. Um the EP turned into an album. Um, so I started working on an EP and it now it's turned into an album. Asleep at the will is about the will of life, the will in my life. You know, a will if it doesn't keep turning is gonna stop. And I felt for a short brief moment, it seems like forever, in my life that everything just stopped. But I know Laura would want me to keep going, but it hasn't been easy. Um, after recovering through much prayer and through much love and support from family and friends, after recovering from the nervous breakdown, it's taken me uh a long time to go back into the studio. I I would go in the studio, especially when I first started on this this album. I would go in the studio and I recall start recording and I would just run out just crying and screaming. That's the way it was in the beginning. But now it's so much better because I can get through a song, I can get through a verse, I can get through parts that I need to. The only thing that bothers me now is sometimes just sitting there while the producer or the person who's in there with me while they're doing what they need to do. I'm sitting there and all I can think about is Laura and the things that we used to do when we were in the studio. So that's very difficult. So I'm appreciative of prayers very much, very much. But I'm getting through it. I will record this record. This record will be released, rest assured. And then you got lung cancer. Now, lung cancer is uh technically in November. Um, my sister Pearl passed away of lung cancer, and it was a few months after Laura died. And if you listen to my podcast with my niece, Pearl's daughter, I explained um when Pearl passed away in November, Laura died in Jan July, and my mom died in January, so it was like three, like they say it comes in threes, right? So that was a very, very difficult year when Pearl died. Um I was focused on going to the funeral and focused on what would people think if I don't go. But my doctor said if you go I'll never forget the words the way he said it. I said that if you go to another funeral right now, you wouldn't necessarily be grieving you know, your other sister, you would be still grieving Laura. And he said that would just be too much on your heart. And he said y you have had it was at that point that I ha he told me that I had had a nervous breakdown. He said, if you go to another funeral at this time, this early, he said they could possibly be having another funeral. Because the heart sometimes can only take so much. I've seen in the past people are at funerals and they fall dead. And I've seen that with my natural eyes in the past. So I knew exactly what he was saying. So it was very difficult not to go to show my last respects to my sister Pearl, but I had to be mindful of what the doctor had advised me to do. If people only knew how I was feeling at that time, the burden the my heart felt like it was gonna burst. So had I went to Pearl's funeral and I I I wish I could have because I loved her. But that's why it's good to love a person in life, because even if you don't always go to their funeral, it doesn't mean you don't love them. And I know in my in my case, I I knew it wasn't because I didn't love her, it was just because it was something that I had to do health-wise, or else it was that or else, you know. So that's why doing the podcast of for breast cancer month and lung cancer or November. We've already started. I'm so grateful to my niece, Charetta Ford, um, who is um help helping with this. She she signed on because I've asked everyone. It's like, would you like to come on? Would you like to tell your testimony? I've asked different people because people got great, great testimonies, but sometimes they want to hold them to themselves or or or whatever. Maybe they just don't want to talk about it. But sometimes when you talk about things, it makes it better. I mean, the pain of it is never going to really go away, but it when you talk about a situation like when I had the nervous breakdown, trust me, I didn't want to talk to people about that. I didn't even want to talk to people. Let alone let people know what had happened to me. But I had to do it, and I'm so thankful that God gave me the wisdom, courage, and strength to do that. Because it takes strength from God to get out there and tell your story. So I'm thankful to my niece, Geretta, for telling her story about the depression that she went through. It has helped so many people. The podcast, my podcast, so for the ones that's been posted, uh, one of Murphy Elliott, um, the one of Jerry Clay Hayes about the cats uh organization, um, and of course Geretta's uh podcast. I mean, these things are breaking records for me. They're totally breaking records, and I'm thankful. I was uh telling my niece how thankful I was to hear I would hearing her story it blessed me. It was very sad. It was sad, but it still blessed me, it gave me faith, it motivated me to want to do something more uh to help other people, even if it's through my testimony. Listening to Joretta tell her testimony and the things that she had gone through. I knew she had suffered also with depression, but I didn't know to the extent. I didn't know to the extent of uh what she had gone through. So I'm so thankful that she signed on to talk about it because again, a lot of people hold their testimonies, they hold them, and sometimes not always, sometimes people think, well, maybe your podcast is not big enough, they want somebody else to get on somebody else's podcast, but let me tell you guys something. This podcast is heard by many, many, many, many people. I've got billionaire restaurant owners who heard my podcast with Jerry Clay Hayes and want to talk come talk to me. So I'm really happy that I got quite a few wonderful people who are going to take take the take the mic and tell their story because that's what my podcast is all about. You know, a lot of people they quote unquote you know, sometimes people say, Well, I want I want to it's a visual or it's not a visual podcast because that's why I call it audio series, it's a series of volumes and series of things in my life and things in other people's lives and other people's stories, so it's an audio for a reason. Don't feel bad because your podcast is an audio. I tell people that all the time. My podcast is specifically an audio, and there's a reason for that because there's room for audios. I grew up, I never forget it. My sister Laura Laura rest her soul. We grew up listening to radio, and when I listen to radio, I tend to hold my attention span is longer. If I'm sitting there looking at something, I'm gonna walk away from it. I'm going to be checking out your clothes, your shoes, um, what you're wearing, what you're not wearing, you know, things like that. I do an audio series not because of any specifically way that I look, I think I look fair, but it's not about that. I don't want people to focus necessarily on me, the look, the way I'm looking, what I'm wearing, uh the way you're wearing your hair. I don't want them focusing on all of that. I want them to listen to the podcast, and so that's why my podcast, and I cannot speak for everyone else. This is just about my podcast. I prefer it to be an audio series, which is why the Lord gave me that name, Regina Sorne Audio Series. So there's room for audio. Uh is for people who are driving. You can listen to it in your car. If you're at work, you can hit listen to it in your ear. Uh, if you're on your lunch break, you can listen to it. You you can't do that if your podcast is one where you gotta look at it, you gotta stop and look. You can't make points. So that's why I'm so grateful that there is room for this podcast, and I'm thankful how God is He's blessing it, He's elevating it, He's getting it to the right people, because the people who are listening to it are the people who is meant to who's meant who it's meant for, you know. Um and I'm thankful for that. I'm very thankful. So if you are a fan of my podcast, I want to just say for a moment right now, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you a million times, thank you, and thank you so much for everything. Thank you for everything. Yeah, I'm kind of lost for words now, but I just want to thank you for everything. Um, you can go up to the podcast, you can follow. If you want to, you can subscribe. Now, I am not saying that you got to subscribe. You know, a lot of people ask me, do you have to pay anything? No, you don't have to pay anything. Subscribing is at your own will. If you want to do that three dollar thing, if you want to do a dollar, if you want to do a nickel, what if you want to do? If you want to do that, that's totally up to you. I'm not saying you got to do that. That's what I have to make very clear to people because some people ask, what do I have to pay? Yeah, break my heart a little bit. It breaks my heart, but you can follow. Following costs you nothing. If there's a podcast that you really want to hear, you really like, if you follow, you will hear every single podcast that's posted. Every one. So I think I'm gonna wrap this up. I've been rambling on and on and on, and so I'm about to wrap this up. But again, I want to thank you to all who support my podcast. I just want to do a solo podcast in the middle of my interviews, of course. Thankful again to all who has participated in coming on, telling their story. Murphy Elliott, the great artist, the genius. Woo! Boy, does he have a story? And I love hearing his story. And of course, my niece Joretta came on and told her story. You know, it's just been a blessing so far. And I want to say this before I got one more and one more thing to ramble about. One more thing. Um, the two of us came up with an idea that we're gonna start uh doing podcasts, podcasting a little bit more often, you know, just just different topics, just things that in general, life, life things. And with Jerry, with the rescue cats, she had said she'd like to do more podcasts about the cats and about animals and things like that. So it's working out so well, and I'm so happy and thankful to God, and thankful to those who have been a part of this journey with me. Thank you. All right, Tina Torrent, thankful to the music. Oh boy, the soundtrack. Chris Murphy Elliott, man. Go check him out, guys. His music um has been online for years. Uh Reaching for the Stars was something that he created for my radio show. And sometimes things can be before their time. I am so thankful that uh Reaching for the Stars is perfectly fitted for my podcast now. So thank you, Chris. If you listen to this, if you can hear this, thank you. Guys, please go out and check out Chris online. He has some beautiful music out there. He's a very, very talented man, and um I just all the power to him. He's a really a great person as well. So is his dad and his family. Thanks again, and you have a great day.