Trailer

Podcast Trailer: The Shadows We Cast

Welcome to The Shadows We Cast—a podcast about the legacies we inherit, the stories we carry, and the light we create in the process.

Hosted by mental health advocate, writer, and speaker Jenn St. John, this series opens the door to raw and real conversations about living through, loving through, and learning from mental health challenges.

In this short preview, Jenn shares what listeners can expect each week: deeply personal stories, journal readings, candid interviews with guests ranging from family members to public figures, and a commitment to unmasking mental health—one brave conversation at a time.

If you've ever felt like you were navigating the dark without a map, this podcast is here to say: you're not alone. Let’s talk about the shadows—and the adaptability that rises from them.

New episodes drop every Tuesday.

Host & Producer: Jenn St John
Editor: Andrew Schiller
Website: www.jennstjohn.ca
Follow along:
Instagram: @jenn_stjohn
TikTok: @jenn.st.john
LinkedIn: Jenn St John
BlueSky: @jennstjohn.bsky.social

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Transcript

Podcast: The Shadows We Cast

Episode Number: 1

Episode Title:  Trailer

Date launched: April 7, 2025

Edited by:  Andrew Schiller

Duration: 5:42

TRANSCRIPT:

Hello and welcome to The Shadows we cast a podcast about what we carry, the impact we leave, and the messy beautiful reality of mental health. I'm Jen St. John, a writer, business owner, and a mental health advocate who grew up in a family shaped by mental illness. Some of it was heartbreaking, some of it darkly funny, and all of it shaped who I am today.

Here we're gonna share honest conversations, stories from me, from you, and from those who have walked this road in different ways, through journal entries, letters from my mom, and real conversations. We're gonna pull back the layer on mental health, the tough parts, the moments that shaped us, and how we move forward together.

So grab a coffee, settle in, and let's talk.

People often ask me where I'm from, and honestly, I never know how to answer that question without watching their faces slowly shift from curiosity to [00:01:00] mild regret. What they're expecting is something like, oh, I'm from Toronto, or I'm from small town Ontario. But instead they get, well a journey. So where am I from?

I was born in Scarborough, then moved to Owen Sound, then Markham. Then we packed up and headed out west and we lived in three small towns in Alberta. Back to Ontario, Westport, Oshawa, and Peterborough. Then my family decided, Hey, why not move to the us? So we moved to Missouri, Arizona, back to Missouri, and then back to Canada again.

And all of that happened before I turned 18. I. So I had about 25 different addresses before I turned 18. No, my parents weren't in the military, which is the question that I always get asked. But living with a mother who was undiagnosed and untreated with mental illness in her fifties, well that creates a special kind of instability, and it felt like we were constantly on the run from something, mostly from chaos, but also sometimes from the [00:02:00] landlord.

Growing up like this, it was a lot, and you never knew what version of your parent you were gonna get every day. I never knew how mom was going to be when I woke up, and I never knew how she was gonna be when she came home. I. Some days were good and some days were beautiful. Even some were like stepping onto a rollercoaster that you didn't wanna ride, but oops.

There you were locked in with no seatbelt, no choice. It was unpredictable and sometimes it was heartbreaking, but somehow it taught me everything I needed to know about surviving. I learned adaptability and resilience before I even know what that word meant. I learned how to read a room in seconds to problem solve on the fly, and how to find joy in the in-between.

Tiny teeniest, smallest moments. These weren't just survival skills. They became the foundation of who I am today, and that's why I'm starting this podcast, the Shadows we cast, because I know that I'm not the only one who's had to figure things out while standing in the middle of [00:03:00] uncertainty. Whether you grew up with a mental illness in your family, dealt with grief or trauma, or you just have that feeling of, I don't think my childhood was normal.

You're not alone. The tough stuff, the heavy stories, they don't have to be all weight and sadness. We can talk about them with honesty, but also with light, with laughter, and with that weird mix of this is really hard, but also can you believe it actually happened? I can't tell you how many times my sisters and I say that in our conversations, but that's how we get through it.

Each episode, we're gonna dive into different aspects of mental health. Sometimes I'll share personal stories. I have a great library of gold that is all of my journals from when I was growing up, and letters between myself and my mom and my dad, and I also have some of mom's journals as well. All of these moments shaped me.

Other times I'll sit down with guests, I'll have mental health advocates, therapists, mental health professionals. I'll have people [00:04:00] who are running mental health organizations, and I'll have people who wanna talk about their own journeys and how they came out the other side with wisdom and humor and, and a few scars to show for it.

We're gonna talk about breaking the silence and the shame around mental illness in a way that feels real and not forced. The complexities of growing up with a parent who struggles with their mental health and the impact of sharing our stories and what happens when you do both the good and well, sometimes the unexpected.

We're gonna talk about creative coping mechanisms because not all healing looks like therapies. Sometimes it's journaling, drawing, or dancing around your kitchen if you want to. And we're gonna talk about finding meaning and loss and not tying everything up into a neat little bow, but learning how to keep going in a way that feels honest.

I truly believe this. It is not what happens to you that defines you, it's how you respond. Life is gonna knock you flat, but you always have a choice. Stay down or you can stand up and eventually, [00:05:00]hopefully find something worth laughing about. Again, this isn't just my story, it's, it's ours. We all cast shadows.

Some are dark, some are filled with light. But the question is, how do we move forward knowing the weight that we carry? I really, really hope that this space is gonna help us figure that all out together. If anything in this episode resonates with you, I'd love to hear from you, so connect with me. Let's keep this conversation going.

Thank you so much for being here. Thank you for listening, and welcome to the Shadows We cast.