The Phoenix Table
Welcome to The Phoenix Table—a podcast for anyone rising through the messy middle.
Hosted by entrepreneur, parent, and storyteller Sam Anderson, this show is where the real stories get told unfiltered, unpolished, and unapologetically powerful.
Whether you're navigating burnout, grief, mental health, caregiving, or the quiet ache of rebuilding your life, you're not alone.
Through soul-deep conversations, raw solo episodes, and stories of survival and rebirth, The Phoenix Table invites you to pull up a chair and exhale. We’re exploring the concepts of grit, grief and growth.
This is not a space for toxic positivity or surface-level advice. It’s for the people who’ve been through it, are still in it, and are determined to rise anyway.
You’ll hear from guests who’ve lost everything and started over, who’ve cared through crises, loved through darkness, and dared to dream again. And you’ll hear from Sam—honestly, vulnerably, fiercely—as they share their path from ashes to alignment.
If you're ready to feel seen and be inspired, we invite you to pull up a chair.
🔥 New episodes every Wednesday. Subscribe and let's rise better together.
Episodes
18 episodes
Coffee Break: When Productivity Becomes a Vice
In this season finale of The Phoenix Table, Sam opens up about a struggle many high achievers face: using productivity as a vice. As year-end pressure builds, she finds herself stuck in the cycle of stress, overdoing, and eventual burnout.<...
What Chronic Illness Taught Yasmine De Aranda About Family, Gratitude, and True Success
In this episode of The Phoenix Table, we sit down with Yasmine De Aranda, who turned a season of heartbreak and uncertainty into a profound journey of love, resilience, and redefinition.When Yasmine’s husband was diagnosed with long COVI...
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How Michele Hecken Built a Business That Runs Without Her
In this episode of The Phoenix Table, we sit down with Michele Hecken, a serial entrepreneur, speaker, and author who built her first business from scratch while raising two young daughters, and later transformed it to run entirely without her....
Coffee Break: How to Heal Together Without Losing Yourself
In this solo episode of The Phoenix Table, Sam opens up about what it really means to love someone through their healing — and how to stay whole while doing it.She reflects on the quiet, complicated space between care and self-p...
How a 2,500-Mile Bike Ride Helped Travis Scott Heal and Redefine Strength
In this episode of The Phoenix Table, we sit down with Travis Scott, who transformed a period of intense depression and grief into an extraordinary 2,500-mile journey on a bicycle.Travis shares the emotional weight of losing his...
Rising After the Fall: Nicole Donnelly on Losing Everything and Rebuilding with Purpose
In this episode of The Phoenix Table, Nicole Donnelly shares her journey as an entrepreneur, detailing the rise and challenges of her company Baby Legs, the emotional and financial struggles during economic downturns, and the importanc...
Coffee Break: A Call to Quiet Bravery
In this mini episode, the first in a mini-series called “Coffee Breaks,” Sam reflects on what it really means to be brave, not in the loud, world-shifting moments, but in the quiet, unseen choices we make every day.Bravery, she reminds u...
From Business Collapse to Personal Clarity: Todd Palmer on Resilience and Redefining Failure
In this raw and eye-opening episode of The Phoenix Table, Todd Palmer shares how losing his father at just five years old shaped his beliefs about success, leadership, and self-worth. What began as a drive to “do it all” as an entrepre...
I’m Not Okay: Part 2 — Carrying the Backpack of Grief
In Part 2 of I’m Not Okay, Sam shares the next chapter of her journey following a traumatic family event. What does it really look like to heal after everything falls apart?From the fog of grief to the unexpected freeze moments ...
From CEO to Caregiver: A Daughter’s Journey Through Alzheimer’s with Sarah Medilo
In this raw and heartfelt episode of The Phoenix Table, Sarah shares her journey of shifting from the CEO of a top HubSpot agency in the Philippines to becoming the full-time caregiver for her mother diagnosed with Alzheimer’s.S...
Parental Alcoholism and Family Estrangement: Trygve Olsen’s Story of Healing and Hope
In this raw and deeply moving episode of The Phoenix Table, Trygve Olsen opens up about his painful decision to become estranged from his parents after years of alcoholism, denial, and one traumatic event that changed everything.
"I'm Not Okay": Loving Someone Through Depression
This week’s episode of The Phoenix Table is one of my rawest yet. Just two weeks ago, my husband’s depression reached a breaking point, and for the first time I had to face the reality that I couldn’t “fix it.”What followed was ...
The Invisible Battle of Cancer: Endurance, Healing, and Choosing Joy with Meg Duffy
In this episode of The Phoenix Table, Sam Anderson sits down with Meg Duffy, a Principal Professor at HubSpot Academy, who shares her powerful journey from running the Tokyo Marathon to facing an unexpected cancer diagnosis just two we...
Burnout to Abundance: The No-Nonsense Path to Success and Joy with Dr Kristin Kahle
What happens when success on paper doesn’t feel like success in life? In this episode of The Phoenix Table, Sam sits down with Dr. Kristen Kale — entrepreneur, author of Notivation, and unapologetic truth-teller — to unpack he...
Stop Shoulding On Yourself!
In this episode of The Phoenix Table, we dive deep into the quiet pressures we place on ourselves—the "shoulds" that stack up and quietly define our identity. Sam unpacks how the collapse of her first business revealed just how much of...
The Real Burn Down: What I Lost and What it Gave Me
In this deeply personal episode, Sam takes you back to the moment everything she built came crashing down — the collapse of her first business, the grief that followed, and the unexpected clarity it gave her.This isn't just a story about...