Page 189: Molly Stillman: How Death, Debt, & Comedy Led to a Life of Faith
The Unfolding
Northwestern Media
4.9 • 867 Ratings
🗓️ 8 March 2024
⏱️ 43 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
One hard event after another marked the childhood and early adult years of Molly Stillman. After serving as an army nurse in Vietnam, Molly's mother was diagnosed with a fatal disease related to exposure to Agent Orange. At 21, Molly received an unexpected inheritance which she squandered in less than two years. Molly's go-to coping mechanism was humor, so she masked her pain and depression with stand-up comedy and even pursued her dream of making it on Saturday Night Live. But instead of the success she was chasing, Molly ended up in debt and suffocating under guilt, shame, and embarrassment. Molly is a speaker and host of the Can I Laugh On Your Shoulder? Podcast, and author of If I Don't Laugh, I'll Cry: How Death, Debt, and Comedy Led to a Life of Faith, Farming, and Forgetting What I Came into This Room For.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Page 189 of the unfolding is the story of Molly Stillman. |
| 0:04.9 | What became legitimately addicting was the dopamine hit that I got from spending money. |
| 0:10.4 | That was like the moment when I realized I'm in more debt than I make in a year. |
| 0:15.5 | I had been running from my finances long enough. |
| 0:20.4 | God's story has been unfolding. |
| 0:23.7 | Since the beginning of time. |
| 0:26.9 | He invites you to be a part of it. |
| 0:30.3 | Wow. |
| 0:32.4 | Another page in the unfolding. |
| 0:36.6 | Hi, this is Meredith Foster. |
| 0:38.8 | When people hear Molly Stillman's story, they often say, wait, what happened? |
| 0:43.2 | One hard event after another marked her childhood and her early adult years. |
| 0:48.4 | Molly's mother had served as an Army nurse in Vietnam. |
| 0:51.1 | By the time Molly was eight years old, her mom was diagnosed with a fatal |
| 0:54.9 | disease related to exposure to Agent Orange. At 21, Molly received an unexpected inheritance, |
| 1:02.3 | and that fed a retail therapy addiction, where she squandered it all in less than two years. |
| 1:08.1 | Molly's go-to coping mechanism was humor. So she masked her pain and depression |
| 1:13.7 | with stand-up comedy and even pursued her dream of making it on Saturday Night Live. But instead |
| 1:19.3 | of the success she was chasing, she ended up in debt and suffocating under shame, guilt, |
| 1:25.0 | and embarrassment. Both of my parents were recovering alcoholic Irish Catholics. |
| 1:31.7 | My dad was born the day before D-Day, and so he was just born in a very, you know, |
| 1:36.6 | unique time in our country's history. |
... |
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