Chronically Candid

About Chronically Candid

Chronically Candid is a conversational, reflective podcast hosted by Morgan Barrett, a Millennial mom to twins and an adult living with cystic fibrosis. The show (formerly Makers, Dreamers, Doers) features open-hearted discussions with guests and solo episodes that explore topics like creativity, chronic health experiences, parenthood, personal growth, and everyday life challenges. Morgan’s aim isn’t to be an expert but to share lived experiences and foster learning, unlearning, and emotional flexibility. The podcast also includes monthly “Fireside Fridays” — brief readings of Morgan's poetry and prose — adding a cozy and personal touch to the series. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy (https://acast.com/privacy) for more information.

Publisher

Morgan Barrett

Category

arts · business · society & culture

Language

en

Explicit

Yes

First episode

5 Mar 2023

Latest episode

13 Oct 2026

Latest episodes

5 of 53 episodes have a transcript.

1. 

   13 Oct 2026TRANSCRIPT

   From ECMO to Barcelona: Two Lung Transplants, Van Life, and Choosing Adventure with Caleigh Haber

   Host Morgan Barrett interviews Caleigh Haber, CF patient advocate, about her journey through two lung transplants, van life, and choosing adventure despite chronic illness.

2. 

   15 Sept 2026TRANSCRIPT

   Comedy, Mortality, and Rosanne Over Recess with Comedian Kirsten Michelle Cills

   Host Morgan Barrett interviews comedian Kirsten Michelle Cills about navigating mortality, chronic illness, and finding humor in life's challenges.

3. 

   18 Aug 2026TRANSCRIPT

   From PICC lines to Fairy Tales: On Being "Lucky", Trikafta, and Storytelling for Your Inner Child with Avalon George

   This week on Chronically Candid, Morgan sits down with Avalon George — Minneapolis-based writer and author of the debut middle grade novel Ivy Ever After, out this October — for a conversation that feels less like an interview and more like two old friends finally getting the chance to talk. Before diving in, Avalon shows off her yearly vision board tradition (this year's made a few months late, post-holiday CF crash and all), and the two quickly bond over a shared observation: an awful lot of people with CF end up drawn to writing, as if all those hours spent doing vest and nebulizer treatments carved out the time — and maybe the need — to create. Avalon walks through her CF story from the beginning: diagnosed at one month old, a "pretty normal" childhood that included competitive dance, mounting hospitalizations, and a steep decline in college that included a professor stopping a lecture mid-sentence to check if she was okay. She and Morgan trade the particular, specific humor of chronic illness, like the "quota of appropriate coughing”. They talk about growing up as the eldest daughter, and in Avalon’s case, the strange experience of watching your younger sibling step into the older sibling role, and the complicated grief and pride of living with CF as a kid — wanting the attention at events like the Great Strides walk, but just wanting to blend in and be ‘normal’ at school. The conversation turns to Trikafta, which Avalon started right around her wedding, after what she calls her "rock bottom" — a hospitalization two weeks before the ceremony. She describes the surreal experience of "the purge," gaining back over a decade's worth of lung function within months, sleeping through the night for what felt like the first time in her life, and the strange sci-fi feeling of a body suddenly doing what it was supposed to do. Both women reflect on the identity split of a life before and after modulators, and the unsettling reality that access to a medication this transformative is still gate-kept by insurance companies, governments, and sky-high prices — a point neither is willing to gloss over. From there, the episode moves into Avalon's therapy journey: an unexpected OCD diagnosis, the realization that her childhood held real trauma even though she'd always thought of herself as “lucky”, and a particularly striking insight from her therapist connecting her recurring fear of the house burning down to the body being its own kind of home. Morgan shares her own parallel — recurring dreams of tornadoes threatening (but never fully destroying) her house — and the two dig into the need for control and the exhausting pressure of childhood "toxic positivity," where being anything other than grateful felt like betrayal. That thread leads directly into the origin of Ivy Ever After: a metaphor born in therapy, of CF as an unruly dragon Avalon had spent her life trying to leash and train. The book grew out of years of messy, cathartic first drafts, inner child work, writing classes, and a long, difficult querying process that ultimately led Avalon to self-publish. She and Morgan talk about what it means to write for the ten-year-old version of yourself, the privilege of getting to be nostalgic when survival was never guaranteed, and reclaiming childlike whimsy — Disney parks included — without apology. The episode closes with Avalon sharing about her discomfort with being called a "chronic illness warrior" — the way that language quietly implies choice, and blame, in outcomes no one actually controls — and how that tension became a central theme of her book's fictional prophecy. Resources mentioned in this episode: Ivy Ever After by Avalon George Cystic Fibrosis Foundation (Great Strides walk) You can follow Avalon's writing and CF journey on Instagram at @avalon.writes (instagram.com/avalon.writes), and connect with Morgan at @morganbarrett__ (instagram.com/morganbarrett__). Support Morgan’s work by reading & subscribing to Chronically Candid on Substack at morgannbarrett.substack.com (morgannbarrett.substack.com) Support my work by reading & subscribing to Chronically Candid on Substack at morgannbarrett.substack.com (https://morgannbarrett.substack.com/?utm_medium=podcast) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy (https://acast.com/privacy) for more information.

Inside a recent episode

From ECMO to Barcelona: Two Lung Transplants, Van Life, and Choosing Adventure with Caleigh Haber

Published 13 Oct 2026 · Transcript excerpt

[…] I don't know that expression, but like I'm saying it's not, but it kind of is because my worst day today almost feels like probably what my best day would have been when I was very sick. And so having that perspective is always really great to keep because then it just allows me to continue to take the best advantage that I can of the day. So life today, I live in Spain. I'm in Barcelona. And I moved here two years ago. I traveled throughout Spain the first year, and we've been in Barcelona now for about a year. Previous to this, we lived in a van for three and a half years, did van life all throughout COVID in the state, in North America. […]

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

Apple Podcasts (US)

5.0 / 5

30 ratings

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Guest appearances

Books guests

Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.

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