Resurface Podcast

Edited with Movavi Video Editor: https://www.movavi.com/Some supplemental music licensed through Envato Elements

We invited ChatGPT to co-host our podcast and gave it one job: try to start an argument between us. It roasted both of us, called out our ridiculous excuses, and somehow ended up playing couples therapist.
We're Rachel and Stephen Scroggins, the married hosts of Resurface Podcast, and for Episode 44, we decided to let artificial intelligence join the conversation.
Armed with everything ChatGPT already knows about us (which is probably far too much), we challenged it to find something we could actually disagree about.
It didn't hold back.
From who's really late when we're leaving the...

Toy Story 5 takes on kids' screen time, technology, and imaginative play. But what happens when a screen isn't just entertainment, but something a child with disabilities genuinely needs? In Episode 43 of Resurface Podcast, Rachel and Stephen react to Disney and Pixar's Toy Story 5 and its surprisingly complicated message about children, tablets, friendship, and growing up. As parents of three children, including a five-year-old daughter with significant disabilities, we have a different perspective on the screen-time debate. We talk about the struggle to balance imaginative play with technology, the changes we've noticed in our own children when screens are limited, and...

How does a real mom measure up against the internet’s parenting standards?

Rachel is finding out the hard way. In Episode 42 of Resurface, Rachel turns online parenting advice into an Internet Mom Report Card and grades herself on everything the internet says a good mom is apparently supposed to do: perfect morning routines, creative lunches, developmental activities, enrichment, screen-time limits, gentle parenting, an organized home, quality family time, Pinterest-worthy memories, and more. Somehow this involves Fortnite raising a child, questionable lunch expectations, toy rotation, bribery, yelling, screen-time loopholes, secretly burying children's artwork in the trash, and the in...

Rachel lived with severe OCD during pregnancy, after childbirth, after pregnancy loss, and for years without knowing what it was.
In Episode 41, Rachel shares her experience with postpartum and perinatal OCD, intrusive thoughts, contamination OCD, and the fear of telling anyone what was happening inside her head. Stephen knew about these thoughts at the time, but after having a stroke at 37, he no longer remembers parts of that period — so some of what Rachel tells him now feels almost new.
Rachel traces her OCD from childhood intrusive thoughts to contamination fears during pregnancy with Ariana, then to darker in...

Episode 40: Medicaid Waiver Fight, Invisible Disability, and a Labor Day Break at Carowinds
Rachel and Stephen return for episode 40 after a Labor Day weekend break, clarifying they are not homeless but still facing mortgage and housing instability tied to their ongoing fight for Medicaid services for their daughter Mila, who was born pulseless for 25 minutes and has an invisible disability. They describe support from a senator’s office, updates on the CAP/C Medicaid waiver legal battle (including losing Disability Rights NC counsel, proceeding pro se against the AG’s office, a Chapter 41B dismissal, and a stalled Superior Cour...

Would you save your spouse or the dog if your house were on fire?

In Episode 39, Rachel and Stephen play “Wives or Husbands,” a game built around marriage hypothetical questions and which spouse is more likely to do what.

It begins with familiar arguments about driving, directions, man flu, mental load, selective hearing, and passive-aggressive sighing. Then the questions become considerably less reasonable. The dog, hamster, baby books, and children all make Rachel’s fire-rescue list. When she asks whether Stephen would save her, a normal relationship question becomes a serious discussion about a charred wife, skin g...

The whiteboard challenge. Who would survive a Zombie apocalypse? Who would hoard snacks? And pranking Alexa.Then we move into a few serious questions. What do well-meaning people say that actually makes things worse? What do we wish people knew about special needs parenting?

Edited with Movavi Video Editor: https://www.movavi.com/Some supplemental music licensed through Envato Elements

Edited with Movavi Video Editor: https://www.movavi.com/Some supplemental music licensed through Envato Elements

What happens when a married couple compares their favorite foods, desserts, TV shows and restaurants, then realizes how much of life they have been putting off while waiting for the “right” time?In Episode 37 of the Resurface Podcast, Rachel and Stephen start with the important questions: Is crinkle-cut fry slander justified? Could Rachel actually win a food-eating contest? How many completely wrong TV shows can she guess before landing on *Saved by the Bell*? And which restaurants and desserts actually make the favorites list? We roast each other with sarcasm and deadpan humor, and guess completely wrong 95% of the time.Then...

A stranger claiming to be a 17-year-old messaged our child on Fortnite, then asked where they lived, their school, and their phone number.This week we're breaking format: a lighter Amazon reviews cold open, then a hard conversation about online predators on gaming platforms. We walk through exactly what happened when our child was contacted by an adult posing as a teenager, the red flags we missed, and the three reports we filed: local law enforcement, NCMEC's CyberTipline, and Epic Games. We also cover the parental control gap in tools like Bark Home, how to set up Epic Games parental...

Episode 35 starts with Reddit reactions, stories, questionable snacks, cuteness aggression, Elmo, and a much-needed family day at Carowinds.Then the conversation shifts. Rachel shares what happened after the kids left for the day, the financial pressure the family is facing, and the fear that they may not be able to keep their home.This episode is funny, honest, and uncomfortable in the way real life sometimes is. Thank you for watching, listening, and continuing to support Resurface.

Edited with Movavi Video Editor: https://www.movavi.com/Some supplemental music licensed through Envato Elements

We started with a trivia game about each other. It ended with Stephen saying something he had never told me.After 16 years of marriage, we played relationship trivia to see how well we still know each other, and the answer was uncomfortable. What began as a comedy game about shoe sizes and Starbucks orders turned into the most honest conversation we have had in a long time. Stephen admitting he has been quietly struggling with depression since his stroke. Both of us grieving the people we used to be. And a real disagreement, on mic, about whether I am actually...

Nala is on hospice, she still plays, and she has growled at our special needs daughter twice. In 2019 a dog we used to own attacked, with no warning at all.Nala is our Great Dane. She is almost 11, she is on comfort care for liver damage and arthritis, and she is still happy. She still plays with Luke, our Golden Retriever. She still gets excited to see us. And we may still have to make a decision about her, not because she is suffering, but because we have a child with special needs who cannot read a warning and cannot...

Somebody we trusted to do a job stopped doing it. And when Rachel realized it, she had a decision to make. Sit quietly and hope for the best, or sit down with a laptop for 10 to 12 hours a day and do the work herself.In this episode of Resurface, we start with laughter, always, playing guess what Google auto-populates and finding out the internet is going through way more than we realized.We talk about what it feels like when a professional you paid to help you stops doing the work, how you know it's happening, and what it costs...

A $10,000 raise. An $837 overage. By year end, this family was $21,000 worse off. Not our story. I still had to tell it.Stephen goes through my whole medical mom bag / purse on camera. Plenty of laughs are had as usual. Then I tell you the story of a family living outside Detroit that I have never met, a family raising a disabled child with epilepsy and a son with severe ADD, and I walk through the actual numbers that show what happens when a $10,000 raise takes their children off Medicaid and puts them on private insurance. This is the Medicaid cliff...

We found out there's almost no data on babies who survive 25 minutes without a pulse. Turns out we're it.This week Rachel and Stephen put each other on the stand, married-couple-court style, running through guilty-or-innocent questions about hiding from their kids, fantasizing about being single, and who actually farts in front of who after 16 years. Then the episode pivots hard into the real story behind their "single in our own marriage" verdict: Mila's HIE birth injury, a stat C-section, 25 minutes with no pulse, and the therapeutic hypothermia and DNR conversation that followed. They close out by walking through what co-parenting...

We put AI in the judge's chair and asked it to rule on our self-care habits. It had thoughts. A lot of thoughts. And then it turned on Stephen.We kicked off Episode 29 with a game: Stephen typed increasingly ridiculous questions into Claude about our household, our routines, and whether I should be committed, and I read the responses out loud. The answers got more honest and more pointed with every question, until the bit collapsed under the weight of Claude actually caring about Stephen's mental state.After the laughing died down, we got real about what self-care actually looks...

We almost didn't film this one. A conversation online about disability gave us a reason to say something out loud again.In light of a public conversation about disability, down syndrome, and grief, We sit down to talk about something we live every single day: the worth of a disabled life. No names, no debate. They talk honestly about parenting our daughter Mila, who has severe disabilities from a birth injury, and about the hard truth that disability can be frightening, costly, and exhausting, while disabled people are still beautiful, valuable, and fully human. This one is about dignity, fear...

Rachel's sister Kristina is back for Episode 27, and this time they're roasting their husbands. Why do men say "I was going to do that" only after you start doing it? Why do they call from the grocery store like they've been abandoned in the wilderness? Why do they spend so long on the toilet?In this episode, Rachel and Kristina play a game called "Husband or Dog?" comparing which is more likely to listen when their name is called, get mad when dinner isn't ready, make a mess around the house, or cuddle when you actually want them to. Some...

Rachel’s sister Kristina joins Resurface for an episode that starts with sibling chaos and somehow ends up in the deepest parts of the family story.They talk about growing up as sisters, childhood punishments, birth order, husbands, cleaning, workplace red flags, and why anyone who says “we’re like a family here” at work should probably be watched carefully.But this episode also turns toward the moments that shaped their family forever, including Stephen’s stroke and Mila’s birth. Rachel and Kristina talk about what it was like to live those emergencies from different sides of the phone, how trauma c...

Episode 25 starts with pet peeves, including Stephen calling from the grocery store, interrupted alone time, tipping culture, and more. We always choose to laugh first.Then we shift into a more serious conversation about raising a child with epilepsy.Rachel retells the story of Mila's first ever seizure, which was life threatening status epilepticus.We talk about how Mila’s diagnosis changed the way we parent, what constant monitoring looks like behind the scenes, why relaxing is not possible anymore, how epilepsy affects marriage and daily life, and how we try to protect her without letting her diagnoses become her id...

In this episode we start by reacting to the viral back massage clip comments. We then talk about marriage after crisis, family after trauma, and what intimacy looks like when your world has been turned upside down.
If you are parenting through stress, disability, medical uncertainty, or just trying to hold your family together while life keeps coming at you, this episode is for you.
New episodes weekly on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
If you listen on Apple Podcasts, leaving a review helps more families navigating trauma, special needs parenting, or hard seasons find this podcast — and th...

In Part 2 of our Medicaid waiver hearing recap, we read more direct quotes from the hearing transcript, including the moments that still do not make sense to us.This episode picks up where our last one left off. After losing in court, we are going through the actual exchanges from the hearing, including testimony from medical providers, arguments made about Mila’s needs, and the way her disability, epilepsy, brain injury, and daily care were discussed.Some parts are serious. Some parts are absurd. Some parts made us angry all over again.This is the final chapter of this part of...

In this episode of Resurface, we start the way we refuse to stop starting, with laughter, marriage banter, and another round of Agree or Disagree. We debate whether the higher earner should get more say over money, why “we need to talk” texts are morally wrong unless immediately explained, whether one parent should override the other’s discipline, and whether all men should know how to cook.Then the episode turns to the heart of it: an update on Mila’s CAP/C waiver hearing against NC DHHS. Rachel walks Stephen through key moments from the hearing, including medical testimony about Mi...

This is about as raw and real as it gets - our daughter's hearing was denied. We will be back Tuesday with all of the details!
New episodes weekly on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
If you listen on Apple Podcasts, leaving a review helps more families navigating trauma, special needs parenting, or hard seasons find this podcast — and the community around it.
Download your free Get Helped and Be Helped Checklist here: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.resurfacepodcast.com/downloads⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠
Find us on TikTok: @⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠resurfacepod⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Find us on Instagram: @⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠theresurfacepodcast⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Find us on Facebook: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Resurface Podcast⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Email us: [email protected] our website: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.resurfacepodcast.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Find us on Threads: ⁠⁠⁠https://www.threads.com/@theresurfacepodcast⁠⁠⁠
Resurface is the only podcast where two medic...

In this episode we open with a round of fun and funny questions and answers. We then move into the main topic where we talk about parenting a child with complex needs, the emotional weight of advocacy, and what it feels like to keep functioning when the system keeps pushing back.We discuss speech therapy, medical and developmental concerns, CAP/C, and the reality of trying to help your child while also carrying the mental load of marriage, family life, and everything else that does not stop just because you are overwhelmed.This is a conversation about the parts people...

In this episode we open with a round of questions and answers. They we move into the topic, talking about Rachel's trauma response she didn't see coming when her brain thought everything was fine.Rachel talks about what it actually feels like when PTSD lives in your body instead of your thoughts, and how she recognized it as a trauma response.Then Rachel ends up in the ER herself with chest pain and a concerning EKG, and Stephen has a trigger of his own that neither of them expected. We talk about what it means to be two medical trauma...

Ten months ago, a doctor accused me of something awful and wrote it in our daughter's chart. I stayed silent. Today I'm speaking.Mila was four years old. She was six weeks out from her first seizure: status epilepticus that lasted at least 25 minutes.We were in the hospital for EEG monitoring during a medication wean when a neurologist asked me, to my face, why I wanted my daughter to have a seizure. Then she slammed the door and wrote it in the chart.This episode is everything that happened in that hospital room: what I saw on the EEG...

We're making a decision that can't be undone.In this episode we take you inside our visit to UNC Children's Cochlear Implant Center; what we learned, what surprised us, and the moment we realized we were finally in the right place. We talk through why we chose one ear at a time, what happens when a child wakes up from cochlear implant surgery without any hearing, and the fears we have.We also cover Mila's MRI and CT scan, a third set of ear tubes, four surgeries back to back, and what it means to be fighting a Medicaid denial...

3 days before a court deadline, our daughter's lawyer left her case. In this episode, we talk about our fight with Medicaid, specifically CAP/C. We discuss the impact suddenly being left in the lurch has made, the upcoming battle ahead, and our fears about what this might mean. We will never stop fighting for our daughter, and fighting for her means we are also fighting for other children with invisible disabilities. If you are a medical mom, dad, or special needs parent, this podcast episode is for you and to you.
Resurface is the only podcast where two medical...

When two medical trauma survivors clash together and try to raise a family, it's not always easy. It's messy, complicated, emotional, and incredibly challenging. What happens when they do it on camera, in front of a microphone? From bank account anxiety, to PTSD's affect on our marriage, to a fun and funny round of agree or disagree, we sit down and hash things out as a married couple that still chooses each other each day. Resurface is the only podcast where two medical trauma survivors, each of us carrying invisible after effects the world stopped asking about, parent a medically...

Life is chaotic. So first, we laugh. In this episode of Resurface, we move from comedic relief into the real dynamics of marriage, parenting, and raising children in a medically complex family. We talk about:• Marriage communication in chaotic seasons• Parenting multiple children with competing needs• Balancing structure and survival• Identity shifts in fatherhood and motherhood• Sibling dynamics in special needs families• Caregiver exhaustion• Finding humor when life feels overwhelming
There’s a story in this episode that deserves its own space. And a current struggle we’re still actively figuring out.
If you're navigating: Special needs parenting. Parenting siblings...

48 hours after our last episode, we received another diagnosis about our daughter. This time, we are numb. We talk about the impact it has on her future, how doctors missed it for 5 years, and the impact it has on our marriage and family.
This episode was not planned and is raw and real. We are a real life podcast. To hurt and heal alongside you.
Follow Resurface for honest conversations about marriage, family, trauma, healing, and finding your footing again when life knocks you under the surface.
New episodes weekly on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.If you...

This wasn’t the episode we planned to record.We planned to film something completely different… and then an unexpected diagnosis changed that plan immediately.In this episode, we share what we learned from a recent neuropsychology evaluation, what it felt like to hear words like “unlikely” and “plateau,” and how that kind of information lands in a marriage.We talk honestly about fear.
About grief.
About advocacy.
About what it means to love your child fiercely while refusing to let a prognosis define them.This conversation is raw, unplanned, and very real.Everything has changed.
And somehow...

Rachel tells a story that makes Stephen look completely unhinged… then immediately admits the thing that actually makes her rage. What follows is laughter, disbelief, and a moment where joking turns into something more honest than expected.
This episode of Resurface is unfiltered, funny, and real — the way conversations actually sound when you stop editing yourself.
🎧 Topics in this episode:Everyday pet peeves (from minor annoyances to hard lines)Humor, hypocrisy, and moral whiplashSafety, rules, and why some things trigger rageHow couples react differently to the same frustrationsLaughing until it turns into cryingWhen a light conversation unexpectedly deepensIf you or...

In this episode of Resurface, Stephen and Rachel sit down to tell their story in their own words.After a viral clip of our content was taken out of context and spread online, followed by harsh commentary and assumptions, we open the episode by briefly addressing the misinformation, judgment, and online backlash they experienced. Then, we intentionally move away from the noise to do something more importantly: let listeners actually get to know us.We talk about their childhoods, how we met, the early years of our marriage, and the foundation of our relationship, long before medical trauma, caregiving, or...

What did marriage advice used to sound like when it was delivered with absolute confidence and no room for disagreement?In this episode, we read and react to real marriage advice from the mid-20th century, including excerpts from books, manuals, and magazine content that shaped expectations around marriage, behavior, and roles. Yes, all of it is real.We sit down and respond in real time, translating the advice into plain language and reacting to the certainty with which these rules were written. Some of it is hilarious. Some of it is genuinely shocking. A few sections are so baffling...

In this episode of Resurface, we switch things up and play Agree or Disagree, a fast-moving conversation where we react in real time to opinions couples argue about more than they admit. The topics range from marriage dynamics and parenting choices to everyday habits, pet peeves, and small disagreements that somehow matter a lot.Some of the questions are purely funny, some are unexpectedly hilarious, and one turns into a real, unscripted disagreement we didn’t plan for. You’ll hear where we align, where we absolutely don’t, and how quickly a simple opinion can turn into a deeper conver...

In this episode, we shift the tone and sit down for a lighter conversation built around questions we have never asked each other before. After sharing some heavy experiences in recent episodes, this one is intentionally different, offering space for curiosity, humor, and connection without revisiting crisis or trauma.We take turns answering a mix of thoughtful, playful, and unexpected questions about marriage, family, childhood memories, and the small things that shape how we see each other. Some questions lead to meaningful conversation, others catch us off guard, and a few take the conversation in completely unexpected directions.This episode...

Surviving the seizure wasn’t the end.In this episode, we pick up inside the hospital after our four-year-old was rushed in following a prolonged, life-threatening seizure. This episode covers what came next, including the hours of waiting, the uncertainty inside the ER, and Stephen’s drive across state lines from Georgia to Alabama to reach our daughter after learning how serious the emergency had become.We talk about the first moments of being reunited, the shock of moving from crisis to discharge, and what it meant to bring our child home without any medical monitoring equipment. This conversation explores the...