The Diagnosis That Rewrote My Story

In this episode of Behind the Confident Smile, host Bianca Cotton speaks with author Precious Watkins, who was diagnosed with MS shortly after losing her grandmother. Watkins reflects on grieving two losses at once—her grandmother and the health and future she had taken for granted—and on learning to adjust to a changed sense of self.

In this episode of Behind the Confident Smile, host Bianca Cotton speaks with Dorian Spears, who ended her marriage and then had to grieve a future she had already envisioned, without a blueprint for the one ahead. Spears reflects on navigating that loss privately while continuing some of the most meaningful work of her career.

In this episode of Behind the Confident Smile, host Bianca Cotton speaks with Dr. Erie S. Crawford, who lost her husband to suicide in 2019. Crawford reflects on how suicide loss brings not only grief but lasting, often unanswerable questions, and on breaking the silence that surrounds this kind of loss.

In this episode of Behind the Confident Smile, host Bianca Cotton speaks with psychotherapist Brandi Green, who lost her mother at 28, her father at 32, and her brother at 40. With no immediate family remaining, Green reflects on grieving the family life she never had and building a community of support from the ground up.

In this season premiere of Behind the Confident Smile, host Bianca Cotton opens a season devoted to grief with guest Dr. Shaniqua Jones—educator, TEDx speaker, author, and founder of Purple Path by Dr. J. Jones discusses her journey from wife to full-time caregiver and what profound loss taught her about herself, in a conversation about making room for grief and honoring caregivers.