How securely anchored is your sense of self when the people who know you best suddenly refuse to recognize you? The Twilight Zone asks that question twice over, following two very different men who wake up unsure which version of their life is real. Both episodes probe the fragile line between identity and illusion, exploring how quickly the world you built for yourself can unravel.

It’s the fifth Monday of August, and that means it’s Monday Mailbag day! We have one piece of mail in the bag this time and it comes in from Jeff.

You never get a second chance to make a first impression, which means that we often put pressure on ourselves when we’re meeting someone for the first time that we consider important. And sometimes that person feels the exact same pressure about meeting you. Today’s story is about one of those encounters, and everything that’s happened since. 

We are now, in every sense (technically, literally, etc.), on the ultimate penultimate episode of Fringe as we bring you “Liberty” AND soon to be death of the podcast. We are joined by special guest Marianne once again as we discuss this amazing episode of the series and its parallels to previous seasons and episodes.

I have spent more than a decade helping other people communicate clearly. Which makes it a little embarrassing to admit that I once talked for thirty minutes straight and never said the one thing that actually mattered. My wife stopped me with a single question, and I didn’t have an answer for it. It took me a few years, a rebuilt website, and a coach to finally understand what she was really asking, and it changed the way I sell, the way I explain things, and the way I ask questions.

One year ago, almost to the day, I sat down and wrote about cookies. Except I wasn’t really writing about cookies. I was writing about my daughter. The premise was simple. We all mature at different rates on different things, and just like a good batch of cookies, sometimes we need more time in the oven to become what we’re meant to be. You don’t throw the batch out. You give it more heat and more time. Well, the oven timer has gone off. It’s time to see how the cookies turned out.