Ashlea was adopted at birth into a loving family — and spent the next two decades not processing a single emotion about it. In this episode, she opens up about what happened when she finally did: the counselor who called her Pollyanna, the rock bottom in her late twenties, and the treatment center where she learned that nearly half the room was adopted.

We talk about disenfranchised grief — the grief you are not allowed to name because it is for someone you never lost, in the conventional sense — and why so many adoptees end up in crisis before anyone thinks to ask them how they are actually doing.

Ashlea is now a nurse practitioner who works to get on the front end of that crisis, helping adoptive families have the conversations before things come apart. She shares what she would tell adoptive parents today, what she wishes her family had known, and what she would go back and say to her younger self.

This is one of the most honest conversations we have had on this show. If you are an adoptee, an adoptive parent, or someone who has ever pushed something too far down for too long — this one is for you.

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Topics covered: adoption grief, adoptee identity, disenfranchised grief, adoptee mental health, adoption and substance use, adoptive parenting, closed adoption, emotional processing, adoption reunion, identity and belonging.

What does it look like when someone loses themselves completely — and then finds their way back?

In this inaugural episode of Law & Porter, Elizabeth Porter sits down with her friend Lizz, whose life story is as raw and honest as it gets. Ten years ago, Elizabeth nearly ended up with Liz's baby — a mix-up that launched a decade-long friendship. Today, Liz sits across from her as a sober, thriving, college-completing, daughter-raising woman who has earned every single piece of who she is.

But getting here wasn't linear.

Lizz grew up with a criminal defense attorney father in small-town Arizona — answering the jailhouse phone in grade school, craving attention the way her dad's clients demanded it. That wiring set the stage for a life of extremes: juvenile delinquency, a deeply abusive marriage, addiction to meth and crack, incarceration, losing custody of her children, and moments where she genuinely didn't want to survive.

In this episode, Lizz talks openly about:

• Growing up as the daughter of a criminal defense attorney and what that did to her wiring

• How battered woman syndrome silenced the fighter she'd always been

• The rock-bottom moment in a bathtub, praying not to wake up

• Getting arrested in a church parking lot — and why she calls it a rescue

• How a domestic violence shelter, a dishwashing job, and one brave phone call changed everything

• Why vulnerability in recovery isn't weakness — it's the whole strategy

• Nearly ten years of sobriety, and what "even keel" feels like when you've lived in fight-or-flight your whole life

Lizz describes herself as a survivor, an ex-con, a mom, a student, a combat social worker in training, and an ever-evolving enigma. Elizabeth calls her the most delicate, strongest person she knows — like a bomb, in the best way.

If you or someone you love is navigating domestic violence, addiction, or recovery, this conversation is for you.

Resources & Support: If this episode resonated with you and you or someone you know needs help, you are not alone. Reach out — there are people ready to catch you.

National Domestic Violence Hotline: 1-800-799-7233 | thehotline.org
988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline: Call or text 988 | 988lifeline.org

Topics covered: domestic violence survival, addiction recovery, sobriety, battered woman syndrome, childhood trauma, criminal justice, faith and recovery, community, vulnerability, self-worth, rebuilding after rock bottom

What happens when life hands you a diagnosis that rewrites everything you thought you knew about strength, identity, and survival?

In this episode of Law and Porter, host Elizabeth Porter sits down with Amber — a wife, mother, and teacher who has faced triple negative breast cancer not once, not twice, but three times, including a Stage IV diagnosis. Over nine years, Amber has navigated four rounds of treatment, chemo alone during COVID lockdowns, and the quiet grief of losing the version of herself she used to be.

Elizabeth brings her trademark precision to the conversation — asking the questions most people are afraid to ask and drawing out the kind of clarity that only comes from sitting with hard truth. What emerges is a portrait of resilience that goes far beyond survival: a woman who redefined what strength looks like, learned to ask for help, and found a way to keep showing up for her family even when the prognosis said otherwise.

In this episode:

• What "triple negative" breast cancer actually means — and why it's harder to treat
• How Amber navigated three separate diagnoses across nearly a decade
• What it felt like to hear "a year and a half" from her oncologist
• The emotional cost of being the strong one — and what broke that open
• How COVID isolation changed her experience of treatment in ways she didn't expect
• Why she started writing secret emails to her kids
• What strength, motherhood, and identity look like after cancer rewrites them

Whether you're facing a medical crisis, walking alongside someone who is, or simply trying to understand what it means to keep going when everything feels uncertain — this conversation will stay with you.

Law and Porter is hosted by Elizabeth Porter, an attorney whose legal mind brings clarity, structure, and relentless curiosity to life's most complex conversations.

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