He Lost His Sister, His Marriage & His Job—Then Had to Rebuild His Entire Identity | Troy Haslinger

The Thought Atlas Podcast · Oct 7, 2026 · 30m

What happens when the life you thought you had built collapses almost all at once?

For Troy Haslinger, April 2011 became a dividing line. After returning from a trip to the Caribbean, he learned that he was being placed on a performance improvement plan at work. Shortly afterward, he learned that his 38-year-old sister, Holly, had metastatic colon cancer.

Eighteen months later, Troy had lost Holly, gone through a divorce, and lost his job.

But that wasn’t the end of the story.

In this episode of Thought Atlas, Troy opens up about grief, addiction, mental health, identity, failure, recovery…