Shows / At the Brink with Erica Brinker
At the Brink with Erica Brinker
At the Brink is a podcast about the inflection points that define a life and career. The pivots no one saw coming. The decisions made under pressure. The stories people rarely tell out loud.
Each episode is a conversation with a leader, founder, artist, parent or advocate who has lived through a moment that changed everything — and chose to talk about what actually happened. Not because those stories are easy. Because they are real.
At the Brink explores reinvention, resilience and the defining…
Episodes
At the Brink with Erica BrinkerThe Designer Who Electrified New York's Curbs | Tiya Gordon
The whole world is supposed to go electric, Tiya Gordon points out, and yet in the largest city in the United States there was nowhere to charge an electric…
At the Brink with Erica BrinkerUnplugged: Crumbl Crumbles, Cracker Barrel Comes Back, Botox at Book Club and Paris Hilton's Teacup
Erica's holiday lights are already up. (It's November. She's fine.) Sara covered Black Friday at the outlet malls for the Star Tribune once and gives it zero…
At the Brink with Erica BrinkerFrom PR Girl to Her Own Story | Aisha Beau Frisbey
Every wall was covered in crystals and a crystal chandelier hung overhead. On the floor in the corner of her boss's bathroom, Aisha Beau Frisbey was having the…
At the Brink with Erica BrinkerUnplugged: When Lulu Gives You Lemons, J.Law Launches, Snickers Snatches and Candy Corn Crashes
Pockets. That’s all Sara wants from her leggings, and it turns out Lululemon has bigger problems. Founder Chip Wilson started the Vancouver yoga brand in 1998…
At the Brink with Erica BrinkerBehind Netflix’s Trust Me: The False Prophet | Dr. Christine Marie
Warning: This episode includes discussion of child sexual abuse, cult abuse and human trafficking. When Dr. Christine Marie told police that a self-declared…
At the Brink with Erica BrinkerYou Can See Everything Spoiler Support Group: Nathan Fielder’s Elizabeth Holmes Doc | Unplugged
Spoiler alert, in the most literal sense: if you haven’t seen You Can See Everything, stop here, go see it and come back. We’ll wait. It’s three hours. Bring…
At the Brink with Erica BrinkerUnplugged: Poppi Fizzles, Reese's Hello Sunshine Rises, Perimenopause Ploys, Victoria's Secret Slop and Tacos Fix Everything
Eleven. That’s how many Signal Awards At the Brink won this week, and someone on LinkedIn says 11 is a portal number. Erica Brinker and Sara Glassman will take…
At the Brink with Erica BrinkerFrom Foster Care to New York City | Lisa Miller
Warning: This episode includes discussion of suicidal ideation and a suicide attempt. Lisa Miller was born in Detroit to a mother living with addiction. Before…
- At the Brink with Erica Brinker
Unplugged: Kelly Gives Brooklyn the Bird, Shane & Pete Make Our Shit List
Erica came to record straight from a Sombr concert. No sleep. Full energy. She introduces her newest creation: Things on My Shit List. The holiday season is…
At the Brink with Erica BrinkerTriple Negative and She Never Stopped Working | Stacy Woods
Stacy Woods spent 28 years at Mondelez building brands most of us have in our pantry — Oreo, Chips Ahoy, Ritz, Sour Patch Kids. She led strategy and…
At the Brink with Erica BrinkerUnplugged: Amazon Knows, NYC Lines, Bring Back Dinner and Posh Spice Finally Profits
This week opens on a serious note. The Cornell sexual assault case is unfolding in real time — a former student is suing seven fraternity members and the…
At the Brink with Erica BrinkerFour Diagnoses in Nine Months. He’s Still at the Brink. | Merrick Walter
Merrick Walter grew up surfing and skating in Los Angeles, swam breaststroke in college, studied Russian, got recruited by the CIA (and said no), earned an MBA…
- At the Brink with Erica Brinker
Unplugged: Watch Out Oprah, Eyepatchgate, Taylor’s $40 Tank and Madonna at 68
We’re popping champagne because At the Brink is a finalist in eight Signal Award categories. We’re up against Oprah, Anderson Cooper, Monica Lewinsky and…
At the Brink with Erica BrinkerA Miscarriage on Her Wedding Day. Cancer on Their Vacation. Then She Adopted. | Caralyn Brace
Caralyn Brace never planned to have children. It wasn’t something she actively didn’t want. It just wasn’t something she aspired to. Then she met the right…
At the Brink with Erica BrinkerUnplugged: Interview Icks, Walmart's Glow Up, Your Prom Date Is Back and Tofu Won
Erica is in Vegas watching the sunrise over the strip because she lost the will to rage at 8PM. Martha Stewart was on stage at her trade show. Snoop was not…
At the Brink with Erica BrinkerTwo Miscarriages. Every Test Normal. Nobody Believed Her. | Ryan Larson
Ryan Larson got married at 29 with a timeline in her head. Two kids, maybe three. From the day she and her husband started trying to the day her daughter was…
At the Brink with Erica BrinkerUnplugged: Sydney Sweeps, iPhone Duo Dual, No Love for Lying and Champagne Stockpiling
Sydney Sweeney got naked for a gambling app and everyone has an opinion. Ours might be unpopular: she has equity in the company, she came up with the creative…
At the Brink with Erica BrinkerThe Heart Attack She Almost Ignored | Colleen Mahoney
Colleen Mahoney has spent more than two decades at the top of corporate marketing and commercial leadership — nineteen years at Honeywell across aerospace and…
At the Brink with Erica BrinkerUnplugged: Gap Is Cool Again (But Not for Us), Brand Mashups, Passed Over at 42 and our 9/11 Stories
Gap is cool again but apparently not for us. Gen X holds a quarter of household wealth and they're chasing Gen Z with Katseye collabs. So we played a round of…
At the Brink with Erica BrinkerShe Fought the System for Her Husband. Then She Had to Save Herself. | Karina Zuniga
This episode contains frank discussion of PTSD, veteran mental health and loss. Karina Zuniga was born and raised in Mexico. She met Billy, an American…
At the Brink with Erica BrinkerUnplugged: Getting Snatched, PSL Party Poopers, Daisy Chain Flower Power and Glorious Gloria
Good Good update: the CEO left, the president left, Dick's dropped the products. Then we got into Tarte's "Snatch Stick" campaign — they sent creators boxes…
At the Brink with Erica BrinkerShe Ran a $4 Billion Business. She Couldn’t Walk to a Podium. | Becky Sidelinger
Becky Sidelinger has spent over three decades running some of the largest industrial businesses in the world. GE, Honeywell, Flex. She went from being the only…
At the Brink with Erica BrinkerUnplugged: Good Good Grief, Cabbage and Dolly Forever
Erica and Sara are off script. This is At the Brink Unplugged — no guest, no interview, just two women talking about what happened this week. In this episode…
At the Brink with Erica BrinkerFrom a Mining Town to Manhattan | Moonah Ellison
Moonah Ellison grew up in a small mining town in the north of England. Today she is the publisher and co-founder of New York Moves magazine and moves through…
At the Brink with Erica BrinkerThe Freckle That Became Cancer | Jessica Harris
Jessica Harris is a wife, a mother of two daughters and a science teacher. She is also the woman behind Mindset Momma. For eight years, doctors watched a…
At the Brink with Erica BrinkerWhen Her Voice Failed Her | Elsa Arend
Elsa Arend was a marketing executive with the title, the team and the reputation to match. Then, in front of a thousand people at an Ogilvy meeting in New…
At the Brink with Erica BrinkerThe Promise He Kept for His Father | Brady Wald
Brady Wald was raised by two educators in North Dakota — a father who taught for 37 years and a mother who taught kindergarten for 34. He followed them into…
At the Brink with Erica BrinkerHer First Clients Were Sex Trafficking Survivors. She Removed Their Brands. | Brandie Heredia
Brandie Heredia spent 15 years in emergency and trauma rooms. She was good at it. But she was also burning out. Then a nonprofit recruited her to help remove…
At the Brink with Erica BrinkerShe Got Fired. Now She Makes Millions of People Laugh for a Living. | Anna Roisman
Anna Roisman walked into our studio as Joan Rivers and didn’t break character. It is, by a wide margin, the most entertaining opening in the history of this…
At the Brink with Erica BrinkerShe Broke Her Face at 13. An Orthodontist Changed Her Life. | Dr. Sima
Dr. Sima Yakoby Epstein was 13 years old when a head-on collision broke her face. She was sitting in the middle seat with no seatbelt. When she looked in the…
At the Brink with Erica BrinkerShe Started from Zero in Three Countries. Then She Did It Again After Divorce. | Alexia Bertsatos
Alexia Bertsatos left Greece at 18 with almost nothing. She studied architecture and interior design in London, pivoted to real estate during the 2008 crash…
At the Brink with Erica BrinkerHer Daughter Was 8. The Doctor Said Cancer. | Melody Orak
On an ordinary afternoon in March 2022, Melody Orak got a phone call that split her life in two. Her eight-year-old daughter Elilai had a bone tumor. What the…
At the Brink with Erica BrinkerShe Got Sober, Got Divorced, Got Fired. Then Peloton Called. | Johanna Ricouz
Most people know Johanna Ricouz as one of the newest Pilates instructors on Peloton, the one with the tattoos, the nails, the hip hop and the mouth. What they…
At the Brink with Erica BrinkerHis Son Was Beaten Three Times. The System Called It Bullying. | Rick Kuehner & Katey McPherson
Rick Kuehner is a Navy veteran and single father who moved to Gilbert, Arizona, because it was rated the second safest city in America. His son Tristan was a…
At the Brink with Erica BrinkerHe Came Out at 13. They Sent Him Away. | Joey O’Donnell
Joey O’Donnell grew up in central Phoenix, raised by his Pentecostal minister grandparents. They built over 30 churches across the valley. They ran food banks…
At the Brink with Erica BrinkerShe Sees Dead People. This Is What They Say. | Erika Gabriel
Erika Gabriel was seven years old when she started telling her parents about a little boy she could sense in their new house. They assumed it was an imaginary…
At the Brink with Erica BrinkerShe Lost Her Son. Then She Built This. | Erica Brinker
Every episode of At the Brink begins with someone else’s story. This one is different. This is the story behind the show. Erica Brinker lost her four-month-old…
At the Brink with Erica BrinkerToo Feminine to Run? Now She Does Extreme Triathlons. | Jennifer Vollmann
Jennifer Vollmann gave up a career running a global education nonprofit to become a stay-at-home mom. She loved her daughter. She also had no idea who she was…
- At the Brink with Erica Brinker
She Kept His Secret for 20 Years | Hilary Simon
When Hilary Simon was 14, her parents sent her to an all-girls boarding school in the Berkshires to keep her safe. Instead, she was groomed and abused by a…
At the Brink with Erica BrinkerShe Was #1 in the World — Then Walked Away | Ashlie Molstad
Ashlie Molstad went from a corporate desk at Nike to becoming the #1 Beachbody coach in the world — twice. She went viral in 2016 for a body-positive photo…
- At the Brink with Erica Brinker
The Secret the Wealthy Won’t Tell You | Tari Thomas
Tari Thomas spent 15 years building a real estate portfolio while working in corporate America at Fortune 100 companies. She bought her first house at 24…
At the Brink with Erica BrinkerAt the Brink with Erica Brinker Trailer
The moments that change everything. At the Brink is a premium podcast hosted by Erica Brinker about the inflection points that define a life. The decisions…