# Pushing Past the Impossible: Resilience, Hope, and the Power of Never Giving Up Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/brushwood-media-network-6565517/pushing-past-the-impossible-resilience-hope-and-the-power-of-never-giving-up Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/brushwood-media-network-6565517/pushing-past-the-impossible-resilience-hope-and-the-power-of-never-giving-up.md Podcast: [Brushwood Media Network](https://stenobird.com/podcast/brushwood-media-network-6565517) Published: 2026-09-03T04:14:37+00:00 Episode link: https://www.brushwoodmedianetwork.com Audio file: https://downloads.pod.co/3187de09-6b5e-4bb8-85ec-54db8b778666/83bb73d1-f350-4f03-86cd-6c21dc4fb957.mp3 Processing state: not_requested JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/brushwood-media-network-6565517/episodes/pushing-past-the-impossible-resilience-hope-and-the-power-of-never-giving-up Duration seconds: 1725 ## Resource Guest: Jane Fischer Episode Overview What happens when a devastating prognosis becomes the beginning of an extraordinary life? Jane Fischer shares the remarkable story of her daughter, Susie, who was born with significant neurological disabilities and was initially expected never to walk, talk, or learn. Decades later, Susie has repeatedly pushed beyond those expectations while navigating Joubert syndrome, kidney failure, two transplants, thyroid cancer, and lifelong challenges. Jane explains how love, early stimulation, advocacy, perseverance, and family support helped Susie build a meaningful life—and how raising her transformed Jane into an educator and advocate for families of children with special needs. Their story offers a powerful lesson in resilience: a diagnosis may describe a challenge, but it does not have to define a person's possibilities. Key Takeaways Never let a prognosis become a permanent definition. Susie repeatedly achieved things doctors initially believed would be impossible. Advocacy can change lives. Jane's experience led her to help develop special education PTAs, social groups, and a high-school life-skills program. Love and support are powerful forces. Jane credits family involvement and consistent encouragement as central to Susie's journey. Resilience means continuing through setbacks. Susie faced kidney failure, two transplants, thyroid cancer, and neurological challenges without giving up. Challenges can become a source of service. Jane turned her family's experience into decades of helping other children and parents. Listener Q&A What is Joubert syndrome? Jane explains that Susie was eventually diagnosed with the rare syndrome after an MRI revealed a characteristic neurological sign. Genetic testing also showed that both Jane and he… ## Actions - request_transcript: `POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/brushwood-media-network-6565517/episodes/pushing-past-the-impossible-resilience-hope-and-the-power-of-never-giving-up/transcription-requests` — Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode. - read_markdown: `GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/brushwood-media-network-6565517/pushing-past-the-impossible-resilience-hope-and-the-power-of-never-giving-up.md` — Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource. A page view does not enqueue transcription. Agents should invoke `request_transcript` explicitly when they need this episode processed. ## Transcript Full transcripts are not published on public pages unless there is a clear rights basis.