{"podcast":{"title":"AllPaths Podcast","slug":"allpaths-podcast-7028681","podcast_index_feed_id":7028681,"rss_url":"https://feeds.captivate.fm/allpaths/","website_url":"https://allpathsfb.org","image_url":"https://artwork.captivate.fm/deec4420-b495-4e23-a8bf-63722a5915c2/APFB-Podcast-Cover-8-2025-SM.png","author":"AllPaths Family Building","episode_count":90,"summary":"Building a family can be a complicated, messy, lonely, and sometimes heartbreaking process, but you don't have to navigate this challenging journey alone. Join the AllPaths Family Building community as we talk with people who are currently trying to grow their family, those whose family building journey has come to an end, and experts in the fertility and family building space. Together we'll: *Hear family stories, providing real-life perspectives that highlight the many different paths a family building journey can take. *Explore different fertility treatments and family building options with experts in this space. *Get connected to a variety of supportive resources so you feel better equipped to tackle any challenges that may arise in your family building journey. *Learn about ongoing advocacy work that promotes access to fertility care and family building options - and you can get involved. No matter what you encounter on your journey - struggles while TTC, IUI, IVF, donor conception, surrogacy, adoption, pregnancy loss, pregnancy and parenting after, or remaining childless not by choice - the real-life insights from people who have traveled those paths can provide connection,…","last_synced_at":"2026-07-01T02:20:59.914112+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/allpaths-podcast-7028681"},"episode":{"title":"A Different Ride for Everyone","slug":"a-different-ride-for-everyone","published_at":"2026-02-24T11:30:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/allpaths-podcast-7028681/a-different-ride-for-everyone","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/allpaths-podcast-7028681","url":"https://allpathsfb.org","audio_url":"https://episodes.captivate.fm/episode/9a095506-29c8-437c-a417-3d6d786c0d33.mp3","summary":"In this episode, Kristy Koser, a licensed professional clinical counselor specializing in reproductive mental health, shares her family building journey. After years of struggling with infertility and experiencing multiple miscarriages during IUI and IVF cycles, Kristy and her husband eventually welcomed their daughter via surrogacy in 2017. Because Kristy and their gestational carrier lived close to one another in rural Virginia, she was able to be intimately involved in the process, attending every doctor's appointment and \"vicariously living\" for nine months. Kristy describes the experience as beautiful, but acknowledges the emotional and financial complexities she had to navigate. She struggled with the \"mental load\" of asking for help from a busy working mother and figuring out where she fit into the equation of her own child's birth. Financially, the couple relied on personal savings, \"side hustles\"- including a TTC greeting card company Kristy started - and a GoFundMe supported by their extended family. After the birth of her daughter, their family moved back to Ohio and began considering a second child. Kristy reached out to her original carrier to see if she was available, but learned the woman was already preparing to carry for another family. Because they were unsure if they wanted to use a different gestational carrier, the couple began exploring the foster-to-adopt process. Shortly after, Kristy had a \"wild, vivid dream\" that her carrier was pregnant with another one of her children, but she soon discovered that she was actually the one who was pregnant. This came as a major surprise, as she had previously been told she likely could not carry a pregnancy herself. Kristy’s pregnancy occurred during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, which meant she experi…","meta_description":"In this episode, Kristy Koser, a licensed professional clinical counselor specializing in reproductive mental health, shares her family building journey.…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":3126,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/allpaths-podcast-7028681/episodes/a-different-ride-for-everyone/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/allpaths-podcast-7028681/a-different-ride-for-everyone.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}