{"podcast":{"title":"Divorce Happens","slug":"divorce-happens-6931880","podcast_index_feed_id":6931880,"rss_url":"https://feeds.captivate.fm/divorce-happens/","website_url":"https://www.freshstartsregistry.com/divorce-happens","image_url":"https://artwork.captivate.fm/4ef67130-0ef6-4ddc-8223-01a75a67ba34/show-cover.jpg","author":"Fresh Starts Registry","episode_count":299,"summary":"Welcome to Divorce Happens, the podcast where we inspire, educate, and support you through divorce and beyond so that you can start fresh on the next phase of your journey. Produced by Fresh Starts Registry, the only divorce registry platform for everything you need to begin again, including home items, hype team, and everything in between. Remember, divorce happens...and then, we start fresh. We're here to support you before, during, and after divorce. Hosted by Olivia Dreizen Howell, the co-founder and CEO of Fresh Starts Registry.","last_synced_at":"2026-09-10T04:24:06.385376+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/divorce-happens-6931880"},"episode":{"title":"The Slow Erosion: How Long-Term Marriages Can Make You Forget Who You Are with Olivia Howell","slug":"the-slow-erosion-how-long-term-marriages-can-make-you-forget-who-you-are-with-olivia-howell","published_at":"2026-06-26T10:15:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/divorce-happens-6931880/the-slow-erosion-how-long-term-marriages-can-make-you-forget-who-you-are-with-olivia-howell","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/divorce-happens-6931880","url":"https://www.freshstartsregistry.com/divorce-happens","audio_url":"https://episodes.captivate.fm/episode/c939d43d-38de-4bd1-9ac6-7e34b82566c6.mp3","summary":"You look up one day and realize you have no idea who you are anymore. Not because of one dramatic event. Not because of obvious abuse or a single catastrophic betrayal. Just because of time — accumulated compromise, the slow drift of putting someone else's needs, preferences, and comfort at the center of your life for so long that your own self quietly went missing. In this solo episode of Divorce Happens, Olivia Howell names something that gets almost no airtime in the divorce conversation: the slow erosion of self that can happen inside a long-term marriage. If you've ever stood in front of the mirror and not recognized the person looking back, this episode is for you. Here's the part that makes this kind of self-loss so hard to catch: it doesn't start as erosion — it starts as love. You meet someone, you build a life, you compromise, because that's what people in relationships do. You shape yourself around their schedule, their moods, their preferences. Maybe you move for their career and scale back your own. Maybe you stop seeing certain friends, start ordering what they like, watching what they want, going where they choose. Slowly, in ways so small they're almost invisible, you begin to disappear — and it rarely feels like loss while it's happening. It feels like being a good partner. Like flexibility. Like keeping the peace. Like love, because so many of us were taught that love means putting someone else first and that wanting things for yourself is selfish. So you keep going, and the longer the marriage, the deeper the erosion can go. By the time many people reach divorce after a long marriage, they don't just feel sad or angry or relieved — they feel disoriented. They can't answer basic questions about themselves anymore: What do I like? What do I want? What…","meta_description":"You look up one day and realize you have no idea who you are anymore. Not because of one dramatic event. Not because of obvious abuse or a single catastro…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":399,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/divorce-happens-6931880/episodes/the-slow-erosion-how-long-term-marriages-can-make-you-forget-who-you-are-with-olivia-howell/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/divorce-happens-6931880/the-slow-erosion-how-long-term-marriages-can-make-you-forget-who-you-are-with-olivia-howell.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}