The Oprah Podcast

What If Your Greatest Adversity Has a Purpose?

15 okt 2026 · 01:02:26

BUY THE BOOK!

Ahead of All Parting by Barry Michels

⁠https://amzn.to/3TTMT8B⁠

Psychotherapist and bestselling co-author of The Tools, Barry Michels, joins the podcast to discuss his extraordinary new memoir, Ahead of All Parting. This is a conversation for anyone searching for meaning in life’s most difficult moments and seeking to discover how transformation is possible in the face of extreme adversity. Barry has been diagnosed with a terminal brain disease, Lewy body dementia. Despite the inevitable pain and grief that come with a devastating health diagnosis, he now sees it as the path he was meant to walk—a path that has opened him up in ways he never thought possible, revealing the power of vulnerability, love, prayer and the written word. Drew Barrymore, one of Barry’s longtime clients, also joins the conversation to share the life-changing impact he’s had on her life.

00:00:00 - Intro

00:02:14 - Welcome Barry Michels, author of Ahead of All Parting

00:06:35 - Barry speaks on Lewy Body dementia

00:09:20 - Grief after hearing a diagnosis

00:12:18 - When did Barry notice something was off

00:14:14 - Getting a diagnosis

00:16:15 - Adversity has a purpose

00:19:45 - Not hiding after a diagnosis

00:20:25 - Welcome Drew Barrymore

00:23:00 - Drew Barrymore on going through challenges

00:25:50 - Drew Barrymore on watching Barry navigate his illness

00:27:20 - How the diagnosis changed Barry as a therapist

00:28:30 - Appreciating life

00:29:50 - Feeling guilt with a diagnosis

00:38:22: Welcome Alex, who was diagnosed with kidney failure

00:43:22 - Religion during a diagnosis

00:49:20 - Barry Michels on writing

00:54:00 - Barry Michels on seeing his mortality

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Listen to the full podcast: ⁠https://open.spotify.com/show/0tEVrfNp92a7lbjDe6GMLI⁠⁠https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-oprah-podcast/id1782960381

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