The Longest Shortest Time

EPISODE #253: Building a Family After Childhood Trauma

Kate Casey grew up in a chaotic home. Her mother had four girls with three different men. Her stepfather was abusive, and her biological father never acknowledged her as his daughter.

When she went to boarding school, Kate finally met other kids with families as complex as hers. She learned to ask questions, which led to some surprising — and at times unsettling — discoveries about her own family.

In this episode, Kate shares how her unstable upbringing made her want to provide the opposite for her five kids.

Tune in to hear how Kate traded the bad kind of chaos for the good.

More about Kate
Kate’s question-asking skills come in handy as the host of Reality Life with Kate Casey, a daily podcast about unscripted television, where she gets people to open up about their personal lives.

Recommendations from the archive
• Want more family drama? Listen to Dani Shapiro’s Family Secret.
• Does Family Size Matter? An only child explains why she wanted a large family.