Surviving Hollywood, Facing Loss, and Signs Along the Way with Actress and Writer Marisa Coughlan
Judging MeghanShow Notes
In this episode I sit down with my friend Marisa Coughlan. Marissa shares her journey as an actress and writer, from growing up in Minnesota to building a successful career in Hollywood and eventually choosing to leave Los Angeles to begin a new chapter. We speak honestly about the emotional toll of the industry, constant rejection, power imbalances, and the pressure women face to disappear as they age.
We also dive into her film Blue Eyed Girl, now available on Amazon, and the deeply personal story behind it. Inspired by her own life, the film explores grief, aging parents, sisterhood, nostalgia, and the disorienting experience of returning home after years away. Writing the script became a form of healing, a way to process the loss of her father and the quiet mourning we carry not only for people we lose, but for the lives we imagined. She also shares meaningful behind the scenes moments working with Beau Bridges, whose kindness, integrity, and love for his wife offered a rare reminder that goodness and humanity still exist in the industry.
At its core, this episode is about resilience, reinvention, and the courage to want more. We talk about midlife, identity, faith, and the ache of not being able to call the person who once knew you best. We reflect on signs from loved ones who have passed, the comfort found in nature, and the permission to cry, remember, and keep going. If you have ever felt stuck, dismissed, or unsure whether it is too late to begin again, this conversation is a reminder that it is not. You are allowed to pivot, you are allowed to grow, and you are allowed to take up space at every stage of life.
LifeMD is offering a Holiday and New Year’s Sale with 50% off their Weight Management
Program plus free shipping, which makes getting started easier and more affordable. Just visit
lifemd.com/JUDGINGMEGHAN to activate the offer.
This podcast is a place for trauma survivors as well as their friends and family. This is a safe environment to be vulnerable but it's also a place for celebration and moving forward. Let's all start to embrace who we are becoming by #mentalhealth #selfcare #self #judgingothers #judgingmeghan #suicideawareness #suicideprevention #survivor #resilience #traumahealing #mentalhealthawareness #mentalhealthmatters #podcasts #JudgingMeghan #LifeTransitions #RedefiningSuccess #AgingWithPurpose #WomenOver40 #MidlifeAwakening #CreativeReinvention #GriefTalk #LossAndLove #HealingThroughStory #VoiceAndTruth #WomenWithStories #EmotionalHealing #BlueEyedGirl #SuperTrooper #Hollywood #FaithAndGrief #ListeningToYourBody #InnerStrength #ChoosingYourself #SlowDown #BuildANewLife #HomeAndBelonging #MarisaCoughlan Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
More from Judging Meghan
This episode discusses consent, sexual assault, drugs, and other difficult topics that may be triggering for some listeners.
In this episode I’m joined by mental health advocate and speaker Heidi Ambrose for an honest conversation about suicide, grief, and finding hope after loss. Heidi and I first met when I was a speaker at a women's event, there we connected over our shared experiences with loss. She opens up about growing up in New York City with emotionally distant parents and feeling lonely despite having financial privilege. At just 17, Heidi lost her mother to suicide following her parents’ divorce, an experience that changed her life forever.
Today, you’re going to hear a revisited conversation from 2022 between my Mom and me. We talk about her experience being attacked as a young girl and how it forever impacted her life. She has experienced unimaginable loss, including losing both a child and a husband, and has had to learn how to live again after these traumatic experiences.
In this episode, I sit down with Lizzie Semmer, a former pre K teacher who left the classroom and started a new chapter of her life in Portugal. Lizzie shares what it was like growing up between Chicago and Manhattan Beach with a father who worked in Hollywood, and how she eventually began her own career in entertainment, working with her father. After years in the industry, she followed a calling into teaching and spent a decade working with young children before the demands and exhaustion of the post COVID classroom led her to make the difficult decision to walk away.
Two-time Emmy-nominated director/producer of TV and Broadway, Riaz Patel isn’t here because of his credentials. He’s here because of his unusual perspective: a man who has spent virtually his entire life in female-dominated worlds. He grew up surrounded by women — two sisters, countless female cousins — then spent years making television about women, for female-led networks, on female-majority teams, for female audiences. And now, as a gay dad raising two kids, he finds himself once again in a world largely populated by moms.