What do you do when your body sends you a warning before the diagnosis even arrives? Actress and Hollywood icon Vanessa Bell Calloway joins Tammi Mac for one of the most honest, warm, and quietly powerful conversations in Happy With Tammi Mac's history.

Vanessa Bell Calloway tells the full story: the night she woke up and simply knew something was wrong, the whirlwind of medical tests, and the moment she heard her breast cancer diagnosis — followed immediately by a voice inside her that said, "Why not you, Vanessa? You're really not that special." That voice, she says, was the beginning of her healing.

In this episode, Vanessa Bell Calloway and Tammi Mac explore what it truly means to find happiness again after your world has been shaken — not through lottery wins or material things, but through therapy sessions that feel ordinary, fresh flowers on a Christmas tablescape, a fuchsia-colored day, and the deep, abiding love of people who show up when it counts.

Tammi Mac also opens up about her own dark journey — the pandemic depression that sparked the creation of Happy With Tammi Mac, the weight gain, the hair loss, and the desperate, burning question that became a show: "How the hell are people happy?"

Together, these two lifelong sister-friends remind us that the worst moment doesn't always stay the worst moment. That looking back with new eyes changes everything. And that happiness — real, rooted, everyday happiness — is always closer than it seems.

This episode moves through three honest chapters: The Dark Journey, The Turning Point, and Finding Happy.

Happiness has been a hard word to come by — but it will exist again.

🎙️ Happy With Tammi Mac is part of the Inflection Network and is heard on KJLH Radio. New episodes drop weekly. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts and Spotify — and if this episode moved you, please leave a review. It helps more people find their happy.

What do you do when your body sends you a warning before the diagnosis even arrives? Actress and Hollywood icon Vanessa Bell Calloway joins Tammi Mac for one of the most honest, warm, and quietly powerful conversations in Happy With Tammi Mac's history.
Vanessa Bell Calloway tells the full story: the night she woke up and simply knew something was wrong, the whirlwind of medical tests, and the moment she heard her breast cancer diagnosis &mdash; followed immediately by a voice inside her that said, "Why not you, Vanessa? You're really not that special." That voice, she says, was the beginning of her healing.
In this episode, Vanessa Bell Calloway and Tammi Mac explore what it truly means to find happiness again after your world has been shaken &mdash; not through lottery wins or material things, but through therapy sessions that feel ordinary, fresh flowers on a Christmas tablescape, a fuchsia-colored day, and the deep, abiding love of people who show up when it counts.
Tammi Mac also opens up about her own dark journey &mdash; the pandemic depression that sparked the creation of Happy With Tammi Mac, the weight gain, the hair loss, and the desperate, burning question that became a show: "How the hell are people happy?"
Together, these two lifelong sister-friends remind us that the worst moment doesn't always stay the worst moment. That looking back with new eyes changes everything. And that happiness &mdash; real, rooted, everyday happiness &mdash; is always closer than it seems.
This episode moves through three honest chapters: The Dark Journey, The Turning Point, and Finding Happy.
Happiness has been a hard word to come by &mdash; but it will exist again.
🎙️ Happy With Tammi Mac is part of the Inflection Network and is heard on KJLH Radio. New episodes drop weekly. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts and Spotify &mdash; and if this episode moved you, please leave a review. It helps more people find their happy.

Happy with Tammi Mac is a YouTube podcast that shares personal stories from devastating experiences to the transformative moment of HAPPINESS! Journey w/us to HAPPY 😃

Happy with Tammi Mac is a YouTube podcast that shares personal stories from devastating experiences to the transformative moment of HAPPINESS! Journey w/us to HAPPY 😃

Happy with Tammi Mac

"Why Not You?" — Vanessa Bell Calloway on Breast Cancer, Resilience & the Unexpected Gift of the Worst Day

https://api.omny.fm/orgs/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/clips/8da11e15-63c3-46d6-90a3-b4dd01080f4b/transcript

What do you do when the person you trusted most — your best friend of over 20 years — becomes the source of your deepest pain? And what happens when that betrayal plays out in front of millions of listeners and viewers, costing you not one, but two major platforms at the same time?

In this unforgettable episode of Happy With Tammi Mac, host Tammi Mac sits down with radio and TV personality Ebony Steele for one of the most honest, emotionally raw, and ultimately uplifting conversations this show has ever had.

Ebony Steele spent seven years as co-host of the Ricky Smiley Morning Show, syndicated across more than 80 stations nationwide, alongside her best friend of over two decades, Ricky Smiley. She also co-hosted Dish Nation on Fox. But behind the laughter, the chemistry, and the national platform was a friendship that ran far deeper than any radio deal — and a fallout that nearly destroyed her.

In this episode, Ebony Steele opens up about:

— The painful and public end of her 20+ year friendship with Ricky Smiley and what really happened behind the scenes

— Being removed from both the Ricky Smiley Morning Show and Dish Nation on Fox at the same time

— Battling alcoholism during one of the darkest periods of her life

— Surviving breast cancer and what that fight revealed about her strength

— Why she believes ambition can be the silent enemy of genuine happiness

— How the Ebony Arrington Dance Studio in Birmingham, Alabama became her lifeline and her place of healing

— Her book Queen Bee and the message she wants every woman to carry

— And the exact moment — the turning point — when she chose herself, chose faith, and began the journey back to joy

Ebony Steele is a Tuskegee University graduate with a degree in mechanical engineering, a former Miss Tuskegee, a Birmingham, Alabama native, a breast cancer survivor, and a woman who has rebuilt her life on her own terms. This is her story — and it is one you will not forget.

As Tammi Mac always says: Happiness has been a hard word to come by — but it will exist again.

New episodes of Happy With Tammi Mac drop weekly on the Inflection Network. Subscribe, leave a review, and share this episode with someone who needs to hear it.

What do you do when the person you trusted most &mdash; your best friend of over 20 years &mdash; becomes the source of your deepest pain? And what happens when that betrayal plays out in front of millions of listeners and viewers, costing you not one, but two major platforms at the same time?
In this unforgettable episode of Happy With Tammi Mac, host Tammi Mac sits down with radio and TV personality Ebony Steele for one of the most honest, emotionally raw, and ultimately uplifting conversations this show has ever had.
Ebony Steele spent seven years as co-host of the Ricky Smiley Morning Show, syndicated across more than 80 stations nationwide, alongside her best friend of over two decades, Ricky Smiley. She also co-hosted Dish Nation on Fox. But behind the laughter, the chemistry, and the national platform was a friendship that ran far deeper than any radio deal &mdash; and a fallout that nearly destroyed her.
In this episode, Ebony Steele opens up about:
&mdash; The painful and public end of her 20+ year friendship with Ricky Smiley and what really happened behind the scenes
&mdash; Being removed from both the Ricky Smiley Morning Show and Dish Nation on Fox at the same time
&mdash; Battling alcoholism during one of the darkest periods of her life
&mdash; Surviving breast cancer and what that fight revealed about her strength
&mdash; Why she believes ambition can be the silent enemy of genuine happiness
&mdash; How the Ebony Arrington Dance Studio in Birmingham, Alabama became her lifeline and her place of healing
&mdash; Her book Queen Bee and the message she wants every woman to carry
&mdash; And the exact moment &mdash; the turning point &mdash; when she chose herself, chose faith, and began the journey back to joy
Ebony Steele is a Tuskegee University graduate with a degree in mechanical engineering, a former Miss Tuskegee, a Birmingham, Alabama native, a breast cancer survivor, and a woman who has rebuilt her life on her own terms. This is her story &mdash; and it is one you will not forget.
As Tammi Mac always says: Happiness has been a hard word to come by &mdash; but it will exist again.
New episodes of Happy With Tammi Mac drop weekly on the Inflection Network. Subscribe, leave a review, and share this episode with someone who needs to hear it.

Ebony Steele Lost Her Best Friend, Her Career & Herself — Then Found Her Way Back 

https://api.omny.fm/orgs/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/clips/321570f5-0634-4cc3-93ec-b4e1013ded18/transcript

What do you do when the people who were supposed to protect you refuse to? Susan Burton found out, and then she chose to save herself.

In one of the most powerful episodes of Happy With Tammi Mac to date, host Tammi Mac sits down with Susan Burton — activist, author, and founder of A New Way of Life reentry organization — for an unflinching, deeply moving conversation about childhood trauma, generational pain, incarceration, sobriety, and what it truly means to rebuild your life from the ground up.

Susan Burton grew up in a household where harm was passed down like an inheritance no one asked for. Her mother, born in 1917 and just one generation removed from slavery, never found the tools to heal from her own trauma — and so the cycle continued. When Susan Burton finally confronted the people who had hurt her and the people who had failed to protect her, she was met with denial, dismissal, and silence. Her mother told her she should have "just crossed her legs." It was, Susan Burton says, the worst moment of her life.

It was also the best.

Because that crushing disappointment — the final proof that no one was coming to save her — became the fuel that pushed Susan Burton into sobriety, into purpose, and into building one of the most impactful reentry organizations in the country. A New Way of Life has helped hundreds of women transition out of the prison system with housing, resources, and real support. Susan Burton also works to help individuals get their criminal records expunged, clearing the path to a genuinely new beginning.

In this episode, Tammi Mac and Susan Burton talk about:

— The generational trauma that shaped Susan Burton's earliest years

— The brutal, clarifying confrontation that cracked her world open

— How drugs and alcohol became her way of surviving pain she had no other language for

— The moment she realized she had to be her own rescue

— A New Way of Life — and the women and men whose lives have been transformed

— The young woman wrongly convicted of murder at 15, exonerated at 20, now thriving — and the car she received just yesterday

— The unexpected peace Susan Burton found in a simple journaling practice

— What happiness, peace, and living in full color actually look like today

Susan Burton's memoir, :Becoming Miss Burton: From Prison to Recovery to Leading the Fight for Incarcerated Women", tells the story this episode only begins to touch.

Happy With Tammi Mac exists because Tammi Mac was suffering from depression and needed to find a map back to joy. She created this show to ask the people who had walked through their darkest moments and come back to the light: how did you do it? Susan Burton is one of those people. This conversation is for anyone who has ever felt like no one was coming — and needed proof that healing is possible anyway.

Happy With Tammi Mac is part of the Inflection Network.

📖 Becoming Miss Burton— available now

📓 The Five Minute Journal — fiveminutejournal.com and Amazon

🌐 A New Way of Life — anewwayoflife.org

If this episode stayed with you, please follow the show, leave a review, and share it with someone who needs to hear it. Happiness has been a hard word to come by — but it will exist again.

What do you do when the people who were supposed to protect you refuse to? Susan Burton found out, and then she chose to save herself.
In one of the most powerful episodes of Happy With Tammi Mac to date, host Tammi Mac sits down with Susan Burton &mdash; activist, author, and founder of A New Way of Life reentry organization &mdash; for an unflinching, deeply moving conversation about childhood trauma, generational pain, incarceration, sobriety, and what it truly means to rebuild your life from the ground up.
Susan Burton grew up in a household where harm was passed down like an inheritance no one asked for. Her mother, born in 1917 and just one generation removed from slavery, never found the tools to heal from her own trauma &mdash; and so the cycle continued. When Susan Burton finally confronted the people who had hurt her and the people who had failed to protect her, she was met with denial, dismissal, and silence. Her mother told her she should have "just crossed her legs." It was, Susan Burton says, the worst moment of her life.
It was also the best.
Because that crushing disappointment &mdash; the final proof that no one was coming to save her &mdash; became the fuel that pushed Susan Burton into sobriety, into purpose, and into building one of the most impactful reentry organizations in the country. A New Way of Life has helped hundreds of women transition out of the prison system with housing, resources, and real support. Susan Burton also works to help individuals get their criminal records expunged, clearing the path to a genuinely new beginning.
In this episode, Tammi Mac and Susan Burton talk about:
&mdash; The generational trauma that shaped Susan Burton's earliest years
&mdash; The brutal, clarifying confrontation that cracked her world open
&mdash; How drugs and alcohol became her way of surviving pain she had no other language for
&mdash; The moment she realized she had to be her own rescue
&mdash; A New Way of Life &mdash; and the women and men whose lives have been transformed
&mdash; The young woman wrongly convicted of murder at 15, exonerated at 20, now thriving &mdash; and the car she received just yesterday
&mdash; The unexpected peace Susan Burton found in a simple journaling practice
&mdash; What happiness, peace, and living in full color actually look like today
Susan Burton's memoir, :Becoming Miss Burton: From Prison to Recovery to Leading the Fight for Incarcerated Women", tells the story this episode only begins to touch.
Happy With Tammi Mac exists because Tammi Mac was suffering from depression and needed to find a map back to joy. She created this show to ask the people who had walked through their darkest moments and come back to the light: how did you do it? Susan Burton is one of those people. This conversation is for anyone who has ever felt like no one was coming &mdash; and needed proof that healing is possible anyway.
Happy With Tammi Mac is part of the Inflection Network.
📖 Becoming Miss Burton&mdash; available now
📓 The Five Minute Journal &mdash; fiveminutejournal.com and Amazon
🌐 A New Way of Life &mdash; anewwayoflife.org
If this episode stayed with you, please follow the show, leave a review, and share it with someone who needs to hear it. Happiness has been a hard word to come by &mdash; but it will exist again.

Susan Burton Confronted Her Abusers, Survived Prison & Built a Movement 

https://api.omny.fm/orgs/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/clips/5f380c77-29eb-4706-8b65-b4d4011a29a6/transcript

She walks into a room and happiness follows. But Kathleen Bradley — beloved actress, cultural icon, and the legendary Miss Parker — didn't arrive at her radiant joy by accident. This week on Happy With Tammi Mac, host Tammi Mac sits down with Kathleen Bradley for one of the most warm, honest, and genuinely uplifting conversations this show has ever had.

Kathleen Bradley opens up about what 36 years of marriage really looks like — the challenges, the learning curves, the deep and enduring love. She talks candidly about her fiery relationship with her daughter Cheyenne, and the hard-won peace they've found by choosing to release conflict instead of carrying it. She reflects on how her relationship with time has shifted as she's gotten older — why every moment now feels precious, calculated, and worthy of protection.

This is a happiness journey rooted in lived wisdom. Kathleen Bradley shares the lessons her mother passed down ("beauty is as beauty does"), the financial mindset that has kept her grounded through a long career in show business, and the quiet, powerful decision she made to stop spending energy on things she cannot change.

She is, in her own words, a joyful yellow-red. Loud. Bright. Room-filling. And completely, authentically herself.

In The Dark Journey, Kathleen Bradley reflects on real seasons of conflict, family tension, and the emotional weight of watching time accelerate.

In The Turning Point, she identifies the moment she began letting go — of arguments, of grudges, of the need to react to everything.

In Finding Happy, Kathleen Bradley celebrates the mellowed, deepened, grateful joy she lives in today.

Happy With Tammi Mac is the weekly celebrity interview podcast where host Tammi Mac — known from KJLH Radio and the Inflection Network — holds space for vulnerability, resilience, and the real stories behind famous faces. Alongside conversations with legends like MC Lyte, Kelly Price, Tabitha Brown, and James Wright Chanel, this episode with Kathleen Bradley stands as a testament to what happiness can look like after real life.

Happiness has been a hard word to come by — but it will exist again

🎧 Subscribe on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Leave a review. 

Happy With Tammi Mac, Kathleen Bradley, Inflection Network, Tammi Mac, KJLH Radio, happiness journey, turning point stories, heartbreak and healing, life after tragedy, rebirth and renewal, vulnerability and strength, grief and loss podcast, MC Lyte, Kelly Price, Tabitha Brown, James Wright Chanel, celebrity interview, inspirational podcast, finding happy, letting go, marriage and love, mother daughter relationship, positive mindset, aging and wisdom, Miss Parker, emotional resilience, uplifting podcast, personal growth podcast, Black voices podcast, celebrity stories, 

Kathleen Bradley, Happy With Tammi Mac, Tammi Mac, Inflection Network, happiness journey, turning point stories, life after tragedy, rebirth and renewal, heartbreak and healing, grief and loss podcast, vulnerability and strength, KJLH radio, MC Lyte, Kelly Price, Tabitha Brown, James Wright Chanel, celebrity interview podcast, finding happiness, letting go, 36 years of marriage, mother daughter relationship, positive mindset, aging gracefully, Miss Parker, emotional healing, uplifting stories, personal growth, Black podcast, inspirational podcast, celebrity stories

 

She walks into a room and happiness follows. But Kathleen Bradley &mdash; beloved actress, cultural icon, and the legendary Miss Parker &mdash; didn't arrive at her radiant joy by accident. This week on Happy With Tammi Mac, host Tammi Mac sits down with Kathleen Bradley for one of the most warm, honest, and genuinely uplifting conversations this show has ever had.
Kathleen Bradley opens up about what 36 years of marriage really looks like &mdash; the challenges, the learning curves, the deep and enduring love. She talks candidly about her fiery relationship with her daughter Cheyenne, and the hard-won peace they've found by choosing to release conflict instead of carrying it. She reflects on how her relationship with time has shifted as she's gotten older &mdash; why every moment now feels precious, calculated, and worthy of protection.
This is a happiness journey rooted in lived wisdom. Kathleen Bradley shares the lessons her mother passed down ("beauty is as beauty does"), the financial mindset that has kept her grounded through a long career in show business, and the quiet, powerful decision she made to stop spending energy on things she cannot change.
She is, in her own words, a joyful yellow-red. Loud. Bright. Room-filling. And completely, authentically herself.
In The Dark Journey, Kathleen Bradley reflects on real seasons of conflict, family tension, and the emotional weight of watching time accelerate.
In The Turning Point, she identifies the moment she began letting go &mdash; of arguments, of grudges, of the need to react to everything.
In Finding Happy, Kathleen Bradley celebrates the mellowed, deepened, grateful joy she lives in today.
Happy With Tammi Mac is the weekly celebrity interview podcast where host Tammi Mac &mdash; known from KJLH Radio and the Inflection Network &mdash; holds space for vulnerability, resilience, and the real stories behind famous faces. Alongside conversations with legends like MC Lyte, Kelly Price, Tabitha Brown, and James Wright Chanel, this episode with Kathleen Bradley stands as a testament to what happiness can look like after real life.
Happiness has been a hard word to come by &mdash; but it will exist again
🎧 Subscribe on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Leave a review.&nbsp;
Happy With Tammi Mac, Kathleen Bradley, Inflection Network, Tammi Mac, KJLH Radio, happiness journey, turning point stories, heartbreak and healing, life after tragedy, rebirth and renewal, vulnerability and strength, grief and loss podcast, MC Lyte, Kelly Price, Tabitha Brown, James Wright Chanel, celebrity interview, inspirational podcast, finding happy, letting go, marriage and love, mother daughter relationship, positive mindset, aging and wisdom, Miss Parker, emotional resilience, uplifting podcast, personal growth podcast, Black voices podcast, celebrity stories,&nbsp;
Kathleen Bradley, Happy With Tammi Mac, Tammi Mac, Inflection Network, happiness journey, turning point stories, life after tragedy, rebirth and renewal, heartbreak and healing, grief and loss podcast, vulnerability and strength, KJLH radio, MC Lyte, Kelly Price, Tabitha Brown, James Wright Chanel, celebrity interview podcast, finding happiness, letting go, 36 years of marriage, mother daughter relationship, positive mindset, aging gracefully, Miss Parker, emotional healing, uplifting stories, personal growth, Black podcast, inspirational podcast, celebrity stories
&nbsp;

Kathleen Bradley: 36 Years of Love, and the Art of Letting Go

https://api.omny.fm/orgs/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/clips/54b3ce85-d8bf-4e75-9535-b4cd005048ac/transcript

"Why Not You?" — Vanessa Bell Calloway on Breast Cancer, Resilience & the Unexpected Gift of the Worst Day

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