38 | Play The Tape Through
From Alive Again by iHeartPodcasts
January 13, 2026 · 43 min · Season 1 · Episode 38
About this episode
Brooke Knisley shares her journey of recovery from a traumatic brain injury and the lessons learned about life and decision-making.
At UC Santa Cruz, Brooke Knisley fell more than twenty feet from a redwood while drinking and spent ten days in a coma. What followed was the long, messy work of living with a traumatic brain injury: double vision, memory gaps, relearning daily life, and building white-board systems to keep moving forward. With sharp humor and hard-won clarity, Brooke traces the shift from bar fights and self-numbing to therapy, sobriety, and a steadier kindness toward herself and others—learning to “play the tape through,” when making decisions, and to find joy in the small moments. Brooke is a talented freelance writer specializing in humor, personal essays, and reporting on disability, mental health, and culture. To read more of Brooks insightful and engaging work, visit her website: https://www.brookeknisley.com/ Contains traumatic brain injury/coma, alcohol misuse, and a reference to sexual assault. Listener discretion advised. Story Producer: Nicholas Tecosky If you have a transformative near-death experience to share, we’d love to hear your story! Please email us at aliveagainproject@gmail.com We’d love to hear your story! See omnystudio.com/listener for…
People in this episode
Guest: Brooke Knisley
Topics covered
- traumatic brain injury
- sobriety
- personal growth
- mental health
- humor
- decision making
Keywords
- traumatic brain injury
- coma
- alcohol misuse
- therapy
- sobriety
- personal essays
- mental health
- decision making
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: UC Santa Cruz, iHeartPodcasts, aliveagainproject@gmail.com
Books & works: https://www.brookeknisley.com/
More episodes of Alive Again
- 45 | Overtime: A Conversation With Dr. David Fajgenbaum · March 3, 2026 · 1h 12m
- 44 | Fourteen Bullets · February 24, 2026 · 1h 2m
- 43 | Rip · February 17, 2026 · 56 min
- 42 | Extraordinary Awakening: A Conversation with Filmmaker Jonas Elrod · February 10, 2026 · 1h 30m
- 41 | Angel Falls · February 3, 2026 · 37 min
- 40 | The Bondage of Self · January 27, 2026 · 39 min
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