hmTv at HMTC Podcasts Ep 315: Raised by Survivors with Bernie Furshpan and guest Gayle Saks on hmTv
Raised by Survivors — Episode 315
Guest: Gayle Saks
Host: Bernie Furshpan
Produced by HMTC / hmTv
In this powerful episode of Raised by Survivors, host Bernie Furshpan sits down with writer, counselor, and mental-health advocate Gayle Saks, the daughter of a hidden child Holocaust survivor from Belgium. With honesty, humor, and unflinching courage, Gayle opens up about her mother’s trauma, her struggles with mental illness, and the legacy of silence and survival that shaped her childhood.
Gayle shares how inherited trauma intersected with her own life journey — from growing up in Roslyn, to supporting individuals battling addiction, to sitting across from people with swastika tattoos while working in re-entry counseling. She talks about grief, depression, humor as medicine, raising a compassionate daughter, and her mission to help children who have lost parents to addiction through her grief camp.
This conversation moves between memory and laughter, pain and purpose, reminding us that being raised by survivors means more than carrying trauma — it means carrying resilience, compassion, and responsibility forward.
A raw and uplifting exploration of legacy, healing, mental health, and what it means to find light where others only see darkness.