Kate Wallinga spent her professional life in the fields of mental health and criminal justice, before breaking her back and being put on permanent disability in 2014. She has worked in the fields of correctional psych, forensic psych, and crisis assessment.

Kate studied criminal justice and mental health counseling and worked in the New Hampshire State Prison system, locked psychiatric facilities, and several emergency rooms.

In 2010, Kate had a near-death experience, which led to her being housebound for a year. In 2014, Kate broke her back and had to leave her career. In 2019, Kate's father died by suicide. She has battled health issues including epilepsy and deafness. But, as she will share today, although broken, Kate moved forward and she will show you how to as well - no matter what you have gone through.

After accepting the necessity of leaving her preferred career, Kate spent a few years moping, then started listening to podcasts. She loves true crime genre and soon realized this is what she wanted to do - to connect with and share other people's stories.

In her interview, she shares her incredible story and how she became a storyteller, a story-collector, and a.....herder of cats.

Podcasting seemed the logical next step after Kate worked in the fields of forensic and correctional psychology, and crisis assessment.

Ignorance Was Bliss is a show about how we become who we are and making just about anything sound normal - from PTSD to podcasting to serial murder. It is about people's stories.

This podcast is about how we become who we are - about making just about anything sound normal. Over time, the focus of the show has widened to include the normal, the average, the ordinary, that all of us can understand...but we continue to think of ourselves as somehow messed up, weird, wrong.

We're not.

You're not.

Honest.

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