Robert Shepard: Who You Are Now – Rebuilding Your Identity After a Stroke at 41Robert Shepard: Who You Are Now – Rebuilding Your Identity After a Stroke at 41
Recovery After Stroke
Robert Shepard shares how a stroke at 41 turned a work trip into a life-changing event, affecting his body, family and sense of self. He talks with Bill Gasiamis about fatigue, fear and designing a new identity, including a workbook he created to help survivors work out who they are now.
1:06:22•9 Nov 2026
Who You Are Now: Robert Shepard on Identity, Stroke and Life 2.0
Episode Overview
- Physical recovery often has a clear plan, but the emotional and identity side of stroke may not, so survivors benefit from tools that help them define who they are now.
- Early neck pain and severe coughing can signal a carotid artery dissection, and seemingly minor symptoms shouldn’t be dismissed without medical advice.
- Stroke fatigue can make full workdays unrealistic, especially in demanding cognitive roles, and may require reduced hours or different responsibilities.
- Separating past roles from underlying values helps survivors carry what still matters into a new version of life, even when abilities have changed.
- Retiring the word “back” and focusing on building life forward can reduce feelings of failure and open up space for realistic, meaningful goals.
“It took a while to realize that who I am today is never going to be the same as who I was on December 7th, the day before this happened.”
Get ready to be moved by real-life accounts of how a single moment can rewrite an entire life story. This conversation follows stroke survivor Robert Shepard as he talks with host Bill Gasiamis about having an ischaemic stroke at 41, caused by a carotid artery dissection he first brushed off as a sore neck from moving furniture.
You’ll hear how an ordinary work trip to New Orleans turned into weeks in ICU, rehab over Christmas, and a family suddenly scattered across the country. Rob’s wife, drawing on her hospital background, recognised something was badly wrong when he “sounded like [he] was talking with marbles” and couldn’t get his words out. Emergency treatment saved his life, but the bigger challenge came later: working out who he is now.
Rob explains the contrast between the structured plan for physical recovery and the lack of any roadmap for the emotional and identity side. His left leg recovered quickly, his arm and fine motor skills are still a work in progress, and stroke fatigue hit hard when he tried to return to his cognitively demanding job.
As he puts it, “my 100% today is going to be completely different than my 100% was the day before the stroke.” Drawing on his background as an industrial-organisational psychologist, Rob created a workbook called *Who You Are Now – A Stroke Survivor’s Guide to Becoming Who You Are Now*.
It helps survivors separate roles from values, grieve what’s changed, and “retire the word back” so life is designed forward instead of chasing a version of themselves that no longer fits. If you’re wrestling with fatigue, identity shifts, or the fear that life will never feel ‘normal’ again, this honest chat offers practical questions and gentle reassurance that rebuilding who you are is a process you don’t have to rush. Where might your own version of “you 2.0” start?
Do you want to link to this podcast?
Get the buttons here!
More From This Show
The latest episodes from the same podcast.