Content Warning: This episode discusses addiction, suicide, grief, child abuse, and neglect.
Long before Daria Burke was a high-powered marketing executive with major brands, before she was the best-selling author of her memoir Of My Own Making, Daria was a kid living a rough life in Detroit. Her mother had severe drug addiction issues and was abusive to Daria and her sister and their dad wasn’t around, dealing with drug issues of his own. Daria’s home often lacked heat, electricity, and running water and Daria, at a very young age, was taking the bus to the grocery store and shoplifting bags full of food in order to eat. Eventually, Daria graduated from college at 20 years old and went on to get an MBA at NYU. But her parents weren’t at the graduation because Daria cut them both out of her life long ago. She says that if her parents were willing to take an honest look at the years of abuse and neglect, that could be the groundwork to more of a relationship. But that hasn’t happened and she doesn’t expect it to.
