Are You Living a Story That Isn’t Yours? | Samuel Garza Bernstein

What if the story you believe about yourself isn’t actually yours?

In this episode of Sip on This, Deirdre Haggerty speaks with award-winning author, screenwriter, playwright, and television producer Samuel Garza Bernstein about inherited narratives—the beliefs and expectations passed down through families, relationships, cultures, and generations that can quietly shape our identities.

Samuel is the Season 3 co-showrunner and co-executive producer of the six-time Emmy Award-winning series After Forever, streaming on Amazon. He is also the author of Roddy McDowall: An Actor’s Life, Cesar Romero: The Joker Is Wild, and Starring Joan Crawford. He co-authored Uncommon Heroes, which received the American Library Association Stonewall Book Award for Non-Fiction.

Deirdre and Samuel explore identity, authenticity, LGBTQ+ history, classic Hollywood, grief, leadership, people-pleasing, boundaries, and the courage required to reinvent ourselves. Samuel shares how Roddy McDowall, Cesar Romero, and Joan Crawford repeatedly adapted throughout their careers—and why reinvention can be driven by curiosity as much as necessity.

They also discuss the importance of allowing people to become who they are now, rather than continuing to define them by who they were decades ago. Samuel explains why conflict does not always need to be immediately resolved, why respect is essential in leadership, and why people perform their best work when they feel seen and valued.

The conversation becomes deeply personal as Samuel shares the grief surrounding his work on After Forever and explains how the series continues to honor what came before while creating a new chapter. He leaves listeners with a powerful reminder: When the old story no longer fits, talk to someone, give voice to what no longer makes sense, and be kind to yourself.

Because your value does not come from what you accomplish, produce, or do for other people. You matter simply because you are here.