In an era defined by quick takes and short attention spans, Susie Abromeit has built something refreshingly different. Her podcast GREAT ONES has quietly become one of those rare shows that doesn’t just entertain but teaches. Each episode, whether she is talking with Spike Lee, Ron Howard, or Wynonna Judd, feels less like an interview and more like a deep conversation about what it means to be human.

“It started out as this deep curiosity,” she tells me. “I was having these incredible conversations in my own life with people like Malcolm Gladwell, and I kept thinking, imagine being a fly on the wall right now.”

“I started noticing these similarities,” she says. “Whether it’s a gold medal skier or Spike Lee or a musician at the top of their field, they all have this same fire. That ‘no one’s going to tell me no’ energy. And they all face the same question: how do you chase greatness and still live a great life?”

For Susie, that question is not just something to ask others. It is something she has lived. Before acting, before GREAT ONES, she was a top-ranked junior tennis player at Duke. “I got everything I wanted, a full ride, national titles, and I was miserable,” she admits. “I learned early that success in one lane means nothing if you’re not healthy, if you’re not whole.”

That quest for wholeness runs through everything she does. It shows up in her podcast, where she leads with vulnerability. “The more I go first, the safer it feels for others,” she says. It also shows up in her latest project, a dark comedy short called DEATH AND FRIENDS.

The film was inspired by the sudden passing of her mother and explores both grief and the strange humor that comes with it. “It’s not about what you go through,” she says “It’s about how you alchemize that experience into something new.”

The project reunited her with her best friend, who co-wrote, co-starred, and produced the film alongside an all-female crew. “That wasn’t even planned,” Susie says, smiling. “We just picked the best people for the job, and it ended up being all women. Emmy winners, Grammy nominees, total powerhouses.”

If DEATH AND FRIENDS is her catharsis, then GREAT ONES is her education. Both are extensions of the same instinct: to look beneath the surface. “I think people are starving for wisdom again,” she says. “Fifty years ago, you’d get that from religion or storytelling. Now podcasts are the new campfire.”

Her episodes balance introspection and ease. They can be funny, vulnerable, or raw, but they are always real. “I’ve learned that when you make peace with being seen, flaws and all, you become bulletproof,” she laughs. “You can’t hide behind a character anymore. It’s just you. And when it’s just you, that’s where greatness actually starts.”

For Abromeit, greatness is not a finish line. It is a practice, something built one conversation at a time.

With GREAT ONES continuing to grow and DEATH AND FRIENDS soon to enter the festival circuit, Susie stands at a moment that feels both grounded and expansive. She has turned grief into art, questions into purpose, and vulnerability into strength.

“Life,” she says, “is ten percent what happens to you and ninety percent how you react to it.”

For Susie Abromeit, that reaction has become creation.