In this episode of You Only, host Low Jackson explores American Family by Catherine Marshall-Smith, a powerful novel that dismantles the myth of the “perfect” American family and replaces it with something far more honest: a story about love, judgment, silence, and the roles we assign to one another in order to survive. Drawing from Marshall-Smith’s exploration of custody, identity, addiction, and belonging, this episode examines how families often mistake quiet strength for absence, intelligence for laziness, and unconventional care for failure.

Blending the book’s themes with personal reflection, Low Jackson shares a defining story about misjudging his stepdad—an experience that reveals how easily inherited narratives become accepted truth. Through psychological insight, attachment theory, and family-systems thinking, the episode unpacks archetypes like the hero and the mascot, showing how these roles form, why they persist, and how they shape adult identity long after childhood ends. This conversation isn’t about rewriting the past or assigning blame—it’s about seeing clearly. American Family becomes a lens for understanding how perception shapes memory, how misunderstanding becomes legacy, and how healing often begins when we learn to look again at the people who raised us and recognize the unseen work they were doing all along.