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Three Strikes and Still Beating

Three Strikes and Still Beating

By: A.K. Thiagaraj
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About this listen

 Was I lucky to survive three brushes with death — or unlucky to still be here, sorting through the wreckage? A heart attack. A cardiac arrest. A heart valve replacement. I survived all three — and now I’m figuring out what survival actually looks like.

Three Strikes and Still Beating is my twenty-two-episode documentary memoir — a limited series that follows my journey from the morning of my first heart attack, to the near-death experience of cardiac arrest, to the slow walk into my home after open-heart surgery — a story that unfolds over seven years. It’s about hospitals, doctors, uncertainty, and fear, yes, but also about marriage, fatherhood, work and career, faith, and what it means to keep rebuilding a life when it gets torpedoed.
This isn’t a podcast about advice, inspiration, or being strong. It’s raw. It’s honest. Sometimes dark. Sometimes funny. Just me, processing the absurdity of what happened — physically, emotionally, spiritually — and saying the things I couldn’t say in the moment.

Through humor, vulnerability, and a few haunting saxophone motifs, I try to make sense of what it means to keep going after life stops your heart three times.

I’m A.K. Thiagaraj, a San Francisco Bay Area software professional whose creative life was catalyzed by those three cardiac events. What started as an attempt to process trauma and disbelief turned into a story worth sharing — one that might make a few people laugh, others cry, and maybe help someone feel a little less alone in their own private battles.Copyright A.K. Thiagaraj Hygiene & Healthy Living Psychology Psychology & Mental Health Social Sciences
Episodes
  • Start Here – This Is a Serial Podcast

    Start Here – This Is a Serial Podcast
    Aug 23 2025
    Before you hit play — quick note.This is a serialized podcast.
    The story starts at Episode 1 and goes all the way to 22. In order.
    Don’t jump around — you won’t follow the story. You’ll be confused, and then you’ll blame me.
    Some platforms like to show the newest episode first. So if the episodes aren’t sorted Episode 1 through 22, go into your show settings and change the sort order to oldest to newest.
    Start at Episode 1. Work your way forward.
    That’s it. Happy listening.
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    1 min
  • Episode 22: Strike Three

    Episode 22: Strike Three
    Aug 22 2025
    Series Finale. The final strike. The valve that was supposed to last ten years ran out of time. Open-heart surgery, new scars, and old fears — all over again.I survived once more… but survival isn’t the same as living.
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    28 mins
  • Episode 21: Defused

    Episode 21: Defused
    Aug 21 2025
    The meds were working, the shocks stopped, and life finally felt steady— until fatigue set in, my golden retriever got sick, and my heart broke for an entirely different reason.
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    18 mins
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