BestGuessistan is a creative framework — and a metaphorical country — for navigating life after rupture: the injuries, illnesses, losses, burnout, caregiving, menopause, aging, and unexpected disruptions that reorder a life.
It’s a map for the unfamiliar terrain you didn’t choose but now have to learn to live in.

BestGuessistan was created by Wendy Lurrie — writer, strategist, former CMO, and survivor of her own life rupture. Through essays, a thriving Substack, an upcoming book, and now a podcast, she explores the messy, nonlinear “after” that most systems don’t know how to hold.

Because after disruption, everything becomes a best guess:
energy, capacity, identity, memory, boundaries, the future.
The name embraces uncertainty instead of pretending it’s not there.

Yes and no. Not geographically. You won't find it on a world map (yet.)
But yes —it’s an emotional, cognitive, and bureaucratically chaotic landscape that mirrors the lived experience of recovery and reinvention — a country made of uncertainty, recalibration, paperwork, humor, and hope.

A mix of:

• Essays & dispatches

• Leaked “memos” and ministry documents

• Maps, metaphors, and field reports

• Podcast episodes featuring experts and lived experience

Together, they chart the strange, frustrating, often darkly funny experience of rebuilding a life in a system that no longer fits.

Anyone living in the aftermath of something — whether sudden or slow:

• injury or illness

• TBI or chronic condition

• burnout or caregiving

• grief or job loss

• menopause or medical mystery

• normal aging

• the quiet unraveling of who you were

It’s also for the people who love, support, lead, or work with someone navigating rupture. Beyond that, it's  for those working inside the systems that could work harder and better and for everyone going through these life-altering events and their long aftermaths. 

If your life no longer aligns with the old systems or timelines, you’ll feel at home here.

They are metaphorical institutions that govern the BestGuessistan world — and represent different aspects of life after rupture. They include:

• The Museum of Unfinished Thoughts

• The Emotional Baggage Claim

• The Department of Updated Expectations

• The Confidence Chamber

• The Forgettery

• The Ministry of Letting It Slide

Each reflects part of the invisible bureaucracy of healing, coping, and being human.

Each episode is a visit to a different district — exploring different types and dimensions of rupture.
Wendy speaks with guests from medicine, HR, psychology, disability advocacy, and people who’ve lived through rupture themselves.

Together, they examine what systems don’t prepare us for — and how we navigate the landscape that comes after.

No. BestGuessistan welcomes:

• Survivors

• Caregivers

• Clinicians

• HR leaders

• People who love someone living “after”

• Curious humans

All are welcome inside the map.

No. BestGuessistan was born from Wendy’s experience with traumatic brain injury — but in the process of creating it, she realized it was really about rupture and systems failure.

So while the origin story includes TBI, the project speaks to any form of rupture: physical, emotional, relational, existential.

If your world has shifted and you’re trying to figure out the new one, you belong here.

Not exactly.
It’s not about fixing yourself. There are no 6 steps or 8 phases or anything that sounds like an easy fix, because BestGuessistan knows there are no easy fixes. 
It’s about language, connection, metaphor, and storytelling — making sense of what has happened and finding others living in similar terrain. 

Yes.
Most content is free, with optional paid tiers for deeper dives.
The podcast is free on YouTube and also available in audio-only formats.

Absolutely. You can:

• Join the conversation through comments

• Become a “BestGuessistan Official” (with your own ministry title)

• Contribute stories or insights

• Help shape the evolving map

• Invent your own ministry

BestGuessistan is a collective project — it grows through the people who inhabit it.