Katy is a Decent Fucking Human if there ever was one, and after listening to this episode, you're going to admire her for being so. It would have been easy for her life to go off the rails, if there were ever rails for it to go off. 

Katy was raised for a time on a commune disguised as a cult. She spent her time in the woods instead of school, and had a mother who had a suspected personality disorder. She literally hoped to be put in a group home, rather than continuing to live with her mother.

The rest of her story is fascinating. She hitch hiked, rode the rails, got a lot of help from strangers, and got at least one very interesting tattoo. I can't even do this episode justice, so just press play.