Writer, author, and mom of three Sara Peterson has been down all the instagram wormholes and has lived to tell about it. On this episode, your host Alexis , and Sara have a super candid conversation on the ways in which performative motherhood and momfluencers are wearing us all down. Sara shares with us what it means to be a "hot mom", why prescriptive parenting doesn't work, the new mom haircut, and we also discuss . . . haunted Mormons (IYKYK). Sara's book, MOMFLUENCED, will be out this...

The National Council on Sexual Addiction Compulsivity has estimated that six to eight percent of Americans, and  approximately one in six women struggle with an addiction to pornography and sex. (Many women with sex addiction engage in casual sex, have multiple partners, or affairs. ) Author, and mom Erica Garza is one of the few women speaking out about her struggles with porn and compulsive masturbation (beginning at age 12), and later, sex addiction.  Her memoir, "Getting Off: One Woman’s...

Keren Keyzner's daughter Lily was diagnosed with neuroblastoma on the evening of September 16, 2018, at 2.5 years of age. Neuroblastoma is an extremely rare form of cancer, with only about 700 new cases diagnosed every year in the United States.  In this episode, Keren shares her daughter's journey, and how Keren and her family coped with such unimaginable loss. If you've ever wondered how you could support friends and loved ones caring for a sick child, or who are mourning the loss of their...

Today we have writer, and coach Jenn M. Choi on the podcast, who shares with us her story of surviving the deaths of both of her immigrant parents (on top of going through a huge life change) and how that process helped her face the generational trauma she'd held onto for so many years.  She talks about how she found self-compassion, how reframing healing is a constant process, and how we all have the tools we need within us to become "the moms we wish to be." Listen to her expert...

"I could tell you maybe two people at my son's school know, and this is the crazy thing, maybe even more because I have been around people in those times I was using and you just don't think you look drunk. You did this, you forgot lunch, you did that, and who knows what people picked up on? My disease would lead me to believe they didn't at all, but I'm sure some people did." In today's episode, we talk with someone who doesn't appear to be an "addict" but only because we have so many...

SEASON 2 PREMIERE! Today we are talking with award-winning author Angela Garbes, of LIKE A MOTHER: A Feminist Journey Through the Science and Culture of Pregnancy, and the just-released ESSENTIAL LABOR: Mothering as Social Change.  Her latest book reads like a manifesto for the kind of world we aspire to have for mothers and women and all caregivers, and  it asks the question, what if we built a system that lets us care for the people that actually care for us? How do we, in a society that is...

Puberty doesn't start with periods. Our culture's discomfort around puberty often leads us to wait for conversations about puberty until 12 or 13. But many kids start undergoing the body changes that precede menstruation at much younger ages. And yet, there's very little content in books and media that talk about the intersection of puberty and childhood -- which can begin at ages 8, 9, and 10. Where is the book for the kid that's about to go bra shopping for her first bra during the day but...

We don't talk about stillbirth and infant loss enough because to acknowledge that they happen is to acknowledge that they could happen to US. We protect ourselves from these stories, which are OTHER PEOPLE'S STORIES, to further separate someone else's reality from that of our own. For Anna Feldberg, our guest on this episode, having lost her first daughter Charlotte, who died suddenly at 35 weeks gestation, is a reality from which she cannot separate. Anna shares with us her very personal...

When life gets super challenging, we often look towards leaders for guidance -- whether it's a political leader, religious leader, community or group leader, or parent. But what happens when the leader doesn't feel like they can lead? What happens when the leader is struggling just as much as those who are relying on them? Our guest today is a female rabbi who describes to us not only what its like to go through some of life's biggest shifts in a very public way (IVF, pregnancy, loss of a...

When her doctor presented gestational surrogacy (i.e. where the parent - not surrogate - provides own egg for fertilization) as an option for Alexis Cirel, it felt, at first, like defeat. Not only was it something she hadn't ever anticipated, she learned that it wasn't even a legal option in New York at the time ! The paperwork and the sense of disappointment in her body was overwhelming to Alexis, but ultimately the process was a success and she is now the mom of a 5 and 8 year old and...

Today's guest suffered one of the worst things one can imagine happening to a person as a child, and lived with this secret well into adulthood. The Christine Blasey Ford hearings were a catalyst for the memories and flashbacks coming back to her and finally letting go of the shame she'd been holding onto for so long.  Our guest tells her story of trauma, memory, grace, and resilience because she knows the power and healing that can come sharing her truth. She also shares some of the things...

How do you learn how to mother when you grew up "basically, without parents?" Our anonymous guest talks about growing up as an autistic woman with parent figures who were detached at best, and physically and emotionally abusive at worst; and how she vowed to "become the village" she never had once she had a child of her own. But of course, like all best- laid plans -- especially when your aspirations are that of an "influencer" living a perfect Pottery Barn life -- things go quite a bit...

For this week's guest, living with several undiagnosed mental illnesses her entire life wreaked havoc on her childhood, her relationship with her family, and her own self view. Nothing could have prepared her, however, for how the near-fatal blow new parenthood would deliver. Our anonymous guest shares her story of family secrets, going through hell while still showing up for her daughter, and finally getting the support she needed. It shouldn't be this way, but as our guest says in the...

If you learned something absolutely shocking about your partner that you never would have imagined, how would you react? Would you stay and support them? How "bad" would it have to be for you to decide to leave? Today's guest shares her almost-unbelievable story about a discovery she made when she was just 12 weeks postpartum with her daughter,  everything she did next, and why.  If you or someone you know is in a similar situation - Links to Places that Can...