Jenn Romolini is a success story, with the glowing "get her life!" press coverage to prove it. As a journalist, editor, author, podcast creator and creative executive, Jenn has had the kind of successful career across media, tech and entertainment that is a testament to ambition, vision and hard work. But in her new memoir “Ambition Monster,” Jenn shares the story of just how hard the work was, and just how deep the ambition went as she looks backward on a life that was not always the stuff...

Christie Marchese is the founder and CEO of Kinema, a next-gen platform for filmmakers to share their work (and get paid for it!), to find new audiences and experiencing the magic of going to the movies as intended - in community. That's magic that Christie knows well, as a serial entrepreneur who has built a career around surfacing important work and bringing new audiences together to drive social change and tell stories that matter. (She was previously the founder & CEO of the impact...

For the past two and half seasons, we have been lucky to have some truly amazing guests here on "Your New Life Blend," who have shared so many amazing insights. As we hit that Q2 crunch time, we wanted to share some of it to help you refocus on your own priorities, goals, and boundaries (we love boundaries). Please enjoy this great advice and insight from Dorie Clark, Bridget Todd, Vanessa Bennett, Candice Cook, Lyz Lenz, Hitha Palepu, Christina Wallace, Stacy London, Bea Arthur, Morra...

Sure, we all get tired. But Lindsay Scola's tired was different. She was constantly exhausted, dozed off frequently, experienced night terrors, anxiety and brain fog, and sometimes, hallucinations. Doctors suggested that perhaps it was her demanding career working with high-powered leaders in entertainment, politics and government (including being part of the Obama administration), but still, this had been going on for two decades and Lindsay knew that something else was going on. It took...

Glynnis MacNicol spent the long stretch of COVID lockdown mostly alone in small Upper West Side apartment, mostly without really touching another person. So by summer 2021, after vaccines had rolled out and restrictions were finally lifting, she jumped at the chance to stay at a friend's apartment in Paris, and immediately bought a plane ticket out of her pandemic-imposed solitude. Landing in Paris she found a city just waking up from its own lockdown, and felt in Parisians all around her the...

Who are we when we don’t have a job? A fancy title? The heft of a prestigious organization behind us, signaling our worth and marketability? That question stared Penny Abeywardena square in the face when she left her high-powered position as New York City Commissioner for International Affairs in the De Blasio administration, a role she had served in from 2014-2022. It was the first untethered, unstructured time she’d had in two decades. It was also the first time she’d had a moment to think...

Jo Piazza has built a career around telling stories, specifically about women living lives of adventure, bravery, joy and fulfillment. In celebration of Jo's upcoming novel "The Sicilian Inheritance" - out next week! - we are sharing our wonderful conversation with her from Season 2, where she talks about the personal journey behind the book (based on the murder of her Sicilian great-great-grandmother, who was also maybe a witch). In this episode, Jo sits down with host Shoshanna Hecht to...

Jessica Bennett has spent a prolific, award-winning career writing and reporting about gender, sexuality, politics, and culture, including as the first-ever Gender Editor for The New York Times, and now as a contributing writer & editor. She has profiled - and shaped our collective understanding of - numerous public figures including Jennifer Aniston, Pamela Anderson, Monica Lewinsky, E. Jean Carroll, Governor Kathy Hochul and Anita Hill. Jessica's book, "Feminist Fight Club," offered...

In honor of Women’s History Month, we wanted to bring back one of our *favorite* episodes from Season 1, with the inimitable Cindy Gallop, who lives her life *exactly* as she wants and is *very good* at inspiring the rest of us to do the same. Cindy would like you to have *more* of everything you want - more money, more power, more freedom, more innovation, more connection, more joy - and yes, more sex. And who are we to argue? Cindy is also in the process of an equity crowdfunding campaign...

What happens when you're building the life you want, and then life knocks you sideways? The layoff. The rejection. The congratulations-on-your-new-baby-we’ll-just-give-that-account-to-someone-else. That last one happened to Amy Shoenthal, whose upward trajectory in a marketing firm record-scratched when she announced her pregnancy and came back from maternity leave to find herself subtly but unmistakably sidelined.  The subsequent feelings of professional panic, alienation and displacement...

Welcome to Season 3 of "Your New Life Blend," a podcast about building the lives we want, powerfully and with intention. Join executive coach and licensed clinical therapist Shoshanna Hecht for another round of conversations with dynamic, inspiring women who are living the process of building - and rebuilding - their best and most meaningful lives. This podcast is about crystallizing what YOU want, and how to get there with purpose and clarity, while still navigating the obligations and...

Suzanne Lerner built a business with her husband, Michael Cohen, and that business was Michael Stars, the ubiquitous and long-standing fashion brand that there's a very good chance has, at one point, made your favorite t-shirt or tank top or sweater or dress or otherwise clutch wardrobe staple. Suzanne and Michael built the Michael Stars brand in alignment with their values, prioritizing local production, fair wages, planet-friendly materials, and strong support of social justice causes. In...

Lori Leibovich is the editor of the Well section at the New York Times and under her leadership, it has become a juggernaut of essential, chart-topping content about the ways in which we are all trying to live better, healthier, and happier (and the many ways in which we are being challenged in trying to do so). Meanwhile, Lori has been  living all the confusion of the past three years along with the rest of us, leading the section while keenly aware that we all needed information we could...

How can I do my best? How can I do my best for others? How can I face the world with compassion? These are the questions Malynda Hale is asking herself as she begins this new year. Hale is an entertainer, a creator, an entrepreneur and an activist, and has come off a busy, busy year determined to follow her own North Star of empathy in a noisy, noisy world. In this episode of "Your New Life Blend," host Shoshanna Hecht talks to Malynda Hale about how to choose where to put your talents and...

S. Mitra Kalita is the CEO & Founder of URL Media, a network of high-performing Black and Brown news media organizations that serve, support and center communities of color, and she has plans for 2024. Fresh off a $500 thousand grant from the MacArthur Foundation, Mitra has a mandate to expand URL Media's essential editorial work and reach — because 2024 is an election year, and Black and Brown communities need news and information they can trust. This has been Mitra's mission since...

The holiday season can be joyful for some and complicated for others, particularly those of us who are mourning loved ones whom we have lost. Rebecca Soffer knows this well, having lost both her parents within just a few years of each other in her early 30s. In a career twist that she never planned for and certainly never would have wanted, Rebecca went on to co-found Modern Loss, a community and events company to support the many of us who are bereaved, without platitudes. In this episode of...

We lost our friend Benish Shah last week. Benish was smart, righteous, funny, thoughtful, passionate, loving and brave. She was one of the first people we spoke to when we were launching the podcast and we knew we wanted her voice on the show. Her episode was one of our favorites and we refer to it often. We are sharing it again today in Benish's honor, because her voice felt so necessary at the time and still feels that way, even more so. We've also shared some of her writing in the show...

Binta Brown is a woman of letters. Two of those letters are "J.D." and they have undergirded her career, first at top Wall Street firm Cravath, Swaine and Moore and then as a partner at Kirkland & Ellis advising global entertainment and media companies, as well as in her leadership roles at iconic American institutions like the American Theatre Wing, Barnard College, Columbia University, and the New York Philharmonic (this is very partial list). Binta is also a lifelong musician (she...

Marina Khidekel had anxiety, and a fidget-spinner wasn't going to cut it. She liked the feeling of a weighted blanket, but having it all over her body was way too much. So she came up with an ingenious solution: a weighted stuffed animal. In June 2022, she launched Hugimals World and its anchor product, the Hugimal, a 4.5-lb weighted stuffed animal in 4 varieties that feel like they are hugging you back. Let's fast forward to 300 glowing press clips later: Hugimals is a multiple award-winning...

Welcome to a very special episode of "Your New Life Blend" to send us all into Thanksgiving weekend with some advice and inspiration from some of our favorite women - because we all deserve to run our lives with intention, even on a holiday weekend. (Actually, especially on a holiday weekend!) Have a fantastic time however you are spending it and remember - be gentle with yourself.  Featuring:  Tanzina Vega https://tanzinavega.com Amy Shoenthal https://www.amyshoenthal.com Allana...

What does it mean to have a brand? What does your brand tell the world about you? What happens to that brand when the world changes? Aliza Licht knows - especially after the past five weeks. As an award-winning marketer, bestselling author & podcaster, personal branding expert, and career development coach, Aliza was a go-to on Instagram for confident, spot-on analysis of brand management and mismanagement, from celebrities and corporations in the news to the rest of us out there hanging...

How does one become a Puberty Mogul? Accidentally, according to Vanessa Bennett - but also on purpose, by raising four kids and caring deeply about how to support their growth, development, self-knowledge and self-esteem. Vanessa is the co-author of This Is So Awkward: Modern Puberty Explained and co-host of "The Puberty Podcast," both with pediatrician Cara Natterson, and is the President of Order of Magnitude, a puberty stage-of-life company to solve the pain points while empowering kids...

What happens when we achieve our goals? What if we realize that what we thought we wanted isn’t really what we want anymore? What if the thing we thought we were supposed to do, isn’t actually what gives us purpose? And who decides what we are “supposed” to do, anyway? These are the questions that author & technology journalist Jessi Hempel considers weekly in her acclaimed podcast “Hello Monday” which examines the evolving culture of work, and in her book, “The Family Outing,” about the...

How extremely online are you? When you create and consume, who or what is influencing you? Whose voices are being heard, and amplified, and platformed? Who are you giving your attention to, and who's taking it? And, who's making money off that? These are just a few questions that tech reporter, columnist and creator Taylor Lorenz wants to get you thinking about in her new book, "Extremely Online The Untold Story of Fame, Influence, and Power on the Internet," which looks at the rise of the...