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Episode Description

There’s a voice most of us carry around all day. It comments on what we eat, how we look, what we said in that meeting last week. It’s constant. It’s cruel. And most of the time — we don’t even notice we’re doing it.

Colleen Odegaard has spent 30 years on live television, interviewing A-list celebrities and Charlotte’s most compelling stories. But behind the camera, she’s been doing a very different kind of work — the kind that doesn’t show up on a highlight reel. In this episode, she opens up about the unexpected divorce that blindsided her after 23 years, the self-compassion practice that carried her through, and why she believes the way we talk to ourselves is the most important thing we’ll ever change.

She and Alisa and Marnie get into radical acceptance, the comparison trap, letting go of control with adult kids, and the ego she caught running the show — even at 55, when she bought her first solo home. This one is honest, warm, and full of moments you’ll want to sit with.

Show Notes — Key Timestamps (Approximate)

• 00:00 — Welcome + Meet Colleen Odegaard
• 01:30 — The real reason she got into broadcast journalism (it wasn’t noble)
• 08:30 — Feeling benched in a cutthroat industry
• 11:00 — Why growth isn’t about age — it’s about what you do with the time
• 13:00 — The divorce she didn’t see coming after 23 years
• 15:30 — How she got through it: therapy, dharma talks, nature, and friends
• 17:00 — Radical acceptance: what it actually means vs. resignation
• 18:30 — Letting go of control — especially with adult kids
• 25:00 — Self-compassion vs. self-esteem: why compassion has to come first
• 27:30 — Buying her own condo at 55 and the ego check that came with it
• 40:00 — The self-talk we normalize without realizing it
• 41:30 — Why doing something kind for someone else is actually self-care