Chad Wolf grew up in Moncks Corner, South Carolina, on a dirt road outside of Charleston, in a double wide trailer with a Pentecostal Holiness church on Sundays and a shipyard worker dad who apparently did classified things on nuclear submarines that he can only now talk about. He came to LA at 20, lied his way into an internship for Diane Warren, ended up living in a Swedish musician's house, became friends with Max Martin, and made a record (with a platinum single) that got played at weddings and on The Hills and in rom-coms for a decade.

And then he lost everything. The band, the money, marriages, his house, eventually his car. He lived out of that car for six months, delivered for Postmates in a Range Rover that eventually got repossessed, and never once stopped showing up to take his son to school. This one is a perfect Father's Day episode. Not because Chad got everything right, but because of how honest he is about getting it wrong, and how clear it is that his son - and the art of truly LOVING - saved him.

Full show notes with alll the links: muthalife.substack.com

Instagram: @mutha.life @thecarolinaliar

Produced by: Mutha Life

Music by: Ronen Landa

It's a podcast first: A parent doing an IRL interview with us…while breastfeeding the entire time. AND SHE REMAINED COHERENT?! That's heroic stuff, in my book. Not to mention, there was a toddler with a tummy ache and grandpa as backup in tow downstairs. The level of composure was just…very elite. Luckily I got to spend an hour with Emily Beyda - novelist, journalist, writer of the wildly popular KCRW newsletter Backseat Babies - and find out where all this zen master energy comes from. And let me tell you - the breastfeeding while interview matches the backstory to a T.

Full show notes with alll the links: muthalife.substack.com

Instagram: @mutha.life @emilybeyda

Produced by: Mutha Life

Music by: Ronen Landa

When we first hung out with Vanessa Dew, co-founder of Health-Ade Kombucha, about a year and a half ago, she was figuring out what life looked like after selling her business baby. She was navigating purpose and parenthood in a new chapter, finding ways to support her community after the LA fires, and quietly letting go of any need to feel relevant just for the sake of it (ahem, the inspiration for this week's episode title).

Since we last spoke, she has been keeping very busy. Traveling loads with her family. Being in her feelings about a recently graduated kindergartner. Building her community on Substack. Launching the Aline Foundation to support women through wellness grants. And, oh, did I mention we are breaking news right now?! (Tune in to hear it)

Full show notes with alll the links: muthalife.substack.com

Instagram: @mutha.life @vanessadew_

Produced by: Mutha Life

Music by: Ronen Landa

Celebrity and Personal Stylist Liza Lieberman grew up as the only child of a fashion industry powerhouse, a mom who traveled the world designing clothes and built everything herself from scratch. She was also the kid climbing trees and winning track meets with her dad, until she lost him at 14. Her parents were both larger than life figures in her childhood that would go on to shape so much about how she's chosen to live, love, parent and work.

She went into finance like her mom wanted, lived in London, fell in love, found her way to Salesforce, and quietly started a fashion Instagram on the side just because it made her happy. That side project became a business. Now she's one of the most sought-after personal and celebrity stylists around, dressing clients for state dinners and red carpets and also for just, you know, feeling like yourself again on a Tuesday.

This conversation covers a lot of ground. Ambitious parents and what that legacy looks like up close. Navigating a difficult workplace experience as a young woman with no roadmap for it. ADHD as an unexpected superpower. The pivot your partner supports but doesn't quite understand yet. Early motherhood during COVID. And what it means to build something that's entirely yours.

Full show notes with alll the links: muthalife.substack.com

Instagram: @mutha.life @liza.lieberman

Produced by: Mutha Life

Music by: Ronen Landa

'Oh what are you listening to?' 'Who me? Oh it's ARCHIVAL SARA TAN.'

Glossangeles' Sara Tan's ep is back and it's taking on a whole new listen this time around. When this episode first aired, my daughter was 1.5. She's now 2.5 going on 13, and already laying out her outfits, begging for nail polish, and asking about every product I put on my face. Turns out this conversation was more relevant than ever.

We talk about building a career with intention, navigating beauty culture as a parent, what it means to interview Rihanna and Hailey Bieber differently now that you're both moms, cultural differences in parenting, the work wife relationship, and how to think about raising kids in a world that has very loud opinions about how they should look.

Full show notes with alll the links: muthalife.substack.com

Instagram: @mutha.life @saratan

Produced by: Mutha Life

Music by: Ronen Landa

Amanda Chantal Bacon founded Moon Juice in 2011. Now, fifteen years and a Target launch later, she's in what might be her most interesting chapter: handing over the operational reins so she can get back to dreaming and spending more time with her kids. In this conversation, we talk about growing up in downtown NYC with a famously cool and unconventional mom, finding her footing in fine dining kitchens, opening Moon Juice and literally birthing a human at the same time, doing early motherhood and early entrepreneurship simultaneously as a single mom, her two very different birth experiences, the BioCharger, the placenta smoothie, and the realization that the peaceful "we made it" feeling she's been chasing isn't coming, so we better enjoy the chaos.

Full show notes with alll the links: muthalife.substack.com

Instagram: @mutha.life

Produced by: Mutha Life, Music by: Ronen Landa

This MUTHA's Day episode explores the complexity and contradictions of motherhood across different life stages. Kari returned from a week in London with a major realization about the finite window of motherhood and the gap between what mothers 'should' want and what they actually want. Through listener voices and personal reflection, this episode examines the tension between needing space and knowing that time with your kids is fleeting. The centerpiece is a meditation on a Banksy statue about how convictions can block your vision. It's a metaphor for the principles of motherhood that keep mothers marching forward, even when they can't see where they're going.

Full show notes with alll the links: muthalife.substack.com

Instagram: @mutha.life

Produced by: Mutha Life, Music by: Ronen Landa

We're going back into the archive for this one: and the timing feels right. When I sat down with Chris Gayomali - when the pod was a baby, EPISODE 4 - in the fall of 2024, he was freelancing, deep in his Muay Thai era, and raising a toddler in New York City who was already turning his nose up at cruise ship pizza. He was also building serious momentum with Heavies, his much loved Substack about the practical and occasionally bizarre sides of health and wellness.

Since then: he's become Head of Editorial at SSENSE (elite cool kid status), a Strategist at Office of Applied Strategy (the in-the-know cool kids tap these cool kids), and has a limited series podcast dropping with Kaleidoscope in May.

In this conversation we get into his completely accidental journalism career - from editing insurance reports in Irvine to nine years at GQ via a bowl of rice posted on Instagram - what it actually looks like to be a present, involved millennial dad when there's no real template for it, the myth of 50/50 in parenting labor, a near-miss health scare that rewired his entire relationship to his body, and the particular absurdity of raising a kid in New York City.

Smart, funny, and genuinely one of my favorites.

Full show notes with alll the links: muthalife.substack.com

Instagram: @mutha.life

Produced by: Mutha Life, Music by: Ronen Landa