In this deeply honest and timely conversation, Kari and Lisa sit down with gender diversity therapist, parent coach, and AFFIRM Coaching Program founder Rachel Hulstein-Lowe to talk about allyship, LGBTQ+ advocacy, parenting gender-diverse youth, and the emotional realities families are navigating in today’s polarized climate. Together, they explore what meaningful allyship actually looks like beyond performative support, the emotional cost of silence and passivity, how affirmation impacts a child’s nervous system and sense of safety, and what parents can do when they feel scared, uncertain, or overwhelmed. Rachel shares insight from more than twenty years as a licensed therapist, along with her personal journey of stepping more boldly into her voice in midlife, helping listeners understand how to move from anxious parenting to empowered connection. This episode is a compassionate, nuanced conversation about identity, emotional safety, LGBTQ+ youth, parenting transgender and gender-diverse children, and what it means to truly show up for the people we love in real life.

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And if you are craving deeper conversations, meaningful connection, and space to reconnect with yourself, we would love to invite you to join us for the Best Chapter Yet Fall Retreat 2026, happening September 18 through 20 in Portland, Oregon. This year’s retreat, YOUnique & Amazing, is designed for women who are ready to trust themselves more deeply, stop shrinking to fit expectations, and step more fully into the life that feels true to them. We will gather for a weekend of honest conversation, reflection, laughter, connection, and growth in a beautiful retreat setting in Portland’s Mississippi District. You can learn more here: Best Chapter Yet Fall Retreat 2026

It's a strange moment to be talking about imposter syndrome when so many of the people running things appear utterly unburdened by self-doubt. In this episode, Kari and Lisa are joined by returning guest Charlotte Callahan — songwriter, actor, performer, and frontwoman of the all-female band The Deffades, back from the Season 2 fan favorite Barbie in the Real World. Together they dig into the research behind imposter syndrome, the confidence-gap data that will make your jaw drop, and why Girls Who Code founder Reshma Saujani argues it's not a syndrome at all. It's a scheme. If imposter syndrome were cured by qualifications, most women would already be immune. Instead, many are still questioning themselves while watching audacity get rewarded as if it were expertise. If you've ever wondered whether you belong in the room, this conversation may leave you asking a different question entirely.

If this episode lands for you, you might be ready for a room full of women who get it. Join Kari and Lisa at the Best Chapter Yet Retreat, September 18–20 in Portland, Oregon, for two and a half days of connection, reflection, laughter, and the chance to spend time with women who are done shrinking themselves to make everyone else comfortable. Details and registration at [link].

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In this episode of The Things We Know, Kari Morin and Lisa Callahan make the case that fun isn't something you earn after you've crossed everything off the list — it's a genuine biological need, and the science backs them up. Drawing on the research of Dr. Stuart Brown, founder of the National Institute for Play, and author Cyndie Spiegel's concept of microjoys, Kari and Lisa explore what actually happens to women who lose their relationship with play, why high-achieving women are especially vulnerable to fun deprivation, and how to find your way back even when the muscle feels completely gone.

They explore:

• What play deprivation actually looks like — and why it's not a character flaw

• The science that makes joy a requirement, not a luxury

• Why microjoys are always available even when life is heavy

• How to reclaim fun when you can't remember what you'd even enjoy anymore

If you've been serious and responsible and available to everyone around you for a very long time — this is your permission slip.

And since Kari and Lisa talk about how joy is better shared, join them at the Best Chapter Yet Fall Retreat, September 18–20 in Portland, Oregon — two and a half days to exhale and remember what it feels like to be in your own life lightly. Spots are filling — grab yours here.

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In this episode, we sit down with Maureen Cooper — better known as Coach Mo — a healthy lifestyle and weight loss coach who helps professional women get out of survival mode and back in sync with their bodies.

In this episode of The Things We Know, Kari and Lisa unpack a phrase they've both been saying more often lately — "I'm too old for that" — and ask what it actually means. Drawing on Ashton Applewhite's TED Talk on ageism, they explore how much of what women experience as "getting older" is learned cultural conditioning rather than anything inevitable. Then they get specific: naming what they're genuinely done with, and refusing the idea that desire, ambition, reinvention, and visibility have an expiration date.

In this episode, Kari and Lisa talk about:

• Why ageism — not aging itself — is what makes getting older hard

• How women are taught to edit themselves before life actually requires it

• What they're done with: people pleasing, performing, overriding their gut, staying in relationships out of habit

• Why reinvention, risk, and wanting more aren't just for younger people

• What gets clearer, easier, and more honest as you get older

• The difference between what you've outgrown and what you've been told to give up

Featured resource: Ashton Applewhite, Let's End Ageism (TED Talk) https://www.ted.com/talks/ashton_applewhite_let_s_end_ageism

In this episode of The Things We Know, Kari and Lisa sit down with Angela Burk, author of Real Girls Guide to Midlife, for a conversation that doesn't try to tidy midlife into a transformation story. What they got instead was something more honest — and more useful. Angela writes and speaks about what midlife actually looks like: the identity shifts, the relationship reckonings, the body changes, the inherited stories about money and power, and the quiet grief of letting go of who you used to be. This one landed for both of them as recognition, not just agreement.

In this episode, Kari, Lisa, and Angela talk about:

• Why midlife feels like everything shifting at once — not one single change

• The grief of releasing past versions of yourself and why it's harder than anyone says

• What happens to relationships, partnerships, and desire in this season

• Menopause, body trust, and reclaiming pleasure on your own terms

• The money and power stories women inherited — and what shifts when they question them

• What sovereignty actually means and what it looks like to build a life on your own terms

• Solo aging, chosen family, and moving from fear of being alone to something more expansive

About Angela Burk: Angela Burk is an award-winning marketing strategist, mother of three, bonus mom to four, and author of Real Girls Guide to Midlife. She splits her time between California and Australia and writes about the real experience of midlife — without the polish, without the rush to reframe everything as positive, and without the pressure to handle it all quietly.

To learn more about Angela and her book, start here: https://www.realgirlsguide.com/

In this episode of The Things We Know, Kari and Lisa talk with Los Angeles divorce attorney Sarah Intelligator about what actually causes relationships and marriages to break down over time and what people often miss in the early stages of dating and partnership.

After nearly two decades practicing family law, Sarah has seen recurring relationship patterns emerge in couples navigating divorce. She shares the most common warning signs of unhealthy relationships, why people ignore red flags, what keeps women stuck in unhappy partnerships, and how to rebuild trust in yourself after divorce or heartbreak.

The conversation explores:

• Early signs a relationship is becoming unhealthy

• Why women override their instincts in dating and marriage

• Common patterns that lead to divorce

• Emotional disconnection in long term relationships

• How to stop repeating relationship patterns

• Dating after divorce or heartbreak

• The difference between chemistry and compatibility

• What healthy relationships actually require over time

Sarah also discusses the “F-Words” she sees repeatedly in failing relationships and how greater self-awareness can help people make healthier relationship choices before reaching a breaking point.

If you are questioning a relationship, recovering from divorce, navigating dating after heartbreak, or trying to build a healthier partnership, this episode offers practical insight and honest perspective from someone who has seen what happens when relationships succeed and when they fall apart.

To purchase Sarah's book Live, Laugh, Find True Love: A Step-by-Step Guide to Finding a Meaningful Relationship

https://a.co/d/877FJss

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Join Lisa and Kari at the Best Chapter Yet Fall Retreat, September 18–20 in Portland, Oregon. It's two and a half days to exhale, reconnect, and be reminded that your best chapter is still ahead. Spots are filling — learn more and reserve yours here: bestchapteryetfall2026

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In this episode of The Things We Know, Kari Morin and Lisa Callahan talk honestly about how relationships evolve over time — beyond the early butterflies and beyond the breaking points — into something quieter, deeper, and often more meaningful than we expected.

They explore:

• Why relationships can feel different even when nothing is "wrong"

• The slow emotional drift that can happen in long-term partnerships

• How to stay connected when life, stress, and identity changes shift the dynamic

• The grief of losing earlier versions of your relationship

• What it actually means to keep choosing your partner over time

You'll hear a grounded conversation about the small, daily moments that build real connection, and why love that shows up in patterns, consistency, and ordinary life may be the most lasting kind there is.

If your relationship feels like it's changing, if you're feeling some distance, or if you've wondered — Is this still good? Is this what love is supposed to become? — this episode offers reassurance, perspective, and a more honest definition of long-term love.

The cohosts also talk about why no partner can be everything, and how strong friendships — especially with other women who truly understand you — can strengthen your relationship rather than compete with it.

If you're craving that kind of connection, join Lisa and Kari at the Best Chapter Yet Fall Retreat, September 18–20 in Portland, Oregon. It's two and a half days to exhale, reconnect, and be reminded that your best chapter is still ahead. Spots are filling — learn more and reserve yours here: bestchapteryetfall2026

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