Better with Daffnee & Torri

Content note: this episode includes a frank discussion of sexual assault. Daffnee and Torri start with a lighter detour into witchy intuition, magical thinking, and the mystery of why every hotel room has a Bible. Then they turn to the conversation they say they could not skip: the Cornell case that has everyone talking, and what it stirs up for women who lived through party college culture. They get into Greek life, mob mentality, why women still pay the price for speaking up, and the questions every incoming student and parent should ask before choosing a school. It is angry, it is raw, and it is a reminder that when it comes to this, we really are all Jane Doe.

Recommended LINKS:

• Better with Daffnee podcast homepage: https://www.daffneecohen.com/podcast/

• Connect on Instagram: @Daffnee

• Learn more at and get tons of freebies at daffneecohen.com

• If this episode brings anything up for you, support is available through RAINN at rainn.org or the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 800.656.4673

What We're Reading:

• No regular book chat this week, but Daffnee mentions Know My Name by Chanel Miller, a memoir by the survivor in the Brock Turner case. It has been on her list for a while, and she says it should be mandatory reading for every guy, though she is not sure she can get through it herself.

Daffnee and Torri open with the kind of sibling story that makes you wince and laugh at the same time. Old grudges, old fights, the ones you never quite let go of. Then they get into the real conversation: what forgiveness actually means, and where the line is between forgiving someone and letting them back in.

Daffnee shares an incredibly personal story about a years-long estrangement from a parent, what it took to finally reopen that door, and why forgiveness didn't mean going back to how things were before. They talk about grace, boundaries, generational patterns, and the difference between accepting someone as they are versus excusing behavior that hurts you. It's one of the more vulnerable conversations they've had, and it might change how you think about the people in your own life you haven't forgiven yet.

Recommended LINKS:

• Better with Daffnee podcast homepage: https://www.daffneecohen.com/podcast/

• Connect on Instagram: @Daffnee

• Learn more at and get tons of freebies at daffneecohen.com

What We're Reading:

• Daffnee's pick: The Woman in Cabin Ten and its follow up, The Woman in Suite Eleven, both by Ruth Ware. Twisty psychological thrillers, the second one a $0.50 Goodwill find she gave four stars.

• Torri's pick: Still mid Crescent City as she works through the series ahead of new releases. She also recommends the movie Rams, a quiet drama about two estranged brothers who farm sheep, which ties right back into the episode's theme.

Daffnee takes us back to her rock bottom: a stretch this year where she was so consumed by her business that she'd drafted her resignation and updated her resume, despite fifteen years of building the thing herself. What pulled her out was a mantra she now repeats every day, and it completely rewired how she runs her business, shows up in her marriage, and handles rejection in sales. She and Torri get into what real detachment actually looks like (hint: it's not the same as not caring), why perfectionism was quietly making them both miserable, and how learning to walk away from the wrong clients, the wrong energy, and the wrong outcomes changed everything for the better.

Recommended LINKS:

• Better with Daffnee podcast homepage: https://www.daffneecohen.com/podcast/

• Connect on Instagram: @Daffnee

• Learn more at and get tons of freebies at daffneecohen.com

What We're Reading:

• Daffnee's pick:

• Local Woman Missing by Mary Kubica: A new favorite thriller author she's calling more elevated than Freida McFadden, with writing quality that kept her up past midnight.

• Torri's picks:

• Gallant; atmospheric and spooky, though the ending fell short for her (three stars).

• She's also mid-reread of the A Court of Thorns and Roses series ahead of two new releases this fall, plus recommends Agatha Christie and Tana French for anyone wanting something more literary in the thriller/mystery space.

Torri's down to her last drinking friend (RIP, she's pregnant now), and it's got her and Daffnee spiraling into a much bigger conversation about alcohol. They trace their drinking history all the way back to their first sips (Daffnee's Mexican household where a Corona at dinner was normal, Torri's Wisconsin upbringing where getting a DUI barely raises an eyebrow), through the reckless college years, the family patterns that shaped how they drink now, and the health reasons that eventually changed everything for both of them. They get real about sober curiosity, what it's like loving someone who can't drink safely, mocktails (Torri has opinions), and how to actually celebrate a big moment when the champagne isn't on the table anymore. Funny, honest, and probably going to make you think differently about your own next round.

Recommended LINKS:

• Better with Daffnee podcast homepage: https://www.daffneecohen.com/podcast/

• Connect on Instagram: @Daffnee

• Learn more at and get tons of freebies at daffneecohen.com

In-laws: you don't choose them, you just survive them. OR, if you're super lucky, you absolutely love them, and we love that for you. Daffnee and Torri are getting brutally honest about the family dynamics, as they dive into the boundaries, the guilt trips, the performative grandparents, and the moment you realize "she's family, that's just how she is" doesn't actually cut it anymore. It's messy, it's real, and if you've ever bitten your tongue at a holiday dinner, this one's for you.

Recommended LINKS:

• Better with Daffnee podcast homepage: https://www.daffneecohen.com/podcast/

• Connect on Instagram: @Daffnee

• Learn more at and get tons of freebies at daffneecohen.com

What We're Reading:

• Daffnee's pick:

• Finally finished A Fine Balance and is calling it a book with real, true depth, one she won't stop thinking about.

• She also started a new Colleen Hoover book purely for the mindless escape, and is not shy about it: not a recommendation, "bad writing," pure junk food reading. (For the record, Verity remains the one Hoover book she'll defend.)

• Torri's pick:

• Currently two hours into the eighteen-hour audiobook of The Most Fun We Ever Had which is Daffnee's earlier recommendation, and she's already hooked on the sibling dynamics between the four sisters.

Part two picks up right where the woo-woo left off. Daffnee and Torri crack open their actual supplement stacks! They get into why creatine isn't optional for women anymore, the supplement industry's regulation problem (and why "not regulated" cuts both ways), and the difference between taking something because you actually care how it affects your body versus taking it because an influencer told you to. Then it's on to wearables: Aura Rings, Fitbits, sleep scores, and the very real line between helpful data and health anxiety, including an honest conversation about orthorexia and what it actually looks like to raise kids with a healthy relationship to food and their bodies. And yes, they finally get to the receipt paper.

Recommended LINKS:

• Better with Daffnee podcast homepage: https://www.daffneecohen.com/podcast/

• Connect on Instagram: @Daffnee

• Learn more at and get tons of freebies at daffneecohen.com

What We're Reading:

• Daffnee's pick: Still deep in A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry: the saga continues.

• Torri's update: No new book this week. Hey, drop your recos in the comments: what should Daffnee and Torri read next? Bonus points for something long.

Daffnee and Torri are getting into the full, unfiltered world of integrated and holistic health: supplements, saunas, sixty-dollar mushroom hot chocolate that tastes like garbage, and the wellness purchases that were worth every penny versus the ones currently rotting in the pantry. Daffnee rates herself a 92 out of 10 on the woo-woo scale (no, that's not a typo), and they're not holding back on the credential-less internet grifters who fear-monger vulnerable people into buying whatever they're selling. Real talk on who to actually trust, why "listen to your body" is backed by more science than you think, and why the receipt-paper panic is the least of your worries. Part one of two, you are not ready for part two.

Recommended LINKS:

• Better with Daffnee podcast homepage: https://www.daffneecohen.com/podcast/

• Connect on Instagram: @Daffnee

• Learn more at and get tons of freebies at daffneecohen.com

What We're Reading:

• Daffnee's pick:

• A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry — still going, nearly finished (it's a long one), and still getting the highest possible praise. She's noticed it popping up more on book accounts lately and is thrilled to see a non-trendy favorite finally getting its flowers.

• Torri's pick:

• A Court of Thorns and Roses (final book in her re-read) plus a new one: The Correspondent — a novel told through letters from an aging former attorney's assistant, following her complicated relationships with family and a younger friend as she ages. Torri calls it beautiful and says she cannot recommend it enough.

Trust us, we have marriage all figured out…. Daffnee and Torri are diving headfirst into the wild, unfiltered reality of marriage as a millennial: what it actually looks like ten-plus years in versus what you thought it would be at 25. They get real about why "let me check with my spouse" is not the controlling red flag your single friends think it is, whether marriage is actually overrated or just misunderstood, and the exact moment you walk in the door and can feel your partner's mood before they say a word. Plus, they name the specific brand of grumpy, huffy, silent-treatment energy every husband seems to get when he's stressed but won't say why (you'll know it when you hear it). One of Daffnee's personal favorites. Buckle up.

Recommended LINKS:

• Better with Daffnee podcast homepage: https://www.daffneecohen.com/podcast/

• Connect on Instagram: @Daffnee

• Learn more at and get tons of freebies at daffneecohen.com

What We're Reading:

• Daffnee's pick:

• A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry — a 600-plus-page deep dive into life in India during a chaotic era, discovered through a book influencer. Daffnee says it's the kind of hidden-gem, non-trendy read that asks something of you, and she's fully immersed.

• Torri's pick:

• A Court of Thorns and Roses (re-read, book four) — her self-declared "book junk food" era. Poolside, no shame, plowing through the series again because, in her words, she has Swiss cheese brain, so it's basically a new book every time.

• Bonus reco: Salman Rushdie — prompted by Daffnee's Fine Balance pick, Torri throws in a highly-recommended nod to Rushdie's work for anyone wanting to go even deeper into literary fiction.

Daffnee and Torri are back after an unplanned hiatus, and this episode is different from anything they've done before. Torri opens up about the five weeks that upended her life: her husband Charlie's sudden collapse, a terrifying hospital stay, an ulcerative colitis diagnosis, and a healthcare system that repeatedly failed to listen until things got dangerous. She talks about what it means to be the person someone relies on, the support that actually helped versus the comments that made things so much worse, and how she kept herself standing through it. It's raw, it's real, and it might be exactly what someone going through something similar needs to hear. They close things out with a couple of book recommendations, because even in the hardest weeks, the reading never really stops.

Recommended LINKS:

• Better with Daffnee podcast homepage: https://www.daffneecohen.com/podcast/

• Connect on Instagram: @Daffnee

• Learn more at and get tons of freebies at daffneecohen.com

What We're Reading:

• Torri's pick:

• Yesteryear — a book club read about an Instagram-famous, wealthy tradwife who gets sent back in time and has to actually live the aesthetic she's been selling.

• Culpability — a family road trip gone wrong involving an AI-assisted car, and a very timely gut-punch of a question: when the car is driving, who's actually to blame?

• Daffnee's pick:

• The Divorce by Freida McFadden — maybe not McFadden's best, but exactly what you want from her: unputdownable, twisty, and you will not see the ending coming.

• The Most Fun We Ever Had by Claire Lombardo — a Reese's Book Club pick following one family, four kids, and all of their beautifully messy secrets. Daffnee's verdict: confusing for the first twenty pages, then a total gut-and-heart read. Think This Is Us, but a book.

Content warning: this episode includes a personal account of sexual assault.

Most of us can pinpoint the exact moment we stopped feeling at home in our bodies and it's almost never about weight. Daffnee shares when she first became "aware of her body," and it reframes the entire conversation about why so many women grew up shrinking themselves. From looksmaxing in 2026 to Weight Watchers at 12, this episode goes deep on body image, where it actually comes from, and what it costs us. Daffnee and Torri also get honest about where they are right now: the peace, the progress, and the Greek yogurt they almost felt guilty eating. Plus, how they're talking to their kids about bodies differently and why it matters more than we think. This one's personal. Hit play.

Recommended LINKS:

• If anything in this episode brought something up for you, you're not alone and you don't have to sit with it by yourself. RAINN's hotline is available 24/7 at 1-800-656-4673 or rainn.org. You can also text HOME to 741741 to reach the Crisis Text Line.

• Better with Daffnee podcast homepage: https://www.daffneecohen.com/podcast/

• Connect on Instagram: @Daffnee

• Learn more at and get tons of freebies at daffneecohen.com