Living Understaffed

We’re Back, Barely Supervised & Emotionally Questionable

What do a divorce tiara, 20,000 unorganized photos, therapist-sanctioned emotional accountability, sleep deprivation, and a man writing an extremely questionable rap song have in common?

Apparently, this episode.

After an unofficial break and one aggressively chaotic summer, Sarah and Erika are finally back behind the microphones. And naturally, they’re easing back in with From Moments to FOREVER, digital estate reminders, Erika’s finalized divorce, self-destructive coping habits, friendship accountability, dating disasters, and the deeply rude realization that your therapist may, unfortunately, be correct.

Question of the episode: What happens when your friends love you enough to call you out, but you’re still emotionally committed to being a problem?

In this episode, Sarah and Erika catch up on what happened while they were gone, why they missed podcasting, and what it looks like to return when life still very much has its foot on your neck. They talk about avoidance, burnout, sleep, stress, healing that refuses to happen on a convenient timeline, and why being in your 30s means your self-destructive choices now come with consequences and probably lower back pain.

They also get into dating after divorce, listening to your gut, the horrors of “we can just cuddle,” and the secondhand embarrassment of a love song that should have maybe stayed in the drafts.

It’s messy. It’s honest. It’s funny in the way only emotional damage with a microphone can be.

Heavy? A little.

Unhinged? Respectfully, yes.

Understaffed? Always.

👉 Subscribe for new episodes full of sarcasm, storytime, and solidarity.

Linktree: https://linktr.ee/understaffedpod

🚨 #HurtFeelingsAlert 🚨. . . . .Like … legitimately. We warned you.

This week on Living Understaffed, Sarah, Erika & special guest Lilli Bewley (links below!) sit down to unpack attachment styles, hyper-independence, emotional safety, healing patterns, and why being “self-aware” does not automatically mean you’re healed. Unfortunately. 😌

Sarah discovers that interrogating men on first dates might be a trauma response.

Erika realizes she may not actually know what her needs are.

And Lilli lovingly drags both of them into the emotional deep end with sentences like:

“If you don’t get attached, you don’t get hurt.”

Cool cool cool. Love that for us.

This episode covers:

💔 Why smart women still end up in painful dating cycles

🧠 Hyper-independence as a trauma response

🚩 The difference between standards and self-protection

😬 Why you keep attracting emotionally unavailable people

🪞 The horrifying realization that the patterns outside of you might reflect what’s happening inside of you

✨ And what emotional safety actually looks like in dating

There are moments in this episode where Sarah fully contemplates swearing off men forever, Erika gets spiritually read for filth by the “Chill Woman” archetype, and both hosts realize they may have been trying to “logic” their way out of vulnerability this entire time.

Also featuring:

• Sarah preparing for a blind date immediately after recording this emotional damage session

• Discussions of trash men, ghosting yourself, and “dump trucks of a personality”

• Mushroom coffee, hormone supplements, and two women aggressively trying to hold it together

• A huge shoutout to Kayla for connecting us with Lilli and setting this beautifully chaotic emotional intervention into motion 💛

If you’ve ever said: “I’ve done the work… so why is dating still like this?”

Yeah. This episode is for you.

🎧 Listen now before we all delete the apps again: https://linktr.ee/understaffedpod

Huge thank you again to Lilli Bewley for joining us and lovingly reading us for filth. If you want to dive deeper into the Feminine Dating Archetypes, healing patterns, emotional safety, and all the things that made us pause this recording to stare into the void for a minute… go check out her website and sign up for one of her masterclasses.

Honestly? We’re signing up too. Begrudgingly. 💀

✨ Find Lilli Bewley here:

Website: https://www.DatingArchetype.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lillibewley

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lillibewley

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lillibewley

YouTube: https://www.YouTube.com/@lillibewley

Welcome back to Living Understaffed—where the men are questionable, the boundaries are in progress, and somehow… we still circle back for more.

This week kicks off with the usual chaos:

💼 New supervisor energy (tense)

📱 Tinder being a lawless wasteland (as expected)

🚩 Men self-eliminating faster than we can say “absolutely not”

From hospital-bed selfies to 5AM audacity, Sarah & Erika recap a week that proves dating in 2026 is less “rom-com” and more “psychological thriller.”

But then… Sarah decided growth was necessary. (We’re still processing that decision.)

• Ignoring red flags like they’re cute personality traits
• Letting things slide… and then realizing why we had standards in the first place
• The emotional gymnastics of “I’m fine” vs. actually not being fine
• Why being alone feels terrifying… but settling feels worse
• Therapy casually dragging us by the roots (again)

1. What am I pretending not to know?
2. What part of me am I ashamed to show?
3. Who do I keep forgiving just to avoid being alone?
4. What am I tolerating that I shouldn't be?
5. Where are you betraying yourself?
6. What version of me did I create to be loved?
7. What am I afraid would happen if I truly chose myself?
8. What am I holding onto that's already gone?
9. Where am I shrinking to make others comfortable?
10. What would I do if I trusted myself?

This episode is for anyone who:

• Knows better… and still double texts
• Wants love but refuses to tolerate nonsense (growth? maybe?)
• Has ever read a question and immediately thought, “wow, I’m going to ignore that”

🎧 Press play if you’re ready to laugh, spiral, and maybe… accidentally become self-aware.

Check our Linktree for the usual: From Moments to Forever, Primal Queen, Everyday Dose & the Good Boy Special. You know you're curious, remember Mother's Day is coming and graduation/wedding season. Lots of gifts available across the board for your friends and family.

<3 Without you, we would be podding into the void.

https://linktr.ee/understaffedpod

Is there a therapist in the crowd… or are we all just going to unpack this together in real time? 😅

This episode? Yeah… this one hurt.

Sarah finally tells Erika the full story of Married Guy #5 (also known as Dopamine Doolittle), and let’s just say… the math is not mathing, the timeline is suspicious, and the audacity is fully clocked in.

What started as a few days of easy conversation, attraction, and “maybe this could be something” quickly spirals into a reality check that hits a little too close to home. Because nothing quite compares to finding out after the fact that someone took away your ability to make an informed decision. Cool. Love that for us.

We get into:

💔 The emotional whiplash of feeling something real… and then realizing it wasn’t built on truth

🧠 Why “I couldn’t resist you” is not the romantic statement some men think it is

🚩 Love-bombing, over-apologizing, and the fine line between guilt and accountability

🔥 The pattern of attracting unavailable men (and what the hell to do about it)

🖤 Owning your feelings without letting someone else’s actions define your worth

There’s sarcasm. There’s anger. There’s a little bit of “am I the problem?” and a lot of “no actually… I’m not.”

Because at the end of the day, this isn’t just about Married Guy #5.

It’s about boundaries.

It’s about self-respect.

And it’s about choosing yourself… even when it would be easier not to.

Listen now before we spiral again. 🚨🎧 #LivingUnderstaffed #DatingFails #EmotionalDamage #UnderpaidAndOverIt

Shoutout + credit to Joao Nogueira for the video on good women. You get it.

Linktree: https://linktr.ee/understaffedpod

This episode contains discussions of domestic abuse, coercive control, trauma, infertility, and mental health. Listener discretion advised. Please take care of yourself while listening. 💛

This week on Living Understaffed, Sarah & Erika sit down with indie romance author Elle Sparrow—professional heart-wrencher, emotional damage dealer (in the best way), and the woman behind stories that don’t just flirt with darkness… they unpack it, heal it, and hand it back with consent and communication.

From pandemic plot twists to publishing 20 books in 5 years, Elle takes us behind the scenes of building an indie author empire fueled by spice, storytelling, and a refusal to romanticize harmful dynamics.

But this episode? It goes deeper.

We talk about:

• What it actually means to survive and rebuild after abuse
• The difference between toxic fantasy vs. healthy power dynamics
• Why representation in romance matters (and where it’s been getting it wrong 👀)
• The emotional reality of healing, identity loss, and learning to trust yourself again
• And yes… the dating-show-style interrogation she puts her characters through before writing them (honestly, we might start using these questions on real men)

Elle shares how she turned trauma into storytelling—not to sanitize it, but to validate it, and how her books create space for readers to feel seen without judgment.

Also featuring:

💀 Sarah surviving Vegas, illness, and capitalism

🫠 Erika navigating divorce, adulthood, and sourdough as a coping mechanism

🔥 And all of us collectively realizing… we may have been accepting the bare minimum for YEARS

If you’ve ever questioned your instincts, your relationships, or your worth—this one’s going to hit.

👉 Buckle up. This episode is equal parts healing, horny book talk, and emotional damage control.

Visit Elle's website for her latest info, newsletter and upcoming events - and obviously, her books! Go support this amazing human: www.ellesparrow.com

Per usual... Check out our Linktree to support the pod, laugh (and probably cry) with/at us, and check out the latest shenanigans we've gotten ourselves into: https://linktr.ee/understaffedpod

🎙️ Episode 57: Duels, Drama & Doing the Absolute Most

After 3 weeks off the grid, Sarah & Erika are BACK and somehow still alive, employed, and only mildly unhinged.

👉 Erika is in her self-care comeback era (lashes done, life pending 💅)

👉 Sarah is casually working 120-hour pay periods like burnout is a personality trait

👉 The photo booth business is picking up… so if anyone can clone us, now’s your moment

Julie d’Aubigny (La Maupin) — the 1700s icon who made chaos a full-time job:

• Opera star by 17 🎶
• Dueled men regularly… and WON ⚔️
• Kissed a woman at a royal ball → fought 3 men → beat them all
• Broke her girlfriend out of a convent (allegedly set it on fire, as one does)
• Got paid ~$450K to leave a man alone and said “absolutely not”
• 
  

Yes, this is a real person. Yes, her life was a fever dream.

We also get into burnout, emotional chaos, and that RUDE poem about giving your body more than getting flowers (you’ve been warned).

The Real Life of Julie d’Aubigny – Kelly Gardiner - For when you need proof that your life is actually pretty calm.

Amazon link: https://a.co/d/01fqzjOF

Listen now before we regret our life choices on-air. 🚨🎧 #LivingUnderstaffed #DatingFails #MovingMadness #UnderpaidAndOverIt

Link: https://linktr.ee/understaffedpod

Yes. We know. We’re 3 weeks late. Yes, Sarah has already broken her New Year’s resolutions twice. Yes, we are still here. And yes… we are still aggressively understaffed. We’re just doing our best. 🫡☕

This week’s episode is a chaotic, hilarious, unexpectedly heartfelt roundtable featuring a whole table full of indie authors we adore. What started as a creative retreat turned into one of the most honest conversations we’ve had in a while — about burnout, self-care (or lack thereof), neurodivergent brains trying to relax, creative pressure, and why women are historically terrible at doing literally anything for themselves. Somewhere between Ro-Mad-Libs, Cadbury Egg Creme trauma, and Bass Pro Shops chaos, we accidentally had a real conversation about what it actually looks like to survive creativity, adulthood, and capitalism at the same time.

We talk writing, retreats, friendship, healing, therapy breakthroughs, and why sometimes the most productive thing you can do is sit in a room with people who get it. It’s funny, it’s a little unhinged, and it’s one of those episodes that reminds us why we keep doing this podcast in the first place.

We’re spotlighting all of these incredible women for the next couple of weeks, and you can find ALL of their links in our Linktree so you can stalk them properly and support indie authors the way the algorithm refuses to. 📚🔥

👏🏼 Meg Becker – Spicy romance author, up and coming screenwriter

💫 Lindsey Hobson – Children’s books

➡️ Annie Lisenby – YA, romance, and adult fun books (like the game we played in this episode)

✍🏼 Maranda Collins – Action thriller author with strong, high-stakes storytelling

👀 Samantha Howell – Emerging YA post-apocalyptic writer

LINKTREE - https://linktr.ee/understaffedpod

Welcome back to Living Understaffed, where time isn’t real, everyone is dehydrated, and productivity is mostly a rumor. This week, Sarah & Erika are joined by indie author Eisley Rose for round two of beautiful chaos, and somehow we cover all of this in one episode:

🧠 ADHD side quests (cleaning one thing turns into reorganizing your entire life)

✈️ Planes, trains, automobiles, and storage units that cost more than rent

🍞 Sourdough starters with old-lady names

🐕 Dogs eating sweatpants and surviving purely on vibes

📚 Writing dystopian, action-packed, feminist-rage-fueled books that actually make you feel something

Eisley walks us through her Glitched series, a genre-bending dystopian saga featuring modern-day Spartans, secret civilizations, revenge arcs, mythology, romance, rage, and women who absolutely do not wait to be rescued. We talk writing process, rejection, self-publishing, playlists for fight scenes, accidental kink leaks, and why “say my name again” is the line. 🔥

Also discussed:

• Why writer’s block is fake (for Eisley, at least)

• Third-person POV supremacy

• Emotional damage as a literary device

• Men who want to be called “good boy” (unprompted)

• Why being direct isn’t being mean

• Darkness, light, and absolutely no compliment sandwiches

This episode is for anyone who’s ever felt understaffed, overstimulated, underestimated, or one minor inconvenience away from becoming a vigilante.

Listen now before we reorganize something unnecessarily and forget what we were doing in the first place. 💅📖🚨

Affiliate Shoutouts Because Capitalism Still Exists:

If you enjoyed this episode and want to support the pod without emotionally overextending yourself, check out our affiliates in the show notes. 🎧💸

Grab a $15 Instacart credit for your first order (because grocery stores are a sensory nightmare), stock up on things that make life easier, and help us keep the lights on, the mics hot, and Erika marginally hydrated.

As always, using our links helps support Living Understaffed at no extra cost to you—and we appreciate you more than our unfinished to-do lists appreciate us. ❤️

LINKTREE: https://linktr.ee/understaffedpod

Are you interested in the Good Boy Special???? Check out our Linktree for more information.

Here we go—Season 3 energy, fully unhinged, lightly reflective, and extremely on-brand. 🥂🎉

🎆 Happy New Year, you beautiful under- and over-achievers. 🎆

Living Understaffed is ready, baby—Season 3 starts NOW with Sarah & Erika doing what they do best: existing loudly, being wildly unprepared, and accidentally having deep conversations while absolutely not sticking to the plan.

Episode 54 kicks off 2026 with the girls recording together in Alabama (yes, really), fresh off antique treasure hunts, Barnes & Noble chaos, travel trauma, lost luggage grief, and one extremely unfortunate suitcase incident that involved missing journals, emotional damage, and—somehow—penises. So. Many. Penises. 🧳✈️💀 Why????

What starts as a casual New Year catch-up quickly spirals into:

• Goal setting (eventually… like 54 minutes in)
• What success actually looks like after two years of podcasting
• Being confident while also admitting we don’t know what the hell we’re doing
• Mental health, feminism, careers, kids (or not having them), and why anxiety is basically a personality trait
• Friendship > content creation (but also… pls like, share, and subscribe)
• Proof that “understaffed” is not a phase—it’s a lifestyle

This episode is part reflection, part chaos, part heartfelt reset—and a reminder that progress doesn’t have to be perfect to be real. We’re not experts, we’re just honest, tired, and still showing up. And honestly? That’s the vibe for 2026.

🥂 New year.

🎙️ New season.

🔥 Same understaffed nonsense.

Welcome to Season 3. We missed you.

Linktree: https://linktr.ee/understaffedpod

This week on Living Understaffed, Sarah & Erika sit down with Alan Mueller for a conversation that somehow manages to be inspiring, grounding, and still wildly unhinged (our brand). We’re talking burnout, leadership, community, hustle culture lies, and why rest is actually productive—even when your brain says otherwise. 😵‍💫

Alan shares how improv comedy intersects with leadership, adaptability, and executive presence, plus real-life lessons from solopreneur life that make building something of your own feel a little less terrifying. Honestly? He made Sarah’s many side hustles feel possible instead of daunting—and for that alone, we are grateful. 🙌

🎤 Also worth the hype: Alan’s TED Talk is a must-watch if you’re into leadership, presence, and not losing your soul to work. Truly inspiring human behavior.

📘 Get his NEW book:

Improv Comedy and the Art of Leadership

by Dr. Alan Mueller

✨ Want more Alan? Visit Adaptive Challenge Consulting to check out his services and work. [www.adaptivechallengeconsulting.com] Check out his socials also for the Etsy shop and travel agent biz. Listen... we're here for the hustle.

✨ Want more us? Head to our Linktree for all the things—including a $15 Instacart coupon for your first order, because feeding yourself matters. 🛒 [https://linktr.ee/understaffedpod]

Huge thanks to Alan for the inspiration, the wisdom, and the reminder that we might actually be doing okay. 🎧🔥