January isn’t a fresh start if you’re already running on fumes from making everyone else’s holidays magical. In this episode of MissPerceived, Leah unpacks why so many women swing from December over-giving straight into “new year, new me” overachieving—launching businesses, overhauling their bodies, and rewriting their whole lives before February even hits.​

She breaks down the mental load hangover, why perfectionist resolutions backfire, and how to set goals that are actually aligned with your values, your energy, and your real life. You’ll hear why you don’t need to shrink, hustle, or “upgrade” yourself to deserve rest, and how to enter 2026 from a place of “I’m already enough” instead of “I am the project.”​​

If you’re tired of vision boards, bingo-card resolutions, and self-improvement that feels like self-punishment, this one’s your permission slip to do less, eat carbs, and build a life that expands you instead of drains you.

Follow Leah: @prof.leahruppanner

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Feeling like you have to declutter the entire house, redesign your space, and fix consumerism itself… all before the tree is even down? This episode breaks down the post-holiday “mental load hangover” and explains why the pressure to create and then undo all the holiday magic is not a personal failing, but part of the eight types of mental load described in Leah’s upcoming book, Drained. Leah dives into magic making, gendered expectations around home and mess, and why your cortisol spikes when your space is chaotic, then offers a way to audit your mental load so you can spend your energy more strategically and give yourself some grace this season.​

Follow Leah: @prof.leahruppanner

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Did women suddenly lose their ambition—or did the 2025 Lean In & McKinsey “Women in the Workplace” report give everyone the wrong story about what’s actually going on? In this episode, Professor Leah takes a blowtorch to the idea of a so‑called “ambition gap,” arguing that the real problem isn’t women’s drive, it’s burnout, mental load, and structural barriers at work and at home. Leah breaks down why women, who now earn more degrees and participate in the workforce at historically high rates, can still look at the next promotion and think “I literally cannot carry one more thing,” while men are socially rewarded for chasing the top job.

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You’ll learn:

• How stats about “wanting a promotion” are being misused to claim women are less ambitious than men—and why that’s a myth.

• The role of mental load, caregiving expectations, and workplace bias in draining women’s capacity long before ambition ever disappears.

• Why reframing this as a burnout and structural problem—not a confidence or personality flaw—is key to closing gender gaps in leadership.

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If you’ve ever been told you’re “not ambitious enough” while simultaneously doing everything for everyone, this episode is your permission slip to call bullshit—and to start imagining a version of success that doesn’t require you to disappear to achieve it. Keywords: women in the workplace, ambition gap, Lean In report, McKinsey, burnout, mental load, working moms, gender bias, promotions, women’s careers.

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Follow Leah: @prof.leahruppanner

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Is the clutter in your home actually messing with your health—or are you just “too sensitive”? In this episode of Misperceived, Professor Leah Ruppaner breaks down the science on clutter, stress, and the mental load, including a landmark UCLA study showing that women who describe their homes as cluttered and unfinished have elevated cortisol patterns across the day, while men in the same homes don’t show the same spike. Leah unpacks why a messy house hits women harder, how invisible labor and constant “noticing” turn piles of stuff into a 24/7 to‑do list, and why you are not the problem for feeling overwhelmed by dishes, laundry, and half‑done projects.

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You’ll learn:

• How clutter, disorganization, and “unfinished” spaces are linked to women’s cortisol, mood, and long‑term health.
• Why gendered expectations around housework and presentation of the home make women feel personally judged by the mess, even when everyone lives in it.
• Practical ways to lower your mental load without turning yourself into the unpaid project manager of everyone else’s stuff—plus how to claim one restorative space that’s just for you.

Follow Leah: @prof.leahruppanner

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode of MissPerceived, Professor Leah unpacks what really happens when something goes wrong with your kids and the school, coach, or doctor has to pick up the phone: who do they call first, and why is it almost always mom? Drawing on new research from the Quarterly Journal of Economics and her own mental load interviews, Leah breaks down how schools and other institutions default to mothers as the family “911 call center,” even when parents explicitly ask them to call dad instead. She explains how this constant correspondence quietly reshapes women’s careers, health, and relationships, and offers practical ways dads, schools, and couples can push back on these norms so the burden is shared more fairly at home

Follow Leah: @prof.leahruppanner

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Why do college besties hit different from every other friendship you’ve had since? In this episode of Misperceived, Prof Leah breaks down what makes university friendships so intense and enduring, weaving in research on brain development, “self‑authorship,” and how women use friendships to test ideas, build identity, and stay sane in a hostile world. She explains why that 3 a.m. pizza‑and‑life‑chat friend often becomes your lifelong go‑to for truth, comfort, and tough love—and why those bonds set an almost impossibly high bar for adult friendships that get squeezed into work, school pick‑ups, and spin class. This episode doubles as a love letter to your uni bestie and an invitation to notice (and nurture) the people who have walked with you through your biggest growth spurts, even if they didn’t happen on a beach campus with epic house parties.

Follow Leah: @prof.leahruppanner

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

When does keeping your kids safe turn into quietly wrecking their chances to grow up? In this episode, Prof Leah unpacks teen dating—covenants, text surveillance, and all—and asks what happens when parents’ fear of the future swallows their kids’ present. Drawing on her research on the mental load (and her forthcoming book Drained), she connects helicopter parenting, constant digital surveillance, and perfection pressure to teens’ isolation, anxiety, and lack of room to fail, urging parents to back off, drop the impossible standards, and let kids be gloriously imperfect humans.

Follow Leah: @prof.leahruppanner

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ever feel like your day is just one “Are you kidding me?” moment after another? This week, Prof. Leah breaks down why some meetings should be illegal, how flat tires seem to know when you’re at your limit, and why venting to your best friend might actually be the healthiest thing you can do after a week of emotional overload . Drawing on new research from the Journal of Adolescent Health, we look at how teens—and adults—really cope with stress, and why texting a trusted friend trumps doomscrolling or actually sitting with your feelings (no judgment if you still want that bath and a glass of wine) .

Follow Leah: @prof.leahruppanner

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this episode of MissPerceived, Leah flips the script on the mental load, shifting focus from mothers to the evolving experience of dads. Drawing from new research and hundreds of interviews across the US and Australia, Leah unpacks how modern fathers are navigating emotional thinking work-what she calls the “mental load logics”-while managing family, work, and parenting standards that have changed almost overnight. From comparing themselves to their own fathers (as anti-models or “good, but I can do better”) to wrestling with gendered expectations in their partnerships, today’s dads face a cognitive challenge that’s often overlooked. Leah explores the concept of metaparenting, the self-reflective work of deciding who you want to be as a parent in a society with few clear role models for engaged fatherhood.

Follow Leah: @prof.leahruppanner

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this episode, Professor Leah dives into new research revealing why high-powered, high-earning mothers still can’t shake their mental load—no matter how much money, help, or flexibility they gain. Discover the difference between core and episodic mental load, why domestic cognitive labor sticks to women regardless of income or status, and how “gender stickiness” explains persistent burnout among mothers. With insights from over 2,000 parents and fresh findings on fatherhood, this episode gives a validating look into why women can outsource chores but not the relentless task of organizing, remembering, and anticipating every detail of family life.

Follow Leah: @prof.leahruppanner

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.