A solo catch-up that covers a lot of ground - and somehow ties it all together. Kari comes back to the mic after a few weeks of life coming at her fast: grief, strep throat, solo-parenting, a teacher strike scare, and a spring break in the wilds of North Tampa. This one's for the OGs.

Along the way: traveling with kids when one of them wakes up covered in vomit the morning of your flight, why letting your partner skip a trip might be the best thing for your marriage, the unexpected physical toll of a full-on kids' vacation, and what happens when you give a five-year-old just enough independence to surprise you.

Then things get cosmic. Artemis 2 launches and Kari goes full NASA fangirl - and makes a genuinely moving case for why the mission inspired adults as much as it did kids. Plus: the great kindergarten homework debate (spoiler: aftercare might be the answer), why Mahjong has become her secret weapon for connection, and a summer camp update for everyone who was worried.

Moon joy found. Earth joy incoming.

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

Instagram: @mutha.life

Produced by: Mutha Life, Music by: Ronen Landa

Today we are hanging out in the closet with Irene Lovett, an interior designer based in the San Fernando Valley and a first-generation Mexican-American who has built a career turning other people's spaces into a true reflection of who they are.

We follow Irene from a 997-square-foot childhood home in Sylmar - the daughter of immigrant parents, a restaurant worker dad and a housekeeper mom - all the way to running her own interior design business with her work being featured on Netflix's hit show, Nobody Wants This, HGTV, Good Housekeeping, the Wall Street Journal and more.

In this episode we get into it: the design trends people are actually asking for right now, the forever-charged debate of dog parenthood vs. human parenthood, and the very intentional decision to be a family of three while keeping the big family feeling. We also cover what it looks like to grow into your extroversion, with husband and creator of LA IN A MINUTE EVAN LOVETT by your side, how we could all benefit from making eye contact and smiling more on neighborhood walks, and…how maybe we all just need a pot of beans on the stove at all times.

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

Instagram: @mutha.life

Produced by: Mutha Life, Music by: Ronen Landa

Brian Mazza is a serial entrepreneur and an efficiency junkie. He's the founder of High Performance Life Time (HPLT) training - a health & wellness platform focused on building community through their programs, including their popular offsite retreats. He has founded restaurants, clothing brands, helped to launch globally recognized brands for others AND he's the vice president of Brand Performance for Life Time Fitness. He's been on the cover of Men's Health Magazine TWICE and has been featured in Men's Fitness, GQ, Esquire, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal among others. He's the Director of the U9/U10 Program at FC Westchester. He's an intense guy, but that should be no shock after you just read his bio. He is trying to live intentionally, raise his kids intentionally, grow his businesses intentionally, and that means never taking his eye off the ball.

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

Instagram: @mutha.life

Produced by: Mutha Life, Music by: Ronen Landa

Katie Drummond is the Global Editorial Director of Wired - aka the boss of the whole operation - it's the tech-focused publication that she's taken from a niche read to bastion of breaking news and mainstream reporting in the few years she's been there. She's not only transformed the publication, but she's transformed how a media landscape - terrified to piss off people in power - can still do its job with integrity. People want what they're reporting on: From their coverage of artificial intelligence to the War In Iran, the ties between tech companies and ICE, breaking news about Elon Musk and his 'efficiency' agenda in the White House, subscription to WIRED have exploded. Part of the reason? Katie has made it very clear that she has very few fucks to give if you don't like her tone.

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

Instagram: @mutha.life

Produced by: Mutha Life, Music by: Ronen Landa

This was a real jackpot conversation for all of us. We got to talk women with ADHD, women's health, all things sex later in life, hormones, how to clock if you're in perimenopause and everything in between with the GOAT: Dr. Suzanne Gilberg-Lenz. Dr. Suzanne is a fellow of the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology. She's Board certified in integrative and holistic medicine, holds a Clinical Ayurvedic Specialist degree, is the Chief Medical Correspondent for The Drew Barrymore Show anddddddd is the author of Menopause Bootcamp. She's the Chief Clinical Officer at Monarch, which you'll hear more about in this episode. And critically, appreciates the life changing properties of the Cedars Sinai post-delivery chocolate chip cookie.

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

Instagram: @mutha.life

Produced by: Mutha Life, Music by: Ronen Landa

This month's solo pod covers a lot of ground - both from my own brain and in response to listener questions, from mahjong to my luteal phase, from sex drive to potty training, from grief to joy, consider this a smorgasbord of the inside of my brain. Make sure you drop comments to respond to the many questions I ask YOU in the episode and share with a friend. LET'S GAB.

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

Instagram: @mutha.life

Produced by: Mutha Life, Music by: Ronen Landa

Undies, bidets, diapers, oh my! Let's hang with Miki Agrawal. She is a serial entrepreneur - founding companies like THINX, period underwear, Tushy, the seemingly now ubiquitous Bidet company, and most recently Hiro Technolgoies - a disposable diaper revolutionizing the market with a fast-decomposing product that promises to reduce landfill waste caused by traditional diapers dramatically. We talk about growing up in Canada to immigrant parents, being an identical twin (but identifying as a youngest), finding an approach to co-parenting with her ex-husband, founding a range of companies that tackle how we take care of our bodies in a way that's good for us and the planet, and so much more. It's woo-woo meets the marketplace. It's conscious capitalism, babyyyy.

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

Instagram: @mutha.life

Produced by: Mutha Life, Music by: Ronen Landa

We are continuing our look back into the archive with an episode from a year ago with the inimitable Lisa Weinbaum. A discussion that started on the pod - reconnecting with someone I always looked up to as a kid - and hasn't stopped yet. Since recording that original episode, Lisa and I have volunteered at her beloved Baby2Baby together. We have hung out by the beach forging a new connection in adulthood, and have not stopped texting - the true love language of our time. This curated re-release is a bit more produced than the last one - I've broken it into themes: the job description of stay at home parent, the emotional and financial dynamics involved in partnership where one person works in the home and one outside, how to streamline the goals of parenting, parenting while grieving, and drilling down into the importance of sleep away summer camp. Let me know what you think in the comments or on IG.

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

Instagram: @mutha.life

Produced by: Mutha Life, Music by: Ronen Landa

This week's guest is Lillian Tung, co-founder of FUR. If you haven't already heard of the viral company, Fur is a beauty and hair care brand for the whole body - first grabbing headlines with their FUR OIL - specifically designed for pubic hair and skin. From the brains of childhood best friends to the shelves of Ulta, to talking about PUBIC HAIR on Shark Tank, this brand has taken the beauty world by storm - creating a new market segment, becoming an instant fan favorite of aestheticians the world over.

This conversation covered so much that I think about regularly - how to get siblings to like each other. How the idea of friendship and how we form friendships is as unique as people are. How every great enterprise needs different kinds of people to succeed in the long run. How doing something polarizing is good.

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

Instagram: @mutha.life

Produced by: Mutha Life, Music by: Ronen Landa

Trigger warning: Grief, loss, death of a parent

In this week's solo pod, Kari gives an update on the unexpected turn life took in the days leading up to her 40th birthday. This isn't a funny one, or a silly one, or a general episode. It's a deeply personal slice of life at a horrible moment in life. The Mutha Life community has become one of support, comfort, encouragement and above all, love, and so with this ep, we are going out on a vulnerable limb. Be kind to each other. Tell people you love them.

Instagram: @mutha.life Show notes: muthalife.substack.com Produced by: Mutha Life Music by: Ronen Landa, https://ronenlanda.com/