Mutha Life

An archival re-release, going all the way back to episode two of the pod. Queensylvia Akuchie is an NAACP-nominated costume designer with over 20 years in the industry, the first costume designer for the Oprah Winfrey Network, and the woman behind the wardrobe on hit show Bel-Air. She's worked with Denzel Washington, Oprah Winfrey, Tom Cruise, Ben Affleck, and Tyler Perry, and she's done it all while raising her daughter Simi on her own. We talk about walking away from a law degree her Nigerian immigrant parents expected, cold emailing her way into the industry, being the only Black woman in rooms for most of her career, the uncanny timing of her mother's death and her daughter's birth, and choosing to leave a relationship because she refused to let her daughter feel what she'd been feeling.

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

Instagram: @mutha.life

Produced by: Mutha Life

Music by: Ronen Landa

We made it to 100 episodes, and there was only one way to celebrate: bringing on the two friends who inspired this whole project in the first place. Jenna and Becca and I met in a Brooklyn apartment building through our dogs (yes, a hairball that looked like a piece of poop is genuinely how Jenna and I bonded), and years, weddings, miscarriages, a pandemic, and five kids later, we're still in it together. We get into how we built a friendship without ever merging our friend groups, what it actually looks like to divide labor across three very different marriages, the invisible mental load debate that never quite resolves, and why validation from your people matters more than being told you're right.

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

Instagram: @mutha.life

Produced by: Mutha Life

Music by: Ronen Landa

Kurt Braunohler is a prolific comedian, writer, actor, and co-host of the podcast That's Bananas. His stand-up has been featured on The Tonight Show, Late Night with Seth Meyers, Conan, and The Late Late Show with James Corden, and he had a supporting role in The Big Sick. He grew up an only child in Asbury Park, New Jersey, raised almost entirely by his single mom, a pediatric nurse whose parenting philosophy came down to unconditional love. Now that he's up to bat raising his own two kids with his wife Lauren, he's not wasting a second of it.

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

Instagram: @mutha.life

Produced by: Mutha Life

Music by: Ronen Landa

This week it's just me recapping and reflecting how I am trying to keep the London-solo travel trip spark alive in my every day life - doing fun stuff by myself, doing fun stuff with my family (the definition of fun, being MINE), and taking care of myself while also being mindful of how everyone else responds to that. We talk about my new jewelry addiction, parasocial relationships that I want to take to the next level, and how we should all BUCKLE up for the 1-0-0 Episode coming quick and fast - and one that I am traveling cross country to record! Mutha Life will be ON LOCATION.

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

Instagram: @mutha.life

Produced by: Mutha Life

Music by: Ronen Landa

Cat Wood grew up working class in Yorkshire, found her own way into Oxford, and spent years quietly working out why she related to the world differently than everyone around her. She was diagnosed autistic after her son's diagnosis led her to look in the mirror. Now she's raising two kids with PDA (Pathological Demand Avoidance), a nervous system driven form of autism where traditional boundaries and consequences do more harm than good. We talk about what it actually looks like to parent without demands, the moment she scrapped every rule in the house, and why she wants her kids to know they never have to shrink themselves for people who aren't safe.

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

Instagram: @mutha.life

Produced by: Mutha Life

Music by: Ronen Landa

This week from the archive: the wonderful Zach Brooks. Zach grew up in Miami eating Tuesday and Thursday dinners out with his dad after his parents split up, rotating through the food court at Dadeland Mall, a Chinese restaurant called Hua Xing, and the one Korean restaurant in downtown Miami that turned out to be serving Korean Chinese food. His dad made him try kimchi at eight years old by telling him it was the worst thing he'd ever eat and that was exactly why he should try it. It worked.

Zach went on to start Midtown Lunch, the food blog that made the case that Midtown Manhattan was not the food desert everyone assumed it was, and that turns 20 years old this month. He also runs Smorgasburg LA, the beloved Sunday food market in downtown LA, which is celebrating its 10th anniversary. He has been there every Sunday since it opened.

This conversation covers a lot of ground. Growing up as an insufferable oldest child. Marrying his college girlfriend. Quitting his radio job the day after a brief conversation with his wife about maybe quitting his radio job. Being the parent on call while his wife dominates in her legal career. Traveling the world with three kids and surviving it. And so much more.

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

Instagram: @mutha.life @midtownlunchla

Produced by: Mutha Life

Music by: Ronen Landa

Chad Wolf grew up in Moncks Corner, South Carolina, on a dirt road outside of Charleston, in a double wide trailer with a Pentecostal Holiness church on Sundays and a shipyard worker dad who apparently did classified things on nuclear submarines that he can only now talk about. He came to LA at 20, lied his way into an internship for Diane Warren, ended up living in a Swedish musician's house, became friends with Max Martin, and made a record (with a platinum single) that got played at weddings and on The Hills and in rom-coms for a decade.

And then he lost everything. The band, the money, marriages, his house, eventually his car. He lived out of that car for six months, delivered for Postmates in a Range Rover that eventually got repossessed, and never once stopped showing up to take his son to school. This one is a perfect Father's Day episode. Not because Chad got everything right, but because of how honest he is about getting it wrong, and how clear it is that his son - and the art of truly LOVING - saved him.

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

Instagram: @mutha.life @thecarolinaliar

Produced by: Mutha Life

Music by: Ronen Landa

It's a podcast first: A parent doing an IRL interview with us…while breastfeeding the entire time. AND SHE REMAINED COHERENT?! That's heroic stuff, in my book. Not to mention, there was a toddler with a tummy ache and grandpa as backup in tow downstairs. The level of composure was just…very elite. Luckily I got to spend an hour with Emily Beyda - novelist, journalist, writer of the wildly popular KCRW newsletter Backseat Babies - and find out where all this zen master energy comes from. And let me tell you - the breastfeeding while interview matches the backstory to a T.

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

Instagram: @mutha.life @emilybeyda

Produced by: Mutha Life

Music by: Ronen Landa

When we first hung out with Vanessa Dew, co-founder of Health-Ade Kombucha, about a year and a half ago, she was figuring out what life looked like after selling her business baby. She was navigating purpose and parenthood in a new chapter, finding ways to support her community after the LA fires, and quietly letting go of any need to feel relevant just for the sake of it (ahem, the inspiration for this week's episode title).

Since we last spoke, she has been keeping very busy. Traveling loads with her family. Being in her feelings about a recently graduated kindergartner. Building her community on Substack. Launching the Aline Foundation to support women through wellness grants. And, oh, did I mention we are breaking news right now?! (Tune in to hear it)

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

Instagram: @mutha.life @vanessadew_

Produced by: Mutha Life

Music by: Ronen Landa

Celebrity and Personal Stylist Liza Lieberman grew up as the only child of a fashion industry powerhouse, a mom who traveled the world designing clothes and built everything herself from scratch. She was also the kid climbing trees and winning track meets with her dad, until she lost him at 14. Her parents were both larger than life figures in her childhood that would go on to shape so much about how she's chosen to live, love, parent and work.

She went into finance like her mom wanted, lived in London, fell in love, found her way to Salesforce, and quietly started a fashion Instagram on the side just because it made her happy. That side project became a business. Now she's one of the most sought-after personal and celebrity stylists around, dressing clients for state dinners and red carpets and also for just, you know, feeling like yourself again on a Tuesday.

This conversation covers a lot of ground. Ambitious parents and what that legacy looks like up close. Navigating a difficult workplace experience as a young woman with no roadmap for it. ADHD as an unexpected superpower. The pivot your partner supports but doesn't quite understand yet. Early motherhood during COVID. And what it means to build something that's entirely yours.

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

Instagram: @mutha.life @liza.lieberman

Produced by: Mutha Life

Music by: Ronen Landa