Mutha Life

'Oh what are you listening to?' 'Who me? Oh it's ARCHIVAL SARA TAN.'

Glossangeles' Sara Tan's ep is back and it's taking on a whole new listen this time around. When this episode first aired, my daughter was 1.5. She's now 2.5 going on 13, and already laying out her outfits, begging for nail polish, and asking about every product I put on my face. Turns out this conversation was more relevant than ever.

We talk about building a career with intention, navigating beauty culture as a parent, what it means to interview Rihanna and Hailey Bieber differently now that you're both moms, cultural differences in parenting, the work wife relationship, and how to think about raising kids in a world that has very loud opinions about how they should look.

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

Instagram: @mutha.life @saratan

Produced by: Mutha Life

Music by: Ronen Landa

Amanda Chantal Bacon founded Moon Juice in 2011. Now, fifteen years and a Target launch later, she's in what might be her most interesting chapter: handing over the operational reins so she can get back to dreaming and spending more time with her kids. In this conversation, we talk about growing up in downtown NYC with a famously cool and unconventional mom, finding her footing in fine dining kitchens, opening Moon Juice and literally birthing a human at the same time, doing early motherhood and early entrepreneurship simultaneously as a single mom, her two very different birth experiences, the BioCharger, the placenta smoothie, and the realization that the peaceful "we made it" feeling she's been chasing isn't coming, so we better enjoy the chaos.

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

Instagram: @mutha.life

Produced by: Mutha Life, Music by: Ronen Landa

This MUTHA's Day episode explores the complexity and contradictions of motherhood across different life stages. Kari returned from a week in London with a major realization about the finite window of motherhood and the gap between what mothers 'should' want and what they actually want. Through listener voices and personal reflection, this episode examines the tension between needing space and knowing that time with your kids is fleeting. The centerpiece is a meditation on a Banksy statue about how convictions can block your vision. It's a metaphor for the principles of motherhood that keep mothers marching forward, even when they can't see where they're going.

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

Instagram: @mutha.life

Produced by: Mutha Life, Music by: Ronen Landa

We're going back into the archive for this one: and the timing feels right. When I sat down with Chris Gayomali - when the pod was a baby, EPISODE 4 - in the fall of 2024, he was freelancing, deep in his Muay Thai era, and raising a toddler in New York City who was already turning his nose up at cruise ship pizza. He was also building serious momentum with Heavies, his much loved Substack about the practical and occasionally bizarre sides of health and wellness.

Since then: he's become Head of Editorial at SSENSE (elite cool kid status), a Strategist at Office of Applied Strategy (the in-the-know cool kids tap these cool kids), and has a limited series podcast dropping with Kaleidoscope in May.

In this conversation we get into his completely accidental journalism career - from editing insurance reports in Irvine to nine years at GQ via a bowl of rice posted on Instagram - what it actually looks like to be a present, involved millennial dad when there's no real template for it, the myth of 50/50 in parenting labor, a near-miss health scare that rewired his entire relationship to his body, and the particular absurdity of raising a kid in New York City.

Smart, funny, and genuinely one of my favorites.

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

Instagram: @mutha.life

Produced by: Mutha Life, Music by: Ronen Landa

Lee Shaner, aka Intuition, is a rapper and podcaster who has been making music for over two decades. His album Leave a Mark went viral earlier this year when a song he made for his son hit over a million views - a song he almost didn't post because he thought he looked fat in the video.

This one goes deep. We talk about growing up in North Pole, Alaska, watching his dad develop early onset Alzheimer's at 55, 10 years of sobriety, SSRIs, male friendship after 40, and what it means to be the more paternal parent in your house.

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

Instagram: @mutha.life

Produced by: Mutha Life, Music by: Ronen Landa

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