Bestselling author and artist Suleika Jaouad joins Monica this week on Reclaiming, for a profound conversation about creative alchemy, navigating uncertainty, and the defiant joy of living in life’s messy middle. Suleika retraces her path from being diagnosed with leukemia at 22, to writing her Emmy-winning New York Times column, “Life, Interrupted,” from her hospital bed. She reflects on the radical choice to marry her husband, Grammy award winning musician Jon Batiste, the day before a bone marrow transplant and how turning to watercolors when she could no longer write taught her that survival is always a creative act. Along the way, Monica and Suleika connect on the long shadow of narratives held by women, the power of journaling to find your way back to yourself, and the hard-won wisdom that comes from reclaiming a life you weren’t sure you’d get to live. Expect a conversation brimming with insight, gentle humor, and a powerful lesson in how to alchemize our deepest pain into our greatest purpose.

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Grammy and Emmy-winning artist Lizzo joins Monica this week for a raw, laughter-filled conversation about what it takes to practice radical self-love under a global microscope.Lizzo speaks about the profound disconnect between her public persona and her private self, revealing how she’s channeled the darker chapters of loss and public scandal into a creative rebirth. Monica and Lizzo find deep common ground on the universal challenge of authoring your own story when the world has already written its own version, and the hard-won wisdom of setting boundaries to protect your peace. Plus we get a live sneak peak and Lizzo’s brand new single.

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This week on Reclaiming, Monica welcomes Emmy and Peabody award-winning filmmaker and activist Deeyah Khan for a stunning conversation about how she transformed her own trauma of being silenced into a tool for radical dialogu— leading her to create acclaimed documentaries that confront the architects of hate—from former jihadis to American neo-Nazis Deeyah retraces her path from being a successful teenage musician in Norway to being forced to abandon her art after years of escalating threats from religious extremists.. She reflects on the insistence on humanity that allows her to be in conversation with violent ideologies, the delicate line between understanding and endorsement, and the stunning, real-world moments when her approach opened up a white supremacists to receive her beliefs. Along the way, Monica and Deeyah explore what leading with love looks like, the quiet power of listening in a world that demands we shout, and how we can all show up in a moment that demands hope and action.

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What does it take to walk away from one of the most powerful jobs in television? Monica sits down with legendary showrunner Krista Vernoff, a creative force behind Grey's Anatomy,Station 19, and Shameless, for a profoundly honest conversation about the real price of female success and the wakeup moment that demanded she start to reclaim her life from burnout. Krista pulls back the curtain on the makings of her remarkable career, from her unconventional "hippie artist" upbringing that taught her to break the rules, to the intense pressures of "having it all." She shares how shaping the behaviors and dialogue of the characters in her TV shows can impact social change and how she's used writing as a powerful healing modality to process her own grief and life experiences.

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This week on Reclaiming, Monica welcomes writer-director-actor Lake Bell for an honest and funny conversation about voice, vulnerability, and the art of world-building—both on screen and in life. Lake charts her trajectory from an indie filmmaker who literally wrote herself a voice of authority in her Sundance-winning film In a World..., to starring in the subversive HBO hit The Chair Company. She speaks with candor about how navigating her daughter's epilepsy transformed her into a fierce and creative advocate for neurodiversity (and a children's book author!). Lake explains the hard, intentional work of conscious uncoupling from her ex-husband and unexpected joy in building a loving 'two-house family' for their two kids. Along the way, Monica and Lake connect on the tools it takes to reframe our personal narratives and discover a shared admiration for a well built car/for good looking cars.

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This week on Reclaiming, Monica welcomes actor, author, and creator Dylan Mulvaney for a deeply candid and surprisingly joyful conversation about identity, art, and the radical act of choosing joy in the face of public hate. Dylan retraces her path from a musical theater kid with a secret to documenting her transition for a billion people in her viral "Days of Girlhood" tik tok series. She reflects on surviving the “beergate” controversy, and how that traumatic moment of becoming a political symbol pushed her not to retreat, but to reclaim her story on her own terms—first through a spiritual ayahuasca journey, and then on stage in her one-woman show. Along the way, Monica and Dylan find profound common ground on the dizzying experience of surviving a global scandal, the specific pain of being turned into a caricature by the media, and the quiet, determined work it takes to piece your narrative back together. Expect laugh-out-loud moments about the absurdity of fame, a shared belief in humor as the ultimate survival tool, and even some breaking out into song mid podcast.

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This week on Reclaiming, Monica welcomes three-time Emmy winner Uzo Aduba for an expansive conversation about identity, creativity, and the quiet courage it takes to reclaim yourself—over and over. Uzo retraces her path from being the only Nigerian-American kid in her class growing up, to inhabiting some of TV’s most indelible women, from Suzanne “Crazy Eyes” Warren in Orange Is the New Black to Shirley Chisholm in Mrs. America. She reflects on the discipline of choosing roles that let her evolve on-screen as quickly as she does off, the tenderness of becoming her mother’s caregiver during a cancer battle, and the seismic joy (and humility) of welcoming her first child. Along the way, Monica and Uzo trade stories about finding comedy inside chaos, finding dignity in dating and indulge in a few serious theater geek tangents!

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This week on Reclaiming, actress and producer Madelaine Petsch gets real about what it actually takes to keep going when Hollywood keeps saying no. Before landing her breakout role of Cheryl Blossom in Riverdale, she faced more than 250 rejections — and instead of letting them define her, she used them to build resilience, confidence, and a thicker skin.

Madelaine opens up about learning how to set boundaries to protect her peace in an industry that constantly asks for more, and why horror movies became an unexpected form of emotional regulation — a safe way to give her nervous system a jolt and feel in control of anxiety instead of consumed by it. She also reflects on navigating a deeply personal chapter of her life: supporting her father through serious mental health challenges and how that experience reshaped her understanding of strength, compassion, and self-preservation.

And because this is Reclaiming, the wisdom doesn’t stop with her own journey — Madelaine even turns the tables and offers Monica some very earnest (and very funny) advice on how to finally get her ship-based period piece made. Hollywood, consider this your official notice.

Make sure to check out Madelaine's new movie "The Strangers" - in theaters now!

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This week on Reclaiming, Monica sits down with actor, writer, and activist Jameela Jamil for a passionate conversation about pleasure, purpose, and the ways modern life has quietly taught us to live without community. Jameela reflects on her desire to build a chosen village, why friendships deserve as much investment as romantic relationships, and how capitalism and isolation have reshaped our ideas of fulfillment. She opens up about nearly dying as a teenager, rejecting the idea that life is a test to endure, and why peace, laughter, and joy are not indulgences but necessities. Together, they explore loneliness, patriarchy, burnout, and the radical idea that a meaningful life might be rooted not in productivity, but in connection, curiosity, and shared humanity 

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When Monica dreamed up Reclaiming, she imagined conversations that could stretch and reshape what reclamation means — identity, agency, voice, dignity, desire, self-worth, ancestry, joy, and even the things we didn’t know we needed to take back.

Across 48 guests, we asked the same question:

What is something you're working on reclaiming right now?

The answers turned into a breathtaking tapestry — big, small, public, private, famous and familiar — from reclaiming bodies and boundaries to relationships with family, fame, faith, narrative, pleasure, community, and the powerful decision to rewrite the story of your own life.

This special episode gathers every one of those moments into a single watch. You’ll hear reflections that are messy, triumphant, hilarious, tender, surprising — and yes, one guest even reclaimed her misaligned zodiac sign.

It’s a reminder that reclaiming isn’t a destination — it’s an ongoing practice, a return to ourselves over and over again.

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