Rachel Aitken describes herself at school as "the middle girl" - not top of the class, not bottom, just happily along for the ride. That drifting energy carried her through a law degree she hated, into PR in London, and eventually into a senior marketing role - successful by most measures, but never quite the thing that lit her up.

The turning point came during lockdown, watching interviews on TV and thinking she could do better. Early in her first pregnancy, she found a stranger on LinkedIn - Laura Crompton, who had an almost identical career history and her own BBC Radio Manchester show - and messaged her cold, asking for a coffee. She didn't mention she was pregnant, worried it would make her seem less fun. Laura suggested a Zoom instead, and by the end of the hour, Rachel was drafting a message to a BBC producer. Within a week, she was live on air — having told no one except her husband, who tuned in on the radio at home.

That leap became a second career built alongside a full-time marketing job, motherhood, and - as Rachel is candid about - a serious mental health struggle most people around her never saw coming. Diagnosed with PMDD and postnatal depression, Rachel talks openly about what it's like to be the person everyone assumes has it together, and why that assumption can be exactly what stops people from checking in. She and Hannah also get into the reality of chasing a broadcasting career on maternity leave, including one interview that went memorably, spectacularly wrong.

Topics covered:

•     Growing up as "the middle girl," and how that shaped her sense of ambition early on

•     Cold-messaging a stranger on LinkedIn — and being on air within a week

•     Building a broadcasting career in secret before telling anyone but her husband

•     Chasing interview opportunities while on maternity leave, baby in tow

•     PMDD and postnatal depression — what it actually looked like day to day, and why nobody suspected it

•     Being the "yellow" character everyone assumes is fine, and why that's often exactly who isn't

•     Dual-career life with her husband, a doctor who also changed careers at 30

•     Living in Southport with no family nearby, and what that support gap actually looks like

•     Where she wants to take her broadcasting career next

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HR expert and content creator behind @itsjessfromHR and mum to two young boys, Jess Dunne brings a professional lens to working parenthood: legislation, employer responsibility, and why "default parent" is really about the mental load, not the task list.

Full Show Notes

Jess spent over a decade in corporate HR roles before building her own platform across social media after noticing a gap from the inside: HR has become more strategic and less accessible to individual employees, leaving many without anywhere to turn for honest, practical guidance on their workplace rights. 

Her second maternity leave became the turning point that let her build the business properly, growing @itsjessfromHR into a platform sharing legislation updates and practical workplace guidance to fill that gap, amassing almost 70,000 followers on Instagram and almost 30,000 on TikTok. 

In this conversation, Jess and Hannah dig into the same "default parent" question Hannah now asks every guest — a question Hannah's own TikTok on the topic turned genuinely divisive, sparking comments ranging from "great communication" to accusations she didn't love her own kids. Jess offers the clearest professional framing yet: default parent isn't about who does more tasks, it's about who carries the mental load — often shaped less by choice than by instinct and social conditioning.

The conversation also turns personal: both Jess and Hannah lost a parent young — Jess her mum at 19, Hannah her dad at 22 — and they talk candidly about how that's shaped their approach to building their own families. Jess speaks openly about the guilt of loving her commute and her time away from her boys, the anxiety of being replaced while on maternity leave, and closes with blunt, practical advice for any employer listening about what real flexibility looks like.

Topics covered:

•     Building a social media platform from the ground up 

•     Legislation, employer responsibility, and what "flexible working" actually means beyond WFH

•     The "default parent" question — mental load vs. task-splitting, and the backlash Hannah's TikTok on the topic received

•     Guilt around enjoying time away from your kids, and anxiety about being "replaced" on maternity leave

•     Losing a parent young, and how that's shaped both Jess and Hannah's approach to family

•     Protecting a no-phone boundary at home, and the tension of running a social platform alongside it

•     Practical advice for employers on engaging working-parent employees, not just accommodating them

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Former Team GB handball Olympian and sports sponsorship expert Louise Jukes on becoming a mum at 39, a step mum before that, and why choosing the right co-parent might be the biggest career decision you ever make.

Full Show Notes 

Louise Jukes has one of the more unusual routes into working parenthood on this podcast – the journey started as a stepmum before having her own daughter at 39 and got there via a genuinely wild career detour: playing hockey for England U18s, qualifying as a physiotherapist, then giving up work entirely for four years to chase a spot on the Team GB handball squad for London 2012. 

From there, Louise moved into sports marketing and sponsorship, spending close to a decade at Liverpool FC before moving client-side to TeamViewer. In this episode, she and Hannah talk about what it's like blending a stepfamily with a new baby, why Louise's own hobbies have quietly disappeared from her week (and why that's more common than people admit), and the deceptively simple idea that choosing who you have children with might be the single biggest decision of your adult life.

Trigger warning: this episode covers baby loss and fertility issues so please listen with caution or skip this one entirely. 

Topics covered:

• Becoming a parent through stepparenting first, then having a biological child later in life
• Leaving a stable career to chase an Olympic dream - and what that risk looked like
• Choosing to be more intentional with your career and the sacrifices we make as parents building careers 
• Why "my job is my hobby" is something more working parents feel than say out loud
• Why choosing a partner isn’t just a romantic decision, it’s a lifelong consideration
• Finding your “lane” in your relationship 
• The size of the mental load, even in a genuinely supportive partnership
• Baby loss and fertility challenges 

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Kat Molyneux is a mum of two, a cancer survivor, and co-founder of Cress, a platform helping schools resell pre-loved uniform. She joined Hannah on Somehow Managing to talk about building a business with purpose after a life-altering diagnosis, and why "having it all together" is a myth worth killing off. 

In this episode:

• Diagnosis, recovery, and the decision to build something new on the other side of it
• Co-founding a business with your partner - the upside and the total lack of an off switch
• Why "having it all" is a myth, and why more honesty about that would help other parents
• The mental load of running a household and a business at the same time
• Protecting one non-negotiable ritual (family mealtime) amid the chaos
• What "default parent" means to Kat, and how she and her husband split the load

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