The Balance Dilemma

Four crowns sit in an unopened box in Elizabeth Bracken-Thompson’s attic. She was Miss New Jersey and competed for Miss America. Then the final crown came off, and she had to figure out who she was without the title, the privilege, and the open doors.

She went on to vice president at Gannett, helped launch USA Today in the New York market, and became partner at Thompson & Bender. Along the way came workplace harassment before #MeToo had a name, divorce, and ovarian cancer at 25, which ended her chance to have biological children.

In this conversation about her memoir More Than a Crown, Elizabeth shares the principles she’s built a life on: why you can’t rank choices by safety, why she makes the life decision before the career decision, and why hope is a choice. She also tells the disco dance floor story behind her advice for your worst days.

We all have crowns. If you’ve ever wondered who you are when one comes off, this one’s for you. And yes, we ask whether you can have it all, and all at the same time. Her answer depends on how you define “all.”

Recorded at the LMC Podcast Studio on October 30, 2026

Show notes available at thebalancedilemma.com

She's a self-described "professional church lady" who spent fifty years writing around one rule: be home when the kids get off the bus.

She's also just written a novel that opens in a grocery store with a cucumber — and doesn't stop there. 

Susan Byrum Rountree built her career freelancing and teaching writing while raising two kids, then returned to nonfiction with Nag's Headers, a history of North Carolina's Outer Banks cottages now back in print for its 25th anniversary. 

But the real story is what came after: a breast cancer diagnosis in 2019 that she credits with pushing her to finally finish the novel she'd shelved for decades — and the permission that came with it, at almost seventy, to finally write without holding back.

In this episode, Maura and Christie talk with Susan about choosing motherhood over a faster-moving career and never fully regretting it, the particular sting of pitching and rejection as a freelance writer, surviving a serious health setback and rededicating herself to her craft, and what it took to finally write her upcoming novel, Church Ladies — including the scene she says she wouldn't have dared write twenty years ago.

Show notes available at thebalancedilemma.com

She had already built a career and led a company through a successful acquisition. Then she took another corporate job — and quickly realized she couldn't run it, launch her own business, and manage a household all at once.

Nicole Batiste, founder of nest & nook play loft, talks about the moment she chose to leave corporate life behind for good, and how her definition of success has changed since.

This episode covers the "rubber balls vs. glass balls" framework — the idea that some responsibilities can bounce back if you drop them, while others will break — and how Nicole uses it to decide what to protect and what to let go.

It also covers how she and her husband have stayed 50/50 partners even on one income, and her honest answer to the question every guest gets asked: can you really have it all?

Recorded July 29, 2026 at the LMC Media Podcast Studio. Show notes available at thebalancedilemma.com

Harriet Libov spent the early years of her career in marketing at Vogue magazine, then stepped away to raise her children — building an accessories business out of her Manhattan apartment along the way.

What followed was a string of pivots: staffing, a Judaica business with a friend, and finally, in her forties, a real estate license she calls her "last pivot."

Today she's an Associate Broker with Houlihan Lawrence in Northern Westchester, and the host of her own podcast, Your Real Estate Connection in Westchester, where she teaches buyers and sellers what no one else explains.

In this episode, Maura and Christie talk with Harriet about what it actually takes to reinvent yourself in your forties, the "detective" work great agents do that clients never see, why she built her business on education instead of self-promotion, the moment a stranger told her "I listen to your podcast," and — even after 25 years of success — why she still says you can't have it all at the same time.

Show notes available at thebalancedilemma.com

Silvia Baldini built a successful career as an award-winning art director and creative director on Madison Avenue — then walked away to start over in a kitchen. The result? A Le Cordon Bleu education, training at the Ritz in London, a Chopped championship, two cookbooks, and Strawberry and Sage, a culinary venture built around food, sustainability, and community — with other women at the table alongside her.

In this episode, Maura and Christie talk with Silvia about what it actually takes to reinvent yourself mid-career, how advertising trained her for the kitchen (and vice versa), navigating male-dominated workplaces in two industries, the Italian philosophy of food that America has largely lost, and why — even with all of it — she doesn't believe you can have it all at the same time.

Topics covered include: career reinvention, identity and ambition, work-life balance, food and sustainability, Refettorio NYC, the Dames d'Escoffier, entrepreneurship, motherhood, and the real cost of starting over.

Find Silvia at silviabaldini.com and on Instagram @silviabaldinistrawberryandsage

Episode recorded on June 3, 2026 at the LMC Media Studio in Mamaroneck, New York. Show notes available at thebalancedilemma.com

Postpartum. Cancer treatment. Perimenopause. Menopause. Night sweats don't care why you have them — and for too long, nothing on the market did either. Katya Eckert decided to fix that, and A DOMANI® was born.

She came to the US from Russia at age seven. Her family arrived with a hundred dollars, a box of books, and a guitar. She spent 15 years on a Wall Street derivatives desk. And then one very long, very sweaty postpartum night changed everything. With zero fashion experience and a beginner's instinct, she built the luxury sleepwear brand that Oprah noticed — three times.

What followed was not a straight line. While launching her brand, her mother was diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer. Her mother wore A DOMANI® through treatment and into hospice. Eight weeks after she died, Katya had a baby. The business kept going.

In this conversation, Katya talks with Maura and Christie about building a product from 650 fabric samples, what thermoregulating actually means (and why your moisture-wicking leggings are lying to you), and what it looks like when both parents are building startups while raising kids ages 2 and 6. She doesn't believe in balance. She believes in triage.

Recorded May 27, 2026, at the LMC Media Podcast Studio in Mamaroneck, NY. Show notes available at thebalancedilemma.com/episode-103

Belle Burden's memoir Strangers — which began as a viral New York Times Modern Love essay and is already being adapted for film starring Gwyneth Paltrow — is the story every married (unmarried) woman needs to read. It's the account of a woman whose husband of 20 years walked out during COVID with no warning, leaving her exposed because of  financial and legal decisions she'd made throughout her marriage without fully considering the risk. But what would a top divorce attorney have told Belle before any of it happened?

Lisa Zeiderman, managing partner at Miller Zeiderman LLP, certified divorce financial analyst, and certified financial litigator, read Strangers and had a lot to say. In this episode, she walks us through the pivotal moments where Belle's financial and legal decisions put her at serious risk — the prenuptial agreement changed six days before the wedding, the inherited trust money placed into jointly-owned property, the career she gave up without negotiating any protection in return — and what Belle, or any of us, could have done differently.

Lisa also explains when a postnuptial agreement makes sense (hint: it's not just for troubled marriages), what women who've handed financial control to a spouse need to do right now, and how to turn major life transitions — having children, receiving an inheritance, buying property — into smart negotiating moments. She covers how to protect assets in a high-net-worth divorce, what stay-at-home spouses need to know about marital property law, and why financial independence is the most important divorce strategy of all.

This isn't a story about the ultra-wealthy. It's about the quiet financial decisions every woman in a marriage makes — or doesn't make — and what's actually at stake when love and money collide.

Recorded April 23, 2026. Show notes available at thebalancedilemma.com

Amanda DePalma didn't plan on a detour. She had a self-designed college major, a passion for events, and a clear vision for her career — until 2008 arrived and the bottom fell out.

Getting laid off early in her career was a blow to her Type-A perfectionist soul. But that "stop" on the way to somewhere else led to her husband, her master's degree, and ultimately, her role as Senior Vice President of Events and Development at the Business Council of Westchester — the county's largest and most influential business membership organization.

Now she orchestrates 80+ events a year, launched a podcast network with over 40,000 listens, and is bringing an AI upskilling program to Westchester in partnership with Google.

In this episode, we talk about playing the long game, why every job is a footprint in the world, and how the connections you almost didn't make end up changing everything.

Plus — can you really have it all? Amanda's answer is honest, a little nuanced, and exactly what you need to hear.

Episode recorded December 2, 2025. Show notes available at thebalancedilemma.com/episode-101

Annabel Monaghan didn’t set out to become a bestselling novelist—at least not on a straight path. She worked in finance, raised three kids, said yes to things she didn’t want to do, and put writing on hold longer than she’d like to admit.

Now, she writes the kind of love stories readers can’t stop talking about—funny, deeply relatable, and full of women who are holding everything together… until something shifts.

In this episode, we discuss the pressure to do it all, the power of saying no, and why “having it all” might actually be about timing, not balance.

Plus, a first look at her new novel DOLLY ALL THE TIME—a fake dating romance with real emotional stakes.

Episode recorded on March 18, 2026. Show notes available at thebalancedilemma.com/episode-100

What does it take to sustain a 38-year creative partnership — and friendship — through divorce, death, partnership, relocation, and countless life transformations? Margaret Crane and Barbara Ballinger, co-authors of Not Dead Yet, Suddenly Single After 50, and Kitchen Conversations, as well as lifelessonsat50plus.com, share their unfiltered insights on collaborative writing, making new friends in your 70s, navigating adult children, and why they both refuse to remarry.

From Barbara's 350 internet dates (yes, she kept a spreadsheet) to Margaret's move from St. Louis, MO to NYC, these women prove that life after 50 is about risk-taking, reinvention, and refusing to play by outdated rules. They discuss aging without apology, cutting toxic friendships, why sex gets better with age, and the surprising freedom that comes from putting yourself first.

Whether you're navigating an empty nest, contemplating a major life change, or simply trying to maintain friendships as you age, this conversation offers wisdom, humor, and the kind of candor that only comes from decades of lived experience.

Episode recorded January 20, 2026. Show notes available at thebalancedilemma.com