The M Take

It's time to take on the partnerships that are working — and what to do when "working" starts to feel a little flat.

Mel came to this conversation with something she'd been sitting on. Michelle came in blind. Almost three years, a business, and a bi-weekly rhythm we chose on purpose later, we're in a true flow state… and Mel realized she's been missing the brainstorm-y, build-it-together energy that got us here in the first place. So we're lifting the hood and having the conversation we'd usually have offline, out loud, with you. (Before we get there, there's cherry-coke ASMR, a nail-clipping saga, and a first birthday on the horizon.)

We're sharing our takes on:

• Delegation vs. collaboration, and what we lost when we got really good at our swim lanes
• Why flow state can go flat like an open seltzer, and why that's a dial, not a fix
• "Can it wait?" and "Is this a gift to my future self?" — the two questions guarding our capacity
• Saying yes to the things that fill our cups, even on no sleep
• Loving two kids with equal strength and different ropes, as Mel's youngest turns one

Sometimes the answer isn't more. It's naming what used to light you up, saying it out loud to the person beside you, and turning the dial back up, just a little.

Come take on flow state, finding your fizz, and the partnerships worth protecting with us.

It's time to take on attachment styles — the patterns underneath how we love, parent, connect, and ask for help.

After a September full of hard drop-offs (for our kids and, honestly, for us), we got a little nerdy. Michelle walks us through attachment theory and the four adult attachment styles — secure, anxious, avoidant, and fearful-avoidant — and we look at what each one can sound like in real life as married moms of little ones: at school drop-off, in the middle of a disagreement with our partners, and in that very familiar "I got it, I got it" moment.

We're sharing our takes on:

• What our kids call our friends (Mr. and Mrs. Last Name, Miss First Name, aunt and uncle, or just first names) — and why it's all about reading the room
• 2TNL: you can strive for kindness and empathy without striving to be likable
• Why a quick, loving goodbye at drop-off can help build secure attachment, even when every part of you wants to linger — and Dr. Becky's idea of being "long-term greedy"
• The difference between anticipating a need and expecting someone to read your mind
• Choosing to handle it solo from a place of peace versus "I'll just do it myself" from a place of resentment

The thread through all of it: our patterns are information, not our identity. Most of us carry a little of each, and noticing which one we lean toward — especially when we're stretched thin — gives us more choice in how we show up.

Come take on attachment styles with us.

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Mentioned in this episode:

• Woo Hoo! You're Doing Great! by Sandra Boynton: https://amzn.to/4i98mUa
• Dr. Becky on being "long-term greedy" in parenting:
  • Good Inside — My Number One Job as a Parent Is Not to Make You Happy: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/my-number-one-job-as-a-parent-is-not-to-make-you-happy/id1561689671?i=1000754406757
  • Call Her Daddy — Dr. Becky Parenting 101: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/dr-becky-parenting-101/id1418960261?i=1000789894183
  • Good Inside with Dr. Becky: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/good-inside-with-dr-becky/id1561689671
• The Everygirl Podcast — October's Curriculum: Your Glow-Up Guide to Reclaiming Your Power: https://open.spotify.com/episode/7dc1nD5uEwJAq1MyIm6Acq
• Shop Mel's CRZ Yoga picks, and everything else we mention on the pod: https://shopmy.us/shop/themtake

Some links are affiliate links, which means The M Take may earn a commission at no additional cost to you. As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases. We only share what genuinely fits the conversation.

It's time to take on season two.

We're back, besties! With a very large tahini pumpkin latte in one hand and home-brewed Rook in the other, we're catching up on everything since we last sat down: Mel's Harry Styles season (and a very responsible plan to see him in Paris), a September note that changed how we think about celebrating, and a question we heard on Good Hang that we've been asking ourselves ever since: does it get any better than this?

We're sharing our takes on:

• Why fandom is joy, not something you need to justify
• Noticing the small "does it get any better than this?" moments, and how we're trying to hold onto them
• Solo errands vs. together errands (both are true)
• The stranger who rolled down her window to say "you're doing great"
• A stressful morning, a very slow trip for paper towels, and the therapist question that changed how Mel thinks about repair: did something actually break?

Not every hard morning is a rupture. Sometimes a stressed response to a heavy week is a pretty healthy one, and what's needed isn't an apology. It's acknowledgment.

Come take on season two with us .

Xx, M&M

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Mentioned on this episode:

• 079: Taking on the 350 Theory
• Good Hang with Amy Poehler – Sandra Bullock
• Rook Coffee – New Orleans Style Subscription

It's time to take on summers off, cognitive flexibility, and our season two return.

Listen in as Mel and Michelle check in during their self-declared, fully-privileged summer break, and catch up the way only the real ones do: unfiltered, a little chaotic, and full of the small moments worth double clicking on.

We're sharing our takes on:

• The busy board era of parenting — and the muscle memory that gets you through it
• Teaching our kids (and ourselves) permission to change our minds
• The invisible judgment we carry into public parenting moments, and how to loosen its grip
• What's ahead for Season 2, kicking off this September

Two truths, no lies: we needed the break, and we could not wait to check back in.

Come take on this mid-summer check-in with us.

It's time to take on marriage systems, the guilt of protected time, & frictionless mornings with Paige Connell.

Listen in as Paige Connell — the writer and creator behind @sheisapaigeturner — joins Mel and Michelle for an hour that starts as girl talk and turns into a full playbook for building a marriage that runs on shared ownership instead of default roles. Paige is a mom of four (!!) who reached a breaking point after her youngest was born, rebuilt her marriage's mental load from the ground up, and has spent the years since turning what she learned into language thousands of women send to each other.

She's sharing her takes on:

• Why running your home "like a business" and having a soft, loving marriage aren't in conflict — they actually make room for each other
• The one system-agnostic habit she credits most: having more conversations than you think you need to, about the things you assume don't need discussing
• How she talks herself down from guilt by asking whether it's actually guilt, or a value she hasn't said out loud
• What her actual frictionless morning looks like, laundry and all
• Why she shows 90 seconds of her mornings online and what that does and doesn't tell you

By the end, you won't walk away with Paige's exact system — you'll walk away knowing how to build yours, and how to stop assuming guilt is the price of a life that works.

Come take on the mental load with us.

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Want more of Paige? We've got you covered!

• For all things Paige, visit her website here.
• Follow along on Instagram: @sheisapaigeturner
• Follow along on TikTok: @sheisapaigeturner
• Read more of Paige's writing on Substack: @sheisapaigeturner
• Catch her podcast, Just Us Girls, on Spotify

It's time to take on nervous system resets with Mindy LaScala. Listen in as Mel & Michelle sit down with Mindy LaScala — former ICU nurse turned CPR and emergency training instructor and founder of Calm Responder. After witnessing a near-drowning at her neighborhood pool and helping save a four-year-old's life, Mindy realized that knowing what to do in an emergency means nothing if your nervous system won't let you access it. She built her entire practice around that gap.

She's sharing her takes on: nervous system regulation and why your body responds to spilled milk the same way it does to a real emergency, the pool moment that changed everything and led to Calm Responder, navigating intrusive thoughts as a parent, the grounding tools she teaches in every CPR class, and the two truths no lies of walking away from a decade-long nursing career to become a stay-at-home mom.

This one is equal parts practical and deeply human. A reminder that calm isn't a personality trait — it's a practice. And the reps happen in the small, hard, ordinary moments.

Come take on nervous system resets with us. Xx

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Want more of Mindy? We've got you covered!

• Follow along on Instagram: @calmresponder
• Book CPR & Emergency Training Courses with Calm Responder here!
• To learn more about HypnoBirthing, mentioned as foundational to Mindy's nervous system regulation journey, find resources and certified instructors here!

It's time to take on a girly mental health chat. Listen in as Mel & Michelle open up about the small and meaningful ways we find our footing again.

Mel’s sharing her takes on: grounding rituals that keep us anchored throughout the day so we can show up as our best selves, the raw and vulnerable realizations from her own story that led to new anchors to live by, and opening up on her most recent journey with PPD in hopes of helping someone out there feel a little less alone.

This conversation is a reminder that healing is not linear, vulnerability is strength, and sometimes the bravest thing we can do is tell the truth about how we are really doing.

Come take on a girl mental health chat with us. XX

It's time to take on Fair Play, Decentering Discomfort, & Protecting Your Unicorn Space with Eve Rodsky.

Listen in as Mel & Michelle welcome the one and only Eve Rodsky into their Unicorn Space.

Eve is a New York Times bestselling author of Fair Play and Find Your Unicorn Space, a Harvard-trained organizational expert, and the founder of the Fair Play Policy Institute. She calls herself "the ghost of your Christmas future" — and after fifteen years of studying the gender division of labor across 27 countries, she has the receipts.

This is the conversation to play back when you're sitting in your car after a hard day, wondering why partnership feels so heavy. Eve goes well beyond the cards: she reframes what "two truths" actually means (spoiler: it's usually not conflict, it's us absorbing someone else's discomfort), explains why an ownership mindset is the real Fair Play formula, and shares the tooth fairy story that we won't stop thinking about. She's funny, fierce, and refuses to let women carry this alone — naming Fair Play as nothing less than the antidote to 2,000 years of conditioning about how women should spend our time.

What stood out:

• The reframe we needed: most "two truths" aren't conflicting — we're just making decisions to spare someone else's discomfort
• Why "get help" was never the answer, and what an ownership mindset (DRI — directly responsible individual) actually looks like at home
• The low-emotion, high-cognition rule that finally makes hard conversations land
• Where resentment quietly lives — in the thank-you notes, the kin-keeping, the cards no one sees you holding
• The tooth fairy email that captured accountability, repair, and trust in one perfect story
• Modeling it forward and her own proof that emotional labor is teachable
• The permission slip we all needed: you're allowed to be unavailable from your roles

This isn't about dividing chores. It's about treating your time like the diamond it is — and refusing to live any other way.

Come take on fair play, decentering discomfort, and protecting your unicorn space with us.

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Want more of Eve? We've got you covered!

• For all things Eve Rodsky, visit her website here.
• To learn more about Fair Play, visit their website at Fair Play Life.
• Follow along on Instagram: @everodsky | @fairplaylife
• Ready to dive deeper into Fair Play and Unicorn Space? Shop Eve’s books on Amazon:
  • Fair Play: A Game-Changing Solution for When You Have Too Much to Do (and More Life to Live)
  • Find Your Unicorn Space: Reclaim Your Creative Life in a Too-Busy World

It’s time to take on perinatal mental health, white-knuckling motherhood, & navigating IVF with Meaghan Fattizzi.

Listen in as Mel & Michelle sit down with Meaghan, a perinatal mental health therapist, who brings both professional insight and lived experience to the conversation—pulling back the curtain on what it actually looks like to move through motherhood, mental health, and fertility in real time.

She’s sharing her takes on: what “white-knuckling” motherhood can look like (even when everything appears fine on the surface); recognizing postpartum anxiety, depression, and OCD—especially in high-functioning moms; the mental load of motherhood and why it never fully “gets done;” navigating IVF and how fertility journeys can both strain and strengthen a relationship; and holding gratitude for what you have while still deeply longing for more.

Come take on perinatal mental health, white-knuckling motherhood, & navigating IVF with us.

Want to learn more about Equilibria and perinatal mental health? We’ve got you covered!

Equilibria Therapy | @equilibriatherapy

It's time to take on the 350 Theory. Listen in as Mel & Michelle chat about the rhythm of life—the “regular” days, the “special” days, and everything in between. Because while there are the birthdays, the vacations, and the anniversaries, it’s the other days, the ones that take up the most space, that quietly shape it all.

We’re sharing our takes on: normalizing the magic and the wrinkles that coexist in everyday life (even on the special days!), setting the tone, embracing the 350 days with the same mindset we bring to the milestones, and finding small, intentional ways to create meaning in the in-between moments.

Come take on the 350 Theory with us.