What if the problem isn’t our ambition, resilience, or mindset, but a system rigged in ways mothers are taught to internalize as personal failure?

Corinne Low, PhD – Wharton economics professor, author of Having It All, and mother of two – joins Sara to unpack how becoming a mother blew up the script she was following and exposed the gap between the lives women are promised and the ones they are actually supported to live. 

Drawing on rigorous economic research and deeply personal experience, Corinne names the forces that make motherhood feel so destabilizing at work and at home, even for highly accomplished women.

Instead of telling women to lean in or try harder, Corinne brings data to the quiet crisis so many mothers experience. She explains how workplaces are structured around an outdated model of family life, how gendered expectations inside marriages continue to shape women’s careers, and why exhaustion and guilt are often rational responses, not personal failures.

In this conversation, we explore:

• why “utility” matters more than happiness

• how mom guilt is often misnamed desire

• why the so-called ambition gap is a myth

• how workplaces lose mothers during “the squeeze” years

• why choosing the right partner and where you live may shape your life more than anything

This episode offers a clearer, more honest way to think about work, motherhood, and what “having it all” can realistically mean.

📚 Purchase Having It All here and wherever books are sold:

https://a.co/d/0fHBOX8T

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Learn more about Sage Haus: helping busy households hire vetted, professional House Managers, Family Assistants, and Meal Prep Chefs – whether you need 10 hours a week or 40+

👉 Get started at https://themothers--sage-haus.thrivecart.com/hiring-services-deposit/

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⭐️ Follow The Mothers and leave a 5-star review if this resonated

💬 Share this episode with someone who needs to hear it

📱 Join The Mothers on Instagram @themotherspod

✍️ Subscribe to ⁠⁠Sara’s Substack⁠⁠ for reflections on life, work, meaning & motherhood

💼 Find Sara on ⁠LinkedIn

The Mothers is a production of Backline Media.

Cindy Brown, CEO of the iconic Boston Duck Tours and Mother, joined the company more than 30 years ago after leaving a fast-track career in finance to take a chance on what she calls “the duck thing.” 

She never looked back.

In this conversation, Cindy reflects on building a deeply rooted, wildly successful business without chasing scale. And how designing her life around proximity, partnership, and values made both leadership and motherhood more sustainable.

We talk about:

🚀 leaving the finance fast-track for an unconventional career leap

🌊 why “bigger” isn’t always better and when depth wins

🗓️ what a 4-day workweek has looked like since 1994

🏙️ how city living and a 5-minute commute have been essential to making it all work

🧠 the moment every mother knows: when a partner realizes “wait, that this doesn’t just happen?”

A thoughtful, grounded conversation about success, ambition, and building a life that actually works.

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⭐️ Follow the The Mothers and leave a 5-star review if this resonated

💬 Share this episode with someone who needs to hear it

📱 Join The Mothers on Instagram @themotherspod

✍️ Subscribe to ⁠Sara’s Substack⁠ for reflections on life, work, meaning & motherhood

💼 Find Sara on LinkedIn

The Mothers is a production of Backline Media.

Jennifer Breheny Wallace – NYT bestselling author of Never Enough and her new book Mattering (out today!), journalist, and Mother of three – joins The Mothers for a conversation about achievement, worth, identity, and what it really means to feel like you matter.

Jennifer’s work explores a question many Mothers carry: how can we be doing essential, important, and meaningful work – at home, at the office, and beyond – and still feel like it’s not enough? Like we’re not enough? And sometimes… like we don’t even matter? In this conversation, we look at how motherhood exposes the limits of achievement culture – and why relying on success to supply a sense of mattering can leave us feeling empty instead.

Other highlights:

• Building an “accordion” career – expanding and contracting across seasons of motherhood

• The difference between shiny success and sustaining success

• Why achievement is a poor stand-in for self-worth

• How friendships function as essential infrastructure, not a luxury

• What it looks like to live in alignment with intrinsic values in an extrinsic world

This is a grounded, generous conversation about choosing values over validation and designing a life that can flex, evolve, and endure.

Pick up Mattering today at https://a.co/d/axcH4mn

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Learn more about Sage Haus, helping busy households hire vetted, professional House Managers, Family Assistants, and Meal Prep Chefs – whether you need 10 hours a week or 40+

👉 Are you ready to hire a house manager? at https://sagehaus.com/quiz-readiness

👉 Get started at https://themothers--sage-haus.thrivecart.com/hiring-services-deposit/

*******

⭐️ Follow the The Mothers and leave a 5-star review if this resonated

💬 Share this episode with someone who needs to hear it

📱 Join The Mothers on Instagram @themotherspod

💼 Find Sara on LinkedIn for more perspectives on work, life, and meaning

✍️ Subscribe to Sara’s Substack (coming soon!)

The Mothers is a production of Backline Media.

Kelly Hubbell – founder & CEO of Sage Haus and Mother of three – joins The Mothers to talk about the moment “doing it all” stopped working and how she turned her breaking point into a business.

After baby #2, the math no longer worked. More than 22 hours a week of invisible labor sat alongside a demanding career – and the cost was showing up in her marriage, her energy, and her sense of self. Shaped by growing up with a single mother who carried everything herself, she refused to accept burnout as the price of motherhood.

In this conversation, Kelly shares how hiring a house manager changed everything – and how applying an operator’s mindset to the home led to the creation of Sage Haus, a fast-growing startup built around one simple idea: families need systems, not martyrdom.

Highlights:

⚖️ the real cost of the invisible load – even in households that look “equal” on paper

🧩 why two capable partners are still not enough without systems and support

🛠️ building Sage Haus on the side with two young kids and a full-time job

💡 reframing help as an investment, not a failure

🕊️ the freedom on the other side of building (and often hiring) your village

This episode challenges the quiet assumptions holding mothers back – and what becomes possible when we decide it doesn’t have to be this hard.

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Learn more about Sage Haus: helping busy households hire vetted, professional House Managers, Family Assistants, and Meal Prep Chefs – whether you need 10 hours a week or 40+

👉 Are you ready to hire a house manager? at https://sagehaus.com/quiz-readiness

👉 Get started at https://themothers--sage-haus.thrivecart.com/hiring-services-deposit/

*******

⭐️ Follow the The Mothers and leave a 5-star review if this resonated

💬 Share this episode with someone who needs to hear it

📱 Join The Mothers on Instagram @themotherspod

💼 Find Sara on LinkedIn for more perspectives on work, life, and meaning

✍️ Subscribe to Sara’s Substack (coming soon!)

The Mothers is a production of Backline Media.

On this episode of The Mothers, Sara talks with Dr. Allison Mell – pediatric physical therapist, founder of Tots on Target, and Mother of four (including twins).

Allison set out to build a career that could coexist with a big family. She studied art history, chose a “practical” path in healthcare, and assumed pediatric physical therapy would offer flexibility – until four kids in 5.5 years made the traditional model untenable.

As she scaled back, she began to see a pattern: parents who sensed something was off, but were being brushed off by rushed appointments and rigid systems. Instead of asking families to contort themselves, Allison built care around real life. Through Tots on Target, she now supports hundreds of thousands of families worldwide with virtual developmental care – offering education, observation, and practical guidance for babies and young children, especially when parents are told to “wait and see.”

This is a conversation about instinct, authority, and remembering that when it comes to your child, you’re the team leader – everyone else works for you.

➡️ Learn more about Dr. Mell and the Tots on Target "Tot Spot Membership" at totsontarget.com

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This episode is sponsored by Sage Haus, helping busy households hire vetted, professional House Managers, Family Assistants, and Meal Prep Chefs – whether you need 10 hours a week or 40+.

Learn more at:

👉 https://themothers--sage-haus.thrivecart.com/hiring-services-deposit/

The Mothers earns a small commission from Sage Haus.

⭐️ Follow the The Mothers + leave a 5-star review if it resonated

💬 Share this episode with someone who needs to hear it

📱 Join The Mothers on Instagram @themotherspod

💼 Find Sara on LinkedIn for more perspectives on work, life, and meaning

✍️ Subscribe to Sara’s Substack (coming soon!)

The Mothers is a production of Backline Media.

Amil Niazi is the writer (and Mother of three) behind The Cut’s parenting series “The Hard Part,” exploring the intersection of work and motherhood. Her writing has also appeared in The New York Times, The Guardian, and The Washington Post, and her new book LIFE AFTER AMBITION: A ‘GOOD ENOUGH’ MEMOIR is out now!

In this episode, we talk about authenticity at work, the myth of meritocracy, motherhood as a fast track to self-trust, and what comes after ambition stops being the answer:

Highlights:

• “So many mistakes, fumbles, failures”… and somehow they were the point

• Leaking breast milk at the BBC, nursing in dark corners & realizing she was in the wrong life

• Motherhood as the thing that finally gave her the nerve to choose herself

• Why authenticity matters most when power doesn’t look like you

• The moment meritocracy cracked – and why it never really applied

• The relief (and grief) of redefining “enough”

Purchase Amil’s memoir LIFE AFTER AMBITION here & wherever books are sold! https://a.co/d/6VAWUCN

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This episode is sponsored by Sage Haus, helping busy households hire vetted, professional House Managers, Family Assistants and Meal Prep Chefs – whether you need just 10 hours a week or 40+. A one-time flat fee, white-glove process, and totally customized to your family’s needs. Visit Sage Haus at https://themothers--sage-haus.thrivecart.com/hiring-services-deposit/

Yes, The Mothers earns a small commission on a purchase from Sage Haus. And, YES, we believe in their vision!

Please subscribe & review The Mothers on Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts, and follow us on Instagram ⁠@themotherspod⁠

The Mothers is a production of Backline Media.

Laura Green, perhaps better known as @LauraMcGreen, joins Sara & Vee this week. And honestly thank goodness because it’s been a cold & dark few days in New England and we need some sunshine and levity!

Laura is a comedic content creator in the run space, producing reels that make fun of herself as a lifelong runner and all the quirks that come with that. She loves writing and producing short skits, hosting events, and hanging out with her husband and 3 kids. Oh, and running. She runs a lot. 

In this conversation, we talk about:

- going from a physical therapy career to content creation

- how she was absolutely rocked mentally and physically by the arrival of her first kid

- why she’ll never put her kids in her content (mostly)

- the importance of finding opportunities to take RISKS as we get older

- where she gets the “confidence of a white man” (Kelly, this one’s for you)

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This episode is sponsored by Sage Haus, helping busy households hire vetted, professional House Managers, Family Assistants and Meal Prep Chefs – whether you need just 10 hours a week, or 40+. A one-time flat fee, white-glove process, and totally customized to your family’s needs. Visit Sage Haus at https://themothers--sage-haus.thrivecart.com/hiring-services-deposit/

*Yes, The Mothers earns a small commission on a purchase from Sage Haus. And, YES, we believe in their vision!

*

Please review & subscribe on Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts, and follow us on Instagram ⁠@themotherspod⁠

*

The Mothers is a production of Backline Media.

Pour a drink. Hide the wrapping paper. Lower your expectations.

It’s The Mothers After Dark – an appropriately loopy, end-of-year episode about holiday overwhelm, cultural nonsense, and why the media still can’t figure out how to write parents like actual humans.

Sara & Vee are joined by a very special guest: Lauren Battaglia, the original Mother who helped get The Mothers’ marketing off the ground (and Sara’s outside back in soccer + life). Brains are fried. The elf may or may not have moved. And we have thoughts about ALL HER FAULT.

We get into:

📺 A deep dive into ALL HER FAULT and why its take on mothers, fathers, wealth, and parenting feels lazy, exaggerated, and deeply annoying (but also we had to watch to the end)

👨‍🍼 The tired trope of the helpless dad 

💸 How wealth, class, and access shape parenting

🤝 Why choosing the right partner might be the most underrated career decision a woman makes

😵‍💫 The way cultural narratives pit mothers against each other (PTO moms, one-child moms, working moms – pick your villain)

🎄 The crushing pressure to create “holiday magic” and why it somehow still falls on moms

✨ Finding joy anyway – in small wins, first days (not last days), snowstorms, sneakers, and being good enough

Messy. Honest. A little unhinged. Just like December.

You’re doing great – whether the elf moves or not!

Mentioned in this episode

Sage Haus helps busy households hire vetted, professional House Managers, Family Assistants and Meal Prep Chefs – whether you need just 10 hours a week, or 40+. A one-time flat fee, white-glove process, and totally customized to your family’s needs. Visit Sage Haus at https://themothers--sage-haus.thrivecart.com/hiring-services-deposit/

*Yes, The Mothers earns a small commission on a purchase from Sage Haus. And, YES, we believe in their vision!

The Mothers is a production of Backline Media.

Michelle Heath didn’t just build a career – she pioneered a new model of leadership.

As CEO and Founder of Growth Street, Michelle’s sought-after business advice is the culmination of three decades spent under the hood of hundreds of companies, from early-stage startups to Fortune 500 giants. Her track record includes senior brand, marketing, and customer experience leadership roles at household names like Fidelity Investments, J.P. Morgan, and E*TRADE Financial.

But Michelle came up professionally in an era when working motherhood was invisible, flexibility didn’t exist, and professional ambition came with a cost no one talked about. She climbed corporate ladders built for men. She hid motherhood when she had to – even singing Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo to her toddler from the back of taxis. She endured divorce, burnout, and collapsing startups. And then, instead of opting out, she built again.

In 2013, Michelle jumped off the corporate ladder to found Growth Street – pioneering the fractional growth leadership category and helping companies unlock go-to-market success using her proprietary Unrivaled Growth Framework™, driving more than $100 billion in revenue growth.

In this episode of The Mothers, we talk about ambition without apology, rebuilding after everything falls apart, what it means to build outside a system that was never designed for you, and why that work matters – especially when the next generation is watching:

When a high school boy told her daughter, “Women can’t have their own business,” her daughter didn’t hesitate: “My mom does.”

Pick up Michelle’s new book UNRIVALED, available now in hardcover, e-book, and digital audio. Learn more at https://www.michelleheath.com/unrivaled

Also in this episode:

Sage Haus helps busy households hire vetted, professional House Managers, Family Assistants and Meal Prep Chefs – whether you need just 10 hours a week, or 40+. A one-time flat fee, white-glove process, and totally customized to your family’s needs. Visit Sage Haus at https://themothers--sage-haus.thrivecart.com/hiring-services-deposit/

*Yes, The Mothers earns a small commission on a purchase from Sage Haus. And, YES, we believe in their vision!

The Mothers is a production of Backline Media.

Allison Bates Wannop did everything “right.”

Harvard athlete. Big Law. Prestige. Validation.

And then it stopped making sense.

In this episode of The Mothers, Allison shares how she walked away from a high-status legal career – not toward a perfectly mapped plan, but toward her inner knowing. What followed was a purpose-driven life and career built around alignment instead of achievement, and a redefinition of ambition that leaves space for five kids, deep work, and meaning.

Now a leader in energy policy and VP at Sparkfund, Allison reflects on the seductive pull of shiny paths, the moment you realize old definitions of success no longer fit, and why so many high achievers confuse external validation with worth. She shares the wake-up call that came when she realized her kids had quietly become her “side hustle” – and why that wasn’t going to age well.

This is a conversation about listening – even when the answer disrupts everything.

We explore:

• Why validation feels like worth (until it doesn’t)

• The cost of optimizing your life for the wrong scoreboard

• Trusting your inner knowing when the world is loud

• True calling vs. shiny temptation

• Building a meaningful career within a meaningful life

For anyone questioning the path they’re on – or sensing that the life they built no longer fits – this episode offers permission, clarity, and a different way forward.

🎧 Listen now and follow @themotherspod for behind-the-scenes clips and conversations that remind us we’re all still becoming.

The Mothers is a production of Backline Media.