The Paula Faris Show

I’m kicking off a month of conversations about COLLEGE with Harlan Cohen, best-selling author and college expert.  We're talking about everything from admissions and finding the right fit to letting go, parenting from a distance, and navigating the holidays when your college kids come home. In Episode 1: What if getting your kid into the “right” college isn’t actually the goal? The college ad...

We all have people we love who make choices we wouldn’t make. And often, our instinct is to step in to warn, fix, protect, or even save them from themselves. But where’s the line between loving someone well and trying to control the outcome? In the final episode of my month-long series about CONTROL with my good friend, NYT bestselling author Lysa TerKeurst, we’re talking about spouses, kids, adul...

We all say the same thing: “I’m just trying to help.”  But what if sometimes our helping is actually controlling? (slowly raising my hand, here)  In Episode 3 of my month-long series about CONTROL with my good friend, NYT bestselling author Lysa TerKeurst, we’re putting this whole responsibility-vs.-control question to the test. I throw real-life scenarios at Lysa, from checking Fin...

If I don’t do it, it won’t get done. Sound familiar? In Episode 2 of my month-long series about CONTROL with my good friend, NYT bestselling author Lysa TerKeurst, we’re talking about the crushing weight so many women carry: the belief that everything depends on us. Do our families even realize how much we’re carrying? And have we inadvertently trained them to expect us to carry it? We talk about...

Am I a control freak? Absolutely. 😂 But here’s the question I wanted to talk about with my good friend, NYT bestselling author Lysa TerKeurst: Aren’t we ALL a little bit controlling? And is control actually a bad thing? All month long, we’re talking about control and how it shows up in our lives, especially as women.  Because the constant need for control wreaks havoc on our bodies, our soci...

When do you fight for a friendship and when do you walk away? For the finale of our series on social health, Liz Bohannon and I are putting on our Dear Abby hats and tackling the friendship questions you sent us: conflict, exclusion, betrayal, gossip, growing apart, toxic friendships, and the heartbreak of losing someone you've loved for years. What if you've simply outgrown your friend group? Wha...

Why do our circles tend to get smaller as we get older? You told us your struggles about moving and finding yourself far away from the people you love. About how much harder it is to make new friends. About feeling excluded. And about the surprisingly complicated question of what happens when you love your friend but don't love their kids. So in Episode 4 of our series on social health, Liz Bohann...

“I just can’t find my people.” We heard some version of that over and over from you. Maybe you’ve moved. Maybe your closest friends live across the country. Maybe you have plenty of people around you, but still don’t have the kind of deep, vulnerable friendships you’re craving. So in Episode 3 of our series on social health, Liz Bohannon and I get very specific about how you actually find your peo...

Why am I always the one reaching out?” That was hands down, by far the biggest complaint we heard from you when we asked about friendship. The texts that go unanswered. The friends who say, “We need to get together!” but never actually make a plan. The feeling that if you stopped reaching out, the friendship might just… disappear. So in Episode 2 of our series on social health, Liz Bohannon and I...

What if one of the most important things you can do for your health has nothing to do with what you eat, how much you exercise, or how many hours you sleep? It might be your relationships. I'm kicking off a month-long series on social health with my friend Liz Bohannon, and we're starting with the big question: Why do we treat friendship and connection like an optional extra, a “bonus”, when resea...

I pulled an audible this week, and I'm so glad I did. My hubby John was supposed to join me for another episode about sending our daughter off to college. Instead, he went golfing (on a 90-degree day, no less), so I called one of my closest friends, Michelle, and asked her to jump on the podcast with about an hour's notice.  You’ll love Michelle! She’s a preschool teacher, a mom of three, and...

Well…we dropped Caroline off at college. And I’m not gonna lie…. it’s been a week. I knew I would be emotional. I just didn’t realize how emotional I’d be after we left. The actual drop-off was surprisingly easy. But then you come home, walk past their empty bedroom, smell their pajamas because they still smell like them (yes, I did that), and it hits you: this chapter of childhood is over. This w...

As we drop off our oldest child at college this week, we’re having the conversation every family eventually faces. People try to prepare you for this moment. They really do. But I don’t think anything truly prepares you for letting go. And I want to be honest…we’re not coming at this from a place of having all the answers. This week, my husband John, our daughter Caroline, and I talk through what...

I'm back after my annual July hiatus, and we've got a lot to catch up on. John is turning 50, we checked Europe off our family's bucket list, and I'm finally learning to play golf (I am still terrible LOL).  But let's be honest: as much as we love summer and our kids by August, we're ready for the routine that school brings. We're talking about birthdays, bucket-list memories, why golf might...

Youth sports are out of control. And the worst part? We might be part of the problem. Spoiler alert: I know I am. I’m the mom with a packed sports calendar, a trunk full of Chick-fil-A, and a competitive streak that sometimes gets the best of me. Guilty as charged. I’m also a coach's wife, so this topic hits close to home.  We’re closing out Momfessions, our month-long series where we’ve said the...

We’re back with a Momfessions confession that might hit close to home: are we accidentally raising sons who expect too much from women?  I’m joined by my teammate at CARRY Media, Kristen White, a mom of three boys, for a candid conversation about the messages our sons absorb about work, caregiving, and what they should expect from a future partner. Oof. We’re going there. Between the two of us, we...

I’ve always said: boys are a heart attack and girls are a heartache. And if you’ve ever rushed a son to the ER or helped your daughter navigate friendship drama, you probably know exactly what I mean We’re back with Momfessions–our month-long series, talking about how we really feel about some of parenting's biggest, hottest topics. And I’m joined by my teammate at CARRY Media, Kristen White, a mo...

We’re back with Momfessions–—our month-long series, talking about how we really feel about some of parenting's biggest, hottest topics. And I’m joined by my teammate at CARRY Media, Kristen White, a mom to three boys.  This week: Why Summer Isn't a Break. We spend all year dreaming about summer, but when it finally arrives, many of us are juggling childcare, camps, schedules, work, guilt, and the...

All month long, Kristen White and I are sharing our Momfessions – how we really feel about some of parenting’s biggest, messiest, most talked-about topics. Kristen is my teammate at CARRY Media and a boy mom to three boys, so trust me: we have thoughts. First up: Maycember. You know…the month we just survived. But barely.  It’s the month that feels like December-level chaos but delivers exactly no...

I knew this would be emotional.  I just didn’t realize it would be this hard. In the final episode of my I Wish Someone Had Told Me series, I’m sitting down with Niro Feliciano—a mom of four who’s already been through this—to talk about my daughter’s graduation…and honestly, I’m a hot mess. People can try to explain what the moment is like, but until you’re in it, it’s hard to fully comprehend. So...

There was a season not long ago when I didn’t feel like myself at all. Overwhelmed. Emotional. In a really dark place. No one really prepares you for this part. Perimenopause isn’t just hot flashes and mood swings; it can quietly impact your mental health in ways you don’t expect. Even though I could point to many of the reasons… I wasn’t at all prepared for how deeply it would affect me. In this...

We tell our kids to get off their phones…But, um, if we’re honest, we’re often the worst offenders. 🤭 So how do we actually build healthy, sustainable phone habits that work in real life? In part two of my I Wish Someone Had Told Me series, I’m back with psychotherapist Niro Feliciano, and we’re not just naming the problem—we’re talking about how to fix it. We talk about: Why adults actually have...

There’s a shift happening. For the first time, we’re seeing legal accountability for social media companies, growing cultural pushback on screen time, and even the return of something we thought was gone for good—the landline!  All of it pointing to one question: what are phones actually doing to our kids? We gave them for all the right reasons: safety, connection, convenience. But we know more no...

Let’s answer the questions everyone asks about the Enneagram: Can your type change? Why do your results keep changing? What if you relate to more than one type? We’re wrapping up our month-long series with Enneagram expert and author Ian Morgan Cron by getting clear on what actually matters about the Enneagram. This isn’t about traits. It’s about motivation: why you do what you do. We get into mis...

You’re not fighting about what you think you’re fighting about. We’re continuing our month-long Enneagram series with Ian Morgan Cron, and this one hits close to home. When it comes to Enneagram types, there are no bad pairings, but there are patterns that quietly wear relationships down. What if the tension in your marriage isn’t personal? What if it’s predictable? Using the Enneagram as a parent...