Pushing Past Polite

As happens to a 42 year old, Laura hurt her shoulder doing absolutely nothing, and the Unisom she took 30+ hours ago to help her sleep off the pain is still lingering at the time of recording. :) Kori and Laura discuss the fatigue and weight of the every day amidst the chaos of the present historical moment. Thus we encourage you to check in on your people - even the hormone gremlins going through...

Who needs to hear how to reclaim their power? Share this episode with people in your life that would benefit ( pushingpastpolitepodcast.com ) and talk about it together! Give us a review on your podcast app, engage with our posts on Instagram , Facebook , TikTok , and YouTube so other folks can find us.  Dr. Lisa Mazzio , Clinical Psychologist and Owner of Watermark Psychological Services in...

2025 is no joke y’all, and community is CRITICAL to survival. You know one way to build community? Share this episode with a like-minded friend from our website ( pushingpastpolitepodcast.com ) and talk about it! Give us a review on your podcast app, engage with our posts on Instagram , Facebook , TikTok , and YouTube so other folks can find us.  On Episode 33, we start by talking about all t...

2025 is here, y’all and it’s our 2-year podcast-a-versary! You know the best gift you could give us? A review and a follow - and sharing an episode with a friend! Our website is pushingpastpolitepodcast.com, and you can find us on Instagram , Facebook , TikTok , and YouTube @pushingpastpolite) On Episode 32, we acknowledge how 2025 started off with a bang - raging wildfires in California and an ic...

Happy holidays! You know the best gift you could give us? A review and a follow - and sharing an episode with a friend! Our website is pushingpastpolitepodcast.com, and you can find us on Instagram , Facebook , TikTok , and YouTube @pushingpastpolite) On Episode 31, we have our first actual guest! Our dear mutual friend Jared joins us and shares so much wisdom - from why men need longer hugs to wh...

Happy gratitude season! We’d be ever so grateful if you’d follow us on social media (@pushingpastpolite on Instagram , Facebook , TikTok , and YouTube ), drop us a rating and review, and share episodes with your friends! On Episode 30, our trio of Kori, Keith, Laura focus on gratitude. They share what they’re grateful for - including family, friends, and the podcast as well as Kerrygold butter, Co...

Episode 29 kicks off with Kori anticipating the fatigue and stress that is hosting sleepovers for little ones. Laura thinks she’s lost her mind, hosting toddlers and preschoolers for a sleepover. Not even caffeine and wine can save you. We all agree that whoever put Halloween, Daylight Savings, and Election Day in the same week clearly hates us. We spend most of our time debriefing our lack of sur...

Kori shares the joys of having young kids in school for the first time. Germy, nasty funk. And they reminisced about the wonderful experience of attending a wedding where Laura was supporting her client, the father of the bride named Tony who is one of Kori’s oldest friends. Not only did Laura get to see Kori and her husband and sons, but she got to meet her parents, Joni and Dr. Chip! <Swoon&g...

Laura and Kori finally are able to connect and recap after several months of life moving at the speed of a million WTFs per hour. 🙂Last time we chatted, Joe Biden was campaigning for president, Hurricane Helene hadn’t hit Appalachia yet, and Eminem wasn’t a grandfather. In our personal lives, we chat about Kori's work with the National School Climate Center, her beloved housecleaner, preschool ad...

Season 4 starts now! Keith joins Laura and Kori to touch base mid-summer because Lord, y’all - so much is happening!  The three discuss the tension of living our individual lives with its daily rhythms, routines, and pressing “must dos” while acknowledging the big picture things happening in our world that we just cannot ignore! And boy oh boy are we tired of living in unprecedented times! Po...

Episode 25 continues the conversation from Episode 24, focused on sharing the characteristics of White Supremacy Culture (WSC). We review the 15 characteristics from Tema Okun’s seminal work and then continue to unpack ways in which we see WSC in ourselves, in our society, and institutions. Examples include the prevalence of white men in positions of power in our workplaces. Laura shares her relat...

Episode 24 begins with misheard lyrics from a Jay Z and Alicia Keys song (thanks Popcast podcast). It makes no sense and isn’t appropriate for all audiences but you can’t unhear it. Kori asks if Laura’s heard Beyonce’s new Cowboy Carter album and phew! Has she ever! The backlash against Beyonce was the PERFECT segue into our topic for this pod - and next pod as we talked for a long time. Drum roll...

Episode 23 begins with a raunchy smell and a diaper change. Aren’t you glad this is a strictly audio medium and not smell-o-vision? Like the poop in Kori’s son’s diaper, we discuss the less-than-fragrant choices at the top of the ticket this November. That said, Laura is encouraged by the ever-so-slight, but significant movement she’s seen among U.S. leaders on Gaza. We have more power than we rea...

Episode 22 starts out with Laura getting a little picked on for quirks she didn’t know she had - ha! Today, the three musketeers (yes, Keith too) talk about their “sacred texts” - art that they come back to over and over again - movies, TV shows, quotes, books, music. You name it! We use this conversation as a way to better understand each other as friends - and reflect on the power of art to conn...

No small talk today. Laura and Kori begin the episode by commenting on Nazis marching down the streets of Nashville during Black History Month. Kori apologizes for her female-version of a Barry White voice after conducting trainings all week. Laura admits her naivety about how XYZ bad thing couldn’t happen here in the U.S. because of our founding principles, realizing how vulnerable our democracy...

There are more than a few interjections of cute kiddo voices this episode, friends - including a baby voice flashback. Brace yourself for cuteness! In Episode 20, Kori, Laura, and Keith reflect on pivotal mentors in their lives - from academic influences to professionals who championed them to friends who’ve helped them through tough stages. You’ll meet Kori’s grandma (yes the fat phobic one); for...

Y’all - as promised - we got our moderate amount of Keith! Whoop whoop! After sharing plans for an upcoming Chuck E. Cheese birthday party, Kori, Laura, and Keith interrogate sh*t they used to believe and ways they’ve evolved over time. Topics discussed include hell, organized religion, proselytizing, marriage equality, abortion rhetoric, fat shaming and the Body Mass Index (BMI), therapy, expirat...

Kori and Laura recorded this season opener in the same physical room. Can you believe it?? Speaking of physicals, the gals delve into their experiences and best practices in preparing to see their doctors. They are grateful to have practitioners whom they trust, but also emphasize the importance of self-advocacy in medical decisions. Kori tells the story of food allergies, discovering a pain in he...

Episode 17 begins with several Laura brain farts. Good thing Kori and Keith are patient. Once she gathers her wits, Laura shares two things positively impacting her mood - cabinet installation day at her house and the Golden Bachelor finale! Makes her feel all warm and fuzzy under a blanket of gratitude. Kori shares a new prompt she’s been asking her preschool son - Did you help anyone today? - to...

Episode 16 starts off with Kori sharing how her preschooler has started creatively dropping f bombs, which we adopt throughout the episode. It’s holiday time, and the gals (and Keith) share a bit about their traditions, memory making, and intentions for the season. Conversion includes decorating for Halloween, putting up numerous Christmas trees and enjoying the glow for as long as possible ( Good...

Episode 15 is a minipod because life has bowled us over.  Fall is so very full and intense, and we know you know. Given our limited time, we wanted to encourage listeners to raise their voices in two important ways - to call for a ceasefire in Gaza and to exercise their right to vote in elections. First, Laura encourages us to not look away, and Kori reminds us that empathy is like a muscle t...

Kori starts things off with a bang - or rather a toot - relaying her latest mom-of-toddler antics, and Laura shares briefly her family vacation that involved Disney and dolphins. While Laura was in the happiest place on earth, Gaza experienced brutal attacks, bringing both Kori and Laura to tears - and feelings of anger. In this episode, the women acknowledge the complexity and nuance this topic d...

Keith and Laura share their experiences as adult children of divorce and Kori asks great questions and shares her noticings. We discuss infidelity, growing in maturity as well as growing apart, mental health and the impact of treatment, financial dependence, and sudden endings to what we considered solid ground for our whole lives. We all agree that it’s hard to think of our parents as flawed peop...

Episode 12 kicks off with an improvised greeting from Laura’s youngest kiddo (who has a fascination with a certain ocean animal and palindromes on the clock, as you’ll discover in a bit). Kori shares a memory of 1990s Mervyn’s commercials, and then the gals quickly dive into their perspectives on positive affirmations. Kori’s early exposure to universal connectedness and the law of attraction star...

Kori and Laura take their vulnerability a step further - from sharing about pregnancy to birth stories and what we did with our placentas. Two different, yet chaotic birth stories (one almost didn’t make it and one got sent home due to failed induction) and our subsequent plans that involved scheduled c-sections and a vasectomy for our partner, respectively. Laura shares a trait in common with Sha...