AI-Empowered Mom

There is a particular kind of exhaustion that comes from doing everything and still feeling like it is never enough. In this episode, host Sarah Dooley sits down with Courtney Cecil, founder of Working Moms Movement and host of The Life Management System podcast, to talk about why so much of the friction in family life traces back to one quiet question: what do you actually value? Courtney brings...

Sunday evening used to mean a couple of hours of planning for Melissa Regan : cookbooks spread across the counter, kids' schedules stacked up, a running list of things to figure out before Monday arrived. Now that same setup takes a fraction of the time, and the hours she reclaims go straight back to her family.   Melissa is an executive coach and consultant who works with leaders and sales te...

AI might already be helping you with meals, trips, reminders here and there. But what if it could do more? What if AI could hold the whole context of your life, your family's food restrictions, your career goals, your startup pitch, even your partner's job search, so you don't have to carry it all in your head?   Toni Toomey is the founder of Hone , a premium postpartum apparel brand launching thi...

Have you ever thought about where "mom guilt" actually comes from? JoAnn Crohn, founder of No Guilt Mom, references Dr. Jennifer Reid's "guilt equation" to help decode it: your expectations of what a good mom looks like, minus what you are actually able to do on any given day, and that gap is where your guilt lives. The fix is not to do more. It is to look carefully at wher...

If you've ever stared at your resume and thought "wasn't AI supposed to be able to help me with this?" -- this episode is for you.   Career strategist, career resilience expert, and triple certified master resume writer Emily Kapit of Refresh Your Step joins host Sarah Dooley to talk through the real dos and don'ts of using AI for your career documents. Emily and her team wor...

Mother's Day is one of those days that arrives with a lot of assumptions. Before we get into anything else: however today is landing for you, you belong here. This episode is a gift from host Sarah Dooley to all the parents and caregivers out there carrying a mental load. Five AI habits. Real use. No tech background required. Just the things Sarah has been doing for a long time that have genuinely...

What happens when a Google Cloud layoff becomes the push you needed to finally write your book? Wanjiku Kamau did exactly that, and she did it in 90 days, with AI helping her find her voice every step of the way. Wanjiku is a tech veteran, fractional COO, AI consultant, and now a published author. Her book, "Out of the Loop, Into the Algorithm: How I Finally Made Friends with AI," came out of one...

Every summer, the spreadsheets come out. Color-coded, multi-tab, shared-by-text-message calendars that somehow still miss a school closure or a registration deadline. This week on , host Sarah Dooley sits down with Nicole Hamlin , the Austin-based founder of JustLiv, a platform built to take kids' activity scheduling off the list of things parents have to manage manually.   Nicole spent 17 years i...

People are forming romantic relationships with AI. A licensedtherapist is watching it happen in real sessions, with real clients.   In this episode, Sarah sits down with Catia Hernandez Holm,licensed marriage and family therapist, conscious parenting coach, TEDx speaker, and founder of Bright Light Marriage and Family Therapy in Wimberley, Texas. Catia works with individuals, couples, and families...

If you have ever applied for a job and heard nothing back,there is a good chance AI screened you out before any human saw your name.   In this episode, Sarah sits down with Kate Crane, founder ofDirection Over Perfection and a former people leader at DoorDash, Flock Safety, and OpenTable. Kate has spent 10 years in tech hiring and managing teams, andnow coaches job seekers at every stage of their...

It is National AI Literacy Day. And this morning, before host Sarah Dooley had even sat down with her coffee, her daughters were already practicing it at the breakfast table. In this solo episode, Sarah shares the five things she wants every parent and caregiver to know about AI in 2026. No guests. No interview Just a real, honest conversation about where families actually stand right now. Whether...

What if the real problem isn't that you don't have time for yourself, but that you've never been given permission to want it? This week, host Sarah Dooley sits down with Christine Landis , creator of Peacock Parent and Proxy, for one of the most honest conversations the podcast has had about self-care, mental load, and what your time is actually worth. Christine is a founder, a parent, a partner,...

What happens when three adult sisters and their dad pack up their AI tools and head to Ireland to trace their roots? Spoiler: some of it is magical, some of it is genuinely terrifying, and all of it is honest. In this episode, host Sarah Dooley sits down with her sister, Dr. Caitlin Sutton, for one of the most personal and laugh-out-loud conversations the podcast has had. Caitlin is an obstetric,...

So you have Copilot at work. But you are just not sure what to actually do with it...   In this episode, Sarah sits down with Roger Campbell II, founder of Gemstack and the AI Business Foundry and one of the country's leading Microsoft Copilot adoption experts. Roger has a background that spans software engineering, coding bootcamps, and enterprise education. He spent years teaching others how...

Something big is happening right now in the world of AI, in the words of entrepreneur Matt Shumer. And if you've had that low-level hum of "I should probably be paying more attention to this," you're not alone.   In this episode, host Sarah Dooley is joined by Greg and Danielle Neufeld , co-hosts of The Most Important Thing podcast and partners in life, parenting, and business. T...

When was the last time someone asked what your favorite ice cream is and you actually knew the answer? In this episode, host Sarah Dooley sits down with Dr. Julie Fernandes , an occupational therapist, coach, and mom of three, to talk about what it really means to restore yourself after years of pouring into everyone else.   Julie brings her OT lens to family life in the most grounding way. We tal...

What if the relationship that helps you navigate parenting isn’t with another person, but with AI? In this Galentine’s Day special episode, Sarah Dooley sits down with Alexandra Samuel ,AI and workplace speaker, Wall Street Journal and Harvard Business Review contributor, and host of the Me + Viv podcast, to explore what it really means to build a relationship with AI. Alexandra shares her journey...

"I ended up in the hospital." Ekaterina Konovalova was spending $2,000 a month on tutors and therapists, driving her daughter to appointments five days a week, trying to be the perfect wife who cooks fresh meals and keeps a spotless house. She was managing her career, her family, and her household until she collapsed. A severe migraine. Dehydration. The hospital. That's when she and her husband ma...

Reddhi Patel is a cultural architect in her bi-cultural family. She's not just planning celebrations or explaining traditions. She's translating between two worlds, bridging cultures, and carrying what she calls "the beauty and burden" of this invisible work. In this conversation, Reddhi shares the ice hockey metaphor that explains her mental load: while her partner scores the goals, she's "active...

Stepfamilies navigate a level of emotional, cognitive, and logistical complexity that most parenting advice was never designed to address. In this episode of the AI-Empowered Mom podcast, Sarah Dooley is joined by Cameron Normand , CEO of Stepfamily Solutions and host of The Stepmom Diaries podcast, for an honest, research-based conversation about what stepfamilies really need to thrive. Cameron s...

Camp season has a way of pushing parents to the edge. Endless tabs, forgotten logins, waitlists that fill in minutes, and group chats that never sleep. In this episode of the AI-Empowered Mom podcast, host Sarah Dooley sits down with Molly Morse, co-founder of Recess , to talk about why planning camps and activities has become so chaotic and how it can finally get easier. Molly shares how becoming...

In this episode of the AI-Empowered Mom podcast, host Sarah Dooley is joined by sociologist and author Allison Daminger to unpack the invisible mental work that keeps families running and why it still falls so heavily on women. Drawing from her book What’s on Her Mind? The Mental Workload of Family Life , Allison explains how traditional measures of household labor miss the constant anticipating,...

When AI can design almost anything, where does human creativity still matter? In this episode of the AI‑Empowered Mom Podcast, host Sarah Dooley sits down with Deanna L. Leonard , fractional CMO, AI strategy leader, and one of LinkedIn’s Top 100 AI Creative Educators. Deanna shares her journey from lifelong artist and corporate marketing executive to teaching AI confidence to midlife women and adv...

Smartphones, group chats, gaming, YouTube, social media, and screen safety are now part of everyday parenting. In this episode of the AI-Empowered Mom podcast , digital parenting expert Sarah Gallagher-Trombley joins host Sarah Dooley to help parents navigate digital life with confidence and clarity. Sarah shares her path from tech executive to founder of Digital Mom Media , where she supports fam...

In this episode of AI-Empowered Mom, host Sarah Dooley sits down with executive image consultant, speaker, and author Morgan Wider for a transformational conversation about confidence, presence, and the untold power of personal style. Together they explore how women can show up with clarity and authority in every season of motherhood and career, and why the clothes we choose play a deeper role in...