Girl, Wake Up!

College planning is stressful for any family–but when parents are divorced, separated, remarried, widowed or parenting on their own, the process can get even more complicated. In this episode of Girl, Wake Up!, Amy talks with Vicki Vollweiler, founder of College Financial Prep and author of College Planning for Divorced & Widowed Parents , about what families need to know before the tuition bi...

What happens when a woman takes the blank canvas of life after divorce and starts creating something entirely new? In this Divorce Success Story episode of Girl, Wake Up! , Amy sits down with Dee Dee Colabella, a Ridgefield, Connecticut entrepreneur, art gallery owner and owner of 068 Magazine, whose life after divorce became a story of creativity, courage and reinvention. Dee Dee has built a vibr...

In this episode of Girl, Wake Up! , Amy sits down with author Meg Groff for a raw and eye-opening conversation about the realities of family court. Meg’s book pulls back the curtain on a system many women enter believing truth, evidence, and good parenting will be enough — only to discover that family court can become its own crisis. Together, Amy and Meg talk about what happens when the legal pro...

Digital abuse is not just “online drama.” It can be a form of control, intimidation, blackmail and domestic abuse. In this episode of Girl, Wake Up! , Amy sits down with attorney Lindsay Lieberman, who represents survivors of sexual misconduct, cyber-sex crimes, harassment, sextortion, image-based sexual abuse, blackmail and Title IX violations. Lindsay explains how cyber-abuse often shows up insi...

Today’s episode of Girl, Wake Up! drops on publication day for Meg Stone’s new book, Don’t Fight Back: And 10 Other Myths About Crime, Personal Safety, and Gender-Based Violence. Meg, Executive Director of IMPACT Boston, joins Amy for an eye-opening conversation about the sexist safety myths women have been taught for generations–and what real empowerment actually looks like. We talk about fear, g...

Divorce can be the best thing that ever happened to you. In this episode of Girl, Wake Up! , Amy talks with Linda Stephens, a clinical nutritionist, IFBB Pro athlete, and nationally recognized women’s health expert, about how her 2017 divorce became the beginning of a powerful reinvention. What started as a painful life transition became an opportunity to get honest about what she wanted, step int...

For many women, the family home feels like the heart of the family–the place tied to stability, memories and the future they imagined. But in divorce, decisions about the house can quickly become complicated, emotional, and financially risky. In this episode of Girl, Wake Up! , Divorce Coach Amy Polacko is joined by mortgage advisor and Certified Divorce Lending Professional John Marroni to talk a...

Too many women enter divorce believing family court will be the place where fairness finally shows up. Instead, many find a system that is expensive, exhausting, slow and often blind to power imbalances playing out behind closed doors. In this episode of Girl, Wake Up! , Amy sits down with Chicago divorce attorney and mediator Kimberly Cook for a candid conversation about why family court so often...

Betrayal doesn’t just break your heart, it can break your sense of reality. In this episode of Girl, Wake Up! , we’re unpacking betrayal trauma–why it’s so uniquely devastating and what it actually does to your mind and body when trust is shattered. Amy is joined by Dr. Jill Manning, a leading expert in betrayal trauma, to talk about the real impact of infidelity, secrecy and hidden behaviors–and...

Feminism is at a turning point. For years, women were told we were making steady progress—that equality was inevitable. But in today’s world, many of those assumptions are being challenged. Rights are being rolled back. Misogyny feels louder. And women are left asking: Was that progress real—or were we sold a version of empowerment that didn’t fully protect us? In this episode of Girl, Wake Up! ,...

In my work, I help a lot of women who are escaping coercive control—and that often includes financial abuse. Often for years, they’ve been kept in the dark, shut out of accounts or made to feel like they don’t need to understand the money. And then, when divorce begins, things don’t just feel confusing… they start disappearing. Even if you have felt like you knew where the family assets were, they...

Violence against women is often described as unpredictable. But according to one of the world’s leading criminologists, that couldn’t be further from the truth. In this episode of Girl, Wake Up!, Amy speaks with Laura Richards, a global expert on coercive control, stalking and risk assessment. Richards has spent decades studying the patterns behind men’s violence and the warning signs that are too...

For generations, rings symbolized a promise to someone else. Now, more women are wearing them for a different reason–and the term “divorce ring” isn’t always strong enough. That’s where the F-You Ring comes in. It’s a growing term among women who choose to mark the end of a relationship not with silence or shame–but with a symbol of independence. In this episode of Girl, Wake Up! , Amy speaks with...

What happens when a woman fights back–and survives? In this powerful episode of Girl, Wake Up! , Amy sits down with Michelle Horton, author of Dear Sister , to unpack the story of Michelle’s sister, Nikki Addimando, who was incarcerated after defending herself against her abusive partner. This conversation is bigger than one case. It’s about a system that routinely misunderstands coercive control,...

Midlife isn’t a breakdown. It’s a wake-up call. In this honest and eye-opening episode of Girl, Wake Up! , I sit down with Dina Alvarez and Dina Aronson, co-authors of Midlife Private Parts , to talk about what really happens to women in their 40s and 50s-physically, emotionally, sexually and psychologically-and why so many of us feel blindsided. Because no one prepared us. No one told us perimeno...

Narcissistic abuse doesn’t begin with cruelty. It begins with connection. In this episode of Girl, Wake Up!, Amy Polacko sits down with licensed psychotherapist Vanessa Reiser, LCSW, to unpack how narcissists condition, confuse and trap even the smartest, strongest women– and what it actually takes to break free. Vanessa is the author of Narcissistic Abuse: A Therapist’s Guide to Identifying, Esca...

The ways in which film & television portray women on TV are NOT accidental. In this new podcast episode of Girl, Wake Up! award-winning Los Angeles producer Aliza Rosen takes us behind the scenes of media, storytelling and power to expose how narratives about women are shaped, softened, edited and sometimes erased altogether. From Hollywood to headlines, who gets believed, who gets framed and...

Prenups aren’t about planning for divorce–they’re about planning for yourself . In this episode of Girl, Wake Up! , host Amy Polacko sits down with family law attorney and Prenup Queen Deveney Wells-Gibson for a no-BS conversation about money, marriage, and women’s power. Together, they break down why financial clarity is one of the most radical forms of self-respect-and why more women are choosin...

Starting over isn’t a failure—it’s a declaration. In this episode of Girl, Wake Up!, Amy Polacko is joined by Olivia Howell, founder of Fresh Starts Registry, to talk about why rebuilding your life after divorce is one of the bravest things a woman can do. Olivia created Fresh Starts Registry after her own split, when she realized how little support exists for women starting over quietly, without...

If you’ve ever dimmed your light to fit in or keep the peace, this is your sign– it’s time to stop staying small. So many women aren’t playing small because they lack confidence. They’re doing it because they were taught to. In the second episode of the official podcast Girl, Wake Up! , Amy Polacko sits down with Erin Gallagher, creator of the Hype Women movement, to unpack how patriarchy thrives...

What if the most dangerous men don’t look dangerous at all? In the launch episode of Amy Polacko's new podcast, Girl, Wake Up!, we go inside the real story of Dirty John with Tonia Bales, the first wife of the man who would later become infamous as one of America’s most notorious con artists and predators. Long before podcasts, Netflix series and headlines, Tonia lived this story from the inside....

Girl, Wake Up! is for women who’ve realized the systems were never built to protect us. Join award-winning journalist and divorce/life coach Amy Polacko as she moves past feel-good empowerment and into what actually works: strategy, clarity, and self-reliance. We talk honestly about relationships, money, divorce, power, and self-preservation. Because waiting to be saved isn’t a plan. Premiering Ja...