MESSmerized - Funny and faith based encouragement in marriage , family , Christian parenting , and finding purpose

This week, Cynthia and Melissa catch up on everything from ambulance rides and college move-out day to porch geese, peptides, protein goals, and why neither of them can pretend to care about the World Cup anymore. Melissa shares the story behind her recent car accident (and the surprisingly attractive ambulance crew), while Cynthia relives her own ambulance horror story involving a stretcher appar...

Well... this was supposed to be our Father's Day episode. Then summer happened. Life got a little unhinged (in the best of ways), and Father's Day came and went before we could get it out. Which, as it turns out, is fitting for a conversation about parenting, grief, family, and trusting God when things don't go according to plan. This week I sat down with my friend Jonathan Pitts, and...

Welcome to MESSmerized! 🎤🎉 A quick note before we begin . . . If you're one of the many new friends who recently joined us via email, I'm so glad you're here. Every week we talk about faith, family, relationships, and all the messy places where real life meets God's goodness. My hope is that you'll leave encouraged, challenged, and reminded that God is at work—even in the ord...

If you've ever looked at your marriage and thought, We're fine... but this could be better, this two-part series is for you. Today, Arlene Pellicane reminds us that small actions repeated over time create big results and that healthy marriages are usually strengthened—or weakened—not by dramatic moments, but by the little things we do every day.  Arlene shares some surprisingly doable ways...

This is the last week of our Mother’s Day Month of episodes, and we’re ending with a conversation that I think so many moms need to hear. This week I’m joined by my friend Somer Colbert to talk about parenting, expectations, fear, faith, and what it looks like to trust God when the journey doesn’t unfold the way we imagined. Whether you're raising a neurodivergent child or walking closely alon...

It’s Mother’s Day Month on Messmerized , and this week I’m bringing on one of my very favorite mom friends, Stephanie Martin. If you’ve ever wondered what it actually looks like to follow Jesus in the middle of real life—busy schedules, motherhood, distractions, exhaustion, comparison, guilt, and all—this conversation is for you. Stephanie is one of those people who genuinely loves being in God’s...

If you’ve ever cried after dropping a kid at college and then immediately enjoyed the quiet house and clean kitchen… this episode is for you. I sit down with my friend, speaker, and longtime Pardon the Mess host Courtney DeFeo for a conversation that somehow covers Target boycotts, Auburn obsession, empty nesting, insecurity, friendship boundaries, and the emotional climate of your home—all while...

Happy Mother’s Day week, friends. Truly—sending you lots of love this week. 💐 Now before I say anything else… I implore you to listen to this episode. Consider this your Mother’s Day gift from me. It is that good. Like sit-in-the-car-after-it-ends-because-you-need-a-minute good. I sat down with Sharon Mankin, and it turned into one of those conversations that stirs something in you. At the core,...

With Mother’s Day around the corner, I’m kicking off a month of conversations focused on moms and the people we love most—and it felt only right to start by bringing on one of my own kids. So I sat down with Kate (my daughter) and Molly (her “great friend,”)—who showed up in matching bonnets from the Dollar Store… which honestly tells you everything you need to know about how this episode starts....

Today’s episode starts with my youngest… accidentally macing the entire second floor of our house. If you haven’t heard this story, you’re missing out. And then, naturally, we pivot to: are we raising kids who can actually handle life? I sat down with my friends from Raising Boys & Girls, David Thomas and Sissy Goff, and we talked about why so many kids today feel overwhelmed, anxious, and hon...

Today’s show is an important one—and we’re covering a topic I’ve never brought on the podcast before. I sat down with Sallye Clark, a licensed counselor who specializes in eating disorders, to talk about something that touches so many families. We unpack the difference between eating disorders and disordered eating, and why that distinction matters. What struck me is how often this isn’t really ab...

I think we need a drum roll . . . like seriously. 🥁🥁🥁🥁 Today on the show we have Jon Acuff. And let me just start by saying—I’m a HUGE Jon Acuff fan. And today’s show feels a little bit like a redemption story for me, because the first time I had him on, I didn’t fully know who I was talking to (which still makes me laugh/cry a little). Since then, I’ve read the books, listened to his podcast,...

Hey Friends, Happy Easter Week! 🐣🌷✝️ I hope you’re enjoying this week and finding a few quiet moments to slow down and really consider all that Jesus has done for us. I know how easy it is to rush right past it—we’ve heard the story, we know how it ends—but I hope we’re all pausing and stepping back to consider Holy Week again with fresh eyes. On the podcast today is one of my faves—a pastor fro...

As you know, I’m taking a little time away this week for spring break with my family—which means slower mornings, later nights, and me pretending I’m a fun, flexible person who doesn’t actually need a routine to survive. So today, I’m dropping a recent episode from one of my other podcasts, Sidetracked , with my co-host Heather MacFadyen. If you’ve never listened, just know this: there is no outli...

Spring break is happening at the Yanof house, which means I’m headed to San Diego with some of my crew. And yes, we’re going to the zoo. I want the record to reflect I’m selflessly going to walk 12 miles, wonder why every creature in the entire park seems to be either asleep or hiding behind a rock, and question my life decisions (while also holding my nose). But it’s all in the name of being a go...

Tiffany Stein joins me on the podcast today for a vulnerable and thoughtful conversation about grief, disappointment, and what it looks like to keep wrestling toward God when life falls apart. Tiffany shares the heartbreaking story behind her book Mourning God after losing her infant son, David, and how that loss led her into not only grief over what she had lost, but also grief over the God she t...

Kari and I are back for week two —and this time we’re talking dating from the girl-mom vs. boy-mom perspective. We start by admitting the obvious: most of us got approximately zero dating advice from our parents, so we learned “the hard way”…plus a sprinkle of questionable magazine wisdom. We get into what we hope our kids look for—without turning dating into an interview process: someone pursuing...

Well, I went to A&M last weekend to see Brett and speak to the loveliest group of women, and let me just say: visiting girls in college versus boys is a completely different experience. Completely. Different. More on that on today’s show. Today’s guest is Kari Kampakis—or the “raising girls whisperer,” as I like to call her. She is so wise, steady, and incredibly helpful when it comes to under...

Mary Marantz joins me on MESSmerized today, and this was such a thoughtful, encouraging conversation. We talk about how we both went to law school and ultimately chose paths that didn’t necessarily make sense on paper, but aligned much more with how God wired us. Mary shares about growing up in a single-wide trailer in West Virginia and how that background shaped her grit, her work ethic, and also...

First, THANK YOU. My new book is officially out in the world—woohoo! I cannot tell you how grateful I am for the encouragement, the screenshots, the texts, the DMs, and the stories you’ve already shared. It means more than you know. If you’ve read How’d I Miss That? , I would be so thankful if you’d leave a quick review on Amazon (or wherever you purchased it). Reviews really do help more people f...

In today's episode, I’m joined by Rob Boyd—my former youth minister and an actual blast from my past. We take a walk down memory lane filled with blue church vans, lock-ins, Bible drills, questionable music debates, and the kind of church memories that are funny now… and formative forever. Rob shares what it was like pastoring teenagers (including a very opinionated teenage me ), why spiritual...

Woohoo! It’s officially the release of How’d I Miss That? TODAY, and we’re dropping this episode on Tuesday instead of our usual Wednesday to celebrate.  It felt only right to bring on the man who edited every.single.chapter, fixed approximately 9,000 commas, and has final veto power over any story that’s too much—which is really saying something, considering he grew up in locker rooms: Mike Yanof...

Melissa Radke is back, and within the first sixty seconds she’s handing out compliments like she’s trying to earn a commission. (I try to redirect. She refuses. You’ll hear it.) We start by processing the fact that I had just returned from Disney World and realized—some adults have completely lost their sense of embarrassment. From sexy castle selfies to fashion choices that raise concerns, Meliss...

This week we’ve got a legend of a guest. Someone who needs no introduction (even though I’m about to). This week my mom, Dorothy, joins us on the podcast —after restarting the recording three times, which Dorothy is fairly certain is a sign the ratings are about to tank. She also arrives with a formal complaint: I have repeatedly thrown the family under the bus in my books, most recently by claimi...

It’s week two of our new series where I’m bringing on people I love, people from my past, and the very people who show up in my new book How’d I Miss That? Today my dear friend Stephanie Martin is back, which means equal parts laughter, honesty, and the occasional, “Cynthia… maybe that story didn’t need to live forever in print.” We start by revisiting our short-lived triathlon era—because some of...