Mother's Quest Podcast

Welcome to this Father's Day special of the Mother's Quest Podcast. This year, I decided to reach out to the husbands and life partners of incredible mothers I've interviewed on the podcast in the past, inviting four extraordinary fathers to share their reflections on living an E.P.I.C. life.  E.P.I.C. is a metaphor for answering the call of our own hero's journey and also an acronym mnemonic for...

I'm honored to share this special Mother's Day episode with my friend Tricia Creason-Valencia, recorded live in the UnMuted Studio at PowerHouse, the creative event space Tricia co-founded in San Jose. Tricia and I first came into each other's lives while collaborating on the Autism Storytelling Project. Then, she said yes to spending a full day together for a new offering I was piloting called Sp...

I'm honored to bring you a special episode of the Mother's Quest Podcast during Black History Month, featuring two extraordinary Black women, Susan Burton and Pamela Marshall, who are shaping history in real time, breaking cycles of incarceration for women through their work with the organization A New Way of Life (ANWOL.)  I first met Susan and Pamela through Democracy Clothing, the brand my sist...

Welcome to this special episode, one I recorded in the days leading up to the holidays and the winter solstice, the darkest days of the year in the Northern Hemisphere.  This season, when the nights are long and the light feels scarce, invites us to pause, reflect, and seek warmth and meaning in intentional ways. And this year especially, the darkness has felt more than seasonal. In the face of he...

In a world heavy with heartbreak and injustice, I've been searching for ways to stay grounded in my humanity…ways to resist not only despair, but also the systems of harm and oppression around us. My guest today, Kaitlin Curtice, calls this practice  living resistance . Kaitlin is an award-winning author, poet, and citizen of the Potawatomi Nation who writes and speaks at the intersections of spir...

Welcome to this special Father's Day episode of the Mother's Quest Podcast. Each year, I feature a father who is not only present for his own family but also answering a larger call to lead and serve in the world. This year, all signs pointed to me interviewing Joe Ward-Wallace! Joe is a retired firefighter, impact entrepreneur, and community organizer, known and appreciated for co-founding South...

At a time when so many of us feel brokenhearted by the ongoing pain, uncertainty and polarization in our world, Rabbi Sharon Brous has been a grounding force and a guiding light for me and so many. She is the senior rabbi and founder of IKAR , a leading-edge Jewish community based in Los Angeles, known for weaving together soulful spirituality, social justice, and deep belonging. A graduate of Col...

Hello and Welcome to Season Ten of the Mother's Quest Podcast. It's hard to believe it's been nearly a decade since I first opened the metaphorical door to Mother's Quest—sparked by the day two birds got trapped in my house and helped me realize it was time to stop staying stuck; it was time to say "yes" to Mother's Quest.  As I reflect on all I've built and the new E.P.I.C. dreams I want to bring...

Welcome to this episode of the Mother's Quest Podcast—the first of 2025 and the final episode of Season Nine before I take a winter break and prepare to launch Season Ten in the spring. As I sat down for this conversation with Dr. Avanti Kumar Singh just before the holiday break, I had no idea of the enormity of the challenges we would face as we began this new year. The toxins we're navigating—fr...

As I bring you this episode, we are less than two weeks from the 2024 U.S. Election. In preparation for this moment, I seized the opportunity to sit down with Melissa Walker, a children's book author turned powerful political advocate, instrumental in the founding of an organization called The States Project.  Melissa's path to The States Project was paved in the election results of 2016 which, li...

I'm excited to share this conversation with my longtime fellow podcasting friend and parenting guide, Casey O'Roarty. Casey is a positive discipline trainer, certified coach and facilitator of personal growth and development, who encourages parents to discover the purpose of our journey. Through workshops, live and online classes, individual coaching, a published book, and her Joyful Courage Podca...

I'm excited to share with you this special episode featuring bite-sized messages from past podcast guests with practices to help us stay grounded, find calm, and regulate our nervous systems in these final days leading up to the 2024 U.S. election! The inspiration for it… A few weeks ago, amid some election anxiety and inspired by my friend Katie Hanus, I committed to just 10 minutes of meditation...

I'm honored to share this special Father's Day edition of the Mother's Quest Podcast. This episode features my friend  Jeff Steinberg, whose commitment to the lessons of the civil rights movement can shine a light for us now, during another pivotal time in our nation's history. Jeff and I first crossed paths when our sons, Ryan and Journey, now 20 years old, became inseparable friends in preschool...

Welcome to this first episode of Season Nine of the Mother's Quest Podcast with a returning and special guest, my own son Ryan Neale. I first sat down to record an episode with Ryan in 2017, on his 13th birthday, after we embarked on a milestone hike, using the ascent and descent at our local Sugarloaf Peak to pack up the lessons of his first 13 years of life and my first 13 years of motherhood. ...

Welcome to this last conversation of 2023, with coach, teacher, small group and retreat facilitator at Revolution from Home, mother of four daughters and author of the book Motherwhelmed , Beth Berry. Beth says she has revolution in her bones. It began when she was seventeen and pumping milk in the bathroom of her high school for her now-grown eldest daughter. It has since gradually evolved into a...

This September 11, 2023, I had the honor of holding space for an intimate conversation with civil rights leader, lawyer, award-winning filmmaker, educator, and best-selling author of the book SEE NO STRANGER, Valarie Kaur. The fact that we were recording on September 11th was meaningful, because the tragic event that had taken place 22 years ago shaped Valarie in profound ways and set her on a pat...

This month, I was planning to record a special solocast to welcome in our 100th episode of the podcast. Instead, three days before my son Jacob's scheduled knee surgery on July 11th, I got diagnosed with shingles. I'm recovering well and so is Jacob thankfully. But it really caused me to revisit my relationship with my body. There was a need for forgiveness all the way around, a rebuilding of trus...

I'm honored to share this special Father's Day Episode featuring my very own father-in-law, David Neale. I started dating my husband Chris when I was only 19, so I realize David has been a source of inspiration and guidance in my life for over 30 years. How lucky I am to have had his example of leadership, impact, and joy for life to light my way for my entire adulthood!  The inspiration for this...

In 2018, I sat down for a special Mother's Day episode with Graeme Seabrook, a life coach and maternal health advocate, affectionately known by the thousands of mothers she supported as the "Mom for Moms." We hit it off immediately, delving deep into her Motherhood Bill of Rights and my E.P.I.C. life framework, and noticing that both had become manifestos for how we wanted to live our lives while...

Welcome to this special Season Seven finale episode of the Mother's Quest Podcast, released on International Women's Day 2023. It feels like just right timing to bring this conversation to you, but the seeds for this episode have been germinating since last spring, when Jill Daniel of Happy Women Dinners came to me with an invitation. She asked whether my sister Caren, founder of Democracy Clothin...

In 2016, on a leap of faith, I signed up for something called a Power Circle and was guided through a six month process by this amazing facilitator Jamie Greenwood. In the space that Jamie held for a small group of us, I said out loud my dreams for Mother's Quest for the first time, and at Jamie's urging, started a Facebook Group for the community I hoped to grow in my journey. Six plus years, alm...

I am honored to bring you back to a powerful and important conversation with a woman who deeply impacted my life and my children's life, Ashia Ray of Raising Luminaries and Books for Littles. Thousands of parents like me seek Ashia's help in finding the best books to foster age-appropriate conversations with our children about white supremacy, cissexism, ableism, and other issues. Her thoughtfully...

2022 is almost over; it's time to reflect and set intentions for the upcoming new year!  As I thought about what episode I wanted to bring back to you, I kept coming to this conversation with the Truth Bomb Mom Kristina Kuzmic. One of the most powerful takeaways of this episode is how owning her flaws and sharing them vulnerably with her children has become a key to living her epic life.  If your...

This Throwback Thursday episode releases just one day after winter solstice in the northern hemisphere, the darkest day of the year which also marks the moment when we begin to usher in more light. It's also just days after the anniversary of my father's death.  What I've learned again and again with the waves of grief that come and go, is that life is the other side of death, love the other side...

I'm honored to share this throwback episode with a mentor and coach who has had a tremendous impact on the person and parent I am today, Leslie Medine. I released this episode on December 21st, 2020, on the winter solstice, the darkest day of the year in the northern hemisphere, in honor of a great coach Leslie and I had in common, Edd Conboy, who passed away in March of the same year. You'll noti...