Mutha Life

This week it's just me recapping and reflecting how I am trying to keep the London-solo travel trip spark alive in my every day life - doing fun stuff by myself, doing fun stuff with my family (the definition of fun, being MINE), and taking care of myself while also being mindful of how everyone else responds to that. We talk about my new jewelry addiction, parasocial relationships that I want to...

Cat Wood grew up working class in Yorkshire, found her own way into Oxford, and spent years quietly working out why she related to the world differently than everyone around her. She was diagnosed autistic after her son's diagnosis led her to look in the mirror. Now she's raising two kids with PDA (Pathological Demand Avoidance), a nervous system driven form of autism where traditional boundaries...

This week from the archive: the wonderful Zach Brooks. Zach grew up in Miami eating Tuesday and Thursday dinners out with his dad after his parents split up, rotating through the food court at Dadeland Mall, a Chinese restaurant called Hua Xing, and the one Korean restaurant in downtown Miami that turned out to be serving Korean Chinese food. His dad made him try kimchi at eight years old by telli...

Chad Wolf grew up in Moncks Corner, South Carolina, on a dirt road outside of Charleston, in a double wide trailer with a Pentecostal Holiness church on Sundays and a shipyard worker dad who apparently did classified things on nuclear submarines that he can only now talk about. He came to LA at 20, lied his way into an internship for Diane Warren, ended up living in a Swedish musician's house, bec...

It's a podcast first: A parent doing an IRL interview with us…while breastfeeding the entire time. AND SHE REMAINED COHERENT?! That's heroic stuff, in my book. Not to mention, there was a toddler with a tummy ache and grandpa as backup in tow downstairs. The level of composure was just…very elite. Luckily I got to spend an hour with Emily Beyda - novelist, journalist, writer of the wildly popular...

When we first hung out with Vanessa Dew, co-founder of Health-Ade Kombucha, about a year and a half ago, she was figuring out what life looked like after selling her business baby. She was navigating purpose and parenthood in a new chapter, finding ways to support her community after the LA fires, and quietly letting go of any need to feel relevant just for the sake of it (ahem, the inspiration fo...

Celebrity and Personal Stylist Liza Lieberman grew up as the only child of a fashion industry powerhouse, a mom who traveled the world designing clothes and built everything herself from scratch. She was also the kid climbing trees and winning track meets with her dad, until she lost him at 14. Her parents were both larger than life figures in her childhood that would go on to shape so much about...

'Oh what are you listening to?' 'Who me? Oh it's ARCHIVAL SARA TAN.' Glossangeles' Sara Tan's ep is back and it's taking on a whole new listen this time around. When this episode first aired, my daughter was 1.5. She's now 2.5 going on 13, and already laying out her outfits, begging for nail polish, and asking about every product I put on my face. Turns out this conversation was more relevant than...

Amanda Chantal Bacon founded Moon Juice in 2011. Now, fifteen years and a Target launch later, she's in what might be her most interesting chapter: handing over the operational reins so she can get back to dreaming and spending more time with her kids. In this conversation, we talk about growing up in downtown NYC with a famously cool and unconventional mom, finding her footing in fine dining kitc...

This MUTHA's Day episode explores the complexity and contradictions of motherhood across different life stages. Kari returned from a week in London with a major realization about the finite window of motherhood and the gap between what mothers 'should' want and what they actually want. Through listener voices and personal reflection, this episode examines the tension between needing space and know...

We're going back into the archive for this one: and the timing feels right. When I sat down with Chris Gayomali - when the pod was a baby, EPISODE 4 - in the fall of 2024, he was freelancing, deep in his Muay Thai era, and raising a toddler in New York City who was already turning his nose up at cruise ship pizza. He was also building serious momentum with Heavies , his much loved Substack about t...

Lee Shaner, aka Intuition, is a rapper and podcaster who has been making music for over two decades. His album Leave a Mark went viral earlier this year when a song he made for his son hit over a million views - a song he almost didn't post because he thought he looked fat in the video. This one goes deep. We talk about growing up in North Pole, Alaska, watching his dad develop early onset Alzheim...

A solo catch-up that covers a lot of ground - and somehow ties it all together. Kari comes back to the mic after a few weeks of life coming at her fast: grief, strep throat, solo-parenting, a teacher strike scare, and a spring break in the wilds of North Tampa. This one's for the OGs. Along the way: traveling with kids when one of them wakes up covered in vomit the morning of your flight, why lett...

Today we are hanging out in the closet with Irene Lovett, an interior designer based in the San Fernando Valley and a first-generation Mexican-American who has built a career turning other people's spaces into a true reflection of who they are. We follow Irene from a 997-square-foot childhood home in Sylmar - the daughter of immigrant parents, a restaurant worker dad and a housekeeper mom - all th...

Brian Mazza is a serial entrepreneur and an efficiency junkie.  He's the founder of High Performance Life Time (HPLT) training - a health & wellness platform focused on building community through their programs, including their popular offsite retreats. He has founded restaurants, clothing brands, helped to launch globally recognized brands for others AND he's the vice president of Brand Performan...

Katie Drummond is the Global Editorial Director of Wired - aka the boss of the whole operation - it's the tech-focused publication that she's taken from a niche read to bastion of breaking news and mainstream reporting in the few years she's been there. She's not only transformed the publication, but she's transformed how a media landscape - terrified to piss off people in power - can still do its...

This was a real jackpot conversation for all of us. We got to talk women with ADHD, women's health, all things sex later in life, hormones, how to clock if you're in perimenopause and everything in between with the GOAT: Dr. Suzanne Gilberg-Lenz. Dr. Suzanne is a fellow of the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology. She's Board certified in integrative and holistic medicine, holds a Clinica...

This month's solo pod covers a lot of ground - both from my own brain and in response to listener questions, from mahjong to my luteal phase, from sex drive to potty training, from grief to joy, consider this a smorgasbord of the inside of my brain. Make sure you drop comments to respond to the many questions I ask YOU in the episode and share with a friend. LET'S GAB. Full show notes with alll th...

Undies, bidets, diapers, oh my! Let's hang with Miki Agrawal. She is a serial entrepreneur - founding companies like THINX, period underwear, Tushy, the seemingly now ubiquitous Bidet company, and most recently Hiro Technolgoies - a disposable diaper revolutionizing the market with a fast-decomposing product that promises to reduce landfill waste caused by traditional diapers dramatically. We talk...

We are continuing our look back into the archive with an episode from a year ago with the inimitable Lisa Weinbaum. A discussion that started on the pod - reconnecting with someone I always looked up to as a kid - and hasn't stopped yet. Since recording that original episode, Lisa and I have volunteered at her beloved Baby2Baby together. We have hung out by the beach forging a new connection in ad...

This week's guest is Lillian Tung, co-founder of FUR. If you haven't already heard of the viral company, Fur is a beauty and hair care brand for the whole body - first grabbing headlines with their FUR OIL - specifically designed for pubic hair and skin. From the brains of childhood best friends to the shelves of Ulta, to talking about PUBIC HAIR on Shark Tank, this brand has taken the beauty worl...

Trigger warning: Grief, loss, death of a parent In this week's solo pod, Kari gives an update on the unexpected turn life took in the days leading up to her 40th birthday. This isn't a funny one, or a silly one, or a general episode. It's a deeply personal slice of life at a horrible moment in life. The Mutha Life community has become one of support, comfort, encouragement and above all, love, and...

Come revisit this beautiful episode from the archive with me. In this episode, we talk to Emmy-nominated documentary producer, Tracy Aftergood. Tracy talks candidly about her career trajectory, the tragic loss of her best friend, her mom, at an early age, and the work she does to show up for herself, so she can show up for her kids and her relationship. Instagram:  @mutha.life Show notes:  muthali...

SCALPEL! Dr. Ira Savetsky, New York based celeb plastic surgeon, is on the pod today. We cover a lot of ground - from growing up in a very religious Jewish community in Long Island and not being super enthused by school to taking an insanely arduous and rigorous path to being one of the rising stars in his field in the US today. We talk about how to figure out if plastic surgery is right for you,...

Let's hang out with certified funny person, Aisha (EYE-SHUH, get it right!) Alfa. She is an actor and a comedian, and has lived a shocking number of lives. While you may have missed her on the men's soccer circuit in Korea, or planning all out wedding ragers, you may recognize her from her role on Degrassi, The Beaverton, Sorry for Your Loss, and so many more. Talking to Aisha was a wonderful remi...