The Breadwinners

Winter is coming, the holidays are looming and the pandemic is still here. Are you feeling as anxious and stressed about all of this as we are? In this episode, Rachael and Jennifer consider the stress we’re under normally this time of year — and how the pandemic is compounding it. Oh, and we talk about ways to cope too. Visit TheBreadwinners.com to share how you’re surviving this season! Episode...

When Amber Briggle called her county sheriff out for his anti-transgender comments in 2016, little did she know it would lead to an invitation to the White House. What she did know was the importance of learning, advocating and growing into her role as a breadwinning parent of a middle school son who is transgender — which he argues is the least interesting thing about him. Amber joins Jennifer to...

An analysis of 194 countries finds that infection and fatality rates in the first three months of the pandemic were generally lower in countries with female leaders. In this episode, Rachael + Jennifer consider what we can learn from these countries’ leaders — including Angela Merkel, Jacinda Ardern, Tsai Ing-Wen and Erna Solberg — reporting significantly lower rates of infection and death due to...

The holiday season normally be hard enough when we’ve lost a loved one but add in a loss of normality and you’ve got a recipe for sadness and stress. Grief and resilience expert Allison Gilbert visits The Breadwinners to share her insights for remembering our loved ones, finding joy, and new ways to celebrate and honor those we’ve lost through meaningful virtual memorials. Please help us grow: Rat...

Turns out as with all things gender and work, there’s a promotion pandemic gap too. In this episode, Rachael + Jennifer consider new research showing that one-third of men working remoting with kids at home have received a promotion during the pandemic versus just 9 percent of women in the same situation — not to mention the raises that go along with them. Please help us grow: Rate, review and sub...

What role can business play in improving society? In this episode, Dr. Vanessa Weaver, diversity expert and CEO and founder of Alignment Strategies, joins Jennifer to talk about her three decades of work to bring equity and belonging to companies’ cultures of success; how the conversation around racism changed this year; and where it needs to go in the years to come. “There has been an exploration...

Research finds that more than a third of all American workers have a side hustle now — a result fueled in part by the pandemic’s decimating impact on jobs and wages. In this episode, Rachael + Jennifer consider what economists mean by “gig economy” versus the “passion economy” or “hustle economy” — and what it means for all of us breadwinners to be working so much right now. Learn more about your...

It seems like yesterday that we were all just trying to figure out what the school year might look like — now it’s about dealing with the day-to-day of life, lessons and learning what to do when your child’s classmate’s sibling’s caregiver tests positive for Covid. Work-life expert Michelle Birnbaum joins Jennifer to talk about the new rules, etiquette and stresses impacting working parents — and...

Before COVID, recessions were typically “man-cessions,” impacting male-dominated industries like housing construction and manufacturing. Like all things now, the pandemic has upended the norm, fueling significant job losses for women working in restaurants, hotels and retail, to name just a few. In this episode, Rachael + Jennifer consider the research regarding the latest unemployment trends and...

Michael Collins, Chief of Staff for Employee Engagement at Google, joins Jennifer to talk about the evolving nature of diversity, equity + inclusion efforts; the central role that whiteness still plays in these discussions; and the importance of building a culture of belonging for all employees at Google. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Six women vied for the presidential nomination this year. Today, one of them — Sen. Kamala Harris (D., CA) — is a major-party candidate for vice president, navigating the racial, ethnic and gender biases that continue to impact our daily lives. In this episode, Rachael + Jennifer consider the research into how Americans view female leaders and consider what’s changed (and still needs to change) si...

In this episode, Jennifer talks with Barbara Cook, CEO of Lovers, a female-founded sexual wellness retailer and brand with stores in five states. Cook shares how she is navigating the pandemic’s impact on retail, learning more about remote work than she had ever expected, and working to rebrand Lovers to reignite passion in the nearly 40-year-old brand. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit mega...

Happy National Flex Day! Today as we mark the 8th annual National Flex Day, the holiday spotlighting the power of flexible work, Jennifer + Rachael consider how our collective take on workplace culture has changed since 2013 — as well as since March when the pandemic forced 42 percent of the labor force to work from home full time overnight. Join in the conversation by sharing your #NationalFlexDa...

This week, FlexJobs’ Brie Reynolds joins Jennifer to talk about a Bizarro world where 42 percent of the labor force now work from home full-time. As we all learn what we like and don’t like about flexible work, most of us still want to keep at least some aspect of it going forward. Want to learn how? Check out Flexjobs’ job board as well as its new series of flexible work webinars. And on Oct. 20,...

In a recent op-ed for Foreign Affairs, philanthropist Melinda Gates laid out ways our typical pandemic responses leave women behind. In this episode, Rachael + Jennifer consider Gates’ argument as well as UN recommendations for supporting women here and globally to ensure we don’t exacerbate existing inequalities even as we fight the pandemic’s daily impact on aspects of our lives. Learn more abou...

At The Breadwinners, we often talk about caregiving as parents. But how about as children caring for our parents? In this episode, Jeff Bevis, CEO of FirstLight Home Care, an in-home care provider, joins Jennifer to talk about trends in eldercare and the pressures on caregivers, especially breadwinners. “It’s a daunting task, but we see so many of the adult children try to carry a full-time job an...

Before work, family and life intrudes, making and keeping friends seems almost as easy as breathing. Now the pandemic is making relationships harder than ever to sustain. In this episode, Rachael + Jennifer consider the power of friendship to improve our lives, grow our brains, and create a biweekly podcast on work-life issues. Please help us grow: Rate, review and subscribe to The Breadwinners to...

When it comes to where we want to be as a community, nation and world, we all have a role and responsibility to play. But first, we need to decide where we want to go. This week Kristina Libby, Chief Science Officer at Hypergiant, joins Jennifer to talk about the role that tech, art and soul plays in our lives — and why we need diverse viewpoints asking important questions at every stage. Learn mo...

Writing The New York Times, columnist Claire Cain Miller points out the essential breadwinners truth: “Framing how to balance work and family as personal choices… distracts from the bigger structural issues that force these choices. Individuals are left to figure out how to make it work — and feel guilty when it doesn’t.” In this episode, Rachael + Jennifer go back to basics to consider what we al...

When art director and photographer Natalie Kocsis decided to document her daily pandemic life as a breadwinning single mom with a pre-K son at home, little did she know she’d still be doing it 170 days later. In this episode, Natalie shares her caregiving, career-pivoting and cemetery-walking story with Jennifer as they both embark on very different new school year experiences as working moms. Ple...

The world lost a true warrior and pioneering advocate for gender equality with the death on Friday of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. In this episode, Rachael + Jennifer consider how Justice Ginsburg’s work changed the way female breadwinners are protected through her “sense of strategy and careful selection of cases,” which served to persuade “the all-male Supreme Court, one case at a...

What happens when more than half of all working parents co-work from home? That’s the question Yale University’s Emma Zang and Thomas Lyttleton set out to answer with their latest research released by the Council on Contemporary Families. In this episode, we dive into the good news (men are taking on more childcare), the bad news (the housekeeping gender gap is widening) and examine findings that...

When our kids do something wrong, our first move is to help them learn how to empathize and apologize. Somehow it becomes much harder when it’s our turn to say we’re sorry — especially when we’re serving as a leader. In this episode, Rachael + Jennifer consider the research regarding how and when to apologize — and when we really shouldn’t have to. #sorrynotsorry Please help us grow: Rate, review...

There are lots of data about the changes working women make once they become moms, but very little understanding of how or why behind their decisions. In this episode, Sarah Deming, PhD student in the Department of Sociology at Washington State University, shares research from her survey of 1700 working moms. “I’m really a believer the power of women’s stories to inform what it feels like on the g...

For those of us working, schooling and living in the same place, a quiet home office is a luxury — that typically goes to the man of the house, according to a recent survey. In this episode, Rachael and Jennifer consider the new book Easy Living: The Rise of the Home Office by Elizabeth Patton— and why women are the ones typically left searching for space to work at home during the pandemic. Learn...