The Connection Code with Rachel and Jeana

What happens when you stop waiting to feel ready? This week, we're joined by Peloton instructor, author, and all-around force of nature Kirsten Ferguson for one of our favorite conversations of the season. Kirsten shares the winding path that led her from the NFL to Peloton—including heartbreak, infertility, divorce, reinvention, and learning to embrace a dream she never saw coming. Along the way,...

What happens when your dream job ends? For fashion expert, media personality, and entrepreneur Lilliana Vazquez, it became the beginning of something even bigger. In this conversation, Rachel sits down with Lilliana to explore the connections that have shaped her remarkable career—from cold-calling a television station and becoming the first Latina host of E! News to reinventing herself as one of...

Rachel and Jeana welcome back their very first reconnection guest: Mo News founder and journalist Mosh Oinounou. Since his first appearance on The Connection Code, Mosh's world has grown in every direction. Mo News has expanded, he's preparing to welcome his second child, and he's spending more time thinking about what it means to stay connected—not just to the headlines, but to the pe...

This week, it's just Rachel and Jeana. No guest. No expert. Just two friends asking each other the friendship and connection questions they've always wanted to explore. Why do some friendships feel effortless while others require more work? How do you handle jealousy when a friend gets something you want? What do you do when judgment sneaks into a relationship? And how many friendships do...

Friendship isn't hard because you're doing it wrong. It's hard because adulthood changes everything. This week, Rachel and Jeana unpack why friendships drift, why they break, and what actually keeps them alive. Together, they explore the realities of friendship drift, life stage changes, geographic distance, busy schedules, and the small misunderstandings that can quietly erode even meaningful rel...

This episode of The Connection Code is one of our most personal and eye-opening yet. Rachel and Jeana sit down with Rachel’s 12-year-old niece, Lily Engelbret, to talk about what it’s been like to learn she’s autistic. Lily shares how that has shaped the way she experiences friendship, school, masking, and connection. With incredible honesty, humor, and wisdom beyond her years, Lily shares what au...

Sara Haines spends her days connecting with millions of viewers on The View, but in this episode of The Connection Code, she joins us for a much more personal conversation about friendship, vulnerability, homesickness, motherhood, and the people who make us feel truly seen. We talk about: why curiosity matters more than networking the emotional power of female friendships what Sara has learned fro...

This week on The Connection Code, Jeana and Rachel are diving into the friendship stories, trends, and hot takes taking over the internet right now. From the rise of “doorbell friends” and apps designed to match you with new friends, to whether we should stop doing catch-up dinners entirely, this episode is a real-time conversation about how connection is changing — and what we may be gaining (or...

What if just four minutes a day could change the way you make decisions, navigate relationships, and understand yourself? In this episode, we talk with Laura L. Rubin about the transformative power of journaling ... not as a “nice-to-have,” but as a tool for clarity, confidence, and connection. From processing conflict to making life’s biggest decisions, Laura shares how putting pen to paper helps...

What if oversharing isn’t something to fix, but something to use ? This week on The Connection Code , we’re joined by Leslie John. She's a behavioral scientist, Harvard Business School professor, and author of Revealing: The Underrated Power of Oversharing Together, we unpack one of the biggest myths about connection: that saying “too much” is a social mistake. Leslie explains why what we call ove...

What happens when you take 16 strangers, sit them down at one table, and design every moment for connection? This week on The Connection Code , we sit down with Shreena Amin and Chef Nicolai Mlodinow , the founders of Class Act Dining—a Chicago-based, 16-seat communal dining experience built to bring people together through food, storytelling, and intentional design. What started as a scrappy, pos...

Friendship expert Danielle Bayard Jackson joins us for one of our favorite conversations yet, breaking down the real work behind meaningful friendships. From why adult friendships feel harder than they used to, to the role of conflict, effort, and emotional support, Danielle shares the research-backed truths most of us were never taught. We talk about: Why friendship isn’t as “natural” as we think...

What if social media actually made us better friends… instead of just better at watching each other live? Social media connects us, keeps us in the loop, and sometimes… makes us feel like we’re missing out on everything. In this episode of The Connection Code , Jeana Anderson Cohen and Rachel Gillman Rischall dive into the complicated role social media plays in our friendships, from the early days...

What if finding your purpose wasn’t about reinvention, but about alignment? This week on The Connection Code , we’re joined by Suzy Welch, NYU Stern professor, researcher, and New York Times bestselling author of Becoming You . Suzy has built a powerful, data-driven framework to help people uncover their purpose by looking at three key inputs: → your values → your aptitudes → and what the world wi...

What if confidence isn’t something you have, but something you can borrow? This week on The Connection Code , we’re joined by executive coach and managing partner of Verde Associates, Laura Sanchez-Greenberg. She's the kind of coach whose name gets passed quietly from founder to founder, with a simple message: “If you can get time with her, do it.” Laura has worked with some of the most respec...

Behavioral scientist and bestselling author Jon Levy joins us to explore the science behind trust, connection, and influence. Jon is known for hosting the now-famous Influencers Dinner , a secret dining experience where strangers cook a meal together before discovering they’re sitting with Olympians, astronauts, Nobel laureates, and cultural leaders. The twist? No one is allowed to share their las...

In this capsule conversation, Rachel Gillman Rischall and Jeana Anderson Cohen explore one of the most tender and rarely discussed relationship topics: friendship breakups and estrangement . Inspired by Hillary Duff and her recent reflections on estrangement in an interview with Anthony Mason , Rachel and Jeana unpack what it means to lose someone close to you — and not know how, or whether, to re...

(Catch full video episodes on The Connection Code with Rachel and Jeana's YouTube channel) In this clip from The Connection Code , Rachel and Jeana share the impact of friendship breakups and estrangements. Episode out everywhere March 4, 2026.

This week’s conversation had us thinking a lot about systems — how people track relationships, follow through on introductions, and stay intentional about connection in busy seasons of life. Our guest, Megan Roudebush (founder of keepwith), shares her approach to networking as a long game — one built on curiosity, follow-through, and respect. It’s a thoughtful episode for anyone who’s ever wondere...

(Catch full video episodes on The Connection Code with Rachel and Jeana's YouTube channel) In this clip from The Connection Code , Megan Roudebush shares how curiosity, informational interviews, and intentional relationship-building helped her create a network without shortcuts or inherited connections. Episode out everywhere Feb. 25, 2026.

Content warning: This episode and clip discuss grief, the loss of a child and breast cancer. What does it really mean to be lucky ? In this deeply moving episode of The Connection Code , we’re joined by author, grief writer, and patient advocate Kelly Cervantes , whose memoir The Luckiest challenges everything we think we know about fortune, success, and happiness. Kelly shares her extraordinary s...

Content warning: This episode and clip discuss, grief and the loss of a child. In next week's episode, we're lucky to sit down with Kelly Cervantes, whose memoir ⁠The Luckiest⁠ challenges everything we think we know about fortune, success, and happiness. Prepare for a moving and truly human conversation of high-highs and low-lows. Kelly shares her extraordinary story on navigating motherho...

On this episode of The Connection Code , it’s just Rachel and Jeana. We kick off the year with a “connection inventory”—a thoughtful, honest look at the season of connection they’re each in right now. From nurturing core relationships to following up without being annoying, this conversation spans friendship, networking, rituals, and the lessons we only learn by getting it wrong first. If you’ve e...

What if community wasn’t something parents had to find after a baby arrives, but something they could build before ? This week on The Connection Code , we’re joined by Georgia Kastaris , founder of Expecting Together , a prenatal social club designed to bring expecting parents together through education, connection, and shared experience. Inspired by the UK’s National Childbirth Trust , Georgia is...

In this deeply resonant episode of The Connection Code , Jeana Anderson Cohen and Rachel Gilman Rischall sit down with Shabnam Mogharabi, entrepreneur, author, journalist, and co-founder of SoulPancake alongside Rainn Wilson. Shabnam shares her journey from traditional journalism to building one of the internet’s most uplifting corners, creating beloved series like Kid President , The Science of H...