The To Do Show

I've been interviewing people about their to-do lists for months while mine was making me physically sick. I've been sick nonstop since I started recording. My body has been screaming at me to stop filling every moment with productivity and actually create space for stillness. I finally listened. What You'll Hear: Why nervous system regulation means doing less, not organizing better Th...

Sarah Townsend has spent 26 years as a freelance copywriter helping other people say exactly the right thing. She's written a bestselling guide to self-employment, sold books in 29 countries, and built her entire career around getting words right. She also has ADHD, still switches productivity systems mid-project, and has "learn to cook quinoa" on her bucket list. She's one of us...

Esther Brown wakes up at 4 AM to swim. She runs a diagnostic lab, gets her MBA, takes upholstery class with her mom every Tuesday, and is building a wellness brand on the side. She's had COVID five times. She's experienced burnout. And she told her friends she wants to start "dating" them because monthly is all she has time for. Now she treats her life like her lab: constant risk...

When Jennifer Ruiz tells people she makes paper flowers, they say "how cute." Then they see her four-foot installations for Valentino and L'Oreal and the reaction shifts to "oh." She works as a caregiver from 10:30pm to 6:30am, comes home to take her son to school, then creates massive floral installations on four hours of sleep. She's exactly at the financial breaking...

Lauryn creates dark, moody wedding photos. Not the bright, airy Pinterest style everyone expects. Her style makes people feel something they can't name. She edits each gallery two or three times, uploads it, then sometimes pulls it back down to re-edit more. While doing this obsessive perfectionism, she's listening to Stephen King and wondering who the killer is. Her 8-year-old daughter ha...

Alina Fattakhova tells her clients which women rejected them and exactly why. She's a luxury matchmaker in New York City, and people pay her to deliver brutal honesty wrapped in strategy. She treats finding a life partner like applying for jobs. Spreadsheets, data points, reverse engineering your timeline from age 35 backwards. What You'll Learn: Why people apply to 200 jobs in two weeks b...

Vicky used to run weddings. She'd be there when the couple arrived and couldn't bring herself to leave until the last guest did. Now she's a calligrapher doing around 100 weddings a year, engraving £360 perfume bottles while people watch, and trying to figure out how to stop saying yes to everything. What You'll Learn: What a calligrapher actually does in a day! The different perce...

Ryan Doyle grew up with an Irish Catholic grandmother, strict rules, and a constant sense of doing everything wrong. Then he went to clown school in France where they insult you, f*ck with your head, and force you to face the fact that people are going to hate you... What You'll Learn: How Catholic guilt and shame actually become creative fuel How clown school trains you to stop caring what pe...

Coach Lee wakes up at 2:30am. Works out, builds her coaching business, then goes to her full-time job as a criminal defense attorney. She's in bed by 8:30pm. And her coaching philosophy is "The goal is once we finish working together, for you not to come back." That's a terrible business model. And exactly why it works. What You'll Learn: Why she calls it "procrast-plann...

Amanda Kwan works her corporate marketing job from 8:30am to 6:30pm. Then she preps food until 2am for her underground dining concept that seats 22 people and has a 400-person waitlist. She sleeps 4-6 hours a night. She hosts 60-person Thanksgivings. And she chose all of this. What You'll Learn: The invisible labor of being The Organizer: the friend who remembers birthdays, makes reservations,...

Jen and her husband Rory share their alternative to New Year's resolutions. It's called Words of the Year, and it's the practice that's completely transformed how they approach everything. If you're tired of failing at New Year's resolutions, this one's for you. What You'll Learn: Why New Year's resolutions lead to burnout (and the February crash we all know too...

Santa Mike spent 21 years working warrants for the courts. Parking tickets to wanted felons. He saw families at their absolute worst. Then he retired, met another Santa in a Zoom acting class, and everything changed. Now he's a full-time professional Santa using every bad Christmas he witnessed to show up better. What You'll Learn: "Santa enters through the heart, not the chimney" and what that ac...

This is the most heartwarming conversation I've had on this show. Santa Claus - yes, the real one - sat down with me in the middle of his busiest season to talk about his to-do list, his marriage, and what he wishes humanity understood about the spirit of giving. What You'll Learn: How Santa's to-do list is organized by monthly themes (and why Mrs. C runs the naughty/nice list) The log...

Lily Szabo was a classic Type A overachiever: running a hostel, managing a team, living and dying by her calendar. Then she got pregnant and hoped motherhood would cure her burnout. Spoiler: It didn't. She had to completely rebuild her sense of self without external validation, deliverables, or adult conversations. What You'll Learn: The difference between self-esteem and self-worth (and w...

Safir Jamal runs a business in 25+ countries, which means WhatsApp messages from every time zone, proposals that take 15 hours each, and calls at midnight. His calendar is color-coded. His date nights are scheduled. If it's not on the calendar, it doesn't happen - because if he doesn't protect his time, work swallows everything. What You'll Learn: The color-coded calendar system th...

Most entrepreneurs hustle 14 hours a day. Stu works 4 hours and outperforms them all. In February 2023, Stu quit everything to go all-in on AI. Now he creates a week of strategic content in 2 hours, has zero stress, and teaches thousands how to harness AI without the overwhelm. Here's the twist for today's episode: Stu doesn't use a to-do list. What You'll Learn: Why traditional to-do lists keep y...

The healthcare system gives new parents 36 hours to learn everything about keeping a human alive. Erica Hopper is trying to change that. She's a postpartum nurse, lactation consultant, nursing instructor, and mom of three who color-codes her scrubs because she works three different jobs at the same hospital - all fighting the same broken system. What You'll Learn: Why insurance only covers 2 night...

He creates experiences that spark human connection and play in 20+ cities worldwide, but his to-do list is surprisingly mundane. Stefano is an experience designer and the founder of F*ck the Small Talk. His job is to design structure so others can experience whimsy and authentic connection. But what does that actually look like day-to-day? Spoiler: It's a lot of emails. What You'll Learn:...

What's on your to-do list today? The To-Do Show is a new interview series that asks everyday people to share their actual to-do list from a real day, and then we talk about how they really get through it. NEW EPISODES EVERY TUESDAY Starting December 2, 2025 WHAT TO EXPECT In each episode, I sit down with someone: a nurse, an entrepreneur, a coach, a creative - and ask them to show me their act...