The Modern Lady Podcast

We live in a world of great excess. Advertisements and the media beckon from every corner of our culture to indulge and to seek a life of unbridled luxury. But does this truly make us happy? This week, we are chatting about the art of a balanced life, our quest for contentment and a wonderful Swedish concept called Lagom.

Aaaaand we're back!!  Happy New Year, one and all! Once the hustle and bustle of December has settled down, January, in contrast, can seem itself, a bit of a paradox: both a quiet calm after the holiday storm and a whirlwind of newness and resolve! It's an exciting time of year and it's a great chance to reflect on the what we want to do during the upcoming year to promote growth and progress in all areas of our lives.  This week, join us for a chat as we discuss our New Years Resolutions for 2023 and our goals for health, family culture, faith and their vocations.

After an extended holiday break, The Modern Lady is back!  And we find ourselves now in the thick of mid-winter.  This season can be bleak and a challenge to endure, let alone thrive in, but what if there were little things we could do to shift our perspective? This week, Michelle and Lindsay chat about what to do when winter seems to outpace your hygge efforts... and how a shift in mindset in a few key areas could help us embrace winter in a whole new way.

The temperatures are slowly rising, the birds are gradually returning and the Easter season is upon us!  It must be spring!  And you know what that means, dear listeners:  it's time for our annual Spring Trends episode!  What's in and what's out in 2024?  Well, stay tuned, friends, as we dig into the food, fashion and travel "its and icks" this year!

Cultivating friendships is deep work.  Heart-work!  But making friends and maintaining relationships can sometimes be easier said than done, especially in today's society. The desire and search for meaningful friendships remains foremost in many of our lives.  And while we look for those who will leave those lasting footprints in our hearts, it's also important to consider how we too, by our friendship, impact the hearts of others as well! This week, we're chatting about the changing landscape of friendship, including on how we've changed since recording our first episode on the subject in 2020, how technology and AI may have a bigger impact than we think, what Dunbar's Number adds to the equation and how, in spite of all these things, that perhaps the core of what friendship is may not have changed so much after all.

Join us as we revisit another one of our past episodes!  This one is from our very first season of the podcast in 2019.  We have been wanting to record another episode on friendship for quite a while now, and are ready to finally dig back in - stay tuned for a brand new episode on friendship next week!  In the meantime, though, we invite you to tune in to this episode from Season 1 first.  Enjoy!

This week, where we live, temperatures are balmy and warm, prompting us to begin thinking about spring cleaning!  So we dug through the archives and found one of our favourite episodes, The Cleaning Compendium, from January 2020 to help inspire us: "This week, Michelle and Lindsay tackle the MANY questions they received from The Modern Lady community and dish the dirt on all things housekeeping!  From "The Friday Clean" to "The Five-Minute Tidy", cleaning with kids to cleaning green, from laundry flow to listener tips and tricks – this truly is the "catch all" of cleaning resources from the ladies!"

Lent is the perfect time to tackle this topic!  The reality of temptation in our lives is guaranteed and hard to ignore.  Whether it's avoiding sin, or sticking to a new routine or good habit, the temptation to take the easy road sometimes seems to be omnipresent.  But by seeking to understand why we are tempted and how we can overcome it, we believe that we can, indeed, face it with hope!

In every generation, there is a desire to be somewhat of a "radical", to buck the current culture and trends, and to leave our own unique mark on the world.  But what if there were radical things we could do, starting today, that had the potential to change our own hearts, strengthen our homes and relationships and that would leave a legacy in light of the eternal?  This week, we're discussing three simple things we can do that may be counter-cultural according to the world's standards, but that have the potential to truly transform your new year!

'Tis  (almost) the season!  After decking the halls, many of us are welcoming guests into our homes for the holidays!  And whether you're hosting a large family party or an intimate soiree with close friends, the thought and planning that goes into preparing to host can be overwhelming!  But what if we reframed hosting this holiday season?  From common stressors, to hosting tips, this week, we're chatting about why it's ultimately important that we, as a society, remain open to opening our homes to others and how, then, inviting others in has the potential to be one of the most special and intentional gifts we can give!

[Originally aired: November 26, 2019]  Michelle and Lindsay dive into ALL things Advent and anticipation for Christmas!  From when to put up the Christmas tree to comparing Advent with Lent, to eyeballs on a platter to profound devotional reading for the season, the ladies attempt to cover all the bases with their usual humour and research!  Join in for a little bit of fun and preparation as we journey through the season of Advent!

It's one of the social media trends du jour: #softlife - encouraging us to strive for a life of ease and comfort. For decades, "hustle culture" has been been top of the podium in terms of lifestyle goals. But in striving to get there, we are often left exhausted, depleted and run down - and a hardness begins to settle in our hearts. And the antidote to this may be found squarely within the "soft life" movement and the deep work it invites us to undergo for our own sakes and for those around us. This week, we are chatting about how and why soft living has gripped the imaginations of people all over the world, what it is (and what it is not!), and discuss what makes Advent the perfect time to soften ourselves.

Everywhere you look in today's culture, there is an invitation to escape the uncomfortable and unpleasant things in life, and to indulge instead in things that make us feel good. But when the balance tips too far in favour of complete exclusion of anything other than pleasure, one may have to stop to consider… is this truly the way to long-lasting happiness, or is there an even deeper truth that we may be missing?  This week, we are chatting about dopamine detoxes: what we've been hearing and seeing online, and why now might just be the best time to consider doing one!

This week, we are excited to re-release one of our episodes from Season 1 of The Modern Lady Podcast!  From the vault: "Life is often made up of all those little moments that come together in big ways.  Women throughout history know exactly what those little things are and tend to carry the brunt of the responsibility for taking care of them for their households.  In this week's episode, we respond to an online post discussing emotional labour in marriage and discuss what it is, exactly, and how to put it all into proper perspective."  (Originally aired: July 2, 2019)

Home is where the heart is - it's a message near, dear and familiar to us here in the Modern Lady community!  But sometimes, caring for our homes is not always easy - sometimes homemaking is challenging and sometimes, it can feel like our houses, rather than working for us, almost seem like they're may be doing the opposite.  In those moments, it's time for a pivot: of heart, of hearth and of home! This week, we're chatting about loving the home we're in, our goals and ambitions in preparing and keeping a home full of warmth, love and joy, and what to do during the times when the challenge of it all requires hard work and perseverance!

The later days of October introduce a new chill to the air - both in the natural world as temperatures drop and in society as we anticipate Hallowe'en.  But there is also stirring within and of the heart for many people around the world because this time of year brings to the forefront of our minds the reality of death and spurs the remembrance of those gone before us. Though at times it can be a contentious discussion, we were fascinated by the real history of Hallowe'en and how what is presented in our culture today may be missing quite a lot of the mark.

There's no doubt that motherhood changes a woman - this has been the experience of mothers all over the world since the beginning of time!  But lately, we've been hearing more and more talk on the subject of LOSING yourself in motherhood and we've been wondering… perhaps there's more than one way to take that. This week, we're chatting about the voices in a mother's head, matrescence, and how the idea of losing yourself in motherhood could actually help you find yourself in some ways. Also this week, we're so excited to invite a few of our listeners on the podcast for the first time to share THEIR advice to new moms!

The landscape of the mainstream news and media has drastically changed over the the last two or three decades - from the sheer amount of outlets from which one could get their news, to the pervasiveness of opinion blurring the lines between editorial and journalistic reports, to say that consuming the news is confusing would be an understatement! So where do we even start to navigate our way through the media? This week, we're chatting about news literacy and the necessity of context, and we're sharing our favourite go-to journalistic sources.

It's an irksome reality, but true nonetheless: bad moods come for us all.  We often talk here on the podcast about the benefits of cheerfulness and the necessity of joy, but… what to do on those inevitable days when we're just stuck in a funk? We've all been there - but sometimes, as we know here on the podcast, knowing more about why we feel or think the way we do, and having some ready tools in our arsenal, can make all the difference!

Welcome to Season 6 of The Modern Lady Podcast!  We are so excited to be back and chatting wtih you all!  This week, we're discussing what it means to be a good person - and why it matters that we persevere in our pursuit to be one. Sometimes, we can be our own worst critics and it's no secret that we are often hardest on ourselves. But our mindset matters and what lies within us may better than you think!