This Is Woman's Work with Nicole Kalil

We love a comeback story. The recovery after the diagnosis. The victory after the struggle. The inspiring lesson wrapped up with a pretty bow and, preferably, some flattering lighting. But what about when you’re still in it? Allison Sweet Grant was barely 40, a mother of three, and just beginning her literary career when she was diagnosed with breast cancer. Her memoir, Lump: A Memoir in Ineloquent Reflections, tells the truth about breast cancer treatment and recovery without cleaning it up for public consumption. There’s fear and hope. Gratitude and anger. Humor and grief.  In this episode, Allison and Nicole talk about the messy emotional reality of a breast cancer diagnosis, chemotherapy and cancer recovery, including the pressure to stay positive, the complicated role of caregivers, and why gratitude doesn’t cancel out grief. We explore: Why gratitude, grief, fear, anger, humor, and hope can all exist at once The pressure cancer patients can feel to stay positive or find the “silver lining” How cancer affects spouses, children, caregivers, and the entire family Why humor and sarcasm can be powerful coping mechanisms during difficult experiences How the need to be liked or seen as a “good patient” can keep women from asking important questions Why bringing an advocate to medical appointments can make a difference How fear influences major healthcare decisions — and why Allison wishes she had paused more The ongoing fear of cancer recurrence and what it means to live in the complicated space between patient and survivor Because the truth doesn’t need to be positive, polished, perfect, or profound to be worth telling. Thank you to our sponsors! Protect your loved ones without spying on them. Go to HeyPolo.com/work or use code WORK and get 70% off your first year Connect with Allison: Website: https://www.allisonsweetgrant.com/  Book: https://www.amazon.com/Lump-Reflections-Allison-Sweet-Grant-ebook/dp/B0GL1H4FJL/  Related Podcast Episodes: Survival Is Woman’s Work with Kathy Giusti | 391 Joan Lunden on Reinvention, Leadership & Life Beyond the Script | 392 161 / Survivorship and Breast Cancer with Virginia Carnesale Share the Love: If you found this episode insightful, please share it with a friend, tag us on social media, and leave a review on your favorite podcast platform! 🔗 Subscribe & Review:Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music | YouTube Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Society doesn’t just tell girls who they’re supposed to be. It tells boys who they’re supposed to be too. Different rules, different consequences—but they’re still boxes asking our kids to perform who they’re supposed to be instead of discovering who they actually are. In this episode of This Is Woman’s Work, Nicole Kalil welcomes back Dr. Shefali, world-renowned clinical psychologist, multiple New York Times bestselling author, founder of the Conscious Parenting Movement, and author of two new books, Raising Conscious Daughters and Raising Conscious Sons. And while there’s plenty to say about raising confident girls, this conversation spends significant time on what boys need from parents in a culture sending them increasingly confusing messages about masculinity. They explore: What parents are getting wrong about raising boys today What “integrated masculinity” looks like and why boys need healthier models of manhood How parents can help boys navigate social media, pornography, the manosphere, and toxic masculinity Why mentorship and positive male role models matter What boys may be seeking through video games, online communities, and bro culture How movement, purpose, contribution, and connection can support boys’ emotional health How to help boys experience and express anger without shaming their emotions or allowing harmful behavior How girls are still being taught to seek approval—even when it’s packaged as empowerment Why parents need to examine their own emotional baggage and achievement expectations Because raising kids who know who they are—and get to decide who they become—that’s the work of a parent. Thank you to our sponsors! Protect your loved ones without spying on them. Go to HeyPolo.com/work or use code WORK and get 40% off your first year Connect with Dr. Shefali: Website: https://www.drshefali.com/raisingconscious-daughters-sons/  IG: https://www.instagram.com/doctorshefali/?hl=en  YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@doctorshefali  TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@doctorshefali  Related Podcast Episodes FACTS About Raising Emotionally Intelligent Kids with Alyssa Blask Campbell M.Ed | 345 126 / The Parenting Map with Dr. Shefali 056 / A Radical Awakening with Dr. Shefali Share the Love: If you found this episode insightful, please share it with a friend, tag us on social media, and leave a review on your favorite podcast platform! 🔗 Subscribe & Review:Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music | YouTube Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What if midlife isn’t the beginning of the decline, but the beginning of something entirely new? We’ve been sold a pretty outdated life plan: learn, work, climb, achieve, retire. Preferably while raising children, maintaining friendships, exercising, drinking enough water, keeping our relationships interesting, remembering everyone’s birthdays, and figuring out what the fuck is happening to our hormones. Yeah. That plan could use an update. In this episode of This Is Woman’s Work, Nicole Kalil talks with Lynda Gratton, one of the world’s leading experts on the future of work, professor of management practice at London Business School, and author of Living the Hundred Year Life: How to Build a Career That Lasts and a Life You Love. They explore: Why the traditional learn-work-retire model no longer fits a 100-year life How longer lifespans are changing careers, retirement, and the future of work Why women have been living multi-stage careers long before workplaces caught up The eight “threads” that help create a fulfilling, sustainable life and career Why relationships, friendship, adventure, and calm are essential to avoiding burnout Why calm may be one of the most neglected resources in women’s lives How to create more calm without pretending we suddenly have hours of free time The difference between the future self you hope for, expect, and fear Why adventure doesn’t require blowing up your life or booking a trip around the world Why you might want to take a little piece of retirement now instead of saving all of it for someday So if you’re asking, “What’s next for me?” maybe you don’t need the entire answer yet. Maybe you get to keep weaving, experimenting, and choosing as you go. Thank you to our sponsors! Protect your loved ones without spying on them. Go to HeyPolo.com/work or use code WORK and get 40% off your first year Connect with Lynda: Website: https://www.livingthe100yearlife.com/  Book: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Living-100-Year-Life-build-career/dp/1399432966/ref=sr_1_1  LI: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lynda-gratton-3b179813/    Assessment: https://www.livingthe100yearlife.com/assessment  Related Podcast Episodes: On Sabbaticals, Reinvention, and Getting Older | Unfiltered & Unhinged JoySpan: A Smarter Way To Age Well (And Break Free From Anti-Aging Culture) with Dr. Kerry Burnight | 425 Why “Rewirement” Beats Retirement (and How to Do It Right) with Anne Chow | 350 Share the Love: If you found this episode insightful, please share it with a friend, tag us on social media, and leave a review on your favorite podcast platform! 🔗 Subscribe & Review:Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music | YouTube Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Somewhere along the way, a lot of us got way too practical. We learned what’s realistic, reasonable, and likely to work. We became responsible adults who pay the mortgage and don’t launch every half-baked idea that hits us in the shower. Great. But what if being “realistic” is sometimes just fear with better branding? In this episode of This Is Woman’s Work, Nicole Kalil talks with Dr. Salima Bhimani, moonshot architect, entrepreneur, former Alphabet Chief Strategist for Responsible Technology, CEO of 10x Responsible Tech, and author of Invent Now: The Next Leap in Moonshots. Salima challenges the idea that innovation, AI, emerging technology, and moonshot thinking belong exclusively to Silicon Valley geniuses with billion-dollar budgets. Instead, she argues that human ingenuity exists everywhere—and that the future gets a hell of a lot more interesting when everyday people stop being passive recipients of technology and start participating in what gets built. They explore: What a moonshot idea actually is—and why it’s not just for tech billionaires Why Salima believes we’re wasting enormous amounts of human genius and potential How AI and emerging technology are lowering the barriers to innovation Why humanity—not technology—is the real moonshot How to stop underestimating your own ability to create change and make an impact The importance of community and collaboration when solving complex problems Why we tend to underestimate our own impact while wildly overestimating everyone else’s How purpose and creativity can emerge during messy, uncertain seasons of life Why friction, frustration, and problems may be exactly where the best ideas are hiding What Salima calls the “third space,” where human ingenuity and technology come together This isn’t about convincing everyone to cure cancer, build the next Google, or become an inventor. It’s about getting a little less impressed by what’s “realistic” and a lot more curious about what could be possible. Thank you to our sponsors! Protect your loved ones without spying on them. Go to HeyPolo.com/work or use code WORK and get 40% off your first year Connect with Salima: Website: https://salimabhimani.com/  Book: https://www.amazon.com/Invent-Now-Next-Leap-Moonshots/dp/1394394020  IG: https://www.instagram.com/moonshotmaven_salimabhimani/  Related Podcast Episodes Pioneers: 8 Principles for Building a Business That Lasts with Neri Karra Sillaman | 383 AI, Hiring, and the Future of Work (Without Selling Your Soul) with Katie Fortunato | 395 AQ: The Intelligence You Actually Need (And Why IQ & EQ Aren’t Enough) with Liz Tran | 386 Share the Love: If you found this episode insightful, please share it with a friend, tag us on social media, and leave a review on your favorite podcast platform! 🔗 Subscribe & Review:Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music | YouTube Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We’re living in the age of the quick fix. Three steps to happiness. One habit to eliminate anxiety. A supplement for every symptom. Enough already. Because grief is complicated. Mental health is complicated. Relationships are complicated. We are complicated. And when we reduce deeply human experiences into easy solutions, we don’t just oversimplify the problem—we risk making people believe they’re the problem. In this episode of This Is Woman’s Work, Nicole Kalil talks with Dr. Celeste Birkhofer, clinical psychologist, adjunct clinical faculty member at Stanford Medical School, and author of Beyond Quick Fixes. Together, they explore the five inner resources that support mental health, emotional resilience, healthy relationships, and personal growth—and why strengthening ourselves from the inside out matters more than finding the next hack. They explore: The five inner resources that create a stronger foundation for mental health and well-being How to develop a healthy sense of self, self-esteem, agency, and self-compassion Why coping strategies learned in childhood may no longer serve us as adults The difference between healthy coping and patterns of over-control, avoidance, numbing, or perfectionism Why strong relationships—and learning to tolerate disappointment and repair ruptures—are essential to well-being How to ask for the kind of support you actually need instead of expecting people to magically know Why self-compassion and personal growth can (and should) exist at the same time What the “wise self” is and how to strengthen and trust that internal voice Why professional mental health support matters when life becomes painful or overwhelming The work isn’t to constantly fix ourselves. It’s to know ourselves, strengthen ourselves, and build the inner resources that help us meet whatever life hands us with more capacity, compassion, resilience, and trust. Thank you to our sponsors! Protect your loved ones without spying on them. Go to HeyPolo.com/work or use code WORK and get 40% off your first year Connect with Celeste: Website: https://www.celestebirkhofer.com/  Book: https://www.amazon.com/Beyond-Quick-Fixes-Ingredients-Fulfilling/dp/B0GRWSRJLK  IG: https://www.instagram.com/celestebirkhofer  FB: https://www.facebook.com/celeste.birkhofer   LI: https://www.linkedin.com/in/celeste-birkhofer-phd-psyd-85525a9/  Substack: https://drcelestebirkhofer.substack.com/  Brainzmagazine: https://www.brainzmagazine.com/executive-contributor/celeste-birkhofer  Related Podcast Episodes: Stop Saying “I’m Fine”: Nervous System Regulation for High-Achieving Women with Michelle Grosser | 372 The Biology Of Trauma - And How To Heal It with Dr. Aimie Apigian | 346 Grown-Up Goals: The 5 Pillars Of Being A Healthy Adult with Michelle Chalfant | 317 Share the Love: If you found this episode insightful, please share it with a friend, tag us on social media, and leave a review on your favorite podcast platform! 🔗 Subscribe & Review:Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music | YouTube Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices