Ticker Tape Minds: How moms make it all work and why we need to talk about It

Working moms constantly juggle two nonstop ticker tapes — one filled with work deadlines, the other carrying the endless mental load of motherhood. It’s a daily reality that rarely gets the attention it deserves. In this episode, we discuss the daily dance that so many moms perform: the push and pull of balancing professional goals and financial stability with family responsibilities. We speak with global operations director Barbara Nicholas about how she had to take sick days or unpaid leave when she had her first child, rather than risk being fired, and how she missed out on many of her daughter’s first moments as a result of being overworked. And how that experience taught her to push for better boundaries and establish the right work-family balance at an employer that doesn’t expect her to prioritize her job at the expense of her children. We unpack how the "Lean In" era, while well-intended, has left many women feeling like they can’t “have it all” – they’ve ended up being expected to do it all — and why that idea no longer flies. We reunite with returning guests Kendra Pennington, founder of Beyond the 9th women’s community, and sociologist and author of Jessica Calarco about why the “supermom” label can feel toxic, putting even more pressure on mothers to perform at an unrealistic level in both their careers and at home. And we look at why mothers’ ability to juggle is a strength, so why do so many workplaces seem to regard it as a weakness?

You can listen to Ticker Tape Minds: How moms make it all work and why we need to talk about It online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

Ticker Tape Minds: How moms make it all work and why we need to talk about It is an episode from The Return.

This episode is 28:49 long.

This episode was published on Mar 29, 2025.

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