I’m excited to have Rev. Lizzie return to the show today to discuss her new book, God Didn't Make Us To Hate Us. Rev. Lizzie is an Episcopal priest who has become a good friend–and is always a fun guest! Join us!

Show Highlights:

• Rev. Lizzie’s new book—and why she wrote it
• Considering the question, “Why do I believe what I believe?”
• The truth about Christianity means telling the WHOLE story.
• The comfort in being loved by God when we’ve been told by people that we are “bad and broken”
• Living in joy is THE goal.
• The four parts of Rev. Lizzie’s book
• A list of books which are foundational pieces of Rev. Lizzie’s faith journey
• Listen in while Rev. Lizzie reads a moving excerpt from her book about her birthing experience, sin, and God’s perfect love.

Resources and Links:

Connect with Rev. Lizzie: TikTok, Instagram, and God Didn't Make Us To Hate Us

Connect with KC: Website, TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook

Get KC’s book, How to Keep House While Drowning

We love the sponsors that make this show possible! You can always find all the special deals and codes for all our current sponsors on our website: www.strugglecare.com/promo-codes.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Money, money, money—-today’s show is all about money! I’m joined by Dana Miranda, the author of You Don't Need a Budget: Stop Worrying about Debt, Spend without Shame, and Manage Money with Ease. Dana is here to discuss debt from a refreshing perspective, and she shares her best advice about how to proceed after finding your financial footing. Having a budget is NOT the answer to all of your money problems. Join us for expert advice from Dana!

Show Highlights:

• Dana’s path to the work she does today
• Money decisions are not purely black and white.
• What it means to be “Healthy Rich” (Check out Dana’s podcast: Healthy Rich.)
• Financial education is more than the demonization of debt.
• The fascination with shame as a way to bring behavior change around money (Does it really help to yell at people?)
• A healthy (and different) approach to debt
• Debt is strategic for the wealthiest 1%?? How?
• Understanding how debt products work and impact your credit score
• With debt, negotiation is always a possibility. Give it a try.
• Dana’s advice about debt products and red flags to look for
• Societal attitudes toward “acceptable debt”
• Addressing the gaps in financial knowledge for the typical American who finally achieves financial stability
• Accessible financial advice is available—where to look and who to trust
• Dana’s book: Who is it for and how can it help?

Resources and Links:

Connect with Dana Miranda: Healthy Rich podcast and You Don't Need a Budget book

Connect with KC: Website, TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook

Get KC’s book, How to Keep House While Drowning

We love the sponsors that make this show possible! You can always find all the special deals and codes for all our current sponsors on our website: www.strugglecare.com/promo-codes.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today’s episode is about surviving abuse, and I’m joined by Lisa Phillips, an abuse survivor. She shares her horrifying experience of surviving abuse at the hands of Jeffrey Epstein, along with so many other young girls. Lisa hosts a podcast called From Now On, where she dives headfirst into stories of abuse and recovery. Join us.

Show Highlights:

• Lisa’s experience with Jeffrey Epstein when she was a young model in NYC
• Understanding the scope of sex trafficking and sexual predators
• Common questions survivors ask themselves: “Am I the crazy one? How could I not have known? How could I have been so stupid?”
• Red flags, boundaries, predators, and “the switch”
• Look out for “love bombers”!
• The irony of sharing a history of sexual abuse with a partner (“They want to abuse you in the same way you were abused.”)
• It’s hard to leave a relationship if you are trauma-bonded to that partner.
• Abuse makes you more at risk of being abused again.
• Lisa’s podcast guests, their stories, and universal experiences of abuse
• Talking to our kids about evil people and “bad guys”
• The main danger is NOT from strangers.

Resources and Links:

Connect with Lisa Phillips: Instagram, From Now On Podcast, Podcast Instagram, Podcast TikTok, and From Now On YouTube

Connect with KC: Website, TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook

Get KC’s book, How to Keep House While Drowning

We love the sponsors that make this show possible! You can always find all the special deals and codes for all our current sponsors on our website: www.strugglecare.com/promo-codes.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Food rules, pop culture messaging, pressure, and the demonization of certain foods have huge impacts on the meals being eaten every day across the US. There is a better way to ensure we get the nutrition we need without beating ourselves up over the meals we eat. Dalina Soto, Your Latina Nutritionist, joins us for this eye-opening conversation. Join us!

Show Highlights:

• Including your culture is an important part of nutrition.
• Racial bias, demonized foods (like white rice), and pop culture messaging
• Food IS fuel—but there’s more to it than nutrition!
• Rethinking your nutritional hierarchy
• Decision-making fatigue in meal planning 
• Reevaluating the “food rules” we follow
• The “eating out” vs. “buying more groceries” dilemma for American families
• Dalina’s top tips for quick meals and easy hacks (An air fryer saves the day!)
• We, as women, put much of the pressure around nutrition on ourselves.
• Dealing with kids: the key is to keep offering new fruits and vegetables
• The beauty in finding a good nutritionist who doesn’t demonize cultural foods
• Dalina’s new book, coming in March: The Latina Anti-Diet

Resources and Links:

Connect with Dalina Soto: TikTok, Website, and The Latina Anti-Diet book

Connect with KC: Website, TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook

Get KC’s book, How to Keep House While Drowning

We love the sponsors that make this show possible! You can always find all the special deals and codes for all our current sponsors on our website: www.strugglecare.com/promo-codes.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Where can you turn when a loved one is in the throes of addiction and needs help? How do you know what professionals to trust and if a treatment center is reputable? So many questions surround the topic of addiction treatment, and it’s a murky industry. We are discussing the seedy underbelly of the addiction industry with my guest. Heidi Voet, LPC, is a longtime mental health professional and the owner of Chapter House Counseling and Sober Living. Heidi and I take on this important topic and explain why, despite the problems, we would still send a loved one into treatment. Join us to learn more!

Show Highlights:

• Heidi’s take on the ugliness of the treatment industry
• Understanding the medical model of treatment vs. the community model
• 12-step programs, legalism, insurance corruption, and integrity
• The truth: Exploitation has bled into addiction treatment.
• The real dilemma for family members
• The struggle for political correctness while trying to intervene for an addict
• Heidi’s advice to families who want to intervene:
• Don’t intervene too fast. 
• Find the lowest level of appropriate care (think of a ladder of options).
• Be wise and ask questions of the consultant, case manager, or interventionist. (“Are you on the payroll of a treatment center?”)
• Speak to current clients, alumni, and families of the center.
• Red flags in your interaction with a treatment center and helpful questions to ask
• The need to consider gender-specific treatment
• Why KC would never recommend a wilderness treatment center
• Assessing a center’s approach to trauma, medications, and religious philosophies/affiliations

Resources and Links:

Connect with Heidi Voet and Chapter House Counseling: Website

Connect with KC: Website, TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook

Get KC’s book, How to Keep House While Drowning

We love the sponsors that make this show possible! You can always find all the special deals and codes for all our current sponsors on our website: www.strugglecare.com/promo-codes.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sensory health goes far beyond discomfort with a scratchy fabric or loud noises. If you are not familiar with sensory health, this episode will be full of new concepts and revelations for you. You WILL realize how important sensory health is for each of us! My guest is Virginia Spielmann, an occupational therapist who did a TEDx Talk on this topic. She explains sensory health, why it’s important, and how it matters in every area of life. Join us to learn more!

Show Highlights:

• Virginia’s background and journey to her work today
• Sensory health: “how” we feel, what we do with it, and why it connects to everything about our psychological well-being
• Understanding sensory health as the bridge between mental and physical health
• Active lifestyles and exercise don’t look the same for everyone.
• Differences in sensory processing
• How we unintentionally gaslight our kids’ sensory reactions
• The importance of being curious as a parent
• Finding a balance between accommodating and exposure/growth
• Understanding systematic desensitization
• Comfort AND challenge—not comfort OR challenge
• The #1 intervention for improved mental health? Dance and other forms of big play
• An overview of the STAR Institute’s programs, services, and events

Resources and Links:

Connect with Virginia Spielmann and the STAR Institute: Website and TEDx Talk

Connect with KC: Website, TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook

Get KC’s book, How to Keep House While Drowning

We love the sponsors that make this show possible! You can always find all the special deals and codes for all our current sponsors on our website: www.strugglecare.com/promo-codes.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This episode is the second part to my conversation with Dr. Karla Lester about food shaming, weight bias, metabolic diseases, “almond moms,” and more. Dr. Karla lends her professional expertise to the discussion of these important topics. Join us!

Show Highlights:

• The effect of “almond mom” parenting on kids: food shaming, eating disorders, and more
• The start of binge eating disorder in very young kids
• Guarding against “opposite” mistakes with your kids in making good food choices
• From KC, a parent’s perspective on food choices and neurodivergent kids
• A switch from compliance to compassion
• The goal in feeding kids should start with a focus on intentional, daily protein intake (Start with protein at breakfast!)
• Aim for habit change in a positive direction.
• Understanding “food noise” and what it means to bust common food myths
• Dr. Karla’s advice to parents: “Get to neutral.”
• Red flags for parents to look for in their kids’ food behaviors
• Responding as a parent to your child’s weight gain/loss
• The truth about insulin resistance: “It is an epidemic that we cannot ignore!”
• Understanding the term healthism

Resources and Links:

Connect with Dr. Karla Lester: IME Community, Dr. Karla, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, and Dr. Karla's radio show

Connect with KC: Website, TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook

Get KC’s book, How to Keep House While Drowning

We love the sponsors that make this show possible! You can always find all the special deals and codes for all our current sponsors on our website: www.strugglecare.com/promo-codes.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today’s topic arouses a host of different feelings and reactions around the term “pediatric obesity.” Dr. Karla Lester joins us to share her expertise as a medical professional and her perspective as a concerned parent. Discussing food and eating habits for us and our kids can send us down a rabbit hole with many tangents. Let’s get some balance and clarity in today’s episode.

Show Highlights:

• Parents are victims of diet myths and bad science—and it carries over to our kids.
• Having food rules doesn’t mean a commitment to restrictive eating.
• How Dr. Karla came to the work she does today
• “Almond moms” and “thin privilege” in our society
• Fact: It is more difficult to navigate the world in a larger body, and parents fear this for their kids.
• Health myths that “almond moms” believe and pass on to their kids
• Does thinner always mean healthy? “No, you can be metabolically healthy, or unhealthy, at any weight.”
• Comorbidities between addictions and eating disorders
• Myths about obesity causing many health issues
• Understanding insulin resistance and its causes
• A look at the COVID-19 epidemic in a different light

Resources and Links:

Connect with Dr. Karla Lester: IME Community, Dr. Karla, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, and Dr. Karla's radio show

Connect with KC: Website, TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook

Get KC’s book, How to Keep House While Drowning

We love the sponsors that make this show possible! You can always find all the special deals and codes for all our current sponsors on our website: www.strugglecare.com/promo-codes.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is a lighthearted episode–because we all can use a break from all the heaviness around us. I’m welcoming Caroline, “The Niche Tea Lady,” to the show. Join us!

Show Highlights:

• Understanding “niche tea”
• Caroline’s favorite story of niche tea: the amazing tale of two birders
• The biggest plot twist in a niche tea deep dive
• Memorable niche tea surprise endings
• Pyramids, video games, and the nuances of content creation
• Everyone loves an underdog story!
• “Discords” and weirdo behavior
• The funniest niche tea in Caroline’s experience: a published back-and-forth between two high-level academics
• The most viral niche tea stories in Caroline’s experience: birding and beekeeping

Resources and Links:

Connect with Caroline: TikTok, X, Instagram, and YouTube

Connect with KC: Website, TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook

Get KC’s book, How to Keep House While Drowning

We love the sponsors that make this show possible! You can always find all the special deals and codes for all our current sponsors on our website: www.strugglecare.com/promo-codes.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Social anxiety is an interesting topic. Natasha Daniels is a social anxiety therapist and mom who joined us recently to discuss OCD and kids; today, we are exploring another form of anxiety as Natasha helps us understand social anxiety. She wrote a memoir, Out of My Shell, detailing her personal experience. 

Show Highlights:

• Natasha’s background, personal experience, and book about social anxiety
• The neuro-divergent affirming movement
• The difference between social anxiety and introversion
• Do we ALL have some degree of social anxiety?
• Thoughts on “bed rot,” social anxiety, and what’s “normal”
• Social anxiety as a defense mechanism
• The isolation that comes with social anxiety
• OCD, social anxiety, and autism—a common connection?
• “A paralyzing fear of others’ perceptions and a preoccupation with managing those perceptions”
• The difference between a defense mechanism and a personality trait
• An overview of Natasha’s experience with social anxiety and why she wrote her book
• Social anxiety is NOT a self-esteem issue.
• Outsmarting the negative critic in your head
• Dr. Kristin Neff’s concept of “fierce self-compassion,” which is “a feistiness of advocacy”

Resources and Links:

Future Fans:Helping little kids become BIG fans

Connect with Natasha Daniels: Website (and book) and Instagram

Connect with KC: Website, TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook

Get KC’s book, How to Keep House While Drowning

We love the sponsors that make this show possible! You can always find all the special deals and codes for all our current sponsors on our website: www.strugglecare.com/promo-codes.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today’s topic carries a degree of sensitivity, so consider this a trigger warning if you are sensitive to discussions about sexual assault and sexual harassment. Our focus is on how universities and workplaces are dealing with these issues–and how they can do it better. My guest is Nicole Bedera, a sociologist and author with a Ph.D. Her upcoming debut book is On the Wrong Side: How Universities Protect Predators and Betray Survivors of Sexual Violence.

Show Highlights:

• Nicole’s background as a victim advocate in the criminal justice system
• College as the entry point into an adulthood of privilege for perpetrators of violence
• The biggest challenges for universities regarding sexual violence
• Title IX: where it all began in 1980
• Punishing perpetrators AND meeting the needs of survivors—can we do both?
• Power, punishment, and consequences
• Nicole’s surprise when she dug deeper into sexual assault cases
• The myth: Sexual violence only happens from evil men.
• White supremacy history and sexual assault
• Barriers to justice and societal norms
• The truth: Perpetrators rarely change their behavior.
• The research shows that a lot of men will stop perpetrating IF they know there will be negative consequences.
• There is little accountability on college campuses for perpetrators.
• The need to create safe spaces for survivors over perpetrators
• The Brett Kavanaugh scenario
• What we CAN fix to have huge ripple effects

Resources and Links:

Connect with Dr. Nicole Bedera: Website, Twitter, and On the Wrong Side book

Connect with KC: Website, TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook

Get KC’s book, How to Keep House While Drowning

We love the sponsors that make this show possible! You can always find all the special deals and codes for all our current sponsors on our website: www.strugglecare.com/promo-codes.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices