Every week I keep a running list of the stories that made me stop scrolling — the ones that say something true about what it actually looks like to be ambitious and a mother right now. Here’s what made the list this week.
01 — She Sold Poppi For $1.95bn. Then She Wanted Her Body Back.
She didn't owe anyone an explanation — which is exactly why the fact that she gave one says something about who mothers still feel accountable to.
Related listen: "The Truth About Postpartum Recovery Nobody Tells Mothers"
02 — Your Employer Will Pay To Freeze Your Eggs. Is That Actually Progress?
It's a nice line item until you notice what it's actually optimizing for — not her fertility, the company's timeline.
03 — She Quit Her Job While Pregnant. It Became Perelel.
Every founder story like this skips the part where “illness and fertility struggles” was just called Tuesday.
04 — The Summer Holiday Is A Career Problem.
£1,145 a child isn't a scheduling hiccup, it's a second rent payment — filed, somehow, under “personal choice.”
05 — The Hardest Part Of Leaving VC Wasn’t The Work. It Was The Status.
Ambition doesn't leave when the title does. It just stops having somewhere obvious to point.
Related listen: "The Courage to Choose Yourself"
06 — Maisonette Is Betting On The Spending Power Of Your Tween.
Somewhere between the co-shopping cart and the loyalty app, “age-appropriate” quietly became a marketing term instead of a parenting one.
07 — Fashion Is Quietly Dropping Plus Sizes In The Ozempic Era.
Fashion didn't wait for the science to settle before deciding which bodies were worth dressing again.
08 — The Working Woman Is Finally Being Treated Like A Whole Person.
Noticing that women contain multitudes is progress. Selling blazers off the back of it is still a campaign.
09 — Mary J. Blige Saw Motherhood Limit Women — And Chose Not To Have Children.
It's still rare to hear a woman explain not having children with the same confidence she'd be allowed to explain having them.
Related listen: "The Courage to Choose Yourself"
10 — Only 26% Of New AI Hires Were Women.
Every earlier tech shift promised this part would be different for women. This is usually the part where it isn't.
That’s the list. New episode Wednesday — talk soon.
CATCHING UP ON THE POD?
How To Turn Yourself On To Life Again
This week's episode: Anna Hushlak joins me to talk about desire, burnout, people-pleasing, and what it actually takes to reconnect with your own energy and creativity — not just push through the week.
I don't know about you, but I'm gearing up for school season — and this year, as a mum of two (and two dogs), I'm all in on systems that work for me instead of me working for them. Starting with Claude: I fed it every school document I have, had it build a schedule for the kids that's going straight on the fridge, and used it to sort out uniform orders in minutes.
The anonymized version of what Claude built for us — swap in your own kids’ activities and you’re set.
The 3 prompts, in order
Step 1 — analyze the school documents: "Here are my kids’ school calendars, supply lists, term dates, and any forms for the year [attach or paste the PDFs/emails]. Pull every date, deadline, and required item into one master list, grouped by child and by month."
Step 2 — build the fridge schedule: "Using that master list plus [activity/club times], build me a one-page weekly schedule per child I can print and stick on the fridge — clear time blocks, color-coded by kid if there’s more than one, and a line for what needs to be packed the night before."
Step 3 — order uniforms: "Here’s the uniform list and sizing chart from the school website [paste link or text], and here’s what we already have from last year [list items/sizes]. Tell me exactly what’s missing, what size to order given how much they’ve grown, and where to buy it."
Simona