Ep. 13 — Is Your Job Killing You? Don't Wait Till You Break

Ep. 13 — Is Your Job Killing You? Don't Wait Till You Break

Deepa Purushothaman spent two decades at Deloitte, made partner in her early 30s, and was — by every external measure — successful. She was also living out of a suitcase three cities a week, constantly pushing herself, and beginning to get sick. It took 14 doctors before one of them finally asked her: "Is your job killing you?" This episode is what she's done with that question. We get into: * What it actually looks like to walk away from the path you’re on and build something new. * The four "shoe drops" that most often finally wake high-achieving women up — and why almost no one changes without one. * The difference between a season of busyness and a system of busyness. * How her definition of success has evolved, and how to start rewriting your definition of success in alignment with what you actually want. * And the one question Deepa thinks every one of us should be asking but most of us never do. If you've been chasing a definition of success that someone else handed you a long time ago, this conversation is for you. Deepa is the author of The First, The Few, The Only and the founder of The ReWrite.  Subscribe to Unbehaved wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes drop every other week.

Ep. 12 —You’re Not Past Your Prime. You’re Reinventing It.

Stacey Lindsay, author of Being 40, on the Made-up Timelines and Harmful Stories We Carry and How to Finally Let It Rip Award-winning journalist Stacey Lindsay has spent her career asking the real questions most others shy away from—and in this conversation, she turned that same lens on the judgements about how life is supposed to go based on our age.  We talk about the invisible measuring stick we’re held up against, the pressure women face around having kids, beauty ideals, and our careers, and the question that quietly chips away at many of us: have I done enough?  We get into what Stacey calls "delayering"—the ongoing, never-finished work of taking off inherited stories, other people's expectations, and judgments you've been carrying for so long they feel like your own skin. We talk about outsourcing our self-worth, the two kinds of stress (and how your body already knows the difference), and why so much of what women do in their 20s and 30s is quietly, relentlessly in the service of other people's comfort. And then Stacey introduces the concept that rocked my little world: the Autumn Queen—a different archetype for women in midlife, one that has nothing to do with decline and everything to do with renaissance. Because it turns out the systems at play don't want to give us a word for this stage of life, and there's a reason for that. This episode drops on the week of Stacey's book launch. It's the right week to listen.

Ep. 11 —How to Be Ambitious Without Burning Out—with Amina AlTai

USA Today best-selling author Amina AlTai on Painful versus Purposeful Ambition You've been told that ambition is the answer—that if you just work harder, push further, and want it badly enough, you'll be happy. You'll be successful. But what if the ambition you've been chasing is actually eroding your quality of life? Making you sick, overly stressed, exhausted, and unhappy.  In the first episode of Unbehaved Season 2, Meghan sits down with best-selling author of The Ambition Trap, Amina AlTai, to dismantle everything we think we know about ambition. Amina draws a line between "painful ambition"—the kind that grinds you down in a broken system that works against you—and "purposeful ambition," the kind that actually sustains you. They get into why there is no outworking a broken system, why we overdevelop our work identity at the expense of everything else, and why clarity doesn't come from sitting still and overthinking—it comes from moving, even if the first step is laughably small. There's also a moment involving a dance party that might make you rethink your entire definition of quality of life. If you've ever felt like you're sprinting on a treadmill someone else plugged in, this one's for you.

Ep. 10 — The Anti-Overwhelm Playbook: How to Stop Drowning in Busy

If you’re constantly overextended, guilty when you rest, or exhausted by the pace of life — this is for you. In this Better Than This (now Unbehaved) Season 1 finale, Meghan French Dunbar reveals The Anti-Overwhelm Playbook: four simple, research-backed practices to help you de-stress, set boundaries, and flourish within imperfect systems. Drawing on stories from real women and thought leaders, Meghan explores how guilt, judgment, and “busy culture” keep us stuck — and how to reclaim your agency through essentializing your time, relationships, inputs, and behaviors. You’ll learn: 1) How guilt and judgment keep us stuck in overwork 2) Why depletion makes good leadership impossible 3) The Impact–Energy Matrix for saying no without guilt 4) How to “clean your closet” of draining relationships 5) A soul-feeding filter for what you watch, read, and scroll 6) Gentle guardrails for your health and habits This episode is your permission slip to rest, recalibrate, and lead from a place of wellbeing — because flourishing isn’t a privilege, it’s a practice.

Ep. 9 — The Unexpected (And Very Real) Leadership Superpower of Intuition

How to tap into your inner wisdom to transform how you lead Intuition often gets dismissed as “soft” or “woo”—especially for women in business. Yet, it’s one of the skills some of the world’s most successful business leaders lean on most.  In this episode, Meghan reframes intuition as a bona fide leadership super power: a rapid-cognition system that helps you spot risk, improve decisions, and choose the path of greatest relief and resonance. Guests Vicki Saunders, Diana Propper de Callejon, and Stephanie Nadi Olson share how they navigate by intuition in high-stakes decisions, from walking away from “crunchy” timing to choosing the next right move that feels frictionless. You’ll hear a raw story of ignoring gut warnings with a powerful stakeholder and get simple practices to regularly tap into your intuition. If you’ve ever gaslit your gut to keep the peace or ignored an intuitive idea because it deviates from the norm, this conversation gives you language, tools, and permission to trust yourself—and lead with more clarity, resonance, and inspiration.  What you’ll learn * A practical tests to ensure your aligned with your intuition when making tough calls * How intuition improves complex decision-making and deception detection * Three daily/weekly practices to strengthen intuitive signals * How to follow intuitive “breadcrumbs” from ideas to outcomes