The Mothers with Sara Brown

Highly Competent. Deeply Overwhelmed. with Emily Greenberg

Many high-achieving women believe that if they prepare well enough, work hard enough, and become competent enough, they can prevent things from falling apart. Then they become mothers. Emily Greenberg spent her career working across nearly every layer of the modern childhood ecosystem – from teaching sixth grade to building parenting products and family platforms at companies including Lovevery, AltSchool, Wonderschool, and Higher Ground Education. She also holds a masters in education from New York University. And yet even she found herself overwhelmed by the transition into parenthood – navigating postpartum depression and unsettled by how difficult it was to maintain a sense of confidence and control inside early motherhood.  That experience ultimately led her to co-found Joy Parenting Club [https://joy.co/], an AI-enabled parenting support platform for families with young children, where she serves as president. Emily speaks candidly about postpartum depression, the transition into working motherhood, and the reality that modern parenting often functions as an invisible infrastructure problem carried privately by families – and disproportionately by women. We talk about: – why motherhood can fundamentally reshape identity for high-achieving women – the hidden operational labor required to run a modern family – why parenting support remains overwhelmingly reactive instead of preventative – how AI may function as cognitive support for overwhelmed parents – and how founders navigate ambition, uncertainty, and selfhood while raising young children This is a conversation about what happens when highly capable women encounter systems that were never actually built to support them – and what we might build instead. ****** The Boston Alliance for LGBTQ Youth [https://www.bagly.org/] (BAGLY) is hosting its annual Heels for Hope [http://bagly.org/heels] fundraiser on May 29 in Boston. BAGLY provides free support and services – from health screenings to therapy to basic necessities – for LGBTQ youth across Greater Boston. 👉 Visit BAGLY.org/heels [http://bagly.org/heels] to donate or get tickets to attend Heels for Hope ******* ⭐️ Follow The Mothers and leave a 5-star review if this resonated 💬 Share this episode with someone who needs to hear it 📱 Join The Mothers on Instagram @themotherspod [https://www.instagram.com/themotherspod] ✍️ Subscribe to ⁠⁠Sara’s Substack [https://sarasedgwickbrown.substack.com/]⁠⁠ for reflections on life, work, meaning & motherhood 💼 Find Sara on ⁠LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarasedgwickbrown/] The Mothers is a production of Backline Media.

I Didn’t Know Who I Was Outside of Google with Sara Holcomb

Sara Holcomb spent 16 years inside Google before leaving for senior roles at Dentsu and Criteo, where she's now SVP of Strategy. But the more interesting story isn't the resume – it's what happens when the thing you've built your entire identity around is suddenly gone. And then, on top of that: her younger son August started losing his hearing. We talk about the months-long diagnostic journey that led to his diagnosis of congenital CMV – the leading non-genetic cause of childhood hearing loss – and how that experience cracked Sara open in ways that a 16-year career never did. In this episode, Sara takes us from Atlanta to Cambridge, from the phone-lines of AdWords to senior leadership at Criteo and into the much harder, more human story underneath all of it: – Why high-achieving women confuse institutional success with identity – The slow, uncomfortable process of detaching your sense of self from a company – How stability at work becomes a coping mechanism when life gets hard at home – What chronic vigilance looks like for parents of medically complex children – Why Sara is fighting for universal newborn cCMV screening in Massachusetts If you live in Massachusetts, you can help support legislation requiring newborn cCMV screening. Click this link to VoterVoice [https://www.votervoice.net/mobile/NationalCMV/Campaigns/134843/Respond] for an email tailored to your local representative. The bill, with Sara’s help, is up for voting this summer. Every email counts: https://www.votervoice.net/mobile/NationalCMV/Campaigns/134843/Respond ****** The Boston Alliance for LGBTQ Youth [https://www.bagly.org/] (BAGLY) is hosting its annual Heels for Hope [http://bagly.org/heels] fundraiser on May 29 in Boston. BAGLY provides free support and services – from health screenings to therapy to basic necessities – for LGBTQ youth across Greater Boston. 👉 Visit BAGLY.org/heels [http://bagly.org/heels] to donate or get tickets to attend Heels for Hope ******* ⭐️ Follow The Mothers and leave a 5-star review if this resonated 💬 Share this episode with someone who needs to hear it 📱 Join The Mothers on Instagram @themotherspod [https://www.instagram.com/themotherspod] ✍️ Subscribe to ⁠⁠Sara’s Substack [https://sarasedgwickbrown.substack.com/]⁠⁠ for reflections on life, work, meaning & motherhood 💼 Find Sara on ⁠LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarasedgwickbrown/] The Mothers is a production of Backline Media.

Are You an Artist or an Entrepreneur? with Miki Agrawal

Miki Agrawal [https://mikiagrawal.com/] has built four companies. She has disrupted pizza, periods, bathrooms, and diapers. She has written two books, raised millions, and scaled brands that changed how people think about the most intimate parts of daily life. And she has no interest in building that way again. Miki is the founder of WILD [https://wildrestaurantnyc.com/], THINX [https://www.thinx.com/], TUSHY [https://hellotushy.com/] and most recently HIRO Technologies [https://hirodiapers.com/]. She is a serial entrepreneur who sees herself, first and foremost, as an artist.  What's striking about this moment in her life is not what she's built. It's the questions she's asking now:  What if building didn't have to come from pressure?  What if a company could grow the way nature grows – not by force, but by flourishing? In this conversation, we get underneath the resume and into the shift beneath it – the difference between building from urgency and building from alignment, what it took to dismantle the version of herself that "worked," and why she's investing as much in her inner landscape as her outer one. We also talk about motherhood and the particular kind of cracking open that happened when her son Hiro was born. How unconditional love rearranged something in her. How creativity and parenthood feed each other. And what it looks like to hold both a live-wire creative identity and the quiet dailiness of raising a child. This is a conversation about ambition. But more than that, it's about what happens when someone who has already proven everything turns inward – and starts asking what it would mean to build a life, and a company, from that place instead. Mentioned in this episode: - https://mikiagrawal.com/ [https://mikiagrawal.com/] - https://www.thinx.com/ [https://www.thinx.com/] - https://hellotushy.com/ [https://hellotushy.com/] - https://hirodiapers.com/ [https://hirodiapers.com/] - https://wildrestaurantnyc.com/ [https://wildrestaurantnyc.com/] - Miki’s recent TEDx talk “How Fungi Can Eat Plastic” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uud-93UQquI [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uud-93UQquI] ******* ⭐️ Follow The Mothers and leave a 5-star review if this resonated 💬 Share this episode with someone who would love it 📱 Join The Mothers on Instagram @themotherspod [https://www.instagram.com/themotherspod] ✍️ Subscribe to ⁠⁠Sara’s Substack [https://sarasedgwickbrown.substack.com/]⁠⁠ for reflections on life, work, meaning & motherhood 💼 Find Sara on ⁠LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarasedgwickbrown/] The Mothers is a production of Backline Media.

Who Are You at Work After Kids? with Claude Silver

What does it actually mean to “be yourself” at work – especially as a parent? And is “authenticity” even the right goal anymore? Because for many mothers, the question isn’t just who am I at work? It’s: Which version of me is allowed here? What do I keep in? What do I edit out? And what does it cost to keep performing? Claude Silver has built her career around these questions. As Chief Heart Officer of VaynerX, she leads culture and people for 2,000+ employees globally, partnering with Gary Vaynerchuk to build one of the most human-centered organizations in modern business. Her work has been recognized by Campaign US and Adweek, and she’s advised organizations from Google and Meta to government agencies on leadership and culture. But her path there was anything but linear. Claude grew up feeling like an outsider – navigating dyslexia, low self-confidence, and years of searching for identity and belonging. The work she does today is rooted in that experience: understanding the internal voice that shapes how we show up… and learning how to challenge it. In this conversation, we explore what it really takes to know yourself – and to build a life and career that reflect that truth, even as the demands of work and family collide. We talk about: – The difference between “performing” and actually being yourself at work – Why high-achieving women often lose access to their own identity after kids – How to challenge the negative inner voice – and find real evidence against it – The invisible, internal work that no one sees (but shapes everything) – What changes – structurally and psychologically – when you become a parent – And how leaders can create environments where people don’t have to split themselves in two Claude is also the author of Be Yourself at Work [https://www.amazon.com/Be-Yourself-Work-Groundbreaking-Standing/dp/0063392437/ref=sr_1_1?adgrpid=187113492940&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.lHfa3PFG_eBtRdXy_fDlVd4nik24t5g9FLO2Gg4395U.XlE3Mc67d1ECN7INXGTJcQ5PXpq3Bzsqq0jtJwMy4MQ&dib_tag=se&hvadid=779683982357&hvdev=c&hvexpln=0&hvlocphy=9002070&hvnetw=g&hvocijid=316297514676052215--&hvqmt=e&hvrand=316297514676052215&hvtargid=kwd-2441499354621&hydadcr=21934_13654411_13293&keywords=be+yourself+at+work+claude+silver&mcid=66b31ca468ee370688bb61009f6fe4cc&qid=1777300331&sbo=RZvfv%2F%2FHxDF%2BO5021pAnSA%3D%3D&sr=8-1], a guide to building self-awareness, confidence, and more human workplaces. This is a conversation about identity, self-worth, and the reality of trying to build a meaningful career while raising a family – without losing yourself in the process. ******* ⭐️ Follow The Mothers and leave a 5-star review if this resonated 💬 Share this episode with someone who needs to hear it 📱 Join The Mothers on Instagram @themotherspod [https://www.instagram.com/themotherspod] ✍️ Subscribe to ⁠⁠Sara’s Substack [https://sarasedgwickbrown.substack.com/]⁠⁠ for reflections on life, work, meaning & motherhood 💼 Find Sara on ⁠LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarasedgwickbrown/] The Mothers is a production of Backline Media.

[BEST OF] Letting Go of “Superwoman” with Marisa Renee Lee

What does it mean to live through grief and uncertainty, and still choose joy? In this BEST OF episode, Sara sits down with Marisa Renee Lee [https://www.marisareneelee.com/] (www.marisareneelee.com) – author, advocate, entrepreneur, grief expert, and the brilliant mind behind Grief Is Love [https://a.co/d/bQ9OWbw] and her new book Waiting for Dawn [https://www.amazon.com/Waiting-Dawn-Marisa-Renee-Lee/dp/1538770199]. From Wall Street to the Obama White House, from profound personal loss to becoming a Mother through persistence and heartbreak, Marisa has built a life and career rooted in truth, impact, and the courage to “hold both.” In this conversation, Marisa opens up about: * Losing her Mother young – and how grief shaped her life’s work * Long Covid, identity loss, and navigating the uncertainty of life’s “in-betweens” * Becoming a Mother to her son Bennett after years battling infertility * The pressure Black women (and Mothers, we think) face under the "Superwoman schema" * Separating productivity from self-worth * Asking for help after a lifetime of being conditioned to go it alone Marisa’s wisdom is generous, disarming, and deeply grounding - and a reminder that even in the hardest seasons, there is still hope, meaning, and room for joy. Order WAITING FOR DAWN on Amazon [https://www.amazon.com/Waiting-Dawn-Marisa-Renee-Lee/dp/1538770199] and wherever books are sold! https://www.amazon.com/Waiting-Dawn-Marisa-Renee-Lee/dp/1538770199 ******* ⭐️ Follow The Mothers and leave a 5-star review if this resonated 💬 Share this episode with someone who needs to hear it 📱 Join The Mothers on Instagram @themotherspod [https://www.instagram.com/themotherspod] ✍️ Subscribe to ⁠⁠Sara’s Substack [https://sarasedgwickbrown.substack.com/]⁠⁠ for reflections on life, work, meaning & motherhood 💼 Find Sara on ⁠LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarasedgwickbrown/] The Mothers is a production of Backline Media.