Podcast · Learning

Medium Lady Talks: Burnout Recovery for Millennials and Mothers

by Erin Vandeven · English · Learning

Welcome to Medium Lady Talks, the podcast for burnt-out millennial moms who want to reclaim their time, energy, and joy—without the pressure of perfection. Host Erin, a working mom and mindful living advocate, shares refreshingly honest conversations and practical strategies to help you navigate mo

New episodes: Weekly
Typical length: 38 min
Latest: 12 Sep 2026
Language: English

Latest episode

12 Sep 2026 · 38 min

Episode 185: September Self-Care Capsule: "Trust Yo'Self!"

It’s September, and if your feed has convinced you it’s time to “lock in” for the last four months of the year, this one’s for you. Erin checks in after a wildly overstimulating (in a good way) summer and names the low-grade insecurity that crept back in once the goal-tracking stopped. The antidote isn’t a new framework — it’s trusting herself. She’s calling this season Trust Yo’Self, a riff on Parks and Recreation’s Treat Yourself and this year’s word of the year, sovereign, and walks through her September self-care capsule across four buckets: read, rest, play, and think. What we talk…

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Earlier episodes 29 most recent

E184 · 1 Sep 2026 · 48 min
Episode 184: I Finished A Book: Culpability vs. Co-Intelligence: What Fiction and Nonfiction Teach Us About AI
This summer I read two books back to back — one fiction, one nonfiction — and they ended up talking to each other in a way I couldn't have planned. Culpability by Bruce Holsinger is a family drama about an autonomous vehicle accident and the AI-ethicist mother whose secret work sits at the center of it. Co-Intelligence by Ethan Mollick is the clear-eyed, cautiously optimistic case for engaging with AI as a co-worker, co-teacher, and coach. I used my Claude enabled book-club wheel widget to pull questions from both, and we get into culpability, cultural conditioning, the heat and chaos of…
E183 · 10 Aug 2026 · 35 min
Episode 183 Kinda Chic to Have a Podcast: What Can this Summer Trend Teach Us about Mindset?
Everyone's feed said "kinda chic" this summer — Drew Barrymore's was, Reese Witherspoon's was, Priyanka Chopra's was too. In this solo episode, Erin traces the "kinda chic" trend from its quiet April 2026 origins on Instagram to its full celebrity-mainstream moment in August, unpacks why a three-word phrase gave so many women an "exhale" they didn't know they needed, and pulls the practice apart into two distinct emotional moves — savoring and guilt-neutralizing — that listeners can use whether or not they ever post a word of it. Part trend breakdown, part values practice: media observation…
E182 · 28 Jul 2026 · 53 min
Episode 182: What Happens when You Track the Simple Stuff? On Consistency, Freedom and 75 days with Stephanie Cunningham
Description Erin is joined by close friend and returning guest Stephanie Cunningham to talk about the "Simple 75" — a loosened, personalized riff on 75 Hard that the two of them ran together this summer. What starts as a lighthearted comparison of checklists turns into a real conversation about failure as information (not judgment), narrowing down to "the things that always work," and why the absence of a punitive restart changes everything about whether a habit challenge is sustainable. Steph also opens up about stepping away from the challenge entirely during a family crisis, and what made…
E181 · 20 Jul 2026 · 38 min
Episode 181: Your Self Care Capsule for August - Managing Climate Anxiety with a Treehouse Mindset
This month's self-care capsule comes out of a real, lived week — five days of wildfire smoke from the Northern Ontario fires reaching southwestern Ontario, and a crash course in AQI and climate anxiety Erin didn't see coming. She shares a hope-forward book pack, a three-part mental reframe for climate anxiety, and a playful "treehouse mindset" for reducing consumption without falling into restriction or scarcity thinking. What's covered: Living through the wildfire smoke from the Northern Ontario fires (including the community of Collins) and what it revealed about her own, previously…
E180 · 6 Jul 2026 · 39 min
Episode 180: I Finished A Book - Just Watch Me by Lior Torenberg: A Long Form Book Review on Grief, Livestreaming & Being Seen
MLT 180: I Finished a Book, Episode 1 After six seasons of letting the productivity ball get bigger than the creativity ball, Erin's shaking up the format — starting with an unscripted, wheel-spun review of Just Watch Me by Lior Torenberg, built with a little help from Claude. What's covered: Why Erin's stepping back from "better, faster, stronger" podcasting and testing a looser, funnier format The exact AI prompt Erin used to build a 28-question "book club wheel" for spontaneous, unscripted reviews — full transparency on the goal/context prompt structure A deep, spoiler-flagged review of…
E179 · 29 Jun 2026 · 32 min
Episode 179 Can We Skip to the Good Part? Permission to Have Fun and Feel Good
Episode Summary Erin is back at the mic with a confession: she's been taking the podcast a little too seriously. In this honest, unpolished episode, she unpacks the ambivalence she's been carrying as a creator — the quiet pressure, the almost-quits, and the moment a listener named Kate said she just wanted more fun and Erin felt relief instead of defensiveness. From a trail walk with her friend Amy to a summer gratitude challenge already seven days in, this episode is an invitation to skip the optimization and notice what actually feels good right now. In This Episode The honest confession:…
E143 · 22 Jun 2026 · 25 min
[REPOST] Episode 143: The Soft Work of Healing – Why Feeling Good Is Part of the Process
This episode was originally published in June of 2025 In this heartfelt episode of Medium Lady Talks, Erin shares a deeply personal talk on reclaiming “soft work” as a vital part of healing. Inspired by a moment with her therapist and delivered originally at the Say It Like You Claimed It event with Jam Gamble, this message is a reminder that you can’t recover from burnout by doing more hard work. Instead, you need softness. 🪷 Erin breaks down: What “soft work” is and why it matters (think: joy, rest, nature, play) Why soft work activates the vagus nerve and heals the nervous system The…
E178 · 8 Jun 2026 · 53 min
Episode 178 What Would You Do with the Gift of Time? with guest Emily Gibson
What do you do when life hands you unexpected free time — not a vacation, not a long weekend, but a recurring, reliable gift of unstructured hours every single week? That's exactly the situation Erin's best friend of over 30 years, Emily Gibson, found herself in when a shift in her employment created free Fridays from now through the end of the year. Instead of defaulting to scrolling, guilt, or vague intentions, Emily got intentional. She designed the Found Fridays project — a personal framework and Instagram series where every Friday is planned with purpose, organized into meaningful…
E177 · 1 Jun 2026 · 1 hr 2 min
Episode 177: Escaping the Motherhood Matrix with Amber Pecoraro
What if the guilt, the overwhelm, and the feeling that you're never quite enough aren't personal failings — but a system you were never meant to question? This week, I'm joined by life coach, author, and mom of four Amber Pecoraro, whose story I think so many of you are going to immediately recognize yourselves in. Amber is the founder of B'joyed Coaching and the author of Escape the Motherhood Matrix — a guide for high-achieving women to identify the invisible conditioning keeping them stuck and start dismantling it for good. She's a former civilian leader in the US Air Force Government…
E176 · 26 May 2026 · 41 min
Episode 176: There's a Reason "Easy" Mental Health Advice is so Hard to Follow
You've heard the list. Go outside. Move your body. Sleep well. Drink water. Seek connection. Find joy. Get offline. You might have it on a sticky note, a vision board, buried in a notes app. And yet here we are — still knowing, still not quite doing, and carrying a very specific flavour of guilt about the gap. This episode is not a fix. There are no frameworks, no habit trackers, no systems. What Erin does instead is take four of the eight core mental health domains she's distilled from a decade of reading — identity, movement, connection, and creativity — and gets genuinely honest about…
E175 · 18 May 2026 · 37 min
MLT 175 Changing My Mind: What months of AI research actually changed for me
This is the final episode of the AI for the Rest of Us series — and it didn't go the way Erin planned. Not because the series failed, but because it worked. She went in hoping to create a compassionate, curious space for women to engage with AI. She came out changed, uncertain, and more honest about what that process actually costs. This episode is less a conclusion and more an unpacking: of the mental loop that comes with having a public opinion on something nobody agrees on, of changing your mind in real time, and of what it means to hold an evolving point of view without collapsing into…
E174 · 4 May 2026 · 47 min
Episode 174: My 70/30 Rule: How I Decide When AI Is Worth It
It started with a book club I never made. Last summer I designed it in excruciating detail — the reading schedule, the prompts, the whole vibe. I felt amazing doing it. And then I never launched it. In this episode I'm using that story as the entry point into something I've been quietly figuring out for a couple of years: my personal bar for when using generative AI is actually worth it. This isn't a pro-AI episode or an anti-AI episode. It's an honest account of how I went from delighted early adopter, to someone who noticed she was outsourcing her own discernment, to someone who has built…
E173 · 27 Apr 2026 · 56 min
Episode 173 Is Guilt Driving the AI Gender Gap?
Medium Lady Talks — Episode 173 Is Guilt Driving the AI Gender Gap? Hi, I'm Erin and this is Medium Lady Talks — the podcast for millennial women who want to live more intentionally, read more books, and stop burning out in the middle of a life they actually love. What this episode is about If you've ever used an AI tool (or thought about using one) and felt weird about it afterward — not quite wrong, but not quite right — this episode is for you. We spend the whole episode trying to figure out what that feeling actually is. Because I don't think it's guilt. I think it's something more…
E172 · 20 Apr 2026 · 48 min
Episode 172: Scared and Curious: What Even Is AI and Why I Can't Look Away
This is the one Erin has been building toward for a while. Episode 172 kicks off a new series "AI for the Rest of Us" and it starts in the tension between fear and curiosity, between wanting to look away and knowing we can't. This is a messy, honest, first-person episode about what AI actually is, why the gender gap in AI adoption matters, and how a concept called the "pessimism aversion trap" might be the thing quietly keeping us stuck. No tech background required. No conclusions forced. Just a real conversation (always out loud and in process) from someone figuring it out alongside you. In…
E171 · 13 Apr 2026 · 32 min
Episode 171: I Have No Idea What I'm Doing But I'm Here Anyway
After three weeks away, Erin is back....but not because she has it figured out, but because showing up anyway is the whole point. This episode is an honest check-in: on an OCD flare that was the most significant in years, on the creative paralysis that followed, and on what finally helped her find her way back. She traces the silence back to the AI series she announced in episode 169, which quickly began to feel like spacewalking without a tether, and the stakes felt high, the subject felt vast, and her nervous system did what nervous systems do. What pulled her through? The Artemis II moon…
E170 · 16 Mar 2026 · 53 min
Episode 170: Scraping the Bottom of the Barrel - An Almost-Spring Check-in
Erin drafted this episode during a false spring — bright light, warm temps, a few days without a winter jacket. Then she sat down to record on a Sunday and it was snowing. Again. Which is exactly why this episode needed to exist. This is a guided end-of-winter reflection for everyone who has been holding on through the hardest months of the year. It names the specific disorientation of almost-spring, validates the depletion that comes from a full winter of reserves being drawn down, and offers a gentle self check-in before we sprint toward a spring we may not quite be ready for yet. "The…
E169 · 2 Mar 2026 · 27 min
Episode 169: Tiny Experiments for March - The Tally Project
In this high‑energy solo episode, Erin introduces a brand‑new self‑reflection framework she’s calling The Tally Project. Inspired by the book Tiny Experiments by Anne‑Laure Le Cunff (and the creators who inspire her), Erin shares how a simple tally system can create visible proof that you’re showing up for the life you want—without pressure, streaks, perfectionism, or rigid goals. She walks you through her four tallies for March: movement, reading, growth, and phone boundaries. Each one is intentionally designed to be binary, gentle, and achievable. This episode offers a transparent look at…
E168 · 23 Feb 2026 · 27 min
Episode 168: The Micro Rituals Saving Me This Winter
How do you move through winter without numbing out, gritting your teeth, or waiting for spring to fix you? In this episode of Medium Lady Talks, Erin shares the small but powerful micro-rituals helping her stay present, intentional, and connected to herself during one of the heaviest seasons she’s had in years. This isn’t about productivity hacks.It’s not about aesthetic morning routines.And it’s definitely not about toxic positivity. It’s about participation. If winter often feels narrowing — emotionally, mentally, culturally — this episode explores how small, deliberate practices can widen…
E167 · 17 Feb 2026 · 31 min
Episode 167: Why Women Admit Their Burnout in the Winter
Winter doesn’t create burnout.It reveals it. In this episode of Medium Lady Talks, Erin explores why so many women quietly admit their exhaustion during the cold months — not because winter breaks them, but because winter strips away the distractions that helped them outrun what they’ve been carrying all along. Drawing on personal reflection, cultural observation, and insights from All We Want Is Everything by Soraya Chemaly, this episode unpacks: Why women are socialized to absorb emotional fallout and smooth discomfort How invisible emotional labor accumulates quietly across seasons Why…
E166 · 9 Feb 2026 · 21 min
Episode 166: Happy In the Winter (Especially When the World is On Fire)
Winter can be heavy — physically, emotionally, politically, spiritually.And for many of us, January in particular can feel destabilizing, tender, and overwhelming. In this opening episode of Season 6, Erin shares honestly about where she’s been this winter: a painful injury, heightened fear and grief, and the emotional toll of witnessing human suffering in the world. She names what it feels like to be sad, scared, and grieving — while still feeling like herself. This episode introduces the guiding idea for the season: happiness is not forced optimism or denial — it’s orientation. It’s about…
5 Jan 2026 · 18 min
[BONUS]: I’m Not Waiting Anymore: A Quiet Reflection for 2026
What if you didn’t end the year with a big goal — but with clarity? In this quiet bonus episode closing out Season 5 of Medium Lady Talks, Erin shares a personal year-in-review reflection inspired by Laura Tremaine’s 10 Questions for the End of the Year. Rather than offering resolutions or strategies, this episode explores what happens when we stop waiting for permission, external validation, or the “right time” to move forward. Erin reflects on her word for 2026 and what it means to live from inner authority instead of urgency. She unpacks three gentle but powerful realizations from the…
E165 · 31 Dec 2025 · 55 min
Episode 165 Walking Away from the Myth of the Superwoman with guest Dr. Nikia Smith
What happens when being “strong” stops working? In this deeply affirming and practical conversation, Erin is joined by Dr. Nikia Smith — practicing anesthesiologist, wellness coach, and founder of She Is Fire Forged — to explore how the Superwoman myth quietly fuels burnout, especially for high-achieving women and women in healthcare. Together, they unpack how resilience, people-pleasing, and productivity can become liabilities rather than strengths — and why rest is not something to earn, but something to prioritize before everything else. This episode is for anyone who: feels exhausted…
E164 · 22 Dec 2025 · 20 min
Episode 164: Living the Life You Worked Hard to Build - Wrapping Phone Free Fall and Reflections on Winter Solstice
On the winter solstice — the darkest day of the year — Erin closes the Phone Free Fall series with a quiet, honest reflection on presence, capacity, and what it means to actually live inside the life you worked so hard to build. This episode isn’t about advice, challenges, or optimizing your habits. It’s about noticing. About naming the ways we slip out of our own lives — into scrolling, distraction, and emotional distance — not because our lives are bad, but because they are full. If you’ve felt restless, overstimulated, or disconnected even while living a life you once dreamed of, this…
E163 · 16 Dec 2025 · 31 min
Episode 163: When Phone Boundaries Bring Up Feelings (And What to Do About It)
You put your phone down.Your screen time went down.And instead of feeling calm or proud… you felt bored.Then scrolling felt boring too.And suddenly, you felt lost. If that’s been your experience, this episode is for you. In this Phone Free Fall conversation, Erin explores why setting phone boundaries can bring up unexpected emotions — and why feeling bored, unsettled, or untethered is not a sign you’re failing. It’s a sign that your nervous system is recalibrating. This episode connects phone boundaries, emotional rest, and seasonal sensory grounding, helping you understand what’s happening…
E162 · 9 Dec 2025 · 26 min
Episode 162: Your Brain is Full - Why You Can't Put Your Phone Down but It's Not Your Fault
If you’ve ever wondered why you can’t stop picking up your phone, especially in December, this is the episode you need. Erin breaks down the real reason you feel overstimulated, resentful, or stuck in the doomscroll — and spoiler: it’s not a lack of willpower. Your brain is just full. In this Phone Free Fall episode, Erin explores how emotional labour, holiday chaos, mental load, and constant interruptions shape your relationship with your phone — and what to do when putting it down actually makes your anxiety spike. If you’re craving validation AND practical tools, this one’s for you. 🔎 In…
E161 · 24 Nov 2025 · 34 min
Episode 161: Who Knew Quitting My Phone Would Be This Hard! Here's What No One Tells you...
Cutting back your screen time should feel peaceful… right?Except when you actually try it, quitting your phone feels uncomfortable, emotional, and surprisingly hard. In Episode 161, part of Phone Free Fall, I’m sharing a deeply honest four-to-six-week check-in on what it’s really like to change your relationship with your phone — including the withdrawal phase no one talks about, the “brain bargaining” that happens in the early weeks, and the surprising shifts that happen when your nervous system stops drinking from the firehose of five-second dopamine hits. If you’ve ever wondered why…
E160 · 17 Nov 2025 · 53 min
Episode 160: From Caregiver to Creator: The Restorative Power of Art with guest Jaime Townzen
In this episode of Medium Lady Talks, Erin sits down with watercolor artist and author Jaime Townzen for a heartfelt conversation about the shift from caregiving to creativity — and how making art became her most powerful source of rest. Jaime shares her story of moving through years of intense caregiving, grief, and the emotional load of motherhood, and how a simple watercolor tutorial in 2020 opened the door to calm, grounding, and a renewed sense of self. Together, Erin and Jaime explore what it means to rest creatively, how small creative acts can quiet anxiety, and why giving ourselves…
E159 · 10 Nov 2025 · 1 hr 3 min
Episode 159: Put Your Phone in Landline Mode: A New Way to Rest with guest Kassadi Gabriel
What if your phone could stop following you around? In Episode 159 of Medium Lady Talks, Erin Vandeven sits down with creator and stay-at-home mom Kassadi Gabriel—the mind behind the viral idea of “landline mode.” Together they unpack how simple technology boundaries can restore your patience, creativity, and peace of mind in a culture addicted to constant connection. They talk about: What “landline mode” really is and how to try it yourself Why boundaries around your phone help you like yourself more How overstimulation and mental load show up in motherhood The myth of “consistency” as the…
E158 · 27 Oct 2025 · 1 hr 10 min
Episode 158 The Fire and the Quiet: Poetry, Grief, and Real Rest with Anna Jollymore
In this episode of Medium Lady Talks, Erin sits down with poet, grief coach, and tarot reader Anna Jollymore to explore what it means to slow down, feel deeply, and create from the fire within. Anna is the author of Words for Becoming, a stunning debut collection that gazes unflinchingly at the shadow side of personal transformation. Together, Erin and Anna unpack how poetry can help us process grief, rest our overworked minds, and reconnect with our inner voice in a world that rewards constant doing. This conversation continues Erin’s Phone Free Fall series, inviting listeners to put down…

About Medium Lady Talks: Burnout Recovery for Millennials and Mothers

Medium Lady Talks: Burnout Recovery for Millennials and Mothers is a English learning podcast from Erin Vandeven. Melo plays each episode straight from the publisher's own feed — no ads added, no account needed — and remembers where you stopped, in this browser only.

Publisher: Erin Vandeven
Language: English
Category: Learning
New episodes: Weekly
Typical length: 38 min
Latest episode: 12 Sep 2026
Feed: RSS — paste into any podcast app
Apple Podcasts: podcasts.apple.com/podcast/id1558726779

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