What Changes About Executive Function After 40 with Dr. Brandy Callahan

More from Taking Control: The ADHD Podcast All episodes →

1. 

   S32 · E17 · 14 May 2026 · 26 min

   The Schedule That Bends Without Breaking

   You've heard it before, probably said it yourself: time blocking doesn't work for me . Every block that slips becomes one more piece of evidence that you've failed the system — or that the system has failed you. So this week, Nikki and Pete try something different. They change the word. Nikki walks through three terms that get thrown around in planning circles — intentional planning, time blocking, and the one she's been reaching for more and more lately: flexible scheduling. Pete pushes back (gently, mostly) on why we need a new word for something that was never supposed to be rigid in the…

2. 

   S32 · E16 · 7 May 2026 · 36 min

   What to Look For in a Planning Tool

   There's a moment every ADHDer knows: you open the task manager, see the sea of red, and close it again. This week, Nikki and Pete sit with that moment — and with what it's actually telling you. The instinct is to blame the tool. Something's wrong with the app, the planner, the notebook. Time for something new. But what if the tool is doing exactly what it's supposed to do, and the thing you're really avoiding is something else entirely? Nikki walks through the two non-negotiables of any planning toolkit, why hybrid systems quietly fall apart in the in-between stages, and the one thing she…

3. 

   S32 · E15 · 30 Apr 2026 · 38 min

   When Productivity Advice Ignores Capacity with Brooke Schnittman

   Most productivity advice was built for brains that start on demand, stay consistent, and prioritize logically. That's not us. This week, Brooke Schnittman returns for her third visit to the show to dig into one of the most frustrating disconnects in ADHD life: the gap between what we think we can do in a day and what our actual capacity will allow. Pete and Nikki walk through the familiar trap — fifteen red-line tasks, two hours of actual focus time, and the stubborn belief that somehow we'll get it all done anyway. Brooke names it for what it is: magical thinking backed by people-pleasing,…

4. 

   S32 · E14 · 23 Apr 2026 · 33 min

   Why Your Plans Fall Apart

   This week kicks off a three-part series on planning, and it starts where every planning conversation should: with honesty about why plans fall apart in the first place. Pete opens with his own cascading construction disaster at home, where raccoon damage set off a chain reaction of disruptions that has bled directly into his work life. Nikki’s diagnosis is both simple and profound: when you make a plan, you’re trying to predict the future with the information you have right now. When that future doesn’t cooperate, the real problem isn’t the plan failing. It’s that we treat plan failure like…

5. 

   S32 · E13 · 16 Apr 2026 · 45 min

   Later Life Diagnosis: The Relief, The Regret, & The Reality with Linda Roggli

   Here’s a story a lot of women know. You’ve been getting by — maybe not perfectly, but you’ve been getting by. And then something shifts. Suddenly the coping strategies that used to work don’t. The brain fog is different. The irritability is new. And nobody around you — including your doctor — seems to have a particularly good answer for why. For women with ADHD, the answer is often estrogen. And for too long, that connection has been wildly undertreated. Linda Roggli has been living this story and researching it and coaching women through it for twenty years. She’s the founder of the ADDiva…

6. 

   S32 · E11 · 2 Apr 2026 · 47 min

   Grieving the Version of Yourself That Could “Push Through” with Dr. Kathleen Nadeau

   What happens to your sense of self when the coping strategies you've relied on your whole life start to give out? For a lot of us, "pushing through" wasn't just a strategy, it was the story we told ourselves about why we kept making it. And when that story stops being true, what we're left with can look a lot like grief. Dr. Kathleen Nadeau has spent decades sitting with people in that moment. She's interviewed 150 older adults with ADHD about what the losses actually feel like — the unmet retirement fantasies, the disorientation of late diagnosis, the particular sting of watching younger…

7. 

   S32 · E10 · 26 Mar 2026 · 56 min

   ADHD, Memory, and the Stories We Tell Ourselves with Daniella Karidi, Ph.D.

   "You forgot because you didn't care enough." Most people with ADHD have been told that — or have told themselves that — more times than they can count. Dr. Daniella Karidi returns to challenge it. She's a PhD researcher from Northwestern who has spent her career studying memory in ADHD, and her opening argument is one of those ideas that reframes everything that comes after: forgetfulness isn't a failure. It's the default of the system. This episode also kicks off a new series on ADHD and aging — what happens when the structure we've built around our ADHD starts to change, how to tell normal…

8. 

   S32 · E9 · 19 Mar 2026 · 44 min

   "Friendship Skills for Neurodivergent Adults" with Caroline Maguire

   If you've ever given everything to a friendship and been left wondering what went wrong, Caroline Maguire has a gentle but clarifying answer: you probably gave too much, too soon, to someone who hadn't yet earned it. That's not a character flaw — it's the ADHD brain doing what it does when it finally finds someone who sees it. The dopamine hit of new connection can tip straight into hyperfocus, and suddenly you're all-in on a relationship that hasn't had time to prove itself. Caroline calls it the impulsive friendship cycle, and she has spent years helping neurodivergent adults find their…

9. 

   S32 · E8 · 12 Mar 2026 · 42 min

   When Masking Becomes a Relationship Strategy with Dr. Sharon Saline

   If you've ever spent an entire day performing a version of yourself that felt nothing like the real you — holding it together at work, seeming calm when you're not, passing as organized — you already know something about masking. But knowing it and understanding it are two different things. Dr. Sharon Saline returns to help Pete and Nikki unpack what masking actually is: hiding traits, suppressing impulses, and overcompensating to appear more polished than you feel. It's a coping mechanism that can be useful, but for adults with ADHD, chronic masking carries real costs — increased anxiety,…

10. 

    S32 · E7 · 5 Mar 2026 · 46 min

    The Relational Toll of ADHD Over Time with Dr. Dodge Rea

    It's not the blow-ups that do the most damage in a relationship — it's the quieter stuff. The look you misread, the deadline you missed again, the apology you've given so many times it stopped meaning anything. For those of us with ADHD, these small misconnections harden faster because we arrive already carrying a lifetime of being told we're too much or not enough. Dr. Dodge Rea is back to help us name what's really happening beneath the surface when relationships start to calcify. Dodge walks us through the concept of misattunement — the challenge of being both intact and in touch at the…