Why Didn’t They Tell Us?

“Would you say to your best friend, ‘Well, you kind of suck. You’re a total failure?’” asks host Leslie Randolph on today’s episode of Why Didn’t They Tell Us? Most likely—and hopefully—the answer is no, so why do so many of us so easily and frequently say these things to ourselves when we fail to achieve our goals or get something we wanted? We attach disparaging narratives to our failures and positive narratives to what we percei...

"Self-confidence is an inside job," Leslie Randolph asserts in this solo episode of "Why Didn’t They Tell Us?" Despite this truth, many of us allow others' opinions, which often mirror our own insecurities, to shape our self-perception. This fear of external judgment hinders us from pursuing our desires, whether it's starting a business, joining a club, or parenting in our own way. To combat this, Leslie introduces practical tools ...

We know we’re not supposed to care what people think of us. But as host Leslie Randolph explains on this solo episode of “Why Didn’t They Tell Us,” we are literally hard-wired to care what people think of us, to want to be liked and accepted, and to belong. At one time, when we all lived as members of tribes, the approval of others was literally a matter of life and death. To illustrate this, Leslie recalls her time spent living in...

In the last episode of Why Didn’t They Tell Us, Leslie offered us a series of steps to make doing hard things a little easier. Now, she invites us to play “doubt detective!” Whether it’s launching a new business or auditioning for the school play, fear is underlying the tasks we avoid and procrastinate about, one that we must identify. Get ready to dig deep–what you are afraid of is not always the first or most obvious answer. 

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“There’s no poetic way to say it,” Leslie says on this solo episode of Why Didn’t They Tell Us? “Often, what you want to achieve is hard.” Since our brains are designed to seek pleasure and avoid pain, it’s no wonder that it’s difficult for most of us to face or achieve the things we find difficult. Luckily, Leslie is here to help, offering three specific ways to change our mindsets and attitudes toward the things that we avoid doi...

“So many women struggle to create balance. Is that you?” If your answer is “yes,” Leslie is here to help. There’s no such thing as finding balance–you must create it, and on this solo episode of Why Didn’t They Tell Us?, Leslie has provided some confidence cultivator thought starters, a series of questions and time audits to determine what your priorities are and how to best utilize your time and energy so that both your needs and ...

“I’ve got the promise of new possibilities pumping through me!” announces Leslie as she kicks off the New Year with a new episode and a self-confidence cheat sheet for you to cultivate more confidence in the year ahead. While the concept of more self-confidence feels like a reach for some, Leslie explains that it is available to anyone who is willing to make one simple change. And that change is not what you might think as the mess...

“Your feelings drive what you do–and don’t do–in this one and only life of yours,” says Leslie in this second installment of the Goal Setting Made Simple series. Today, we are talking about “emotional fuel,” or the feeling needed to make your dream, resolution or goal a reality. It’s a cyclical process: positive feelings make you more likely to do the work involved to achieve your goal, and completing that work gives your feelings ...

“It’s the season of goal setting and goal getting!” As we move into a new year, Leslie’s gift to you is a series of actionable steps that will help you achieve your goals. The first step is starting. Too often people wait until everything is perfect before beginning whatever it is that they want to do. Of course, nothing is or ever will be perfect. Making mistakes and feeling silly are all part of the process, it’s also how you fig...

“It’s a holistic experience, not a fleeting moment. It’s a practice,” says Jill Rivkin. Ahead of her 40th birthday, Jill decided to participate in a challenge. For 40 days she wrote down everything she was grateful for, down to the way her son belly laughed while playing with his Legos, and shared it on social media. These popular posts evolved into the blog Grateful Girl, which eventually led to her co-founding Gratitude Generatio...

With so much going wrong in the world today, it’s no wonder we’re all so stressed, both mentally and physically. Worse, our coping mechanisms–endless scrolling, complaining to each other and compiling our fears, emotionally spiraling–do nothing to alleviate the problem. In fact, they only create more problems. On today’s episode, Leslie offers a better solution, one that’s free and accessible to all of us at this very moment– posit...

Are you unintentionally hindering your teenager's journey to independence? Dr. Leigh Weisz sheds light on a paradox: In our bid to protect our kids, are we actually robbing them of essential life skills? In this episode of Why Didn’t They Tell Us, Dr. Weisz joins the discussion to tell us what we can do as parents of teenagers to ensure they grow into confident and independent adults. So many of today’s parents, despite all of thei...

"Communication is the core of everything.” Jordyn Scorpio is the Director of Community Education at SHALVA, the oldest independent Jewish domestic abuse agency in the United States. As part of her Seven Circles program, she helps to educate Jewish couples on abuse prevention, which starts with identifying the differences between healthy, unhealthy and abusive relationships, which exist on a spectrum. Healthy relationships include h...

“What's crazy is I've never been happier. I've never felt more alive,” says Leslie’s sister, Laura.  This is a surprising and admirable reaction to the events of the last three years which have included several major health problems, the most recent of which is a breast cancer diagnosis. Laura joins the podcast just before entering her next round of cancer treatment, to share the lessons she has learned and continues to learn from ...

“When we take time to slow down and really tap into our cyclical superpowers,” says Ashlee Sorensen, certified menstrual and hormone coach, “We start to realize that we are divinely created, that we have a purpose. And it looks different for everybody.” Every point in a woman’s monthly cycle heightens different traits and provides different opportunities, including the opportunity for her to retreat inward, introspect and receive w...

“Try as we may, we cannot control the world.” On today’s solo episode, Leslie shares a story of the time she played a sprite in her high school’s production of Shakespeare’s The Tempest. As fondly as she recalls her time on stage, she also relives the panic she felt when something went terribly wrong during a live performance. It was her friend and fellow sprite Jessie’s reaction to the situation that taught her an invaluable lesso...

“As moms, we’re big problem solvers,” says Kate O’Rourke, certified life coach and host of the Reclaim Your Life with Kate podcast, who joins Leslie on the show to discuss the increased rate of anxiety experienced by teens–particularly girls–in the wake of the pandemic. As a school psychologist, Kate is well versed in the issues anxious teens face as they return to school–including a major resistance to doing just that. 

As a sin...

“We are all built with and for magic,” says Kanoa Greene, internationally celebrated fitness trainer and outdoor adventurer. As a plus-sized leader and new face of the industry, Kanoa is breaking down barriers and introducing much-needed representation, inclusion and belonging to those spaces. Though she was trained as an opera singer and was a success in the corporate world, Kanoa followed her authentic desire to take up fitness a...

“Even the most successful person feels doubt and anxiety. No one is free of it,” Leslie explains on this solo episode of “Why Didn’t They Tell Us?” Doubt and anxiety act as an alarm system telling us something is wrong. But when we experience these feelings in everyday life, as a result of our negative thoughts, and worst-case-scenario thinking–”I can’t do it and here’s everything that will go wrong if I try”—they act as the greate...