The Release Podcast

Does the hobbling of every marriage follow a similar path? Can one spouse themselves manage to change the tide? Is every marriage actually worth saving? After three decades in marriage therapy and coaching, Dr. Lee Baucom has seen firsthand how shifting mindset and personal responsibility not only helps repair struggling marriages, but can also protect children from ongoing pain, whether or not a coupl...

Neeki Motabar is an influencer known as "the baddest b in the building," a powerlifter, A recovering shy girl, and the author of "How To Hack The Patriarchy." A modern take on some of the 48 laws of power through a feminine lens, her book describes 20 ways to find what Neeki calls the blindspots in the patriarchy…and then exploit them in your favor. She wants women and girls to learn for example how to spot manipula...

Where does your confidence really come from?

Have you ever taken the time to consider the small parts of you that are not so confident and what you could do to make yourself feel better in those dark corners? Simone Knego has. She's a keynote speaker, an author, and a podcast host who tries to encourage people to lead with purpose and live without limits. Her focus is on building what she calls unshakable confidence from the insi...

What would possess a person to choose to put themselves in the middle of the maelstrom of stress that is modern divorce negotiation, on a daily basis?

For Joe Dillon, the founder of Equitable Divorce Mediation, it was personal. A child of divorce at a time when it was far less common than it is today, Joe can recall sitting in the courtroom as a teen, witnessing his parent’s strife at close range, and t...

They say that divorce is an earthquake for the people leaving a marriage, but a chronic condition for the children who have to survive it…but in truth that’s only if at least one parent refuses to fix their mindset and prioritize the children. Sadly, for many healthy folks, their coparents can’t keep their side of the street clean. From mockery to outright mental and physical abuse, what they inflicted on you while married will lik...

Divorce may be an earthquake….but high-conflict coparenting can feel like a marathon (without water through a jungle that is sometimes on fire), not a sprint. And few people are working as hard to refocus coparenting on the children, than Michelle Dempsey. Michelle Dempsey is a trauma-informed co-parenting expert helping to protect our kids in divorce, by centering their experience. She's also the founder of the Moving On Method ...

Have you ever considered how satisfying it would be to climb one, two, or even seven of the tallest peaks on Earth? Sam Sidiqi has, and he has the distinction of being the very first Afghan in the world to summit both Mount Everest and Mount Denali. On today's podcast, we're talking about what it is that drives somebody to put themselves through pre-acclimatization, oxygen deprivation, months of training and up to two months away f...

What is at the root of the shift in giving? Beyond Melinda Gates and Mackenzie Scott, the numbers of women in philanthropy are soaring. And it might not be for the reasons you think.

Nancy Griffin has learned a few things about the ways of women's minds...when they set their minds to giving. Her company, Women Worth & Wellness (and the related seminar series) grew out of a career as a wealth advisor where she was led after a ...

Why does it take most of us most of our lives to figure out that the hiding and shrinking was the opposite of the point? That we are here to love whomever we were created to be, guts and insecurities and all? 

Alexandria Ott is swimming through that realization, and is very ready to share her journey, almost in real time. Alexandria cofounded The Blank Table underground dinner series, spe...

Neeki Motabar is an outspoken feminist influencer and the host of The Baddest B--- in the building, who in her own words is teaching women how to hack the patriarchy.

Whether she's deconstructing double standards, sharing a feminine twist on The 48 Laws Of Power, or setting records as a weightlifter...we love that message for her. And we love that she does it all in pink. Because she’s th...

What kind of personality type is most susceptible to being lured into the darkest parts of the Manosphere? Why is it that some young men can browse the same content without choosing to dive ever deeper? Do the men who follow influencers spouts seriously misogynistic ideas…even understand that somewhere deep inside, they sort of hate women? James Bloodworth has thoughts on all of this and more. Having gone undercover inside the ma...

Ever wondered what became of your high school drug dealer? Nick Marshall has the answer at least in his own story, which begins in small town New Jersey, lands him in prison, and has led him to his latest book, TRY AGAIN.

It all began with a bullied kid, doing a simple favor for a coworker at a gas station. Then it evolved into selling weed and graduating into club drugs like Special K while living the high life in NYC’s clubbing...

What is the purpose, in the modern world, of the idea of God? And would we better off without religion?

My guest today is Phil Zuckerman, a sociologist, professor, and lifelong student of the nature and purpose or Religion. Currently a professor of sociology and secular studies at Pitzer College he is the founder of the first Secular Studies department in the nation; this entails the study of non-religious people, g...

Diane Gilman was born with a mission, and she has followed it for the past 80 years. And despite becoming best known as the “Jean Queen” of HSN and QVC for 30 years, and selling over $100 million dollars worth of her designs despite nobody believing it was possible to fit the middle-aged market back in the day, the fashion was as it turns out just the expression that fit in that particular season of her life.

And she has never be...

Jackie Pflug was a 30 year old newlywed American citizen traveling on Egyptair flight 648 on Thanksgiving of 1985 when the plane was hijacked. Subsequently shot in the head by hijackers who landed the plane in Malta and threw her body out onto the tarmac, Jackie was denied medical help for 5 hours, but somehow, miraculously survived. Sadly, she was one of very few who did survive that hijacking, but after a harrowin...

Is revenge a dish best served cold…or just with a side of probable cause to avoid legal action? Have you ever considered all of the legal ways that you can obtain justice without having to get your hands too messy? So has Ishpal Sidhu, the brilliant legal mind and comedian behind the hit social media series entitled "What The Ish."

After a relationship so toxic it sent her into a tailspin, this bright attorney felt so helpless th...

This week I’m thrilled to sit down again with Esther Goldstein, a New York based LCSW and trauma therapist (also known as the trauma therapist’s therapist), to talk about why it seems like we as a society are so uncomfortable when folks speak up about personal injustice…and why we are so quick to villify the victim. 

On today’s podcast, we are diving in to how the word "victim" became an ...

Have you ever seriously considered ending your relationship with a parent? If you think that sounds inconceivable, you wouldn’t be alone...but you would be wrong. In the U.S., there's a growing trend of adult children choosing to go "no contact" with their parents, meaning they sever all communication and interaction, often permanently. The exact stats on permanent no-contact are difficult to find and...

What kind of a learner is your child? What kind of a learner were you? How much does it matter?  

There is a theory that teens these days are increasingly disengaged in school, and that it matters far more than we think. My guest this week is Jenny Anderson, coauthor of THE DISENGAGED TEEN, a toolkit for the parents of checked out and stressed out teens, to get them engaged in their own learning. And in their own futures. Anderson ...