Mutha Life – Details, episodes & analysis

Amanda Chantal Bacon founded Moon Juice in 2011. Now, fifteen years and a Target launch later, she's in what might be her most interesting chapter: handing over the operational reins so she can get back to dreaming and spending more time with her kids. In this conversation, we talk about growing up in downtown NYC with a famously cool and unconventional mom, finding her footing in fine dining kitchens, opening Moon Juice and literally birthing a human at the same time, doing early motherhood and early entrepreneurship simultaneously as a single mom, her two very different birth experiences, the BioCharger, the placenta smoothie, and the realization that the peaceful "we made it" feeling she's been chasing isn't coming, so we better enjoy the chaos.

Full show notes with alll the links: muthalife.substack.com 

Instagram: @mutha.life

Produced by: Mutha Life, Music by: Ronen Landa 

This MUTHA's Day episode explores the complexity and contradictions of motherhood across different life stages. Kari returned from a week in London with a major realization about the finite window of motherhood and the gap between what mothers 'should' want and what they actually want. Through listener voices and personal reflection, this episode examines the tension between needing space and knowing that time with your kids is fleeting. The centerpiece is a meditation on a Banksy statue about how convictions can block your vision. It's a metaphor for the principles of motherhood that keep mothers marching forward, even when they can't see where they're going.

Full show notes with alll the links: muthalife.substack.com 

Instagram: @mutha.life

Produced by: Mutha Life, Music by: Ronen Landa 

Undies, bidets, diapers, oh my! Let's hang with Miki Agrawal. She is a serial entrepreneur - founding companies like THINX, period underwear, Tushy, the seemingly now ubiquitous Bidet company, and most recently Hiro Technolgoies - a disposable diaper revolutionizing the market with a fast-decomposing product that promises to reduce landfill waste caused by traditional diapers dramatically. We talk about growing up in Canada to immigrant parents, being an identical twin (but identifying as a youngest), finding an approach to co-parenting with her ex-husband, founding a range of companies that tackle how we take care of our bodies in a way that's good for us and the planet, and so much more. It's woo-woo meets the marketplace. It's conscious capitalism, babyyyy.

Full show notes with alll the links: muthalife.substack.com 

Instagram: @mutha.life

Produced by: Mutha Life, Music by: Ronen Landa 

We are continuing our look back into the archive with an episode from a year ago with the inimitable Lisa Weinbaum. A discussion that started on the pod - reconnecting with someone I always looked up to as a kid - and hasn't stopped yet. Since recording that original episode, Lisa and I have volunteered at her beloved Baby2Baby together. We have hung out by the beach forging a new connection in adulthood, and have not stopped texting - the true love language of our time. This curated re-release is a bit more produced than the last one - I've broken it into themes: the job description of stay at home parent, the emotional and financial dynamics involved in partnership where one person works in the home and one outside, how to streamline the goals of parenting, parenting while grieving, and drilling down into the importance of sleep away summer camp. Let me know what you think in the comments or on IG.

Full show notes with alll the links: muthalife.substack.com 

Instagram: @mutha.life

Produced by: Mutha Life, Music by: Ronen Landa 

This week's guest is Lillian Tung, co-founder of FUR. If you haven't already heard of the viral company, Fur is a beauty and hair care brand for the whole body - first grabbing headlines with their FUR OIL - specifically designed for pubic hair and skin. From the brains of childhood best friends to the shelves of Ulta, to talking about PUBIC HAIR on Shark Tank, this brand has taken the beauty world by storm - creating a new market segment, becoming an instant fan favorite of aestheticians the world over.

This conversation covered so much that I think about regularly - how to get siblings to like each other. How the idea of friendship and how we form friendships is as unique as people are. How every great enterprise needs different kinds of people to succeed in the long run. How doing something polarizing is good.

Full show notes with alll the links: muthalife.substack.com 

Instagram: @mutha.life

Produced by: Mutha Life, Music by: Ronen Landa 

Trigger warning: Grief, loss, death of a parent

In this week's solo pod, Kari gives an update on the unexpected turn life took in the days leading up to her 40th birthday. This isn't a funny one, or a silly one, or a general episode. It's a deeply personal slice of life at a horrible moment in life. The Mutha Life community has become one of support, comfort, encouragement and above all, love, and so with this ep, we are going out on a vulnerable limb. Be kind to each other. Tell people you love them.

Instagram: @mutha.life
Show notes: muthalife.substack.com 
Produced by: Mutha Life 
Music by: Ronen Landa, https://ronenlanda.com/ 

Come revisit this beautiful episode from the archive with me. In this episode, we talk to Emmy-nominated documentary producer, Tracy Aftergood. Tracy talks candidly about her career trajectory, the tragic loss of her best friend, her mom, at an early age, and the work she does to show up for herself, so she can show up for her kids and her relationship.

Instagram: @mutha.life
Show notes: muthalife.substack.com 
Produced by: Mutha Life 
Music by: Ronen Landa, https://ronenlanda.com/ 

SCALPEL! Dr. Ira Savetsky, New York based celeb plastic surgeon, is on the pod today. We cover a lot of ground - from growing up in a very religious Jewish community in Long Island and not being super enthused by school to taking an insanely arduous and rigorous path to being one of the rising stars in his field in the US today. We talk about how to figure out if plastic surgery is right for you, how he and his wife Lizzy run their busy lives and talk to their kids about all that's messy and complicated, and we answer some listener questions.

Full show notes with alll the links: muthalife.substack.com 

Instagram: @mutha.life

Produced by: Mutha Life, Music by: Ronen Landa 

Let's hang out with certified funny person, Aisha (EYE-SHUH, get it right!) Alfa. She is an actor and a comedian, and has lived a shocking number of lives. While you may have missed her on the men's soccer circuit in Korea, or planning all out wedding ragers, you may recognize her from her role on Degrassi, The Beaverton, Sorry for Your Loss, and so many more. Talking to Aisha was a wonderful reminder that - de facto - we can love our kids AND ALSO laugh about how hard/chaotic/absurd raising them in today's world is. We cover so much here - talking to kids about bodies and gender identity, how hard it can be to shake the patterns we watched modeled for us as kids, what bed rest can actually look like in practice when pregnant, and... how important Winnipeg is for finding love for apparently a lot of people? 

Full show notes with alll the links: muthalife.substack.com 

Instagram: @mutha.life

Produced by: Mutha Life, Music by: Ronen Landa 

Let's hang DOWN UNDER today. Yen Trinh is co-owner of Pipit Restaurant in Pottsville in New South Wales, Australia. Pipit has received stellar reviews, including retaining two hats from the Sydney Morning Herald's Good Food Guide, it was a finalist for Time Out Food & Drink Awards' Best Destination Venue category, and their head chef, Yen's husband and co-owner, NOMA alum Ben Devlin has earned a Global Knife for excellence on the Global Best Chef List. In addition to her work on Pipit, Yen is the creator of Chef Widow Club, a project that is equal parts, blog, illustration and book on what it's like to date and maintain relationships with people working in hospitality. She's an illustrator, a designer, and a strategist…and she pulls no punches talking about the navigating parenthood and family life while also running a family-owned business.

Full show notes with alll the links: muthalife.substack.com 

Instagram: @mutha.life

Produced by: Mutha Life, Music by: Ronen Landa