Loading...

PODCAST

The Breadwinners Podcast

They say you can"t have it all — that mothers must choose between ambition and presence. But what if we"re asking the wrong question? On The Breadwinners Podcast, Alexis Contos redefines what it means to be a Breadwinner in modern culture, moving it far beyond the paycheck. Through raw, honest conversations with women like Morgan Zanotti (CEO of Primal Kitchen), Nicole Trunfio (CEO of Bumpsuit), and Eve Rodsky (Author of Fair Play & Find Your Unicorn Space), we explore what it really takes to bring

business careers

All Episodes

64:44

Saved Seats | Devon McDonald on the Secrets...

The Breadwinners Podcast ·

2026/10/06

**This is a replay from a previous episode**What does it feel like to reach the pinnacle of your career — and realize it no longer fits? Devon McDonald spent 17 years in venture capital, rising to General Partner at OpenView Ventures while raising three kids and serving as the financial anchor for her family. In March 2020, OpenView had its largest exit ever when Datadog went public, returning the fund ten times over. On paper, it was the moment she'd worked her entire career for. On the inside

en

25:36

How real belonging gets built | A conversation with...

The Breadwinners Podcast ·

2026/09/30

Everyone is calling everything a community right now. Marika Frumes has spent six years building the real thing, and she knows the difference.Alexis sits down with Marika, founder of Mysha, the morning after the two co-hosted a dinner in Austin. Marika shares how a WhatsApp group of 18 expecting moms in January 2020 became a lifeline during the pandemic and grew into Mysha. She also opens up, for the first time on a podcast, about immigrating from the former Soviet Union at seven with $400. She

en

61:22

Saved Seats | Patrice Meagher on Building Systems to...

The Breadwinners Podcast ·

2026/09/22

In this episode, Alexis Contos sits down with Patrice Meagher, a 20-year Commercial Real Estate veteran turned Founder and CEO of MilkMate. After spending two decades leasing millions of square feet in Manhattan , Patrice realized that while we can fly to space, the most "innovative" solution for pumping at work was still a storage closet or a bathroom stall.Patrice shares her journey of leaving a successful corporate career to solve a problem that had plagued her through four children: the

en

73:51

When Success Becomes a Cage with Keren Eldad | The...

The Breadwinners Podcast ·

2026/09/15

Most of us are told to chase the title, the house, the marriage that looks good from the outside. Keren Eldad had all of it, and it nearly broke her.In this episode, executive coach and bestselling author Keren Eldad (Gilded, Gilt Free) sits down with Alexis to unpack what happens when your ambition outruns your actual self. Keren shares the exact moment her life "came crashing down" in the shower, why she believes overachievement is an addiction, and the difference between women with high

en

55:45

Saved Seats | Go Get the Help You Deserve with Kelly...

The Breadwinners Podcast ·

2026/09/08

You're expected to work like you don't have kids and parent like you don't work. Kelly Hubbell, founder of Sage Haus, looked at this impossible equation and decided to build the solution herself.In this episode, Kelly shares her journey from corporate tech sales to launching Sage Haus—a company that provides house managers and holistic family support for busy working parents. After her second child, Kelly found herself overwhelmed, creating a spreadsheet at 2am cataloging everything she was

en

48:09

It's Okay to Not Be Okay: Sonny Williams on Maternal...

The Breadwinners Podcast ·

2026/09/01

Postpartum is not a diagnosis. It's an experience every mother has, whatever form it takes. What determines whether you need support is severity and how long it lasts, and most of us were never taught the difference.In this episode, Alexis sits down with Sonny Williams, a perinatal mental health certified counselor and clinician with BetterHelp, to break down the real spectrum of maternal mental health, from baby blues to postpartum anxiety, OCD, depression, and psychosis. This conversation is

en

77:15

Trimester Zero, Male Fertility, and Why Balance Is a...

The Breadwinners Podcast ·

2026/08/18

WeNatal co-founders Ronit Menashe and Vida Delrahim explain trimester zero: the three months before conception when both partners can improve egg and sperm quality through targeted nutrition, bioavailable supplements, and cutting alcohol, smoking, and vaping. Male factor influences roughly half of miscarriage and infertility outcomes, and men regenerate sperm continuously, which means the window to improve is real and short. On this episode of The Breadwinners, Ronit and Vida also share how they

en

49:11

Saved Seats | The Mental Load of Dads: Nick Firchau...

The Breadwinners Podcast ·

2026/08/11

*This is a replayed episode from earlier in Season 1* The first man to sit at the Breadwinners table. We're bringing back this conversation with Nick Firchau, host of the Paternal podcast, because the questions it raises haven't gone anywhere. Nick has interviewed more than 130 men about fatherhood, and this episode gets into what those conversations reveal: men parenting without a model, the friendships they don't know how to build, and the load they carry but rarely name. Alexis and Nick also

en

66:36

What New Moms Actually Need: Melanie Kaplan on...

The Breadwinners Podcast ·

2026/08/04

Melanie Kaplan is the founder and CEO of oPPal, a peer support platform for postpartum moms that matches new and expecting mothers, called Little oPPals, with trained, experienced mothers, called Big oPPals. She built it after her own experience with severe postpartum depression and anxiety, and she joined host Alexis Contos the same week oPPal launched nationally in May 2026. In this conversation, Melanie shares the full story for the first time in this much depth. Four months after her first

en

58:01

Saved Seats | Julie Cordua on Protecting Kids Online:...

The Breadwinners Podcast ·

2026/07/28

This is a replay of an earlier episode. Alexis reunites with Julie Cordua, CEO of Thorn, the organization building technology to defend children from online sexual exploitation. The two worked together 15 years ago on Thorn's launch, and Alexis has watched Julie turn that early mission into her life's work while raising three kids of her own. **Content warning: This episode discusses child sexual abuse and exploitation. We don't include graphic details, but the subject matter is inherently

en

59:20

Jaclyn Johnson on Building, Losing, and Reclaiming...

The Breadwinners Podcast ·

2026/07/21

Jaclyn Johnson built Create and Cultivate from a blog into a multi-million dollar company, sold it, watched it fall apart under new ownership, and bought it back.In this episode, Create and Cultivate founder Jaclyn Johnson breaks down what it actually costs to build a company: a $75 million acquisition deal that collapsed because of COVID, a private equity sale two years later, a stage zero breast cancer diagnosis, and a marriage that ended along the way. She explains how she negotiated her way

en

53:31

Saved Seats | Morgan Zanotti on Building Brands while...

The Breadwinners Podcast ·

2026/07/14

In this episode, Alexis Contos sits down with Morgan Zanotti, the founder behind Waay and former leader at Primal Kitchen, to discuss what it really takes to build wellness brands while being a breadwinner mother. From navigating the competitive CPG industry to creating products that align with her values as a parent, Morgan shares the unfiltered reality of startup life, financial responsibility, and integration. Learn about her journey from established brand to founder, her philosophy on health

en

61:06

Your Kid's Boredom Matters More Than You Think -...

The Breadwinners Podcast ·

2026/07/07

Most parents think entertaining their kids is the job. Lizzie Assa says the real job is stepping back enough for kids to build the skill of playing independently. Lizzie Assa, founder of The Workspace for Children and author of But I'm Bored, joins The Breadwinners to break down what independent play actually is and why it's disappearing from modern childhood. Alexis and Lizzie get into the difference between a toy and a prompt, why a bored kid is a sign you're doing something right, and how to

en

77:22

Saved Seat | Ali Tate Cutler on How Moms Actually...

The Breadwinners Podcast ·

2026/06/30

Ali Tate Cutler⁠ gets brutally honest about what nobody tells you: how to build a business while grieving the version of yourself you once were. Less than 1% of guests on major business podcasts are mothers. The rest? Childless men teaching strategies that don't work when you're building while celebrating your own transformation as a working mom. Ali (former supermodel turned social media strategist) created a new framework: Mothers don't grind, we create. We don't hustle, we flow. She shares the

en

89:52

Neha Ruch on the Best Payback: Loving Your Life When...

The Breadwinners Podcast ·

2026/06/23

Twenty years ago, Neha Ruch and I were colleagues at an ad agency in Boston. Two twenty-somethings staying late, expensing cab rides home, measuring our worth by how hard we hustled. Today, between us, we have six kids, two platforms, and a completely different definition of what it means to be ambitious. Neha is the founder of The Power Pause and the author of the book by the same name. For a decade she's been building language for a question most high-achieving women won't say out loud: if I'm

en

14:50

In Confidence: A Series from The Breadwinners | What...

The Breadwinners Podcast ·

2026/06/16

Most working mothers have never been asked what they actually carry, and what they bring. At our Los Angeles dinner, we pulled women aside and asked.In Confidence is a five-part documentary series filmed at The Breadwinners' inaugural Los Angeles dinner. Eight women stepped away from the table and into something rarer: unfiltered truth. What came out wasn't curated. It was real. Over five episodes, Breadwinner mothers, primary earners, founders, executives, single mothers, confront the questions

en

79:49

Saved Seats - Replaying Libby Leffler on Protecting...

The Breadwinners Podcast ·

2026/06/09

This is a replay of an earlier episode with Libby Leffler of First. Libby Leffler built an entire company around the conversation most couples never have. As founder and CEO of First, a platform making prenuptial agreements accessible to modern couples, she's reframing the prenup not as a divorce document but as a partnership design tool - the first legal agreement a couple makes, not the last resort. In this episode, Alexis sits down with Libby to explore what it actually means to build a

en

78:56

Jeni Britton | Founder of Jeni's and Floura, on the...

The Breadwinners Podcast ·

2026/06/02

Jeni Britton built Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams from a $30,000 SBA loan into a $175 million company. She is doing it again with Floura, her next-generation fiber company turning produce trimmings like watermelon rinds and apple cores into nutrient-dense bars.This episode is not a business case study. Alexis Contos sits down with Jeni for an interior conversation about the person underneath both companies. The near-death experience at age seven that made her feel invincible for the rest of her life

en

80:30

You Can't Productivity Your Way Out of Burnout | Dr....

The Breadwinners Podcast ·

2026/05/26

Most women have been sold self-care as a product. Dr. Pooja Lakshmin is here to tell you it's infrastructure. Pooja is a board-certified psychiatrist, New York Times contributor, and author of the national bestseller Real Self-Care: Crystals, Cleanses, and Bubble Baths Not Included. In this episode, she breaks down the four principles of real self-care (boundaries, compassion, values, power), the difference between performative wellness and the internal work that actually moves the needle, and why

en

53:16

School Is Closed 46% of the Year. Molly Morse Finally...

The Breadwinners Podcast ·

2026/05/19

School is out 46% of the year. After you subtract PTO and federal holidays, working parents are left covering 99 days with no formal childcare — and no amount of workplace flexibility closes that gap. Molly Morse isn't just naming the problem. She built the solution.Molly Morse is the co-founder of Recess, a marketplace that connects parents to afterschool programs, camps, and kids' classes - with real-time availability, actual filters, and no glorified Craigslist energy. She spent a decade

en

43 results

Similar Podcasts

TaxTalent.com The Golden Rule Podcast

Adam Golden

TaxTalent.com Podcast

Tony Santiago

SoldiOnline

Mondadori Digital

Inside the ICE House

Intercontinental Exchange

36氪·有识芝士

36氪音频频道