x

75% of people globally want unbiased news (Pew Research) but are concerned they're not getting that.

Get balanced coverage with Symby. See how stories are covered across diverse outlets and spot when one side covers a story the other skips.

PODCAST

MissPerceived

Leah Ruppanner is a no-nonsense Sociologist from the University of Melbourne on a mission to dispel society’s biggest and most divisive gender myths. In MissPerceived, Leah will tackle pervasive questions and draw upon decades of academic research and evidence to debunk the gender myths that benefit no one - showing that women aren’t better than men at seeing mess or multitasking, and that men aren’t bumbling caregivers who can’t change a diaper or find the keys. MissPerceived will show how as a

science social sciences

All Episodes

18:23

How Your Job Follows You Home (and Back Again)

MissPerceived ·

2026/04/21

In this episode, Leah finally pulls back the curtain on a piece of her research she hasn’t fully shared yet: themental load at workand how it travels both directions between your job and your home. Drawing on her bookDrained: How to Reduce Your Mental Load to Do Less and Be Moreand prior research with colleagues at the University of Melbourne, she explains why the mental load is not just “to-do lists” or cognitive labor, but invisible, boundaryless, emotional thinking work you carry everywhere you

en

22:27

Breast Cancer, Big Dreams, and the Mental Load of...

MissPerceived ·

2026/04/14

Right before launching her bookDrained: Reduce Your Mental Load to Do Less and Be More, Leah found a lump in her breast on vacation and was diagnosed with breast cancer. In this deeply personal episode, she shares what it feels like to carry the emotional thinking work of a serious health crisis on top of everyday life: worrying about your child’s future, your career, your dreams, and everyone else’s feelings while trying to process your own.Follow Leah: @prof.leahruppanner Hosted on Acast. See

en

15:57

Harsh Truth: Your Parents Can’t Fix This For You

MissPerceived ·

2026/04/07

In this episode, Leah says the quiet part out loud: your parents (and older generations) are probably not the people who can help you solve your biggest life problems right now. Drawing on themes fromDrained: Reduce Your Mental Load to Do Less and Be More, she unpacks why the world you’re managing—pandemics, political instability, climate anxiety, precarious work, AI, and always-on social media—is fundamentally different from the one they came of age in.She explores what happens when you go looking

en

17:02

How to Stop Wasting Your Energy

MissPerceived ·

2026/03/31

Today, Professor Leah pulls back the curtain on a sneaky problem hiding inside your already overloaded brain: duplicated mental load. Drawing on her new bookDrained: Reduce Your Mental Load to Do Less and Be More, she explains why mental load is emotional thinking work, how it stretches across eight types and seven stages, and why so much of it is being quietly double- (or triple-) handled in our homes and relationships.Leah shares a story about how one unpredictable morning (RIP Spuds) blew up her

en

20:18

How to Talk to Your Partner About the Mental Load...

MissPerceived ·

2026/03/24

If every conversation about housework, childcare, careers, and the mental load seems to end in frustration, resentment, or a full-blown fight, this episode is for you. Leah breaks down why these talks get stuck, how gender norms shape what each partner hears, and why leading with your dreams instead of your overwhelm can change the entire conversation.Drawing from her research and her upcoming bookDrained: Reduce Your Mental Load to Do Less and Be More, Leah shares a practical approach for getting

en

20:05

The Parenting Problem No One Prepared Us For: Social...

MissPerceived ·

2026/03/17

Should kids be on social media? Or should we ban it entirely?In this episode of Misperceived, we tackle one of the most complicated parenting questions today: social media and children.Parents everywhere are struggling to figure out the right approach. Should kids have smartphones early so they can learn how to navigate the digital world? Should parents strictly monitor and limit access? Or should children stay off social media entirely until they’re older?The truth is—there’s no simple answer.As a

en

21:55

The Coming Care Crisis: Gray Tsunami, Mental Load,...

MissPerceived ·

2026/03/10

In this episode ofMisperceived, Leah unpacks the “gray tsunami” and explains why the real future-of-work crisis isn’t just AI—it’s caregiving. She widens the lens on care beyond moms and little kids to include aging parents, partners, friends, disabled family members, and even our future selves, showing how this rising care demand is slamming into already maxed‑out mental loads and pushing especially women out of the labor market. Leah breaks down what an aging population means for our economies,

en

16:20

Is It Really Your Fault? How Social Norms Shape Your...

MissPerceived ·

2026/03/03

In this episode ofMisperceived, Leah asks a deceptively simple question: Is it actually your fault—or did society make you do it? Drawing on her training as a sociologist and her bookDrained: Reduce Your Mental Load to Do Less and Be More, she breaks down what sociology is (and how it’s different from psychology) and shows how invisible social norms quietly script our choices, behaviors, and sense of failure. From the myth that women are “naturally” great multitaskers to the pressure to be the

en

16:18

Dopamine, Doomscrolling and Why You Wake Up Exhausted

MissPerceived ·

2026/02/24

In this episode ofMisperceived, Leah gets honest about her late-night doomscrolling habit and why “just checking your phone” leaves so many women wired, anxious, and exhausted the next day. Drawing from her research and her upcoming bookDrained: Reduce Your Mental Load to Do Less and Be More, she explains how constant exposure to heavy news and social media pings our mental load to care, to keep our families safe, and to emotionally support others—draining the limited energy we need for work,

en

20:02

Dream Building in a Broken System: Why Your Mental...

MissPerceived ·

2026/02/17

In this episode of Misperceived, Leah pulls back the curtain on a powerful mental load category from her forthcoming book, Drained: Reduce Your Mental Load to Do Less and Be More—dream building. She explains how women’s dreams get quietly starved as they carry invisible, boundaryless, and enduring thinking work for their families, workplaces, and communities, and why that’s a loss for everyone, not just women. Leah digs into why work and caregiving feel impossible to combine, why so many women are

en

13:11

Valentine’s Day, Mental Load, and Loving Yourself

MissPerceived ·

2026/02/09

On this episode Prof Leah breaks down why Valentine’s Day can feel less like a celebration and more like a mental load marathon for moms, partners, and singles. She talks about the pressure to plan the “perfect” day, the emotional exhaustion of dating apps, and the hidden expectations women carry around romance, gifts, and feeling seen. You’ll hear practical reframes for taking the pressure down, spreading love across all 365 days, and turning February 14th into a day of self-nurturing on your own

en

15:02

Unlearning Body Shame

MissPerceived ·

2026/02/03

On this episode, Leah explores how generational messages have taught women to feelshameabout their changing bodies—from tight jeans and bodysuits in the 80s and 90s to today’s high-waisted shorts and leggings. She reflects on growing up hyperaware of every outline and curve, and how that discomfort still echoes when she sees her own daughter getting dressed. Through personal stories, a feminist lens on choice and self-expression, and a look at how media and beauty culture have policed women’s

en

18:54

Illness and Guilt: When Being Sick Feels Like Failing

MissPerceived ·

2026/01/27

Everyone is sick right now—and somehow, you still feel bad for needing to lie down. In this episode ofMisperceived, Leah unpacks why so many women feel guilty when they get sick, even when their families are fine, fed, and happily living on Hot Pockets and Uncrustables.Drawing on global stories from the U.S., Australia, and Sweden, she breaks down how culture, capitalism, and the lack of a safety net teach us that illness is a personal failure and rest is something we have to earn. She then connects

en

16:16

Stop Trying to Fix Your Whole Life in January: Mental...

MissPerceived ·

2026/01/20

January isn’t a fresh start if you’re already running on fumes from making everyone else’s holidays magical. In this episode ofMissPerceived, Leah unpacks why so many women swing from December over-giving straight into “new year, new me” overachieving—launching businesses, overhauling their bodies, and rewriting their whole lives before February even hits.She breaks down the mental load hangover, why perfectionist resolutions backfire, and how to set goals that are actually aligned with your

en

11:58

Post-Holiday Chaos, Mental Load, and Why Your Messy...

MissPerceived ·

2026/01/13

Feeling like you have to declutter the entire house, redesign your space, and fix consumerism itself… all before the tree is even down? This episode breaks down the post-holiday “mental load hangover” and explains why the pressure to create and then undo all the holiday magic is not a personal failing, but part of the eight types of mental load described in Leah’s upcoming book,Drained. Leah dives into magic making, gendered expectations around home and mess, and why your cortisol spikes when your

en

15:07

Are Women Really “Less Ambitious”? The Truth Behind...

MissPerceived ·

2026/01/06

Did women suddenly lose their ambition—or did the 2025 Lean In & McKinsey “Women in the Workplace” report give everyone the wrong story about what’s actually going on? In this episode, Professor Leah takes a blowtorch to the idea of a so‑called “ambition gap,” arguing that the real problem isn’t women’s drive, it’s burnout, mental load, and structural barriers at work and at home. Leah breaks down why women, who now earn more degrees and participate in the workforce at historically high rates,

en

15:24

Is Your Messy House Making You Sick? Clutter,...

MissPerceived ·

2025/12/23

Is the clutter in your home actually messing with your health—or are you just “too sensitive”? In this episode ofMisperceived, Professor Leah Ruppaner breaks down the science on clutter, stress, and the mental load, including a landmark UCLA study showing that women who describe their homes as cluttered and unfinished have elevated cortisol patterns across the day, while men in the same homes don’t show the same spike. Leah unpacks why a messy house hits women harder, how invisible labor and

en

21:58

Who Do They Call First? The Hidden Mental Load of...

MissPerceived ·

2025/12/16

In this episode of MissPerceived, Professor Leah unpacks what really happens when something goes wrong with your kids and the school, coach, or doctor has to pick up the phone: who do they call first, and why is it almost always mom? Drawing on new research from the Quarterly Journal of Economics and her own mental load interviews, Leah breaks down how schools and other institutions default to mothers as the family “911 call center,” even when parents explicitly ask them to call dad instead. She

en

17:36

Your College Bestie Changed Your Brain (And Your...

MissPerceived ·

2025/12/09

Why do college besties hit different from every other friendship you’ve had since? In this episode of Misperceived, Prof Leah breaks down what makes university friendships so intense and enduring, weaving in research on brain development, “self‑authorship,” and how women use friendships to test ideas, build identity, and stay sane in a hostile world. She explains why that 3 a.m. pizza‑and‑life‑chat friend often becomes your lifelong go‑to for truth, comfort, and tough love—and why those bonds set an

en

13:28

Helicopter Parenting, Teen Sex, and the Crushing...

MissPerceived ·

2025/12/02

When does keeping your kids safe turn into quietly wrecking their chances to grow up? In this episode, Prof Leah unpacks teen dating—covenants, text surveillance, and all—and asks what happens when parents’ fear of the future swallows their kids’ present. Drawing on her research on the mental load (and her forthcoming bookDrained), she connects helicopter parenting, constant digital surveillance, and perfection pressure to teens’ isolation, anxiety, and lack of room to fail, urging parents to back

en

103 results

Similar Podcasts

Classic Radio Science Fiction

solgoodmedia.com

Mission to Mars

Inception Point Ai

The 365 Days of Astronomy

365DaysOfAstronomy.org

Creek Devil

william Jevning

UFO Chronicles Podcast

Nik Hunter