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Want to know why motherhood in America feels like a solo sport—and how we turn it into a supported team game? We sit with Reshma Saujani, founder of Girls Who Code and Moms First, to unpack the design flaws baked into school calendars, workplace norms, and city life that make caregiving harder than it has to be. From random half-days and late starts to inboxes that only email mom, we trace how policy and culture quietly draft women as default parents while calling it “choice.”

Reshma takes us upstream, connecting patriarchy’s origin story to modern expectations, and then downstream to practical fixes: splitting domains at home instead of vague “help,” inviting community back into weeknights, and letting kids witness real conflict and repair so they build resilience. We explore the pandemic’s role as a wake-up call—revealing that burnout wasn’t personal failure but structural neglect—and how that clarity launched Moms First, elevated childcare as a core affordability issue, and brought fathers into the coalition through new alliances.

We also talk about pace and health. Perimenopause, anxiety, and sleep shifts force a rethink of the grind; boundaries aren’t indulgence, they’re infrastructure for long-term impact. Along the way, we challenge the false choice between trad-wife fantasies and girlboss hustle. The third path centers policy, community, and workplaces that measure outcomes, not hours—places where caregivers can do pickup and still do big work. And yes, there’s joy: the shock of a child seeing a giraffe, the permission to feel and grieve in front of our kids, the ordinary awe that reminds us what we’re fighting for.

If you care about childcare, paid leave, sick time, equitable partnerships, and building cities that welcome families, this conversation is your blueprint. Listen, share with a parent or policymaker, and leave a review to help more people find the show.

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