The Breadwinners
The Breadwinners

The Breadwinners

Rachael Lowell

Overview
Episodes

Details

"The Breadwinners" is a podcast about the realities of working, earning, leading and balancing - and the choices we make when the workplace and the world don’t match what was promised. Hosted by workplace and leadership expert Rachael Lowell, "The Breadwinners" features illuminating conversations with leaders, builders, creators, entrepreneurs and everyday visionaries who have redefined what success looks like after realizing the old scripts no longer worked. Together we explore leadership, identity, family in all its forms, ambition, obligation, independence, interdependence and the systems that shape how we show up at work, at home and in the world. Welcome to "The Breadwinners." Still we rise!

Recent Episodes

Don't Stay There and Rot! with Dorie Clark
MAR 26, 2026
Don't Stay There and Rot! with Dorie Clark
Dorie Clark has been thinking about reinvention for decades, since it was foisted upon her when she was fired the day before 9/11. She's kept busy since then as an entrepreneur, consultant for Fortune 500 companies, high-level keynote speaker,  four-time Thinkers50 Top 50 global business thinker, and bestselling author of The Long Game, Reinventing You, Entrepreneurial You, and Stand Out. In this episode of The Breadwinners, host Rachael Lowell talks to Dorie about how to play the long game when your job disappears, why racking up credentials feels safe but is probably not your ticket out of uncertainty, and why being a good friend might be the most underrated professional skill.  SHOW NOTES Dorie Clark: https://dorieclark.com https://learn.dorieclark.com/courses/expert Books: The Long Game: How to Be a Long-Term Thinker in a Short-Term World Entrepreneurial You: Monetize Your Expertise, Create Multiple Income Streams, and Thrive Reinventing You: Define Your Brand, Imagine Your Future Stand Out: How to Find Your Breakthrough Idea & Build a Following Around It Social: https://www.linkedin.com/in/doriec⁠ ⁠https://www.instagram.com/dorieclark ⁠https://www.youtube.com/DorieClark⁠ ⁠https://twitter.com/dorieclark⁠ Croutons:  Dorie Clark: The real reason you feel so busy (and what to do about it) [TED] Dorie Clark: Me, myself, I [Thinker's 50] Working Identity by Herminia IbarraWham! [Netflix] Wham Rap! (Enjoy What You Do) [Wham!] Careless Whisper [George Michael] Andrew Ridgley, Great Friend [Tonight Show] Bio: Dorie Clark has been named four times as one of the Top 50 business thinkers in the world by Thinkers50, and was recognized as the #1 Communication Coach in the world by the Marshall Goldsmith Leading Global Coaches Awards. Clark, a consultant and keynote speaker, teaches executive education at Columbia Business School, and she is the Wall Street Journal and USA Today bestselling author of The Long Game, Entrepreneurial You, Reinventing You and Stand Out, which was named the #1 Leadership Book of the Year by Inc. magazine. A former presidential campaign spokeswoman, Clark has been described by the New York Times as an “expert at self-reinvention and helping others make changes in their lives.” A frequent contributor to the Harvard Business Review, she consults and speaks for clients including Google, Microsoft, and the World Bank. You can download her free Long Game strategic thinking self-assessment at dorieclark.com/thelonggame. *** "The Breadwinners" Season 7 is a joint production between Reworking Leadership and The Smart Friends Network, generously supported by Ruth Ann Harnisch. "The Breadwinners" was founded by Rachael Lowell and Jennifer Owens in 2019. Host: Rachael LowellExecutive Producers: Rachael Lowell, Rachel SklarAudio Engineer: Ron PassaroOriginal Music: "Perfect" by Hannah BakkeRick Snell: GuitarCesar Moreno: BanjoNyssa Grant: FiddleErik Alvar: BassJustin D. Cook: Keyboard, Percussion, and OrchestrationVocals: Hannah Bakke, Cassidy StonerHannah Bakke: Music and Lyrics To stay up to date with The Breadwinners, please follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thebreadwinnerspodcast Find Rachael Lowell at https://reworkingleadership.com & take the SHIFT assessment here: https://leadtheshift.ai If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, rate, review & share! Thank you for listening. Still we rise! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
play-circle icon
34 MIN
PhD in Pivoting with Christina Wallace
MAR 20, 2026
PhD in Pivoting with Christina Wallace
Christina Wallace isn't trying to convince you to leave the safe, traditional path - she just knows that it's just as risky as anything else. What she does suggest is to treat your life as a portfolio of your interests, skills, and passions so your options - for joy, satisfaction, success and liquidity - can be diversified. That's exactly what she did as a classically trained musician, math prodigy, entrepreneur, author and now Harvard Business School lecturer and Broadway producer, and it is her recipe for success in her book "The Portfolio Life: How to Future-Proof Your Career, Avoid Burnout, and Build a Life Bigger than Your Business Card." In this episode of The Breadwinners, host Rachael Lowell talks to Christina about her lifelong love of math, how Broadway is like a startup, why storytelling is innately human, and when exactly that straight track can turn into spaghetti. SHOW NOTES https://christinawallace.comhttps://www.nvpbroadway.com Social:https://www.linkedin.com/in/christinawallacehttps://www.instagram.com/cmwalla Croutons: "Christina Wallace on Success Beyond a Single Lane" https://www.thewiesuite.com/post/christina-wallace-on-success-beyond-a-single-lane "The only way to future-proof your career? Be more than one thing"https://www.fastcompany.com/91371963/the-only-way-to-future-proof-your-career-be-more-than-one-thing-future-proof-career-advice "Gwyneth Paltrow Helps Turn Astronomer’s Infamy on Its Head"nytimes.com/2025/07/28/style/gwyneth-paltrow-astronomer-spokesperson-coldplay-scandal.html *** "The Breadwinners" Season 7 is a joint production between Reworking Leadership and The Smart Friends Network, generously supported by Ruth Ann Harnisch. "The Breadwinners" was founded by Rachael Lowell and Jennifer Owens in 2019. Host: Rachael LowellExecutive Producers: Rachael Lowell, Rachel SklarAudio Engineer: Ron PassaroOriginal Music: "Perfect" by Hannah BakkeRick Snell: GuitarCesar Moreno: BanjoNyssa Grant: FiddleErik Alvar: BassJustin D. Cook: Keyboard, Percussion, and OrchestrationVocals: Hannah Bakke, Cassidy StonerHannah Bakke: Music and Lyrics To stay up to date with The Breadwinners, please follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thebreadwinnerspodcast Find Rachael Lowell at https://reworkingleadership.com & take the SHIFT assessment here: https://leadtheshift.ai If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, rate, review & share! Thank you for listening. Still we rise! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
play-circle icon
50 MIN
Don’t Punch Yourself in the Face with Paulita David
MAR 9, 2026
Don’t Punch Yourself in the Face with Paulita David
If you’re wondering whether your role is becoming obsolete, maybe it’s time to build the next one. Every job Paulita David has ever had didn’t exist before she stepped into it. She’s the U.S. Large Customer Sales Lead at Reddit and spent a decade at Google, where she became the highest-ranking Latina at the company. She built teams that consistently outperformed. Google even studied her leadership to understand why. The answer? An unconscious bias toward diversity. In this episode of The Breadwinners, host Rachael Lowell talks with Paulita about and why diverse teams outperform, why the best careers are often the ones you invent yourself, and of course, how not to punch yourself in the face. Social Linked In https://www.linkedin.com/in/paulita-d-8554a31 Instagram https://www.instagram.com/paulitadavidofficial Bio Paulita David is Reddit's Senior Managing Director, Head of US Large Customer Sales.  She leads a team that oversees the US business for Reddit’s advertising. Previously, Paulita worked at Google for a decade, holding several roles including Head of Strategy & Operations for the Americas Sales Team, and Google’s internal creative agency known as Creative lab. Most recently she served as Head of US Multicultural, where she led efforts to inspire and educate multicultural consumers and connect them more closely with the brands they love. With her deep understanding of multicultural consumers, Paulita founded PD Strategies to be an advisor to business leaders wanting to dedicate more resources to their multicultural efforts. Paulita has a Bachelor’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania and an MBA from Northwestern University. In her free time, she enjoys spending time with her family, continuing her advocacy work, and browsing her favorite Reddit community ⁠⁠r/MadeMeSmile⁠⁠. Croutons⁠ The Cultural Impact of Bad Bunny's Super Bowl Halftime Show [PBS] https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/the-cultural-impact-of-bad-bunnys-super-bowl-halftime-show Bad Bunny’s Halftime Show Wasn’t a Gamble. It Was an NFL Growth Strategy. https://www.adweek.com/media/bad-bunnys-halftime-show-wasnt-a-gamble-it-was-an-nfl-growth-strategy/ [AdWeek] Reframe the Value Proposition of Diversity {HBR] https://hbr.org/2024/11/reframe-the-value-proposition-of-diversity *** The Breadwinners Season 7 is a joint production between Reworking Leadership and The Smart Friends Network, generously supported by Ruth Ann Harnisch.The Breadwinners was founded by Rachael Lowell and Jennifer Owens in 2019. Host: Rachael LowellExecutive Producers: Rachael Lowell, Rachel SklarAudio Engineer: Ron PassaroOriginal Music: "Perfect" by Hannah BakkeRick Snell: GuitarCesar Moreno: BanjoNyssa Grant: FiddleErik Alvar: BassJustin D. Cook: Keyboard, Percussion, and OrchestrationVocals: Hannah Bakke, Cassidy StonerHannah Bakke: Music and LyricsTo stay up to date with The Breadwinners, please follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thebreadwinnerspodcast If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, rate, review & share! Thank you for listening. Still we rise! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
play-circle icon
33 MIN
Polycrisis? What Polycrisis? with Farrah Bostic
FEB 27, 2026
Polycrisis? What Polycrisis? with Farrah Bostic
If you feel like everything is too much right now - too much change, too much pivoting, too much pressure - then Farrah Bostic gets you. She's the founder of The Difference Engine, a consultancy that helps companies get radically clear on their goals, where to meet their audience, and the best decisions to take them there. She asks uncomfortable questions and cuts through noise and bloat straight to get to the right answers. She's also the creator and host of Cross Tabs, a podcast about people, data and power. In this episode of The Breadwinners, host Rachael Lowell talks to Farrah about ethics as a North star, adaptability as a practice, and how to brace for polycrisis (pandemic, climate change, AI tech bros). If you're a little over rolling with all these punches - this is for you.  SHOW NOTES Farrah Bostic Websitehttps://www.farrahbostic.com The Difference Enginehttps://www.thedifferenceengine.co Cross Tabs Podcasthttps://www.crosstabspodcast.com Social https://www.linkedin.com/in/farrahbostic  https://bsky.app/profile/farrahbostic.bsky.social X https://x.com/farrahbostic Croutons“Jamie Dimon Wants Everyone in the Office. Is a $3 Billion Building the Answer?” [WSJ] https://www.wsj.com/finance/banking/jamie-dimon-270-park-avenue-jp-morgan-chase-return-to-office-72966a51 "What is this era of calamity we’re in? Some say ‘polycrisis’ captures it" [The Guardian] https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/06/polycrisis-disasters-politics The SHIFT Assessment (Security, Horizon, Impact, Fluidity, Ties) https://leadtheshift.ai *** The Breadwinners" Season 7 is a joint production between Reworking Leadership and The Smart Friends Network, generously supported by Ruth Ann Harnisch. "The Breadwinners" was founded by Rachael Lowell and Jennifer Owens in 2019. Host: Rachael LowellExecutive Producers: Rachael Lowell, Rachel SklarAudio Engineer: Ron PassaroOriginal Music: "Perfect" by Hannah BakkeRick Snell: GuitarCesar Moreno: BanjoNyssa Grant: FiddleErik Alvar: BassJustin D. Cook: Keyboard, Percussion, and OrchestrationVocals: Hannah Bakke, Cassidy StonerHannah Bakke: Music and Lyrics To stay up to date with The Breadwinners, please follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thebreadwinnerspodcastIf you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, rate, review & share! Thank you for listening. Still we rise! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
play-circle icon
36 MIN
Finding Your Track with Susan Dominus
FEB 18, 2026
Finding Your Track with Susan Dominus
Susan Dominus is a staff writer at the New York Times Magazine, a lecturer at Yale, and the author of The Family Dynamic: A Journey into the Mystery of Sibling Success. Her feature “Women Have Been Misled About Menopause” won the National Magazine Award and was the #1 gift-shared Times article of 2023. She was also a member of the Times team that won the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service. In this episode of The Breadwinners, host Rachael Lowell talks to Susan about how siblings shape our achievements and choices, inherited financial anxiety, knowing when to leave a job, and the value in not chasing every dollar. If you've ever tried to find the track and then realized you needed to make your own - this is for you. SHOW NOTESSusan Dominus: https://www.nytimes.com/by/susan-dominushttps://www.susanpdominus.comBook:The Family Dynamic: A Journey into the Mystery of Sibling Success Social:https://www.instagram.com/suedominushttps://www.linkedin.com/in/susandominus Croutons:  “Women Have Been Misled About Menopause” by Susan Dominus, Feb. 1, 2023 2018 Pulitzer Prize Citation - Public Service  Bio:Susan Dominus is a staff writer for The New York Times Magazine and the author of The Family Dynamic: A Journey into the Mystery of Sibling Success. In 2018, she was part of a team that won a Pulitzer Prize for public service for its reporting on workplace sexual harassment. She won a Front Page Award from the Newswomen’s Club of New York and a Mychal Judge Heart of New York Award from the New York Press Club. She has studied as a fellow at the National Institutes of Health and Yale Law School. Her article about menopause in The New York Times Magazine won a National Magazine Award in 2024. She teaches journalism at Yale University.  *** "The Breadwinners" Season 7 is a joint production between Reworking Leadership and The Smart Friends Network, generously supported by Ruth Ann Harnisch. "The Breadwinners" was founded by Rachael Lowell and Jennifer Owens in 2019.Host: Rachael LowellExecutive Producers: Rachael Lowell, Rachel SklarAudio Engineer: Ron PassaroOriginal Music: "Perfect" by Hannah BakkeRick Snell: GuitarCesar Moreno: BanjoNyssa Grant: FiddleErik Alvar: BassJustin D. Cook: Keyboard, Percussion, and OrchestrationVocals: Hannah Bakke, Cassidy StonerHannah Bakke: Music and Lyrics To stay up to date with The Breadwinners, please follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thebreadwinnerspodcast If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, rate, review & share! Thank you for listening. Still we rise! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
play-circle icon
34 MIN