A Fresh Story

In this Book Talk episode of A Fresh Story, Olivia sits down with journalist and author Ej Dixon to ask a deceptively simple question: is there really such a thing as a “bad mother,” or have we built her, brick by brick, out of fear, patriarchy, and pop culture? From Brooklyn to the pages of New York Magazine’s The Cut, Ej brings both sharp humor and deep curiosity to a role women are told they’re born to play—and constantly told they’re getting wrong.Ej’s forthcoming book, One Bad Mother: In Praise of Psycho Housewives, Stage Parents, Momfluencers, and Other Women We Love to Hate, digs into the figure of the “bad mom” through history and pop culture. She traces how the idea of a “good mother” is actually a relatively recent invention—emerging alongside the Industrial Revolution, the rise of the parenting advice industry, and shifting cultural norms about childhood. Together, Olivia and Ej talk about everyone from Joan Crawford to MILFs, Dance Moms to trad wives, Kris Jenner to the polished, soft-lit momfluencers of Instagram. The result is a conversation that’s part cultural history, part media study, and part group therapy for anyone who has ever felt crushed under the weight of “good mom” expectations.What emerges is not a parenting manual, but a fierce, funny, and deeply feminist critique of the stories we’ve been handed about motherhood. This episode is for anyone who has ever wondered why the bar for mothers keeps rising while structural support disappears, why women who dare to deviate are so quickly labeled “selfish,” “unfit,” or “bad.” If you’re navigating motherhood, thinking about becoming a parent, questioning cultural norms, or starting over in your own life, this conversation offers language, context, and relief. One Bad Mother was written to take some of that pressure off—to remind women that the “bad mother” might be less a monster and more a mirror, reflecting back the impossible standards we were never meant to carry alone.🔗 Check out Fresh Starts Registry:The first & only divorce registry + support platform ➡ https://www.freshstartsregistry.com/📱 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/freshstartsregistry/📘 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FreshStartsRegistry

In this episode of A Fresh Story: Simple Tips to Support Yourself, executive coach and licensed clinical therapist Laura Fink, offers clear, actionable guidance on how to navigate boundaries—especially during seasons of heightened stress like the holidays. With a background in high-performance coaching and clinical mental health, Laura brings an expert lens to why boundaries matter, how they evolve over time, and the role they play in emotional resilience, healthy communication, and overall family wellbeing. She breaks down the difference between protective boundaries that keep you grounded and rigid boundaries that unintentionally shut people out, helping listeners understand where and how to create space for themselves within complex family dynamics.Throughout the episode, Laura shares practical tools for reading your own internal signals—particularly the physical and emotional cues that surface when something feels off. She offers accessible strategies to help listeners distinguish between avoiding discomfort and responding to an authentic need for safety or calm. Her tips support anyone navigating tricky family dynamics, parenting pressures, or seasonal overwhelm, emphasizing discernment, flexibility, and staying aligned with personal values.Laura also provides empowering insight into when to soften boundaries, when to strengthen them, and how boundary fluidity supports healthier family systems—especially during high-pressure moments like the holidays. Listeners will learn how to make decisions rooted in self-trust, cultural context, and emotional clarity. Whether you're re-establishing boundaries with a parent, managing expectations with extended family, or simply trying to protect your peace, this conversation offers gentle, practical guidance for creating steadiness, connection, and confidence in your everyday life.

In this A Fresh Story: Simple Tips to Support Yourself episode, domestic abuse survivor, journalist, and divorce coach Amy Polacko, founder of Freedom Warrior, shares expert-backed guidance on how to quietly and safely plan an exit from a relationship. Drawing from her lived experience, professional coaching practice, and years of reporting on divorce and domestic abuse, Amy walks listeners through the early, often invisible stages of preparing to leave—especially when safety, finances, or emotional well-being are at stake.Listeners will learn practical divorce recovery tips focused on self-protection and preparation, including how to manage digital privacy, create separate communication channels, and gather financial documents before conflict escalates. Amy explains why quiet planning is not manipulative—it’s strategic—and how early preparation can save time, money, and emotional harm later. This episode also addresses financial abuse awareness, documentation strategies, and why education is a critical form of emotional resilience during divorce.This conversation is especially valuable for those seeking single parenting advice, co-parenting strategies, or guidance on starting over after divorce while still living with a partner. Amy emphasizes maintaining peace, building a discreet support network, and empowering yourself through education—long before you say anything out loud. The episode offers calm, actionable support for anyone navigating uncertainty and planning their next chapter thoughtfully and safely.🔗 Check out Fresh Starts Registry:The first & only divorce registry + support platform ➡ https://www.freshstartsregistry.com/📱 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/freshstartsregistry/📘 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FreshStartsRegistry

You think you’ve made peace with your past—until the world decides to turn it into a headline. In this A Fresh Story: Book Talk conversation, Olivia sits down with author Melissa Petro, whose life was forever altered when the New York Post splashed her face across the front page, reducing her to a caricature of “dirty hooker teacher.” What the paper didn’t capture was the human being behind the story: a young woman who once took a stripping job in Mexico to pay her bills, a recovering addict, a public school teacher, and eventually a stay-at-home mom trying to do her best in a world that seems determined to shame women no matter what they choose.Melissa’s book, Shame on You: How to Be a Woman in the Age of Mortification, weaves her own memoir with the stories of more than 150 others, mostly women, to examine shame as the quiet force shaping our lives. She unpacks how shame shows up in big, dramatic moments—like public humiliation, sex work stigma, or career loss—and in the small, everyday ways we “mess up” as mothers, partners, or professionals. Melissa and Olivia talk about how shame keeps us small, makes us hide parts of ourselves, and convinces us that belonging is something we have to earn by being “good enough.” The book becomes both confession and mirror: a self-help guide wrapped in raw, unflinching storytelling.Throughout the episode, Melissa shares how she moved from secrecy and self-censorship to curiosity, honesty, and community. She explains how telling the truth about her past—and listening to the stories of others—helped her reclaim a narrative that once felt weaponized against her. For anyone who has ever felt judged, exposed, divorced, “too much,” “not enough,” or quietly ashamed of the life they’ve lived, Shame on You offers a path toward self-acceptance that doesn’t require perfection. It’s a book for people in the messy middle of a life transition who suspect that their shame isn’t proof of their brokenness, but evidence of the impossible standards they’ve been living under—and who are finally ready to rewrite the story.🔗 Check out Fresh Starts Registry:The first & only divorce registry + support platform ➡ https://www.freshstartsregistry.com/📱 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/freshstartsregistry/📘 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FreshStartsRegistry

There are books that feel like confession and books that feel like prayer—and then there are books like Ring of Salt, which feel like stepping into someone’s storm and finding, somehow, that the wind has shifted in your favor. From the first page, Betsy Cornwell brings listeners into a life carved by longing, survival, and the quiet bravery of beginning again. In this episode, Betsy joins us from the wild coast of Ireland, where she rebuilt her life as a single mother after an emotionally abusive marriage—one she entered with an open heart and left with a baby on her hip and a new truth taking shape inside her.Ring of Salt is her memoir of that unraveling and rebirth. Braided through her story are the landscapes that held her—green cliffs, ancient tides, a historic knitting factory that became her refuge—and the ghosts that tried to follow her from childhood trauma into adulthood. The book reads like a long, lyrical poem: part survival narrative, part love letter to Ireland, part reckoning with the ways emotional abuse distorts a woman’s sense of self. It is a story of leaving, of coming home to one’s own body, and of discovering that single motherhood, though terrifying, can also be expansive and sacred. Betsy writes with a steadiness that tells the truth without flinching, and a tenderness that reminds every survivor to inhale, to rest, to trust that life can love you again.What emerges from our conversation is a portrait of a woman who has turned pain into offering. Betsy talks about the fear of publishing her own wounds, the responsibility of writing for other survivors, and the hope she pours into the residency space she is building for single mothers in Ireland. Ring of Salt matters because it names what so many live but cannot articulate. It matters because it says: you are not imagining it, you are not weak, and you are not alone. And for anyone standing at the edge of a life transition—unsure, afraid, half-dreaming of something freer—this is the book you reach for in the middle of the night.🔗 Check out Fresh Starts Registry:The first & only divorce registry + support platform ➡ https://www.freshstartsregistry.com/📱 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/freshstartsregistry/📘 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FreshStartsRegistry