MissPerceived

You were told to lean in. Work harder, say yes, show up, do more — and you'd be rewarded. But what if leaning in actually created a trap? In this episode of MissPerceived, Professor Leah unpacks one of the most important shifts she's hearing about in interviews and research conversations around the world: the lean-in generation has quietly become the leaned-on generation. From office housework to being the unofficial encyclopedia of the workplace, Leah breaks down how women's competence, compliance, and care are being exploited — and what it's going to take to make that invisible labor finally visible.Follow Leah: @prof.leahruppanner Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Why does figuring out what's for dinner feel so exhausting — every single night? In this episode of MissPerceived, Professor Leah Ruppanner breaks down exactly why dinner time is one of the biggest mental load pain points she hears about across her research and interviews. Spoiler: it's not just about the food. Dinner time activates all eight mental load types simultaneously — from life organization and safety to magic making and dream building — and it's happening inside a food system that is increasingly broken and putting the pressure squarely on parents to fix it. If dinner feels heavier than it should, this episode explains exactly why.Chapters:00:00 Introduction — why dinner is a mental load disaster02:23 How the eight mental load types map onto dinner time02:40 Mental load type 1: Life organization — do you have everything you need?04:39 Mental load types 2 & 3: Relationship hygiene and emotional support at the table06:58 Mental load type 4: Magic making — when dinner goes gloriously right08:00 Anticipating what could go wrong — and chasing the magic anyway08:30 Mental load type 5: Dream building — dinner as connection time09:14 Mental load types 6 & 7: Safety and food allergies — when the stakes are life or death11:35 Mental load type 8: The broken food system and parental guilt13:51 Why trad wife nostalgia makes sense — and why it's a trap15:00 Lobbying against nutritious food — and why you're left to solve it alone16:05 What to do: share the load, use AI, let the kids cook, let go of control18:25 Is dinner time a doom drain or a magical moment for you?Resources Mentioned:📘 Drained: Reduce Your Mental Load to Do Less and Be More🧠 Free Mental Load Assessment — https://www.lightenlab.comStay Connected with Leah:TikTok: @prof.leahruppannerEmail: [email protected] Leah: @prof.leahruppanner Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

You can't fix what you can't see. In this episode of MissPerceived, Professor Leah Ruppanner walks you through the Mental Load Audit — the step-by-step tool at the heart of her book Drained that helps you figure out exactly where your mental energy is going, who's getting it, and whether it's actually aligned with your goals and dreams. This isn't about changing the world or adding more to your plate. It's about getting ruthlessly clear on your spend, dropping what doesn't deserve your energy, and finally starting to work toward what actually matters to you.Chapters:00:00 Introduction — Drained is out in the world!02:17 Why telling overwhelmed people to "change the world" is unfair03:30 What the mental load actually is — a quick refresher04:33 The three characteristics: invisible, boundaryless, enduring05:00 Step 1 of the Mental Load Audit — are you in burnout?05:45 Step 2 — where is your mental load energy going across the 8 types?06:55 Credits vs. debits — which parts of your mental load fill you up vs. drain you?07:30 Who is getting your energy — and do they deserve it?08:30 People pleasing as a mental load drain09:12 Who goes on the bench — and who gets evicted09:45 Step 3 — get clear on your dreams, goals and ambitions10:30 Mental load loves, mental load drops, and mental load mores11:33 Real example: does a messy house actually matter?13:57 Understanding your partner's mental load through the lens of their dreams16:20 You can do this audit alone — you don't need your partner's buy-in17:30 How to start the conversation from the dream, not the fight18:19 It's all in the book — worksheets, chapters, and the online appendixResources Mentioned:📘 Drained: Reduce Your Mental Load to Do Less and Be More 🧠 Free Mental Load Assessment — https://www.lightenlab.comStay Connected with Leah:TikTok: @prof.leahruppannerEmail: [email protected]'t miss an episode! Subscribe NOW: /@missperceivedpodcastFollow Leah: @prof.leahruppanner Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Have you heard of #Maycember? It's the viral term capturing what parents — especially moms — experience every May: a relentless pile-on of teacher gifts, summer camp signups, end-of-year events, school correspondence on overdrive, and the pressure to make everyone feel celebrated before the school year ends. In this episode of MissPerceived, Professor Leah Ruppanner breaks down why this isn't just a busy season — it's a mental load spike driven by broken systems, eroded safety nets, and a culture that asks individual parents to solve what should be collective problems. If you're feeling overwhelmed right now, this episode will validate exactly why.Follow Leah: @prof.leahruppanner Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode of Missperceived, Leah paints a painfully familiar picture: you finally hand off a task—signing the permission slip, managing a parent’s medication, organizing a meal—and instead of feeling lighter, you feel more anxious. You worry they’ll forget, won’t follow instructions, or won’t do it the way you know would make your child or parent feel truly cared for.Leah unpacks why delegation is so emotionally loaded, especially for women who’ve been set up as default caregivers for kids, partners, friends, coworkers, and aging parents. She connects this to a growing care crisis, where more and more women are being squeezed between supporting their own households and looking after older relatives, often at the cost of their paid work and wellbeing. Drawing on her book Drained: Reduce Your Mental Load to Do Less and Be More and her “audit” tool, she shares how to decide what to hand off, who to trust with it, and—crucially—how to stop tracking and overthinking once you’ve delegated, so other people actually get the chance to step up and grow.Follow Leah: @prof.leahruppanner Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.