If you went through rush yourself, you probably remember the outfits, the nerves, the whispered politics. Now imagine watching your own daughter walk into that world — and discovering it’s gotten a whole lot more intense since you went to college.

At some universities, thousands of young women compete for a handful of spots at the most coveted houses. The pressure has grown so much that a whole new industry has emerged: rush consultants, also known as rush coaches, hired by families who want to give their daughters every possible edge before bid day.

We sat down with one of the most sought-after names in the business to pull back the curtain on how sorority recruitment really works today — and what parents can do to help.

Leslie stumbled into this world the way most great businesses are born — by solving a real problem for a friend. After guiding that friend's daughter through the sorority recruitment process, she realized how badly families needed someone in their corner. She founded Sorority Prep in 2015 and has since built a reputation as the secret weapon for families all over the country navigating one of college life's most competitive processes.

In this episode:

👉 Why sorority recruitment feels more competitive than ever.

👉 What a rush coach actually does.

👉 The do’s and don’ts of Rush Week.

👉 Why it can all be worth it/what sorority life offers.

👉 How Leslie parents her own children differently after doing this work.

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📱Please fill out our end-of-season Feedback Form; we need your help to come back bigger and better! 

📱Learn more about Sorority Prep and Leslie Cunningham. 

📱Follow us:

Instagram: @barenakedmoms 

YouTube: @BareNakedMoms

As with any tale of struggle and survival (and ultimate triumph), there’s the story and then there’s the story. There’s the what that happened, and then there’s the how, the why, and all the huh in between.

Our guest today, author Amy Gallo Ryan, talks about her years-long infertility battle and everything in her universe that it shifted: her professional existence, her marriage, her sense of self, and her definition of motherhood (yes, she became a mom after 6 rounds of IVF!!). But there’s an even deeper, more universal tale Amy tells underneath plot field hat every human can relate to, reproductively challenged or not: wanting something so bad and not being able to make it happen, the feeling of falling short as a partner, imposter syndrome all around, and then complicated feelings about the thing you wanted so bad once it does actually happen.

Her honesty in her book You May Feel a Bit of Pressure and with Alanna and me on today’s show, is refreshing, and cup-filling. Like us, Amy is on a mission to reduce the loneliness people feel when they're knee-deep in the hard.

In this episode, we talk about:

👉 The mental, emotional, physical labor of trying (so hard) to have a baby

👉 What those with fertility challenges need to hear (and what they don’t)

👉 Everything in your life that changes when you’re in an IVF vortex

👉 Feeling alone makes everything hard harder.

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🔗 Find out more about Amy here: https://www.amygalloryan.com/

📱Follow us: https://www.instagram.com/barenakedmoms/

Our friend Stephen Lamberton was just eight years old when his father died by suicide. For the next four decades, he carried that loss at arm's length – something that happened in his family, something that was about his dad. But not really about him.

Then his own son turned eight.

The grief and trauma that Stephen never processed as a boy started to show up in his life as a father. Relatively minor moments with his kids would trigger waves of anger that felt out of proportion and difficult to control. He didn't understand what was happening. So he got help.

Now a volunteer with the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention and the Tree House Bereavement Center of Westchester, Stephen sits down with Milano and Alanna to talk about how unprocessed childhood trauma can quietly shape the kind of parent we become – and what it looks like to do something about it.

In this episode, we talk about:

👉 Parenting with unresolved trauma

👉 Childhood grief and emotional suppression

👉 Rage, resentment, and repair

👉 PTSD and fatherhood

👉 Vulnerability with children

👉 Breaking cycles instead of repeating them

👉 Healing after a parent’s suicide

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📱Learn more about the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention and the Tree House Bereavement Center of Westchester. 

📱Follow us:

Instagram: @barenakedmoms 

YouTube: @BareNakedMoms

Sarah Vacchiano, General Council at United Artists and mom to three-year-old Gus, just published a novel. Soft Launch is a coming-of-adulthood tale based on Sarah’s 30-year-old self: freshly divorced, just graduated from law school, and working round the clock as a first year associate at a big NYC law firm.

All 40-something moms now, Alanna, Milano, and Sarah get into the idea of our past selves and reinvention. Is it possible to change course as a parent—or a professional after a certain age? 

Sarah and Milano, who both had Bipolar mothers, talk about the illusion of being “ready” for motherhood and squaring their own rocky upbringings with the childhoods they want for their kids.

This conversation reminds us that who we are when we’re 30 isn’t who we at 40 or 50. And that constant movement forward confirms we’re doing something right—in parenting and in life.  Fun fact: Sarah’s also launching a podcast called Civic EQ which is all about incorporating civics into everyday family life.

In This Episode:

👉 Becoming a mom when your own mom was mentally-ill.

👉 Raising civics-minded kids.

👉 Modeling vulnerability and reinvention for our kids.

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📩 Follow Sarah Vacchiano on Substack: https://substack.com/@sarahvacchiano

📱Follow us:

Instagram: @barenakedmoms 

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@BareNakedMoms

Behind every standout athlete (or artist or musician) is a parent cheering from the sidelines—snacks in hand, heart in throat. But what’s it like to raise three daughters who went on to make sports history together?

Meet Sarah Humphrey, mom to Nicole, Ashley, and Chloe—the trio who united at UNC to win the 2025 NCAA Women’s Lacrosse Championship. She shares the winding roads that led them there, how she found her calm at home amid flying lacrosse balls, and yes… some heated family moments leading up to the big game.

In This Episode:

👉 Talent vs. hustle (and why grit always wins)

👉 Why being “great at everything” is overrated

👉 The question their little brother never wants to hear again

👉 What Sarah wishes she’d known when the girls were just starting out

📱Follow Nicole, Ashley, Chloe & Chloe Humphrey Lacrosse

Follow us:

📱 Instagram: @barenakedmoms

▶️ YouTube: @barenakedmoms

In June 2020, my oldest friend, Candace, lost her husband (and father of their three young kids). Rusty went to the ER thinking he had COVID, and he never left. He died in the hospital three days later—not from COVID, but from Acute Myeloid Leukemia, which had hijacked his body in the mere six months since his last wellness checkup.

Candace talks to us about chugging along as a mother of three young children (ages 6, 4, and 2 at the time) amidst this hellish trauma of tragic, sudden loss. The amazing yet simple things people did for her in the early days (coffee fairies, Costco fairies, laundry fairies), the resources that really moved the needle for her and her kids, the advice she’d give to someone new to grief, how this experience has changed her as a mother—Candace shares all of this (and more) with Alanna and Milano.

In This Episode:

👉 Three things someone who loses their spouse and parenting partner needs to know

👉 Social Media is an amazing resource for people in grief

👉 What to do and say to someone experiencing loss and grief

👉 How grief changes you as a parent

👉 Grieving fully leads to living fully

📱 Follow us on Instagram

Paul Tough’s New York Times Magazine article “Have We Been Thinking About ADHD All Wrong?” really stirred the ADHD pot by calling BS on so much of the collective reasoning around what ADHD is and how to treat it. Is it nature (biology)? Is it nurture (environment)? What does “having it” really mean? And how do you go about “having it” less, or not at all?

Milano, who, along with two of her three kids (so far!) “has” ADHD, came away from Tough’s article with a strong thoughts and feelings—a response made all the more complicated by the fact that she’s a big fan of Tough’s work, including his bestselling books How Children Succeed and Helping Children Succeed. Milano had so many questions and counterpoints scribbled in the margins of the article, she asked him to come on the show and get into all of it. 

Paul and Milano (Alanna is just a producer on this one) unpack so many layers of this incredibly slippery subject. And they offer each other different ways of looking at each one of those layers. Trust - you do NOT want to miss this rich, fascinating conversation that deepens the bigger ADHD conversation and helps explain why the topic—and the response to Tough’s article— is so heated. 

In This Episode:

👉 The symptoms and causes of ADHD

👉 Hotly debated treatments for ADHD: biology, environment, or both?

👉 Why the glasses metaphor doesn’t work

👉 When medication is the right path 

👉 Links between ADHD and Trauma

🔗 Learn more about Paul

📱 Follow us on Instagram @barenakedmoms

Most of us are doing our absolute best when it comes to feeding our kids. But are our well-intentioned choices helping build a healthy relationship with food… or quietly making things harder?

In this episode, eating disorder specialist and mom of two Dr. Lauren Ozbolt unpacks the “perfect storm” of factors that can lead to disordered eating in kids and teens. She also explains how family dynamics and cultural messages play a powerful role and what actually makes a difference in everyday life. The result is a grounded, hopeful conversation that replaces fear with clarity—and gives parents concrete tools they can use right away.

In This Episode:

👉 Why high-achieving, perfection-prone kids can be especially vulnerable

👉 How our food histories and past generations shape kids’ eating relationships

👉 Why regular family meals matter more than you think

👉 Why labeling foods as “good” or “bad” can backfire

👉 The most reassuring truth of all: When eating disorders are identified early and treated aggressively, recovery is very possible.

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📱Learn more about Dr. Ozbolt

📱Follow us: @barenakedmoms

Ever plan a family vacation for months only to come home thinking, we could’ve done that better? Between the money, the logistics, and the kids, traveling as a fam can be A LOT. 

That’s why we sat down with Jacqui Gifford, Editor-in-Chief of Travel + Leisure, to get her smartest, most practical tips for globetrotting with kids. A lifelong traveler—born in Japan and raised in Saudi Arabia and Qatar—Jacqui now lives in New York City and travels the world with her husband and 10-year-old son whenever she can. You may have seen her sharing her expert advice on NBC, CBS, ABC, CNBC, and MSNBC.

So listen up and come home with happier kids, great stories, and way fewer “never doing this again” moments.

In This Episode:

👉 When it comes to vacations with your kids, why Jacqui believes you should go big or stay home (and plan a great staycation). 

👉 Last-minute family travel: possible or impossible? 

👉 The surprising family travel hack involving European cities. 

👉 The best way to use frequent flier miles when traveling with your family. 

👉 What this intimidatingly well-traveled mom packs in her suitcase. 

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📱Travel + Leisure Website 

📱Follow Jacqui Gifford: @jacquigiff

📱Follow us: @barenakedmoms

After having her first child nine years ago, Adrienne Harper started Bundles of Joy, an incredible organization that provides critical items to families living in poverty throughout New York City and Westchester County. 

There’s a gap in social services that you don’t know or think about unless you’re caught in it: Even families who receive the benefits of free shelter and public assistance still lack essentials like clothing, diapers, shoes, school supplies, and so on. Bundles of Joy is the leading provider of such essentials—thanks to Adrienne’s vision, passion, and dogged commitment. 

Adrienne takes us back to how it all started for her, why social work is so important for kids and families to engage in, and actual ways to make it happen for YOUR family.

In This Episode:

👉 Asking for help takes courage.

👉 Rich or poor, motherhood is the great equalizer.

👉 The major impact of diapers.

👉 What families in need really need. 

👉 What volunteering kids and families gain from helping less fortunate families.

==========================

🎁 Donate to Bundles of Joy

📱 Follow Bundles of Joy: @bundlesofjoyny

📱 Follow us: @barenakedmoms

What happens when a brilliant Wharton professor who studies household and gender economics looks you in the eye and says, “Hey… you’re not the problem—the system is”? You get one of our favorite conversations with Dr. Corinne Low about her new book, Having It All: What Data Tells Us About Women’s Lives and Getting the Most Out of Yours. Consider it your permission slip to set better boundaries, reclaim your time, and finally correct the imbalances at home and at work.

In This Episode:

👉 Why women literally can’t have it all—and why the feeling of “I’m failing” is baked right into the myth.

👉 The train-station-bathroom meltdown that catapulted Dr. Low into a whole new life: ending her marriage to a man, marrying a woman, and creating a family with two kids that is thriving.

👉 How using the rules of economics on your home and career can bring more joy than any self-help hack you’ve ever tried.

👉 Plus: Official permission to abandon the herb garden you bought during a moment of pure delusion. Consider it… compost.

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Learn more about Corinne Low and her book. 

Follow us: @barenakedmoms

Psychotherapist and bestselling author of ALL IS CALMish, Niro Feliciano helps us understand the nuts and bolts of holiday anxiety - why we have it, why it’s so harmful, and how to stop it in its tracks before it hijacks the all season’s good stuff.

Some anxiety is inevitable, but Niro gives us simple, practical, insanely doable strategies to manage it and be less surprised by it. Preparing for anxiety and creating a game plan is the first line of defense. But there are so many things we can do to help ourselves during actual moments of intense stress.

Niro takes the cumbaya out of practices like meditation, giving, and gratitude as she explains why they’re so effective at reducing stress: they keep us in the present—not in the past or the future, where anxiety likes to hang out. Suffice it to say, the timing of this nourishing conversation—on the eve of Thanksgiving—couldn’t be more perfect. 

In This Episode:

👉 Understanding holiday anxiety

👉 Things you can actually do to disrupt anxiety.

👉 Positive loops are just as easy to create as negative loops.

👉 Saying No can be just as valuable as saying Yes.

Follow Niro: @niro_feliciano

Follow us: @barenakedmoms

It’s the main concern parents hear about today: rising anxiety in kids. We asked an expert, Dr. Kathy Cosgrove, who is on the frontlines, how to recognize it and how to help. Here’s the twist: Sometimes, the most effective thing you can do is simply listen.

In This Episode:

👉 What’s a normal level of anxiety in kids and when to worry? 

👉 How a seasoned psychologist handles anxious responses in her own kids.

👉 Anxiety in girls vs. anxiety in boys. 

👉 Moms get anxious, too; the anxieties we’re feeling these days. 

Learn more about Dr. Kathy Cosgrove and The Counseling Center

Follow us: @barenakedmoms

All the stuff Mitch Henderson has figured out on the job—as a Division 1 basketball coach—has made him a better dad to his three school-age children. He shares his tips  for connecting with his tech-native Gen Z players  (spoiler alert: it takes more work) and talks about the value in meeting both his players and his kids where they are, not where he thinks they should be. Of course, we also ask him how he approaches sports for his own children, being a college coach and former superstar athlete himself. What he said surprised and inspired us! 

In This Episode:

👉 The parallels between coaching and parenting.

👉 How a college coach thinks about sports for his own children.

👉 The life-changing power of meditation. 

👉 Leadership is about connection more than authority.

Follow us: @barenakedmoms

Watch us now on YouTube

Alanna and Milano wrap up Season 2—and the school year—with some straight talk about sleepaway camp: Is your child right for sleepaway? How do you know if a certain camp will be a good fit? Can parents trust that their kids will be kept safe? How do counselors handle homesickness, bullying, and other challenges? And what if camp interferes with travel sports schedules?

Doug Knight, Director of Camp Tecumseh in New Hampshire, breaks it all down for us. He shares his observations of what happens within (and between) kids when they leave screens, plumbing, electricity, and families behind: self-awareness, self-reliance, collaboration, conflict resolution, and resilience. In other words, GROWTH. 

A former lacrosse legend in his own right and father of three boy athletes, Doug also lends a unique perspective on the ongoing battle between sleepaway camps and youth sports training camps—and how sleepaway, in his opinion, is a much bigger bang for everyone’s buck. 

In This Episode:

👉 How to determine whether the sleepaway experience is right for your child 

👉 Questions and concerns unpacked: homesickness, picky eating, and camper safety 

👉 Cost-benefit analysis of sleepaway camp vs. sports training camps 

👉 What it means to “make good boys better”

Follow us: @barenakedmoms

Learn more about Doug and Camp Tecumseh

What’s the difference between your middle-schooler making a dance video and posting it on TikTok? And is an hour of video games the same as an hour-long movie or an hour on Instagram? How does a five-minute work break scrolling Instagram always turn into an hour?

In this week’s episode, Alanna and Milano sit down with social media whistleblower, Max Stossel, who explains why smartphones and social media are so powerful and dangerous for kids. He gives us compelling intel about all the strategy that goes into designing these social media apps—because, a decade ago, he used to be one of the people designing them! (Spoiler alert: We might think we’re using the apps and smartphone, but really they’re using us). 

As Max helps us to understand, addiction to smartphones and social media is as real as any other addition. He shares great tips for undoing the addiction in ourselves and our kids—and seeing every engagement with our phone and social media as a trade. 

In This Episode:

👉 Understanding the trade-offs with smartphones and social media. 

👉 Learning how and why social media apps are designed.

👉 Why kids below certain ages aren’t ready to handle smartphones and social media.

👉 An arsenal of tips for fighting tough battles with smartphones and social media.

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Follow us: @barenakedmoms

Follow Max: Social Awakening and Center for Humane Technology

Ever wonder about the winding roads that lead us to where we are, especially to the wild, beautiful, and often chaotic journey of motherhood? This week, we're peeling back another layer, but this time, it’s from one of our very own. Milano steps into the guest seat on a different podcast, and we knew we had to share this special conversation with you, our Bare Naked Moms community.

In this borrowed episode from "The Pawcast" (Princeton Alumni Weekly), Milano opens up about her remarkable path to and through Princeton University. She gets real with host Liz Daugherty about what it was truly like navigating an Ivy League world with a profoundly unique background: a childhood marked by her mother's mental illness and intermittent homelessness, and being taken in by a true village of good samaritans.  It’s a story of resilience, the kindness of strangers (and campus security!), the devotion of family (like her aunt and uncle) and how these formative experiences shaped the mom and podcaster she is today.

In This Episode:

👉 Milano’s account of her "wild journey" to Princeton against great odds.

👉 A candid view of student life, unlike her peers.

👉 A story of compassion by Princeton campus security during a vulnerable time.

👉 The unexpected chapters after Princeton that led to Bare Naked Moms.

👉 Embracing our past, even if unconventional, can positively impact the present.

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Check out the Princeton Alumni Weekly Podcast

Follow us: @barenakedmoms

Not everyone affected by it is a mother, but all mothers are affected by it: Menopause. What’s more bare and naked than pulling back the curtain on this inevitable, charged event that’s both personal and universal—and usually takes hold of moms right when their children are undergoing their own huge hormonal shifts (a.k.a Puberty)? After all, if Mama’s not happy, nobody’s happy! 

In this week’s episode, Alanna and Milano sit down with endocrinologist and mom of four Dr. Gillian Goddard. Also the author of “Hot Flash” from ParentData and the upcoming book The Hormone Loop, Gillian breaks it all down for us: what’s happening, when it’s happening, who we should turn to for guidance, and what we can do to soften the landing. Together, we form a menopause framework and plan, so it doesn’t disrupt our own wellness, or the balance of our family ecosystems.

In This Episode:

👉 Defining and redefining menopause: the big picture and the smaller pictures. 

👉 Clarifying confusion and misinformation from social media soundbites. 

👉 A plan of attack: symptoms to look for and how to treat them.

👉 Assembling the right health team for this chapter of motherhood.

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Follow us: @barenakedmoms

Follow Gillian: @gillianmgoddard

Read: Gillian’s articles

Conventional wisdom tells us to keep our politics and religion to ourselves. But Ainsley Earhardt, Co-host of Fox and Friends, bestselling author, and single mother to nine-year-old Hayden, couldn’t be more bare and naked—and public—about both. In this week’s episode, Ainsley walks us through her journey with God and how faith has helped her in work, love, life, and parenting. She also opens up about the pros and cons of her transparency and some of the consequences that it has had in her life as a mom.

In This Episode:

👉 The power of faith, judgment, and curiosity.  

👉 The danger of certainty.

👉 Fitting faith into modern family life. 

👉 Are all faiths created equal?

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Follow us: @barenakedmoms

Follow Ainsley: @foxandfriends and foxandfriends.com

Read: Ainsley’s books

What if you and your children found yourselves in the middle of a disaster that was captivating the nation? How would you overcome your own despair to support your kids if their home–and their entire community–burned to the ground? Mom-of-two Emily Debevoise faced those questions when she and her husband lost their home in the Palisades Fire this past January. 

In this week’s episode, Alanna and Milano talk with an everyday mom in the midst of rebuilding her family’s lives after evacuating their beloved neighborhood with nothing but a few garbage bags full of stuff. She shares how she’s finding ways (both big and small) to be there for her 14-year-old daughter and 11-year-old son and how she sees them processing their trauma differently. Emily also opens up about the acts of kindness that are helping them to move forward and what we should all know should we ever face a similar crisis–or have a loved one in crisis.

In This Episode:

👉 How siblings may process crisis differently 

👉 Small acts that make all the difference to kids in crisis

👉 What to grab for the kids if you have a few minutes to evacuate your home 

👉 How to reach out if a family you know is in crisis  

Follow us: @barenakedmoms