Mighty Pursuit Podcast

Why Women Are Told They Can Only Be One Thing (ft. Neha Ruch)

Everywhere online, you see the extremes.
On one side is the trad-wife trend, painting a flawless picture of family life: dad works, mom stays home, everything is harmonious. A supposed return to how things “always were.” But that picture was a myth. It never truly existed.
In reaction came the backlash. The rise of the girlboss. Women told their value is measured only in ambition, career, and relentless independence. Another rigid extreme.
And maybe you’ve felt caught between them. Both stories loud. Both stories unforgiving. Neither one actually fitting the life you’re living.
The truth is, these binaries are hurting us. They’ve stigmatized the very group that makes up the majority of mothers — women who may want to pause their careers temporarily, step back for a season, or move fluidly between roles without being erased or shamed for it.
That’s why we sat down with Neha Ruch, founder of Mother Untitled and one of the most influential voices redefining what it means to be a woman today. Her work has been featured in The New York Times, The Washington Post, and across national media. She’s built a movement followed by tens of thousands who are exhausted by false extremes and hungry for a more honest story.
In this conversation, we debunk the myths that have polarized women into rigid categories. More importantly, we explore how to navigate different seasons of life — parenting, career, or both — without losing your sense of identity, ambition, or worth.
Chapters:0:00 - Intro1:58 - The Stigma of Being At Home19:12 - The Stay-At-Home Mom Never Existed38:35 - The Tradwife Hashtag54:50 - Why Neha Decided To Quit Her Job1:08:24 - The Fear Of Never Getting Your Career Back1:23:51 - Power Dynamics With Your Partner1:35:45 - Setting Goals in Motherhood1:49:26 - Creating A New Future
Mighty Pursuit Links:Website: https://www.mightypursuit.comInstagram:  https://www.instagram.com/mightypursuit/TikTok:  https://www.tiktok.com/@mightypursuit/X: https://x.com/MightyPursuit
Neha Ruch Links:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/neha_ruch/Book: https://amzn.to/4jcMZ3h
For business inquiries: hello@mightypursuit.com

Dr. Jessica Knurick: Why 76.4% Of Americans Are Chronically Sick

76.4% of Americans are living with at least one chronic disease.
Cancer. Heart disease. Diabetes. Autoimmune disorders. The list goes on. And if you’re living with one of these, you know how devastating it can be — the fatigue, the pain, the emotional toll. Chronic illness reshapes the quality of life in ways most people never see.
What’s hard to ignore is how rapidly this has escalated. Over the last 60 years, chronic disease has exploded. And as more people have woken up to that reality, so has the blame game. Big Food. Big Pharma. The medical system. The government. Much of the criticism is warranted — but outrage alone isn’t enough to solve a problem this complex.
To fix something this big, we first have to understand it. And that’s where things break down. Fact has been mixed with fiction. Bad science circulates faster than good data. People are left overwhelmed, angry, or afraid — without a clear path forward.
If we’re ever going to take back control of our health, we need clarity.
That’s why we sat down with Dr. Jessica Knurick — a registered dietitian, public policy expert, and PhD in nutrition science whose work has reached more than 1.3 million people online. She’s become one of the most trusted voices cutting through misinformation, debunking false claims, and explaining what’s actually driving the modern health crisis.
By the end of this conversation, you’ll understand what’s really behind the chronic disease epidemic — and what it takes to reclaim your health, your energy, and your life.
Chapters:0:00 - Intro1:39 - The Summit on Capitol Hill12:52 - How Ultra Processed Food Made Us Sick42:15 - American Life Is Not Designed for Health48:47 - The Failure of the U.S. Medical System1:02:22 - Health Insurance Companies Make Trillions1:15:35 - Living in the U.S. Shortens Your Life By 8 Years1:34:14 - Analyzing the MAHA Movement1:42:36 - How To Take Back Your Health
Mighty Pursuit Links:Website: https://www.mightypursuit.comInstagram:  https://www.instagram.com/mightypursuit/TikTok:  https://www.tiktok.com/@mightypursuit/X: https://x.com/MightyPursuit
Dr. Jessica Knurick Links:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drjessicaknurick/
For business inquiries: hello@mightypursuit.com

Psychoanalyst Dr. Hillary McBride: How Aging Became A Crime

Aging women are worthless. That’s the message culture keeps sending.
Of course, no one says it outright. 
That would be too crude. Too impolite. So instead, it’s communicated through all the little social cues — who gets attention, who gets opportunities, who gets centered, and who gets quietly passed over.
And over time, you start to feel it in your own life. The compliments come less often. The interest shifts. The male gaze doesn’t linger the way it used to. With every birthday that passes, it can feel like you’re losing value.
So you respond the only way that makes sense. Time feels like an army advancing, and you raise your defenses to hold the line. Skincare routines. Workouts. Maybe a little Botox. Maybe something more. Not because you’re vain — but because you’re fighting for survival.
What makes this even more suffocating is that the timeline has been pushed up. What once felt like a concern in your forties now starts in your twenties. Gen Z celebrities are picked apart for “aging badly” before they’ve even finished growing into themselves. 
Millie Bobby Brown, at just twenty-one years old, was told she looks forty.
So what do you do in a world where aging has started to feel like a crime? Where the natural evolution of a body is treated like a personal failure?
To help make sense of this moment, we invited Dr. Hillary McBride into the studio. Hillary is one of the world's leading psychologists working at the intersection of body image and aging. 
With years of clinical experience sitting with women under this exact pressure, she’s uniquely positioned to see the full picture — what’s happening culturally, how it’s shaping us psychologically, and what it actually takes to break free.
This is one of the most comprehensive conversations you’ll hear on this topic. We don’t shy away from the uncomfortable or the taboo. Hillary names this moment with rare precision, and what she suggests comes next deserves serious attention.
0:00 - Intro1:57 - What Culture Tells Aging Women13:51 - Men and Women Experience Aging Differently25:35 - “Aging Badly” Is The Ultimate Fear49:07 - The Pressure To Stay Young In Your 20s54:32 - Gen Z & The Rise of Looksmaxxing1:12:36 - How Social Circles Become Toxic1:22:52 - Aging Can Be Your Liberation1:47:59 - Expanding Your Sense of Self-Worth2:02:11 - The Cost of Appearance Obsession
Related Episodes:https://youtu.be/96Xx5Kll-y8
Mighty Pursuit Links:Website: https://www.mightypursuit.comInstagram:  https://www.instagram.com/mightypursuit/TikTok:  https://www.tiktok.com/@mightypursuit/X: https://x.com/MightyPursuit
Dr. Hillary McBride Links:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hillaryliannamcbride/Books: https://hillarylmcbride.com/books/
For business inquiries: hello@mightypursuit.com

20-Year Couples Therapist: Why You Repeat What You Hate

You know the moment. A conversation starts small, almost harmless. And suddenly it’s spiraling. Your reaction feels bigger than the moment. Your partner’s response feels completely disproportionate. And somewhere in the middle of it, you’re wondering: How did we get here again?
Because this isn’t the first time. You’ve had this fight before — maybe with this partner, maybe with someone else. Different details. Same tension. Different words. Same emotional ending.
Afterward, you’re left confused. Why does something so small feel so big? Why do you both react in ways you don’t fully recognize — or even agree with?
Here’s the truth: this isn’t just you. Conflict is normal in every relationship. But decades of research and clinical work show that most people fall into the same unhealthy patterns again and again. Not because they want to — but because something deeper is running the show.
That’s why we sat down with Vienna Pharaon. She’s one of the most influential couples therapists in the world, a bestselling author, and a trusted voice for more than 750,000 people online. After twenty years of sitting with couples in pain, she’s seen the same patterns repeat — and she helps people finally understand what’s underneath the fight so real change can happen.
In this conversation, Vienna takes us beneath the surface. Whether you’re single and trying to understand what went wrong in the past, or in a relationship wondering why the same moments feel so familiar, this episode meets you where you are — and shows you how to break the cycle for good.
Chapters:0:00 - Intro1:31 - The Pattern Underneath A Fight9:53 - Why We Have High Divorce Rates18:52 - Dysfunction on the Dating Scene24:19 - Links Between Childhood & Our Love Life36:30 - The Pursuer-Withdrawer Dynamic1:01:40 - How Small Moments Provoke Big Reactions1:05:05 - Why We Repeat The Things We Hate1:26:14 - Dating While You’re Still In Process1:33:38 - Expressing Your Needs To Your Partner1:45:03 - Words & Phrases That Are Landmines
Mighty Pursuit Links:Website: https://www.mightypursuit.comInstagram:  https://www.instagram.com/mightypursuit/TikTok:  https://www.tiktok.com/@mightypursuit/X: https://x.com/MightyPursuit
Dr. Vienna Pharaon:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mindfulmft/Book: https://amzn.to/499RgjBOrigin Wound Quiz: https://1wsm6geg69z.typeform.com/to/d981R7Cl?
For business inquiries: hello@mightypursuit.com

Joe Hudson: Why Numbing & Avoidance Will Cost You 2026

There are a small number of people in the world who could flip a switch tomorrow and affect billions of lives.
They sit at the very top of their fields. The people many of us look at and think, if only I could have a sliver of their success.
And when those people need help, they don’t go further into the spotlight. They go to one individual quietly working behind the scenes.
Which raises a simple question: what does someone at that level actually need guidance with?
Here’s the surprising part. They don’t seek help because their problems are bigger than yours. They seek help because they’re dealing with the same ones. Fear. Reactivity. Disconnection. Dysregulated emotion.
The same inner patterns — just playing out at a higher volume, with far greater consequences.
That’s why they turn to Joe Hudson. He’s the founder of The Art of Accomplishment, and what makes his work rare is how he brings together worlds that are usually kept separate. Ambition and inner work. Performance and emotional integration. Achievement and meaning.
Drawing from spiritual, psychological, and neurological practices, Joe works at the level where real change actually happens. Not surface behavior, but the internal patterns that shape everything else.
That’s what makes this conversation different.
If you’re trying to build something — a career, a company, or a life — this episode reveals what has to happen on the inside for it to work on the outside.

Pulitzer Prize Journalist: How Big Food Created Mass Disease & Addiction

In 1999, the CEOs of America’s 11 largest food companies gathered for a private meeting. Coca-Cola. Kraft. Nabisco. General Mills. Direct competitors, sitting at the same table.
They weren’t there to talk profits or market share. They were there to confront the growing evidence that their products were making people sick — fueling addiction and chronic disease on a scale comparable to cigarettes.
By the end of that meeting, they made a decision. They wouldn’t change course. They would double down.
Scientists were hired to perfect the “bliss point.” Marketers were brought in to engineer craving. Psychologists studied how to bypass willpower altogether. And chances are, you’ve felt the cost of that decision — in your own health, or in someone you love.
Today, nearly 60 percent of Americans live with at least one chronic disease. Cancer. Diabetes. Obesity. Heart disease. And the damage isn’t only physical. The same systems that hijack the body also hijack the brain, driving anxiety, depression, and addiction.
With so much speculation and misinformation around this topic, we needed someone who could tell the story truthfully — without conspiracy, and without spin.
That’s why we sat down with Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Michael Moss, author of the New York Times bestsellers Salt Sugar Fat and Hooked. For years, he’s investigated the food labs, boardrooms, and marketing strategies of Big Food — tracing exactly how these systems were built, and why they persist.
Together, we created one of the most comprehensive conversations you’ll find on this subject. A clear, linear look at what’s happening, how it’s affecting you, and what it actually takes to begin reclaiming your agency.
Chapters:0:00 - Intro2:01 - The Secret 1999 Meeting11:04 - How Ultra Processed Food Leads To Disease & Addiction31:22 - What Happens Behind Closed Doors1:10:15 - How Big Food Copied Cigarette Companies1:21:53 - Where is the Government in This?1:26:41 - Defeating Big Food
Mighty Pursuit Links:Website: https://www.mightypursuit.comInstagram:  https://www.instagram.com/mightypursuit/TikTok:  https://www.tiktok.com/@mightypursuit/X: https://x.com/MightyPursuit
Michael Moss Links:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/michaelcmoss/X: https://x.com/MichaelMossCSalt, Sugar, Fat (Book): https://amzn.to/4s6LGH7Hooked (Book): https://amzn.to/4pObS88
For business inquiries: hello@mightypursuit.com

Ivy League Scientist: We Discovered Humans Are Built to Sense God

Maybe you’ve heard people talk about hearing God’s voice or feeling a higher presence — and your first reaction is to roll your eyes. Or maybe you’ve had a moment like that yourself but never known what to make of it. You’re skeptical, but curious.
The truth is, this topic makes people uncomfortable. It’s loaded with religious baggage and often framed as anti-intellectual. But what if — scientifically — it’s real?
That’s why we sat down with Dr. Lisa Miller — an Ivy League scientist, bestselling author, and one of the pioneers in mapping the spiritual brain. Her research proves what skeptics have long dismissed and what seekers have quietly known all along: that we are biologically wired for spirituality. And if that’s true, it changes everything.
In this episode, we explore what happens when you make regular connection with a higher power part of your life. This conversation isn’t about dogma or religion — it’s about what it means to live with rhythms of connection that shape how you move through the world, how you handle suffering, and how you experience joy.
Even if you’re skeptical, this conversation matters. Because if the science is right, it may be the most important capacity you carry inside you.
Chapters:0:00 - Intro2:14 - The Emerging View of Consciousness14:56 - Experiences with Divine Guidance30:49 - Passive Experiences vs. Activating Them43:35 - The Nature of God52:53 - Nontraditional Ways of Connection1:00:50 - Synchronicities, Dreams & Imagination1:11:36 - Relational Spirituality
Mighty Pursuit Links:Website: https://www.mightypursuit.comInstagram:  https://www.instagram.com/mightypursuit/TikTok:  https://www.tiktok.com/@mightypursuit/X: https://x.com/MightyPursuit
Dr. Lisa Miller Links:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dr.lisamiller/Awakened Brain:  https://amzn.to/4dhiTIZ
For business inquiries: hello@mightypursuit.com

25-Year Relationship Scientist: Why You Keep Choosing the Wrong People

Thousands of voices are telling you how to do modern dating and relationships.
Scroll through your feed and anyone with charisma and a microphone can become a relationship expert. Maybe you’ve grown disillusioned with those voices. You’ve tried to follow the advice, but still struggled in your own relationship — or wondered what, if anything, you can actually trust.
And the opportunity to speak into this moment is massive. Because the reality is sobering: divorce rates hover above 50%. And if you factor in the number of couples who are actually happy, the percentages fall much lower.
Here’s the good news: finding a successful, happy, long-lasting relationship is not impossible. But only if you understand the truth — and apply it to your life.
That’s why we sat down with Dr. Ty Tashiro, one of the top relationship scientists in the world. He’s synthesized decades of research across psychology and relationship science, getting to the root of what really makes love last.
In this conversation, you’ll hear why the very things most of us chase in a partner — passion, beauty, and money — can backfire. We’ll explore the consequences of listening to the wrong voices on this subject, and uncover the traits that science says actually predict a happy, lasting relationship.
CHAPTERS:0:00 - Intro1:48 - The Story of Dirty Socks9:41 - Generational Shifts In How We View Love19:20 - The Boom in Bad Dating Advice24:58 - Marrying for Money34:44 - Choosing Someone Because They’re Hot46:36 - Deconstructing Your Wishlist56:54 - Marrying Someone You’re Not In Love With1:22:26 - Gender Dynamics1:32:50 - The Ideal Foundation For A Relationship1:48:09 - Divorce Can Be Predicted With 94% Accuracy
Mighty Pursuit Links:Website: https://www.mightypursuit.comInstagram:  https://www.instagram.com/mightypursuit/TikTok:  https://www.tiktok.com/@mightypursuit/X: https://x.com/MightyPursuit
Dr. Ty Tashiro Links:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tytashiro/?hl=enBook: https://amzn.to/4ay1Bb6
For business inquiries: hello@mightypursuit.com

Penn Badgley: How We Get Stuck (And How To Break Free)

Penn Badgley has spent most of his life being watched — the star of two of the more successful TV shows in recent history: Gossip Girl and You.
And in these last five years, You became a cultural phenomenon. People fell in love with Joe Goldberg, and before that, Dan Humphrey. But what few knew what was happening in Penn’s real life while all of this was going on.
Behind the scenes, he was going through an existential crisis that forced him to step back and look at his life in a completely different way. And that shift touched everything: his relationships, how he thought about love, how he understood himself.
The more we chatted with Penn in the week’s episode of the Mighty Pursuit Podcast, the more we realized that this wasn’t just his story— it was actually a mirror for our own. The questions driving his crisis are the ones that define all of our lives.
Over the course of two hours, we go everywhere — relationships, body image, childhood wounds, Joe Goldberg and the spiritual questions that have been forming underneath it all.
What struck us most is Penn’s depth — the honesty and emotional intelligence he brings to each part of this story. You’ll quickly realize that this is one of his most-in depth conversations yet.
Chapters:0:00 - Intro1:17 - The Stairs Incident21:49 - Relationship Patterns & Ideas About Love48:59 - Struggles with Self-Criticism59:46 - The Existential Crisis1:37:22 - Being at War with Joe Goldberg
Mighty Pursuit Links:Website: https://www.mightypursuit.comInstagram:  https://www.instagram.com/mightypursuit/TikTok:  https://www.tiktok.com/@mightypursuit/X: https://x.com/MightyPursuit
Penn Badgley Links:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pennbadgley/TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@iampennbadgleyCrushmore (new book): https://amzn.to/48sGBjk
For business inquiries: hello@mightypursuit.com

Harvard Neuroscientist: The Fascinating New Science Of Dreams

You’ll spend roughly a third of your life asleep — more than 200,000 hours in another world. The dream world.
Every night, your body lies still while your mind builds entire realities: places, people, and moments that feel as real as waking life. And yet, most of us forget almost everything we experience there.
Maybe you shrug off dreams as random noise. Maybe they terrify you — the nightmares, the paralysis, the strange symbols that stay with you long after you wake. Or maybe you’ve had dreams that felt like they were trying to tell you something.
In recent decades, neuroscience has revealed that dreams are far more than imagination. They’re data — emotional, psychological, even spiritual. They hold powerful clues to who we are, what we fear, and what we’ve yet to face.
That’s why we sat down with Dr. Baland Jalal, one of the world’s leading neuroscientists studying dreams, sleep paralysis, and consciousness itself. Based at Harvard, he’s in a rare position to bridge the gap between science and spirituality.
In this conversation, we explore what dreams reveal about God, consciousness, and the nature of reality — and what they can teach us about mental health and trauma.
We go deep into how dreams process emotion and memory, why nightmares can become windows into healing, what lucid dreaming shows us about consciousness, and how ancient spiritual experiences may not be so different from what neuroscience is now discovering.
Once you hear what’s really happening inside the dream world, you may never see waking life the same way again.
Chapters:0:00 - Intro2:02 - The Neuroscience of Dreams17:51 - Your Dreams Are Speaking To You47:04 - God & Spirituality Invading Your Dreams1:13:26 - Learning New Things In Your Dreams1:31:51 - We Can Now Speak To People In Their Dreams1:44:36 - The Terror of Sleep Paralysis
Mighty Pursuit Links:Website: https://www.mightypursuit.comInstagram:  https://www.instagram.com/mightypursuit/TikTok:  https://www.tiktok.com/@mightypursuit/X: https://x.com/MightyPursuit
Dr. Baland Jalal Links:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/balandjalal/
For business inquiries: hello@mightypursuit.com