Do Not Disturb: The Inside Story

What happens when you leave your job, start a business and discover you are pregnant in the same week?

In this episode, Simona speaks with Sabrina Sarl, creative business adviser, artist manager and host of Mothers of Creativity. Sabrina has spent more than 15 years working across the creative industries and now creates space for honest conversations about how motherhood shapes creative careers.

Sabrina reflects on how motherhood changed the shape of her work without erasing her ambition. She and Simona discuss the promise and pressure of self-employment, why comparing yourself with people who are not parents is a trap, the different expectations placed on creative mothers and fathers, and what it takes to define success on your own terms.

At the heart of the conversation is a more useful question than “Can mothers have it all?”: what is the life and career you actually want to build now?

In this conversation:

• Leaving a job, starting a business and becoming pregnant at the same time
• How motherhood changes the shape of ambition
• The flexibility and hidden pressure of self-employment
• Why creative parents are working with genuinely limited resources
• The danger of comparing yourself with people who are not parents
• The different expectations placed on creative mothers and fathers
• Building Mothers of Creativity
• Redefining success after motherhood

Find Sabrina:
Mothers of Creativity: https://podcast.mothersofcreativity.com/
Website: https://www.sabrinasarl.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sabrina.sarl/

Follow Do Not Disturb: @donotdisturbpods

If this conversation resonated, follow the show, leave a review and share it with a woman rebuilding ambition on her own terms.
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Many women prepare carefully for the baby. Far fewer are prepared for what motherhood will do to their identity, relationships, body, ambition and sense of control.

Simona Deifta is joined by Becky Selbie, a therapist specialising in maternal mental health and the founder of Motherway. Together they explore the expectation-versus-reality gap, matrescence, perfectionism, accepting help, invisible labour and why high-achieving women can find motherhood especially destabilising.

This is not an episode about becoming a perfect mother. It is an honest conversation about what motherhood actually feels like—and why women may be responding normally to impossible expectations.

Find Becky on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/_motherway_/
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Comparison is the thief of joy—but motherhood can make the timelines women are measured against feel even louder.

In this episode, Simona speaks with Gillian Orr, award-winning journalist, former Editor-in-Chief of Refinery29 UK and writer of Slouching Towards Bethnal Green. Gillian reflects on building a career in women’s media, becoming a mother at 39, having her role eliminated while she was on maternity leave, moving into freelance work and slowly finding her ambition again.

They talk honestly about the loneliness of maternity leave, why high-powered motherhood so often depends on invisible help, the affluent version of motherhood over-represented in media, the rise and fall of “girlboss” culture, and Gillian’s decision to have one child.
At the heart of the conversation is a simple permission slip: stop measuring your life against other people’s milestones and choose the timeline that is right for you.
In this conversation:

Gillian’s journey from The Independent to launching Refinery29 UK
Career identity after maternity leave
Becoming a mother at 39 and the pressure attached to turning 35
The loneliness that can accompany maternity leave
Why “having it all” usually depends on invisible help
What women’s media gets wrong about affluent motherhood
Choosing to have one child
Losing ambition, finding it again and allowing life to move in seasons
Why comparison and age-based milestones steal joy

Content note: this episode includes discussion of fertility anxiety, pregnancy, prenatal depression, maternity leave and maternal identity.

Gillian’s newsletter:
https://gillianorr.substack.com/

Gillian on Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/gillian__orr/

Gillian’s Refinery29 archive:
https://www.refinery29.com/en-us/author/gillian-orr

Follow Do Not Disturb:
@donotdisturbpods

If this conversation resonated, follow the show, leave a review and share it with a woman who needs permission to choose her own timeline.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Anna Hushlak: Why Women Feel Disconnected From Themselves

When did life start feeling like something you were managing rather than truly living?

In this episode of Do Not Disturb, I sit down with Anna Hushlak, author of Turn Yourself On, to explore why so many women feel disconnected from themselves and what it takes to reconnect with their energy, desire, creativity, and sense of aliveness.
We discuss the pressures of modern life, motherhood, burnout, people-pleasing, self-abandonment, and the ways women gradually lose touch with what they actually want.

In this episode, we discuss:
• Why so many women feel disconnected from themselves
• The hidden cost of people-pleasing
• Burnout, exhaustion, and emotional numbness
• Motherhood, identity, and desire
• Reconnecting with your body and intuition
• What "turning yourself on" really means
• Living with more presence, energy, and joy
• Creating a life that feels good from the inside out

Whether you're feeling stuck, overwhelmed, burnt out, or simply curious about reconnecting with yourself, this conversation offers a powerful perspective on what it means to feel fully alive again.

Follow Do Not Disturb Podcast:
Instagram: @donotdisturbpods

Follow Anna Hushlak:
@annahushlak

Book:
Turn Yourself On

Follow Simona:
@greeninlondon

Website:
www.donotdisturbpodcast.com
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What happens when the advice parents receive is driven more by fear than by evidence?
In this episode of Do Not Disturb, I sit down with economist, bestselling author and mother Emily Oster for an honest conversation about modern parenting, decision-making, risk, and why so many parents feel paralysed by the pressure to get everything right.
We live in an age of more parenting information than ever before. Yet many mothers and fathers feel less confident, more anxious, and more afraid of making the wrong decision.

Emily has built her career by asking a different question:
What does the evidence actually say?
Together we explore how fear has become embedded in modern parenting, why guilt has become almost a default emotion for parents, and how understanding data can help us make calmer, more confident decisions.
This isn’t a conversation about finding the perfect way to raise children.
It’s a conversation about learning to trust yourself when the world is telling you there is only one right answer.

In this episode we discuss:

Why parenting feels more overwhelming than ever
Pregnancy advice versus evidence
Vaccines, risk and making informed decisions
Screen time, phones and children’s independence
Why modern parents feel so guilty
Raising resilient children rather than perfectly protected ones
How data can reduce anxiety instead of creating it
What confident parenting actually looks like
Whether you’re expecting your first child, raising teenagers, or simply trying to navigate modern family life with more confidence, this episode offers a thoughtful, evidence-based perspective on one of the biggest responsibilities we’ll ever have.

About Emily Oster
Emily Oster is a professor of economics at Brown University, bestselling author of Expecting Better, Cribsheet, The Family Firm and The Unexpected, and founder of ParentData. Through her books, research and writing, she has helped millions of parents make informed decisions by translating complex evidence into practical advice.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.