226 - The Disrespect Epidemic: How to Navigate Rudeness, Entitlement, and Division | Life Happens Podcast
Life Happens with Barb & Michelle
Michelle Maros & Barb Schmidt
4.9 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 7 October 2025
⏱️ 64 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In a world filled with division, tension, and unkindness, how do we stay grounded in our peace and self-worth?
This week on Life Happens with Barb & Michelle, we’re unpacking one of the most common yet painful behaviors we all experience — disrespect. From entitlement and impatience to unhealed trauma and lack of accountability, disrespect has become a quiet epidemic affecting our workplaces, families, and friendships.
Join Barb and Michelle as they share heartfelt stories and practical tools to help you navigate disrespect with confidence, compassion, and clarity—without losing your peace.
💬 Barb opens up about her personal experiences with disrespect in both business and family life, including how she made amends and healed her relationship with her mother.
💬 Michelle reflects on how rudeness seems to be at an all-time high and how she’s learning to reconnect with her values to respond from a place of confidence instead of reaction.
✨ Episode Highlights:
- Releasing entitlement: How superiority thinking feeds disrespect.
- Not taking it personally: Remembering that cruelty often stems from inner pain.
- Bridging the gap: Accountability, apology, and empathy heal divides.
- Reconnecting to values: Why choosing kindness over success is revolutionary.
- Loving from afar: When boundaries become the most loving act.
💡 Remember: Relationships are a two-way street. Healing begins when both sides are willing to listen, communicate, and take accountability.
📖 Michelle’s new book —Dear Friend — is now available for pre-order!
Filled with 365 reflections, it’s your daily companion for cultivating self-love, clarity, and inner peace.
💛 Episode Topics:
- How we can bridge the gap during these divided times
- Building the confidence to push back on disrespect
- The impact of social media and the pandemic on meanness and disrespect
- Hurt people hurt people, but it’s never an excuse
- Having a relationship with yourself to begin to show up with intention and awareness
💬 We’d love to hear from you! What insight or moment resonated most with you in this episode? Share in the comments—we truly read every one.
📅 Subscribe & Join Us Next Tuesday for another heartfelt episode of Life Happens with Barb and Michelle! 💕
Today’s Episode Sponsor:
Download Cash App Today: https://click.cash.app/ui6m/ineo05vp #CashAppPod.
Cash App is a financial services platform, not a bank. Banking services provided by Cash App’s bank partner(s). Prepaid debit cards issued by Sutton Bank, Member FDIC. See terms and conditions at https://cash.app/legal/us/en-us/card-.... Direct Deposit, Overdraft Coverage and Discounts provided by Cash App, a Block, Inc. brand. Visit http://cash.app/legal/podcast for full disclosures.
🎙️ Host by:
- https://www.instagram.com/peaceful_barb/
- https://www.instagram.com/michellemaros/
Join our community⬇️
YouTube: www.youtube.com/@LifeHappensThePodcast
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lifehappensthepodcast/
Substack: https://lifehappensthepodcast.substack.com/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lifehappensthepodcast
Listen to our podcast anywhere→ https://michellemaros.com/podcast/
🎙️ New episodes of Life Happens with Barb and Michelle are released every Tuesday
✨ Pre-order Dear Friend to receive daily doses of clarity, hope, and heartfelt encouragement.💌 https://amzn.to/3Us9eqg
Our Sponsors:
* Check out Happy Mammoth and use my code LIFEHAPPENS for a great deal: https://happymammoth.com
* Check out Moon & Skin and use my code LIFEHAPPENS for a great deal: https://moonandskin.com
Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands
Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Hi, everyone. Welcome back to Life Happens podcast with Barb and Michelle. We are thrilled that you are here with us again this week as we talk about life's most interesting and meaningful topics. And I'm excited about this conversation we're going to have today, Mom. It's going to be a good one. It's something that's up for a lot of us right now. And, you know, I'm always looking forward to hearing what comes from our conversations. So, hey mom. Hi, Michelle. How are you? I'm good. I'm good. You're right. This is, I mean, I think everything's up for everybody. You know, I think. I guess it's true. I feel like I say that all the time. Well, I think the ethos of our work is about, you know, tackling, like you said, talking about life's most interesting and sometimes very difficult topics and how we manage them and how we navigate through this life and, you know, using Glennon Doyle, who we love so much, and Abby Wambach, and we can do hard things. I mean, how do we do |
| 0:55.2 | the hard thing? And this one today about managing and really trying to work our way through |
| 1:02.2 | disrespect to me has been huge. I think disrespect for me, and that's what we're going to actually |
| 1:09.4 | talk about today, disrespect for me is probably one of what we're going to actually talk about today, |
| 1:17.1 | disrespect for me is probably one of the top one, two, maybe third thing on my list of, it's just not okay. |
| 1:19.2 | I have zero tolerance for disrespect. |
| 1:21.9 | So I'm always keenly aware of when I'm being disrespectful or when I feel like even in |
| 1:27.0 | my mind I'm thinking disrespectful thoughts. |
| 1:30.3 | You know, there's that whole thing about, you know, what we think, actually, you know, |
| 1:34.3 | that we can actually become what we think. So if we're thinking judgmental, disrespectful thoughts, a lot of times they can seep into our actions and our words. So I'm really excited to talk about this and get your take on it |
| 1:45.3 | because I know it's something very important to me to talk about disrespect. |
| 1:49.7 | Absolutely. And I think, you know, a lot of people, we hear from people, of course, |
| 1:56.2 | you know, on social media and in the comments. But I also know in our own personal lives, |
| 2:01.1 | so many of our friends in conversations |
| 2:04.2 | are feeling like the energy of the world |
| 2:09.4 | of the people around us. |
| 2:11.5 | A lot of people are grappling with feeling disrespected |
| 2:14.9 | or not even not feeling seen and understood and accepted by the people |
| 2:22.2 | around around them that they're they're constantly fielding comments or actions or energy that is |
| 2:32.0 | off-putting that makes people feel less than or small or put down. And I agree |
| 2:43.1 | with you. Disrespect for me as well is up there with things that I really don't tolerate. |
| 2:51.6 | And, but also I don't handle it well all the time because it's confusing to me. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Michelle Maros & Barb Schmidt, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Michelle Maros & Barb Schmidt and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2025.