Fresh Take: Corinne Low, HAVING IT ALL

What Fresh Hell: Laughing in the Face of Motherhood | Parenting Tips From Funny Moms

What Fresh Hell: Laughing in the Face of Motherhood

Kids & Family, Comedy, Parenting

4.8 • 1K Ratings

🗓️ 31 October 2025

⏱️ 40 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Amy and Margaret talk with Dr. Corinne Low, Wharton economist and author of Having It All: What Data Tells Us About Women’s Lives and Getting the Most Out of Yours. Corinne shares her data-driven insights on why working mothers feel overextended, how “having it all” became an impossible equation, and how redefining success through your own “utility function” can help you build a more sustainable, meaningful life. The conversation dives into household labor, gender roles, and the systemic forces that make modern motherhood so demanding—along with practical strategies to reclaim time, happiness, and balance. Here's where you can find Corinne: www.corinnelow.com @corinnelowphd on IG Substack: https://corinnelow.substack.com Buy HAVING IT ALL: https://bookshop.org/a/12099/9781250369512 We love the sponsors that make this show possible! You can always find all the special deals and codes for all our current sponsors on our website: ⁠⁠⁠https://www.whatfreshhellpodcast.com/p/promo-codes/ Get 50% Off Monarch Money, the all-in-one financial tool at ⁠www.monarchmoney.com/FRESH Ready to raise money-smart kids? Start now with your first month FREE at acornsearly.com/FRESH! Head to GigSalad.com and book some awesome talent for your next party, and let them know that What Fresh Hell sent you. working moms, motherhood, having it all, women in work, mental load, work life balance, fresh take podcast, feminist economics, time management, modern motherhood, parenting podcast, corinne low, mom life, career and family, invisible labor, motherhood unfiltered, mom guilt, empowered women, mom friends, funny moms, parenting advice, parenting experts, parenting tips, mothers, families, parenting skills, parenting strategies, parenting styles, busy moms, self-help for moms, manage kid’s behavior, teenager, tween, child development, family activities, family fun, parent child relationship, decluttering, kid-friendly, invisible workload, default parent, having it all, having it almost Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello, everyone, and welcome to Fresh Take from What Fresh Hell laughing in the face of motherhood.
0:06.7	This is Margaret.
0:07.6	And this is Amy.
0:08.6	Today we're talking to Dr. Corinne Lowe.
0:11.1	She is an economist and professor at the Wharton School.
0:14.1	She is also the author of a best-selling book that we'll be talking about today.
0:18.9	Having it all, what data tells us about women's lives
0:22.0	and getting the most out of yours. Welcome, Corinne. Thank you so much. So you start the book
0:27.3	in a particularly dark moment of your life in an Amtrak bathroom. Tell us a little bit about
0:33.6	that moment from the introduction of your book and what led you to wanting to write this book
0:38.5	and bring your background and data into the real world. Yeah, so I had been studying women's
0:44.7	kind of career family tradeoffs for my entire career for 15 years. And then I found myself
0:49.6	living in it. I say in the book, I gave birth to my son and also a midlife crisis because I
0:54.7	believed that if I just worked hard enough, I was going to be an equal to the men at my jobs
0:59.5	and to my husband at home. And what I found was the reality was starkly different that, you know,
1:05.5	I was carrying all of this extra labor and the data told me that I was not alone and it was kind of exemplified by
1:12.2	this period where I was commuting two and a half hours from my home in New York City to my job in
1:16.4	Philadelphia. I had a newborn and I was back teaching and then on my commute home there's suddenly
1:22.4	track work on the train and I'm realized I'm not going to make it home in time for bedtime so I have
1:27.0	to pump in the Amtrak
1:28.2	bathroom. And I'm crying, just feeling like, oh, is this having it all? Because I feel like I don't have
1:33.6	anything. You know, it's so easy to hear from the outside. Like, if that is my friend, if that is
	...

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