Hi everyone and welcome to another episode of Women Who Travel, a podcast from Condonast Traveller.

I'm Lale Arakoglu and with me, as always, is my co-host Meredith Carey.

Hello.

As we've mentioned in a few of our previous episodes this season, wellness, which we've put in quotes, is a term that's

bandied around a lot without a real sense of what it means. To talk through the word itself and how

our relationships with wellness has evolved as we hit different life milestones, we're joined by

women who travel contributor and brand strategy and marketing consultant, Shanika Hillocks,

and Evelyn Escobar, founder of Los Angeles-based Hike Club. Thank you both for joining us.

Thank you for having us. I'm excited to be speaking with you. Yes, thank you so much.

So you've both had pretty momentous 12 months.

Shanika, you stepped back from corporate life and launched your own consulting firm.

And Evelyn, you've added a precious new addition to your family in the form of your daughter.

As you've both hit these major milestones and your lives have inevitably changed, how has

your relationship with wellness evolved?

You know, having that experience of like actually creating life and then birthing said human

and then becoming two, you know what I mean? Everything changes. So of course, my view of

wellness is completely different. I think before, I was so much harder on myself. I didn't give myself much room to just, like, live. You know what I mean? I kind of felt the pressures and the expectations of what society has sort of shaped wellness to look like. And now I strive to live

like a big soft life. So I feel like it's a much more human definition of what wellness is.

And it's also so much nicer, so much kinder. So I like this version of wellness. I like what it means to me now

much more than before. I love that. I did not birth a human, but I did birth a business, as you

mentioned, Meredith. And I think for me, even prior to kind of officiating that transition for myself professionally,

the pandemic, as well as just some intimacy in relationships that I was having with my grandma,

...