Womansplain

by Womansplain

Season 6

Mithu Malik: "He Slept on Top of the Container" (From Importing Ice Cream in Lagos to a Michelin Star in Houston)

Mithu Malik is a trained pharmacist who co-owns Musaafer, the Michelin-starred Indian restaurant in Houston, now with a second location in Tribeca and a speakeasy, SAAQI, downstairs. She and her husband Shammi built the business from an ice cream import route in Lagos, where he slept on top of the shipping container at the port so the power cut wouldn't melt the stock. She talks about the pint of Blue Bunny that took a bullet during the coup in Ivory Coast, the 400-question franchise exam that taught them the restaurant business, opening The Spice Route as the first Indian fine dining room in Lagos, opening Musaafer one month before COVID shut it down and becoming the first Houston restaurant to announce it publicly, the 100-day journey through India that sourced their spices and one recipe from a cab driver's wife, the three-week staff training that covers ancient civilizations through modern Indian politics, and what she tells anyone starting a company, beginning with mopping your own floor. 🎟️ The inaugural Womansplain Summit is October 16 at The Malin Chelsea, NYC, keynoted by Robinhood CIO Stephanie Guild. 120 seats, most already spoken for: luma.com/7bxd1137 💌 The Womansplain Collective+ is open: founder matching, member dinners, and priority Summit access. womansplainpod.com/membership Find Musaafer: musaaferrestaurants.com | @musaafernyc | @musaaferhouston | @saaqinyc Find Womansplain: @womansplainpod | hello@womansplainpod.com | womansplainpod.com/newsletter

S6 · E11

Sep 15, 2026

45:47

"Pain Isn't a Problem to Be Solved" (From Laid Off and Cheated On to Breakup Bootcamp Founder)

Amy Chan got laid off and cheated on in the same stretch, then built the first science-based breakup bootcamp from what she learned crawling out of it. Twenty years a dating columnist and a former CMO of SPIN, she's run Renew Breakup Bootcamp retreats for ten years, landed press from The New York Times and Good Morning America, and gets 80% of her one-on-one clients into relationships within a year. Her new book is Unsingle. We talk about why hiding your success is a bait and switch, preferences vs. deal breakers, the nine-date experiment, love bombing (Amy dated a con artist for three months), the four pillars of lasting love, sunk cost fallacy in relationships, and doing 100% of your 50%. The inaugural Womansplain Summit is October 16 at The Malin Chelsea, NYC, keynoted by Robinhood CIO Stephanie Guild. 120 seats, most already spoken for: luma.com/7bxd1137 The Womansplain Collective+ is open: founder matching, member dinners, and priority Summit access. womansplainpod.com/membership Find Renew Breakup Bootcamp: renewbreakupbootcamp.com | @renewyourheart | @missamychan Find Womansplain: @womansplainpod | hello@womansplainpod.com | womansplainpod.com/newsletter

S6 · E10

Sep 8, 2026

43:41

Robyn Berkley: "The Dumbest Idea I've Ever Heard" (From Fashion PR Burnout to a Bootstrapped Luxury Brand)

Robyn Berkley spent seven years as fashion director at Kelly Cutrone's People's Revolution before her health forced her out: 16 shows in a New York season, midnight most nights, and a body that stopped cooperating. She quit, flew to Bali for yoga teacher training, and came home with a name and no plan. Live the Process is now one of the first luxury activewear brands, made in its own California factory, stocked at Net-a-Porter, Selfridges, Lane Crawford and Le Bon Marché, with collaborations including the David Lynch Foundation, Moon Juice and the Whitney Museum. She has never raised a dollar. We get into the stranger at The Dutch who called her idea the dumbest thing he'd ever heard and then became her co-founder, the two years it took to source a fabric that costs triple, the corset bodysuit that sold out on launch day at Net-a-Porter, why they went all in on DTC after building a global wholesale business, going full time in April 2020 and posting their best month ever, the Whitney x Alvin Ailey shoot on the museum rooftop, and what "our plan is no plan" actually looks like after more than a decade. The inaugural Womansplain Summit is October 16 at The Malin Chelsea, NYC, keynoted by Robinhood CIO Stephanie Guild. 120 seats, most already spoken for: luma.com/7bxd1137 The Womansplain Collective+ is open: founder matching, member dinners, and priority Summit access. womansplainpod.com/membership Find Live the Process: livetheprocess.com | @livetheprocess Find Womansplain: @womansplainpod | hello@womansplainpod.com | womansplainpod.com/newsletter

S6 · E9

Sep 1, 2026

45:52

Ochi Vongerichten: "Finish What You Started" (From Per Se Food Runner to Michelin Guide Restaurateur)

Ochi Latjuba Vongerichten co-owns Wayan and Ma•dé, and Wayan is the only Indonesian restaurant on the Michelin Guide in America. She got there by leaving Jakarta at 18 for the Culinary Institute of America, interning for Daniel Boulud, and working every job at Per Se from food runner to manager, with a mother who catered 3,000-person weddings telling her to finish what she started. In this episode: the call home where she almost quit, opening Wayan in an old Spring Street bread shop with her husband Cedric Vongerichten and partner Ezra J. William, the corn fritters Indonesians say beat Jakarta's, Padang-style dining at Ma•dé, expanding to Aspen, the Hamptons, and Miami, women-owned liquor brands, the fall 2027 cookbook, and her advice for young founders: goal, ambition, consistency, finish what you started. The inaugural Womansplain Summit is October 16 at The Malin Chelsea, NYC, keynoted by Robinhood CIO Stephanie Guild. 120 seats, most already spoken for: luma.com/7bxd1137 The Womansplain Collective+ is open: founder matching, member dinners, and priority Summit access. womansplainpod.com/membership Find Wayan & Ma•dé: wayan-restaurants.com | ma-de-nyc.com | @wayan_nyc | @ma_de.nyc Find Womansplain: @womansplainpod | hello@womansplainpod.com | womansplainpod.com/newsletter

S6 · E8

Aug 25, 2026

30:19

Barbora Samieian: "It's Gonna Get Harder Before It Gets Easier" (From Salad Shop Survival Mode to Cult Furniture Brand)

Barbora Samieian went from nonprofit fundraiser to co-founder of Sundays, the award-winning furniture brand she launched with her husband, his sister, and a 20-year friend, three months before the pandemic. She also co-founded Vancouver salad chain Field & Social and Sundays' sister brand Hetta, all while raising four kids. We cover the chef who quit mid-shift days after she took over her first business, the shuttered restaurant that became the first Sundays showroom, why free delivery and assembly lowered their returns, keeping the collection small when more SKUs mean more revenue, and the immigrant parents who shaped her appetite for risk. The inaugural Womansplain Summit is October 16 at The Malin Chelsea, NYC, keynoted by Robinhood CIO Stephanie Guild. 120 seats, most already spoken for: luma.com/7bxd1137 The Womansplain Collective+ is open: founder matching, member dinners, and priority Summit access. womansplainpod.com/membership Find Sundays: sundays-company.com | @sundaysfurniture Find Hetta: hetta.com | @hettahome Find Womansplain: @womansplainpod | hello@womansplainpod.com | womansplainpod.com/newsletter

S6 · E7

Aug 18, 2026

37:21

Laura Rubin: "I Was Early, But It Wasn't Wrong" (From Corporate Refugee to Simon & Schuster Author)

Laura Rubin spent 15+ years running a marketing boutique after leaving a top job at USA Networks, then shut it all down to bet on AllSwell Creative and a belief that journaling had a PR problem. Today she's a Simon & Schuster author (The Big Unlock), a New York Times feature subject, and has led hundreds of science-backed workshops at Adobe, Goop, Google, and the CAA (Creative Artists Agency). We cover the day she cried at her desk over a "dream" promotion, why she gave her agency away instead of selling it, the 4x4x4 method for reluctant journalers, the UCLA research on men and journaling, when journaling can do harm, and the creative block that hit her the moment the book deal was real. The inaugural Womansplain Summit is October 16 at The Malin Chelsea, NYC, keynoted by Robinhood CIO Stephanie Guild. 120 seats, most already spoken for: luma.com/7bxd1137 The Womansplain Collective+ is open: founder matching, member dinners, and priority Summit access. womansplainpod.com/membership Find AllSwell: allswellcreative.com | @allswellcreative | @lauralrubin Find Womansplain: @womansplainpod | hello@womansplainpod.com | womansplainpod.com/newsletter

S6 · E6

Aug 11, 2026

51:46

Odellia Etaat: "Just Show Up and Make It Good" (From Financial Planning to Booked-Out Private Chef)

Odellia Etaat left three years in corporate financial planning to launch Mize Dining, the luxury private dining brand that made her the chef New York's most discerning hosts call first, from Manhattan to the Hamptons. It started with her sister's birthday brunch: the group skipped hiring a private chef because "Odellia cooks," and she woke the next morning to a hundred screenshots of her food by 8am. Weeks after quitting, a stranger's phone call handed her a 60-person investor dinner for The Coconut Cult with one week's notice; her aunt and sister were the staff. We cover the month she tested 10-course menus on her family, her quit-or-go-back deadline, the overbooked stretch of four dinners a week on two hours of sleep, building a team of sous chefs and servers, four pounds of caviar, why no client has ever gotten a repeat menu, and her advice for leaving a stable job for the thing you'd stay up all night thinking about. The inaugural Womansplain Summit is October 16 at The Malin Chelsea, NYC, keynoted by Robinhood CIO Stephanie Guild. 120 seats, most already spoken for: luma.com/7bxd1137 The Womansplain Collective+ is open: founder matching, member dinners, and priority Summit access. womansplainpod.com/membership Find Mize Dining: mizedining.com | IG @mizedining | TikTok @mizedining Find Womansplain: IG @womansplainpod | hello@womansplainpod.com | womansplainpod.com/newsletter

S6 · E5

Aug 4, 2026

40:28

Madeleine Cohen: Her Sister Said "You're Not Doing Anything Else" (From 30 Ill-Fitting Jeans to a $1M Petite Denim Brand)

Madeleine Cohen built her career inside the hottest consumer brands of the DTC era (Estée Lauder, Casper, Bala), then got laid off from her dream job and found her next company in her own closet: 30 pairs of jeans, none that fit her 5'1" frame. Today Nelle Atelier is a premium petite denim brand for women 5'4" and under, made in LA from Italian denim, past $1M in revenue and sold on Nordstrom.com. 🎁 A gift from us + Nelle Atelier: use code WOMANSPLAIN at nelleatelier.com for 15% off orders of $200+. We get into the 500,000-person Reddit thread that validated the idea, launching in 11 months, the factory that tried to rip her off, why rise and knee placement can't be tailored in, and building a profitable-minded brand on $290K while her old employers raised millions. 🎟️ The inaugural Womansplain Summit is October 16 at The Malin Chelsea, NYC, keynoted by Robinhood CIO Stephanie Guild. 120 seats, most already spoken for: luma.com/7bxd1137 💌 The Womansplain Collective+ is open: founder matching, member dinners, and priority Summit access. womansplainpod.com/membership Find Nelle Atelier: nelleatelier.com | @nelleatelier Find Womansplain: @womansplainpod | hello@womansplainpod.com | womansplainpod.com/newsletter

S6 · E4

Jul 28, 2026

44:07

Pamela Anderson Asked "Why Isn't Kailey CEO?" | Kailey Bradt, Sonsie Skin

🎁 A gift from us + Sonsie: use code WOMANSPLAIN15 at sonsieskin.com for 15% off. Valid on individual SKUs, one per customer, through 7/31/26. Kailey Bradt was 16 years old, running around her high school telling anyone who'd listen that she was going to start a sustainable beauty brand. So she studied chemical engineering to earn the right to do it. Her first company, Susteau, took a waterless formula from her bedroom floor to Sephora shelves after she discovered that liquid shampoo is 80% water on average (some conditioners hit 94%), and she decided she was done packaging and shipping water. Now she's CEO of Sonsie, Pamela Anderson's skincare brand, leading what she calls clean beauty 2.0. In this episode, Kailey gets into what it takes to formulate for truly sensitive skin, how the team scented the cleanser with rose from Pamela's own garden without ever putting fragrance on the label, and why the hero Adapt Cream is designed to be the product you come home to. She also talks about why clean beauty 1.0 left everyone exhausted, what transparency actually looks like when you show the lab instead of the ad, being perpetually underestimated as a young female CEO (and over-delivering every time), and the mindset that got her here: never give yourself a plan B. 🎟️ The inaugural Womansplain Summit is October 16 at The Malin Chelsea, NYC, keynoted by Robinhood CIO Stephanie Guild. 120 seats, most already spoken for: luma.com/7bxd1137 💌 The Womansplain Collective+ is open: founder matching, member dinners, and priority Summit access. womansplainpod.com/membership Find Sonsie: 🔗 sonsieskin.com 📲 @sonsieskin 🎵 @sonsie Find Womansplain: 📲 @womansplainpod ✉️ hello@womansplainpod.com 📰 womansplainpod.com/newsletter

S6 · E3

Jul 21, 2026

44:02

She Ran Barefoot Through Penn Station, Then Built the Fix | Sandra Powers Murphy

🎁 A gift from us + Scarlett Chase: Use code WOMANSPLAIN10 at checkout on scarlettchase.com for 10% off, valid through the end of August. Sandra Powers Murphy spent decades at the top of institutional finance: an early career at State Street, her own broker dealer, a book (The Road to AUM), and six kids at home. Then one rainy day in New York, ten blocks from Penn Station with no cab in sight, she took off her heels and ran barefoot for the train. On board, feet aching, she called her assistant and said the thing every founder eventually says: someone should fix this. So she did. In this episode, Sandra gets into the five years of R&D behind a single black pump, why her patented removable insoles are handcrafted in Spain by the same hands that make custom orthotics, and what it took to convince third generation Italian artisans (in factories shared with Jimmy Choo and Prada) to build performance tech into a luxury shoe. She also tells the story of firing her factory mid production run, the boots so stretchy women cry trying them on, and why the brand is named for her youngest daughter Scarlett, a type 1 diabetes warrior, and her grandmother Chase. If you've ever kept a backup pair of flats in your tote, changed shoes three times in one workday, or wondered why beautiful and comfortable still feel like a choice, this one's for you. 🎟️ The inaugural Womansplain Summit is October 16 at The Malin Chelsea, NYC, keynoted by Robinhood CIO Stephanie Guild. 120 seats, most already spoken for: luma.com/7bxd1137 💌 The Womansplain Collective+ is open: founder matching, member dinners, and priority Summit access. womansplainpod.com/membership Find Scarlett Chase: 🔗 scarlettchase.com 📲 @scarlettchase.co Find Womansplain: 📲 @womansplainpod ✉️ hello@womansplainpod.com 📰 womansplainpod.com/newsletter

S6 · E2

Jul 14, 2026

41:46

1 of 7