Rooted Exchange
Rooted Exchange is a reflective storytelling podcast for women navigating identity, motherhood, partnership, ambition, healing, and the quiet inner work of becoming. Hosted by communications strategist and mother Rachael Adair, the show creates space for the conversations many women carry privately — the ones that live beneath the roles, expectations, and mental load of everyday life.
Each episode invites listeners into honest, living-room-style dialogue with women, practitioners, and thoughtful advocates who are exploring what it means to live awake in their bodies, relationships, and choices. Through intimate interviews and solo reflections, Rooted Exchange examines topics like reparenting ourselves while raising children, embodiment and mental health, body autonomy, grief and transition, career shifts, partnership, and the invisible labor women perform every day.
This is not a podcast about fixing yourself. It’s a place to name what feels heavy, to set down what you’ve been carrying, and to remember that you are not alone.
Rooted Exchange is rooted in the belief that healing and clarity grow through shared language and mutual care, that when women speak honestly, something opens. Listeners are invited not just to consume stories, but to participate in a growing community grounded in reflection, compassion, and collective support.
Whether you’re in a season of transition, questioning who you’re becoming, or simply craving deeper conversation, Rooted Exchange offers a steady place to pause, listen, and return to yourself.
Rooted Exchange
The Invisible Load: Why Motherhood Feels Like "Eating Soup with a Fork"
So much of motherhood isn’t loud.
It doesn’t show up on to-do lists.
And it rarely gets named out loud.
In this episode of Rooted Exchange, Rachael sits down with Whitney Mayer for a candid, lived-experience conversation about the invisible load — the constant mental tracking, anticipating, remembering, and emotional labor that so many women carry quietly every day.
Together, they unpack how the invisible load shows up in real life: in grocery lists and appointment scheduling, in solo parenting and uneven rhythms, in identity shifts, guilt, and the pressure to “do it all” without dropping the ball.
This isn’t a conversation about blame or fixing partners. It’s about naming the work, understanding its weight, and offering ourselves more grace in the middle of it. In this episode, we explore:
- What the “invisible load” actually looks like day to day
- How motherhood reshapes identity — often quietly and unevenly
- The difference between being productive and feeling productive
- The double bind of stay-at-home vs. working motherhood
- Why comparison and perfectionism make the load heavier
- Letting go of control, lowering expectations, and choosing presence
- Why exhaustion isn’t always something sleep can fix
This conversation is for the mom who feels tired in a way that’s hard to explain. For the one carrying the household in her head. For anyone who has ever thought, “Why does this feel so heavy?”
You’re not imagining it. And you’re not alone.
If any part of this resonated with you, come be part of the community. Follow + Subscribe so you don’t miss the next Rooted Exchange.
🎧 Listen + subscribe: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/rooted-exchange/id1865243283 | 📺 YouTube:http://www.youtube.com/@RootedExchange | 📲 Instagram: @Rooted_Exchange