Best Melia Dicker Podcasts (2025)

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Ep. 90: How Do We Cope When It's All Just Too Much? 46:49

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6M ago46:49

46:49

We’re back from a hiatus, during which a lot has happened on every level of our lives: individually, in our communities, and in the world. In this episode, we’re discussing a question that comes up all the time these days: How do we cope when it’s all just too much? We’ll share how we’ve been managing through overwhelm with the challenges that keep…

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Ep. 89: Creative Living with ADHD, with Ellen Langford 1:00:14

11M ago1:00:14

1:00:14

For ADHD Awareness Month, we talk with painter Ellen Langford about her ADHD journey and how it intertwines with her creative life. Ellen shares the gifts and challenges of neurodivergence as an artist and small business owner, and the strategies that help her thrive. Ellen Langford is a painter whose body of work is inspired by landscapes, chance …

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Ep. 88: Zoning Your Time to Reflect Your Priorities 48:50

1y ago48:50

48:50

There’s rarely enough time in the day to do everything we want to. So how do we zone our time to reflect our priorities? We discuss strategies to sort out what we actually value, as well as experiments to build our schedules around these values. Resources: Big Rocks & Little Rocks priority setting (Stephen Covey video) Previous episodes: Ep. 86: Wh…

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Ep. 87: What It's Like to Have a Bonus Family, with our brother, Jeff Hamilton 1:15:44

1y ago1:15:44

1:15:44

We're back after a bit of a hiatus! We talk with Jeff Hamilton, our older biological half-brother, collectively telling the story of how we met as adults and became a big bonus family. This is the first time the three of us have talked about what this life-changing experience was like for each of us. Jeff grew up in Livermore, California and lives …

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Ep. 86: What Makes You Feel Alive? 33:44

1+ y ago33:44

33:44

We discuss the question: What makes you feel alive? It’s been on our minds during this mid-winter period, when we often get the blahs or the blues. We talk about what energizes, fuels us, or puts us in a flow state – and how we make time for it. We also share four strategies you can use to figure out what makes you feel most alive. -- Find us on th…

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Ep. 85: How Do We Navigate Difficult Anniversaries? with Tara Blumenthal 1:21:03

1+ y ago1:21:03

1:21:03

In this episode, we discuss how to acknowledge (vs "celebrate") emotionally complex anniversaries of life-altering challenges, like serious illness or loss. How do we process these events? What kinds of rituals help us through the peaks and valleys that accompany them? We talk with Tara Blumenthal, owner of Tara Yoga Movement and Wellness Clinic, a…

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Ep. 84: Celebrating Wins and Setting Intentions for the New Year 42:07

1+ y ago42:07

42:07

Happy New Year! To celebrate last year's wins and set intentions for this year, we each share three "Got It Together"s from 2023 and three "Get It Together"s for 2024. That is, three areas where we've made meaningful strides, and three areas where we would most like to progress. Get It Together, Got It Together, is a segment we do in most episodes,…

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Ep. 83: Handling the Holidays with Limited Capacity 35:11

2y ago35:11

35:11

The holiday season is beginning ... and it's a lot! We talk about how we’re approaching the season when our bandwidth is limited and our plates are full: gauging capacity, setting intentions, and communicating boundaries.

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Ep. 82: Right-Sizing Our Thrills and Chills 41:48

2y ago41:48

41:48

It’s spooky season, and we’re talking about how to find our just-right amount of thrills and chills -- what feels fun or engaging for each of us (eustress), and what’s too much (distress). The amount of challenge that we desire in each arena of life can differ quite a bit, depending on our individual nervous system and season of life. What’s brave …

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Ep. 81: What Makes a Good Life? 1:02:17

2y ago1:02:17

1:02:17

Most of us aspire to live a good life. We may assume we know what that looks like, without asking what a good life looks like for us -- which may diverge quite a bit from cultural ideals. In this episode, we share research findings on the essential elements of general well-being and discuss how our own ideas of a good life have changed over time. L…

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Ep. 80: Finding Everyday Awe 53:09

2y ago53:09

53:09

There's a simple action you can take to lower anxiety and stress, calm your nervous system, and increase your feeling of connection with others and the world around you. It's free, straightforward, and takes only a couple of minutes to feel the benefits. That practice is finding everyday awe. In this episode, we share the eight wonders of life from…

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Ep. 79: Giving Yourself Real Rest 38:32

2+ y ago38:32

38:32

What feels restful to you? Some of us are so accustomed to doing and striving that we’re not quite sure anymore. Still, our minds and bodies need real rest to function, especially when we’re under stress. Coming off a restful week together in Spain, we discuss how to identify what renews your energy and carve out time for it. ----- Find us on the w…

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Ep. 78: Spring Cleaning for Our Spaces and Minds 56:46

2+ y ago56:46

56:46

Spring cleaning has a number of mental health benefits. It gives you a sense of control over your environment that can help you manage stress and anxiety in your daily life. And making your space more open and tidy is both calming and energizing. We share 5 guiding questions, with examples from our lives, to help you figure out: which types of spri…

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Ep. 77: Small Steps to Break Through Overwhelm 55:37

2+ y ago55:37

55:37

As humans trying to keep up with the lightning-fast pace of the modern world, many of us often feel overwhelmed. It may be in a certain area of life -- like health, work, family, or current events -- and commonly, it’s all of the above all at once. In this episode, we share what overwhelm is and how to take small steps to break through it, includin…

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Ep. 76: What's Your Love Language? with The Dudes 56:12

2+ y ago56:12

56:12

We bring in our husbands, Brian and Darren (a.k.a. The Dudes) to discuss our love languages and how they show up in our relationships. Gary Chapman published the book “The 5 Love Languages” over 30 years ago. Since then, the concept of “love languages” have become an enduring part of our pop culture lexicon, beyond the original five from the book. …

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Ep. 75: Finding Meaning in Adversity 50:46

2+ y ago50:46

50:46

It feels important right now to figure out how to navigate the major stressors in our lives and move forward even when we’re struggling. Some of the people close to us are going through hard times right now, like infertility, serious illness, and loss of a loved one. It makes sense that as we get older, the more illness and loss we experience, but …

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Ep. 74: So This Is the New Year 41:09

2+ y ago41:09

41:09

We’ve always been amused by the holiday song that begins, “So this is Christmas,” because of its ambivalent vibe, like, “Welp, I guess this is happening.” But this opening line actually captures how we feel about the start of 2023.. In this episode, we talk about framing our intentions for the new year at a time when we’re both dealing with some bi…

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Ep. 73: It's Your F'ing Holiday 43:34

3y ago43:34

43:34

The holidays can be A LOT, especially when we’ve been in survival mode -- as many of us have been since the pandemic started. This has been a challenging year for us: Gill has been managing her cancer diagnosis and treatment, while Melia has been building her coaching business and moving to New York with her family. There’s a lot of cultural pressu…

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Ep. 72: The Bittersweetness of Transitions 50:37

3y ago50:37

50:37

A lot of us are going through major transitions right now: moving to new locations, changing jobs or relationship status, having kids, or going through losses or health challenges. Many of us are shifting into a new phase in our lives or re-evaluating our priorities due to the pandemic. The bittersweet nature of many of these transitions has been o…

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Ep. 71: How to Feel the Feels, and Why It Matters 1:01:30

3y ago1:01:30

1:01:30

Our upbringing, culture, and traumatic experiences can disconnect us from our emotions and intuition. Many of us get stuck in our minds and stop noticing the pain or discomfort in our bodies, so we miss signals that are crucial to our well-being. In this episode, we discuss why feeling your emotions matters and how to do it. We share practices that…

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Ep. 70: Dealing with Disappointment 40:59

3y ago40:59

40:59

Wellllll 🤬🤬🤬 Sometimes things don’t go as planned. You realize that a situation is out of your control, there’s nothing you can do about it, and it just plain sucks. This episode is unfortunately inspired by recent real-life events. We were supposed to meet in D.C. this month for some much-needed sister time, but the universe/ pandemic had other pl…

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Ep. 69: Get Out of Your Own Way by Knowing Your Enneagram Type, with Alicia Ross 1:49:46

3+ y ago1:49:46

1:49:46

If you’ve heard us refer to our Enneagram types in previous episodes (Melia is a 1, Gill is a 7) and wondered what the heck we were talking about, or if you are familiar with the Enneagram framework and want to learn more, this episode is for you! We talk to our dear friend Alicia Ross, a certified Enneagram coach who is starting a new Enneagram tr…

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Ep. 68: How to Set Internal Boundaries 53:57

3+ y ago53:57

53:57

When we think about setting boundaries, many of us focus on external boundaries: the limits we set with other people around our time, physical space, privacy, etc. But internal boundaries – those we need to protect our inner worlds from outside influences – are just as important, and often more difficult to set and hold. In this episode, we discuss…

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Ep. 67: Expanding the F**k It List 1:07:22

3+ y ago1:07:22

1:07:22

Heads up that this episode contains swearing. Let’s revisit The F**k It List! We recorded an episode on this topic back in February 2021, a year into the pandemic, when we were reevaluating our priorities and deciding how we want to spend our precious time and energy going forward. Making a F**k It List is a fun and liberating exercise. Think of it…

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Ep. 66: Poetry That Helps Us Feel It All 50:18

3+ y ago50:18

50:18

As National Poetry Month begins, we discuss the power of poetry to express emotion, read some of our favorite poems, and share what they mean to us. Become a patron of the podcast on Patreon (linked below) and read a couple of poems we’ve written that are close to our hearts. Gill gives a health update and thanks our people for all of their loving …

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Ep. 65: How to Show Up for People in Tough Times 1:06:45

3+ y ago1:06:45

1:06:45

Heads up that we talk about some serious personal health issues in this episode with a good bit of emotion and swearing. If any of this is too much for you right now, feel free to skip this episode, read the summary in the forthcoming show notes or come back to it later. In this episode, we discuss how to show up for people in tough times, such as …

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Ep. 64: Building Joy & Meaning Into Every Day 57:35

3+ y ago57:35

57:35

We imagine that we’re not the only ones going through intense ups and downs right now, with the ongoing pandemic and winter weather. We’ve really been feeling the need to have things to look forward to, as well as everyday highlights we can count on, so in this episode we talk about Building Joy & Meaning into Every Day. We share the activities tha…

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Ep. 63: Relationship Insights from These Pandemic Times, with The Dudes 1:01:52

3+ y ago1:01:52

1:01:52

It’s been a wild ride during pandemic times, with many opportunities (welcome or not!) for us to practice the strategies we talk about on this podcast. Managing relationships in a new way -- with coworkers or friends, your family of origin or chosen family -- has been important but often challenging, especially when quarantining together at length.…

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Ep. 62: Start the New Year with a Vision 49:04

3+ y ago49:04

49:04

Happy New Year! We recorded this episode on the last day of 2021 (together in person, yay!!). Our topic is Start the New Year with a Vision – which is especially timely as we’re ringing in 2022, but you can do this any time you want to reflect on and reset your goals and intentions. In this episode, we: Share a 2021 Get It Together / Got It Togethe…

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Ep 61: Make a Holiday List, and Shorten It Twice 43:11

4y ago43:11

43:11

As the busyness of the holiday season ramps up, we're feeling the need to simplify our tasks. We’ll talk about how we’re doing with the holiday hustle, then share tips for shrinking your list down to the things that really matter to you. By letting the rest go, you’ll feel calmer and have more quality time with your loved ones. Find us on the web f…

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Ep. 60: Happiness in the Here and Now: Our BFF Katie, a Therapist, Shares Her Secrets 1:15:14

4y ago1:15:14

1:15:14

Today’s episode is a little different. We often mention our dear friend Katie, who has transformed herself over the years from a melancholy teenager into a contented adult. After healing past traumas and learning to practice radical acceptance through years of therapy, she became a therapist herself. Now she helps her clients make the same kinds of…

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Ep. 59: Perfectionism: How We’ve Evolved and Where We’re Still Growing 1:02:09

4y ago1:02:09

1:02:09

Perfectionism is a recurring theme of Semi-Together – and the root of many of the things we struggle with, as we learn to show up authentically and treat ourselves with compassion. We went back and listened to Episode 25: Perfectionism & Self-Compassion, which we released almost exactly two years ago, to see where we’ve evolved and where we’re stil…

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Ep. 58: Dealing with What Scares You 55:32

4y ago55:32

55:32

Buckle up: it’s Halloween season, and we’re talking about fear! Fear is a primitive emotion that evolved to protect us from real threats, but it can also hold us back from taking risks that would likely benefit us. We discuss: How fear affects our brains and bodies – keeping us safe from short-term threats but causing harm in an ongoing state What …

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Ep. 57: ADHD and Creativity, Parenting, and Identity, with Ginger Williams Cook 1:24:29

4y ago1:24:29

1:24:29

October is ADHD Awareness Month.Even if ADHD is not a part of your life, as far as you know, we hope you listen – because it’s likely that you know someone or are someone with undiagnosed ADHD whose life could change with treatment. And if you don’t have ADHD but struggle with some of the symptoms, like distractibility and procrastination, you’ll l…

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Ep. 56: Making Time for Play 54:33

4y ago54:33

54:33

Our topic in this episode is a fun one: making time for more play! We know how important play is for kids. But when we grow up, we somehow start thinking about play as optional or frivolous or childish. Spoiler alert: it’s none of those things and is actually fundamental to our health and well being! We share: - The science behind the importance of…

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Ep. 55: Re-Entering Our Cocoons 59:24

4y ago59:24

59:24

We are so happy to be back with a new season after our summer break. We missed you, and the opportunity to talk things through with each other. Our last minisode at the end of May was called Emerging from Our Cocoons. Welp! How innocent we were. Now we’re halfway back in our cocoons, trying to navigate this weird in-between period. We check in on w…

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Minisode: Emerging from Our Cocoons 32:56

4+ y ago32:56

32:56

As we re-enter the world and find our new normal, we want to be intentional about what we’re putting back into our lives and what we’re leaving behind. We revisit our minisode from April 2020, “What Do We Carry Forward?” to see what still resonates. Melia geeks out over the process of metamorphosis, which her daughter’s preschool class has been obs…

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Minisode: Close Calls as Wake-Up Calls 35:07

4+ y ago35:07

35:07

We both share how we’re feeling after speaking so honestly about our mental health journeys in Ep. 54: Let’s Talk About Mental health. We get emotional as we each recount a terrifying close call that made us grateful to be alive, a wake-up call to remember in tough times. Melia sets the record straight in a For the Record segment, on topics like me…

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Ep. 54: Let's Talk About Mental Health 1:21:29

4+ y ago1:21:29

1:21:29

We talk about mental health – ours, yours, and everyone’s – and why it’s so critical to normalize talking about it. We share our own personal experiences, terms to use and avoid, strategies to care for your mental health, and tips for supporting others. Note: We get into some serious topics including suicide and use adult language, so you may want …

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Ep. 53: How We've Evolved During the Pandemic 45:38

4+ y ago45:38

45:38

As we reach the anniversary of pandemic quarantine, we talk about the ways we have evolved during the past year -- not necessarily in ways that we expected or asked for, but have experienced nonetheless. This is NOT a list of achievements; it's about recognizing the fundamental ways we’ve grown during the toughest year of our lives to date. We enco…

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Ep. 52: How Nostalgia Helps Us Cope with Stress 42:40

4+ y ago42:40

42:40

Nostalgia is powerful – and it turns out, experiencing it regularly can boost our mental health, especially during difficult times. In this episode, we share: Our own experiences with leaning into nostalgia this past year (hello, ‘90s jams, TV show revivals, and fave childhood books!) Research about nostalgia’s many benefits – like counteracting lo…

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Ep. 51: Top 10 Takeaways from Our First 50 Episodes 45:08

4+ y ago45:08

45:08

We look back on the concepts, tips, and takeaways from our first 50 episodes, choosing 10 that have changed us the most and inspired the most listener response: Concept: Get It Together/ Got It Together (a segment in nearly every episode) Minisode: Practice the Pause Episode 13: Stop Shoulding Episode 10: Making Your Dreams Real, with Kristen Ley (…

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Ep. 50: The F**k It List 52:10

4+ y ago52:10

52:10

Join us in a fun and liberating exercise: The F**k It List. Think of it as the anti-Bucket List. Instead of “Things to do before you die,” it’s “Things to stop doing so you can fully live.” It’s a list of things that don’t bring you closer to the life you want, and therefore bring you farther away from it. The F**k It List can include big or small …

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Ep. 49: What Are Your Silent Shoulds? 45:57

4+ y ago45:57

45:57

Back in Ep. 13, Stop Shoulding, we discussed why “should” is a word rooted in expectation, obligation, and criticism. Since then, we’ve mostly eliminated it from our vocabulary, which has felt liberating and has significantly boosted our happiness. Even so, there are still plenty of silent shoulds lurking in our thoughts. Though we may not even be …

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Ep. 48: Are You a Scanner or a Diver? 28:48

4+ y ago28:48

28:48

Do you ever feel anxious about not knowing what your calling is, because you’re interested in so many things? Well, you may be a Scanner, and the good news is that you don’t have to limit yourself to just one thing. When Melia talked in In Ep. 47 about identifying her core purpose, Gill shared some anxiety about still figuring hers out. Soon after …

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Ep. 47: Goodbye 2020, Hello 2021! 1:03:57

4+ y ago1:03:57

1:03:57

Happy New Year! It’s FINALLY 2021. Melia and Gill talk about what they’re taking forward with them from last year, and what they’re happy to leave behind. They check in on how their 2020 goals ended up going in spite of it all, share how they’re paring down their goals for the new year, and offer a few tips to help you think about your own goals. B…

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Ep. 46: All Vibes Welcome for the Holidays 42:36

5y ago42:36

42:36

It’s going to be a different kind of holiday season this year, and it’s important to acknowledge and accept the range of emotions we’re feeling. "Good vibes only" isn't realistic or helpful. We are human, and living through very challenging times. Even in normal years, the holidays can be tough or emotional for a lot of reasons, and the expectation…

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Ep. 45: Building Atomic Habits, with Brown Girls Read 58:43

5y ago58:43

58:43

Melia and Gill interview Daman Tiwana and Khyati Thakur, hosts of the excellent podcast Brown Girls Read. They chat about books, cocktails, and cultural differences – plus the habit-changing strategies that have helped them the most after reading the book Atomic Habits by James Clear. Daman and Khyati met for the first time at a women’s book club m…

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Ep. 44: Pressing the Reset Button 39:08

5y ago39:08

39:08

We’ve all been through a lot in 2020, and the weeks leading up to the presidential election were especially stressful and emotional. It’s time to press the reset button to renew our energy and hope. Melia and Gill recorded this episode two days after Joe Biden and Kamala Harris were announced as the next president and vice president of the United S…

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Ep. 43: Thriving with ADHD, with Dr. Michelle Frank 1:17:18

5y ago1:17:18

1:17:18

October is ADHD Awareness Month, and Melia has some surprising news to share: she was recently diagnosed with ADHD, at age 40. 😲 ADHD is often missed in girls and women – and a big misconception is that it’s limited to physically hyperactive boys. In this episode: Melia talks about her experience, the grief and relief she feels with her diagnosis, …