I sat down with my friend Chris Woodruff (“Woody” if you know my husband), Tennessee’s men’s tennis coach, former top U.S. junior, and a guy who went pro, lived out of dark hotel rooms in places you can’t pronounce, and clawed his way up the rankings the hard way.

We talk about what childhood looked like before screens and everything being scheduled out for kids. Chris breaks down why playing one sport too early can backfire, why the youth tournament hamster wheel messes with kids’ heads, and what he thinks actually builds durable confidence.

Then we get into the pro years: starting from zero with no ranking, the brutal loneliness of tennis, why “success” doesn’t feel like success when you’ve got 24 hours to do it again, and what it’s like to represent your country when your stomach is in your throat.

And then we ran out of time... so yes, he’s coming back for Part 2. And we’re picking up right where we left off: injuries, comeback, the mental health side of being “the athlete,” and what happens when the whole thing ends and real life starts.

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This week I’m sitting down with one of my oldest friends, Zach Ivey, and we’re talking about hunting. Not as a hobby, but as a way of raising boys who can face real life without flinching.

I didn’t grow up around hunters and honestly, I didn’t “get it.” For a long time I resented what hunting took away from families, but now that I have sons, my perspective has shifted. A lot.

We talk about what ethical hunting actually looks like (and what unethical hunting looks like), why hunters fund conservation in ways most people don’t realize, and why wild turkeys literally wouldn’t exist today without hunters. We get into population control, respect for animals, what a “clean kill” really means, and why disassociating from death doesn’t make us more compassionate — it just makes us more comfortable.

But the core of this conversation is this:

• I want my sons to learn how to handle power without becoming cruel
• I want them to learn patience, discipline, respect for life, and responsibility for their actions.
• I think hunting (when done right) teaches those things in a way very few modern experiences do.

If you’ve ever judged hunters, felt judged for hunting, or you’re raising boys and wondering how to teach them masculinity without turning it into something hollow or destructive, this episode will probably mess with your assumptions (in a good way).

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Today, I’m sharing my response to an email I received from a mom named Rachel who is working from home with little kids, about to have another baby, and quietly drowning. Her message took me straight back to a season I don’t love remembering, when I was constantly exhausted, burnt out, feeling like I was failing as a mom, a wife, and a human.

We talk about the story our culture and universities sell young women about careers, “having it all,” and waiting to build a family, and why I don’t think we’re being honest about the tradeoffs. So I decided to share what I wish someone had told me at 18 and what I’m trying to model for my daughter, my sons, and even the college girls who babysit for us.

And then I take a pretty big pivot into something I cannot shake from my mind.

I have hit a breaking point politically. I voted for Donald Trump three times and have defended him. But the Epstein files, the protection of powerful people, and the way both parties seem willing to look the other way when kids are involved has pushed me to a place I didn’t expect to land. This isn’t about party loyalty for me anymore, it’s about children. And as a mom, I’m struggling to reconcile that with how our country is actually being run.

I don't have all of the answers, but I'm working through the questions out loud. From family, cultural lies, responsibility, and what I want the next generation of girls (and boys) to know before they end up in the same traps we did.

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What if the biggest lie women are sold isn’t “have it all”…but “you can have it all at the same time”?

This week on Being Different, I sit down with Kate Zepernick — Georgia Tech grad, former consultant, high-achiever, and now mom — to talk about the stuff ambitious women are usually too polite (or too scared) to say out loud.

Kate’s lived the whole arc: the full-time grind, the “part-time” job that wasn’t actually part-time, the strategic career pivots, and eventually the decision to step away without losing herself in the process.

We get into:
- Why one kid is hard, but two kids changes everything
- Why daycare and childcare conversations make people weirdly defensive
- Why high-achieving women wait for permission to choose their families
- What it actually feels like to lose the praise and identity that come with work
- The gray, underused middle ground between full-time careers and staying home
- And the uncomfortable truth that a lot of families don’t really have the choices we pretend they do

This episode is for the woman who’s tired, conflicted, and quietly resentful of her job… but also terrified of who she’ll be without it.

If this conversation makes you feel seen and a little called out, good. That usually means you’re finally being honest with yourself.

Hear more from Kate on her podcast, The Momentum Show for Moms in Leadership and connect with her on Instagram @momentum.by.kate

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This week's solo episode is sort of a follow-up to what I talked about last week about the show Landman. I wanted to spend more time on the character Rebecca, because she represents the version of woman I spent years trying to become. High-powered, serious, competitive, in control. The kind of woman we’re told to admire if we want to be respected. What I didn’t see at the time was how much of that mindset I was bringing home with me, and how destructive it was to my marriage and my family.

I talk about how being trained to compete like a man at work changed the way I related to my husband, how I turned into a control freak, and how I couldn’t turn that off once I became a mom. I wanted to believe I could just set boundaries but my work consistently came before my kids even though I hated that about myself. None of this is about saying women shouldn’t work or that ambition is bad, it’s about being honest with the reality of certain careers and personalities, and how pretending they don’t follow you home is a lie I believed for a long time.

In the second half of the episode, I talk about the Epstein files, the work my friends Nick Bryant and Alicia Owen are doing with Epstein Justice, and what it’s been like to come to terms with how abuse, trafficking, and blackmail actually operate in the real world. Not in a sensational way, but in quiet, protected systems that don’t seem to face consequences. I’m honest about how much anger and disillusionment that brought up for me, especially when it comes to politics, power, and the people we’re taught to trust.

This episode is me saying out loud what I wish I had understood earlier about success, power, family, and the trade-offs no one wants to talk about.

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This week on Being Different, it’s just me and a TV show I didn’t expect to mess with my head the way it did.

My husband and I started watching Landman, and I found myself annoyed, intrigued, defensive, and—eventually—forced to look at myself. The way women are portrayed. The roles men and women fall into. The things we’re allowed to say out loud… and the things we’re definitely not.

I talk through what the show made me question about femininity, marriage, effort, and something I’ve been pushed on for years but resisted until recently: tone. Not changing what I say, but how I say it, especially at home.

There’s also a controversial college dorm storyline that hit on exactly where I think our culture is breaking down, and one moment in particular that surprised me in the best way.

I don’t agree with everything the show is saying. But I do think it’s asking questions we’ve stopped letting ourselves ask. And this episode is me thinking through those questions in real time.

If you’re left, right, feminist, not feminist, or just exhausted by the noise—this one’s probably going to hit a nerve.

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Something about the way we do school for children just isn’t working, so it's time to talk about it. This week, I sit down with Dr. Jack Talmadge, Head of School at Episcopal School of Knoxville, to talk candidly about education, play, and why so many kids struggle in environments that demand stillness, compliance, and constant performance.

We talk about play-based and place-based learning, why movement actually helps kids focus, and how “sit still and listen” somehow became synonymous with being a good student. Jack shares his own experience growing up in a high-pressure academic environment, how an undiagnosed learning difference nearly crushed his confidence, and how one teacher changed everything.

We also tackle:

• Why play is dismissed as fluff instead of recognized as foundational
• How quickly kids get labeled when the environment doesn’t fit them
• The quiet damage of standardized testing—for kids and teachers
• Why college has become the default, even when it clearly shouldn’t be
• And what happens when we value relationships more than rigid systems

This isn’t about tearing education down or blaming teachers. It’s about being honest enough to admit that the system wasn’t built for every kid, and maybe it’s time we stopped acting like the kids are the problem.

If you’ve got a story about education, or strong feelings about this conversation, message me on Instagram @beingdifferentwithlizdurham. I want to hear from you!

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Lately, I’ve been thinking about peace and realizing how terrible I am at it.

Christmas is supposed to be joyful, but I’m stressed out, overwhelmed, and turning into a version of myself I don’t even like. We’re obsessed with being busy and perfect, and it’s messing everything up.

I caught myself being completely un-peaceful more times than I want to admit and had to call my own bullshit on it. So sorry, this episode isn’t some feel-good pep talk. It’s me being real about where I’m at, what I’m trying to unlearn, and why I’m done with chaos in 2026.

That’s all.
Merry Christmas!

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Being Different with Liz Durham is a Palm Tree Pod Co. production