Get "Liberate Your Business" by Becky Mollenkamp at https://liberateyourbusiness.com/

In this powerful conversation, Faith Clarke sits down with Alesia Galati—podcast host, business owner, wife, and mother—to explore how discomfort shows up in our bodies and impacts how we navigate relationships and power dynamics. Alesia shares her journey from growing up in a single-parent home affected by addiction, through 10 years in a cult disguised as a women's program, to building multiple successful podcasts and a full-service podcast management agency.

What We Discussed:

• How women's bodies teach distress tolerance through periods and other physical experiences
• The complicated relationship with "push through" messaging after cult trauma
• Moving from knee-jerk reactions to slowing down in moments of discomfort
• How childhood experiences shape our automatic responses to conflict
• The importance of mitigation versus avoidance strategies
• Parenting in the age of AI and teaching kids to sit with questions
• Book recommendations for understanding different perspectives on discomfort
• The power of sitting with someone through their coping mechanisms

Featured book: They Wouldn't Dare by Deanna Gray: https://amzn.to/4tdVVJc

Ready to connect with other feminist founders navigating these conversations? Join us in the Feminist Podcasters Collective at feministpodcasterscollective.com

Get "Liberate Your Business" by Becky Mollenkamp at https://liberateyourbusiness.com/

Consent isn’t a checkbox—it’s a relationship.

In this episode, Becky Mollenkamp and Faith Clarke dig into the messy, nuanced reality of consent. Moving far beyond the simplistic “yes means yes” framework, they explore how power dynamics, discomfort, and unspoken pressure shape whether consent is actually present.

From workplaces to relationships to leadership, they challenge the idea that words alone determine consent—and make the case for deeper awareness, ongoing check-ins, and paying attention to what’s not being said.

This is a conversation about power, humanity, and what it really takes to create environments where people can genuinely choose.

In This Episode, We Cover:

• The difference between performative consent and real consent
• Why “they said yes” is often not the full story
• How power dynamics distort people’s ability to consent
• The role of nonverbal communication (and why words aren’t enough)
• Why leaders have a responsibility to pay closer attention
• Consent as an ongoing, relational process—not a one-time agreement
• How discomfort prevents both giving and receiving real consent
• The problem with forcing vulnerability in workplace culture
• Why “use your words” can be an oversimplification
• Real-life examples of honoring consent—even when it costs something

🎤 JOIN US IN THE FEMINIST PODCASTERS COLLECTIVE

Get "Liberate Your Business" by Becky Mollenkamp at https://liberateyourbusiness.com/

Let’s clear something up right away: discomfort and conflict are not the same thing.

But most of us treat them like they are, and that misunderstanding is costing us. In our relationships, in our leadership, and in the kind of world we say we want to build.

In this first episode of our discomfort series, I’m joined by Faith Clarke to break down what discomfort actually is (hint: it lives in your body), what conflict actually is (hint: it lives between people), and why so many of us are doing everything we can to avoid both.

We talk about:

• Why your brain is so quick to label discomfort as danger
• How power and identity shape your relationship to conflict
• The stories you tell yourself that escalate everything
• And why learning to stay with discomfort might be one of the most important leadership skills you can build

If you’ve ever avoided a hard conversation, over-accommodated to keep the peace, or spiraled over something small—this one’s for you.

🔑 What We Cover in This Episode:

• The difference between discomfort (internal) and conflict (relational)
• Why discomfort is often a somatic, body-based experience
• How conflict arises from competing stories—not just feelings
• The role of power, privilege, and identity in how we handle conflict
• Why many of us were conditioned to believe conflict is “bad”
• Fight, flight, freeze, fawn—and what they look like in real life
• The importance of threat assessment (is this actually dangerous?)
• How meaning-making turns small discomfort into full-blown spirals
• Why avoiding discomfort makes everything more expensive (emotionally, mentally, physically)
• The possibility of healthy conflict as a tool for growth and co-creation

🎤 JOIN US IN THE FEMINIST PODCASTERS COLLECTIVE