Aug 24, 2026 · 26 min · 10 segments
We've been talking about the mental load for decades, so why are so many women still carrying it? It's the unseen mental and emotional work we do to keep our lives running — the planning…
Leah RuppannerGuest
Yumi StynesHost
Leah's work doesn't stop at explaining the mental load and its eight different subtypes.
As part of her research, she and her team created a really simple quiz to help people work out where their mental load is heaviest, and most importantly, how to ease it.
It's called the Lighten Lab Assessment, and we've put a link in the show notes if you wanna give it a go.
My goal for this is that we all start to think about our mental loads much like we think about our blood pressure or our steps or our sleep scores.
What does it look like, and what, where, where is it shifting and where is it going? Are you actually feeling like it's working you towards your goals? Are you feeling like you're burnt out? Are you feeling exhausted? Because the goal isn't to get rid of the mental load.
Like, you can't, but sometimes, like, our mental load can be positive, right? It's like, where is your mental load going? Where is it going across these categories? When it goes to them, is it crediting you, is it bringing you joy, or is it debiting you? Are you giving your mental load to people that don't deserve it? 'Cause I'm sorry, a lot of people don't deserve our energy, but we give it to them all the time, right? I am asking you to start to be strategic, much like you are about your money, and start to think about where you wanna go and how to spend and align your mental load energy in that direction.
Leah's work doesn't stop at explaining the mental load and its eight different subtypes.
As part of her research, she and her team created a really simple quiz to help people work out where their mental load is heaviest, and most importantly, how to ease it.
It's called the Lighten Lab Assessment, and we've put a link in the show notes if you wanna give it a go.
My goal for this is that we all start to think about our mental loads much like we think about our blood pressure or our steps or our sleep scores.
What does it look like, and what, where, where is it shifting and where is it going? Are you actually feeling like it's working you towards your goals? Are you feeling like you're burnt out? Are you feeling exhausted? Because the goal isn't to get rid of the mental load.
Like, you can't, but sometimes, like, our mental load can be positive, right? It's like, where is your mental load going? Where is it going across these categories? When it goes to them, is it crediting you, is it bringing you joy, or is it debiting you? Are you giving your mental load to people that don't deserve it? 'Cause I'm sorry, a lot of people don't deserve our energy, but we give it to them all the time, right? I am asking you to start to be strategic, much like you are about your money, and start to think about where you wanna go and how to spend and align your mental load energy in that direction.
The rest of this transcript — segmented and speaker-labeled, so you land on the exact moment something was said
Search every transcript — by keyword, by phrase, or by meaning, across every show Radar indexes
Trends — what is surging across podcasts, measured against its own baseline
Alerts — when a name you follow appears in a newly indexed episode
No account is needed to search Radar.
