If you are anything like me, you’ve got a crap-ton of imaginary friends.

My imaginary friends aren’t “imaginary” in the sense that they don’t exist; rather, they’re imaginary in the sense that they’ve never met me.

But seriously, how many times have you heard someone else doing an interview, or read their blog or browsed their social media channels and thought, Okay, this chick is cool and I want to be her friend.

Just me? Okay. Moving on.

Long story short, I was in kind of a dark place a few years back right after we had our second baby. Kind of… lost. Lots of anxiety. Lots of exhaustion. A complete and utter lack of balance (even though the mere sight of that word makes me all sorts of stabby) in my work/life existence. Just… no bueno.

I hadn’t actually hopped on the podcast train by then. This was late 2014, so still kind of a new concept for those of use verging on the precipice of Geezerdom. Anyhow, I found Ellie Knaus’ Atomic Moms podcast through a blog I read (and love), and that was it. Since then, Ellie has unknowingly accompanied me on many of my “car camping” trips–those precious few moments of relaxation you get when your baby falls asleep while you’re driving and your toddler is quiet for, I don’t know, a total of seven minutes. In other words, priceless time, much of which I have spent since my discovery of her podcast devouring the great interviews she’s done with an array of experts on all sorts of mom- and family-related stuff.

Since my first instinct (DORKY JOURNALIST ALERT) is to ask #allthequestions when I find something that I like, I did what any rational human being would do and I essentially cyber-stalked Ellie to beg her to let me interview her.

Okay, not full-on stalking, but maybe a FB message. Then an Instagram message. Then an email. Thank goodness I don’t come across as particularly menacing, because she said yes, and the interview below is the result.

Check it out, hear what Ellie and her show are all about, and then definitely go subscribe and listen to her podcast.

Enjoy! And please subscribe to my YouTube channel while you’re there!