The Messy Parts

Episodes

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  Samantha Bee: Your Dream Job Will Suck. Do It Anyway. 10.08.2026 38m

  "Even your dream job sucks." That's not cynicism — it's the most useful career advice Samantha Bee has. On this episode of The Messy Parts, she tells Maryam what 12 years at “The Daily Show” and running “Full Frontal” actually taught her: that no one hands you management training before you're leading 75 people, that public setbacks feel enormous and matter less than you think, and that the comparison game — "looking in other people's food bowls" — is where careers go to stall. Her rule for a...
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  No Plan, No Fear, No Quitting: Julie Gaines on Running NYC’s Coolest Store & Giving MS the Finger 03.08.2026 41m

  She dug through filthy sub-basements in the Bowery looking for discarded restaurant ware — and built one of New York's most beloved stores. Julie Gaines, co-founder of Fishs Eddy, joins Maryam on the blue couch to talk about 40 years of messy parts: the husband who cheated and left for Florida (then Thailand), the three CEOs who didn't work out, and the MS diagnosis she now calls a "dignity thief." Julie doesn't sugarcoat any of it. She's blunt, she's funny, and she's still working through it...
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  She Got Cut From Pro Basketball in Sweden. Now Megan Griffith Runs Columbia's Best Team Ever. 27.07.2026 40m

  "They cut me from that team." That's how Columbia women's basketball head coach Megan Griffith opens this episode of The Messy Parts — and it's just the beginning of her story. Megan tells Maryam about growing up a Chinese American kid in a homogeneous Pennsylvania suburb, playing for four different coaches in four years as a student at Columbia, and deciding to pursue a professional basketball career across Finland, Sweden, and the Netherlands. Megan gets candid about identity, belonging, ge...
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  Why Selling TOMS Destroyed Blake Mycoskie’s Mental Health (And What Saved Him) 20.07.2026 38m

  What really happens after a founder sells their company? Blake Mycoskie built one of the most recognized brands in the world at TOMS — and hit rock bottom the moment he walked away. In this episode of The Messy Parts, Blake talks candidly with Maryam about founder identity, the mental health crisis hiding behind big exits, and why more money and more success never made him feel like enough. He also shares the advice he'd give every founder in their 20s and 30s, what Ted Turner told him before...
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  NYT Writer Susan Dominus: "I Couldn't Risk It" 13.07.2026 42m

  She's a staff writer at The New York Times Magazine, a Yale lecturer, and one of the most celebrated journalists working today. So why does Susan Dominus still feel like she's figuring it out? In a candid conversation with Maryam, Susan gets into the imposter syndrome that nearly stopped her from calling herself a writer, the sibling rivalry that quietly shaped her ambition, and the career regret she wishes she could go back and fix. Plus: what AI has changed about her reporting, why she thin...
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  Gary Vee: Forgiveness, Fear, and the $540 Million Mistake (Replay) 06.07.2026 49m

  In this re-release of one of our favorite episodes, Gary Vaynerchuk opens up to Maryam about fear, self-esteem, forgiveness, AI, leadership, and what he believes is a growing crisis of “late adulthood.” Gary shares why so many professionals feel stuck — not because of burnout, but because of insecurity and unresolved resentment. He breaks down his philosophy on kind candor vs. radical candor, why fear is the real career killer, and how over-coddling may be delaying independence for an entire ...
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  "My Parents Would Have Rather I Been a Prostitute.” How Ayesha Nurdjaja Became a Celebrity Chef & Built NYC’s Hottest Restaurants 29.06.2026 49m

  What happens when you walk away from the career everyone expected you to have? Chef Ayesha Nurdjaja was on a path toward law school, working at a prestigious law firm and doing everything “right.” But something was missing. In this episode of The Messy Parts, Ayesha shares with Maryam how she left a promising legal career to pursue cooking, even when her parents stopped speaking to her and everyone around her thought she was making a huge mistake. She opens up about growing up in Brooklyn, di...
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  She Kept Hearing "No." At 60, Sari Botton Finally Found Her Audience. 22.06.2026 36m

  "No just means not right now." That's the philosophy that kept writer and Oldster founder Sari Botton going through decades of rejection before building one of Substack's most beloved magazines — at age 60. In this episode of The Messy Parts, Sari gets honest with Maryam about the messy middle: the identity searching, the failed attempts, the mean girls that never quite went away, and the moment she finally stopped contorting herself to fit someone else's story. She also shares the writing st...
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  Bonnie Hammer Gave Her Boss the Finger. It Changed Her Career. 15.06.2026 43m

  Bonnie Hammer ran 10 networks and two studios at NBCUniversal — but her career didn't start in a corner office. It started cleaning up dog poop on a kids' TV set. In this episode of The Messy Parts, Bonnie gets radically honest with Maryam about the moments that actually shaped her career: being passed over for the top job at NBC, negotiating her way into her own studio, saying yes to WWE when every instinct said no, and building one of the most collaborative cultures in a notoriously cutthro...
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  Ed Sheeran, Pizza Rat & Getting Hacked: Rick McGuire on Running Subway Creatures and Loving New York 08.06.2026 40m

  What does it take to build one of New York City's most recognizable social media brands — from scratch, in secret, while working a day job? Subway Creatures founder Rick McGuire tells Maryam the whole story: from working at VH1 and MTV while quietly building Subway Creatures on the side to Pizza Rat, Ed Sheeran, and a very public account hack that brought him to tears and nearly took everything. Rick gets honest about the chaos of entrepreneurship, learning to value your own work, and why New...
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  "I Don't Know How to Balance All of This": Faherty Co-Founder Kerry Docherty on Business, Marriage, and Choosing Yourself 01.06.2026 39m

  Kerry Docherty is a co-founder of Faherty, the surf lifestyle brand she built alongside her husband, his identical twin brother, and her mother-in-law. But behind the sun-soaked brand was a woman quietly carrying the weight of secrets — from childhood, from marriage, and from a business that nearly broke her. In this episode, Kerry opens up to Maryam about growing up in an Irish Catholic household where hard things went unspoken, what it really means to work with your spouse, the emotional af...
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  She Was Called “Dumb.” Now Assia Grazioli-Venier Invests Millions in Women’s Health. 25.05.2026 42m

  What if the hardest parts of your life were actually setting you up for something bigger? Assia Grazioli-Venier’s story is a powerful reminder that your worst moments don’t define you — what you do next does. In this episode of The Messy Parts, Assia shares with Maryam her journey through dyslexia, cancer, infertility, and major career pivots — and how she turned every setback into fuel. She opens up about building a venture capital fund, why women struggle to raise money, and what she wishes...
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  Her Mother and Grandmother Said Nothing. Belle Burden Broke the Silence. 18.05.2026 46m

  Belle Burden was raised in a family where you simply did not talk about the messy parts. So when her husband left without explanation during COVID lockdown — and then asked her to tell people it was amicable — something in her snapped. In this episode, the New York Times bestselling author of “Strangers” tells Maryam about the moment she chose radical honesty over a managed narrative, and why that single decision changed everything. Belle and Maryam explore the eerie parallel between how betr...
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  Bevy Smith Climbed the Ladder, Looked Around — and Jumped Off 11.05.2026 45m

  What does it take to walk away from a six-figure career with no plan, go broke, and come out the other side with a Bravo show, an Amazon Prime series, and a Broadway stage credit? In this episode of The Messy Parts, the one and only Bevy Smith tells Maryam about growing up in Central Harlem, cutting her teeth in luxury fashion advertising, landing at Vibe and Rolling Stone, and then walking away from all of it to start over — completely sure she was making the right call. Find out what caused...
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  Joanna Coles: The Career Advice Feminism Never Gave You 04.05.2026 41m

  Joanna Coles built one of the most storied careers in media — from editor-in-chief of Cosmopolitan to running The Daily Beast. So when she says feminism got it wrong, people listen. In this episode, Joanna challenges assumptions about ambition, motherhood, and what a successful life actually looks like. She reveals why curiosity — not ambition — drove every major career move she made, what she wishes someone had told her at 28, and why the "have it all" conversation has been missing its most ...
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  Rapid Response: The "Most Stressed" Wellness CEO, with Calm's David Ko 02.05.2026 34m

  Today we're dropping something a little different into your feed: a conversation from our friends at the Rapid Response podcast. Maryam was a guest on the show recently with host Bob Safian, but in the episode you’re about to hear, Bob sits down with David Ko, the CEO of Calm — the mental health and wellness app with more than 180 million downloads — right as he's announcing he's stepping down. Ko unpacks why he made the call, what the relentless pressure of the C-suite really does to a perso...
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  Parul Somani Was Holding Her Newborn When the Doctor Called with a Cancer Diagnosis. Then Came the Layoff. 27.04.2026 37m

  Parul Somani was 31 years old, holding her one-week-old newborn, when her phone rang. It was her breast surgeon. On a Saturday. She knew it wasn't good news. What followed — cancer treatment, chemotherapy, a layoff she never saw coming, and a years-long search for work that actually meant something — would have broken most people. Instead, it rebuilt her. In this episode, Parul tells Maryam about growing up with immigrant parents who kept their struggles private; following the prestige path a...
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  Finley Wanted to Be a Supreme Court Justice. Until One Class Changed Everything. 20.04.2026 40m

  What does it take to walk away from everything you thought you wanted? Artist C. Finley knows. She was pre-law, headed for the Supreme Court, until one semester cracked her wide open and changed the entire trajectory of her life. Today she's a renowned muralist, large-scale painter, and the force behind the Every Woman Biennial — but the path here was anything but straight. In this episode of The Messy Parts, Finley gets honest with Maryam about identity collapse, creative risk, inconsistent ...
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  From Fax Boy to CEO to Billion Dollar Sale: Patrick Steel Was Terrified (But Showed Up Anyway) 13.04.2026 40m

  What does it take to walk into a failing company with zero experience and turn it around? Patrick Steel — former CEO of Politico — did exactly that. In this episode of The Messy Parts, Patrick shares with Maryam how he navigated multiple career pivots: from the Clinton White House to investment banking to leading one of Washington's most powerful media brands. We cover imposter syndrome, recovering from public failure, why no task should ever be beneath you, and how relationships — not creden...
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  “Flooded with the Feeling of Sudden Death” Shelley Huff on Panic Attacks, Bankruptcy, Getting Fired, and Life After the Title 06.04.2026 43m

  ​​What happens when a high-achieving executive loses everything — and has to start over? Shelley Huff spent decades climbing the corporate ladder, from merchant at Walmart to Fortune's Most Powerful Women list, to CEO of Serta Simmons Bedding. Then came bankruptcy, betrayal, and a firing she never got to say goodbye from. In this raw and honest conversation, Shelly opens up to Maryam about panic disorder in the workplace, the identity crisis that follows job loss, the grief nobody names when ...