Episodes

Sarah and Tracy take on the established save-your-marriage advice of the 180, a term coined by therapist Michelle Weiner-Davis of "Divorce Busters" fame. Gutted by betrayal? Be cheerful and attractive! Never ask questions! Don't be angry! Pretzel yourself into pleasing shapes to win a cheater. Contrary, inauthentic, and just weirdly misogynistic, we wonder is the prize worth it?

We talk with Dr. Omar Minwalla, who is unique among therapists for calling cheating a "deceptive sexuality" problem. Dr. Minwalla is a psychologist and founder of The Institute for Sexual Health and the author of the "Secret Sexual Basement." We talk about trauma and the conventional victim-blaming discourse around infidelity. And what lurks in those subterranean hideyholes.

Tracy and Sarah speak with Martina, a woman who divorced her cheating husband, gained a life -- only to receive a terminal cancer diagnosis a few months later. She's still here. Solo parenting her teenagers, riding horses, having adventures, and crossing many things off her bucket list. It's an emotional conversation about abandonment -- and getting your life back -- however long that is.

Diane Strickland started the website to help wives and partners traumatized by men called sex addicts. She challenges the notion that such women are "codependent," but rather abused. Diane is a trained Canadian trauma specialist, critical incident...

Dr. George Simon is a psychologist and best-selling author who's been decoding manipulation for over 30 years. Tracy and Sarah ask him about his work on "character disturbance" and Dr. Simon answers a listener's question about being estranged from her family after they sided with her abusive, cheating ex-husband.

Sarah and Tracy talk with Nancy, a woman who pulled up stakes for a new town, a new career and a new identity after her divorce -- moving to the other end of the country to take a job as a resident "dorm mom" at a boarding school. With food and housing covered, she pocketed her paycheck, traveled on the weekends, and rebuilt her life. Her mantra: "Eat my sparkle dust!"

After Christina Pavlina went through her own divorce, she helped create a nonprofit to make it easier for women to navigate the process. Pavlina is the cofounder and the executive director of Jane Does Well, a national outreach organization. Beyond social meet-ups, single mom support groups, yoga, and divorce education workshops, Jane Does Well also advocates for legislation and changes to make the family courts more accessible and fair to women. Mighty!

A woman calls in whose husband of 30 years walked out on her before Xmas -- after his mistress gave him an ultimatum. She wants to know -- was he a nice person who turned nasty? Or was he a terrible person all the time and she was completely mistaken about a man she spent three decades with? Tracy and Sarah untangle the skein of abandonment.

Sarah and Tracy discuss being public with their chump stories. Guest Paul Doncaster takes mightiness to a new level when he tells his D-Day story "The Stranger" at Moth Radio storytelling contest in front of a live audience. And his ex turns up with her boyfriend!

It takes a special kind of resilience to leave a cheater when you're four months pregnant with twins -- but that's exactly what our guest Alyson did. At the time, she had two other small kids at home and was the family breadwinner. She's now a mighty single mother of four and a "boss lady" at a fortune 500 firm where she leads a large team. We discuss the challenges of solo parenting and the particular horror and vulnerability of suffering a D-Day while pregnant. But also the rewards of being th...

Sarah and Tracy discuss the ordinary people they've met who've impressed them with their extraordinary resilience. Teasers for mighty stories to come!

Sarah and Tracy interview popular British therapist Andrew G. Marshall on his views about whether a marriage can recover after infidelity. Is "affair proofing" actually a thing? We find some common ground -- and some very diverging opinions -- on what's possible when you're dealing with a deceptive partner.

D-Days -- What you do wish you'd done differently when you discovered your partner was cheating? Many of us had gut instincts to leave immediately, but got tripped up with second-guessing and cheater manipulation. Sarah and Tracy tell their surreal D-Day stories, the good advice they got, and the lousy. One listener wishes she'd catfished her ex on a date.

Imagining the unimaginable -- what to do when you suspect cheating. Tracy tells the story how she woke up with another woman's thong stuck to her. And Sarah shares her near miss moving to Devon to "rebuild the marriage." A listener asks if it's possible to gaslight oneself by believing a cheater's lies.

In this first episode, hosts Sarah Gorrell -- a BBC radio presenter -- and Tracy Schorn -- the writer known as Chump Lady -- discuss how they met, their chump stories, and why the world needs a different infidelity narrative. (Hint: More mightiness, less reconciliation with cheaters.)