Achieving balance in both parenting and finances can feel overwhelming for couples. In this episode of Equal-ish, hosts Rachel Childs and Kate Mangino delve into the importance of teamwork in financial management with Brian Page, founder of Modern Husbands. Join us as we explore how childhood experiences shape our money habits, how gender norms around money, care, and breadwinning quietly shape our relationships — and often limit both partners.

Brian shares:

• Why he defines equality as equal leisure time, not 50/50 task lists

• How outdated breadwinner expectations still shape men’s choices (and anxieties)

• Why early childcare and career decisions compound financially for decades

• How couples can think of their household as a shared micro-economy

• Why money conflicts are rarely about money — and what they’re really about instead

This conversation offers a grounded, emotionally honest look at what it really takes to build a fair, sustainable partnership in modern family life. Find out more about Modern Husbands here:

• Modern Husband’s website

• Modern Husbands: Family Financial Planning Calculator

• Dr. Claudia Goldin’s research on the gender pay gap

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Find out more about your hosts Kate Mangino and Rachel Childs.

Explore the science of modern parenthood, attachment, and partnership during our reflections from our interview with evolutionary anthropologist Dr Anna Machin. Dr Anna Machin is an evolutionary anthropologist, writer and broadcaster who is world renowned for her work into the science and anthropology of human love and fatherhood. She is the author of the Life of Dad: The Making of the Modern Father and Why We Love: The Definitive Guide to our Most Fundamental Need. She is the lead scientist for the new dating app LoveJack.

In the coaching edit, Kate and Rachel go deeper into the science, and the practical implications, of what equal parenting really means, offering key insights for couples who want to parent as a true team.

Key Takeaways:

• Dads are naturally caregivers – Emotional detachment in fathers is socially constructed, not biological. Fathers’ hormones respond to caregiving, just like mothers’.
  

• Attachment matters – Children thrive with multiple attachments; strong parental bonds support resilience and pro-social behavior.
  

• Emotional intimacy fuels parenting – High emotional connection between partners increases confidence and involvement in dads.
  

• Invest in your relationship before baby arrives – Conversations about values, roles, and expectations build strong foundations for equitable parenting.
  

• Redefine gender norms – Challenge traditional ideas of motherhood and fatherhood; write your own parenting scripts.
  

• Social networks are vital – Romantic love isn’t the only important bond. Friendships, family, and community connections boost happiness and health.

Click here to download the free values activity

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Find out more about your hosts Kate Mangino and Rachel Childs.

In this episode, evolutionary anthropologist Dr Anna Machin challenges everything you thought you knew about fatherhood. From hormone shifts and brain changes to the unique ways dads build attachment, Anna unpacks why fathers are wired to be caretakers, not just breadwinners, and how their involvement shapes resilience, social skills, and mental health in children.

Kate and Rachel dive into:

• The evolutionary roots of fatherhood and why caregiving, not earning, is innate.

• How dads uniquely “scaffold” children’s growth and prepare them for the world.

• The importance of secure attachment, sensitive parenting, and playful involvement.

• Why societal norms and workplace cultures, not biology, often prevent dads from fully engaging.

• How couples can use pregnancy to prepare for parenthood, maintain relationship strength, and navigate the early years together.

This episode is essential listening for any parent, partner, or parent-to-be who wants to understand the science behind equal parenting, and how to put it into practice in today’s world.

Dr Anna Machin is an evolutionary anthropologist, writer and broadcaster who is world renowned for her work into the science and anthropology of human love and fatherhood. She is the author of the Life of Dad: The Making of the Modern Father and Why We Love: The Definitive Guide to our Most Fundamental Need. She has written for The New York Times, The Observer and The Guardian among others, works regularly with the BBC and national and international broadcast media and recently appeared on The Diary of a CEO podcast. She is the lead scientist for the new dating app LoveJack.

Subscribe to Equal-ish on Apple Podcasts or Spotify to be the first to hear the coaching edit from our interview.

Find out more about your hosts Kate Mangino and Rachel Childs.

In the final episode of the season (and year!), Kate and Rachel unpack three themes that surfaced in their conversation with Alex Trippier and reflect on what the past year of Equalish has taught us about navigating parenthood and partnership. The discussion explores why parenting demands a process-driven mindset, why being a strong parent doesn’t automatically make someone a strong partner, and how couples can move out of echo chambers and into real dialogue.

• Parenting Is a Process, Not a Results Game

• Being a Great Parent vs. Being a Great Partner

• Getting Out of the Echo Chamber

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Find out more about your hosts Kate Mangino and Rachel Childs.

Discovering concepts like mental load, matrescence, and motherhood ideals really can fundamentally reframe your understanding of parenting as a partnership.

In today’s conversation, Rachel, Kate talk to Alex Trippier, host of the Be a Happier Parent podcast about his fatherhood journey, the strain young children put on his relationship, and the turning point—from believing he was an “involved dad” to realising he had completely missed the invisible emotional, cognitive and cultural pressures shaping his wife’s experience. It’s time to redefine fulfillment as a father beyond achievement and into meaningful family connection.

Here are two of the Be a Happier Parent episodes that we referenced in our interview:

The magic of caregiving with Elissa Straus

What do dads do? With Steve Biddulph

These are the books Alex referenced:

• • The Motherhood Complex by Melissa Hogenboom

• • Matrescence by Lucy Jones

  • Fair Play by Eve Rodsky

  • Beyond Baby Talk by Rachel Childs

  Subscribe to Equal-ish on Apple Podcasts or Spotify to be the first to hear the coaching edit from our interview.

  Find out more about your hosts Kate Mangino and Rachel Childs.

  
  

Kate and Rachel dig into the interview with psychotherapist Sarah Fishburn-Roberts, turning a rather theoretical interview into practical actions. Why should we expect to change? How can we change together? How can we have these hard conversations with each other without playing the blame game and getting defensive?

1. You are both going to change.

2. It’s not “you vs them.” Think of it as “us vs the pattern.”

3. Empathy is everything.

4. How to re-write your own script.

If you like Sarah, you can find her services here.

Subscribe to Equal-ish on Apple Podcasts or Spotify to be the first to hear the coaching edit from our interview.

Find out more about your hosts Kate Mangino and Rachel Childs.

Today Kate and Rachel talk to psychotherapist Sarah Fishburn-Roberts to explore the distinctions and intersections between couples therapy, coaching and facilitation - and when to reach out for extra support.

(Spoiler alert - we all need it. And the practitioner you find is as important as the process you choose).

If you like Sarah, you can find her services here.

Subscribe to Equal-ish on Apple Podcasts or Spotify to be the first to hear the coaching edit from our interview.

Find out more about your hosts Kate Mangino and Rachel Childs.

Using father’s mental health as a starting point, Dr Fisher emphasized that it is really the “family system” that requires our attention. Kate & Rachel love this, and devote today’s coaching edit to go deeper into what family system caretaking looks like.

1. He might not be fine, even if he says he is fine.

2. Everyone can, and does, experience trauma. Fertility issues and difficult births affect all parents.

3. It is not just about taking paternity leave, but HOW you take it.

4. It is never too late to rebuild your team. If something isn’t working, don’t give up. Bring in a new offensive coach and swap out your talent.

5. Kids can reinforce sexism, too! We need to be intentional about combatting stereotypes even with our own kids.

You can find more about Dr. Fisher’s work and practice here.

Subscribe to Equal-ish on Apple Podcasts or Spotify to be the first to hear the coaching edit from our interview.

Find out more about your hosts Kate Mangino and Rachel Childs.