What happens when you stop waiting to feel ready?

This week, we're joined by Peloton instructor, author, and all-around force of nature Kirsten Ferguson for one of our favorite conversations of the season.

Kirsten shares the winding path that led her from the NFL to Peloton—including heartbreak, infertility, divorce, reinvention, and learning to embrace a dream she never saw coming. Along the way, she opens up about public speaking anxiety, imposter syndrome, manifestation, motherhood, and why some of the biggest opportunities in life begin with saying "yes" before you feel qualified.

We also talk about:

• Why confidence is something you build—not something you're born with.
• How movement can become an act of self-love instead of self-punishment.
• The surprising story behind Kirsten's Peloton audition.
• Setting boundaries that protect your peace.
• Why your uniqueness is your greatest strength.
• The children's book she wrote with her daughters to help young girls grow up believing exactly that.

Whether you're standing at the beginning of a new chapter, wrestling with fear, or simply looking for a reminder that you're capable of more than you think, this conversation will leave you feeling a little braver.

In this episode, we mention:

• Kirsten Ferguson's new children's book, From A to Z, This Is Me: An Empowering Alphabet for Young Girls Pre-order here
• Peloton's Call Yourself a Runner program
• Kirsten's Intention Setting Sunday classes

And as always, we close with our Connection Code questions—including Kirsten's dream connection (hello, Michelle Obama), the friendship advice she'd give her younger self, and why the smallest circles often hold the deepest relationships.

What happens when your dream job ends?

For fashion expert, media personality, and entrepreneur Lilliana Vazquez, it became the beginning of something even bigger.

In this conversation, Rachel sits down with Lilliana to explore the connections that have shaped her remarkable career—from cold-calling a television station and becoming the first Latina host of E! News to reinventing herself as one of today's most trusted style creators.

But this episode isn't really about fashion.

It's about curiosity. Persistence. Learning to stop chasing external validation. And building authentic relationships instead of transactional networks.

Together, they discuss:

• Why curiosity is one of the most underrated career skills.
• How meaningful networking starts with genuine conversation—not titles.
• What it took to rebuild her identity after leaving legacy television.
• Why women should stop apologizing for being ambitious and persistent.
• The mindset shift from scarcity to abundance.
• Why your greatest advantage is becoming more of yourself—not more like everyone else.

Plus, Rachel and Jeana reflect on carrying each other through different seasons of work, share their latest Show & Tell picks—from Mahjong to All the Cool Girls Get Fired—and explore why the best connections often begin with simply asking better questions.

Whether you're navigating a career transition, growing your confidence, or simply trying to build deeper relationships, this conversation is full of practical wisdom and refreshing honesty.

Rachel and Jeana welcome back their very first reconnection guest: Mo News founder and journalist Mosh Oinounou.

Since his first appearance on The Connection Code, Mosh's world has grown in every direction. Mo News has expanded, he's preparing to welcome his second child, and he's spending more time thinking about what it means to stay connected—not just to the headlines, but to the people and moments that matter most.

Together, they explore the surprising relationship between trust and connection, why Americans are trusting institutions less than ever before, and how loneliness, isolation, and declining civic engagement may all be part of the same story.

Mosh shares what fatherhood has taught him about leadership, the challenge of balancing entrepreneurship with presence, and why a conversation between his two-year-old daughter and a 96-year-old stranger became one of his favorite moments of the year.

Plus:

• Why millennials struggle to unplug from work
• The pressure of building a business in a 24/7 news cycle
• How admitting mistakes can actually build trust
• The rise of parasocial relationships and creator-led media
• What Mosh knows about himself today that he didn't know a year ago

This conversation is about news, but it's also about family, friendship, self-awareness, and the moments we're tempted to miss when we're staring at our phones.

Links:

• Mo News
• Mo News Instagram

Books:

• Nowhere for Very Long
• Yesteryear
• One Golden Summer
• Mad Mabel
• Revealing

This week, it's just Rachel and Jeana.

No guest. No expert. Just two friends asking each other the friendship and connection questions they've always wanted to explore.

Why do some friendships feel effortless while others require more work? How do you handle jealousy when a friend gets something you want? What do you do when judgment sneaks into a relationship? And how many friendships do we actually need to feel connected?

Along the way, Rachel and Jeana discuss:

• Why maintaining your network is a life skill no one teaches
• The surprising difference between jealousy and judgment
• How to stop comparing your path to someone else's
• Why not every friendship needs to be a best friendship
• The categories of friends we all need (fun friends, deep-talk friends, emergency friends, and more)
• How to identify your "people"
• Why taking the call matters more than you think
• The role friendship plays in building a meaningful life

Plus: Jeana shares a major milestone for Petite Acres, and Rachel reflects on the overwhelming response to Lily's episode about autism and friendship.

Whether you're thinking about your closest relationships or wondering who you should text back right now, this conversation is an invitation to take stock of the people who matter most.

Links and resources:

• • Travel + Leisure feature on Petite Acres
  • Petite Acres: Petite Acres
  • Listen to our episode with Laura Sanchez Greenberg
  • Listen to our episode with Lily Engelbret on autism and friendship

Friendship isn't hard because you're doing it wrong. It's hard because adulthood changes everything. This week, Rachel and Jeana unpack why friendships drift, why they break, and what actually keeps them alive.

Together, they explore the realities of friendship drift, life stage changes, geographic distance, busy schedules, and the small misunderstandings that can quietly erode even meaningful relationships. They share personal stories about friendships that changed over time, the challenges of conflict and communication, and the surprising role that proximity plays in who stays in our lives.

But this isn't just a conversation about why friendships struggle. It's also about what helps them survive. From recurring rituals and honest conversations to flexibility, generosity, and simply continuing to show up, Rachel and Jeana unpack the habits that keep friendships strong through changing seasons.

If you've ever wondered why it's harder to make plans, harder to stay close, or why someone who once felt like family slowly drifted away, this episode is for you.

Because friendship isn't effortless, but it is worth the effort.

This episode of The Connection Code is one of our most personal and eye-opening yet. Rachel and Jeana sit down with Rachel’s 12-year-old niece, Lily Engelbret, to talk about what it’s been like to learn she’s autistic. Lily shares how that has shaped the way she experiences friendship, school, masking, and connection.

With incredible honesty, humor, and wisdom beyond her years, Lily shares what autism means to her, why she prefers saying “I’m autistic” over “I have autism,” and how masking can make school feel exhausting. She also opens up about sensory overload, friendship, special interests (including SNL and Marcelo Hernandez), and the ways autism can feel both challenging and like a superpower.

The conversation explores:

• what masking actually feels like
• why autism can look different in every person
• the emotional toll of trying to “fit in”
• how adults can better support autistic kids
• why asking “What would help right now?” matters more than “What’s wrong?”
• how connection changes when someone truly understands your experience

It’s a moving, funny, deeply human conversation about being understood ... and creating space for people to show up as themselves.

Sara Haines spends her days connecting with millions of viewers on The View, but in this episode of The Connection Code, she joins us for a much more personal conversation about friendship, vulnerability, homesickness, motherhood, and the people who make us feel truly seen.

We talk about:

• why curiosity matters more than networking
• the emotional power of female friendships
• what Sara has learned from interviewing people for a living
• the “I don’t know who needs to hear this” Instagram videos that made Rachel feel like Sara is the internet’s therapist
• how becoming a parent changes the way you understand your own parents
• why Sara believes the people beside you matter just as much as the people above you
• and the surprisingly emotional reason she still cries saying goodbye to her parents

This episode is funny, unexpectedly emotional, and full of the kinds of conversations that remind you you’re not alone.

This week on The Connection Code, Jeana and Rachel are diving into the friendship stories, trends, and hot takes taking over the internet right now.

From the rise of “doorbell friends” and apps designed to match you with new friends, to whether we should stop doing catch-up dinners entirely, this episode is a real-time conversation about how connection is changing — and what we may be gaining (or losing) along the way.

We also talk about:

• why our daily word count is dropping
• the importance of talking to strangers
• novelty vs. consistency in adult friendships
• the hidden magic of spontaneous plans
• why friendship algorithms may narrow our worldview
• the social dynamics of plus-ones at curated dinners
• and the surprisingly emotional case for neighborhood friendships

It’s part cultural analysis, part friendship therapy, and fully a “grab bag” episode in the best possible way.

Links to all articles, posts, and references discussed are included in the show notes.

Articles and posts discussed:

• The Wall Street Journal's "We’re All Talking to Each Other Less Than We Did a Decade Ago"
• The case against friendship catch ups from @loganury
• From The Walrus "I Was Lonely and Let an App Pick My New Friends. Here’s How It Went"
• From Popsugar, "Why "Doorbell Friends" May Be the Most Important Relationship You Have"
• From The New York Time, "Public Offering," which asks the question, "How often are you talking to strangers?"
• From Sunday Scaries, a view from the friend who wishes you wouldn't invite a +1 to their curated dinner.