Coping

Coping With Ambition

Coping

Show Notes

Ambition used to mean climbing that corporate ladder. Then it meant girlbossing. Then it meant quitting your job to find yourself. Now? It’s… complicated.

This week, we’re tracing the messy, contradictory legacy of female ambition. And with ambition discourse everywhere – Emma Grede interviews, Diary of a CEO soundbites, Vogue rebrands – we’re asking what "success" looks like if you’re no longer willing to sacrifice your entire life for it.

Alice Griffin and Jannah Anderson share their own shifting ambitions within this context: the craving for purpose, the fear of being consumed by work, and the cultural noise that tells us to both lean in and log off forever.

And because the wellness zeitgeist never sleeps, we’re also talking: the Japanese headspa experience that (unfortunately) will change your life, and the journal worth flying to Paris for (disclaimer: cost of flights not included in purchase).

⁠I'm Rooting for Female Founders' Comebacks - And The End of Branding Women⁠, by ⁠Leslie Feinzaig⁠, Fortune My Job Was My Life⁠. Then I Got Fired⁠ by Samhita Mukhopadhyay, The Cut ⁠What Comes After Ambition? by Ann Friedman⁠, Elle Watch: ⁠Girlboss⁠, Netflix ⁠Who Is The Girlboss Now?⁠ by ⁠Michelle Santiago Cortés⁠, The Cut ⁠The Big, Controversial Business of The Wing, Explained⁠, by Anna North and Chavie Lieber, Vox ⁠The Girlboss Didn't Die...She Can't Afford To⁠ by Charlotte Mair, The Digress Listen: ⁠Emma Grede on Style-ish podcast⁠ ⁠Hailey Bieber Is Writing Her Own Story With Rhode⁠ by Lucy Feldman, TIME ⁠The Foremost Expert on Happiness Thinks Ambition Is Making You Miserable⁠ by Shalene Gupta, Fast Company

Want to support our show? We'd be so grateful if you hit 'follow' or left us a 5-star review so we can bring you more Coping content.

Plus, you can follow along with us on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠TikTok⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, and ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Pinterest⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Find out more about what we're up to (and how you can get involved) at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠copinginc.com⁠⁠. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

More from Coping

Oct 19, 2026

We suddenly seem to care a lot about what the person next to us is reading. Between celebrity book clubs, literary moments on the runway, and the rise of the professional tastemaker, taste itself has never been so public. You may even have started wondering whether the book tucked under your arm on your morning commute is something you love, or something you’d like to be seen loving.

Oct 12, 2026

This week, we're coping a little differently ! Following our AI takeover spiral a few weeks ago, we thought it only fair to balance things out with a timely celebration of what it really means to be human.

Oct 5, 2026

Harry Styles is rumoured to be retiring. Amelia Dimoldenberg is bringing the Chicken Shop Date era to a close. We all remember Simone Biles stepping away from the gymnastics mat. More and more, we're watching people opt out of goals they've built their identity around and spent years publicly pursuing. Quitting seems more socially acceptable than ever, so why does walking away still feel like failure?

Sep 28, 2026

It seems everyone around us is moving through life at exactly the “right” pace: getting engaged, having babies, buying houses, building careers, finding purpose. Meanwhile, we’re left wondering, are we running late to our own lives?

Sep 21, 2026

AI experts, executives, and inventors themselves are sounding the alarm – warning us that an AI takeover could threaten all of humanity within just the next ten years. In other words, the call is coming from INSIDE the house.

See all episodes →