Show Notes
*This is a replayed episode from earlier in Season 1*
The first man to sit at the Breadwinners table. We're bringing back this conversation with Nick Firchau, host of the Paternal podcast, because the questions it raises haven't gone anywhere.
Nick has interviewed more than 130 men about fatherhood, and this episode gets into what those conversations reveal: men parenting without a model, the friendships they don't know how to build, and the load they carry but rarely name. Alexis and Nick also take on the topics that tend to get avoided, from the respect-versus-love dynamic in marriages to whether lifting up mothers has left fathers out of the conversation.
In this episode:
Why roughly 40% of the fathers Nick has interviewed grew up without a father figure at home, and how that shapes the way they parent now
The sitcom trope that taught a generation of men how to be dads, going all the way back to Father Knows Best
What Nick learned about himself when he examined why he says "be careful" to his kids
The invisible load of fathers, and why men are reluctant to talk about it
"Benefit of the doubt," the two-word operating rule at the center of Nick's marriage
Nick Firchau is a longtime journalist and podcast producer, and the creator and host of Paternal, a show about the brotherhood of fatherhood. Since launching in 2017, Paternal has featured Super Bowl winners, Pulitzer Prize winning journalists, and award-winning authors, and has been named a best podcast for fathers by Apple Podcasts and Lifehacker. Nick lives outside Boulder, Colorado with his wife and two kids.
Join The Breadwinners community:
Subscribe on Substack: wearethebreadwinners.substack.com
Follow on Instagram: @wearethebreadwinners
Rate & review wherever you listen - it helps more women find this show
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
More from The Breadwinners Podcast
*This is a replayed episode from an earlier conversation*
Leaking when you sneeze, jump rope or lunge for a ball on the tennis court is common. Dr. Sara Reardon wants every woman to stop accepting it as the price of having children - because it's not normal.
**This is a replay from a previous episode**
Everyone is calling everything a community right now. Marika Frumes has spent six years building the real thing, and she knows the difference.
In this episode, Alexis Contos sits down with Patrice Meagher, a 20-year Commercial Real Estate veteran turned Founder and CEO of MilkMate. After spending two decades leasing millions of square feet in Manhattan , Patrice realized that while we can fly to space, the most "innovative" solution for pumping at work was still a storage closet or a bathroom stall.