Optimize This Fri, 04 Sep 2026 03:00:02 -0400 https://www.buzzsprout.com/2640965 en-us © 2026 Optimize This yes be306b33-6cbd-5b95-adf2-e30dd2483203 Natalee Lennox episodic true Optimize This is everyday philosophy for burnt-out eldest daughters.

After years of optimizing everything — her schedule, her skincare, her marriage, her mood — one exhausted, overworked elder-millennial woman realized that no new hack was ever going to fix what was actually wrong. So she's spending the next 100 weeks doing the opposite: taking one real, messy moment from her own overloaded life each Friday and finding the philosopher — classic or modern — who already thought it through.

No hustle. No 5-step frameworks. No new routine to abandon by February. Just smart, honest, occasionally profane conversations about what it actually means to be a woman doing everything right and still feeling like you're failing at all of it.

]]> Buzzsprout (https://www.buzzsprout.com) Natalee Lennox https://storage.buzzsprout.com/ko8gzk3dlhansvjqoimaj6jrd8t0?.jpg Optimize This https://www.buzzsprout.com/2640965 Episode Two: Workin 5 to 9, and we're tired. Episode Two: Workin 5 to 9, and we're tired. Dolly Parton just left us, and the whole world is playing "9 to 5" again, but the workday she sang about in 1980 isn't the one we're living now. Today it starts at 5 am with school lunches and time-zone emails, and it doesn't end at 5 pm, or 9 pm, or really ever.

In this episode: what Dolly's song still gets right, what's actually gotten worse, and what philosopher Byung-Chul Han has to say about a world where nobody needs to force you to keep working, because you've already agreed to do it to yourself. Dedicated, with real gratitude, to a woman who built an empire and never let anyone else hold the pen.

]]> Dolly Parton just left us, and the whole world is playing "9 to 5" again, but the workday she sang about in 1980 isn't the one we're living now. Today it starts at 5 am with school lunches and time-zone emails, and it doesn't end at 5 pm, or 9 pm, or really ever.

In this episode: what Dolly's song still gets right, what's actually gotten worse, and what philosopher Byung-Chul Han has to say about a world where nobody needs to force you to keep working, because you've already agreed to do it to yourself. Dedicated, with real gratitude, to a woman who built an empire and never let anyone else hold the pen.

]]> Natalee Lennox Buzzsprout-19738889 Fri, 04 Sep 2026 00:00:00 -0700 781 1 2 full true Episode 01: No One Touches Us for Free Episode 01: No One Touches Us for Free A rough week, a facialist's table, and one offhand comment that cracked something open: "For most women, this is the only time they're lovingly touched by someone without being expected to provide anything in return."

In this episode, we look at who touches us, who's touched for free, and what a modern philosopher named Eva Feder Kittay has to say about the caregivers who never get cared for in return... and why asking to be nurtured isn't weakness, it's just math.

]]> A rough week, a facialist's table, and one offhand comment that cracked something open: "For most women, this is the only time they're lovingly touched by someone without being expected to provide anything in return."

In this episode, we look at who touches us, who's touched for free, and what a modern philosopher named Eva Feder Kittay has to say about the caregivers who never get cared for in return... and why asking to be nurtured isn't weakness, it's just math.

]]> Natalee Lennox Buzzsprout-19698475 Fri, 28 Aug 2026 00:00:00 -0700 559 1 1 full false Wtf are we optimizing now? Wtf are we optimizing now? What happens when you realize the productivity hack, the workout plan, and the eleven-step skincare routine were never going to fix the actual problem? This is the trailer for Optimize This — a new podcast bringing philosophy to the real, unglamorous life of a burnt-out millennial woman, one Friday at a time, for 100 weeks. Here's what's coming, and why it exists.

]]> What happens when you realize the productivity hack, the workout plan, and the eleven-step skincare routine were never going to fix the actual problem? This is the trailer for Optimize This — a new podcast bringing philosophy to the real, unglamorous life of a burnt-out millennial woman, one Friday at a time, for 100 weeks. Here's what's coming, and why it exists.

]]> Natalee Lennox Buzzsprout-19698463 Mon, 24 Aug 2026 22:00:00 -0700 189 trailer true