VCM: Was there a specific moment or experience that made you think, "Hey, I should start a podcast about this"?

Amanda: The conversation originated as a TV series and, at the time, people were not really talking about things that were important to women. I felt really strongly as a woman who had navigated so many things in my own life, that these were stories and experiences that needed to be shared so that women felt less alone with these different things that they were navigating. I think the point of making anything these days, for me at least, is to be able to offer people, support. And really, there's so many choices out there for people to consume content that if I'm going to ask somebody to sit and listen to me and my guests for an hour, plus, it better be giving them something—I want people to walk away from listening to an episode of The Conversation with more than what they showed up with, whether that is insight, wisdom, tools, feeling more connected, feeling less alone, or even just, you know, having a laugh.

(people) walk away from listening to an episode of The Conversation with more than what they showed up with

VCM: Who do you envision tuning into your show?

Amanda: The people who listen to The Conversation have an interest in learning and growing and understanding more about themselves and the world that we live in. They tend to be people who are really curious. I do these listener episodes, and many of my listeners, I think, are people that I would like to hang out with.

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VCM: Are there any recurring themes or topics that you find yourself coming back to often?

Amanda: I think there are recurring themes that come up consistently over the many years that I've been interviewing people for The Conversation, and it ranges from parenting, relationships, sex, body image, spirituality, wellbeing. Really just the different facets of people's lives. I'll do an episode where I'm just speaking to people about a topic like narcissism or rejection or love addiction or sobriety. It is a big range, but everyone has a story and what I found over the years is that it does range from politicians to porn stars and everybody in between, because you can pretty much sit with anyone. And if you talk to them long enough, you find out that they have a story, and that in sharing that story, there's immense value for other people to hear it.

It does range from politicians to porn stars and everybody in between

VCM: Do you have a favorite moment or an interview, or a story from your podcast?

Amanda: I've done so many hundreds of interviews and it's really difficult to say who is a favorite. What I will say is that Jane Fonda is someone who I loved interviewing and the episode before I interviewed Miley Cyrus. So the range in age and life experience was so vast, and listening to Jane talk about her life and her husband's—and she was such an advocate well before it was being an advocate was something that everybody felt that they had to do—I love that she said that she was having the best sex of her life at age 76. It gave me hope, gave so many women hope. So she was incredible. I also really enjoyed interviewing Vice President Kamala Harris. She was fascinating. Who else? Gabor Mate, who is really considered the sort of godfather of trauma work. Also fascinating. Matthew McConaughey, Lynsey Addario, who's an incredible war photojournalist. Hearing from a woman who's on the frontlines, documenting some pretty terrifying stories and bringing them back so the rest of the world can know what's going on. There's people that I've interviewed multiple times. Olivia Wilde, I interviewed her during her first marriage, in her first divorce, then again. So there's women that come back and I get to hear their stories over many, many years, before they have kids and then when their kids are teenagers even. It's been a fascinating journey.