<![CDATA[Matrescence Unfiltered]]>Matrescence Unfiltered is LIVE, a new podcast exploring motherhood, career, identity and ambition. ✨

We made this for the woman who loves her career and may be dreaming of becoming a mum, expecting, or already raising little ones. For the woman who couldn't find content that spoke to both motherhood and ambition at once.

We're Bianca and Rose. A Chief Marketing Officer in her third trimester and a coach, consultant and organisational psychology researcher specialising in matrescence and sustainable high performance.

We've been friends since we were teenagers, the first of the great neurological shifts of a woman's life, as it happens.

Matrescence is the transition into motherhood. It is as neurologically significant as adolescence. And it is almost entirely absent from the professional conversation. That's what this podcast is about.

💡 Motherhood isn't a hindrance to your career, it's a accelerator. Research proves it's a neurological upgrade. 💡

Each episode, we take one thing about motherhood and work that doesn't hold up under scrutiny and break it down properly. Research, lived experience, and honest conversation about what it actually means when your identity is shifting in the middle of everything else.

If this helps even one woman feel a little less conflicted and a little less alone, it will have been worth every second.

]]>https://riverside.comRiverside.fm (https://riverside.com)Wed, 15 Apr 2026 08:04:57 GMTMon, 30 Mar 2026 20:44:06 GMT60Rose Soffel and Bianca Bass<p>Matrescence Unfiltered is LIVE, a new podcast exploring motherhood, career, identity and ambition. ✨</p><p>We made this for the woman who loves her career and may be dreaming of becoming a mum, expecting, or already raising little ones. For the woman who couldn't find content that spoke to both motherhood and ambition at once.</p><p>We're Bianca and Rose. A Chief Marketing Officer in her third trimester and a coach, consultant and organisational psychology researcher specialising in matrescence and sustainable high performance.</p><p>We've been friends since we were teenagers, the first of the great neurological shifts of a woman's life, as it happens.</p><p>Matrescence is the transition into motherhood. It is as neurologically significant as adolescence. And it is almost entirely absent from the professional conversation. That's what this podcast is about.</p><p>💡 Motherhood isn't a hindrance to your career, it's a accelerator. Research proves it's a neurological upgrade. 💡</p><p>Each episode, we take one thing about motherhood and work that doesn't hold up under scrutiny and break it down properly. Research, lived experience, and honest conversation about what it actually means when your identity is shifting in the middle of everything else.</p><p>If this helps even one woman feel a little less conflicted and a little less alone, it will have been worth every second.</p>episodicRose Soffel and Bianca Bassrose@soffelhaus.cono<![CDATA[The First Trimester: Hiding, Exhaustion, and Questioning the "12-Week Rule"]]>Content note: this episode includes a brief discussion of baby loss and miscarriage.

You're pregnant. You know. And for the next twelve weeks, nobody else can.

Episode three lives inside the most neurobiologically intense period of the entire matrescence journey. And the one most women are expected to navigate entirely alone. The nausea, the exhaustion, the brain fog, the hypervigilance. All of it happening beneath the surface while you sit in meetings, hit your targets, and perform a version of yourself that no longer quite exists.

Rose makes the case that the twelve-week rule, the social convention that asks women to conceal early pregnancy until the risk of loss has passed, is one of the cruellest contradictions in modern working life. Bianca shares what it actually felt like to be in it. The survival instinct that kicked in not despite the pregnancy but because of it. The doubling down. The determination to protect something that nobody around her even knew existed yet.

If you've ever sat in a room full of people, carrying the biggest thing that has ever happened to you, and said absolutely nothing, this episode is for you.

]]>23b63be6-5ec4-430e-9e12-3aa76a61571dTue, 14 Apr 2026 04:00:00 GMT<p><i>Content note: this episode includes a brief discussion of baby loss and miscarriage.</i></p><p></p><p>You're pregnant. You know. And for the next twelve weeks, nobody else can.</p><p></p><p>Episode three lives inside the most neurobiologically intense period of the entire matrescence journey. And the one most women are expected to navigate entirely alone. The nausea, the exhaustion, the brain fog, the hypervigilance. All of it happening beneath the surface while you sit in meetings, hit your targets, and perform a version of yourself that no longer quite exists.</p><p></p><p>Rose makes the case that the twelve-week rule, the social convention that asks women to conceal early pregnancy until the risk of loss has passed, is one of the cruellest contradictions in modern working life. Bianca shares what it actually felt like to be in it. The survival instinct that kicked in not despite the pregnancy but because of it. The doubling down. The determination to protect something that nobody around her even knew existed yet.</p><p></p><p>If you've ever sat in a room full of people, carrying the biggest thing that has ever happened to you, and said absolutely nothing, this episode is for you.</p>yes00:39:503The First Trimester: Hiding, Exhaustion, and Questioning the "12-Week Rule"full<![CDATA[The Plan: Trying, “Failing”, and the Reality of Trimester Zero]]>Before the positive test. Before the announcement. Before anyone around you knows. There's a chapter of matrescence that almost nobody talks about - and it might be the most isolating one of all.

Episode two goes back to the beginning. The deliberation of whether to have a child at all. The silence around trying. The questions you carry quietly - often alone, often whilst sitting in a meeting pretending everything is fine.

Bianca shares her own journey - from burying the thought of motherhood throughout her twenties, to coming off the pill after fifteen years, to confronting what she actually wanted.

Rose brings the research: why the data on fertility, careers, and workplace support is far bleaker than most employers realise - and why one in five people undergoing fertility treatment leave their jobs because nobody asks.

Together, we're asking why one of the most universal human experiences is still something most women feel they have to hide from their employers, their colleagues, and sometimes even themselves. And we're retiring a word that's never done this chapter justice.

]]>0cbbfe00-5e09-4179-acc5-2f3f05a2fc3eThu, 09 Apr 2026 04:00:00 GMT<p>Before the positive test. Before the announcement. Before anyone around you knows. There's a chapter of matrescence that almost nobody talks about - and it might be the most isolating one of all.</p><p></p><p>Episode two goes back to the beginning. The deliberation of whether to have a child at all. The silence around trying. The questions you carry quietly - often alone, often whilst sitting in a meeting pretending everything is fine. </p><p></p><p>Bianca shares her own journey - from burying the thought of motherhood throughout her twenties, to coming off the pill after fifteen years, to confronting what she actually wanted. </p><p></p><p>Rose brings the research: why the data on fertility, careers, and workplace support is far bleaker than most employers realise - and why one in five people undergoing fertility treatment leave their jobs because nobody asks.</p><p></p><p>Together, we're asking why one of the most universal human experiences is still something most women feel they have to hide from their employers, their colleagues, and sometimes even themselves. And we're retiring a word that's never done this chapter justice.</p>no00:43:082The Plan: Trying, “Failing”, and the Reality of Trimester Zerofull<![CDATA[The Upgrade: What Matrescence Is and Why It Matters]]>Matrescence, the shift into motherhood, is one of the most significant neurological and identity transformations of a woman's adult life. And it is almost entirely absent from the professional conversation.

Your brain literally rewires. Your sense of self restructures. And the world around you acts like nothing happened, or worse, like you've lost something.

This episode is where we set the record straight. What matrescence actually is, why the science has been so slow to catch up, and what it means to stop trying to bounce back and start asking what you're becoming instead.

Consider this your orientation.

]]>42bd62b8-e777-42fb-832b-ecdedfaa6062Thu, 02 Apr 2026 08:44:17 GMT<p>Matrescence, the shift into motherhood, is one of the most significant neurological and identity transformations of a woman's adult life. And it is almost entirely absent from the professional conversation.</p><p></p><p>Your brain literally rewires. Your sense of self restructures. And the world around you acts like nothing happened, or worse, like you've lost something.</p><p></p><p>This episode is where we set the record straight. What matrescence actually is, why the science has been so slow to catch up, and what it means to stop trying to bounce back and start asking what you're becoming instead.</p><p>Consider this your orientation.</p>no00:50:011The Upgrade: What Matrescence Is and Why It Mattersfull