Get a Life is a podcast for women who have spent years meeting expectations, caring for others, and holding everything together—and who are ready to build a life that feels rich, interesting, and fully their own.
Hosted by well-being coach and researcher, Jackie Oña Cascarano, the show explores what actually helps women flourish in mid-life, from reclaiming curiosity and adventure to questioning the cultural scripts that equate productivity with a life well lived.
Blending positive psychology, cultural insight, and real-life experimentation (including Jackie’s own “Adventure Year”), Get a Life examines what actually makes a life feel rich and fulfilling. From the science of well-being and psychological richness to the role of hobbies, creativity, and everyday exploration, each episode offers ideas and inspiration for building a life that is not just productive—but interesting, adventurous, and authentically your own.
Resilience, Reinvention, and the Dreams We Outgrow
Why do some people move through setbacks with resilience while others find themselves stuck? In this last episode of Season 1, Jackie explores the science of resilience and the protective factors that help us navigate adversity, from relationships and optimism to self-efficacy, perspective, and purpose. Jackie also shares her story of a professional setback that left her bitter, angry, and firmly planted in what she calls “the land of stuck” -- and the surprising full-circle moment nine years...
27 Jul 2026
Get Out of Your Comfort Zone: The Science of "Everyday Adventure"
What if the adventure you're craving doesn't require six months in Italy or a triathlon-training plan? In this episode, Jackie introduces the concept of the "everyday adventure" — micro-moments of discomfort, woven into ordinary life, that deliver the same psychological payoff as the grand, Indiana-Jones version of adventure, minus the leave of absence and the neglected family. Jackie breaks down why traditional adventure has been structurally out of reach for high-achieving women in mid-life...
13 Jul 2026
The Woman Behind Van Gogh: Jo Piazza on Travel, Art Heists, and not-so Solitary Male Genius
Bestselling author, journalist, and podcaster Jo Piazza joins Jackie for a conversation about adventure, creativity, travel, and badass women. The conversation dives into Jo's new novel, The Parisian Heist, the remarkable true story of Jo Van Gogh— the woman largely responsible for Vincent van Gogh's enduring legacy— and the often-overlooked contributions of women throughout history. Jo offers her take on the myth of the "solitary male genius" and the conversation explores the mental load wom...
29 Jun 2026
It's Time to Rebrand Hobbies
Somewhere along the way, we started believing hobbies were frivolous, self-indulgent, or reserved for people with more free time than we have. But the science tells a very different story. In this episode, Jackie unpacks the surprising research behind hobbies and why they're linked to greater happiness, stronger relationships, better health, deeper purpose, and a richer sense of identity. She also explores why so many high-achieving women recoil (ahem, get the serious ick) at the very word ho...
15 Jun 2026
The Myth of the Productive Woman: Why We Can't Have Nice Things
What would you do if you had one hour of genuinely free, discretionary time? Not a lunch break spent half-checking email. Not a bath interrupted by small humans asking for snacks. One hour that was actually, completely yours. If your thoughts immediately go to your to-do list... that's what this episode is about. In the latest episode of Get a Life, host Jackie Oña Cascarano explores the science behind women's disproportionate experience of "time scarcity," how busyness became a c...
2 Jun 2026
What Makes a Life Rich? Shige Oishi on Life in Three Dimensions
You're not unhappy. You're not unfulfilled. But something is missing — and you can't quite name it. In this episode of Get a Life, Jackie Oña Cascarano chats with Dr. Shigehiro Oishi, Marshall Field Professor of Psychology at the University of Chicago and author of Life in Three Dimensions. For decades, psychology has answered, "what makes a life good?" in two ways: a happy life or a meaningful one. But Professor Oishi has introduced a groundbreaking third dimension: psychological richn...
19 May 2026
4,000 Mondays: Jodi Wellman on How to Be Astonishingly Alive
On this episode of Get a Life, Jackie Oña Cascarano chats with Jodi Wellman, former corporate executive, popular TED speaker, and author of You Only Die Once: How to Make It to the End with No Regrets, about why remembering you're going to die might be the single most powerful tool you have for actually living. Jodi takes the ancient practice of memento mori and turns it into a refreshingly funny, practical framework for intentional living, and this conversation hits at the heart of wha...
3 May 2026
The Five Things You Need to Actually Thrive
In this episode of Get a Life, Jackie Oña Cascarano explores one of the most influential frameworks in positive psychology, the PERMA model of well-being, and how it can bring more vibrancy and richness to mid-life for high-achieving women looking to expand beyond productivity and caretaking. Martin Seligman's PERMA model outlines the five science-backed dimensions of human flourishing: Positive Emotion, Engagement, Relationships, Meaning, and Accomplishment. While many high-achieving, ambiti...
19 Apr 2026
Adventure Year: You Can’t Be an Interesting Person If You Don’t Do Interesting Things
In this episode of Get a Life, Jackie Oña Cascarano introduces Adventure Year: her personal experiment in building a more interesting life through hobbies, curiosity, and everyday adventures. After realizing that her life had become highly productive but not particularly interesting, Jackie began exploring a concept from positive psychology called psychological richness, a dimension of well-being characterized by novel and perspective-changing experiences. Many high-achieving women ...
6 Apr 2026
Why Women Need to “Get a Life”
Why do so many high-achieving women feel like their lives are full… yet somehow small? In the first episode of Get a Life, Jackie Oña Cascarano explores why high-achieving women in mid-life often find themselves trapped in cycles of productivity, caregiving, and responsibility that leave little room for curiosity, adventure, or personal exploration. Drawing on research from positive psychology, Jackie introduces three different ways scientists think about a life well-lived: the happy life, th...
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