The Uncommons

Parisa Bady

The Uncommons is a podcast about what it really takes to find fulfillment in marriage, family, business, and life. Through honest conversations and lived experience, the podcast explores the dualities of modern life: individuality and partnership, freedom and commitment, ambition and family. And what it truly takes to build something meaningful. From marriage and parenting to identity, ambition, and everything in between, each episode dives into the everyday challenges people don’t talk about and the growth that comes from facing them. This is not about perfect relationships or easy answers. It’s about navigating the tension between who you are and who you’re becoming, learning how to grow together instead of apart, and building a life rooted in connection, responsibility, and intention. Through personal stories and conversations with guests who have lived through real challenges, The Uncommons offers a deeper perspective on love, family, and what it means to live a truly fulfilling life. Hosted by Parisa and Pej Bady.

  1. 2 days ago

    Your Financial Ceiling Has Nothing to Do With Money | Ep 25

    What if your financial ceiling has nothing to do with how hard you work? In this episode, we talk about the beliefs underneath our relationship with money: fear of losing it, fear of not having enough, the messages we inherited from our families, the way we view wealthy people, and the deeper question of whether we actually feel worthy of having more. Pej shares the financial ups and downs of entrepreneurship, including a period when his businesses were losing hundreds of thousands of dollars a month, and how those experiences forced him to examine the fear and scarcity he had carried long before those losses ever happened. We also explore our own conflicting beliefs around wealth: the desire to have more while being taught not to need much, wanting abundance while admiring detachment, and pursuing financial success without allowing money to become our identity. Eventually the conversation becomes less about money itself and more about what money reveals: our fears, our self worth, our inherited beliefs, and our ability to move from contraction into trust. Can you pursue wealth without becoming attached to it? Can abundance and spirituality exist together? And what changes when you stop believing your worth is tied to what you have? 🔔 The Uncommons is where we have the conversations people usually have behind closed doors about marriage, family, money, identity, faith, and what it takes to build a meaningful life.

  2. 10 Sept

    Interfaith Marriage: Answering Your Real Questions About Making It Work | Ep 24

    After our first interfaith marriage episode, thousands of comments came in: some full of hate, many full of genuine questions from people privately navigating the same situation. In this episode, we sit down and answer the real ones: how we designed a wedding ceremony that honored both faiths, why neither of us converted and the specific reason that had everything to do with what we wanted to model for our children, how we navigate holidays and family traditions across two religions, and how we created our own value system before we got married, a document we literally call our Bible. We also talk about why we chose a Christian school for our son, what Pej's experience growing up Jewish in a Muslim country taught him about religious segregation, and why we believe shared values will always matter more than shared religion. If you're in an interfaith relationship and wondering if it can work, this one is for you.

  3. 3 Sept

    The Guilt Nobody Talks About When You Outgrow Your Friends | Ep 23

    Nobody warns you about the guilt that can come with outgrowing your friends. Sometimes nobody did anything wrong. You still love the person, value the history, and miss who you were together. But somewhere along the way, you grew apart. And admitting that can somehow feel like a betrayal in itself. In this episode, we talk honestly about outgrowing friendships and the complicated guilt that can come with changing. When is loyalty really loyalty, and when is it guilt? What happens when your values, priorities, or life begin moving in a different direction from the people you've always loved? And at what point does loyalty to an old friendship become disloyalty to the person you're becoming? We explore Pej's warrior vs. wizard framework for thinking about relationships, why shared history doesn't always create a shared future, the Sufi idea of the people in our lives as mirrors, and whether some friendships need to end or simply change shape. Because letting go of a friendship doesn't erase what it gave you. You can love someone, miss them, and be deeply grateful for a chapter of your life while accepting that you may not be meant to keep rereading it forever. If you've ever felt yourself growing apart from someone you love and felt guilty for even admitting it, this conversation is for you.

  4. 27 Aug

    We Homeschooled for Two Years. Now We're Not So Sure | Ep22

    Two years ago we made a decision most people in our lives didn't fully understand.. we pulled our kids out of school and committed to homeschooling completely. Two years later we're sitting with a question we didn't expect to be asking: did we get it right? In this episode we get honest about what two years of homeschooling actually gave our kids, what it cost them, and what it cost us, including the moment Parisa realized she was oscillating between pride and doubt about the same child thirty minutes apart. We talk about the tension between raising free thinkers and raising disciplined kids, why homeschooling made us the enforcers in our own home, and how the spiritual concept surrender became the only framework that made this decision feel possible. We don't resolve it cleanly. But we stay honest all the way through.

  5. 20 Aug

    The Prenup That Almost Broke Our Marriage: Do We Still Need It? (10 Years Later) | Ep 21

    Before we got married, he asked for a prenup. I couldn't sign it. Not because I didn't trust him, but because everything I believed about love, faith, and marriage made the idea of a prenuptial agreement feel like a betrayal of what we were building together. It nearly ended our relationship before our marriage even started. Nearly ten years later, that prenup is still valid. In this episode, we sit down together to ask the question we've never asked out loud: do we still need it? We talk about why he wanted it, why I resisted, what it revealed about how differently we viewed love, money, trust, and security, and what it cost our relationship in those early months. But this conversation goes beyond whether you should get a prenup. We get into the deeper question underneath it all: can a legal contract and complete trust exist in the same marriage? Or does one always undermine the other? And after nearly a decade of marriage, building a family, and building a life together, do the reasons we had for signing that agreement still apply to the people we've become? By the end of this episode, we make a decision. Together. In real time. You'll have to listen to find out what we choose. The Uncommons is a podcast for people who are done with surface-level answers and want to explore what it really takes to build a meaningful life. Every Thursday, we have honest conversations about relationships, identity, family, purpose, and the choices that shape who we become. If these conversations resonate with you, subscribe and join us each week as we keep asking the questions that don't have simple answers.

  6. 13 Aug

    Fear of Rejection: Why Being Seen Feels So Dangerous | Ep 20

    A few weeks ago, my aunt called to tell me the community had found the podcast. I spent the next week confronting a fear of rejection and an anxiety I hadn't felt in years... not because I had done something wrong, but because being seen by people who knew me felt far more threatening than being seen by strangers. In this episode, we explore why the fear of rejection and the fear of being seen aren't personal flaws, and how hiding yourself can be a completely rational response to growing up inside a culture where other people's opinions carry real consequences. We talk about the voice I internalized from childhood, why Parisa questions whether Brené Brown's framework on vulnerability fully accounts for what visibility costs inside collectivist cultures, and what it actually took to decide that being seen was worth whatever it cost. We close with a declaration to anyone who wants us to stay hidden; one of the most honest things we've said on this podcast.

  7. 6 Aug

    Your Relationship With Food Reveals Who You Are | Ep 19

    We are four days into a cleanse as we record this. And by day two, what surfaced had nothing to do with hunger. In this episode, we explore what your relationship with food actually reveals about your relationship with every desire in your life, and why the way you respond to a craving tells you more about who you are than almost anything else. Pej brings his four-layer bridge connecting the gut-brain axis, neuroscience, Ayurveda, and Sufism to explain what actually happens emotionally when we cleanse, and we explore why self discipline around food has never really been about food at all. The question isn't what you're eating. The question is who is doing the choosing.

  8. 30 Jul

    The Identity Crisis Nobody Talks About (When You Lose What Defines You) | EP18

    Who are you without your career? Without your success... Your relationships... Your reputation... Or the roles you've spent your life building? At some point, many of us realize we've confused what we do with who we are. And when life changes—as it inevitably does—it can leave us questioning our identity in ways we never expected. In this episode, we explore the hidden identity crisis that often follows success, major life transitions, and personal loss. Through personal stories, including an experience in a monastery, we discuss why attachment creates suffering, what Sufism and Buddhism teach about the ego, and how letting go of the identities we've built may be the beginning of discovering who we truly are. If you've ever felt like you've built the life you always wanted yet still found yourself searching for something deeper, this conversation is for you.

See All (25)

About

The Uncommons is a podcast about what it really takes to find fulfillment in marriage, family, business, and life. Through honest conversations and lived experience, the podcast explores the dualities of modern life: individuality and partnership, freedom and commitment, ambition and family. And what it truly takes to build something meaningful. From marriage and parenting to identity, ambition, and everything in between, each episode dives into the everyday challenges people don’t talk about and the growth that comes from facing them. This is not about perfect relationships or easy answers. It’s about navigating the tension between who you are and who you’re becoming, learning how to grow together instead of apart, and building a life rooted in connection, responsibility, and intention. Through personal stories and conversations with guests who have lived through real challenges, The Uncommons offers a deeper perspective on love, family, and what it means to live a truly fulfilling life. Hosted by Parisa and Pej Bady.

Information

  • Creator
    Parisa Bady
  • Years Active
    2026
  • Episodes
    25
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Parisa Bady
  • Show Website
    The Uncommons

You Might Also Like