Dishing on Divorce Podcast

dishingondivorce

Dishing on Divorce: Sharing Stories and Empowering Lives is a podcast by Deanna Coyle and Mandy Pullen Barr, two best friends and single mothers who have experienced divorce. In this series, they share the ups and downs of rebuilding their lives, offering a mix of personal insights and expert advice. Each episode features a guest who educates listeners on relevant topics or inspires them with powerful personal stories. This podcast is a valuable resource for anyone seeking guidance, inspiration, and a sense of community as they embark on the transformative journey of divorce.

  1. 3d ago

    Reverse Mortgages, Divorce & the Power of Home Equity with Laura Phillips

    What if the equity in your home could give you more options during divorce and retirement than you realized? In this episode of Dishing on Divorce, Mandy and Deanna sit down with Laura Phillips, a licensed Reverse Mortgage Specialist in Colorado with more than 25 years of experience in real estate lending, to demystify reverse mortgages and explore how they can be used as part of a broader financial strategy. Reverse mortgages have changed significantly over the years, yet many of the old misconceptions remain. Laura explains how today’s reverse mortgages work, who may qualify, the protections now built into the process, and why she views home equity as a financial tool that deserves a place in retirement planning conversations. The conversation gets especially interesting when it comes to divorce later in life. Laura shares how a reverse mortgage may help someone 62 or older: • Access equity to buy out a spouse and remain in the marital home • Purchase a new home after divorce without using their entire nest egg • Create a line of credit for future retirement expenses • Improve cash flow without a required monthly mortgage payment • Fund home modifications or in-home care to support aging in place • Preserve other retirement assets for future needs Laura also explains negative amortization, non-recourse protection, FHA mortgage insurance, reverse mortgages for purchase, what happens when the homeowner eventually sells or passes away, and situations where a reverse mortgage may not make financial sense. Most importantly, this episode is about asking a bigger question: What can your home do for you? Whether you are navigating a gray divorce, planning for retirement, considering whether to keep your home, or simply curious about how home equity fits into your financial future, this conversation may introduce options you did not know existed. Connect with Laura: https://lauraphillips.com/ Connect with Mandy and Deanna: concierge@vestadivorce.com

  2. Aug 3

    Can Child Support and Alimony Be Insured? | Ron Platt

    What happens when personal experience, family advocacy, and a decades-long idea come together to create something families truly need? In this episode of Dishing on Divorce, Mandy and Deanna welcome Ron Platt, CEO and co-founder of the National Association for Single and Divorced Families, also known as NASDF. Ron shares the deeply personal experiences that inspired him to create an organization dedicated to supporting people navigating divorce and life in a single-family household. From his own long-term toxic relationship to his experience as a foster and adoptive parent, Ron saw firsthand how difficult it can be for families to find practical resources before reaching a crisis point. The conversation explores the wide range of NASDF membership benefits, including mental health support, career resources, real estate savings, family discounts, and access to a dedicated divorce concierge service. Ron also explains Support Insured, an innovative product designed to help protect court-ordered child support and alimony payments when the paying party dies, becomes disabled, experiences involuntary unemployment, or faces business bankruptcy. They also discuss healing after divorce, the importance of taking time before entering a new relationship, journaling, meditation, and learning to get comfortable being uncomfortable. This heartfelt and hopeful conversation is about much more than divorce. It is about creating stability, finding the right support, and empowering families to move forward with greater confidence. Learn more about NASDF: https://www.nasdf.org/ Learn more about Support Insured: https://www.nasdf.org/benefits/child-support-alimony-insurance

  3. Jul 20

    Gaslighting, Control, and High-Conflict Divorce with Eleanor Marks

    High-conflict divorce is not simply a difficult breakup. It can be a relentless battle marked by manipulation, gaslighting, financial control, smear campaigns, and the painful realization that the person you once trusted may be willing to use anything—including your children—to maintain power. In this powerful episode of Dishing on Divorce, Mandy and Deanna sit down with Eleanor Marks, a certified high-conflict divorce coach who understands this experience both professionally and personally. Drawing from her own experience surviving a high-conflict divorce, Eleanor shares how gaslighting, financial manipulation, coercive control, smear campaigns, and post-separation abuse can leave people questioning their judgment and feeling completely alone. She explains how to recognize the patterns of a toxic relationship, communicate more strategically, protect your emotional well-being, and prepare for the realities of parallel parenting with someone who does not play fair. The conversation also explores the value of divorce coaching, choosing an attorney who truly understands high-conflict dynamics, reducing emotionally charged communication, and creating settlement strategies that may help limit future conflict. Eleanor’s message is one of strength and possibility: you cannot always change the other person, and you can learn how to protect your peace, regain your confidence, and build a calmer, freer life. If you or someone you know is experiencing a mental health crisis or thoughts of suicide, call or text 988 to reach the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline. Connect with Eleanor: https://eleanormarks.net/ Connect with Deanna and Mandy: concierge@vestadivorce.com

  4. Jul 13

    Single Parenting After Divorce: The Chaos, the Guilt, and the Unexpected Gifts

    Single parenting after divorce can feel like carrying an endless mental checklist while trying to keep your children, your career, your home, and yourself from falling apart. In this candid and deeply personal episode of Dishing on Divorce, Mandy Barr and Deanna Coyle share the realities of parenting after separation—from exhausting commutes, financial stress, forgotten pickups, and complicated schedules to the heartbreak of missing milestones and no longer being with your children every day. Drawing from their own very different divorce and co-parenting experiences, Mandy and Deanna explore what it means to be the default parent, how parenting roles can shift after divorce, and why even cooperative co-parenting requires communication, flexibility, vulnerability, and tremendous effort. They also discuss repairing moments when stress comes out sideways, apologizing to your children, recognizing personal triggers, and letting go of the pressure to be the perfect parent. Along the way, they share practical strategies such as shared online calendars, visual schedules for younger children, maintaining meaningful traditions, attending school meetings together, and creating consistency between two homes. This honest conversation is a reminder that good parenting does not mean getting every moment right. It means being willing to reflect, communicate, repair, and keep showing up with love. Single parenting may be overwhelming, messy, and unpredictable—and it can also create deeper relationships, greater resilience, and a powerful appreciation for the time you share with your children. You are not failing. You are learning, adapting, and doing the best you can with what you know today. Connect with Mandy and Deanna: concierge@vestadivorce.com

  5. Jul 6

    The Divorce Money Map: Financial Clarity Through Life’s Hardest Transitions with Donna Kendrick

    When life changes in an instant, the decisions that follow can feel impossible, and some conversations about finding your way through those moments stay with you long after they end. This episode with Donna Kendrick, CFP®, CDFA®, is one of them. Donna understands what it means to stand in the middle of life-altering change and not know what comes next. After becoming a young widow with three children, Donna rebuilt her life one decision at a time. Today, she uses that experience, along with her financial expertise, to help others navigate divorce, widowhood, and major life transitions with greater clarity, confidence, and support. In this heartfelt episode of Dishing on Divorce, Mandy and Deanna sit down with Donna Kendrick, CFP®, CDFA®, founder of Sephton Financial, co-host of the Widow Wisdom and Wealth podcast, and author of The Divorce Money Map. Donna shares the personal story that shaped her work: becoming a young widow in 2013 after the sudden loss of her husband, Greg, while raising three young children. Through grief, uncertainty, and the overwhelming financial decisions that followed, Donna found support from a financial advisor who helped her slow down, understand what needed immediate attention, and begin rebuilding her life. That experience ultimately inspired Donna to become a Certified Financial Planner and later a Certified Divorce Financial Analyst, helping others navigate major life transitions with both financial clarity and deep compassion. Together, Donna, Mandy, and Deanna have an honest conversation about widowhood, divorce, blended families, mental health, financial planning, and the emotional weight of making major decisions during crisis. Donna also shares insights from her newest book, The Divorce Money Map, a practical workbook designed to help people organize their finances before, during, and after divorce. In this episode, they discuss why not all assets are equal, the importance of understanding the “quality of money,” why people need the right professionals in the right roles, and how financial clarity can help reduce costly mistakes. This conversation is tender, wise, practical, and full of heart. Donna reminds us that while we cannot control every part of life’s hardest transitions, we can focus on our next best minute, lean into the right support, and move forward with greater strength, clarity, and hope. Connect with Donna: https://sephtonfinancial.com/ Free Gift: https://donnajeankendrick.com/6-week-challenge/ Connect with Deanna and Mandy: concierge@vestadivorce.com

  6. Jun 29

    Before Divorce: Can Your Marriage Be Saved? with Dr. Chavonne Perotte

    Before someone decides to divorce, there is often a sacred and painful question sitting beneath the surface: Have I done everything I can? In this episode of Dishing on Divorce, we are joined by Dr. Chavonne Perotte, a life and marriage coach who helps individuals and couples slow down, look beneath the surface of conflict, and understand what is really happening in their relationship. This conversation is for anyone standing at the crossroads of marriage and divorce. Maybe you are wondering whether your marriage can be repaired. Maybe you feel emotionally exhausted and unsure whether you are making decisions from clarity or from pain. Maybe you have tried therapy, avoided hard conversations, repeated the same arguments, or quietly carried resentment for years. Dr. Chavonne offers a compassionate and deeply grounded perspective on what it means to take personal responsibility, understand relationship patterns, create emotional safety, and decide what comes next from a place of honesty rather than fear. Whether the path forward is repair, discernment, separation, or divorce, this episode is a reminder that clarity and healing are possible, and even the hardest relationship decisions can be approached with grace, intention, and care. Connect with Dr. Chavonne: https://drchavonne.com/ Connect with Mandy and Deanna: concierge@vestadivorce.com

  7. Jun 22

    Finding Yourself Again After Divorce and Heartbreak with Deborah Knight

    What if the hardest part of divorce or heartbreak isn’t losing the relationship, but realizing how much of yourself you lost along the way? In this heartfelt episode of Dishing on Divorce, Mandy and Deanna reconnect with longtime friend and colleague Deborah Knight, relationship coach, motivational speaker, and author of Disconnected Self: A Soul Parable for Women Ready to Return to Themselves. Deborah shares the deeper “why” behind her work: helping women recognize the patterns that keep them feeling unseen, disconnected, and misaligned with who they truly are. Through her experience as a coach, matchmaker, healer, and guide, Deborah has seen the same themes appear across generations — women saying yes when they mean no, silencing their needs, staying small, and losing themselves in relationships, work, caregiving, or life transitions. Together, Mandy, Deanna, and Deborah explore what it means to come back to yourself after heartbreak, divorce, or any major life shift. They discuss boundaries, self-trust, dating after divorce, loneliness, spiritual healing, meditation, joy, and the power of asking for help. This conversation is a beautiful reminder that healing is not about becoming someone new. It is about remembering who you were before life, fear, heartbreak, and expectation caused you to disconnect from yourself. Deborah leaves listeners with a simple but powerful piece of wisdom: “Smile. It sets a lot of things straight.” Connect with Deborah: coachdeborahknight@gmail.com Get Deborah's Book: https://www.amazon.com/Disconnected-Self-Parable-Return-Themselves Connect with Deanna and Mandy: concierge@vestadivorce.com

  8. Jun 15

    Divorce, AI, and the Truth About Confidentiality with Amanda DuBois, Esq.

    What you share with AI, your journal, or even a divorce coach may not be as private as you think. In this episode of Dishing on Divorce, we sit down with Amanda DuBois, Esq., family law attorney, author, advocate, and founder of DuBois Law Office, one of the longest-standing women-owned law firms in the Pacific Northwest. Amanda’s career has taken her from high-risk labor and delivery nursing to medical malpractice law, family law, fiction writing, and criminal legal reform. Her unique background gives her a powerful lens on the value of human life, the emotional complexity of divorce, and the systems that shape people’s lives. In this conversation, Amanda shares why people going through divorce need to be extremely careful about what they share with tools like ChatGPT, why AI-generated legal strategy can create more work and cost more money, and why not everything shared with a divorce coach, journal, or online tool is protected or confidential. We also explore Amanda’s award-winning Camille Delaney mystery series, including The Complication and Unshackled, as well as her advocacy for formerly incarcerated mothers working to reunite with their children. This is a thoughtful, eye-opening conversation about law, privacy, justice, resilience, and holding onto your vision even when life does not unfold as planned. Connect with Amanda: https://amandadubois.com/ Connect with Deanna and Mandy: concierge@vestadivorce.com

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About

Dishing on Divorce: Sharing Stories and Empowering Lives is a podcast by Deanna Coyle and Mandy Pullen Barr, two best friends and single mothers who have experienced divorce. In this series, they share the ups and downs of rebuilding their lives, offering a mix of personal insights and expert advice. Each episode features a guest who educates listeners on relevant topics or inspires them with powerful personal stories. This podcast is a valuable resource for anyone seeking guidance, inspiration, and a sense of community as they embark on the transformative journey of divorce.

Information

  • Creator
    dishingondivorce
  • Years Active
    2024 - 2026
  • Episodes
    89
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Copyright 2024 All rights reserved.
  • Show Website
    Dishing on Divorce Podcast

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