Bewildered Podcast By Martha Beck and Rowan Mangan cover art

Bewildered

Bewildered

By: Martha Beck and Rowan Mangan
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What if we stopped listening to the controlling voice of the culture around us, and instead learned to reconnect with our own true nature?

Sometimes we aren’t even sure why we feel so bewildered… and discontented… and even downright miserable. Often it’s because we have let the forces of society replace our own instinctive knowledge of what is right for us.

Now, it’s time for us to find that voice again—before it’s too late.

For Martha and Rowan, Job One is to live according to our deepest truths, making the commitment to feeling good even when it means looking weird. We believe that this is how we will reinvent our world—from the inside out— to create a society that’s kinder, more equitable, and more ecologically sustainable than the one we see around us right now.

This is the vision that we laugh and stumble and chat and feel our way towards here on this podcast. Did we mention LAUGH? We want no part of personal and global transformation if it isn’t fun!

So if you struggle to find a place where people who are as idealistic and brokenhearted, as silly and deeply sincere, as bewildered as you are—you might have just arrived.

Welcome!

2026 Martha Beck and Rowan Mangan Economics Education Leadership Management & Leadership Personal Development Personal Success
Episodes
  • Nature, Take the Wheel

    Nature, Take the Wheel
    Mar 25 2026

    When life as you know it crumbles—lost jobs, shaken identities, houses (literal or figurative) in rubble—what if you’re not meant to rebuild the old structure at all? In this episode of Bewildered, we're exploring our deep attachment to “putting it back how it was,” how culture teaches us to fear impermanence, and what becomes possible when we let Nature “take the wheel” to allow something entirely new to emerge. Tune in to grieve, rethink, and reimagine what the next chapter of your life could be.

    CONNECT WITH US

    • Follow Martha on Instagram
    • The Bewildered Show Notes
    • Follow Ro on Instagram
    • Follow Bewildered on Instagram

    See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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    1 hr and 4 mins
  • End Times and Errands

    End Times and Errands
    Mar 11 2026

    How do you continue doing ordinary human-life things while the world feels like it’s collapsing in real time?

    That's what we're trying to figure out on this episode of Bewildered. We talk about ping‑ponging between school runs, summer camp registration, doctor's appointments, and breaking-news notifications that feel like the apocalypse is upon us. If you've been feeling caught in this same unnerving and exhausting back-and-forth, this episode is for you. Tune in and we'll come to our senses together.

    CONNECT WITH US

    • Follow Martha on Instagram
    • The Bewildered Show Notes
    • Follow Ro on Instagram
    • Follow Bewildered on Instagram

    CREDITS
    Wandering The Path by Punch Deck | https://soundcloud.com/punch-deck
    Music promoted by https://www.free-stock-music.com
    Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License

    See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
    Show more Show less
    1 hr and 16 mins
  • Surrender to the Season

    Surrender to the Season
    Feb 25 2026

    How are you weathering the season you’re in?

    In this episode of Bewildered, we talk about what it really means to surrender to the season, whether it’s an upstate New York winter, perimenopause, a busy parenting era, or the “my foot hurts and I think my gums are receding” phase of life. We talk about how culture tries to flatten all seasons into one endless, brightly lit, 69-degrees-and-productive-all-the-time moment, and why our bodies, souls, and sanity refuse to go along with that plan.​ Join us!

    CONNECT WITH US

    • Follow Martha on Instagram
    • The Bewildered Show Notes
    • Follow Ro on Instagram
    • Follow Bewildered on Instagram

    CREDITS
    Wandering The Path by Punch Deck | https://soundcloud.com/punch-deck
    Music promoted by https://www.free-stock-music.com
    Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License

    See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
    Show more Show less
    1 hr
All stars
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I would give this podcast a 10 if I could! I found this podcast after reading 4 of Martha’s books and they found me in the lowest period of my life and gave me the courage to get up and try again.I’d recommend this podcast to any adult trying to figure themselves and society out and all of the different aspects that goes on between them both.There is also so much love between these two woman it makes their show such an easy listen with a truly heartfelt message.They honestly give a shit about the world and what’s going on in and around it!

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I love Martha Beck, been reading her articles in O magazine for years. However, the sound is terrible. The ads and her introduction are perfect, but the actual recorded conversation with Ro is too soft, Even with the volume all way up, I cannot hear this podcast unless I am right next to my tablet. Unfortunately, I give up trying to hear what they are saying and am moving on.

Wish I could hear it

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