Hot coffee. A gym membership. A pair of earphones. None of it costs much - and all of it changed everything.

In this episode:

• The thermos flask: The tiny thing that makes me feel like I got the best end of the deal - even at the park on a Tuesday morning.
• The gym: Why I leave the house when my kids do - and what it means to meet them again from a place where I've done something for me.
• Earphones: On protecting the things that make you feel most like yourself, even when time is scarce.

For the mother who knows she doesn't have to choose between being present for her kids and building herself.

You can do both -and it doesn't have to cost a lot.

Ashmita Randhawa is Director of R&D at Sunderland Software City, Visiting Professor at the National Innovation Centre for Data, and Co-Lead at the Hartree Centre.

She has led global teams, holds a PhD, and is deeply passionate about the role of AI and data in shaping what comes next.

She is also a mum to a 7-year-old daughter.

Her mum passed away before she could see her become a mother. That loss is woven through everything - the warmth she brings to every room, the community she builds everywhere she lands, the mother she has chosen to become.

In this episode:→ Building community when your family isn't close — why it requires intentionality→ Raising a daughter across two cultures and making sure she holds both with confidence→ Do-nothing days alongside swimming and dancing - teaching stillness and curiosity in equal measure→ AI, curiosity and how to talk to your children about the world they're actually growing up in→ The legacy of a mother who made everyone feel warm and seen

This one is for the mum building belonging from scratch.

And for anyone who has lost someone and found, quietly, that grief became the thing that grounds them.

Mother's Day just passed. There were flowers. There was cake. And then I went to the gym.

In this episode:

Being celebrated: What it means to receive fully — and why so many mothers rush past it.

This is the life I once dreamed of: Why motherhood is something I never, ever take for granted.

After the cake is eaten: The other part of Mother's Day nobody talks about — pouring into yourself. Deliberately. Unapologetically.

The mum I am becoming: Why the inner work I do on myself is the most important work I do for my children.

For the mother who loves being celebrated — and knows that choosing herself is part of the celebration too.