I Put on Makeup. That's The Big Win.

I Put on Makeup. That's The Big Win.

From Different, Not Broken by Lauren "L2" Howard

April 15, 2026 · 20 min · Episode 51

About this episode

In this episode, Lauren discusses her return from a hiatus, the importance of self-care, and navigating grief.

We're back. I put on makeup today. Seriously, that's where we are right now. I took a break — a self-imposed silent hiatus you probably didn't know about, because I had a backlog and I'm nothing if not someone who runs her mouth into a microphone first and asks questions later. But the break is over, and I was not ready to come back today. I was very, very not ready. And yet here we are, because I can do things scared, and apparently that includes walking downstairs and getting in front of the microphone when all I wanted was my best friend. (My kids confirmed my best friend is my bed. They weren't wrong.) In this episode, I'm talking about: — Odin, my 175-pound Great Dane who has exactly one person in this house and it is not me. Until he got scared. Then it was very much me. — A listener question from Talia in Berkeley about how you grieve versions of yourself you never got to become — the careers, the relationships, the risks you didn't take. — My dad's passing in 2016 and what happened in the four months after: every service line that was paying our business's bills disappeared. Every. Single. One. The universe was done with that chapter before I was. This episode is 18…

Topics covered

  • self-care
  • grief
  • mental health
  • personal growth

Keywords

  • makeup
  • Great Dane
  • listener question
  • dad's passing

Mentioned in this episode

Places: Berkeley

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