Honest yaps that call out & celebrate our inner tryhards.
Two best friends navigating adulthood, ambition, identity, and the messy beauty of caring deeply and trying hard — with microphones.
Hosted by Amanda & Monica
Latest Episodes
Come Sit With Us
Do You Want Kids? On Choosing Parenthood, Social Pressure, and Inherited Expectations
Did you decide to have children — or did you just assume you would?
May 19, 2026 · 51 min
Who Are You Without Your Job? On Burnout, Career Identity, and Starting Over (with Sandra Wang)
Who are you without your job title? It's a question most high achievers never stop long enough to ask.Sandra Wang did — not by choice, but because burnout and a pandemic layoff left her with nothing else to sit with.
May 11, 2026 · 50 min
Love in Your Thirties: On Dating, Heartbreak, and Relearning Love as a Millennial
The relationship patterns you build in your twenties don't just disappear. They follow you until something or someone finally makes you look at them.In this Trying Very Hard episode, Amanda and Monica get honest about dating in your twenties versus your thirties — the loves that shaped them, the ...
May 4, 2026 · 58 min
When Fitness Is Coping: On Disordered Eating, Body Image, and Unlearning (with Naz Schifra)
What if the body you're trying to build is the one that's slowly breaking you down?
Apr 27, 2026 · 46 min
Sober Curious Movement: On Drinking Culture, Social Pressure, and Why We Default to Alcohol
Why are we so weird about not drinking?In this episode of Trying Very Hard, we get into the sober curious movement, drinking culture, social pressure, and why alcohol still feels like the default setting for socializing, dating, celebrating, and everything in between — even when fewer of us actua...
Apr 20, 2026 · 44 min
Who We Are
The Tryhards Behind the Pod
We're Amanda and Monica — a therapist and a startup founder, two third culture kids in Singapore, and best friends who think too much, laugh too hard, and care too deeply. This podcast is our attempt to do it out loud.
Equal parts rigor, wit, and wildly contagious curiosity. Amanda is an integrative mind-body therapist and the founder of Somi Therapy, helping people who think too much, feel too much, and take on too much — then wonder why they're exhausted. She draws from psychology, neuroscience, trauma theory, coaching, and somatic practice, because surface-level has never been her thing. Before becoming a therapist, she spent years in strategy roles across education, microfinance, and consulting. She's the friend who makes you believe in yourself — and now you get to have her in your ears.
One of the coolest, sharpest, and strongest women you'll meet — and she'll hype you up, call out your bullshit, and ask the one question that cuts right to the truth. Monica is the co-founder of Nona Woman, a platform breaking period stigma and creating space for women in Indonesia to feel seen, heard, and educated. She holds an MBA from London Business School and has worked across EY-Parthenon, public health innovation, startups, and product marketing. She's generous, smart, hilarious, and made of what we suspect is 0% body fat and 100% discipline.
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Guest pitches, brand partnerships, episode ideas, or a message that starts with "I just listened to your episode and..." — all welcome.