216: Mental Health at Work with Megan Hammes
The Found Podcast with Molly Knuth
Release Date: 08/20/2025
233: One From the Heart: 4 Women Leading Community Change
The Found Podcast with Molly Knuth
This episode is a little different — and honestly, it might be one of the most important ones I’ve ever shared. Instead of one long-form interview, you’re getting four mini-interviews with women who are quietly (and powerfully) making their communities better — through nonprofit work, community organizing, and the kind of “someone has to do something… so I will” leadership that changes everything. These women were listener-nominated, and every story proves the same thing: You don’t need a massive following or a fancy title to make a difference. You just need the willingness to...
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232: Nourish the Body, Feed the Soul: A Conversation with Whitney Sanger of Project Rooted
The Found Podcast with Molly Knuth
Whitney Sanger isn’t just a nonprofit founder — she’s a mother of seven, a Dubuque native, a communications and storytelling pro, and the kind of woman who sees a gap and refuses to accept “that’s just how it is” as an answer. In this conversation, Whitney shares the very personal journey that shaped her relationship with food, and how that journey eventually turned into — a nonprofit built on the belief that nutrition isn’t only about what’s on the plate… it’s also about connection, dignity, community, and hope. We talk about the moment that sparked her curiosity (a...
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231: The Quiet Work of Changing Lives: How One Small-Town Teacher Serves New Families in Big Ways with Sarah Palmer
The Found Podcast with Molly Knuth
This week’s episode of The Found Podcast isn’t about a flashy brand or a viral business story. It’s about a woman you’ll probably never see on a billboard, but whose work is changing lives quietly, consistently, and deeply in rural Eastern Iowa. In this episode, Molly sits down with Sarah Palmer, an English Language Learning (ELL) teacher in the Western Dubuque Community School District. For the past 18 years, Sarah has been teaching language, yes—but also welcoming refugee and immigrant families, connecting them to food, furniture, transportation, and community support, and modeling...
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230: Small Acts, Big Impact: Rethinking What Community Service Looks Like in 2025
The Found Podcast with Molly Knuth
As we enter December and close out the final month of 2025, this episode brings our year-long exploration of restored, intentional female leadership full circle. We’ve spent the past twelve months talking about presence, friendship, boundaries, nervous system health, community spaces, and the internal work that helps women lead sustainably. This month, we’re turning our attention outward—to the communities we belong to. In this episode, Molly shares a deeply personal story of her own evolution as a community volunteer: from an enthusiastic, overcommitted “young mom with a mission” to...
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229: Things Are Just Better When They’re Fun: A Thanksgiving Giggle Fest with My Mom & Sister
The Found Podcast with Molly Knuth
This week on The Found Podcast, we’re trading strategy for stories and KPIs for giggle fits. To celebrate Thanksgiving and our November theme of family for the ambitious woman, I invited two of the biggest influences in my life and leadership to join me on the mic: my sister, Jessica Ryan, and my mom, Kathy McAllister. This episode is…unhinged in the best way. We swap stories about handmade Halloween costumes, soda cans secretly stashed in dresser drawers, hiding Dad’s favorite candy, President’s Day “mystery trips,” and the legendary Mother’s Day “Guilty Pleasure” road trip....
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228: Wildly Intentional Living with Mandy Webber: Motherhood, Homesteading & Choosing a Life That’s Yours
The Found Podcast with Molly Knuth
Today’s episode feels extra special — because I finally got to sit down in person with someone I’ve admired online for months: Mandy Webber of the Wildly Intentional Podcast. She drove from West Branch, Iowa, to my home office in Cascade, and what started as a podcast interview turned into a three-hour, soul-filling conversation about motherhood, homesteading, family culture, learning (and unlearning), running a business from your values, and choosing a life that’s deeply rooted in intention. We recorded a double-pod, so you’ll hear the Found-side of our interview today, and you can...
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227: Motherhood & the Ambitious Woman: Holding Both Without Losing Yourself
The Found Podcast with Molly Knuth
This week on The Found Podcast, we’re continuing our November series on family — and we’re going right into the tender middle: motherhood. Because motherhood changes everything. Your time. Your nervous system. Your calendar. Your priorities. Your sense of self. And if you’re an ambitious woman on top of that? It changes the way you define success, too. In this solo episode, I talk honestly about what it looks like to be a mom who loves her kids deeply and a woman who has dreams, goals, clients, and callings. We’ll name the myths, talk about the invisible labor, and tell the truth...
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226: This is Not a "How-To Marriage" Podcast
The Found Podcast with Molly Knuth
Hey listener, welcome back to The Found Podcast with Molly Knuth. November’s theme is family — not just the cute-holiday-card kind, but the real, evolving, sometimes-stretchy relationships that ambitious women have to tend to while they’re also growing businesses, teams, and impact. Today, I’m pulling back the curtain on one of those relationships: my marriage. This is not a “5 steps to a perfect partnership” episode. It’s a real-time reflection from someone who’s been married 16 years, building a business for 9, raising 4 kids, and learning (over and over) how to love a person...
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225: Better Together: A Kitchen-Table Conversation on 20+ Years of Friendship
The Found Podcast with Molly Knuth
This week on The Found Podcast, we’re doing something a little different…and a lot more personal. I finally brought my real-life best friends to the mic — right here around my kitchen table — snacks, beers, belly laughs, squeals, and memories included. We’ve been friends for decades — from first kisses to first cars, from weddings to babies, from heartbreaks to hospital rooms. These women are my chosen family. And while this episode may not follow the usual structure… it might be the most heart-expanding one yet. Whether you’ve known your girls for 25 years or 25 days —...
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224: Tradition Keepers & Memory Makers: The Power of Friendship Rituals for Ambitious Women
The Found Podcast with Molly Knuth
This week on The Found Podcast, we’re diving into the heart of friendship — the kind that’s rooted in laughter, ritual, and showing up for each other year after year. As ambitious women, it’s easy to let work and responsibilities crowd out connection. But our friendships, the chosen families we build, are what keep us grounded, joyful, and human. In this episode, I’m sharing stories of the traditions that have kept my friendships alive through every season of life, from Christmas candy-making and cookie swaps to spontaneous “meet the baby” dinners and annual scavenger hunts....
info_outlineWhat if we thought about mental health the same way we think about physical health?
That’s the question at the heart of this week’s conversation with Megan Hammes, founder of Hammes Homestead and Consulting, workplace well-being expert, and long-time listener of The Found Podcast.
Megan brings over 20 years of experience in employee health and wellbeing management, and in this episode, she shares her personal journey from being on the team at a large organization to starting her own business after the pandemic. Her story is both deeply personal and highly relevant for ambitious women, entrepreneurs, and leaders navigating how to care for themselves and their teams.
Together we talk about:
✨ The slow, intentional process of leaving a place you love to start something new
✨ Why mental health deserves the same attention as physical health and how to talk about it
✨ The reality that 1 in 5 adults will experience a mental health challenge in any given year, and what that means for the workplace
✨ Why social connections are the most powerful thing you can do for your health
✨ How redefining success and leaning into your strengths can lead to more joy in life and business
This is a conversation for anyone who’s ever felt stretched too thin, wondered how to balance ambition with well-being, or wanted to better support themselves and others at work.
Resources & Links Mentioned:
- 2025 State of Workforce Mental Health Report | Lyra Health
- Robert Waldinger: What makes a good life? Lessons from the longest study on happiness | TED
- Blue Zones
- Connect with Megan at Hammes Homestead and Consulting
- Follow Megan on LinkedIn
- Connect with Molly on Instagram: @mollyknuth
- Read the blog + full recap: mollyknuthmedia.com/blog