Moms, Mats and Manuscripts
Moms, Mats and Manuscripts is a podcast hosted by Ksenia Volkova Tomaz, a former molecular biologist, yoga teacher and mindset coach for scientists, and mom. This is a space for honest, unpolished conversations about the parts of academia and ambition we don’t talk about enough.
Here, we explore the mental and emotional load of being a young scientist or high-achieving woman: the pressure to constantly produce, the identity crises, the inner critic, the fear of slowing down, the guilt around rest, the invisible labour of motherhood, and the messy process of redefining success on your own terms.
I share personal stories, science-backed insights, and yoga-psychology tools to help you navigate burnout, self-worth, boundaries, and the overwhelming push to “do more.”
Think of this space as a friend's couch, where you can have a cup of coffee, relax, exhale and be seen.
Moms, Mats and Manuscripts
Latest Episodes
E46 - Due dates & deadlines: pregnancy in the last year of a PhD and figuring out who you are after (with Dr Katerina Danezi)
In this episode of Moms, Mats, and Manuscripts, I sit down with my friend Katerina Danezi. Katerina finished her PhD with a baby on her hip, literally. She wrote 330 pages of her thesis in mere weeks, eight months postpartum, while breastfeedin...
E45 - Not lost - becoming: matrescence, postpartum recovery, and radical rest (with Munirah Razak)
After an emotionally challenging birth and a postpartum recovery marked by chronic pain, relationship breakdown, and identity crisis, my guest Munirah Razak, a yoga teacher, postpartum massage therapist, and matrescence coach, found her footing...
E44 - From PhD to parenthood: on identity, becoming unapologetic and letting go of control (With Dr Lauren A. Mason)
What happens when you try to build a career and a family at the same time?In this episode, I’m joined by Dr Lauren Mason - research scientist, higher education consultant, and creator of Lauren Finds a Way - to talk about mother...
E43 - From vague goals to real life: A seasonal reset (and what I'm learning along the way)
What if the problem isn't that you're bad at goals... it's that the way we're told to set them is kind of broken?In this solo episode, I'm sharing how I've been doing goal-setting differently. Instead of the classic New Year's resolution th...
E42 - Freelance career after leaving academia: freedom, insecurity and finding balance
In this second part of my conversation with scientific writer and science communicator Sónia Gomes Pereira on Moms, Mats, and Manuscripts, we move beyond leaving academia and into what comes next: building a freelance career, and ...
