Girl talk with pop-culture feelings.
Heart + Sole is a warm, high-speed conversation show where personal updates sit right beside reality-TV breakdowns and Taylor Swift reactions. Its center is women talking through motherhood, friendship, faith-adjacent reflection, ambition, and the small frameworks that make life feel more manageable.
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Heart + Sole is a conversational women’s show with a wide lane and a very personal engine. It does not separate life updates from pop culture, or motherhood from reality-TV opinions. Everything can end up on the same table. Recent episodes move from Taylor Frankie Paul and mom-talk drama to one-word goal setting, from Taylor Swift album anticipation to The Summer I Turned Pretty debates, from Bachelor in Paradise reads to the real problem of recording without childcare. The pace is quick and familiar. Conversations often begin as casual catch-up, then gather emotional weight as the speakers talk themselves toward a conclusion. That is the charm. Heart + Sole is not polished magazine commentary; it is the sound of opinions forming in public, with friendship and shared references doing much of the work. Pop culture is a major recurring language here, especially Taylor Swift, reality television, and relationship storylines. Motherhood is just as present. Children, babysitters, household clutter, marriage rhythms, and the exhaustion of keeping a life running all appear without much ceremony. The show can be funny and dramatic, but it also gets serious when a story touches parenting, emotional safety, or the way adults behave under pressure. Faith and encouragement sit in the background as a moral frame more than a sermon. The “one word” conversation with Macy Cole shows the more reflective side, focused on themes, practical frameworks, and making change feel concrete. Episodes with Melody Wiseman lean toward pop-culture catch-up and rapid agreement. Other guests bring in fandom debates, friendship history, and personal perspective. Heart + Sole works best for listeners who like their recaps emotionally invested and their personal-growth talk casual rather than clinical. It is warm, reactive, and a little chaotic in a very lived-in way.
Made for: For listeners who want warm women’s conversation about motherhood, friendship, faith-adjacent growth, and pop culture. It especially fits fans who process reality TV and Taylor Swift through personal stories, not detached recap.
What sets it apart: Heart + Sole treats celebrity news and comfort-watch TV as emotional raw material, not disposable chatter. Its best episodes swing from gossip to parenting, marriage, anxiety, and practical life frameworks without changing the conversational temperature.
Founder of Sole Fitness, Kathryn Benko, is on a mission to create a safe space for vulnerable and unashamed conversations with women everywhere through Heart + Sole. Follow along and tune in every Wednesday to hear stories of breakthrough, shameless living, women empowerment, healthy body image encouragement, and ALL THINGS girl talk! Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/heartandsole/support
Based on 6 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Kathryn Benko connects faith, family life, and pop-culture reactions through candid conversations that make personal values visible.
Heart + Sole turns Kathryn Benko's conversations with friends and guests into a lively meeting place for faith, motherhood, marriage, and pop culture.
Kathryn Benko can debate Team Conrad and still refuse to hand your grief a tidy slogan.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A loose, urgent return that turns pop-culture discussion into a raw conversation about family and public scrutiny.
After time away, Katherine Van Gogh returns with Melody for a loose, urgent round of pop-culture commentary centered on Taylor Frankie Paul. The discussion drifts from the podcast's deliberately irregular "popcorn" rhythm into upsetting footage involving a child, then into…
A yearly word gets tested against calendars, clutter and relationships.
Katherine Van Gogh and Macy Cole start with the idea of choosing one word for the year, then ask what it takes to make that word part of ordinary life. Motherhood gives the question some urgency: the days move fast, and good intentions can disappear into them.
A candid, casually funny return shaped by friendship, pop culture, and the realities of finding time to record.
Heart + Soul comes back with an easy reset, as Katherine Vanko and Melody laugh through a two-month gap, wonder if anyone is still listening, and talk plainly about how time and babysitters get in the way of regular recording.
A breezy Bachelor in Paradise recap built on couple commentary, pop-culture detours, and suspicion of polished romance.
Katherine Vanko welcomes Grant and Hannah Dunlop to Heart and Soul Podcast for a relaxed pass through the Bachelor in Paradise finale and the season around it.
A Team Conrad debate that turns fictional loyalty into a candid reflection on first love, anxiety, and emotional baggage.
Team Conrad versus Jeremiah becomes less a ship war than a way into memory, anxiety, and the romantic ideas people carry out of adolescence. The host and returning guest Bianca Pastrana ground their loyalties in their own relationship histories: Conrad appeals partly because…
Katherine Van Gogh catches up on TS12, Swift's songwriting, and The Summer I Turned Pretty.
Katherine Van Gogh is ready for TS12. She hopes Taylor Swift gives her pop songs she can turn up and dance to, though she has plenty of affection for the more inward songs, too. Those are the ones she has cried to in her car.
Kina Aragon brings spiritual language to grief, infertility, illness, and the long work of endurance.
Heart and Soul follows Katherine Banco and Kina Aragon in a close conversation about faith, suffering, and the grief of a family dream that does not unfold as hoped.
Katherine Banco and Kayla Palladino swap favorites and stories, from sourdough and skin tint to Kayla's "pro-tox" joke.
Katherine Banco welcomes Kayla Palladino back for a loose chat about what they are loving lately. Sourdough bread, mozzarella and tomato for breakfast, and skin tint all come up.
Pop culture trivia, argued fast and with affection.
Pop culture, personal stakes, and room for a tangent.
A Brazilian journalist spends years reinvestigating unsolved child disappearances in Paraná.
Cris Bartz and Juva Lauer alternate debate and interview episodes on Brazilian social issues.
Robert Wright interviews specialists on Iran, Gaza, Ukraine, Taiwan, and open-source AI.
Katherine Vanko welcomes back recurring guest Sara Leonard to catch up on life updates, including Sara's recent trip to France and her transition after leaving her full-time job.
Katherine Vanko and Melody Wiseman chat about their lives, babies, and TV shows like White Lotus.
Katherine Banco and her husband Michael answer marriage and listener questions on their anniversary.
Kathryn Benko interviews Quina Aragon, a spoken word artist and author of 'Love Has a Story: 100 Meditations on the Enduring Love of God'.
Host Kathryn Benko welcomes guest Kayla Paladino for a candid conversation about motherhood challenges, including sleep regressions and postpartum issues.
Katherine Van Gogh and Melody spend most of "The Taylor Frankie Paul Of It All" on ABC's cancelled Bachelorette season and why Taylor Frankie Paul was chosen as the lead.
Macy Cole joins Katherine Van Gogh on Heart + Sole to choose a word for 2026, and the word she keeps circling is “surrender,” after first considering “release,” “let go,” and “relinquish.” The conversation stays grounded in motherhood, with Macy describing Callie at seven months, William at four, and the strain of managing children, a business, and marriage at the same time.
Katherine Vanko returns to Heart and Sole after a two-month hiatus and says the break happened because she “just don't have the time or the babysitters,” while promising three episodes in a row.
Katherine Vanko and Melody Wiseman catch up on pop culture and life after a month-long break.
Katherine Vanko returns from a hiatus to discuss Taylor Swift's new album with guest Taylor Thomas.
Grant Dunlop argues that Bachelor in Paradise should not mix "strategy" with romance, because "you can't do both well."
Bianca Pastrana says Jeremiah is "flippant" and proposes after "Cabo was two months ago."
Katherine Van Gogh returns to Heart and Soul after two throwback episodes and explains that illness, travel to Colorado, parenting, and business demands made this season unusually busy.
Katherine Banco welcomes back Sara Leonard to discuss her new gig at Recess and the theme of perseverance.
Kayla Paladino discusses her parents' return from a cabin in Michigan's Upper Peninsula and her husband's new job.