As a runner, Lindsey Hein spends a lot of time “in her head.” It’s quiet there. Or as quiet as the mind of the mother of four children gets. Add in the multiple podcasts she hosts, the production company she runs, and the clients she coaches—okay, so maybe “quiet” isn’t the right word. It’s an outlet. A tool to make sure she’s the best version of herself she can be.
“My reasons for running have evolved over the years,” says Hein. A Bloomington native, she started running cross country in high school at age 15. Since then she’s run more than 16 marathons, achieving her personal record between having her third and fourth babies.
Now 37, Hein lives in Midtown with her husband Glenn and their four sons Marshall, 8, Louis, 6, Russell, 4, and Sandy, 2. Her love of running eventually turned into her role as host of the popular podcast I’ll Have Another with Lindsey Hein where she talks with “everyday runners, elite runners, Olympians, world record holders, and everyone in between.”
For Hein, running is still a way to keep in shape and lean into her competitive nature as it was during her school age years, but now she finds a deeper level of meaning in it.
“I’m my most creative self when running, I always think of ideas. The big dreamer comes out in me when I’m running,” she says.
This past summer Hein channeled that creativity into launching a new podcast called, Why Is Everyone Yelling.
We talked to Hein about her most recent project, what it’s taught her as a parent, and yes, even her tips for getting everyone to just. stop. yelling.
How did you choose the name?
My sister made it up and it’s interesting because she also named my other podcast, I’ll Have Another. What are things we say to our kids all the time? “Get your shoes on!” “Get dressed!” “Brush your teeth!” “Why is everyone yelling?”
It felt very relevant to my own life and the world right now.
You mentioned earlier being scared of failure. Can you speak to that?
I feel like I had a little bit of a security blanket in that audience I’d already built. If anybody already liked the running podcast and they’re parents, that’s a really easy crossover. But I also knew that I would struggle with measuring my success of this show with the running show. That show has been around for almost five years now so it’s not really fair to me to compare the two but that’s naturally what you’re going to do.
I was nervous it’s too much “me.” But the messages I’ve received so far when a mom reaches out makes it all feel worth it, like, “Oh this actually matters and you’re actually listening, and you feel not so alone because you know that I literally lay on my kitchen floor and cry when everybody is going crazy.”
How important do you think it is to talk about the realities of parenting, not just the perfect pictures we see on Instagram?
I want people to see the hard moments too, but you’re just not going to capture your kids’ temper tantrums, that’s not appropriate and also I don’t want to be the martyr. I want to show that if this is hard for you, it’s hard for me. I also know I’m super fortunate and I’m grateful for my kids so there’s this balance of, I don’t want to be a complainer, I just want to show the true story. I choose to have four kids. But if a mom is telling you it’s not hard, she’s lying.
I don’t think it matters how many you have, it’s all hard.
I say this all the time! My transition from 0 to 1 was by far the hardest emotionally, physically, spiritually—all the things.
::Interview interrupted by the school calling. This is the second call from the school nurse in two weeks. One of the kids fell on the ice. He might have a bruise but otherwise he’s fine. Back to the interview::
What’s been your most profound learning moment during the podcast?
Interviewing Wendy Snyder on the Illuminate Podcast was one of the reasons I decided to start Why is Everyone Yelling. So much of what she taught me and continues to teach me is that as the parent, I’m not to take the kids’ behavior personally.
Another piece to that is from Ralphie of Simply On Purpose. She says it’s so important that we don’t measure our success as a parent based on the choices our kids make—measure your success based on the choices you make in your parenting. We can’t fix our kids. We can’t change how they behave. Be we can change how we behave, how we react, and how we respond.
What does it mean to you to raise boys in this world?
One of the really important things is that my kids see that mom and dad do a lot of the same things. My husband and I both like to run, we both like to lift weights, he probably makes dinner 70% of the time. They see us as both working and prioritizing that his job is not more important than my job.
It’s also showing them women who are doing really cool work in the world and making sure I’m having those conversations, like that we just got our first female vice president and making sure they’re looking at pictures in history and seeing how things have changed and how important that is and talking about it, even if it’s brief. I think that’s one of the things I’ve learned—you sometimes want to have these big conversations with kids, you want them to understand this is a huge moment, but they just need little doses.
Who is your dream guest for this podcast?
Chrissy Teigen. I love that she is vulnerable and shares in a pretty unfiltered way. She’s clearly rich and a famous celebrity, but there’s something relatable about her because she’s honest.
So, why is everyone yelling?
In my home, people are yelling all the time because they have a lot of energy to get out. I’ve found that when people get out of control they’re often very tired and that goes for adults too. I’ve also found that with my kids—this might sound obvious to some people—when they start spiraling it’s because they’re anxious or nervous about something.
I also just have to give in that it’s just gonna be loud for a lot of years here.
Leslie Bailey is co-founder, CEO, and editor-in-chief of Indy Maven and the mother of an 8-month old and a 3-year-old who yells a lot.
