Kanika Chadda-Gupta On Becoming The Woman We Are Meant To Be In The Eye Of The Storm

About this sermon

Today’s guest is someone who instantly made an impression on Jen when they met at a Hello Sunshine event in Los Angeles. Within five minutes, Jen thought: “Okay… she’s one of us.” Warm, sharp, steady — Kanika Chadda-Gupta has a grounding presence that makes a whole room exhale. An award-winning former CNN journalist and producer, Kanika built a thriving career in television news before motherhood rerouted her life in the most profound way. Born in India and raised in the U.S., her story is braided with themes many of us know intimately: immigration and bicultural identity, the expectations women inherit, the invisible labor we carry, and the constant negotiation between ambition, caregiving, and our own becoming. Kanika is the creator and host of the beloved Total Mom Sense podcast, where she distills lived experience — raising children while caring for aging parents, navigating mental and emotional load, reinventing purpose in midlife — into practical wisdom for women who are doing it all and feeling all of it. In this conversation, we talk about: • What happens when life asks us to reevaluate our pace and priorities • Staying rooted during seasons of huge responsibility • Finding yourself in the middle of caregiving • Reclaiming agency and identity in motherhood and beyond If you’ve ever felt stretched thin between generations, pulled in every direction, or unsure how to follow your own calling while caring for everyone else — Kanika’s clarity and compassion will feel like a deep breath. This one is for all of us standing at the intersection of who we were, who we are, and who we’re still becoming. Thought-provoking Quotes: ★ "I like getting the gold star from all of my teachers. I did all the AP classes. I hung out with my teachers at lunchtime. We had open lunch, and it was like you could go to McDonald's, or you could go across the street to the pizza place. But I would go sit with Ms. Townsend, my biology teacher, and just kick it.” – Kanika Chadda-Gupta ★ "It may be, the only headlights that you see heading to the eye of the storm are the first responders and the reporters. And I thought, I want to be in the eye of the storm. I belong here. I need to be here. I need to prove myself. And so then I stayed.” – Kanika Chadda-Gupta ★ "I was most surprised by how your kids will make you face your childhood trauma head on. My dad and I get along great now, but when we were younger, he would say things that really just shot my self-esteem. And those are the first things that come up when my kids do something wrong and I'm like, wow, I gotta reframe." – Kanika Chadda-Gupta Tags Kanika Chadda-Gupta, Jen Hatmaker,Total Mom Sense,caregiving, midlife women, motherhood, aging parents immigration stories female identity career and family bicultural identity Hello Sunshine panel Resources Mentioned in This Episode: ➢ Hello Sunshine Shine Away Conference 2025 – https://shineaway.hello-sunshine.com/event/eddb3575-ec80-4812-a371-354c900d7cbf/summary ➢ Jim Gaffigan, comedian – https://www.jimgaffigan.com/ ➢ Mom Brain with Hilaria Baldwin and Daphne Oz - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/mom-brain/id1438292826 Guest’s Links: Website - https://kanikachaddagupta.com/ Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/kanikachaddagupta/ Twitter - https://x.com/KanikaChadda Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/kanikachaddagupta/ Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgkOq_AmLsvu6YJsKglQvSw TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@kanikachaddagupta?lang=en Pinterest - https://www.pinterest.com/kanikachaddagupta/ Podcast - https://kanikachaddagupta.com/podcast/ Connect with Jen! Jen’s Website - https://jenhatmaker.com/ Jen’s Instagram - https://instagram.com/jenhatmaker Jen’s Twitter - https://twitter.com/jenHatmaker/ Jen’s Facebook - https://facebook.com/jenhatmaker Jen’s YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/user/JenHatmaker The For the Love Podcast is presented by Audacy.

Topics

• Suffering & Trials
• Strength in Hard Times