{"podcast":{"title":"The Scenic Route with Victoria Steward","slug":"the-scenic-route-with-victoria-steward-7782802","podcast_index_feed_id":7782802,"rss_url":"https://api.riverside.fm/hosting/S6ZcgSiO.rss","website_url":"www.victoria-steward.com","image_url":"https://hosting-media.riverside.com/media/podcasts/951714c0-7b4d-4675-bd36-b3bd278f8546/logos/46260bbc-d587-4fc0-b414-b393efa55bf4.png","author":"Victoria Steward","episode_count":19,"summary":"What if the detour was never a wrong turn? We get handed one map early on: the superhighway. Pick the career, hit the milestones, stay in the fast lane somebody else drew for us. And one day a lot of us look up and realize it's been heading somewhere we never actually chose. This is a show about the people who got off it. I'm Victoria Steward. I spent 20 years as a federal civilian engineer/project manager before I left on a gut feeling and started taking my own scenic route. Every week I sit down with interesting people who made a change, sometimes sudden, sometimes so gradual they almost missed it, that sent their life somewhere they never saw coming. The kind of stories that inspire you to start dreaming into your own. If you've started to wonder whether there's a different road available to you, you're in exactly the right place. ✨ New episodes every week. Subscribe so you don't miss one.","last_synced_at":"2026-07-22T22:19:55.428806+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-scenic-route-with-victoria-steward-7782802"},"episode":{"title":"Leslie Ellen Mathews on Why Every Turn That Felt Wrong Was Actually Exactly Right","slug":"leslie-ellen-mathews-on-why-every-turn-that-felt-wrong-was-actually-exactly-right","published_at":"2026-06-03T10:00:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-scenic-route-with-victoria-steward-7782802/leslie-ellen-mathews-on-why-every-turn-that-felt-wrong-was-actually-exactly-right","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-scenic-route-with-victoria-steward-7782802","url":"https://api.riverside.com/hosting-analytics/media/914c7e5207b932ac6d86759ed536729c561c08c2b8e98c8968d14ce39daf2f81/eyJlcGlzb2RlSWQiOiI5YzY2YjMwMi00ZTdmLTQwN2MtYjU5ZS1hZjA2ZDhlZmNkMmIiLCJwb2RjYXN0SWQiOiI5NTE3MTRjMC03YjRkLTQ2NzUtYmQzNi1iM2JkMjc4Zjg1NDYiLCJhY2NvdW50SWQiOiI2OTlmNjIyYzM1MDAxYzBlOWJlNGFlNGIiLCJwYXRoIjoibWVkaWEvY2xpcHMvNmEwZTIzMGNiZDMwMzIxZDI5MDc1MWZmL3ZpY3Rvcmlhcy1zdHVkaW8tUGhZZDAtY29tcG9zZXItMjAyNi01LTIwX18yMy05LTMyLm1wMyJ9.mp3","audio_url":"https://api.riverside.com/hosting-analytics/media/914c7e5207b932ac6d86759ed536729c561c08c2b8e98c8968d14ce39daf2f81/eyJlcGlzb2RlSWQiOiI5YzY2YjMwMi00ZTdmLTQwN2MtYjU5ZS1hZjA2ZDhlZmNkMmIiLCJwb2RjYXN0SWQiOiI5NTE3MTRjMC03YjRkLTQ2NzUtYmQzNi1iM2JkMjc4Zjg1NDYiLCJhY2NvdW50SWQiOiI2OTlmNjIyYzM1MDAxYzBlOWJlNGFlNGIiLCJwYXRoIjoibWVkaWEvY2xpcHMvNmEwZTIzMGNiZDMwMzIxZDI5MDc1MWZmL3ZpY3Rvcmlhcy1zdHVkaW8tUGhZZDAtY29tcG9zZXItMjAyNi01LTIwX18yMy05LTMyLm1wMyJ9.mp3","summary":"Have you ever been doing exactly what felt right... and had everyone around you tell you it was a mistake? My guest this week is Leslie Ellen Mathews: therapist, divorce and relationship coach, MBSR teacher, podcast coach, and one of the most multi-passionate humans I have ever had the pleasure of sitting down with. Her path has included neuro speech therapy, neuroscience research, law school, a master’s in health administration, staying home with three kids, photography, and eventually clinical social work. At each turn, the people around her told her to stop. Go back. Do something practical with her education. And at each turn, she kept going anyway. What she couldn’t have known then is that every single thread she picked up would become part of the tapestry. The camera work that made podcasting intuitive. The legal background that shapes how she supports women through divorce. The neuroscience obsession that runs underneath all of her therapeutic work. None of it was wasted. None of it was a detour. CHAPTERS 00:00 Welcome & Leslie Introduces Herself: Multi-Passionate, Therapist, Divorce Coach 01:18 What Human Design Told Her About Why Corporate Life Never Fit 04:23 From Social Work to Speech Pathology: Following the Neuroscience Thread 06:48 Evaluating Brain Injuries at Barnes-Jewish: When the Work Really Lit Her Up 13:14 Single Mom, Neuroscience Researcher, Law School: How She Got There 15:08 Why She Left Law After One Year: Identity, Family, and a Pivot Nobody Understood 19:29 Photography as a Gateway Back to Creativity (and a Little Girl With a Disposable Camera) 22:25 The Reason She Needed to Experience Every Role She Ever Had 27:01 How Meditation and MBSR Changed Everything: The Path She Teaches Daily 31:35 The MBSR Silent Retreat Vision That Ended All Doub…","meta_description":"Have you ever been doing exactly what felt right... and had everyone around you tell you it was a mistake? My guest this week is Leslie Ellen Mathews: the…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":3456,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/the-scenic-route-with-victoria-steward-7782802/episodes/leslie-ellen-mathews-on-why-every-turn-that-felt-wrong-was-actually-exactly-right/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-scenic-route-with-victoria-steward-7782802/leslie-ellen-mathews-on-why-every-turn-that-felt-wrong-was-actually-exactly-right.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}