Katri Josling doesn’t have a job title, awards, or even an active social media account - she’s a housewife. But she’s also a constant learner - whether it’s completing a new boating license, a culinary chemistry course to create the most amazing meals, learning her fourth language, going skitouring in Svalbad or training her two giant Rhodesian Ridgebacks.
She was a consultant with a UCL degree in Political Science and an MA in European Politics. She was working and traveling the hours you can imagine - so when her husband’s career took off - she had to make a choice between her own career and spending what time was possible, together. I want to know about her decision to leave work, how she found purpose, what architecting a world for a partnership looks like and her view on it all now.
One of the things I’ve always held judgement around is the idea of being a “housewife.” But after years of chasing goals, building things, and burning out, I’ve started to see that choice differently — with empathy, understanding, and even admiration. I’ve started to ask myself: if I could build enough of a passive income, would I stop working?
In a culture where you are pushed to overachieve, where the only goal touted by the media seems to be to have a multi-billion dollar business - I want to share a story that makes those who have chosen NOT to do that also feel worthy, valuable and acknowledged.
In this episode we cover:
Growing up in the USSR and moving between Estonia, Russia and Sweden
The freedom of going to UCL for university
Meeting her partner and how getting married was the most rebellious thing they could do
Living in London, Nigeria, Geneva and (almost) Johannesburg
The dinner party moment when they ask: what do you do?
The battle with self and ego that she has overcome
Ireland