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The Backseat Thriver Podcast feels like eavesdropping on a no-holds-barred conversation between two long-time female confidantes.
While topics range from serious (postpartum depression, co-parenting) to light (teen slang, awful gifts), the conversation flows naturally — and the hilarity is non-stop.
The hostesses are constantly making fun of each other and cracking up – having so much fun that one almost has to ask: “is this really a job?”
Indeed, it is! Just ask co-founder Christina Johnston, a Tucson native/OV resident who left her executive career in corporate health care to launch this successful podcast.
“It’s been almost a year, and I don’t doubt my decision for a second!” she reflects.
For 13 years, Christina served as one of the top executives for Banner Health, a huge company with over 60,000 employees.
“I absolutely loved it. I saw it from the inception of the medical center, to the U of A network, to Banner Health….I stayed there for the people – I had the best mentors and colleagues in the country. It was a really great career.”
In her role, Christina often had to travel to the 28 hospitals in the Banner network. She was often tasked with assessing community health needs, especially among rural populations.
“I was driving to places like Ogallala, Nebraska – places I had never heard of. What do we need here? What are the barriers to care?”
While Christina is quick to admit that her executive career was “about as corporate as it gets”, she highlights the importance of connecting with different types of people.
“It was 90% working with other people. Working with first responders. Kids with cancer. Brilliant scientist-doctors. Being at the table when huge initiatives are developed. It was a whole new world that I entered.”
Christina was able to successfully parlay the great people skills that she developed in her Banner career to the podcast format. Her bio says it best: “My whole life, I’ve thrived on making people laugh but also making them think.”
Christina found that – like so many working women — her demanding career as an executive was limiting the amount of time she could spend with her daughter. Then she met her husband, who was raising his own two children.
One day, her husband asked, “have you ever thought about not working?”
After the initial surprise, Christina saw what her husband was getting at.
“I’ve always been an independent woman, but we were living together and I could see that his children needed more support, and my kid spent a lot of time without me being there. So I started asking questions: ‘If I stayed home, would you expect me to cook and clean?’”
“No. What would you like to do if you were home?” he asked.
“How about a podcast?” Christina said.
And that’s how the Backseat Thriver Podcast was born.
As she was looking at studio options, Christina had a fortuitous meeting with the owner of Live The Dream (LTD) Media in West Tucson. He turned out to be “passionate about podcasting and radio”.
“I read him some of the episodes, including one show titled, ‘Why is Everyone Around Me So Dumb?’’”
What happened next was amazing: she was offered a job.
“They want to pay me to do the podcast!” she told her husband when she got home.
“What’s the catch?” he asked.
“No catch. They want to pay me to do 25 episodes!”
Signing with a professional studio was a rare stroke of good fortune. Not only does the Backseat Thriver enjoy the use of a professional studio – with a dedicated producer – but LTD takes care of all of the advertising placement.
The show is recorded once-a-week completely live – no retakes. Christina had to make a slight adjustment:
“I have historically had a bit of a foul mouth. When I met the guy at the studio, I said I might be dropping some F-bombs. He said, ‘we’re privately owned, so the rules don’t apply to us. Do whatever you want.’ But after listening, I realized that we don’t sound as smart as we should when we were cussing. And my dad said, ‘you’re not adding anything by cussing.’”
Christina has a naturally engaging manner which really opens guests up. She’s witty, a straight-shooter, and loves throwing barbs back-and-forth with co-hostess Bridgett Kocsis.
Christina has known her co-host Bridgett for 10 years, though on-air they sound like they’ve been besties for life.
Bridget describes herself as “a proud mother of four, the only girl and middle child, which basically means I’ve been managing chaos since birth.”
Listening to the cackling repartee between these two gals is constantly entertaining.
“I’m the mouthier of the two,” says Christina. “I’m a bit less patient than Bridget, and possibly more cynical. She brings a wise outlook – she is a decade older than me. I like to harass her on that one. I’m more of a smack-talker.”
In their Feb. 25, 2025 podcast entitled “Rizz, Skibbity, Brain Rot! Death of the English Language”, Christina and Bridget help us decode the random vocab that our kids bring home from school.
At the 2:40-minute mark, Christina and Bridget talk about celebrity look-alikes:
Bridget: In my early 20s, when I had like really dark hair, some people would tell me I looked like Angelina Jolie. And I’m like, “OMG, I don’t care if I do, please don’t ever get your eyes checked.”
Christina: A bit of a stretch there.
Bridget: My husband tells me that he thinks I look beautiful regardless.
Christina: Oh barf! Come on!
Bridget: I’m like, ‘I’m never scheduling you to get your eyes checked. And please don’t every wear your glasses around me.’ [chuckling] I become prettier the more he ages!
Christina: I thought it was “the more that he drinks, the prettier you become”?
Bridget: He doesn’t have beer goggles with me, you loser! Whatever!
Every Friday, Christina and Bridget meet at Bisbee Breakfast Club before the show. They brainstorm each quarter to determine which guests they would like to invite, and which topics to present.
A regular theme on the podcast is how women are able to thrive in spite of having to juggle both their career and their family. But why the “backseat” part?
“Women have often been put in the backseat through many things – especially work and motherhood” Christina explains. “As a working mother, you’re abandoning your children. As a stay-at-home Mom, you’re not working.
“We are thriving as working moms. We are going to do all of this — and do it well. I was always in the front seat in terms of my career. I like sitting in the backseat now and getting this perspective – all while feeling fulfilled.”
Christina has seen a difference in her family since she started podcasting.
“I’ve definitely changed my relationship with my son. He says, ‘Mom, you’re so much calmer now that you are not always working.’”
Christina jokes that she used to drop off her son at school and “throw him a Pop-Tart”, but she confides that being an executive mom wasn’t always easy. She cites the example of having to take work calls with her son in the car. “It made me feel bad to have to shush him.”
Today, Christina puts her phone away when she picks up her son. She puts him to bed every night. And mornings are nice and quiet — no more Pop-Tarts out the window!
Christina invites you to email Christina and Bridget with suggested topics for the Backseat Thriver Podcast. “We’re very responsive to new ideas for topics.”
