In this special episode recorded live at the 2025 Milken Global Conference in Los Angeles, I sit down with Adam Mendler, entrepreneur, keynote speaker, and host of the top-rated podcast Thirty Minute Mentors, where he's interviewed more than 500 of America's most successful leaders.

Together, we discuss:

• Highlights from Milken 2025

• What Adam has learned about leadership from hundreds of top CEOs and changemakers

• The difference (if any) in how women and men rise to the top

• Why starting early and staying the course is the secret to building real wealth

• What parents and mentors can do to raise confident girls in a shifting economic landscape

• And the one piece of advice Adam gives to every future leader: “Be a good person.”

🎧 Tune in and share with someone raising the next generation of changemakers.

For more information on Adam and Thirty Minute Mentors:

https://adammendler.com/podcast/

In this special recap episode of Banking on Girls, Marina Batliwalla takes you inside the Milken Global Conference 2025—a gathering of world leaders, innovators, and investors—to uncover what the future of finance, technology, and equity means for women and girls.

You’ll hear takeaways from thought leaders like Tony Blair, Jensen Huang, and top minds in retirement, caregiving, and Gen Z finance. From the rise of AI to the realities of caregiving and generational inequality, this episode unpacks the conversations that matter for building financial power and confidence in the next generation.

💡 How AI is reshaping every job—and why digital fluency is now essential to financial literacy
💸 Why young women should front-load their savings early in life
👩‍👧‍👦 How caregiving affects women’s financial futures—and how to plan for it
📉 The broken “social escalator” and what Gen Z and Millennials are up against
💰 Why the average woman’s portfolio is still 70% cash—and how we can change that
🌍 The role women will play in the largest wealth transfer in history

✔️ Share this episode with a girl, young woman, or parent in your life
✔️ Talk to your kids about AI, investing, and debt—early and often
✔️ Download a budgeting app together or set up a mock investment account
✔️ Subscribe to Banking on Girls for more conversations on raising financially fearless girls

🔗 Milken Institute: milkeninstitute.org

On Tuesday, January 7, 2025 at 10 a.m., everything changed.

In this powerful episode of Banking on Girls, we sit down with three mothers who lived through the terrifying Palisades fires in Los Angeles—watching the flames reach their homes in real time through security cameras and dash cams left behind. As smoke filled the sky and evacuation orders came fast, for some, their neighbors stepped in to protect what they could. What followed was a test of emergency planning, emotional resilience, and financial preparedness.

We talk about:

• How it felt to watch the embers ignite their homes remotely as they raced to safety

• The critical role of having a plan to avoid panic-driven decisions during an emergency

• Why community support matters not just in the moment, but months later during long-term recovery

• The unexpected financial lessons born from loss

• And how the way we handle crisis teaches our kids—especially our daughters—what strength really looks like

This episode is a testament to friendship, preparedness, and the quiet optimism of women rebuilding from the ashes. As one mom says, “The kids are watching. Take care of yourself first.”

Resources:

www.ready.gov

https://www.ready.gov/sites/default/files/2020-03/ready_emergency-financial-first-aid-toolkit.pdf

Today, we're thrilled to welcome back Melanie Mortimer, President of the SIFMA Foundation — the nation’s leader in youth investor and financial education. Melanie holds a Master’s in International Management and an MBA from Aoyama Gakuin University in Tokyo, and a BA in English from Agnes Scott College in Georgia.

In this episode, we dive into the findings of a brand-new survey conducted by the SIFMA Foundation on U.S. parents' views about financial education for kids. Melanie shares eye-opening insights, including the surprising statistic that nearly three-quarters of parents would consider moving their child to a different school if it offered financial education!

We also discuss:

• The fact that women often feel less confident than men when it comes to teaching kids about investing (and how we're working to change that!)

• How the SIFMA Foundation is supporting families, schools, and communities in building financial literacy from an early age

• Practical ways parents can get involved and start teaching money concepts at home

If you're passionate about preparing the next generation — especially girls — for financial success, you won’t want to miss this conversation!

https://www.sifma.org/about/sifma-foundation/

Click here to receive the free Banking On Girls newsletter for actionable tips and inspiration on raising kids to be money-smart

In this episode of the Banking on Girls podcast, we are excited to feature Wendy Teleki, the Head of the Women Entrepreneurs Finance Initiative (We-Fi) at the World Bank.

We-Fi plays a crucial role in supporting women entrepreneurs in over 60 developing countries by enhancing their access to finance, markets, skills, and technology.

Wendy has been recognized as one of Forbes’s “50 Over 50” women in finance for her outstanding leadership in advocating for women's economic empowerment and entrepreneurship. She is also the co-author of "Rebalance: How Women Lead, Parent, Partner and Thrive," where she shares her personal journey and insights on finding purpose in one's career.

In this episode, Wendy discusses the valuable support the We-Fi project provides to women entrepreneurs, addressing the challenges they face at every stage of the entrepreneurial process—from launching their businesses to accessing necessary funding.

As a bonus, she offers advice for young women beginning their educational and career journeys, emphasizing the importance of choosing a purposeful path, a journey which she herself, outlines in her book.

Tune in for an inspiring conversation about empowering women in business and the steps we can take to create a more inclusive financial landscape.

In this episode of Banking on Girls, we’re joined by Professor Hal Hershfield, a distinguished expert in marketing, behavioral decision-making, and psychology at UCLA’s Anderson School of Management. As the author of Your Future Self: How to Make Tomorrow Better Today, Professor Hershfield explores how understanding and connecting with our future selves can transform the way we make long-term financial decisions.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

• How Professor Hershfield’s research helps people visualize and emotionally connect with their future selves to improve saving behavior.
• How Professor Hershfield learned about money as a child and how he is raising his own children.
• Practical strategies for parents to teach children about saving, spending, and giving.

Key Takeaways:

• Building a connection with your future self can inspire actionable change in the present.
• Early financial education is crucial for instilling lifelong habits of thoughtful saving and spending.
• Simple, relatable techniques can help children and adults alike envision a more financially secure future.

In this inspiring episode, we sit down with Maura Cunningham, founder of Rock the Street, Wall Street—a groundbreaking non-profit organization dedicated to empowering high school girls by teaching them the fundamentals of math, investing, and finance. Maura brings over 25 years of Wall Street experience in finance and wealth management, as well as insights from her journey as a mother to a successful trial lawyer.

Together, we discuss Maura’s mission to shatter the math barrier for girls in the U.S. and foster financial literacy from an early age. Maura explains how Rock the Street, Wall Street has been creating transformative impacts for young women, particularly those in high school, preparing them for financially independent futures.

In This Episode, We Cover:

• Maura’s Motivation: What inspired Maura to leave her successful Wall Street career and start Rock the Street, Wall Street.
• The Lifecycle of Girls in Math: Maura outlines the typical "math journey" for girls in the U.S. and why many are discouraged from STEM at an early age.
• Breaking the Cycle: How her high school programs are designed to build confidence in finance and investing, cultivating the next generation of women leaders in finance.
• Raising Financially Savvy Girls: Insights from Maura's personal experience raising her daughter, with advice for parents raising girls in today’s fast-paced, complex world.

Connect with Rock the Street, Wall Street:

Learn more about Maura’s organization, their programs, and ways to get involved:

https://rockthestreetwallstreet.com/

In this episode, we discuss how parents can help their kids, especially girls, think critically about financial advice they encounter on social media. We cover essential conversations that empower children to evaluate information effectively and build a solid understanding of money management.

For those interested in more on this topic, this episode references Ep 42 with Josina Kamerling from the CFA Insitute, and her paper The Finfluencer Appeal: Investing in the Age of Social Media.