Martha Stewart Called Herself the ‘Original Trad Wife’ and She Has Receipts

Martha Stewart has zero tolerance for boredom—and she’s not trying to pretend otherwise. In a recent chat on The Skinny Confidential Him & Her Podcast, the 84-year-old lifestyle guru bounces from taste to “trad wife” discourse to why she’s already in the gym before most people have opened their eyes. Then she casually mentions wanting to train eagles in Mongolia like it’s a normal Tuesday plan.

Below are the highlights, adapted from the episode.

What’s something you still haven’t checked off your bucket list?

“Oh my gosh, my bucket list is like a mile long. There’s so much to do and so many places to go and so many things to try that I hope it never comes to an end…

…I want to fly eagles in Mongolia…I love birds of prey. I have a lot of them on my farm. I nurture red tail hawks and Cooper’s hawks, they’re my friends. I have rescued a couple…

…Did you ever see Eagle Huntress? It’s a movie and it’s [about] a beautiful young girl, she’s probably 14 years old in Mongolia, who is given an eagle by her father who is a very fine bird hunter, and she raises it and trains it and I want to be that girl.”

Is boredom ever an option for you?

“Boredom is not in my book…It’s definitely a discipline. And I get very upset if I ever hear anybody say they’re bored because boredom is useless and there’s no reason to be bored. There’s always something to do. Always. It could even just be go to sleep if you’re bored, but there’s always something good to do or something to learn or something to see. And don’t get bored.”

You basically invented lifestyle content before the internet existed. What was the idea behind Martha Stewart Living?

“I thought everybody really wants to learn everything about how to take care of your home and be a homemaker and elevate the art of homemaking instead of housekeeping. We don’t want to be housekeepers. None of us want to be a housekeeper. But we do want to be homemakers…

…Nobody had really attacked homemaking as a subject matter in that way and make it really beautiful and teach everybody about crafting, about gardening, about entertaining, about living, about collecting, about celebrating all that stuff. So that’s what the idea was. And I just lived through that litany of great ideas for years and years…

…Everybody has to live, but nobody had really taught anybody how to live. I was one of the pioneers in the subject of living.”

How do you know when something is actually good versus just popular?

“I have very good taste. And I know if it’s good or not. There’s a lot of things that are popular that aren’t so good…My taste is absolutely born into me…[I recognized it] maybe when I won my first blue ribbon at a flower show for the women’s club in Nutley, New Jersey, and I created a flower arrangement that I knew would win because it was so beautiful…

…I learn a lot on Instagram. It’s funny, but I really do. I love techniques and I like to learn a better way to do something. I know how to do a lot of things, but if I can find a better way to do something by watching, I learn by watching…But you have to sometimes turn the sound off, that garish music that they play.”

People have been calling you the original trad wife. What do you think about that?

“I’m the original trad wife…I had pigs. I made my own prosciutto on the back steps in the great big crock. I had goats. I milked my goats. I made cheese. I did all that. I didn’t do it on a big fancy farm…but I did all that…

…I didn’t have social media. So I had to [get people’s attention] with public relations. I had to get all these newspapers to write articles…I was very proud when I first started the magazine that I had never spent one cent on advertising and I still got a giant contract with Kmart…Kmart spent $25 million the first year on my products. And guess how much merchandise we sold? A billion dollars. That’s how good it was.”

What’s one rule you refuse to break when it comes to how you show up?

“I don’t want to embarrass anybody. I don’t want to embarrass myself. I now have a reputation that has to be upheld. So I can’t be a slob…

…When I wake up early and especially if I have a shoot that day or TV, I will go into my bathroom and I will put a mask on my face…Then I go back to bed usually with a towel over my pillow…I read the paper. That’s when I get all the reading done. And then when I get up, I have to be at the gym at 6:30. So my alarm is 5:45. Then I take my shower, wash my face, apply my serum…and I mix serum with my sunblock.”

Catch the full episode on The Skinny Confidential Him & Her Podcast, available wherever you listen.

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