Summer House's Mia Calabrese on Losing Her Mom, Confidence & Turning Trauma Into Strength

July 14, 2026

AI Summary

5 min read

When Mia Calabrese’s mother was dying in a Chicago hospital, intubated and brain-dead from pneumonia complicated by sarcoidosis, Mia spent months by her side. She painted her mother’s nails, brushed her hair, dipped hospital sponges in champagne and put red lipstick on her. When the end came, she had a mariachi band play at the celebration of life. “That’s exactly how she would have wanted to go out,” she tells Carl Radke on More Life. “Around people that loved her, and it was a party.”

That story is the emotional center of a conversation that moves from grief to confidence, from childhood trauma to real estate hustle, and from the burden of being a Black woman in predominantly white spaces to the strange relief of freezing one’s eggs. Calabrese, a Summer House cast member and New York City real estate agent, is direct about what shaped her: “I think when you’ve gone through the level of trauma that I’ve gone through, there’s a part of you that is just kind of like whatever. Just show up and be yourself because no one’s dead.”

Confidence as a Byproduct of Loss

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What you'll learn

1 (01:02) **Carl Introduces Mia** - Carl welcomes Mia Calabrese, Summer House co-star and NYC real estate agent
2 (04:07) **Origin of "More Life" & Mia's Mantra** - Carl explains how the podcast got its name from a drunken season 2 moment, then asks Mia for her personal saying
3 (06:20) **Confidence Born From Trauma** - Mia reveals that her effortless confidence comes directly from surviving profound loss
4 (14:23) **The Butterfly Sign from Her Mom** - Mia shares a powerful story about receiving a butterfly visitation from her deceased mother
5 (16:00) **The Slow Loss of Her Mother** - Mia recounts the devastating months-long process of her mother's death from pneumonia and sarcoidosis
6 (23:26) **Grief and Becoming a New Self** - Mia explains that she will never be the same person she was before her mom died, and that's okay
7 (29:47) **Trauma as a Source of Resilience** - Mia describes how a lifetime of hardship has shaped her into a calm, direct, and empathetic person

+ Full timestamped outline available in the app

Guests on this episode

Carl Radke

Show Notes

Mia Calabrese is the friend everyone wants: magnetic, hilarious, unfiltered, and impossible not to love. The Summer House star lights up More Life as she sits down with Carl for a conversation that's every bit as fun as it is deep - from sliding into DMs and the "sassy man epidemic" to the real story behind her confidence, losing her mom, and turning trauma into unshakable strength.

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