The Healing Pause

We spend so much time treating aging as something to fight or hide. But what if getting older is really about becoming more of who we already are?

Heidi Wagner and I only met a few months ago, but it feels like I've known her my whole life. We met this summer at a Wisconsin Public Education Network event at UW Superior, bonded over her photography, and within minutes we were talking about menopause and aging. I knew right away I wan...

Today I got to sit down with my friends Kyle Leia and Sarah Brokke, the authors behind Irrevocable Wholeness, a book that has genuinely become my Bible. It lives in my bag, it lives next to my bed, and I have gifted more copies of it than I can count. 

Kyle is a poet, a trauma conscious teacher, a yoga guide, a mystic. Sarah is a painter and muralist who teaches art at Saint Scholastica. Together they wove poetry and painting i...

I used to think breast cancer and testosterone belonged in two completely different conversations. Then my friend and colleague Dr. Brianne Brandt Griffith sat across from me and showed me just how tangled those two threads really are.

Brianne has been on the show before, and every time we talked, we kept saying the same thing. That subject needs to be its own podcast. This time we finally did it. Brianne is an OBGYN, a breast cance...

How many times have you sat in a doctor's office, been told your labs are normal, and walked out still feeling like something isn't right. What if it's not you. What if it's the research itself.

This episode is a little different. No guest today, just me, because this is something I needed to say directly. We're talking about the history of data bias in women's health research, why male bodies became the default in clinical trials, ...

Today I'm stepping outside our usual conversation about hormones and habits to talk about something we don't often connect to menopause. Public policy. I sat down with Wisconsin State Representative Angela Stroud, who represents Ashland, Bayfield, and Douglas County. 

Before she was elected, she spent years as a sociologist studying the systems that shape our lives, and that lens changes everything about how she talks about wom...

A year ago if you'd told me I'd be talking about my algorithm and asking for ratings and reviews, I'd have said you were insane. Today I want to ask you something different. Who are you becoming?

We just wrapped our first ten episodes of The Healing Pause, and I am overwhelmed with gratitude. We covered the whys behind why we started this show, perimenopause and menopause symptoms, nutrition, hormone replacement therapy, pelvic floo...

What if the missing piece in your wellness journey has been sitting in a junk drawer of unopened statements and unanswered questions? Today we are adding a fourth pillar to the conversation: financial health.

I met Wendy Homstad, Senior Vice President of Investments at Raymond James Wealth Management, a couple of years ago at a LEAP event. I will be honest, I zoned out during her talk. Fast forward two years and I found myself negle...

What if everything you were ever taught about exercise and your body was actually working against you?

Anna McGee has been in my corner for years, and I mean that literally. She's my trainer, my friend, and one of the most no-nonsense voices on women's health I know. Anna owns AP Training, a private women's fitness studio right here in Duluth, and she's spent 40 years watching what happens to women's bodies, and women's beliefs abou...

Today I sat down with a dear friend, Dr. Lynn Goerdt. Lynn is a faculty member at the University of Wisconsin Superior, a social work educator, a researcher, and the heart behind the Live Well program through the Pruitt Center for Mindfulness and Wellbeing. But before any of that, she was a woman standing in her own doctor's office saying the words, "I need you to save me from myself."

I think a lot of us have had that moment, or so...

Estrogen isn't just a reproductive hormone, and in this episode, Dr. Christina Kintop breaks down why that matters deeply for every woman moving through perimenopause and menopause.

We often associate estrogen with fertility, cycles, or hot flashes. But what about bone density? Heart health? Cognitive function? Today we look at midlife not as a decline, but as a whole-body transition that deserves real, informed support.

Chapter Mark...

What if the back pain, the knee ache, or the discomfort during intimacy you've been quietly living with wasn't just "part of getting older" — but your body asking for something specific?

I'm so honored to introduce my friend Dr. Annita Winkels, Doctor of Physical Therapy and founder of In Motion Therapy. With 20 years in practice and deep expertise in pelvic health, she helps women across all stages of life restore function, c...

What if menopause isn’t the end of something—but the beginning of finally telling the truth?

For far too long, women have been taught to suffer quietly, push through, and call it normal. This conversation is about breaking that silence and remembering that we are allowed to ask questions, seek support, and feel well in our bodies.

In this episode, I sat down with my friend Dr. Brianne Brandt Griffith, an OB-GYN, Menopause...

As a chiropractor for 33 years and a nutritional counselor, I've watched countless women in their mid-40s and 50s walk through my door feeling like they're falling apart — body aches, brain fog, belly fat that appeared from nowhere, cholesterol numbers that won't cooperate. The puzzle pieces are all there. Sometimes we just need fresh eyes on how they fit together. That's what today is all about.

Key Themes & Takeaways

Peri...

What happens when women stop suffering in silence and start telling the truth?

Today, I’m joined by three women I know and love deeply—Mary, Tina, and Sandy. These are not experts speaking from a stage or statistics pulled from a chart. These are real women navigating real menopausal transitions: shifting hormones, changing identities, evolving relationships, and that deep question so many of us ask in this season&hellip...

What if menopause wasn’t the beginning of the end… but the moment you finally become your power? For far too long, this conversation has happened in whispers. Today, we’re bringing it into the light.

This episode is deeply personal for me.I’ve been a chiropractor for 33 years. A clinical nutritionist for 30. A childbirth instructor. A doula. I’ve walked alongside women through some of their most vulner...

What if midlife isn’t the moment we fall apart—but the moment we finally come home to ourselves? What if this pause your body is asking for is actually an invitation?

This episode matters because so many of us were never taught how to listen to ourselves during this season—and it’s time to change that.

Welcome to The Healing Pause. This podcast is deeply personal for me—it was born from my own need to st...