December 12, 2025 • 58 mins
What if menopause isn’t the end of something—but the beginning of your clearest, most powerful self? We sit down with Dr. Mindy Pelz—best-selling author of Age Like a Girl—to explore how declining estrogen rewires the brain and why that shift can upgrade focus, confidence, and purpose. Instead of treating symptoms like flaws, Mindy shows how depression, rage, anxiety, and brain fog are signals pointing to a life that needs new boundaries, better fuel, and deeper connection.
We unpack estrogen’s “girl gang” of neurochemicals—dopamine, serotonin, GABA, oxytocin, melatonin, BDNF—and what to do as they dip. Expect practical, doable tools: short daily fasts (13–15 hours) to feed your brain ketones and clear mental fog, novelty and learning to revive dopamine, sleep rhythms to support calm, and community that actually feels nourishing. Mindy shares her own story of stepping away to rebuild from a mental health crash, and how choosing herself ended people pleasing and restored her energy.
We also dig into the grandmother hypothesis and how post-reproductive women historically powered survival with leadership, stamina, and social cohesion. That evolutionary lens flips the script on ageism: a post-menopausal brain is built for focus and mentorship. One billion women are moving through this stage right now—imagine the cultural change if more of us claimed that power. You’ll leave with a new frame for symptoms, a plan for your next chapter, and permission to ask, without apology: What do I want?
If this conversation sparks something, subscribe, share it with a friend, and leave a review. Tell us: what will you stop saying yes to so you can say yes to yourself?
Dr. Mindy Pelz is a New York Times bestselling author, visionary educator, and trailblazer in the field of women’s health and hormone science. With over two decades of experience, she’s built a global movement to help women understand the power of their bodies at every stage of life. Her bestselling books, including Fast Like a Girl, The Menopause Reset, and her newest release Eat Like a Girl, have helped millions of women use fasting, nutrition, and lifestyle shifts to balance hormones, boost energy, and take back control of their health.
Her upcoming book, Age Like a Girl, redefines what it means to grow older as a woman. Rooted in the latest science and rich in personal story, the book challenges outdated narratives about menopause and aging offering instead a roadmap for awakening. Dr. Mindy shows women how to use the neurochemical shifts of midlife as a launchpad for purpose, leadership, and bold reinvention.
Dr. Mindy’s Resetter Podcast consistently ranks among Apple’s top U.S. science shows, withguests ranging from LeAnn Rimes and Rachel Hollis to Dr. Rangan Chatterjee. Her YouTube channel has surpassed 110 million views, and her teachings have reached hundreds of thousands through workshops, online programs, and live events.
She holds a Doctorate of Chiropractic and a background in functional nutrition, and she brings both science and heart to everything she does. Based in San Jose, CA, she leads a team committed to helping women worldwide become the healthiest, most powerful version of themselves. Dr. Mindy believes this is not the time for women to get quieter, it’s the time to get stronger, clearer, and more connected to who they truly are. Aging isn’t a decline. It’s an evolution.
Website: https://www.drmindypelz.com/
MiDOViA LINKS:
Website: https://www.midovia.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mymidovia
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/midovia
Email Us: info@midovia.com
MiDOViA is dedicated to changing the narrative about menopause by educating, ra
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_03 (00:00):
Welcome to the Medovia Menopause Podcast, your
trusted source for informationabout menopause and midlife.
Join us each episode as we havegreat conversations with great
people.
Tune in and enjoy the show.
SPEAKER_02 (00:15):
Hello, everybody, and welcome back.
April and I are thrilled todayto welcome our guest, Dr.
Mindy Pels.
Dr.
Mindy is a pioneering voice inwomen's health and one of the
most trusted educators onhormonal readiness.
She's a best-selling uh author,keynote speaker, and educator
whose work bridges cutting-edgescience with deeply personal
(00:38):
storytelling.
And her books, Fast Like a Girl,The Menopause Reset, and her
newest that's coming out thisweek, Age Like a Girl, have
become your go-to guides forwomen ready to reclaim their
energy, their confidence, andtheir vitality.
Through her YouTube channel andpodcast, Dr.
Mindy has reached millions ofwomen around the world with her
practical, compassionateapproach to hormonal health and
(01:00):
midlife transformation.
And what sets her apart is howshe connects the dots between
neuroscience, lifestyle, and theemotional journey of womanhood,
reminding us that the femalebody isn't broken.
It's brilliantly designed.
And in her newest book, Age Likea Girl, which I loved, reframes
menopause as a time ofreinvention, a neurochemical
(01:21):
upgrade that rewires the brainfor confidence, clarity, and
renewed purpose.
And so this is a conversationabout much more than symptoms
are slowing down.
It's about an awakening.
It's about coming home toyourself, to the woman you were
always meant to be.
Dr.
Mindy, welcome to the show.
We're thrilled to have you.
SPEAKER_00 (01:39):
Yeah, thank you.
That was quite an intro.
I really appreciate it.
I'm like, wow, I don't know whowrote that, but thank you.
SPEAKER_02 (01:51):
Exactly.
Girl bio for sure.
Well, this book feels deeplypersonal.
You called it the most authenticwork yet.
What made this one differentfrom you for your previous
books, like Fast Like a Girl?
That was my intro, and I lovedit to Dr.
Bindy.
But this is your most authenticwork.
How'd you get there?
SPEAKER_00 (02:11):
Well, it's interesting because the
menopause reset, when I wrotethat book, I was in my early
40s, and it really probablyshould have been called the
Perimenopause Reset.
And that was a book that wasborn out of my YouTube audience
asking me over and over againcan you put in writing all the
things you have discovered aboutbalancing your hormones through
(02:35):
lifestyle?
And that was 13 years ago when Ifirst started to put that book
together.
It was self-published, and thenHayhouse bought it and we
re-republished it just aboutfour years ago.
And so that was a request frommy audience.
Fast Like a Girl came because Iwas so frustrated watching all
(02:59):
these men stand up and say, thisis how everybody should fast.
And meanwhile, my YouTubechannel was exploding with women
whose hair was falling out, theywere gaining weight, they were
getting all these crazy symptomsbecause they were trying to fast
the same way as men were becausethey were following these books.
(03:20):
And I had come up with somereally innovative thoughts
around the fasting cycle andwhen to fast and when not to
fast.
And so that felt like a bookthat was clinical experience.
I had watched it, I knew itworked so well because I'd
watched all the people on mysocials, I'd seen all the women
in my clinic use this in and outsort of rhythm of fasting.
(03:44):
So that was sort of like aclinical, more clinical book.
So when I started researchingthis book 10 years ago, I wanted
to answer the question what thepurpose, what's the purpose of
menopause?
Because in my clinic, I had allthese women coming in in their
(04:04):
40s that would sit with me andthey would say, Um, you know, I
have an amazing husband.
My kids are killing it atschool.
Um, I live in a gorgeous home.
My practice was in the middle ofSilicon Valley.
Um, and I'm miserable.
I'm suicidal.
There's nothing I can do that isgoing to make my life any
(04:26):
better, and I'm concerned.
And it was woman after womanafter woman telling me this.
This again, about 13 years ago.
And so what I started to do wastry to figure out what was the
neurochemical shift that washappening to women as they went
through menopause.
And we weren't talking aboutHRT.
(04:47):
Menopause back then was stilllike a, oh, don't say the M
word.
Right.
Don't tell me you have, if youhave a hot flash, just leave the
room.
I don't really want to knowabout it.
Um, so we've gone in that timefrom a cultural hush to where we
sit now, which in my opinion iscultural chaos.
We have women all over the worldbeing like, I don't care
(05:10):
anymore.
Like, I've got hot flashes, andyou're just gonna sit here and
watch me burn.
Um, yes, I'm a bitch, yes, I'mdepressed, yes, and and we're
like owning our symptoms.
Yeah, but the only solution thatthe cultural conversation is
bringing to these symptoms atthis particular moment is
hormone replacement therapy.
(05:31):
And it's not hormone replacementtherapy, it isn't the answer.
It's not like a magic bulletthat you put a patch on and all
of a sudden all your symptomsimprove.
There is a learning curve withit.
You've got to have the rightdoctor, you have to decide do
you like a pill or a patch or atroche or a pellet?
(05:51):
Like there's so much tounderstand about it.
So while the world has beenfocused on that, I've gone back
to this idea of what's thepurpose of menopause?
And that was the book I wantedto write.
I wanted to prove to women thatthis experience of going from a
reproductive cycle into a nonbody that doesn't have a
(06:15):
reproductive cycle, there is areason for that.
There is a reason that we arethe species that lives, if we're
lucky, over 40% of our life willbe spent post-reproductively.
That alone is crazy becauseevery other mammal dies very,
very quickly.
(06:36):
The female will die when she'snot when her reproductive system
ends.
And we live 42.5% of our lifewithout a reproductive system.
That is not by mistake, that isby design.
So what I wanted to do wasanswer why were we left?
Why do we have, you know, why dowe thrive when we get to the
(07:01):
other side of menopause?
So now I'm I'm coming to answeryour question here, which is
because I I want I want to sortof set up the mindset.
So as I was going through this10-year journey, um, I was able
with my lifestyle and with somelow levels of hormone
replacement therapy, I was ableto help the weight gain.
(07:24):
I was able to help the insomnia.
I was able to start the hotflashes were never much of a
thing for me.
Um, the dryness that a lot ofwomen had, I never had any of
that.
But what really hit me was themental symptoms.
And somewhere in my early 50s, Istarted getting suicidal
(07:44):
thoughts.
I started having chronicdepression.
I started feeling the rage thata lot of women were
experiencing.
And when I realized that, I dovedeeper into the research to go,
okay, what is going on here?
Because I too have an amazinghusband.
I too have an amazing life.
(08:05):
Why is my brain stressintolerant?
Why is my brain hyper-vigilantand has the looping thoughts?
Why don't I care about thingsthat I used to care about?
And that's when I reallydiscovered this neurochemical
shift.
Um, and the reason it's the mostpersonal to me is because until
(08:26):
I found the solution, I hadpretty much a mental breakdown
from all of the stress, fromtrying to perform for a culture
that, you know, has told me youshould look a certain way, you
should act a certain way, youshould be a certain way.
And I broke.
And when I finally broke, Iactually isolated myself.
(08:49):
I went into an Airbnb.
I extracted myself from my myhusband, from my family, from
work, and I sat down and wrotethis book as I was putting my
own pieces together.
Wow.
Lots of women want to do that.
SPEAKER_03 (09:03):
Yeah.
Lots of women want to take off.
SPEAKER_00 (09:06):
Do you recommend that strategy?
I totally recommend it.
SPEAKER_03 (09:09):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (09:10):
I it is the best thing I did because what
happened was the body anxietygot so so exhausting that I
couldn't find my own energy.
I couldn't figure out how tocalm myself.
And um, I started just noticingeverybody was irritating me.
And I thought, I gotta isolatemyself so I can find my voice.
(09:36):
I can find my energy.
And it's little things.
It was like, I want to decidewhen I want to eat dinner, not
when when dinner's right for thefamily.
Um, I want to decide even how doI want to dress?
How do I want to think?
Who do I want to hang out with?
What shows do I want to watch?
Like all of that was donethrough the lens of, well,
(09:56):
what's my husband watching?
What's my husband want to eat?
What do my kids need?
Um, I wanted to decide how howmuch do I want to work.
But it was always like, no, whatdoes the business need?
What do my, what does my teamneed?
Like I was a professional atputting everybody's needs ahead
of my own, that I literallycouldn't find my own voice.
(10:17):
I had um my therapist said to melast year, yeah, it was last
summer, right before I startedto completely melt down.
Um, she said to me, Mindy, youhave time, you have money, your
kids are launched, you createyour life however you want.
What do you want?
And do you know I couldn'tanswer what do I want?
SPEAKER_03 (10:40):
Oh, doctor, you resonate with it all the time.
We're health coaches, and yousay to women, what do you want?
And they've never taken the timeto think about it.
They I don't know what I want,right?
Yeah.
Um, wow.
But you you had a greattherapist because she told you
to go, just go, Dr.
Mindy.
Take the time.
You've got the money, you've gotthe time.
(11:02):
How long, how long did youretreat?
Just out of curiosity.
SPEAKER_00 (11:06):
Yeah, uh, four months.
Wow.
So I it was originally supposedto be a two-month process, um,
but then my neighborhood burned.
And um I I had on the theactual, and I tell the story in
the book, but um, what happenedto me is at the end of 2024, I
had lost a really good friend.
(11:26):
He died at 52, and he was like abrother to me.
And it really shook me becausehis lifestyle was impeccable.
And I he literally laid down andhad a heart attack and was out.
And um, and he was he was like ahe was just a rock in my life,
and now he wasn't around.
And my sister um came to me atthe end, like on New Year's Day,
(11:48):
it was New Year's Eve day, andsaid to me, Um, I feel like you
are becoming more and moredistant.
And I want to know how to have arelationship with you.
And I told her, I was like, youknow what?
I can't tell you how to have arelationship with you until I
have a relationship with me.
(12:11):
I don't have a personalrelationship with me.
So how can I tell you what itwould look like to have a
relationship with me throughyour lens?
But what I really need is a bigsister.
I'm like, I'm breaking.
This was before the fires.
I'm breaking.
Can you just be a big sister andguide me through my uh a mental
breakdown that I'm having?
(12:33):
And she was like, yep, sign meup.
And then a week later, I was inthe LA fires.
And so I was supposed to be inLA for I was gonna take two
months off, is what I was gonnado.
And then the when the fires hit,I I I couldn't function.
I I mean, and if you've ever hada trauma before, um I this
(12:54):
sounds this is a little toographic, but um I didn't shower
for weeks.
And it actually took my bestfriend to like pick me up and
say, when's the last time youate?
When's the last time youshowered?
Um I couldn't rememberpasswords, my brain was
completely crashing on me.
So the only place I could go wasto be alone.
(13:18):
And when I was alone, I actuallyfelt started to feel normal.
So four months of that writingthis book, and just I spent a
lot of time in nature.
I spent a lot of timemeditating.
Um, I spent a lot of time, Idon't I didn't even watch TV, I
just listened to music.
Like I really tried to get toknow who is in there, who is
(13:40):
Mindy.
SPEAKER_02 (13:41):
Yeah, yeah.
That's so vulnerable.
Yeah, being so vulnerable is sogood.
It's such a great example forother women.
SPEAKER_03 (13:50):
And you talked about the the wildfires in your
opening story, and I appreciatethat because you're sharing some
of your personal self, and thatwas a moment of almost a literal
and symbolic cleansing for you.
SPEAKER_00 (14:03):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_03 (14:04):
Um, both that and isolating yourself and spending
time getting to know Dr.
Mindy.
And I'm thinking about how youstopped in that moment of
anxiety and trauma and reallybreakdown.
Um and so many women that wetalked to are in that same
(14:25):
place, and it can feel like it'san ending.
It can feel like, you know, mylife is over because I can't, I
really can't um climb out ofthis shit.
So how do I get out?
And and yet here you are as anexample of someone that did.
And I'm wondering, um, you writeabout menopause being an
(14:46):
initiation rather than anending.
And I'm hoping that you canexplain what you mean by that
because I think this is a reallyimportant um piece here as we
reframe menopause and how welook at menopause.
SPEAKER_00 (15:01):
Yeah, it's this is the biggest thing I want to open
up in the culture with this bookis how do we start looking at
menopause through the lens thatit is actually a woman's get out
of jail free card.
And let me explain why.
So when estrogen comes in, whenwe go through puberty, we start
(15:24):
to get what we call across-referenced brain.
Estrogen links our righthemisphere and our left
hemisphere.
And so every decision that wemake, starting at puberty, we
bring both hemispheres of ourbrain to that decision.
The left hemisphere is thelogical, it is the is the
(15:47):
goal-setting brain.
And the right hemisphere iscreativity and it's emotional
connection.
So when we and and I love I lovesaying it this way, when we are
drugged on estrogen, we arealways thinking through the lens
of relationships and making surethat our decisions are right for
(16:11):
everybody.
You mix that with a culture, apatriarchal culture that has
taught women that if you are inorder to be worthy, you need to
be selfless.
This was Carol Gilligan's work.
I wrote about this in in I havea whole chapter on it.
And what she did is she studiedboys and girls in the 1980s, and
(16:35):
she would ask a boy and a girlwhat they wanted to eat, and
when they were nine, they wouldtell you exactly what they
wanted to eat.
She'd ask that same question tothe same boy and the same girl
at 11.
The boy would tell you exactlywhat he wants to eat, but the
girl would hesitate for amoment.
By 13, when she had gone throughpuberty, the boy will tell you
(16:57):
exactly what he wants to eat.
And the girl will say, I don'tknow, what are you gonna eat?
That's an example of arelational brain.
We have been walking around.
Whose problem do we need to fix?
Who do we need to please?
What do we need to look like?
How do I get love?
How do I be worthy from theworld outside?
And the world outside says, Oh,if you're a size two, if you're
(17:21):
polite, if you don't havewrinkles, if you look a certain
way, we will love you.
When we go through menopause andwe lose estrogen, we lose the
ability to bring both of thesehemispheres to all of our
decisions, which it soundshorrible, but it's beautiful
(17:44):
because now we can move to whatwe call more of a lateralized
brain.
And it's funny, I was on a I waswith a bunch of friends this
weekend, and I was telling this,they were asking me what the
book was about, and I wassharing with this them.
And this one of my friends wasdating this man who's in his
80s, and he's over, he'slistening to this, and he goes,
(18:06):
Oh, so you get more of a malebrain then.
And I'm like, Yeah, we do.
We are able to sit in a decisionand see it through logic and
focus on it without takingeverybody's opinion into
consideration.
And we can move to the righthemisphere and we can sit on the
(18:28):
couch with our girlfriend or youknow, our friends, and have a
deep emotional connection.
We no longer make every decisionthrough this relationship brain,
which is why it appears as if wedon't care.
Right, right.
But all we're doing is we havemoved to a new brain, that brain
(18:51):
can actually look out forourselves a lot better.
We don't, it's like it's likeI've been telling people who've
been interviewing me, I'm threeyears post-menopausal.
I'm in love with this book.
I can't wait to get it outthere.
If you would, if if you hadinterviewed me when I was
perimenopausal, right now, whenI'm talking to you, I'd be
(19:12):
concerned.
Am I meeting your audience'sneeds?
Right now, I'm not thinkingabout your audience.
No offense.
Sorry, people listening.
No, no offense taken.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I'm thinking about how toexplain this so that women can
start to wake up and and telltheir truth and empower
themselves.
Whereas the younger version ofme took everybody's opinion into
(19:36):
consideration.
You drop that, but what you'releft with, right?
Do you resonate with that?
SPEAKER_03 (19:41):
100%.
Oh, 100%.
Because I've had people say, Oh,you you're selfish.
No, I'm not selfish.
I've just stopped caring aboutwhat other people think and
taking care of everyone else.
That's not selfish.
It's self care.
That's right.
It's not selfish, right?
SPEAKER_00 (19:58):
Yeah.
So if so if you go back to Thebeginning story when I isolated
myself for four months, a lot ofpeople ask me, like, what did
your husband say?
And I'm like, honestly, at thatpoint, I didn't care.
I knew that for my survival andto bring back a vibrant person
back to the marriage, I had toget to know myself.
(20:20):
I had to unwind the peoplepleasing and the codependency.
And with the post-menopausalbrain I had, that became so much
easier.
And when we looked, twostatistics started this book.
The first one was that the mostcommon time for a woman to kill
herself is the decade between 45and 55.
(20:42):
Yeah.
That was staggering.
Yeah.
So we have to, we we can't justsay, oh, she didn't get HRT.
And so that's why she did it.
I think what happens is womenwake up in that decade and they
look around and they go, Oh myGod, this is the life I created.
I don't want to live this lifeanymore.
How do I let these people knowthat I don't want to do this
(21:05):
life anymore?
Which is why we need to showthat menopause is initiating you
into a new version of yourself.
Because that same woman who wasgoing to kill herself, if she
understood it was your her brainwas rewiring and she's looking
at her life very differently,then what she would do is go,
(21:26):
okay, I need to be a new versionof me, a more authentic version
of me.
And then she could go down thatpath and that process, as
opposed to, I'm going crazy.
I don't want to be marriedanymore.
I don't want to be living inthis house anymore, which was a
big thing.
I didn't want to live in myhouse anymore.
I was like, I can't be in thishouse here anymore, this family
(21:48):
home that has so many goodmemories.
I'm like, I don't want to behere anymore.
The we need to open thisconversation up so women stop
killing themselves because thatis a natural transition through
this moment.
SPEAKER_02 (22:01):
Yeah.
Yeah.
And it seems like there's likeurgency in your voice around
this too.
Like, yeah, we we can't messaround.
We need to let everybody knowthat this is going on and that
you can figure out who you areand you can spend time on this,
and it is okay to have that.
That thank you.
SPEAKER_03 (22:17):
There is urgent granted, right?
Permission granted.
Yeah, that's great.
I mean, there's we needpermission, but sometimes we
think we do.
SPEAKER_00 (22:25):
Good point.
Good point.
How many times, like we myfriend group?
Um, I I've even as as a strong,powerful woman, uh, as as recent
as six months ago, I saidsomething to one of my friends.
I said, Well, yeah, my husband'sgonna let me do that.
And she goes, Excuse me?
He's gonna let you know, yeah.
(22:47):
He's gonna let you.
And I'm like, oh my God, I can'tbelieve I just said that.
Like, if we truly, I I anotherquote I have in the book is that
menopause is a mirror.
It's a mirror to show you whatyou like about yourself and what
you don't like about yourself.
And what we're doing, theurgency that I really want to
point out is that right nowwe're saying you're suffering
(23:10):
because of you didn't get theright doctor.
But we need to bring into theconversation maybe the rage is
because you're tired of peoplepleasing.
Maybe the irritability isbecause you have said yes when
you really meant to say no andyou're resentful.
Maybe you can't sleep becauseyour sympathetic nervous system
(23:32):
is so on overload from all thefixing, all the all the
pleasing, all the things you'vebeen trying to do to for
everyone else so that you canfeel worthy.
What I think menopause is, isit's a time for us to feel
worthy just because we fall inlove with ourselves and we stand
up and say our truth and wespeak what we finally wanted to
(23:55):
say, but we kept quiet becauseonce estrogen came in, we
started to really think aboutrelationships in in like I don't
want to hurt that person.
Right.
You don't think that when you gointo post-menopausal and years,
and I want women to say, I don'twant to hurt me.
Yes.
SPEAKER_02 (24:14):
Wow, it's that's powerful.
Yeah, it's so interesting.
It's so because I even talkingto my 77-year-old old mother,
letting her know she is okay forher to make the decisions that
she wants to make.
Yeah, that's just like we needto like empower each other to be
able to do that when we're readyto.
SPEAKER_00 (24:34):
Oh my gosh, you bring up such a good point.
My 86-year-old mom, my my89-year-old dad had spinal
surgery this summer.
And so I needed to make sure mymom was okay.
They've been they've beenmarried for 60 years, like
they're both still thriving.
And so my mom started to rely onher girlfriends to drive her to
(24:57):
go visit my dad.
And she was so happy.
And I said to her, Mom, I'venever seen you like be with your
girlfriends so much, and you'reso lit up.
Why don't you do that moreoften?
And she's like, Well, I can'tleave your father at home by
himself.
Oh, I've heard that too.
I'm like, of course you can.
Of course you can.
(25:18):
Wow.
So if you stop and you look atit through this lens where we
have been behaving and beenperforming in a certain way
because the culture told us wewould be good and we would be
worthy if we do that.
What I'm hoping people women dois they pick up this book and
they finally go, Okay, wait,what do I want?
(25:38):
What am I doing for me now?
That's the initiation is whatare you doing for you now?
SPEAKER_03 (25:45):
Yeah.
And that makes your books armor,right?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (25:50):
And it put puts your book on a different plane to
other menopause books.
I just have to say, becausethat's you talk more about that
than any other pieces ofmenopause.
And I think it's it's a reallygood place for women to hear and
get permission that it's okay.
SPEAKER_03 (26:06):
Yeah.
Thank you.
I think um, so I I want to shiftbecause I know that myself, um,
being my little Enneagram one.
Oh, I think you're saying yourEnneagram.
Are you Enneagram seven?
You're seven.
Okay.
Yeah.
My daughter's seven.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (26:23):
Excellent.
Okay, but we can go back to youroneness.
That's okay.
SPEAKER_03 (26:29):
Your one gets us to the airport.
Wait, we like ones, yeah.
Keep us on track, organized.
Um, and speaking of ones, I lovelists, right?
So, okay, we have thisinformation, we know this.
How do we move from this placeof where we are, this chaos, um,
(26:49):
to shedding the armor?
How do we help women movethrough the grief and the loss
and the anger to this place ofcoming home?
SPEAKER_00 (27:02):
It's such a good question.
Um, so first let's talk aboutthe armor.
One of the things that Idiscovered in all my research is
that we're not just losingestrogen and progesterone when
we go through this process.
But actually, estrogen, one partof estrogen called estradiol,
stimulated and facilitated overwhat from what I my research,
(27:24):
over 12 neurochemicals.
So whenever estrogen was around,we had dopamine, serotonin,
GABA, oxytocin, glutamate, BDNF,melatonin, like estro estradiol
was a was the diva of allhormones.
So when we lose estrogen, andeven if you're taking hormone
(27:46):
replacement therapy, you stillhave the let the you have the
lowest amount of estrogen you'veever had in your life.
And these neurochemicals startto wane.
Now, what's interesting aboutthat is I think of it like an
armor, where when estrogen wasaround, it was almost like we
had a neurochemical buffer wheresomebody would ask us, hey, do
(28:10):
you want to, you know, sign up?
Like, you want to work in yourkids' classroom today?
And we're like, sure, that wouldmake me feel good.
And then all of a sudden,dopamine goes down and serotonin
goes down, and we're notmotivated to do that.
And so there's this raw versionof you.
So the first thing I want to sayis if you're thinking different
(28:34):
and you're in this process, andthe things you cared about
before, and you you stop caringabout, or if you have a lot of
rage, or you have a lot ofirritability, or you have a lot
of depression, and I'll talkabout what each one of those
means here in a moment, that isa sign that you are ready to
(28:54):
change.
So that is not a flaw in yourmakeup.
That is a gift that says, okay,what are you depressed about?
Are you depressed because youdon't love your life?
Well, then what can we do to putthings into it that you love?
(29:15):
What is anxiety?
What are you fearful of?
Are you like a lot of women areworried, what am I gonna do once
my kids leave the house?
What who am I then?
Yeah, that's where anxiety cancome in.
I think rage, I think rage is somany women that are like, I'm so
tired of taking care ofeverybody else that I just can't
(29:38):
do it anymore.
Um, Julie Gottman, I spent a daywith her.
Julie Gottman.
Yeah, she's awesome.
And she talks about how ah,nice.
She talks about how resentmentis a sign that you've been
saying yes when you reallywanted to say no.
So these are really importantbecause when depression shows
(30:00):
up, you can be you could whatI'm hoping women will say is,
okay, so I'm depressed.
Um, well, I know that I've lostsome dopamine, so my
motivation's down.
I don't have as much estrogen.
So what can I do today to bringdopamine back?
Well, dopamine loves novelty.
So do something new, change upyour routine.
(30:22):
And then you I'm not talkingabout blowing up your whole
life.
I'm just saying when thesesymptoms show up, instead of
going to Instagram and seeingpeople say, Well, you didn't get
the right doctor and you don'thave the right uh HRT, what if
you look at your life and say, Ineed to change my routine?
(30:43):
I need to bring back thenovelty, I need to break the
routine, I need to learnsomething new.
That's what, and then all of asudden your moods go up.
Oxytocin is a really interestingneurochemical that estrogen
stimulated.
And um, women have more oxytocinreceptor sites in our amygdala,
(31:05):
which is the fight or flightcenter of our brain.
So when when we lose estrogen,we actually miss out on a stress
response that we used to look,we used to lean into, which is
called the tend and befriendstress response.
We all know this.
You had a stressful day, you youcall your bestie and you're
(31:25):
like, hey, I'm gonna verballypro that's because you're
getting oxytocin and it calmsyour stress response.
Well, when you go throughmenopause, you your oxytocin
system has been dialed down.
So you no longer can dosuperficial relationships.
So all of a sudden, you need adeeper connection from your
(31:47):
husband.
You need your bestie more thanever before, which is why you
see people like Jane Fonda whohave said, you know, I wouldn't
even exist without mygirlfriends as I age.
We definitely need thatgirlfriend time.
So the initiation is really aninquiry where you ask yourself
(32:08):
when these symptoms come up,what in my life is no longer
working?
And can I start to let go ofsome of those behaviors and lean
into others?
You call it pause, yeah.
SPEAKER_03 (32:22):
Yeah, you have to pause, people.
You have to breathe breathe.
You have to pause.
You have to pause.
SPEAKER_02 (32:27):
Yeah, exactly.
Pause and listen.
Yeah.
And um, you use the termestrogen girl gang to talk about
these um dopamine, serotonin,GABA, et cetera.
And I just loved that.
I was just like, this is this islike we could sit around for
hours talking about how fun thisis and what a great opportunity
menopause is for leadership, fortransformation.
(32:49):
You know, can you comment onwhat how what happens to women
when they get to really listento themselves and show up
differently?
SPEAKER_00 (32:56):
Yeah.
So the girl gang, I just, youknow, the first time I I really
learned hormones, I was like,these can these long names don't
mean anything.
Like we need to redefine this.
I actually told a friend of minewho's a hormone expert, and she
goes, Yeah, they should be, weshould make them like nail
polish names.
Oh, and Opie.
Opie has the best nail polish.
SPEAKER_03 (33:16):
Okay, there we go.
Yeah, let's do Opie.
Okay.
Okay, well, whatever.
SPEAKER_00 (33:20):
Okay, so I I will have to investigate the OP
names.
But I decided to call uh itEstrogen's girl gang.
And what I did in part two ofthe book is I wanted women to
go, okay, I'm my moods are off.
Okay, here are the members ofthe girl gang that might be a
little vulnerable right now.
And here are the here's thelifestyle tools I can use to
(33:42):
bring back these uhneurochemicals.
And then we have one on memory,and we have one on connection
and exercise and sleep.
So that part two is really aboutwomen going in and going, yes, I
have this symptom.
Okay, here are these, here's theneurochemical change, and here's
the lifestyle that I can bringback in.
(34:03):
And I think we don't givelifestyle enough credit.
So let's use dopamine as anexample.
A lot of women get flat in theirbeh in their moods.
And I don't know if you twoexperienced that, but it's like
just blah.
It's like, I don't know, fooddoesn't excite me.
Yeah.
Well, that's because as estrogenwent down, so did dopamine.
(34:27):
Well, we already talked abouthow dopamine loves novelty, so
do something new.
But if you actually commit tolike a new activity that you're
learning, so I don't know ifyou've seen on Instagram right
now, there's a lot of um talkabout grandmother hobbies.
Well, we want to talk aboutgrandmother hypothesis.
(34:47):
Yeah, we can we can talk aboutthat.
But so my sister's a knitter,and uh she has knit herself so
many sweaters that she keepshaving to buy more armoirs in
her house to put them in.
But I'll tell you, when she'sfirst learned to knit, you saw
her moods just totally brightenup.
And when she's knitting, she'sactually a more enjoyable person
(35:10):
to be around because knittingstimulates dopamine.
So learning something new anddoing something, the thing about
dopamine that's so interestingis dopamine is the molecule of
more, it's not the molecule ofenough.
So it'll just keep bringing youto like, let's keep doing this,
let's keep doing this.
(35:30):
So, we as women, we get dopaminesometimes by helping people.
SPEAKER_01 (35:36):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (35:37):
And then we help somebody and we go, oh, that was
really fun.
Let me go help another personand let me help another person.
But when we go throughmenopause, our dopamine system
goes down and we need to findnew ways to stimulate it.
And one of the recommendations Ihave is find a new hobby, find
something new that's just foryou.
That um I started surfing fourmonths ago.
(36:00):
I'm in Santa Cruz, California,and I a friend said a
52-year-old uh post-menopausalwoman said, Hey, come surf with
me.
And I was horrible at it when Istarted.
Surfing is an incredibly hardsport.
But you know what?
I every day went out there, Iwas in nature, I was learning
(36:20):
something.
I got oxytocin from the peoplethat were hanging out out there.
Everybody was really supportive.
And I would come out of thewater so happy.
And my husband looked at me andlike, I've never seen you so
happy.
And I would say, I didn't evencatch a wave today.
I suck at this sport.
But you know what?
I'm not doing it for anyoutcome.
(36:43):
I don't care.
I just want to keep learningsomething new.
And can I tell you that when youcommit to learning something
new, you bring dopamine back.
So the first part that I reallywant to emphasize on this girl
gang is you have the ability tobring these members back
quickly.
(37:03):
And that's what I wanted toshow, as opposed to what happens
when you walk into your doctor'soffice and they say, Oh, you're
depressed, you need anantidepressant.
No, you need to reorganize yourlife so you're doing something
fun just for you.
Yeah, it's the beginner mindset,right?
It's the beginner mindset.
SPEAKER_02 (37:23):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Be excited.
I um when I turned 50, I decidedI was gonna do 50 new things at
50.
Oh, I love that.
And so I did it and I documentedit on Facebook and I told
everybody that I was doing, andit was everything from you know,
float tank to oh gosh, a newrestaurant to you know, a new
different style of clothes.
(37:43):
Like just it was crazy.
Doesn't matter, yeah, but it wasfun, and so then my friend who's
20 years older than me, she'slike, Well, what am I doing at
80?
Because what are you doing at60?
Yeah, because we've got 60coming.
SPEAKER_00 (37:55):
I I think that's a great idea.
And that's probably really youprobably had a lot of happiness
that year.
I did.
And then we went into COVID, sowhatever.
Oh, bummer.
That's a whole that's a wholeother conversation.
SPEAKER_02 (38:07):
Yeah, that is a whole other conversation.
SPEAKER_00 (38:09):
But but I want to point something out that it's
not complicated.
And this is what I tried tobring forward with Fast Like a
Girl, losing weight was notcomplicated.
We just had to change the timingof people's food, and then all
of a sudden they started to dropweight.
That's what I'm saying here inAge Like a Girl.
When you're depressed, whenyou're anxious, when you can't
(38:30):
think straight, like the brainfog, then let's go revisit these
members of the girl gang andlook at where there are holes in
your lifestyle that aren'tbringing these neurochemicals
into play.
SPEAKER_03 (38:42):
Yeah.
And some of the we're big fansof lifestyle medicine, if you
want to call it that.
But um can you just quick punchwhat are some of the other
lifestyle habits or areas, ifwe, if we will, that we could go
to?
Exercise, obviously, nutrition.
What else would you say?
SPEAKER_00 (39:02):
Yeah, there's a lot of really fun ones that I put in
there.
So, of course, I got to go tothe one that's the most near and
dear to my heart, which is whena woman after 40, when she goes
through menopause, so thisapplies to 70-year-olds and
80-year-olds, your brain becomesless efficient at using glucose.
So eating to fuel your brainbecomes less efficient.
(39:25):
And if you are, if you are uheating a highly processed diet,
you are damaging your brain evenmore because too much refined
flours, too many refined sugars,and you are elevating glucose,
and your brain doesn't know whatto do with that.
This is why they callAlzheimer's Alzheimer's diabetes
(39:46):
type 3, because the brain isjust swimming in glucose and it
can't use it.
And so, what that feels like toa 43 year old or a 45 year old
going through the process isbrain fog.
The antidote to brain fog.
Brain fog is use a differentfuel source.
And that fuel source is called aketone.
(40:07):
And you don't have to go intolong fasts, but if you start to
fast as little as 13, 14, 15hours every day, you're going to
give your brain a dose ofketones.
And your brain fog will goimmediately.
I'm talking days, like a day toa couple of days, the brain fog
(40:27):
will be gone.
Because you now have given yourbrain the fuel source it per it
it wants as it ages.
It doesn't want glucose, itcan't use glucose, it needs a
ketone.
unknown (40:41):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (40:41):
And ketones are free.
You can make them for free.
It doesn't cost anything.
Doesn't cost anything.
So that would be that would beone example of just switch the
your timing of your food andlet's get you off the junk food.
And you're going to watch yourbrain come back online.
Now let's let's juxtapose thatto a woman that goes into her
(41:02):
doctor's office and says, I'mdepressed, I'm irritable, and I
have brain fog, I can't focus.
And then the doctor is now downmedication paths, trying to find
the right medication that couldtake months to figure out,
because you know, evenantidepressants aren't the magic
cure that they used to thinkthey were.
(41:24):
Whereas you can start fasting 13to 15 hours every day, get a
ketone, and within two days yourbrain comes back online.
That's amazing.
SPEAKER_03 (41:32):
Yeah.
And 13 to 15 hours is not a lot.
It sounds like a lot, but if youreally do the math in your
24-hour day, most of that'ssleep.
That's right.
That's right.
SPEAKER_02 (41:41):
Yeah.
Um, we have a million questionsfor you, and we're and we're
short on time.
But one of the things that wealluded to earlier, and the
thing we really wanted to talkto you about, was the
grandmother hypothesis.
You are a huge fan of thegrandmother hypothesis and its
evolution of women and how womenare prepared to um be the wisdom
and be helping each other duringthat time.
(42:04):
Break that down for us.
Tell us more.
I know this comes from LisaMuscone's work, so let's give
Dr.
Muscone the um theacknowledgement that deserves
there.
But um, you're really a strongadvocate for this, and I'd love
to hear your point of view onit.
SPEAKER_00 (42:18):
Well, I think evolutionary biology helps us
understand how our bodies work.
I mean, look at fasting.
That was an evolutionary hackthat once people figured out, uh
oh, wait, I lose weight when Iwhen I have an eating window and
a fasting window, or I canactually bring my brain back
online when I don't eat.
(42:39):
And all of a sudden you start tosee that there's some
evolutionary mechanisms insideour body that work for us that
we don't use in the modernworld.
So I had already had a historyof going back and looking at
evolutionary biology.
So when I wanted to answerwhat's the purpose of menopause,
I started thinking, well, whatdid they do back in the primal
(43:03):
days?
Now, we have to firstacknowledge that they didn't
live as long as we lived.
But what I stumbled upon wasthis thing called the
grandmother hypothesis.
And the grandmother hypothesisstates that when a woman in the
primal days stopped having herperiod, she was actually moved
to a place of leadership withinthe tribe.
(43:27):
Because they knew back then thatshe got renewed energy because
she wasn't putting so muchenergy towards reproduction,
which is mind-blowing when youthink about it.
It's like, oh my God, I didn'teven realize how much energy it
took to release an egg everymonth.
But when what the grandmotherhypothesis says is that when
(43:48):
your reproductive system stops,the energy it took your body to
re keep releasing an egg everysingle month is given back to
you.
And it's used for three areas.
Fitness is one, which is crazybecause how many women are like,
oh, I'm I'm I'm getting oldernow, I can't work out the you
(44:09):
know anymore.
Um, cognition is the other, andsocial connection is the third.
And and and then let me put thisthrough the lens of the
grandmother hypothesis.
So, what happened in the primaldays was when a woman was moved
to this leadership position, shewould go out and gather with the
other grandmothers every singlemorning, from the research I can
(44:33):
find and from talking toactually Kristen Hawks was one
of the anthropologists that's abig champion of the grandmother
hypothesis.
These women every single daywould go on a seven-hour trek to
forage for food.
The men would go out for daystrying to get a big animal kill.
(44:56):
They only came back with ananimal kill 3% of the time,
which means one day out of 30.
We would not be sitting herewith odds like that.
So the grandmother, what she didwhen she didn't have her
reproductive system, she joinedthe other grandmothers, and
seven hours every day they wentout and searched for tubers.
(45:18):
Uh, tubers are like um sun uhsweet potatoes, sunchokes,
hickama, turnips, potatoes.
And they were they you had shehad to go and walk for miles to
find these tubers.
And then she would squat and digin the ground and grab the
tubers, put them on her back,and then comes back to the to
(45:39):
the um tribe and the clan, andshe feeds the fertile mom, the
pregnant mom, or the nursingmom, and the little children
that couldn't go out into theand and hunt for an animal.
So she had a leadership positionin within the culture.
(46:00):
And they believe we are sittinghere right now because of the
post-menopausal women woman.
We would not have evolved as aspecies if we didn't have this
backup plan for food.
Okay, so now let's take thegrandmother hypothesis and let's
put it next to what happens tous today as we age.
(46:22):
Today, as we age, probably uh Ithink we're changing this, but
we're so scared of aging thatwe're freezing our faces, we are
dying our hair, we are plasticsurgery is through the roof
because women are terrified toage.
Okay, why are we terrified toage?
(46:44):
Because our culture tends totoss us aside.
An aging woman isn't considerednecessary, isn't considered
useful in our culture.
But in the primal days, webrought the food home when the
men were gone.
So, why I wanted to bring thisforward is that when I looked at
(47:07):
that and I and I squared it withLisa Muscone's work on the brain
changes that were happening,this lateralized brain, the
cross-reference brain we talkedabout earlier, I realized all of
a sudden that a woman's the besttime of her life is
post-reproductive.
And our brains were meant to beleaders.
(47:28):
And I I I'm gonna even, I mean,I'm gonna even go as deep to say
that I think they they they wantus to fear aging because if they
actually let post-menopausalwomen embrace their power, we
would take over the world.
Like that's what, like,seriously, that's why I had to
(47:49):
do an appendix to men.
It's why I had to do an appendixto um corporations, because the
the best brain a woman has isthe post-menopausal brain.
It is built for leadership, itis built for focus, it is built
for social connection, and thatis not what's getting out there
(48:09):
in the zeitgeist.
SPEAKER_03 (48:12):
And that's when they're shoving them aside.
That's right.
And pushing them out.
That's right.
SPEAKER_02 (48:17):
I'm telling you right now, we're putting that
quote of you speaking that onevery social media site for a
very long time to come.
That is true.
Really true.
Yeah, and um, and feels likethere's a purpose, right?
Thank you.
SPEAKER_00 (48:29):
Yeah, and that's what I'm trying to bring forward
is there's a purpose for all ofthis.
So do the inquiry, figure outwhy you're depressed and the
rage, do the lifestyle tools,take HRT if you're thinking
about it, but buck up becausewhere you're going, we need you.
We need you to stand up and tellyour truth.
We need you to lead us out of amess that the world is in right
(48:51):
now.
A billion women in menopauseright now could change the
conversation that's going on inour culture, could change the
misogyny and the fascism that'shappening across the world.
But if long as they keep ustimid and scared of becoming
invisible, we don't step intoour power.
(49:12):
Menopause is the moment you getto finally step into the most
powerful version of you.
And that is what I'm trying towake up in women by
understanding the process.
And it feels good.
It feels good.
Yeah, amazing.
SPEAKER_02 (49:27):
Yeah, it is.
I was gonna ask you what's onething you want people to take
away from your book, but I thinkyou just said it right there.
SPEAKER_00 (49:34):
Don't disappear.
Please don't disappear.
We need you, please don'tdisappear.
And we don't need you to be likeanybody else.
We need the authentic version,the unique version of you.
So I share a story in the bookthat um I wasn't my sister, it
was brilliant and hadphotographic memory, and it my
(49:54):
mom was a math teacher, and itconsumed my mom's energy trying
to figure out where uh whatschools she should go to.
Um, I'm a very out-of-the-boxcreative thinker.
Um, in the 1970s, we didn't knowwhat to do with out-of-the-box
creative thinkers.
I would have been probablydiagnosed as neurodivergent,
(50:15):
which is a is a is a term that'scoming up more often.
But instead, I was thought of asdumb.
I was thought of as lessintelligent than my sister.
When I went through menopause, Istarted realizing that one of
the special skills that I haveis pattern recognition.
(50:37):
I can see across many differenttypes of people, I can see the
through line.
I think this is how I came upwith age like a girl.
I'm like, there's a purpose.
Okay, let me look at thegrandmother hypothesis, let me
look at neuroscience, let melook at societal messaging, let
me look, I brought in theteachings of a mystic, and let's
see what the through line was.
(50:59):
So I took back my own beliefabout who I was, and I stand
very proudly saying, I considermyself brilliant now.
And I say that with with humblebut with humble, a humble
spirit.
Um, but you're talking to awoman who was told that she was
not as smart as her sister.
She wasn't killing it at school.
(51:20):
Well, you give me a multiplechoice question and you only
gave me four answers.
And there's like uh 10 moreanswers that wasn't listed
there.
SPEAKER_02 (51:28):
Yeah.
Yeah.
Right?
And it's a shame that you had tobe, you know, this old to
realize that you're not that youare smart.
And and when other people lookat you just like other people
look at other people, like, whatare you even talking about?
How do you know why would youever hear them?
I know like right, right.
SPEAKER_00 (51:47):
And that's why, you know, this is the you know, I
this is why I'm being asauthentic as I can, um, because
I want women to see themselves,like yours might not be your
intellect.
Maybe you think you weren'tbeautiful, and then all of a
sudden you realize that one ofthe most beautiful things in a
woman is confidence.
(52:08):
And when you are confident,you're beautiful, and maybe you
come into that awareness, ormaybe something was taken away
from you as a little girl.
Like one of the reasons surfingbecame really important for me
is that when I was in theseventh grade, I grew up in
Malibu, and I went out surfingone day, and a boy I liked that
(52:29):
was in my classroom turned tome.
This is the 1970s, and said,Mindy, what are you doing out
here?
Girls don't surf.
And so at 56, I'm taking backall the messaging, all the
things people told me I couldn'tdo or who I was or who I wasn't,
and I'm gathering those back,and I'm standing in the most
(52:51):
authentic version of me.
And that's what I want everywoman to do because that's the
initiation.
Yeah, right.
SPEAKER_03 (52:58):
Exactly.
Yeah.
And your gosh, I wish with yourbook, and we're gonna, we're
gonna obviously um have thispodcast on um everywhere, but I
wish that there was just soundbites that went along with your
book because I can sense yourenergy and your enthusiasm, and
it's absolutely contagious.
(53:19):
Um, I I gathered that energy inreading through the book, but
having you on it has just beenan absolute joy.
Because I really can sense yourpassion and your energy and your
confidence, and it is beautiful.
SPEAKER_00 (53:33):
Thank you, thank you, thank you.
I I will tell you one cool thingthat we're working on because
um, you know, the reason that Iwrote this book is to open this
conversation up, uh, you know,and so that we can all step into
it.
So stay tuned because we'reworking on a conversation deck
where you could get togetherwith your girlfriends, you could
(53:53):
get together with your husband,and you could pull out a card
and you could start to ask eachother questions and have
conversations.
Like we started practicing theother day.
I did this with my best friend,and the the question was if we
traded bodies, what's the firstthing you would do if you had my
body?
Well, my my best friend is istall.
(54:15):
And I'm like, oh my God, if Ihad your body, I would start
putting everything on a topshelf.
So, but but I'm trying to keepthe conversation.
I say this to just say, I'mtrying to keep the conversation
going.
So, you know, my dream is whenpeople get the book is share it,
talk about it.
This is for all of us.
(54:37):
So I appreciate the comment, thecompliments, and this is this is
for all of us to step into thisinitiation and do it our way,
our individual way.
SPEAKER_03 (54:47):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (54:48):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_03 (54:48):
And and it's a tool.
So again, I love that I can takesomething away from that and
keep that conversation going.
Okay, we ask all of our gueststhis question.
So we'll ask you, what is thebest piece of advice you've ever
received?
SPEAKER_00 (55:05):
So when I was first in practice, um, my father had
taught me that you're worthy ifyou work hard.
And so I was working literallyseven days a week seeing
patients.
I saw Monday, Monday throughSaturday, seven in the morning
to seven at night.
unknown (55:24):
Wow.
SPEAKER_00 (55:25):
And I and I had a rocking practice and it was
full, and I was in my late 20s.
It was very exciting.
And then I had a mentor pull measide and he told me two things.
One, he said, and this was backin the um 90s, he said, you
would never ask Michael Jordan,if if people remember Michael
Jordan, uh, you would never wehad never asked Michael Jordan
(55:48):
to play an NBA playoff game for10 hours.
You've got to take rest.
You have to recover.
You can't work at that.
And the second thing he told me,and probably the thing that hit
me the hardest, is that he said,you will never work a day in
your life if you put yourselfconstantly in service and you
(56:12):
serve a mission, you helppeople, you think about how to
bring forward a message thatwill change the lives of many.
And that one mentor, he's stilla good friend.
And um, it was the mostimpactful thing that I learned
is rest and make sure that yourwork is something that's
(56:34):
changing the culturalconversation, changing the lives
of millions.
And I don't think you have tohave it be career-wise.
I think for the women that maybedon't have a career, it could be
that you make a decision thatyou're gonna be kind to every
single person that you meet.
Every time you go, I was justtraveling this weekend, and when
I went past the TSA people, Iwas like, thank you for being
(56:59):
here.
I know you're not getting paid.
Now, I could have easily likejust left that, but I wanted to
make sure that I was constantlyin gratitude, having gratitude
for those people.
So a servant's heart, it itworks.
SPEAKER_03 (57:14):
I love that.
It's making the world a betterplace when you exit than when
you came.
That's right.
Make it a better place.
Yeah.
Thank you.
Um Dr.
SPEAKER_00 (57:21):
Mindy, where can we find you?
Uh, I'm kind of everywhere.
Um, I would tell you that my mypassion project is my YouTube
channel.
So um a lot of my newinformation and new ways of
describing it is going to be outon is always on my YouTube
channel.
Um, I have a podcast too calledthe Resetter Podcast.
Um, I'm trying to bring onpeople of all different
(57:43):
backgrounds there so that we canum have again, everybody can
make their own decision aboutwhat they think around their
health.
Um and then, you know, like thebook is everywhere, and you can
go to my website, but YouTube isreally where I put my heart and
soul.
SPEAKER_03 (57:57):
Okay, perfect.
We'll put that in show notes.
And until we meet again,everyone, go find joy in the
journey.
Thanks, Dr.
McGee.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you for listening to theMedovia Menopause Podcast.
If you enjoyed today's show,please give it a thumbs up,
subscribe for future episodes,leave a review, and share this
(58:19):
episode with a friend.
Medovia is out to change thenarrative.
Learn more at Medovia.com.
That's M-I-D-O-V-IA.com.
Welcome to the Medovia Menopause Podcast, your
trusted source for informationabout menopause and midlife.
Join us each episode as we havegreat conversations with great
people.
Tune in and enjoy the show.
SPEAKER_02 (00:15):
Hello, everybody, and welcome back.
April and I are thrilled todayto welcome our guest, Dr.
Mindy Pels.
Dr.
Mindy is a pioneering voice inwomen's health and one of the
most trusted educators onhormonal readiness.
She's a best-selling uh author,keynote speaker, and educator
whose work bridges cutting-edgescience with deeply personal
(00:38):
storytelling.
And her books, Fast Like a Girl,The Menopause Reset, and her
newest that's coming out thisweek, Age Like a Girl, have
become your go-to guides forwomen ready to reclaim their
energy, their confidence, andtheir vitality.
Through her YouTube channel andpodcast, Dr.
Mindy has reached millions ofwomen around the world with her
practical, compassionateapproach to hormonal health and
(01:00):
midlife transformation.
And what sets her apart is howshe connects the dots between
neuroscience, lifestyle, and theemotional journey of womanhood,
reminding us that the femalebody isn't broken.
It's brilliantly designed.
And in her newest book, Age Likea Girl, which I loved, reframes
menopause as a time ofreinvention, a neurochemical
(01:21):
upgrade that rewires the brainfor confidence, clarity, and
renewed purpose.
And so this is a conversationabout much more than symptoms
are slowing down.
It's about an awakening.
It's about coming home toyourself, to the woman you were
always meant to be.
Dr.
Mindy, welcome to the show.
We're thrilled to have you.
SPEAKER_00 (01:39):
Yeah, thank you.
That was quite an intro.
I really appreciate it.
I'm like, wow, I don't know whowrote that, but thank you.
SPEAKER_02 (01:51):
Exactly.
Girl bio for sure.
Well, this book feels deeplypersonal.
You called it the most authenticwork yet.
What made this one differentfrom you for your previous
books, like Fast Like a Girl?
That was my intro, and I lovedit to Dr.
Bindy.
But this is your most authenticwork.
How'd you get there?
SPEAKER_00 (02:11):
Well, it's interesting because the
menopause reset, when I wrotethat book, I was in my early
40s, and it really probablyshould have been called the
Perimenopause Reset.
And that was a book that wasborn out of my YouTube audience
asking me over and over againcan you put in writing all the
things you have discovered aboutbalancing your hormones through
(02:35):
lifestyle?
And that was 13 years ago when Ifirst started to put that book
together.
It was self-published, and thenHayhouse bought it and we
re-republished it just aboutfour years ago.
And so that was a request frommy audience.
Fast Like a Girl came because Iwas so frustrated watching all
(02:59):
these men stand up and say, thisis how everybody should fast.
And meanwhile, my YouTubechannel was exploding with women
whose hair was falling out, theywere gaining weight, they were
getting all these crazy symptomsbecause they were trying to fast
the same way as men were becausethey were following these books.
(03:20):
And I had come up with somereally innovative thoughts
around the fasting cycle andwhen to fast and when not to
fast.
And so that felt like a bookthat was clinical experience.
I had watched it, I knew itworked so well because I'd
watched all the people on mysocials, I'd seen all the women
in my clinic use this in and outsort of rhythm of fasting.
(03:44):
So that was sort of like aclinical, more clinical book.
So when I started researchingthis book 10 years ago, I wanted
to answer the question what thepurpose, what's the purpose of
menopause?
Because in my clinic, I had allthese women coming in in their
(04:04):
40s that would sit with me andthey would say, Um, you know, I
have an amazing husband.
My kids are killing it atschool.
Um, I live in a gorgeous home.
My practice was in the middle ofSilicon Valley.
Um, and I'm miserable.
I'm suicidal.
There's nothing I can do that isgoing to make my life any
(04:26):
better, and I'm concerned.
And it was woman after womanafter woman telling me this.
This again, about 13 years ago.
And so what I started to do wastry to figure out what was the
neurochemical shift that washappening to women as they went
through menopause.
And we weren't talking aboutHRT.
(04:47):
Menopause back then was stilllike a, oh, don't say the M
word.
Right.
Don't tell me you have, if youhave a hot flash, just leave the
room.
I don't really want to knowabout it.
Um, so we've gone in that timefrom a cultural hush to where we
sit now, which in my opinion iscultural chaos.
We have women all over the worldbeing like, I don't care
(05:10):
anymore.
Like, I've got hot flashes, andyou're just gonna sit here and
watch me burn.
Um, yes, I'm a bitch, yes, I'mdepressed, yes, and and we're
like owning our symptoms.
Yeah, but the only solution thatthe cultural conversation is
bringing to these symptoms atthis particular moment is
hormone replacement therapy.
(05:31):
And it's not hormone replacementtherapy, it isn't the answer.
It's not like a magic bulletthat you put a patch on and all
of a sudden all your symptomsimprove.
There is a learning curve withit.
You've got to have the rightdoctor, you have to decide do
you like a pill or a patch or atroche or a pellet?
(05:51):
Like there's so much tounderstand about it.
So while the world has beenfocused on that, I've gone back
to this idea of what's thepurpose of menopause?
And that was the book I wantedto write.
I wanted to prove to women thatthis experience of going from a
reproductive cycle into a nonbody that doesn't have a
(06:15):
reproductive cycle, there is areason for that.
There is a reason that we arethe species that lives, if we're
lucky, over 40% of our life willbe spent post-reproductively.
That alone is crazy becauseevery other mammal dies very,
very quickly.
(06:36):
The female will die when she'snot when her reproductive system
ends.
And we live 42.5% of our lifewithout a reproductive system.
That is not by mistake, that isby design.
So what I wanted to do wasanswer why were we left?
Why do we have, you know, why dowe thrive when we get to the
(07:01):
other side of menopause?
So now I'm I'm coming to answeryour question here, which is
because I I want I want to sortof set up the mindset.
So as I was going through this10-year journey, um, I was able
with my lifestyle and with somelow levels of hormone
replacement therapy, I was ableto help the weight gain.
(07:24):
I was able to help the insomnia.
I was able to start the hotflashes were never much of a
thing for me.
Um, the dryness that a lot ofwomen had, I never had any of
that.
But what really hit me was themental symptoms.
And somewhere in my early 50s, Istarted getting suicidal
(07:44):
thoughts.
I started having chronicdepression.
I started feeling the rage thata lot of women were
experiencing.
And when I realized that, I dovedeeper into the research to go,
okay, what is going on here?
Because I too have an amazinghusband.
I too have an amazing life.
(08:05):
Why is my brain stressintolerant?
Why is my brain hyper-vigilantand has the looping thoughts?
Why don't I care about thingsthat I used to care about?
And that's when I reallydiscovered this neurochemical
shift.
Um, and the reason it's the mostpersonal to me is because until
(08:26):
I found the solution, I hadpretty much a mental breakdown
from all of the stress, fromtrying to perform for a culture
that, you know, has told me youshould look a certain way, you
should act a certain way, youshould be a certain way.
And I broke.
And when I finally broke, Iactually isolated myself.
(08:49):
I went into an Airbnb.
I extracted myself from my myhusband, from my family, from
work, and I sat down and wrotethis book as I was putting my
own pieces together.
Wow.
Lots of women want to do that.
SPEAKER_03 (09:03):
Yeah.
Lots of women want to take off.
SPEAKER_00 (09:06):
Do you recommend that strategy?
I totally recommend it.
SPEAKER_03 (09:09):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (09:10):
I it is the best thing I did because what
happened was the body anxietygot so so exhausting that I
couldn't find my own energy.
I couldn't figure out how tocalm myself.
And um, I started just noticingeverybody was irritating me.
And I thought, I gotta isolatemyself so I can find my voice.
(09:36):
I can find my energy.
And it's little things.
It was like, I want to decidewhen I want to eat dinner, not
when when dinner's right for thefamily.
Um, I want to decide even how doI want to dress?
How do I want to think?
Who do I want to hang out with?
What shows do I want to watch?
Like all of that was donethrough the lens of, well,
(09:56):
what's my husband watching?
What's my husband want to eat?
What do my kids need?
Um, I wanted to decide how howmuch do I want to work.
But it was always like, no, whatdoes the business need?
What do my, what does my teamneed?
Like I was a professional atputting everybody's needs ahead
of my own, that I literallycouldn't find my own voice.
(10:17):
I had um my therapist said to melast year, yeah, it was last
summer, right before I startedto completely melt down.
Um, she said to me, Mindy, youhave time, you have money, your
kids are launched, you createyour life however you want.
What do you want?
And do you know I couldn'tanswer what do I want?
SPEAKER_03 (10:40):
Oh, doctor, you resonate with it all the time.
We're health coaches, and yousay to women, what do you want?
And they've never taken the timeto think about it.
They I don't know what I want,right?
Yeah.
Um, wow.
But you you had a greattherapist because she told you
to go, just go, Dr.
Mindy.
Take the time.
You've got the money, you've gotthe time.
(11:02):
How long, how long did youretreat?
Just out of curiosity.
SPEAKER_00 (11:06):
Yeah, uh, four months.
Wow.
So I it was originally supposedto be a two-month process, um,
but then my neighborhood burned.
And um I I had on the theactual, and I tell the story in
the book, but um, what happenedto me is at the end of 2024, I
had lost a really good friend.
(11:26):
He died at 52, and he was like abrother to me.
And it really shook me becausehis lifestyle was impeccable.
And I he literally laid down andhad a heart attack and was out.
And um, and he was he was like ahe was just a rock in my life,
and now he wasn't around.
And my sister um came to me atthe end, like on New Year's Day,
(11:48):
it was New Year's Eve day, andsaid to me, Um, I feel like you
are becoming more and moredistant.
And I want to know how to have arelationship with you.
And I told her, I was like, youknow what?
I can't tell you how to have arelationship with you until I
have a relationship with me.
(12:11):
I don't have a personalrelationship with me.
So how can I tell you what itwould look like to have a
relationship with me throughyour lens?
But what I really need is a bigsister.
I'm like, I'm breaking.
This was before the fires.
I'm breaking.
Can you just be a big sister andguide me through my uh a mental
breakdown that I'm having?
(12:33):
And she was like, yep, sign meup.
And then a week later, I was inthe LA fires.
And so I was supposed to be inLA for I was gonna take two
months off, is what I was gonnado.
And then the when the fires hit,I I I couldn't function.
I I mean, and if you've ever hada trauma before, um I this
(12:54):
sounds this is a little toographic, but um I didn't shower
for weeks.
And it actually took my bestfriend to like pick me up and
say, when's the last time youate?
When's the last time youshowered?
Um I couldn't rememberpasswords, my brain was
completely crashing on me.
So the only place I could go wasto be alone.
(13:18):
And when I was alone, I actuallyfelt started to feel normal.
So four months of that writingthis book, and just I spent a
lot of time in nature.
I spent a lot of timemeditating.
Um, I spent a lot of time, Idon't I didn't even watch TV, I
just listened to music.
Like I really tried to get toknow who is in there, who is
(13:40):
Mindy.
SPEAKER_02 (13:41):
Yeah, yeah.
That's so vulnerable.
Yeah, being so vulnerable is sogood.
It's such a great example forother women.
SPEAKER_03 (13:50):
And you talked about the the wildfires in your
opening story, and I appreciatethat because you're sharing some
of your personal self, and thatwas a moment of almost a literal
and symbolic cleansing for you.
SPEAKER_00 (14:03):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_03 (14:04):
Um, both that and isolating yourself and spending
time getting to know Dr.
Mindy.
And I'm thinking about how youstopped in that moment of
anxiety and trauma and reallybreakdown.
Um and so many women that wetalked to are in that same
(14:25):
place, and it can feel like it'san ending.
It can feel like, you know, mylife is over because I can't, I
really can't um climb out ofthis shit.
So how do I get out?
And and yet here you are as anexample of someone that did.
And I'm wondering, um, you writeabout menopause being an
(14:46):
initiation rather than anending.
And I'm hoping that you canexplain what you mean by that
because I think this is a reallyimportant um piece here as we
reframe menopause and how welook at menopause.
SPEAKER_00 (15:01):
Yeah, it's this is the biggest thing I want to open
up in the culture with this bookis how do we start looking at
menopause through the lens thatit is actually a woman's get out
of jail free card.
And let me explain why.
So when estrogen comes in, whenwe go through puberty, we start
(15:24):
to get what we call across-referenced brain.
Estrogen links our righthemisphere and our left
hemisphere.
And so every decision that wemake, starting at puberty, we
bring both hemispheres of ourbrain to that decision.
The left hemisphere is thelogical, it is the is the
(15:47):
goal-setting brain.
And the right hemisphere iscreativity and it's emotional
connection.
So when we and and I love I lovesaying it this way, when we are
drugged on estrogen, we arealways thinking through the lens
of relationships and making surethat our decisions are right for
(16:11):
everybody.
You mix that with a culture, apatriarchal culture that has
taught women that if you are inorder to be worthy, you need to
be selfless.
This was Carol Gilligan's work.
I wrote about this in in I havea whole chapter on it.
And what she did is she studiedboys and girls in the 1980s, and
(16:35):
she would ask a boy and a girlwhat they wanted to eat, and
when they were nine, they wouldtell you exactly what they
wanted to eat.
She'd ask that same question tothe same boy and the same girl
at 11.
The boy would tell you exactlywhat he wants to eat, but the
girl would hesitate for amoment.
By 13, when she had gone throughpuberty, the boy will tell you
(16:57):
exactly what he wants to eat.
And the girl will say, I don'tknow, what are you gonna eat?
That's an example of arelational brain.
We have been walking around.
Whose problem do we need to fix?
Who do we need to please?
What do we need to look like?
How do I get love?
How do I be worthy from theworld outside?
And the world outside says, Oh,if you're a size two, if you're
(17:21):
polite, if you don't havewrinkles, if you look a certain
way, we will love you.
When we go through menopause andwe lose estrogen, we lose the
ability to bring both of thesehemispheres to all of our
decisions, which it soundshorrible, but it's beautiful
(17:44):
because now we can move to whatwe call more of a lateralized
brain.
And it's funny, I was on a I waswith a bunch of friends this
weekend, and I was telling this,they were asking me what the
book was about, and I wassharing with this them.
And this one of my friends wasdating this man who's in his
80s, and he's over, he'slistening to this, and he goes,
(18:06):
Oh, so you get more of a malebrain then.
And I'm like, Yeah, we do.
We are able to sit in a decisionand see it through logic and
focus on it without takingeverybody's opinion into
consideration.
And we can move to the righthemisphere and we can sit on the
(18:28):
couch with our girlfriend or youknow, our friends, and have a
deep emotional connection.
We no longer make every decisionthrough this relationship brain,
which is why it appears as if wedon't care.
Right, right.
But all we're doing is we havemoved to a new brain, that brain
(18:51):
can actually look out forourselves a lot better.
We don't, it's like it's likeI've been telling people who've
been interviewing me, I'm threeyears post-menopausal.
I'm in love with this book.
I can't wait to get it outthere.
If you would, if if you hadinterviewed me when I was
perimenopausal, right now, whenI'm talking to you, I'd be
(19:12):
concerned.
Am I meeting your audience'sneeds?
Right now, I'm not thinkingabout your audience.
No offense.
Sorry, people listening.
No, no offense taken.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I'm thinking about how toexplain this so that women can
start to wake up and and telltheir truth and empower
themselves.
Whereas the younger version ofme took everybody's opinion into
(19:36):
consideration.
You drop that, but what you'releft with, right?
Do you resonate with that?
SPEAKER_03 (19:41):
100%.
Oh, 100%.
Because I've had people say, Oh,you you're selfish.
No, I'm not selfish.
I've just stopped caring aboutwhat other people think and
taking care of everyone else.
That's not selfish.
It's self care.
That's right.
It's not selfish, right?
SPEAKER_00 (19:58):
Yeah.
So if so if you go back to Thebeginning story when I isolated
myself for four months, a lot ofpeople ask me, like, what did
your husband say?
And I'm like, honestly, at thatpoint, I didn't care.
I knew that for my survival andto bring back a vibrant person
back to the marriage, I had toget to know myself.
(20:20):
I had to unwind the peoplepleasing and the codependency.
And with the post-menopausalbrain I had, that became so much
easier.
And when we looked, twostatistics started this book.
The first one was that the mostcommon time for a woman to kill
herself is the decade between 45and 55.
(20:42):
Yeah.
That was staggering.
Yeah.
So we have to, we we can't justsay, oh, she didn't get HRT.
And so that's why she did it.
I think what happens is womenwake up in that decade and they
look around and they go, Oh myGod, this is the life I created.
I don't want to live this lifeanymore.
How do I let these people knowthat I don't want to do this
(21:05):
life anymore?
Which is why we need to showthat menopause is initiating you
into a new version of yourself.
Because that same woman who wasgoing to kill herself, if she
understood it was your her brainwas rewiring and she's looking
at her life very differently,then what she would do is go,
(21:26):
okay, I need to be a new versionof me, a more authentic version
of me.
And then she could go down thatpath and that process, as
opposed to, I'm going crazy.
I don't want to be marriedanymore.
I don't want to be living inthis house anymore, which was a
big thing.
I didn't want to live in myhouse anymore.
I was like, I can't be in thishouse here anymore, this family
(21:48):
home that has so many goodmemories.
I'm like, I don't want to behere anymore.
The we need to open thisconversation up so women stop
killing themselves because thatis a natural transition through
this moment.
SPEAKER_02 (22:01):
Yeah.
Yeah.
And it seems like there's likeurgency in your voice around
this too.
Like, yeah, we we can't messaround.
We need to let everybody knowthat this is going on and that
you can figure out who you areand you can spend time on this,
and it is okay to have that.
That thank you.
SPEAKER_03 (22:17):
There is urgent granted, right?
Permission granted.
Yeah, that's great.
I mean, there's we needpermission, but sometimes we
think we do.
SPEAKER_00 (22:25):
Good point.
Good point.
How many times, like we myfriend group?
Um, I I've even as as a strong,powerful woman, uh, as as recent
as six months ago, I saidsomething to one of my friends.
I said, Well, yeah, my husband'sgonna let me do that.
And she goes, Excuse me?
He's gonna let you know, yeah.
(22:47):
He's gonna let you.
And I'm like, oh my God, I can'tbelieve I just said that.
Like, if we truly, I I anotherquote I have in the book is that
menopause is a mirror.
It's a mirror to show you whatyou like about yourself and what
you don't like about yourself.
And what we're doing, theurgency that I really want to
point out is that right nowwe're saying you're suffering
(23:10):
because of you didn't get theright doctor.
But we need to bring into theconversation maybe the rage is
because you're tired of peoplepleasing.
Maybe the irritability isbecause you have said yes when
you really meant to say no andyou're resentful.
Maybe you can't sleep becauseyour sympathetic nervous system
(23:32):
is so on overload from all thefixing, all the all the
pleasing, all the things you'vebeen trying to do to for
everyone else so that you canfeel worthy.
What I think menopause is, isit's a time for us to feel
worthy just because we fall inlove with ourselves and we stand
up and say our truth and wespeak what we finally wanted to
(23:55):
say, but we kept quiet becauseonce estrogen came in, we
started to really think aboutrelationships in in like I don't
want to hurt that person.
Right.
You don't think that when you gointo post-menopausal and years,
and I want women to say, I don'twant to hurt me.
Yes.
SPEAKER_02 (24:14):
Wow, it's that's powerful.
Yeah, it's so interesting.
It's so because I even talkingto my 77-year-old old mother,
letting her know she is okay forher to make the decisions that
she wants to make.
Yeah, that's just like we needto like empower each other to be
able to do that when we're readyto.
SPEAKER_00 (24:34):
Oh my gosh, you bring up such a good point.
My 86-year-old mom, my my89-year-old dad had spinal
surgery this summer.
And so I needed to make sure mymom was okay.
They've been they've beenmarried for 60 years, like
they're both still thriving.
And so my mom started to rely onher girlfriends to drive her to
(24:57):
go visit my dad.
And she was so happy.
And I said to her, Mom, I'venever seen you like be with your
girlfriends so much, and you'reso lit up.
Why don't you do that moreoften?
And she's like, Well, I can'tleave your father at home by
himself.
Oh, I've heard that too.
I'm like, of course you can.
Of course you can.
(25:18):
Wow.
So if you stop and you look atit through this lens where we
have been behaving and beenperforming in a certain way
because the culture told us wewould be good and we would be
worthy if we do that.
What I'm hoping people women dois they pick up this book and
they finally go, Okay, wait,what do I want?
(25:38):
What am I doing for me now?
That's the initiation is whatare you doing for you now?
SPEAKER_03 (25:45):
Yeah.
And that makes your books armor,right?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (25:50):
And it put puts your book on a different plane to
other menopause books.
I just have to say, becausethat's you talk more about that
than any other pieces ofmenopause.
And I think it's it's a reallygood place for women to hear and
get permission that it's okay.
SPEAKER_03 (26:06):
Yeah.
Thank you.
I think um, so I I want to shiftbecause I know that myself, um,
being my little Enneagram one.
Oh, I think you're saying yourEnneagram.
Are you Enneagram seven?
You're seven.
Okay.
Yeah.
My daughter's seven.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (26:23):
Excellent.
Okay, but we can go back to youroneness.
That's okay.
SPEAKER_03 (26:29):
Your one gets us to the airport.
Wait, we like ones, yeah.
Keep us on track, organized.
Um, and speaking of ones, I lovelists, right?
So, okay, we have thisinformation, we know this.
How do we move from this placeof where we are, this chaos, um,
(26:49):
to shedding the armor?
How do we help women movethrough the grief and the loss
and the anger to this place ofcoming home?
SPEAKER_00 (27:02):
It's such a good question.
Um, so first let's talk aboutthe armor.
One of the things that Idiscovered in all my research is
that we're not just losingestrogen and progesterone when
we go through this process.
But actually, estrogen, one partof estrogen called estradiol,
stimulated and facilitated overwhat from what I my research,
(27:24):
over 12 neurochemicals.
So whenever estrogen was around,we had dopamine, serotonin,
GABA, oxytocin, glutamate, BDNF,melatonin, like estro estradiol
was a was the diva of allhormones.
So when we lose estrogen, andeven if you're taking hormone
(27:46):
replacement therapy, you stillhave the let the you have the
lowest amount of estrogen you'veever had in your life.
And these neurochemicals startto wane.
Now, what's interesting aboutthat is I think of it like an
armor, where when estrogen wasaround, it was almost like we
had a neurochemical buffer wheresomebody would ask us, hey, do
(28:10):
you want to, you know, sign up?
Like, you want to work in yourkids' classroom today?
And we're like, sure, that wouldmake me feel good.
And then all of a sudden,dopamine goes down and serotonin
goes down, and we're notmotivated to do that.
And so there's this raw versionof you.
So the first thing I want to sayis if you're thinking different
(28:34):
and you're in this process, andthe things you cared about
before, and you you stop caringabout, or if you have a lot of
rage, or you have a lot ofirritability, or you have a lot
of depression, and I'll talkabout what each one of those
means here in a moment, that isa sign that you are ready to
(28:54):
change.
So that is not a flaw in yourmakeup.
That is a gift that says, okay,what are you depressed about?
Are you depressed because youdon't love your life?
Well, then what can we do to putthings into it that you love?
(29:15):
What is anxiety?
What are you fearful of?
Are you like a lot of women areworried, what am I gonna do once
my kids leave the house?
What who am I then?
Yeah, that's where anxiety cancome in.
I think rage, I think rage is somany women that are like, I'm so
tired of taking care ofeverybody else that I just can't
(29:38):
do it anymore.
Um, Julie Gottman, I spent a daywith her.
Julie Gottman.
Yeah, she's awesome.
And she talks about how ah,nice.
She talks about how resentmentis a sign that you've been
saying yes when you reallywanted to say no.
So these are really importantbecause when depression shows
(30:00):
up, you can be you could whatI'm hoping women will say is,
okay, so I'm depressed.
Um, well, I know that I've lostsome dopamine, so my
motivation's down.
I don't have as much estrogen.
So what can I do today to bringdopamine back?
Well, dopamine loves novelty.
So do something new, change upyour routine.
(30:22):
And then you I'm not talkingabout blowing up your whole
life.
I'm just saying when thesesymptoms show up, instead of
going to Instagram and seeingpeople say, Well, you didn't get
the right doctor and you don'thave the right uh HRT, what if
you look at your life and say, Ineed to change my routine?
(30:43):
I need to bring back thenovelty, I need to break the
routine, I need to learnsomething new.
That's what, and then all of asudden your moods go up.
Oxytocin is a really interestingneurochemical that estrogen
stimulated.
And um, women have more oxytocinreceptor sites in our amygdala,
(31:05):
which is the fight or flightcenter of our brain.
So when when we lose estrogen,we actually miss out on a stress
response that we used to look,we used to lean into, which is
called the tend and befriendstress response.
We all know this.
You had a stressful day, you youcall your bestie and you're
(31:25):
like, hey, I'm gonna verballypro that's because you're
getting oxytocin and it calmsyour stress response.
Well, when you go throughmenopause, you your oxytocin
system has been dialed down.
So you no longer can dosuperficial relationships.
So all of a sudden, you need adeeper connection from your
(31:47):
husband.
You need your bestie more thanever before, which is why you
see people like Jane Fonda whohave said, you know, I wouldn't
even exist without mygirlfriends as I age.
We definitely need thatgirlfriend time.
So the initiation is really aninquiry where you ask yourself
(32:08):
when these symptoms come up,what in my life is no longer
working?
And can I start to let go ofsome of those behaviors and lean
into others?
You call it pause, yeah.
SPEAKER_03 (32:22):
Yeah, you have to pause, people.
You have to breathe breathe.
You have to pause.
You have to pause.
SPEAKER_02 (32:27):
Yeah, exactly.
Pause and listen.
Yeah.
And um, you use the termestrogen girl gang to talk about
these um dopamine, serotonin,GABA, et cetera.
And I just loved that.
I was just like, this is this islike we could sit around for
hours talking about how fun thisis and what a great opportunity
menopause is for leadership, fortransformation.
(32:49):
You know, can you comment onwhat how what happens to women
when they get to really listento themselves and show up
differently?
SPEAKER_00 (32:56):
Yeah.
So the girl gang, I just, youknow, the first time I I really
learned hormones, I was like,these can these long names don't
mean anything.
Like we need to redefine this.
I actually told a friend of minewho's a hormone expert, and she
goes, Yeah, they should be, weshould make them like nail
polish names.
Oh, and Opie.
Opie has the best nail polish.
SPEAKER_03 (33:16):
Okay, there we go.
Yeah, let's do Opie.
Okay.
Okay, well, whatever.
SPEAKER_00 (33:20):
Okay, so I I will have to investigate the OP
names.
But I decided to call uh itEstrogen's girl gang.
And what I did in part two ofthe book is I wanted women to
go, okay, I'm my moods are off.
Okay, here are the members ofthe girl gang that might be a
little vulnerable right now.
And here are the here's thelifestyle tools I can use to
(33:42):
bring back these uhneurochemicals.
And then we have one on memory,and we have one on connection
and exercise and sleep.
So that part two is really aboutwomen going in and going, yes, I
have this symptom.
Okay, here are these, here's theneurochemical change, and here's
the lifestyle that I can bringback in.
(34:03):
And I think we don't givelifestyle enough credit.
So let's use dopamine as anexample.
A lot of women get flat in theirbeh in their moods.
And I don't know if you twoexperienced that, but it's like
just blah.
It's like, I don't know, fooddoesn't excite me.
Yeah.
Well, that's because as estrogenwent down, so did dopamine.
(34:27):
Well, we already talked abouthow dopamine loves novelty, so
do something new.
But if you actually commit tolike a new activity that you're
learning, so I don't know ifyou've seen on Instagram right
now, there's a lot of um talkabout grandmother hobbies.
Well, we want to talk aboutgrandmother hypothesis.
(34:47):
Yeah, we can we can talk aboutthat.
But so my sister's a knitter,and uh she has knit herself so
many sweaters that she keepshaving to buy more armoirs in
her house to put them in.
But I'll tell you, when she'sfirst learned to knit, you saw
her moods just totally brightenup.
And when she's knitting, she'sactually a more enjoyable person
(35:10):
to be around because knittingstimulates dopamine.
So learning something new anddoing something, the thing about
dopamine that's so interestingis dopamine is the molecule of
more, it's not the molecule ofenough.
So it'll just keep bringing youto like, let's keep doing this,
let's keep doing this.
(35:30):
So, we as women, we get dopaminesometimes by helping people.
SPEAKER_01 (35:36):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (35:37):
And then we help somebody and we go, oh, that was
really fun.
Let me go help another personand let me help another person.
But when we go throughmenopause, our dopamine system
goes down and we need to findnew ways to stimulate it.
And one of the recommendations Ihave is find a new hobby, find
something new that's just foryou.
That um I started surfing fourmonths ago.
(36:00):
I'm in Santa Cruz, California,and I a friend said a
52-year-old uh post-menopausalwoman said, Hey, come surf with
me.
And I was horrible at it when Istarted.
Surfing is an incredibly hardsport.
But you know what?
I every day went out there, Iwas in nature, I was learning
(36:20):
something.
I got oxytocin from the peoplethat were hanging out out there.
Everybody was really supportive.
And I would come out of thewater so happy.
And my husband looked at me andlike, I've never seen you so
happy.
And I would say, I didn't evencatch a wave today.
I suck at this sport.
But you know what?
I'm not doing it for anyoutcome.
(36:43):
I don't care.
I just want to keep learningsomething new.
And can I tell you that when youcommit to learning something
new, you bring dopamine back.
So the first part that I reallywant to emphasize on this girl
gang is you have the ability tobring these members back
quickly.
(37:03):
And that's what I wanted toshow, as opposed to what happens
when you walk into your doctor'soffice and they say, Oh, you're
depressed, you need anantidepressant.
No, you need to reorganize yourlife so you're doing something
fun just for you.
Yeah, it's the beginner mindset,right?
It's the beginner mindset.
SPEAKER_02 (37:23):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Be excited.
I um when I turned 50, I decidedI was gonna do 50 new things at
50.
Oh, I love that.
And so I did it and I documentedit on Facebook and I told
everybody that I was doing, andit was everything from you know,
float tank to oh gosh, a newrestaurant to you know, a new
different style of clothes.
(37:43):
Like just it was crazy.
Doesn't matter, yeah, but it wasfun, and so then my friend who's
20 years older than me, she'slike, Well, what am I doing at
80?
Because what are you doing at60?
Yeah, because we've got 60coming.
SPEAKER_00 (37:55):
I I think that's a great idea.
And that's probably really youprobably had a lot of happiness
that year.
I did.
And then we went into COVID, sowhatever.
Oh, bummer.
That's a whole that's a wholeother conversation.
SPEAKER_02 (38:07):
Yeah, that is a whole other conversation.
SPEAKER_00 (38:09):
But but I want to point something out that it's
not complicated.
And this is what I tried tobring forward with Fast Like a
Girl, losing weight was notcomplicated.
We just had to change the timingof people's food, and then all
of a sudden they started to dropweight.
That's what I'm saying here inAge Like a Girl.
When you're depressed, whenyou're anxious, when you can't
(38:30):
think straight, like the brainfog, then let's go revisit these
members of the girl gang andlook at where there are holes in
your lifestyle that aren'tbringing these neurochemicals
into play.
SPEAKER_03 (38:42):
Yeah.
And some of the we're big fansof lifestyle medicine, if you
want to call it that.
But um can you just quick punchwhat are some of the other
lifestyle habits or areas, ifwe, if we will, that we could go
to?
Exercise, obviously, nutrition.
What else would you say?
SPEAKER_00 (39:02):
Yeah, there's a lot of really fun ones that I put in
there.
So, of course, I got to go tothe one that's the most near and
dear to my heart, which is whena woman after 40, when she goes
through menopause, so thisapplies to 70-year-olds and
80-year-olds, your brain becomesless efficient at using glucose.
So eating to fuel your brainbecomes less efficient.
(39:25):
And if you are, if you are uheating a highly processed diet,
you are damaging your brain evenmore because too much refined
flours, too many refined sugars,and you are elevating glucose,
and your brain doesn't know whatto do with that.
This is why they callAlzheimer's Alzheimer's diabetes
(39:46):
type 3, because the brain isjust swimming in glucose and it
can't use it.
And so, what that feels like toa 43 year old or a 45 year old
going through the process isbrain fog.
The antidote to brain fog.
Brain fog is use a differentfuel source.
And that fuel source is called aketone.
(40:07):
And you don't have to go intolong fasts, but if you start to
fast as little as 13, 14, 15hours every day, you're going to
give your brain a dose ofketones.
And your brain fog will goimmediately.
I'm talking days, like a day toa couple of days, the brain fog
(40:27):
will be gone.
Because you now have given yourbrain the fuel source it per it
it wants as it ages.
It doesn't want glucose, itcan't use glucose, it needs a
ketone.
unknown (40:41):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (40:41):
And ketones are free.
You can make them for free.
It doesn't cost anything.
Doesn't cost anything.
So that would be that would beone example of just switch the
your timing of your food andlet's get you off the junk food.
And you're going to watch yourbrain come back online.
Now let's let's juxtapose thatto a woman that goes into her
(41:02):
doctor's office and says, I'mdepressed, I'm irritable, and I
have brain fog, I can't focus.
And then the doctor is now downmedication paths, trying to find
the right medication that couldtake months to figure out,
because you know, evenantidepressants aren't the magic
cure that they used to thinkthey were.
(41:24):
Whereas you can start fasting 13to 15 hours every day, get a
ketone, and within two days yourbrain comes back online.
That's amazing.
SPEAKER_03 (41:32):
Yeah.
And 13 to 15 hours is not a lot.
It sounds like a lot, but if youreally do the math in your
24-hour day, most of that'ssleep.
That's right.
That's right.
SPEAKER_02 (41:41):
Yeah.
Um, we have a million questionsfor you, and we're and we're
short on time.
But one of the things that wealluded to earlier, and the
thing we really wanted to talkto you about, was the
grandmother hypothesis.
You are a huge fan of thegrandmother hypothesis and its
evolution of women and how womenare prepared to um be the wisdom
and be helping each other duringthat time.
(42:04):
Break that down for us.
Tell us more.
I know this comes from LisaMuscone's work, so let's give
Dr.
Muscone the um theacknowledgement that deserves
there.
But um, you're really a strongadvocate for this, and I'd love
to hear your point of view onit.
SPEAKER_00 (42:18):
Well, I think evolutionary biology helps us
understand how our bodies work.
I mean, look at fasting.
That was an evolutionary hackthat once people figured out, uh
oh, wait, I lose weight when Iwhen I have an eating window and
a fasting window, or I canactually bring my brain back
online when I don't eat.
(42:39):
And all of a sudden you start tosee that there's some
evolutionary mechanisms insideour body that work for us that
we don't use in the modernworld.
So I had already had a historyof going back and looking at
evolutionary biology.
So when I wanted to answerwhat's the purpose of menopause,
I started thinking, well, whatdid they do back in the primal
(43:03):
days?
Now, we have to firstacknowledge that they didn't
live as long as we lived.
But what I stumbled upon wasthis thing called the
grandmother hypothesis.
And the grandmother hypothesisstates that when a woman in the
primal days stopped having herperiod, she was actually moved
to a place of leadership withinthe tribe.
(43:27):
Because they knew back then thatshe got renewed energy because
she wasn't putting so muchenergy towards reproduction,
which is mind-blowing when youthink about it.
It's like, oh my God, I didn'teven realize how much energy it
took to release an egg everymonth.
But when what the grandmotherhypothesis says is that when
(43:48):
your reproductive system stops,the energy it took your body to
re keep releasing an egg everysingle month is given back to
you.
And it's used for three areas.
Fitness is one, which is crazybecause how many women are like,
oh, I'm I'm I'm getting oldernow, I can't work out the you
(44:09):
know anymore.
Um, cognition is the other, andsocial connection is the third.
And and and then let me put thisthrough the lens of the
grandmother hypothesis.
So, what happened in the primaldays was when a woman was moved
to this leadership position, shewould go out and gather with the
other grandmothers every singlemorning, from the research I can
(44:33):
find and from talking toactually Kristen Hawks was one
of the anthropologists that's abig champion of the grandmother
hypothesis.
These women every single daywould go on a seven-hour trek to
forage for food.
The men would go out for daystrying to get a big animal kill.
(44:56):
They only came back with ananimal kill 3% of the time,
which means one day out of 30.
We would not be sitting herewith odds like that.
So the grandmother, what she didwhen she didn't have her
reproductive system, she joinedthe other grandmothers, and
seven hours every day they wentout and searched for tubers.
(45:18):
Uh, tubers are like um sun uhsweet potatoes, sunchokes,
hickama, turnips, potatoes.
And they were they you had shehad to go and walk for miles to
find these tubers.
And then she would squat and digin the ground and grab the
tubers, put them on her back,and then comes back to the to
(45:39):
the um tribe and the clan, andshe feeds the fertile mom, the
pregnant mom, or the nursingmom, and the little children
that couldn't go out into theand and hunt for an animal.
So she had a leadership positionin within the culture.
(46:00):
And they believe we are sittinghere right now because of the
post-menopausal women woman.
We would not have evolved as aspecies if we didn't have this
backup plan for food.
Okay, so now let's take thegrandmother hypothesis and let's
put it next to what happens tous today as we age.
(46:22):
Today, as we age, probably uh Ithink we're changing this, but
we're so scared of aging thatwe're freezing our faces, we are
dying our hair, we are plasticsurgery is through the roof
because women are terrified toage.
Okay, why are we terrified toage?
(46:44):
Because our culture tends totoss us aside.
An aging woman isn't considerednecessary, isn't considered
useful in our culture.
But in the primal days, webrought the food home when the
men were gone.
So, why I wanted to bring thisforward is that when I looked at
(47:07):
that and I and I squared it withLisa Muscone's work on the brain
changes that were happening,this lateralized brain, the
cross-reference brain we talkedabout earlier, I realized all of
a sudden that a woman's the besttime of her life is
post-reproductive.
And our brains were meant to beleaders.
(47:28):
And I I I'm gonna even, I mean,I'm gonna even go as deep to say
that I think they they they wantus to fear aging because if they
actually let post-menopausalwomen embrace their power, we
would take over the world.
Like that's what, like,seriously, that's why I had to
(47:49):
do an appendix to men.
It's why I had to do an appendixto um corporations, because the
the best brain a woman has isthe post-menopausal brain.
It is built for leadership, itis built for focus, it is built
for social connection, and thatis not what's getting out there
(48:09):
in the zeitgeist.
SPEAKER_03 (48:12):
And that's when they're shoving them aside.
That's right.
And pushing them out.
That's right.
SPEAKER_02 (48:17):
I'm telling you right now, we're putting that
quote of you speaking that onevery social media site for a
very long time to come.
That is true.
Really true.
Yeah, and um, and feels likethere's a purpose, right?
Thank you.
SPEAKER_00 (48:29):
Yeah, and that's what I'm trying to bring forward
is there's a purpose for all ofthis.
So do the inquiry, figure outwhy you're depressed and the
rage, do the lifestyle tools,take HRT if you're thinking
about it, but buck up becausewhere you're going, we need you.
We need you to stand up and tellyour truth.
We need you to lead us out of amess that the world is in right
(48:51):
now.
A billion women in menopauseright now could change the
conversation that's going on inour culture, could change the
misogyny and the fascism that'shappening across the world.
But if long as they keep ustimid and scared of becoming
invisible, we don't step intoour power.
(49:12):
Menopause is the moment you getto finally step into the most
powerful version of you.
And that is what I'm trying towake up in women by
understanding the process.
And it feels good.
It feels good.
Yeah, amazing.
SPEAKER_02 (49:27):
Yeah, it is.
I was gonna ask you what's onething you want people to take
away from your book, but I thinkyou just said it right there.
SPEAKER_00 (49:34):
Don't disappear.
Please don't disappear.
We need you, please don'tdisappear.
And we don't need you to be likeanybody else.
We need the authentic version,the unique version of you.
So I share a story in the bookthat um I wasn't my sister, it
was brilliant and hadphotographic memory, and it my
(49:54):
mom was a math teacher, and itconsumed my mom's energy trying
to figure out where uh whatschools she should go to.
Um, I'm a very out-of-the-boxcreative thinker.
Um, in the 1970s, we didn't knowwhat to do with out-of-the-box
creative thinkers.
I would have been probablydiagnosed as neurodivergent,
(50:15):
which is a is a is a term that'scoming up more often.
But instead, I was thought of asdumb.
I was thought of as lessintelligent than my sister.
When I went through menopause, Istarted realizing that one of
the special skills that I haveis pattern recognition.
(50:37):
I can see across many differenttypes of people, I can see the
through line.
I think this is how I came upwith age like a girl.
I'm like, there's a purpose.
Okay, let me look at thegrandmother hypothesis, let me
look at neuroscience, let melook at societal messaging, let
me look, I brought in theteachings of a mystic, and let's
see what the through line was.
(50:59):
So I took back my own beliefabout who I was, and I stand
very proudly saying, I considermyself brilliant now.
And I say that with with humblebut with humble, a humble
spirit.
Um, but you're talking to awoman who was told that she was
not as smart as her sister.
She wasn't killing it at school.
(51:20):
Well, you give me a multiplechoice question and you only
gave me four answers.
And there's like uh 10 moreanswers that wasn't listed
there.
SPEAKER_02 (51:28):
Yeah.
Yeah.
Right?
And it's a shame that you had tobe, you know, this old to
realize that you're not that youare smart.
And and when other people lookat you just like other people
look at other people, like, whatare you even talking about?
How do you know why would youever hear them?
I know like right, right.
SPEAKER_00 (51:47):
And that's why, you know, this is the you know, I
this is why I'm being asauthentic as I can, um, because
I want women to see themselves,like yours might not be your
intellect.
Maybe you think you weren'tbeautiful, and then all of a
sudden you realize that one ofthe most beautiful things in a
woman is confidence.
(52:08):
And when you are confident,you're beautiful, and maybe you
come into that awareness, ormaybe something was taken away
from you as a little girl.
Like one of the reasons surfingbecame really important for me
is that when I was in theseventh grade, I grew up in
Malibu, and I went out surfingone day, and a boy I liked that
(52:29):
was in my classroom turned tome.
This is the 1970s, and said,Mindy, what are you doing out
here?
Girls don't surf.
And so at 56, I'm taking backall the messaging, all the
things people told me I couldn'tdo or who I was or who I wasn't,
and I'm gathering those back,and I'm standing in the most
(52:51):
authentic version of me.
And that's what I want everywoman to do because that's the
initiation.
Yeah, right.
SPEAKER_03 (52:58):
Exactly.
Yeah.
And your gosh, I wish with yourbook, and we're gonna, we're
gonna obviously um have thispodcast on um everywhere, but I
wish that there was just soundbites that went along with your
book because I can sense yourenergy and your enthusiasm, and
it's absolutely contagious.
(53:19):
Um, I I gathered that energy inreading through the book, but
having you on it has just beenan absolute joy.
Because I really can sense yourpassion and your energy and your
confidence, and it is beautiful.
SPEAKER_00 (53:33):
Thank you, thank you, thank you.
I I will tell you one cool thingthat we're working on because
um, you know, the reason that Iwrote this book is to open this
conversation up, uh, you know,and so that we can all step into
it.
So stay tuned because we'reworking on a conversation deck
where you could get togetherwith your girlfriends, you could
(53:53):
get together with your husband,and you could pull out a card
and you could start to ask eachother questions and have
conversations.
Like we started practicing theother day.
I did this with my best friend,and the the question was if we
traded bodies, what's the firstthing you would do if you had my
body?
Well, my my best friend is istall.
(54:15):
And I'm like, oh my God, if Ihad your body, I would start
putting everything on a topshelf.
So, but but I'm trying to keepthe conversation.
I say this to just say, I'mtrying to keep the conversation
going.
So, you know, my dream is whenpeople get the book is share it,
talk about it.
This is for all of us.
(54:37):
So I appreciate the comment, thecompliments, and this is this is
for all of us to step into thisinitiation and do it our way,
our individual way.
SPEAKER_03 (54:47):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (54:48):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_03 (54:48):
And and it's a tool.
So again, I love that I can takesomething away from that and
keep that conversation going.
Okay, we ask all of our gueststhis question.
So we'll ask you, what is thebest piece of advice you've ever
received?
SPEAKER_00 (55:05):
So when I was first in practice, um, my father had
taught me that you're worthy ifyou work hard.
And so I was working literallyseven days a week seeing
patients.
I saw Monday, Monday throughSaturday, seven in the morning
to seven at night.
unknown (55:24):
Wow.
SPEAKER_00 (55:25):
And I and I had a rocking practice and it was
full, and I was in my late 20s.
It was very exciting.
And then I had a mentor pull measide and he told me two things.
One, he said, and this was backin the um 90s, he said, you
would never ask Michael Jordan,if if people remember Michael
Jordan, uh, you would never wehad never asked Michael Jordan
(55:48):
to play an NBA playoff game for10 hours.
You've got to take rest.
You have to recover.
You can't work at that.
And the second thing he told me,and probably the thing that hit
me the hardest, is that he said,you will never work a day in
your life if you put yourselfconstantly in service and you
(56:12):
serve a mission, you helppeople, you think about how to
bring forward a message thatwill change the lives of many.
And that one mentor, he's stilla good friend.
And um, it was the mostimpactful thing that I learned
is rest and make sure that yourwork is something that's
(56:34):
changing the culturalconversation, changing the lives
of millions.
And I don't think you have tohave it be career-wise.
I think for the women that maybedon't have a career, it could be
that you make a decision thatyou're gonna be kind to every
single person that you meet.
Every time you go, I was justtraveling this weekend, and when
I went past the TSA people, Iwas like, thank you for being
(56:59):
here.
I know you're not getting paid.
Now, I could have easily likejust left that, but I wanted to
make sure that I was constantlyin gratitude, having gratitude
for those people.
So a servant's heart, it itworks.
SPEAKER_03 (57:14):
I love that.
It's making the world a betterplace when you exit than when
you came.
That's right.
Make it a better place.
Yeah.
Thank you.
Um Dr.
SPEAKER_00 (57:21):
Mindy, where can we find you?
Uh, I'm kind of everywhere.
Um, I would tell you that my mypassion project is my YouTube
channel.
So um a lot of my newinformation and new ways of
describing it is going to be outon is always on my YouTube
channel.
Um, I have a podcast too calledthe Resetter Podcast.
Um, I'm trying to bring onpeople of all different
(57:43):
backgrounds there so that we canum have again, everybody can
make their own decision aboutwhat they think around their
health.
Um and then, you know, like thebook is everywhere, and you can
go to my website, but YouTube isreally where I put my heart and
soul.
SPEAKER_03 (57:57):
Okay, perfect.
We'll put that in show notes.
And until we meet again,everyone, go find joy in the
journey.
Thanks, Dr.
McGee.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you for listening to theMedovia Menopause Podcast.
If you enjoyed today's show,please give it a thumbs up,
subscribe for future episodes,leave a review, and share this
(58:19):
episode with a friend.
Medovia is out to change thenarrative.
Learn more at Medovia.com.
That's M-I-D-O-V-IA.com.
Popular Podcasts
Two Guys, Five Rings: Matt, Bowen & The Olympics
Two Guys (Bowen Yang and Matt Rogers). Five Rings (you know, from the Olympics logo). One essential podcast for the 2026 Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics. Bowen Yang (SNL, Wicked) and Matt Rogers (Palm Royale, No Good Deed) of Las Culturistas are back for a second season of Two Guys, Five Rings, a collaboration with NBC Sports and iHeartRadio. In this 15-episode event, Bowen and Matt discuss the top storylines, obsess over Italian culture, and find out what really goes on in the Olympic Village.
iHeartOlympics: The Latest
Listen to the latest news from the 2026 Winter Olympics.
Milan Cortina Winter Olympics
The 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan Cortina are here and have everyone talking. iHeartPodcasts is buzzing with content in honor of the XXV Winter Olympics We’re bringing you episodes from a variety of iHeartPodcast shows to help you keep up with the action. Follow Milan Cortina Winter Olympics so you don’t miss any coverage of the 2026 Winter Olympics, and if you like what you hear, be sure to follow each Podcast in the feed for more great content from iHeartPodcasts.