Age Like a Badass Mother

Question or comment? Send a one-way text to Age Like a Badass Mother. Include your email so I can answer you back.

Grief isn’t just an emotion. It can affect the body, too. In this monthly check-in, Dreena Burton explains the connection between grief, the lungs, the immune system, and the body’s ability to defend itself. In Traditional Chinese Medicine, fall is the season of letting go, and Dreena explains why holding on to grief may show up physically, including through the lungs and even the skin.

We talk about what the fall season can teach us about releasing what no longer serves us, why the lungs and large intestine are the organs associated with this time of year, and how to support them with warming foods, ginger, garlic, soups, breathwork, and simple body-care practices. Dreena also explains the surprising connection between the lung meridian, fascia flow, and grip strength, which has important implications for healthy aging.

And if you're grieving, Dreena has an important message: letting go doesn't mean forgetting or “getting over” someone. It means giving yourself permission to actually feel the grief, process it, and allow it to move through you. Sometimes making space for what comes next begins with releasing what you're carrying.

Follow along with Dreena's lung and large-intestine fascia flows at fasciaflo.com/badass.

This episode is sponsored by Grand Teton Ancient Grains

Grand Teton Ancient Grains (ancientgrains.com)

Use code Healthy10 for 10% off your order at checkout

Websites, Cookbook, and Merch

https://wellelephant.com/ecookbook/

https://www.agelikeabadassmother.com/

https://wellelephant.com/

Shop Merch https://age-like-a-badass-mother-shop.fourthwall.com/

Follow us and reach out at:

Email: [email protected]

Facebook: @WellElephant

Instagram: @agelikeabadassmother 

https://www.youtube.com/@agelikeabadassmother

Question or comment? Send a one-way text to Age Like a Badass Mother. Include your email so I can answer you back.

Want to eat more plant-based for your health but have no idea where to start? You don't need to become vegan overnight, learn a hundred new recipes, or give up the foods you love. Andrea Corbi Fein says the easiest way to begin is to eat more plants, make simple swaps, and start with one plant-based meal a day.

Andrea is a certified professional plant-based cook and founder of Ingreened, where she works with people to make eating more plant-forward practical and approachable. Her own journey began after a brain tumor and AVM diagnosis at 34 and a growing realization that she needed to take her health seriously. A few years later, she watched a Dr. Michael Greger presentation, decided to try eating plant-based for two weeks, and never stopped.

Now Andrea helps others do the same without making food miserable. We talk about easy swaps for meat and dairy, how to make tofu actually taste good, why beans deserve a much bigger role in your diet, and how to build simple meals around foods you already enjoy. She also explains why eating plant-based doesn't have to mean giving up your favorite foods or relying on a refrigerator full of specialty products.

If you've been thinking about eating more plants for your health but keep getting stuck on “Okay, but what am I actually supposed to eat?" start with this podcast episode and see how easy it can be. 

Find Andrea: 

https://www.ingreened.com/

https://www.acfportfolio.com/ (Video editing portfolio)

Handle for IG and TikTok is @ingreened

This episode is sponsored by Grand Teton Ancient Grains

Grand Teton Ancient Grains (ancientgrains.com)

Use code Healthy10 for 10% off your order at checkout

Websites, Cookbook, and Merch

https://wellelephant.com/ecookbook/

https://www.agelikeabadassmother.com/

https://wellelephant.com/

Shop Merch https://age-like-a-badass-mother-shop.fourthwall.com/

Follow us and reach out at:

Email: [email protected]

Facebook: @WellElephant

Instagram: @agelikeabadassmother 

https://www.youtube.com/@agelikeabadassmother

#AndreaCorbyFine, #WholeFoodPlantBased, #PlantBasedNutrition, #BrainTumorSurvivor, #HealthyAging, #PlantForwardEating, #FoodAsMedicine, #LongevityLifestyle, #PlantBasedCooking, #AgeLikeABadassMother,

Question or comment? Send a one-way text to Age Like a Badass Mother. Include your email so I can answer you back.

What if eating more fruits and vegetables could help you look healthier in just four to six weeks?

A new peer-reviewed review says it might.

In this mini episode, I break down fascinating research showing that eating more colorful fruits and vegetables may improve your skin's appearance, give you a healthy glow, and even affect how you smell. 

You'll hear:

• Why we've been selling healthy eating all wrong
• The surprising science behind the "plant glow"
• How much produce researchers say may make a visible difference
• Why refined carbs may show up on your face
• A simple challenge to see what happens when you add three extra servings of colorful fruits and vegetables every day for a month

I've spent years talking about how plants can help prevent heart disease and diabetes. But if I'm being honest, this might be the most motivating nutrition research I've seen in a long time.

Because sometimes "eat your vegetables so you can live longer" isn't nearly as compelling as "eat your vegetables because you'll probably look better."

Sometimes the quickest motivation is seeing the benefits reflected right back in the mirror.

If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, leave a review, and share it with a friend who thinks healthy eating is only about preventing disease. 

Resources Mentioned:

• Episode 44: Glow with dermatologist Dr. Katta
• 2026 peer-reviewed review: The Role of Plant-Forward Diets in Physical Attractiveness: Integrating Facial, Olfactory, and Morphological Signals for Behavior Change

This episode is sponsored by Grand Teton Ancient Grains

Grand Teton Ancient Grains (ancientgrains.com)

Use code Healthy10 for 10% off at checkout

Websites, Cookbook, and Merch

https://wellelephant.com/ecookbook/

https://www.agelikeabadassmother.com/

https://wellelephant.com/

Shop Merch https://age-like-a-badass-mother-shop.fourthwall.com/

Follow us and reach out at:

Email: [email protected]

Facebook: @WellElephant

Instagram: @agelikeabadassmother 

https://www.youtube.com/@agelikeabadassmother

Websites, Cookbook, and Merch

https://wellelephant.com/ecookbook/

https://www.agelikeabadassmother.com/

https://wellelephant.com/

Shop Merch https://age-like-a-badass-mother-shop.fourthwall.com/

Follow us and reach out at:

Email: [email protected]

Facebook: @WellElephant

Instagram: @agelikeabadassmother 

https://www.youtube.com/@agelikeabadassmother

Question or comment? Send a one-way text to Age Like a Badass Mother. Include your email so I can answer you back.

Sexual vitality is about more than sex. It’s about feeling alive, connected, present in your body, and engaged with the person you are, not the person you were 20 or 30 years ago.

And if your sex life has changed as you've gotten older, you'll want to hear this conversation before you decide there's something wrong with you. Maybe you want sex more often than your partner. Maybe they want it more than you do. Maybe you rarely feel spontaneous desire anymore and assume your libido has disappeared. Or maybe hormones, medications, stress, health, or changes in your body have made sex feel different than it used to.

Dr. Christina Tracy Stein, author of The Accomplished Woman and a clinical sexologist, explains what's actually going on and offers some surprisingly practical ways to think about desire and intimacy differently. We talk about spontaneous versus responsive desire, why you don't necessarily have to feel horny first to want sex, and why scheduling sex can sometimes reduce rejection and create anticipation instead of killing the romance.

We also get into the bigger picture. Christina talks about sex as life-force energy and why sexual vitality can be an important part of aging well. We talk about novelty, mindfulness, body image, friendship, emotional intimacy, and how couples can stay connected when their bodies, desires, and relationships inevitably change.

 Your sex life doesn't have to look like it did at 30 to be satisfying at 58, 68, or 78. And you don't have to be “in the mood” in the way you may have assumed you did.

If you've ever wondered whether your changing desire is normal, why you and your partner seem to be on completely different sexual schedules, or how to keep intimacy alive in a long-term relationship, this episode is for you. 

In this episode:

• Why desire discrepancy is so common between partners
• Spontaneous vs. responsive desire, and why the distinction matters
• Why you don't have to wait until you're spontaneously turned on to initiate intimacy
• Why scheduling sex can actually reduce rejection and increase anticipation
• How novelty and mindfulness can reignite long-term intimacy
• The impact of hormones, medications, health, and lifestyle on sexual desire
• How body image can affect intimacy
• Why emotional intimacy and friendship matter to a sexual relationship
• What Christina means when she calls sex life-force energy
• How to maintain sexual vitality as you age
• And why normalizing sexual changes can help us let go of shame

https://www.christinastein.com/

https://www.drchristinatracystein.com/

https://www.instagram.com/drchristinatracystein/

https://www.instagram.com/dearsexdoctors/

This episode is sponsored by Grand Teton Ancient Grains

Grand Teton Ancient Grains (ancientgrains.com)

Use code Healthy10 for 10% off your order at checkout

Websites, Cookbook, and Merch

https://wellelephant.com/ecookbook/

https://www.agelikeabadassmother.com/

https://wellelephant.com/

Shop Merch https://age-like-a-badass-mother-shop.fourthwall.com/

Follow us and reach out at:

Email: [email protected]

Facebook: @WellElephant

Instagram: @agelikeabadassmother 

https://www.youtube.com/@agelikeabadassmother

#DrChristinaTracyStein, #SexualHealth, #SexAfter50, #MidlifeSexuality, #HealthyRelationships, #MenopauseAndSex, #IntimacyAfter50, #WomensSexualHealth, #HealthyAging, #AgeLikeABadassMother

Question or comment? Send a one-way text to Age Like a Badass Mother. Include your email so I can answer you back.

Who the Hell Is Lauren Bernick? Meet the Host

There are millions of people out there vying for your attention, telling you what’s wrong with you so they can sell you something to fix it. I don’t want to be one of them.

I want Age Like a Badass Mother to be a place where women can get smart, honest information about health and aging without being made to feel broken, inadequate, or like they need to chase youth.

But if you’re new here, or you’ve been listening for a while and realized you don’t actually know much about the woman behind the microphone, it’s time to answer the question:

Who the hell is Lauren Bernick?

I’m 58, married to Andy Bernick, with whom I fell in love at first sight,  mom of three grown kids, former pharmaceutical advertising executive, and someone who was diagnosed with serious coronary artery disease at 46. That diagnosis sent me down a rabbit hole that completely changed the way I eat, think about health, and think about aging.

I changed my diet, lost 20 pounds and kept it off for 11 years, and testing showed that I had actually reversed my heart disease. That experience is a big reason I started this podcast, and why I became obsessed with questioning what we're told about health.

But that's only part of my story.

In this personal “meet the host” episode, I talk about what I’ve learned from interviewing doctors and other experts, why I’ve changed my mind about some of the rules I once followed, my 36-year marriage, my three kids, my very Gen X childhood, the complicated relationship I had with my mother, and why watching her age became a cautionary tale for how I want to live my own life.

I also talk about something I’m still figuring out: how to pursue better health without turning your life into one giant list of rules.

Because yes, I want you to live longer and feel better. But I also want you to enjoy your life.

You don't have to be perfect. You don't have to follow every health rule. And you don't need another person telling you everything you're doing wrong.

You need good information, a little perspective, and the freedom to figure out what makes you feel strong, healthy, and alive.

So, welcome to Age Like a Badass Mother. Whether you've been here from the beginning or you're brand new, I'm really glad you're here.

This episode is sponsored by Grand Teton Ancient Grains

Grand Teton Ancient Grains (ancientgrains.com)

Use code Healthy10 for 10% off your order at checkout

Websites, Cookbook, and Merch

https://wellelephant.com/ecookbook/

https://www.agelikeabadassmother.com/

https://wellelephant.com/

Shop Merch https://age-like-a-badass-mother-shop.fourthwall.com/

Follow us and reach out at:

Email: [email protected]

Facebook: @WellElephant

Instagram: @agelikeabadassmother 

https://www.youtube.com/@agelikeabadassmother

Question or comment? Send a one-way text to Age Like a Badass Mother. Include your email so I can answer you back.

Margaret Cho has been making people laugh, making people uncomfortable, and saying things that other people probably wish she wouldn’t for a very long time. 

In this conversation, we get into menopause, aging, sex, body image, queerness, Hollywood, and the weirdness of watching your parents get older. 

Margaret talks candidly about her own experience with menopause, including hot flashes, insomnia, low libido, and vaginal dryness, and what happened when she started hormone therapy. She also talks about why she thinks menopause gets framed as something women should dread when it can actually bring a surprising amount of clarity.

We visit her childhood in San Francisco, where Margaret spent much of her time in her parents’ gay bookstore. She grew up around gay men, lesbians, nightlife and conversations about Harvey Milk, and she witnessed the devastating impact of AIDS on the community around her. Lauren and Margaret compare notes on what it was like to grow up around queer adults and hear things kids probably weren't supposed to hear.

Margaret is also remarkably candid about what Hollywood did to her relationship with her body. She revisits All-American Girl, including being told she was too fat to play herself, and how the pressure to lose weight spiraled into severe anorexia and hospitalization.

We also talk about aging parents, the pressure women face to stay thin and young and partnered, and the strange freedom that can come with getting older and caring a little less about meeting everyone else's expectations.

And because no Margaret Cho conversation would be complete without some wonderfully random cultural detours, she tells us what she's been reading and watching lately, including celebrity autobiographies and Wife Swap.

It's funny, candid, occasionally dark, and very Margaret Cho.

Margaret's photo credit: Nick Spanos

Tickets to Choligarchy Tour and all things Margaret:

https://margaretcho.com/

The Kaye Ballard show we referenced: The Mothers-in-Law

This episode is sponsored by Grand Teton Ancient Grains

Grand Teton Ancient Grains (ancientgrains.com)

Use code Healthy10 for 10% off your order at checkout

Websites, Cookbook, and Merch

https://wellelephant.com/ecookbook/

https://www.agelikeabadassmother.com/

https://wellelephant.com/

Shop Merch https://age-like-a-badass-mother-shop.fourthwall.com/

Follow us and reach out at:

Email: [email protected]

Facebook: @WellElephant

Instagram: @agelikeabadassmother 

https://www.youtube.com/@agelikeabadassmother

#MargaretCho, #Menopause, #MenopauseHealth, #HormoneReplacementTherapy, #HealthyAging, #WomenOver50, #MidlifeWomen, #AuthenticAging, #LGBTQVoices, #AgeLikeABadassMother, #Podcast,

Question or comment? Send a one-way text to Age Like a Badass Mother. Include your email so I can answer you back.

Why are you suddenly so bloated, gassy, or uncomfortable after eating? In this episode, Lauren Bernick and Dreena Burton explore bloating, gas, digestion, fascia, jaw tension, stress, and Traditional Chinese Medicine, including the Chinese medicine concept of “dampness” and its connection to the Spleen and Stomach.

According to Traditional Chinese Medicine, late summer is associated with the Earth element, the Spleen and Stomach, and the emotion of worry. Dreena explains the concept of “dampness” and how, within this framework, it can be associated with digestive complaints such as bloating, gas, IBS, fatigue, and a heavy, sluggish feeling.

We also explore the surprising connection between jaw tension and the quads. If you've been seeing all those jaw-release videos on social media, Dreena explains why working on the fascia in your legs may sometimes help release tension in your jaw.

Lauren and Dreena talk about their views on self-care. Are we nourishing ourselves, or have we simply created another giant list of things we're supposed to do?

And lastly, Lauren shares a pretty hilarious self-care confession involving a video game for your vagina. 😂

Flows for today's podcast

 https://fasciaflo.com/badass/

Dreena's Main pages: fasciaflo.com/app and https://dreenaburton.com/

Jujube Tea post: https://bit.ly/jujubetea

https://www.instagram.com/dreenaburton/

This episode is sponsored by Grand Teton Ancient Grains

Grand Teton Ancient Grains (ancientgrains.com)

Use code Healthy10 for 10% off

Websites, Cookbook, and Merch

https://wellelephant.com/ecookbook/

https://www.agelikeabadassmother.com/

https://wellelephant.com/

Shop Merch https://age-like-a-badass-mother-shop.fourthwall.com/

Follow us and reach out at:

Email: [email protected]

Facebook: @WellElephant

Instagram: @agelikeabadassmother 

https://www.youtube.com/@agelikeabadassmother

Question or comment? Send a one-way text to Age Like a Badass Mother. Include your email so I can answer you back.

How much of what we’ve been told about food, nutrition, and disease is actually true? Nelson Campbell joins Lauren Bernick to unpack the health misinformation that has shaped how we eat, think about disease, and understand what it means to be healthy, as well as the powerful interests that may have influenced what we've been told.

In this fascinating conversation, Lauren Bernick talks with Nelson Campbell, co-author of The Whole Truth with his father, legendary nutrition researcher Dr. T. Colin Campbell, author of The China Study.

Nelson takes us behind the scenes of his father’s decades of research into nutrition, cancer, and chronic disease, and the forces he says have helped keep that information from reaching the public.

But this conversation isn't just about what’s wrong with our healthcare system. It’s about what we can do differently.

Nelson explains the difference between reductionism and biological wholism, and why trying to treat the body like a machine made up of isolated parts may be fundamentally flawed. We talk about his father’s research showing the relationship between animal protein and the cancer process, the enormous follow-up study that never received funding, and why Nelson believes our current healthcare paradigm is overdue for a major shift.

We also dig into Nelson’s decades of work helping people experience the effects of a whole food, plant-based diet for themselves. His Plant Pure Nation programs produced dramatic changes in participants’ cholesterol and other biomarkers, and his documentary From Food to Freedom follows people with type 2 diabetes as they changed their diets.

And then the conversation takes a surprising turn.

Nelson challenges some of the rigidity and confusion that have surrounded the whole-food, plant-based movement, including the tendency to obsess over individual food components rather than viewing the diet as a whole. He makes a compelling case that whole foods like nuts, seeds, avocado, and coconut shouldn't automatically be treated like dietary villains, and that making healthy food delicious matters if we want this message to reach the mainstream.

The Whole Truth: The Hidden Agendas Behind Decades of Health Misinformation - and What to Do About it by T. Colin Campbell, PhD and Nelson Campbell 

https://nelsoncampbell.com/

https://campbellretreats.com/

PlantPure Cookbooks by Kim Campbell 

This episode is sponsored by Grand Teton Ancient Grains

Grand Teton Ancient Grains (ancientgrains.com)

Use code Healthy10 for 10% off

Websites, Cookbook, and Merch

https://wellelephant.com/ecookbook/

https://www.agelikeabadassmother.com/

https://wellelephant.com/

Shop Merch https://age-like-a-badass-mother-shop.fourthwall.com/

Follow us and reach out at:

Email: [email protected]

Facebook: @WellElephant

Instagram: @agelikeabadassmother 

https://www.youtube.com/@agelikeabadassmother


#NelsonCampbell, #TheWholeTruth, #PlantBasedNutrition, #WholeFoodPlantBased, #HealthMisinformation, #ChronicDiseasePrevention, #FoodAsMedicine, #PlantBasedHealth, #AgeLikeABadassMother, #PlantPureNation, #Podcast,

Question or comment? Send a one-way text to Age Like a Badass Mother. Include your email so I can answer you back.

Holy sh*t. Lauren is 58.

And for a minute, she has some feelings about that.

Sixty suddenly feels close. And Lauren realizes that some of what she's feeling isn't actually about how she feels at all; it's about how she thinks society expects a 58-year-old woman to feel.

The truth is, this is Lauren's happiest, most productive time. Tune in to hear this mini-episode where she takes you on the brief roller coaster ride of her birthday. 

The main thing is that she feels like a badass, and she wants to normalize women talking about what makes them badasses. 

So what makes you a badass? Comment on the YouTube Video Version of this  podcast at: https://youtu.be/81hIW9CX7hg

This episode is sponsored by Grand Teton Ancient Grains

 Grand Teton Ancient Grains (ancientgrains.com)

Healthy10 for 10% off

Websites, Cookbook, and Merch

https://wellelephant.com/ecookbook/

https://www.agelikeabadassmother.com/

https://wellelephant.com/

Shop Merch https://age-like-a-badass-mother-shop.fourthwall.com/

Follow us and reach out at:

Email: [email protected]

Facebook: @WellElephant

Instagram: @agelikeabadassmother 

https://www.youtube.com/@agelikeabadassmother

Question or comment? Send a one-way text to Age Like a Badass Mother. Include your email so I can answer you back.

Dr. Ellen Langer is a Harvard professor who literally wrote the book on Mindfulness in 1989. She has been referred to as the “Mother of Mindfulness.” 

Through her famous counterclockwise study, where she put men in their 70’s and 80’s in an environment that was 20 years in the past, she illustrates how our mindset can influence our physical health. Spoiler, they all became “younger” and measurably healthier. 

We talk extensively about the mind-body connection and how stress can impact health and longevity. She schools us in the power of language especially when it comes to chronic disease. 

This is a rare experience to learn from someone who has devoted her life to the transformative power of mindfulness and its impact on health and aging.

Her latest book, The Mindful Body is available now.

Mindfulness (25th anniversary edition) (A Merloyd Lawrence Book)

On Becoming an Artist: Reinventing Yourself Through Mindful Creativity

https://www.ellenlanger.me/

This episode is sponsored by Grand Teton Ancient Grains

Grand Teton Ancient Grains (ancientgrains.com)

Healthy10 for 10% off

Websites, Cookbook, and Merch

https://wellelephant.com/ecookbook/

https://www.agelikeabadassmother.com/

https://wellelephant.com/

Shop Merch https://age-like-a-badass-mother-shop.fourthwall.com/

Follow us and reach out at:

Email: [email protected]

Facebook: @WellElephant

Instagram: @agelikeabadassmother 

https://www.youtube.com/@agelikeabadassmother

#DrEllenLanger, #MindfulAging, #HealthyAging, #MindBodyConnection, #Mindfulness, #PsychologyOfAging, #AgingMindset, #LongevityMindset, #AgeLikeABadassMother, #TheMindfulBody, #Podcast,