This week we’re re-releasing Heather’s conversation on GLP-1s featuring Lili Zarghami, founder of the online magazine Jenny. In this candid, unfiltered conversation Heather and Lili talk about their very different experiences with the popular weight loss drugs and the complicated realities of living in a woman's body.

From illness and aging to body shaming and the quiet mental load of trying to do everything exactly "right"—and still gaining weight—they unpack the promises and pitfalls of drugs like Mounjaro.

This isn’t a before-and-after story tied up in a pink bow. It’s about what happens when weight loss works, when it doesn’t, and why both outcomes can mess with your head.

Bonus: If you enjoy this episode, check out our September 3 episode, featuring Lili's return to the podcast to discuss her return to GLP-1 medication, this time in a different form and with different results.

This week we are rereleasing one of the shows that started it all.

Another Bloody Podcast co-hosts Lisa Pierce Flores and Heather O'Neill are both survivors of Stage 4 endometriosis. Here, in Part 2 of their deep dive into endometriosis, they interview one another about their many years of suffering from the disease, attempting to find a diagnosis, and finally, after many of false starts and a fair amount of medical gaslighting, how they each found some level of relief from their symptoms. For a research-based rundown on the disease, listen to Another Bloody Podcast Episode 4, Bloody Hell: Welcome to the (Not So) Wonderful World of Endometriosis.  

Show Notes:

You can read Heather O'Neill's essay, "Out for Blood" at Janny Magazine, https://jennymag.com/2024/02/07/endometriosis-hysterectomy-gaslighting/

“The Association Between Endometriosis and Risk of Endometrial Cancer and Breast Cancer: A Meta-analysis” https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9673303/

Feminist icon Gloria Steinem spent decades talking about sexual agency, abortion, and what we now call medical gaslighting. Steinem, who died last week at 92, spoke and wrote about previously taboo healthcare topics in ways that were accessible and in a voice that was sincere and sprinkled with humor. In this episode, we trace her surprising path from an unstable childhood caring for her mentally ill mother to her success as a freelance writer in New York City to almost accidentally becoming the face of Second Wave feminism. We unpack why her beauty and warmth made her message land even as it made her a target. Along the way we connect her decades of advocacy to expand sexual and reproductive agency and funding on women's health to the healthcare battles women are still fighting today. It's a conversation that turns personal fast, as we reflect on growing up with Steinem as a radicalizing presence and resonate with her theory that women often grow angrier, not quieter, with age.

"Our Bodies Ourselves Mourns Feminist Champion Gloria Steinem (1934-2026)"

"Gloria Steinem, Personification of the Women’s Movement, Dies at 92," New York TImes

Outrageous Acts and Everyday Rebellions, Third Edition, by Gloria Steinem

Revolution from Within: A Book of Self-Esteem, by Gloria Steinem

Education of a Woman: The Life of Gloria Steinem, by Carolyn G. Heilbrun

Gloria: In Her Own Words, directed by Peter W. Kunhardt

We're bringing back a fan favorite — Lily Zargami, editor and co-founder of Jennie, whose first appearance on Another Bloody Podcast (our most-downloaded episode ever) chronicled a brutal reaction to injectable Mounjaro. Since then, the GLP-1 landscape has changed fast: an oral Wegovy pill hit the market with record-breaking uptake, Eli Lilly's own oral option is racing toward approval, and both drugs are being studied for benefits that go well beyond weight loss — heart failure, artery disease, liver disease, and more.

Lily joins us to talk about what's different this time around on the oral version, how she's learned to manage reflux and eat more intentionally, and the complicated, often unspoken feelings that come with going back on a drug after it once landed you in urgent care. We dig into disordered-eating red flags, the real cost differences between injectables and pills, the "Wild West" of compounded versions, and why neither of us feels guilty anymore about needing long-term medication — for this or anything else.

Content note: this episode includes candid discussion of disordered eating patterns, body image, and weight — listener discretion advised.

Show notes:

You can read Lili Zarghami's essay series, "A Month of Mounjaro" at Jenny Magazine, https://jennymag.com/2024/01/14/mounjaro-diary-part-1/

First GLP-1 pill for obesity from Novo Nordisk launches in the U.S.

Novo's Wegovy pill hits over 18,000 US prescriptions in strong debut week

Wegovy® Pill Prescriptions Surpass 3 Million

FDA Approves Lilly's Foundayo™ (orforglipron), the Only GLP-1 Pill for Weight Loss That Can Be Taken Any Time of Day

Wegovy Global Regulatory Status: FDA Approval, EMA Authorization, and Worldwide Access in 2026

Novo Nordisk's CagriSema Demonstrated Significant Reduction in HbA1c and Weight Across REIMAGINE Program (ADA 2026)

Coadministered Cagrilintide and Semaglutide in Adults with Overweight or Obesity

If this episode brought up anything difficult around food or body image: the National Alliance for Eating Disorders helpline is available at 1-866-662-1235.

Menopausal rage doesn't look like garden-variety irritability — it feels like a ticking time bomb, and almost no one is talking about it. This week, Heather and Lisa sit down with Dr. Sarah Berg, a board-certified OB-GYN, Menopause Society Certified Practitioner, and founder of Selfority, a platform offering menopause education courses and workplace training, to unpack the symptom she first wrote about for TIME.

Dr. Berg explains why rage gets missed in the exam room, why it's costing women their careers at the exact moment they're hitting their stride, and why the medical system's failure to identify less common menopause symptoms carries a steep financial and emotional toll for women. She also digs into the layer that didn't get enough attention in her original article: how bias shapes the way women of color's anger is perceived and treated differently in the workplace. It's a candid, validating conversation for anyone who's ever lost it on a family member, friend or colleague and then spent days wondering what was wrong with them.

The Menopause Conversation Still Has One Major Blind Spot, TIME

Selfority — Dr. Sarah Berg's platform offering menopause education courses and workplace training

Study of Women's Health Across the Nation (SWAN), University of Michigan

The (Un)Managed Heart: Racial Contours of Emotion Work in Gendered Occupations, Aida Harvey Wingfield, Annual Review of Sociology, 2021

H.R. 9273: A Bill to Direct the Secretary of Health and Human Services to Require Public Institutions of Higher Education That Receive Grants Under the Medical Student Education Program to Include Training for Medical Students Relating to Menopause in the Curriculums of Such Institutions, and for Other Purposes. 119th Congress, 2nd session, introduced by Rep. Valerie P. Foushee, 11 June 2026,

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and President Donald Trump marked National Immunology Month by cutting the CDC's recommended childhood vaccine list from 18 diseases to 11, sorting remaining shots into risk-based tiers. State mandates and insurance coverage will not immediately be affected, but the policy shift may embolden a growing number of parents to question their doctors and refuse vaccinations for their children, further eroding herd immunity.

As he signed the executive order last week, President Trump mentioned a link between vacccines and autism, a theory based on a 1998 study that has been soundly debunked. We decided to take a look back at the discrediterd tudy that got the lethal ball rolling and its author, Andrew Wakefield, who has since been stripped of his medical lisence. If you haven't heard about it before, you won't believe just how bad the study was. Based on just 12 children, using falsified data, and motivated by undisclosed financial conflicts of interest, it would be comical if it had not claimed the lives of so many unvaccinated children since its publication (it was later retracted). We also share personal stories of family members affected by preventable diseases like polio and Lisa talks about her infant bout of rubella, anecdotes that underscore how vaccines have dramatically reduced childhood mortality and disability.

We hope you'll honor National Immunology Month by consulting vaccination recommendations from the American Medical Association and American Academy of Pediatrics, and at least for now, ignoring the CDC.

Sources: 

American Medical Association, "Vaccine Recommendations" 2026

American Academy of Pediatrics. Recommended Child and Adolescent Immunization Schedule for Ages 18 Years or Younger, 2026

"Trump Signs Executive Order With Plan to Reduce Number of Recommended Childhood Vaccines," The Guardian, August 10, 2026

Calling the Shots: Tracking Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s Moves on Vaccines." U.S. News & World Report, updated 10 Aug. 2026

Scott, Kristan, et al. "Trends in Vitamin K Administration Among Infants." JAMA, 2026

Fattah, M., et al. "Trends in County-Level Childhood Vaccination Exemptions in the US." JAMA, vol. 335, no. 6, 2026, pp. 546–49

Shattock, Andrew J., et al. "Contribution of Vaccination to Improved Survival and Health: Modelling 50 Years of the Expanded Programme on Immunization." The Lancet, vol. 403, no. 10441, 25 May 2024, pp. 2307–16

"Revolutionary Medicine: The Importance of Child Vaccines." American Lung Association, 4 Apr. 2025

Aubrey Gordon and Michael Hobbes, hosts. "RFK Jr. and The Rise of the Anti-Vaxx Movement." Maintenance Phase, 18 July 2023

Evans, Robert, host. "Part Two: Andrew Wakefield: The Worst Doctor Alive." Behind the Bastards, iHeartPodcasts/Cool Zone Media, 20 Feb. 2019

If you've ever wondered whether you're imagining a shift in how you're treated at work in midlife, we're here to hand you the receipts. In this episode, we dig into why women vanish from the workforce right as they hit their stride. From the "broken rung" that stalls women when they aim for that very first promotion, to the burnout crushing senior women and blocking them from entering the C-suite, the data is eye-opening, and kinda depressing. And to cap it all off, here comes the menopause penalty, draining $150 billion in lost productivity worldwide and ending many women's careers for good — years before we qualify to access our retirement benefits. We're not happy about it, but we do have some data that should change employers minds.  

Sources:

Workplace & Economic Impact of Menopause

Sauer, J. et al., The Economic Impact of Menopause: A Survey of Women 35+ and Employers, AARP Research, January 2024

"Research reveals women take 'substantial' earnings hit during menopause." Crawford, Krysten, Stanford Report, March 24, 2025

"Women's Earnings Are Being Hit with 'Menopause Penalty,'" SHRM, April 25, 2025

"Viewpoint: Understanding the Impact of Menopause in the Workplace." SHRM, December 21, 2023

"Menopause, women and the workplace." Climacteric (International Menopause Society journal), April 9, 2025

"United States – The Health and Economic Impacts of Menopause," Impacts of Menopause (Bayer/FP Alliance case study), July 31, 2025

Weir, Shirley (Menopause Chicks). "Menopause at Work: A 2025 Rallying Cry." Women's Health Research Cluster, March 25, 2025

WebMD Health Services / PR Newswire, 2025

Women in Leadership / Older Workers

Women in the Workplace, LeanIn.Org and McKinsey & Company, 2025

"Women in Leadership Face Ageism at Every Age," Harvard Business Review, 2023

"Why More Companies Are Recognizing the Benefits of Keeping Older Employees," Stanford Center for Longevity

Culture / Commentary

"Ladies, We're Entering Our Crone Era. It's About Time," Tressie McMillan Cottom, New York Times, July 13, 2026

Julie Delpy on Marc Maron's WTF

"On the Verge," Julie Delpy's series about mid-life women

A little over a year ago, Rhode Island became the first state in the country to legally protect menopausal workers, amending its Fair Employment Practices Act to place menopause and perimenopause alongside pregnancy and childbirth as protected categories.

Hormone replacement therapy is having a moment in the press and on social media. Often all we hear about are the success stories of women whose hot flashes and night sweats have been cured by HRT. But what about those women who have been told that they aren't candidates for hormone replacement?

This week, Heather and Lisa sit down with Jennifer Nathanson, nurse practitioner at Flourish Marin, to talk about hormone replacement therapy: what it actually is, who's a good candidate, and the lesser-known symptoms of perimenopause that rarely make it into the doctor's office conversation.

Lisa, a two-time cancer survivor, asks the question so many women in her position are told they can't ask: is there any safe path to hormone support after a breast or endometrial cancer diagnosis?

Guest:

Sources referenced in this episode:

Reappraising 21 years of the WHI study: Putting the findings in context for clinical practice

Risks and Benefits of Estrogen Plus Progestin in Healthy Postmenopausal Women: Principal Results From the Women's Health Initiative Randomized Controlled Trial

A Controlled Trial of Intravaginal Estriol in Postmenopausal Women with Recurrent Urinary Tract Infections

Hormone Replacement Therapy Does Not Increase Breast Cancer Recurrence, Mortality in Survivors

Hormone Replacement Therapy: An Increased Risk of Recurrence and Mortality for Breast Cancer Patients?

Hormone Replacement Therapy in Endometrial Cancer Survivors: A Meta-Analysis

Frozen Shoulder and Menopause: What Is the Estrogen-Collagen Link?

Estrogen Inhibits Frozen Shoulder Fibrosis via GPER Through the PI3K-Akt Pathway

Turns out gray hair is just the opening act. Heather and Lisa dig into why hair thins, dries out, changes texture, and slows its growth cycle with age — and where menopause, HRT, GLP-1s, and even undiagnosed illness fit into the picture, plus what hair products dermotologists say are worth spending your money on. They discuss when hair loss is just aging, and when it's time to call the doctor, their bad perm experiences, and that time Heather was convinced she was balding.

Topics covered:

Products and ingredients mentioned:

Sources:

Tips for Healthy Hair, American Academy of Dermatology

10 Hair Care Habits That Damage Hair, American Academy of Dermatology

Menopause Can Wreak Havoc on Your Hair, NBC News

The Chemistry of Hair and Hair Care, University of Virginia, Department of Chemistry https://chemistry.as.virginia.edu/chemistry-wellness-hair-and-hair-care

Your Guide to Aging and Hair, UCLA

Best Products for Menopausal Hair Loss, National Council on Aging

The content in this podcast is for informational and entertainment purposes only and isn't a substitute for medical advice. If you're noticing sudden or severe hair loss, please talk to your doctor or a dermatologist.