Perimenopause is top of mind. Hollywood is talking about it. Vaginal creams and supplements are being sold for it. But still, what the hell is going on? As we sail through midlife, how are our fluctuating hormones impacting our bodies and minds and what do we do about it? Dr. Shieva Ghofrany, an OBGYN and insta-glorious expert on all things women's health, sits down with Caitlin to discuss the predictably unpredictable hormonal shifts of perimenopause. Actual menopause occurs, on average, around age 51 marked by a one year absence of a menstrual period. That means perimenopause is the 10-15 year lead up to menopause that begins somewhere between the late 30s and 40s. Symptoms may include: brain fog, mood swings, feelings of rage, weight gain, heavy periods, vaginal dryness, chin whiskers, lack of libido, insomnia, hot flashes, joint pain, and hair loss. Yay. Often occurring in conjunction with the deranged parenting years, this change in a woman's life is sure to be miserable and magical, as Dr. Ghofrany puts it. She gives us hope by demystifying this confusing time, equipping listeners with the right questions to ask their doctors, and offering a myriad of treatment options. Maybe we can even embrace this naturally occurring life stage because growing older is a gift and we might as well indulge and enjoy it.

Follow Dr. Shieva Ghofrany @biglovefiercejuju and @tribecalledv

Tribe Called V is a virtual women's health platform

--- Caitlin Murray @bigtimeadulting

The Big Time Adulting podcast is brought to you in part by a few of Caitlin's favorite brands & affiliate partners:

• Knockaround Sunglasses (use code BIGTIMEADULTING for 15% OFF)
• Perfect Bar
• The best store in the world
• The second best store

Today on the pod we are doing something a little different. Caitlin was recently a speaker at the MTHR Collective Retreat in Cape Cod with fellow IG sensation Nicki Marie. They sat on a panel to discuss the unique paradox of motherhood: love and rage. In this episode, Nicki and Caitlin reflect on the special weekend, how it felt to meet for the first time in person, and how they experience and view their own anger, rage, frustration, and burnout. About MTHR Collective: An intersection between community and creativity, MTHR Collective is an inclusive, visionary space built for mothers to share, connect, and become stronger advocates for self-care in the realm of motherhood. Nicki Marie @nickimarieinc Caitlin Murray @bigtimeadulting

The Big Time Adulting podcast is brought to you in part by a few of Caitlin's favorite brands & affiliate partners:

• Knockaround Sunglasses (use code BIGTIMEADULTING for 15% OFF)
• Perfect Bar
• The best store in the world
• The second best store

Today, we have the luminous Nicole Sachs, an LCSW, speaker, writer, podcaster, and psychotherapist who has dedicated her work to the treatment of emotional and physical chronic pain. In this episode, Nicole shares her fascinating story of healing her own debilitating back pain through mind/body medicine inspired by Dr. John Sarno who encouraged her to journal about her repressed emotions. Nicole reflects on the watershed moment when she wrote the words, "I hate being a mother," a proclamation that released an emotional pressure valve and helped her heal her pain and ultimately enriched her relationship with her kids. Through the lens of motherhood, Caitlin and Nicole talk about the link between emotions, anxiety, depression, and chronic pain, and how we can begin to free ourselves from their grips so that we can experience more connection and energy along our parenting journey.

Nicole has developed a process called JournalSpeak also known as "rage on the page," a type of expressive writing therapy that rewires neural pathways that cause chronic symptoms. If your bullshit meter is going off, then lean into this episode even harder because Nicole is kind of amazing and certainly changed my preconceived notions about mind/body medicine.

Connect with Nicole Sachs:

@nicolesachslcsw

Visit www.thecureforchronicpain.com to learn more about JournalSpeak and to find Nicole's membership community, retreats, and on-demand courses:

• Freedom From Chronic Pain
• Freedom From an Anxious Life

Listen to Caitlin on Nicole's podcast, Freedom From Chronic Pain: Finding Your Authentic Voice (and Humor) When Life is Hard with Caitlin Murray.

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Find me Caitlin Murray @bigtimeadulting

The Big Time Adulting podcast is brought to you in part by a few of my favorite brands & affiliate partners:

• Knockaround Sunglasses (use code BIGTIMEADULTING for 15% OFF)
• Perfect Bar
• The best store in the world
• The second best store

We are delighted to welcome author Elise Loehnen to the pod today. Elise is the former chief content officer of GOOP and the host of the podcast Pulling the Thread. She is here to talk about her new book On Our Best Behavior: The Seven Deadly Sins and the Price Women Pay to Be Good. The seven deadly sins are likely not on your radar, but they are subversively controlling and distorting women's lives. They are pride, greed, lust, envy, gluttony, sloth, and anger, all qualities women deny within themselves in order to be "good." Weaving together history, memoir, and cultural criticism, Elise's groundbreaking book masterfully reports on this cultural phenomenon and inspires us to untether ourselves from the grip of patriarchy and societal expectations.

In this episode, Caitlin and Elise share personal stories about the pressure they feel to over-function and over-compensate as women, the profound ratcheting up of anger and rage they experience in motherhood, how envy can serve as a motivator to discover secret wants and dreams, and the reason why pride is so uncomfortable to feel. We highly recommend grabbing a copy of Elise's book. It will crack you open and help you reclaim the things you sacrifice in order to be a "good" mother, wife, partner, friend, daughter, human.

Connect with Elise: @eliseloehnen

Order her book On Our Best Behavior here: www.EliseLoehnen.com

Follow me, Caitlin Murray @bigtimeadulting

The Big Time Adulting podcast is brought to you in part by a few of my favorite brands & affiliate partners:

• Knockaround Sunglasses (use code BIGTIMEADULTING for 15% OFF)
• Perfect Bar
• The best store in the world
• The second best store

Today we are joined by Dr. Cara Natterson and Vanessa Kroll Bennett who are the hosts of The Puberty Podcast, a riveting show that weaves together scientific research, parenting strategies, and hilarious stories to help guide adults who are raising kids through puberty. You might be surprised to learn that puberty begins for girls at 8 or 9 and for boys at 9 or 10! In this episode, we focus on body image and what to say and not say to our kids about their bodies. Caitlin seeks to understand how to set boundaries around clothing, nudity, and public displays of pleasure. We talk about pleasure, consent, social pressures, bodily changes, and how to navigate these awkward conversations. Buckle up, because we need to know how to stay cool, how to talk to our kids without pushing them away, and how to mentally prepare OURSELVES for this next phase of parenting.

Connect with Cara and Vanessa:

The Puberty Podcast

IG: @spillingthepubertea

Pre-order their book: This is So Awkward

Shop their loungewear: @my.oomla

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Find me Caitlin Murray @bigtimeadulting

The Big Time Adulting podcast is brought to you in part by a few of my favorite brands & affiliate partners:

• Knockaround Sunglasses (use code BIGTIMEADULTING for 15% OFF)
• Perfect Bar
• The best store in the world
• The second best store

Domestic burnout is real. When asked about the division of labor at home, moms always say they do more than their partners. When dads are asked the same question they say the work is shared equally. Why such a disconnect? Join Caitlin as she talks to Eve Rodsky, an expert in the gendered division of labor, to break down the invisible labor of motherhood. "Invisible labor" is all the work someone does that goes unseen or unacknowledged by others.

As a graduate of Harvard Law, Eve Rodsky envisioned smashing the glass ceiling, solving the world's problems, and doing it all. But a decade into her ambitious professional career and with a couple of kids in tow, the only thing she was smashing were peas for her toddler. Eve's groundbreaking book Fairplay and documentary film by the same name have launched a movement to rebalance domestic life and make the invisible work of women visible. The path to relieving this burden starts by understanding invisible labor for what it is and then making little adjustments in your family system. So, if a to-do list is running through your mind at all hours and you feel you're carrying the mental/physical load of your family, then this episode is for you.

Eve Rodsky: @everodsky

Explore the Fair Play movement and card game: www.fairplaylife.com

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Find me Caitlin Murray @bigtimeadulting

The Big Time Adulting podcast is brought to you in part by a few of my favorite brands & affiliate partners:

• Knockaround Sunglasses (use code BIGTIMEADULTING for 15% OFF)
• Perfect Bar
• The best store in the world
• The second best store

Join in with Catherine Reitman, creator and star of the wildly popular and hilarious Netflix series Workin' Moms. Catherine, a creative powerhouse and mom of two, just dropped the 7th and final season of her hit show. Catherine shares how her own complicated experience of motherhood led her to write the show, how it evolved through the years and became a cathartic process, and why it resonates with millions of women. Catherine opens up about her late father, the famed Hollywood director of iconic movies like Ghostbusters and Kindergarten Cop and also discusses her youngest son's recent diagnosis of a rare and mysterious condition called PANDAS (Pediatric Autoimmune Neuropsychiatric Disorders Associated with Strep Throat). Catherine Reitman is a force of grit, generosity, warmth, and wit and we couldn't be more excited to share this special conversation with you.

Keep in touch with us:

Caitlin Murray: @bigtimeadulting

Catherine Reitman: @reitcatou

Workin' Moms: @workinmomsnetflix

Learn more about PANDAS disease at www.pandasnetwork.org

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Find me Caitlin Murray @bigtimeadulting

The Big Time Adulting podcast is brought to you in part by a few of my favorite brands & affiliate partners:

• Knockaround Sunglasses (use code BIGTIMEADULTING for 15% OFF)
• Perfect Bar
• The best store in the world
• The second best store

Join Caitlin and her first celebrity guest Chelsea Handler as they talk about childhood, parenting styles, ambition, cultivating a strong sense of self, and how to raise cool kids.

What we love about Chelsea Handler is how loud and proud she is in her beliefs - agree or disagree, and she is not afraid to speak up, which can be hard for women, even in this day and age. Her viral videos extolling the luxury of her freedom, solitude, adventure, pleasure, sleep, and carefree living are frankly, mom porn. We can't get enough of it. We fell in love with Chelsea in 2004 on Girls Behaving Badly and watched her rise to fame on her late-night show Chelsea Lately. She's published numerous bestsellers like the college cult classic, Are You There Vodka? It's Me, Chelsea.

Today, Chelsea is living the dream of performing stand-up on her nationwide Little Big Bitch tour while staying grounded and humbled on the ski slopes. In this fun and heartfelt interview, Chelsea reflects on her upbringing and how her mom and dad's parenting shaped her. She discusses how her relationship with her mom strengthened after her death and still serves as a positive guiding force. She offers parents her take on how to raise cool and respectful kids and suggests resisting the temptation to lose your entire identity in parenthood because no one wants to hang out with someone who only talks about their kids. She kinda gets it, because for a long time, Chelsea's identity and self-worth were wrapped up in her career and she thanks therapy for helping her cultivate a strong sense of self beyond her ambition. Follow along with us as Chelsea gives us the gift of a positive attitude!

@chelseahandler

See Chelsea Handler LIVE in a city near you on her Little Big Bitch Tour!

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Find me Caitlin Murray @bigtimeadulting

The Big Time Adulting podcast is brought to you in part by a few of my favorite brands & affiliate partners:

• Knockaround Sunglasses (use code BIGTIMEADULTING for 15% OFF)
• Perfect Bar
• The best store in the world
• The second best store

In this special episode, Caitlin is interviewed by her podcast producer Cameron Mullenneaux! Caitlin kicks things off with a pep talk to empower us to trust our gut and define motherhood on our own terms. She shares her feelings about being a stay-at-home parent while building a new career and offers deep thoughts on how hard it is to be truly fulfilled in your role. She reflects on her son's illness, the ways it transformed her perspective on life, and how that dark time period inspired her to create Big Time Adulting. Caitlin also revisits her kid-free days, leading her college lacrosse team to victory like the boss that she is, and gallivanting around NYC with her now husband in pursuit of fun. Get the dirt on Caitlin in this relaxed and thought-provoking interview.

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Find me Caitlin Murray @bigtimeadulting

The Big Time Adulting podcast is brought to you in part by a few of my favorite brands & affiliate partners:

• Knockaround Sunglasses (use code BIGTIMEADULTING for 15% OFF)
• Perfect Bar
• The best store in the world
• The second best store

Caitlin is joined by Becky Vieira, the hilarious woman behind @wittyotter and author of Enough About the Baby. Becky shares her scary journey through postpartum depression and how she found support. Join in as they discuss mental health, anxiety, rage, boredom, loneliness, and the woes of breastfeeding. She reminds listeners that putting our needs first isn't selfish and that the whole motherhood martyrdom thing is on the outs. They laugh and cry and help us all breathe a collective sigh of relief.

Disclaimer: This episode contains conversations about depression and suicide. Take care of yourself. It's okay if you want to skip today's episode.

Follow Becky @wittyotter

Buy her book Enough About the Baby

PPD support:

Karen Kleiman @postpartumstress

Postpartum Support International

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Find me Caitlin Murray @bigtimeadulting

The Big Time Adulting podcast is brought to you in part by a few of my favorite brands & affiliate partners:

• Knockaround Sunglasses (use code BIGTIMEADULTING for 15% OFF)
• Perfect Bar
• The best store in the world
• The second best store