A poem opens the door, but what follows is a grounded conversation about the witch wound—the old and ongoing ways women are punished for knowing, feeling, and taking up space. We trace the archetype of “the witch” back to her real history: European burnings, Salem’s trials, and the use of “spectral evidence” to criminalize intuition itself. From there, we talk about how that legacy still lives in the body—in the reflex to shrink, overperform, or apologize for being too much.

This episode isn’t about spells; it’s about survival. We look at the origins of “hysteria,” the lineage of fear passed through families and nervous systems, and what newer research says about inherited trauma. We name how those patterns still echo in motherhood, in perfectionism, and in the way women measure their worth against each other. And then we talk about what repair looks like: small, steady ways of choosing connection over comparison, safety over silence, power with instead of power over.

We end where we began—with everyday magic. The kind that lives in words spoken kindly, in tears that tell the truth, in the courage to ask for help without apology. The kind that turns the old fire into warmth.

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