Drinks with the Girls®

Hormone replacement therapy (HRT), breast cancer risk, and menopause—why is it still so hard for women over 40 to get straight answers about their health?

For Part 5 of our Celebrating the Twins series, Karen and Lisa welcome Dr. Betsy Greenleaf, a quadruple board-certified physician and women's health expert, for a candid, eye-opening conversation about hormones, breast health, and taking back control of our midlife wellness.

When Lisa can't get her estrogen patches but Viagra seems readily available, the frustration gets REAL. And for Karen, whose mom battled breast cancer, the fear surrounding hormones hits especially close to home.

Together, they unpack the confusion around HRT and breast cancer risk, explore bioidentical hormones, challenge menopause myths, and tackle why women's sexual health and quality of life are still too often overlooked.

If you're navigating perimenopause or menopause, worried about breast cancer risk, struggling to find a doctor who actually listens, or simply tired of being told to live with your symptoms, this conversation is for YOU.

Because midlife shouldn't mean settling for less. It's time to ask better questions, advocate for our bodies, and feel empowered to make informed decisions about our health.

Grab your favorite drink and join us for some truth, a little outrage, plenty of laughs, and a reminder that you deserve to be heard. Cheers! 🥂

🎧Show Notes:

Guest: Dr. Betsy Greenleaf

🍸☕ What We Were Drinking:

Lisa’s Arbonne Cocktail 

Myos & Protein Milk with Decaf Coffee

Pause Labs.health - Exclusive discount code for 6 mos free for listeners: DRINKS

🎧Podcast Episodes

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The hidden cost of caregiving for women goes far beyond exhaustion—and the “Daughter Tax” could be costing you more than you ever imagined.

Women are still so often the default caregivers: raising kids, supporting family, caring for aging parents, managing everyone’s needs—and adjusting careers, income and retirement plans to make it all work. But when you’ve spent decades being the dependable one, where do you draw the line between loving your people and losing yourself?

Karen and Lisa get real about the Daughter Tax and the invisible price women pay for unpaid caregiving. Karen shares how caring for her stepmom after a stroke affected her sisters’ jobs and livelihoods—and what it felt like when her dad simply expected his daughters to step in. Lisa opens up about the financial reality of dropping work to help family, the guilt and pushback that came when she finally started setting boundaries, and the complicated expectations wrapped up in being a “good daughter.”

And then there’s the number. The estimated lifetime financial cost of unpaid caregiving for women stopped us in our tracks. We’re not spoiling it here—but trust us, you’ll want to hear it.

This conversation moves from resentment and guilt toward something every midlife woman deserves: permission to care deeply without disappearing in the process.

If you’re a woman in your 40s, 50s or 60s juggling kids, parents, work, family expectations—or wondering why everyone else’s needs always seem more urgent than your own—this episode is for you.

Grab your drink. We need to talk about the Daughter Tax.

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🎧Show Notes:

🍸☕ What We Were Drinking:

To Us! Sparkling Beverage Wine Alternative - Looks like it is only available regionally 😥

🎧Podcast Episodes

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Why do friendships change so much in midlife—and how do you know which friends are safe enough to see the real you?

Author Lisa Najarian joins Karen and Lisa to unpack the emotional baggage women carry, the friendships that help us put it down, and what happens when we grow into a version of ourselves that some longtime friends don’t quite understand.

Lisa, author of Girl Unpack That: The Trip That Changed Me and the Framework That Can Change You, shares how one girls’ trip became the catalyst for her book—and why getting away with trusted friends can create space for conversations we’ve been avoiding for years.

Together, the girls get real about automatically saying “I’m fine” when you’re anything but, carrying the invisible emotional load for everyone around you, friendship ruptures, outgrowing old dynamics, and realizing that not every friend deserves the same level of access to your heart.

Because by midlife, you’ve lived enough to know that history doesn’t always equal emotional safety. But finding the people who truly get you? That can feel like a safety net—and sometimes, like medicine.

This conversation is for you if you’re navigating changing friendships, questioning whether an old relationship still fits, craving deeper connection, or simply tired of carrying everything by yourself.

Grab your drink and join us as we unpack what women carry, who we trust enough to unpack it with, and the life-changing power of being truly known.

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🎧Show Notes:

🎙️Guest: Lisa Najarian

🍸☕ What We Were Drinking:

📺TV

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Ready to stop people pleasing and start choosing yourself in midlife? For women over 40, giving yourself permission to want more can feel surprisingly uncomfortable—especially when your choices disappoint the people you love.

Karen and Lisa are entering their Permission Slip Era, and they’re talking about what happens when you stop waiting for approval and start trusting yourself. From setting boundaries that make other people uncomfortable to protecting your peace, taking the trip, wanting more joy (and more naps!), and realizing you don’t have to keep explaining your choices—this conversation gets real about the guilt that can come with finally putting yourself back on the list.

Because here’s the messy part: choosing yourself doesn’t mean the guilt magically disappears. People may push back. Old good-girl conditioning may come roaring back. And sometimes you have to let someone be disappointed in you without rushing in to make everything okay.

If you’re a woman in your 40s, 50s, 60s or beyond who’s tired of people pleasing, questioning your boundaries, or wondering whether it’s selfish to want more from this chapter of your life, pull up a chair.

Nobody is coming to hand you a permission slip.

Maybe it’s time to write your own.

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🎧Show Notes

🍸☕ What We Were Drinking:

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Exhausted, foggy, overwhelmed—and wondering if this is just what menopause and midlife feel like now? Functional medicine practitioner Dori Martin joins us to talk about midlife burnout, mineral balance, hormones, stress, and why doing all the “right” things doesn’t always make you feel better.

Dori knows this territory personally. After years of caregiving, working, parenting, and carrying all the things, she hit a wall. Her brain stopped cooperating. Small stresses felt enormous. She couldn’t sleep, lost words mid-sentence, snapped at people she loved—and realized she was running on fumes.

Sound familiar?

We get into why so many women struggle to slow down even when their bodies are begging for rest, what minerals have to do with energy and metabolism, and why Dori calls them the body’s “spark plugs.” We also talk about the emotional load women carry, the discomfort of asking for help, and why taking care of yourself isn’t something you earn after everyone else is okay.

If you’re a woman in your 40s, 50s, or 60s who feels like you’re doing everything you’re supposed to do but still don’t feel like yourself, this conversation is for you.

Maybe getting your spark back doesn’t start with doing more. Maybe it starts with finally giving yourself permission to do less. 🍸

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🎧Show Notes

🎙️Guest: 

Dori Martin, Functional Diagnostic Nutrition practitioner

🍸☕ What We Were Drinking:

Los Poblanos Lavender Lemonade

🎧Podcast Episodes

Why Am I So Tired Part 1

Why Am I So Tired Part 2

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What really changes after 45? For women in midlife, some of the biggest life lessons aren’t about getting older—they’re about finally figuring out what deserves your time, your energy, and your very limited supply of fucks.

Karen and Lisa are spilling the shizzle they’ve learned the hard way: no one is thinking about you nearly as much as you think they are, boundaries are necessary (especially with the people you love), being nice isn’t the same as being kind, and the best relationships sometimes require the hardest conversations.

Then there are the uniquely midlife realizations no one adequately prepared us for: sleep suddenly becomes sacred, your body starts renegotiating the terms of your relationship, alcohol hits differently, staying home in your comfies can sound better than the party—and being “cool” matters a whole lot less. Even if your teenager strongly disagrees.

From fuzzy-slipper school drop-offs and hiding from energy vampires to navigating family boundaries and learning to let people misunderstand you, this is an honest, funny conversation about the freedom that can come with getting older.

Because maybe one of the best things about life after 45 is realizing you don’t have to keep proving, pleasing, explaining, or showing up for everything and everyone.

This episode is for you if you’re a woman over 40 who’s questioning old expectations, protecting your peace, navigating changing relationships, listening to your body a little more closely, or simply wondering: Is anyone else figuring this midlife shit out as they go?

Grab your drink and pull up a chair. You’re definitely not the only one.

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🎧Show Notes

🍸☕ What We Were Drinking:

Pink Pomelo Limeade w/Vodka

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Is your marriage going through a rough season—or are you quietly wondering if it might actually be over? Marriage and family therapist Dr. Becky Whetstone, author of I Think I Want Out, joins Karen and Lisa for an honest conversation about marriage crisis, emotional disconnection, separation, divorce, and whether an unhappy marriage can be saved.

Dr. Becky knows this crossroads personally. After her own marriage ended in what she now believes may have been a premature divorce, she made it her mission to understand what happens when one spouse is ready to leave while the other is desperate to hold on.

Together, they unpack the five stages of a deteriorating marriage, why emotional detachment can begin long before anyone says “I want out,” and why the end of Marriage Part 1 doesn’t always have to mean the end of the relationship. Karen and Lisa bring their own experiences with divorce, separation, and rebuilding into a conversation that gets deeply personal—and surprisingly hopeful.

If you’re in midlife questioning your marriage, feeling lonely beside the person you’ve built a life with, considering divorce, or wondering whether there’s still something worth fighting for, this conversation is for you.

Because sometimes the question isn’t simply, Should I stay or should I go? It’s: What could Marriage Part 2 look like—and do we both want to create it?

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🎧Show Notes

🍸☕ What We Were Drinking:

Guest: Dr. Becky Whetstone

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Midlife trends are everywhere—but which ones are actually worth the hype for women over 40, and which ones deserve a hard pass?

Karen and Lisa are taking on the trends filling our feeds and creeping onto our midlife to-do lists: embracing gray hair, protein everything, GLP-1s, pickleball, solo female travel, AI, cold plunges, and yes…even beef tallow on your face. (Some things may be a bridge too far.)

But underneath the laughs and side-eye is a bigger conversation: When did aging well become one more thing women are expected to get “right”?

From Karen wrestling with whether to embrace her gray to Lisa sharing her experience with a GLP-1, they get personal about body image, wellness, social media pressure, and the freedom to decide what actually works for you. They also dig into the surprising appeal of solo travel, the pickleball phenomenon, and how AI is changing everyday life—sometimes for the better and sometimes in ways that feel a little too close for comfort.

This episode is for women in their 40s, 50s, 60s and beyond who are tired of being told there’s a new way they should eat, exercise, look, age, work, or live.

Come for the midlife trends. Stay for the reminder that you don't have to follow every one of them to be doing midlife right.

Grab your drink and join us as we decide what we're keeping, skipping, and seriously side-eyeing.

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🍸☕ What We Were Drinking:

🎧Podcast Episodes

📰Articles

📺TV

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If you grew up in the ’80s, this nostalgic trip through ’80s music, MTV, Brat Pack movies, fashion, first concerts, and teenage crushes is about to unlock memories you didn’t even know you still had.

Karen and Lisa are cracking open the Drinks With the Girls vault for a Mixtape episode that takes us straight back to the decade of Aqua Net, mixtapes, Levi’s 501s, Contempo Casuals, MTV premieres, and waiting FOREVER for your favorite video to finally come on.

From the very important debate of Rob Lowe vs. Andrew McCarthy (friendships could be tested) to Molly Ringwald, the Brat Pack, Madonna, Duran Duran, Rick Springfield, Adam Ant, Live Aid, first concerts, questionable hairstyles, and the absolute magic of ’80s music, Karen and Lisa revisit the pop culture that helped shape a generation.

But underneath all that glorious nostalgia is something that hits differently in midlife: remembering who we were before we became who everyone needed us to be. The teenage girl who felt like an outsider. The one figuring out where she belonged. The one dancing in her bedroom, making mixtapes, crushing hard, and imagining the woman she might someday become.

This episode is for every Gen X woman who hears an ’80s song and is instantly 16 again—and for anyone who could use a funny, joyful reminder that the girl you used to be is still very much a part of the woman you are now.

Grab your drink, turn up the ’80s playlist, and come hang out with us. And be prepared to answer the question that really matters:

Andrew McCarthy or Rob Lowe? 🍸📼💿

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🍸☕ What We Were Drinking:

📹Documentaries

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Parenting a transgender child can bring up love, fear, questions, and unexpected growth—and these honest stories from three moms of transgender kids remind us that none of us has to navigate life's biggest moments alone.

Karen and Lisa sit down with three remarkable mothers who share the deeply personal journeys of supporting their transgender children with honesty, vulnerability, and unwavering love. Together, they talk about the emotions no one prepares you for—the surprise, the fear, the mistakes, the learning, and the powerful realization that parenting isn't about having all the answers. It's about showing up.

Through heartfelt conversations and real-life moments, these moms offer compassion instead of perfection, proving that it's possible to stumble, grow, and strengthen your relationship with your child along the way.

If you're raising teenagers or young adults, navigating changing family dynamics, questioning your own assumptions, or simply want to better understand the experiences of families with transgender kids, this conversation will leave you feeling more informed, more connected, and more hopeful.

Because at the end of the day, every child deserves to be loved for exactly who they are—and every parent deserves the grace to learn alongside them.

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🍸☕ What We Were Drinking:

📠Vocab

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