You are more microbe than human and your gut bacteria are deciding whether you heal or stay sick. Research microbiologist and gut health pioneer Kiran Krishnan breaks down the gut-brain connection, how childhood trauma lives in your microbiome, why a single course of antibiotics can wipe out 90% of your gut, and why no matter what your body has been through, repair is always possible.

In this episode we cover:

 — The gut-brain axis and why your gut controls your mood, anxiety, and nervous system 

— How stress triggers fight-or-flight and destroys your microbiome from the inside 

— Childhood trauma and how it imprints on your gut bacteria for decades 

— The root cause behind PCOS, diabetes, lupus, and chronic inflammation 

— Why the people you live with are shaping your biology right now 

— The vaginal microbiome, declining fertility, and what no one is talking about 

— Why most probiotics don't work and what actually does 

— How to test your microbiome the right way 

— The oral microbiome and why your mouthwash might be making you sick

🔗 Learn more about Kiran Krishnan's work:
https://www.instagram.com/kiranbiome/

Subscribe to Permission for new episodes every Tuesday.

By the time you're 40, your body has already lost a significant amount of the one molecule responsible for keeping your cells alive, energized, and repairing themselves. It's called NAD. Without it, you'd die in 30 seconds. And almost no one is talking about why it disappears, or what actually works to bring it back.

I sat down with Dr. Nichola Conlon — molecular biologist, longevity scientist, and founder of Nuchido — and she didn't hold back. She walked me through what's really happening inside our cells as we age, why the decline hits women especially hard during perimenopause and menopause, and why some of the most popular anti-aging treatments on the market right now — including NAD IVs — could be triggering an inflammatory response instead of helping you.

She also told me what she thinks actually works. And honestly, it's not what I expected to hear from someone with her background.

We talk about why your skin is aging from the inside out and what that really means, the foundational habits she puts above every supplement and treatment, and the 12 hallmarks of aging that scientists now believe are driving chronic disease.

And then something shifted in this conversation. A woman who's spent her career in drug development and cell biology tells me she's gone back to university, not for more science, but to study consciousness, metaphysics, and what psychedelics are revealing about the human mind. She talks about 37 trillion cells working together inside your body, why your gut feelings might be more intelligent than you give them credit for, and what happens when a scientist reaches the edge of what science can explain.

This one stayed with me long after we stopped recording.

CONNECT WITH DR. NICHOLA CONLON:🔬 Nuchido 📸 Instagram

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Welcome to Permission, a space for the conversations that ask us to come home to ourselves.

For Episode 2, I sat down with Dr. Vincent Pedre, gut health expert and integrative medicine physician.

We talk about what the body remembers, why our symptoms are rarely random, and how emotional trauma shapes the gut in ways most doctors miss.

In this conversation:

The connection between heartbreak, loss, and physical illness like SIBO and bloating.

Why trapped memories and unprocessed grief live in the body.

The placebo effect as real clinical medicine.

Vincent's own story of gut issues starting at age ten.

A teenage patient who reversed her autoimmune diagnosis through gut healing.

Energetic boundaries and how to protect your vitality.

The Zen mindset shift that changes how we move through the world.

For the woman ready to listen to what her body has been saying.

Follow @permission.pod and @shadiaakle on Instagram.

Connect with Dr. Vincent Pedre:

Instagram: @drpedre

Books: Happy Gut and The GutSMART Protocol (available on Amazon)

Take his free 2-minute gut quiz at happygutlife.comWork with Dr. Pedre at pedremd.com

Welcome to Permission, a space for the conversations that ask us to come home to ourselves.

For the first episode, I sat down with Annalie Howling, author of Unapologetic and a trauma specialist. We talk about shame, self-abandonment, and what it actually means to come home to ourselves.

In this conversation:

Why shame is a liar.

The difference between guilt and shame.

The inner critic as the custodian of your comfort zone.

Fawning and why it carries the most shame of all trauma responses.

Pleasure as self-responsibility.

Self-compassion as the cure.

For the woman ready to stop carrying what was never hers to carry.

Follow @permission.pod and @shadiaakle on Instagram.

Annalie's book Unapologetic is available on Amazon.

Welcome to Permission with Shadia Akle.

Here's what nobody talks about in wellness: you can do everything right and still not feel right. The supplements, the protocols, the labs, the clean eating, and your body is still asking for something none of it can give.

Your body isn't broken. It never was. It's been carrying what you couldn't. The job that drained you. The relationship that shrank you. The version of yourself you kept performing because somewhere, quietly, you were taught your needs would have to wait.

No supplement in the world can speak louder than a life that needs you to finally listen.

Every week, I sit down with brilliant doctors, scientists, researchers, and healers, and together we talk about the part most health conversations leave out. Not just what's happening in your body — but why.

The science and the story behind it. The biology and what it's been holding for you. The conversation your symptoms have been trying to start.

I don't come here as the woman with all the answers. I come as someone who has been in the question, is still in the question, and has picked up enough along the way to want to share it.

This is for the woman who has done everything “right” and is tired of pretending that's enough. 

Who senses her body is trying to tell her something her labs can't explain. Who is done waiting for the right time to come home to herself.

You don't need another protocol. You need permission.

Permission to rest. Permission to listen. Permission to stop waiting and start becoming.

Welcome to Permission. Your body's been waiting for this conversation.

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@shadiaakle

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/permission.pod

https://www.instagram.com/shadiaakle

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@permission.pod

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shadia-akle