The Mediatox Podcast

If you are reading this, you are one of the reasons my dreams are coming true.

Something really special is happening in my life, and I want to tell you about it.

As you know, I love creating days that feel unhurried, thoughtful, and genuinely restorative. Our bodies, minds, and relationships are aching for a more human pace. We need margin again. Enough space to notice what is important, what is beautiful, and what has been asking for (or maybe even demanding) our attention.

As a marriage and family therapist, I have learned that it is often the simple things that heal us.

Which is why I am so glad to help you create your own analog day.

If you are ready to reset your nervous system, relax for real, and discover what one day without your phone might make possible, book a complimentary session with me right here ↓

You can use our time together to plan your own analog day, or we can talk through a guided 8-hour luxury soul reset in Historic Downtown Franklin.

If you need a day to yourself, these soul scavenger hunts are made for that.

If you would rather use the day to deepen an important relationship, you can bring your spouse, fiancé, mom, daughter, sibling, or best friend and share something unforgettable together.

And right now, as I write this and you are reading it, I am holding space for whatever dreams you are wishing for today. 🤍

Warmly,

Jenny

I had such a fun and practically helpful conversation with Katy Wells about her new book launching next month. Even after reading all the decluttering books and reorganizing my life more times than I can count, Katy altered my perspective on my home. Plus, she is just an absolute delight of a human!

She approaches “mess” from a truly holistic perspective. In our short conversation, she shifted how I see the messes in my own home and helped me untangle a long-standing laundry quandary. I’ve never found a system that actually works for me… until now. One day in, and it is actually working!

This episode is for anyone who’s tired of fighting their home and ready to understand it instead. You might just find that that piles, spills and dust are reflecting something really beautiful back to you.

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Ready to Bring This Into Real Life?

If what you’ve been reading is resonating there are a few ways to take this out of your screen and into your actual day.

These aren’t productivity hacks or therapy sessions.They’re spaces and tools for recalibration.

✧ Try a Wise Phone

If you’re ready to experiment with a “dumb” phone, your time has come.

This is the best phone I’ve found for people who want connection without connection to everything. The Wise Phone is intentionally designed to support real life. And yes, I love it (not just because it has my name on it).

Think: a phone that serves you, not the other way around.

Use THIS LINK and the coupon code MEDIATOX for $25 off.

Best for: people who want to reclaim their attention while still being connected to those who matter most.

✧ Design Your Day Call

One hour to slow down together and design a personalized Analog Day that actually works for your season, responsibilities, and constraints. We look at where your attention is being drained, what you want to protecting, and how to structure a day that supports clarity, calm, and connection.

$222 · 60 minutes · Doxy or Phone

Best for: people who want clarity, structure, and a grounded plan they can start using immediately.

✧ The Real Life Experience

A full-day reset for your nervous system, attention, and sense of self.

This is an immersive, restorative day designed to bring you back into rhythm with your life. We combine gentle coaching, reflection, mindful outings, lunch, massage, and a few thoughtfully chosen surprises.

It’s playful, grounding, and deeply human.A simple and luxurious return to what is real.

$1,975 · Historic Franklin, TN · Full Day

*If you have any questions, want more details or need a time that is not available on the schedule, you can reach me at 615.392.0096 or [email protected].

The Lost Art of Being Read To

Is there anything more vintage than being read to?

The rhythm of a voice. The pause between sentences. The small hush that settles when someone reads aloud…It’s something our bodies remember and our mind’s rest inside of.

Before podcasts and content feeds, before the endless scroll of other people’s thoughts, there was the simple act of listening. A parent reading at bedtime. A teacher turning a page. A friend reading a letter aloud. What we thought of as boring is now better than a guided meditation.

That’s the spirit of Vintage Therapy — an old approach to the quick fixes of modern self-help. A return to slower ways of thinking, feeling, and tending to the mind.

When I started this series, I thought it would be about old psychological ideas, and in some ways, it is. But more than that, it’s about remembering the enduring wisdom that modern life has a way of erasing. Mental hygiene, they once called it: the daily habits that keep our minds clean and our spirits clear.

In the 1940s, psychologists spoke of emotional health as a discipline of tending to actual needs, not blaming, not making sure we used our voice or made sure everyone knew our story. They taught that sanity was something to be cultivated daily, through good work, moderation, honest relationships, and a sense of purpose. The long, steady rhythm of a well-tended inner life is only possible with space, mental, physical, spiritual space that is elusive when our phone controls us.

Maybe that’s why being read to still feels so healing. It slows our pace. It invites us back into presence. It reminds us that listening itself is a form of receiving love.

So find your favorite chair. Take a breath. Let this be your moment of unhurried attention.

Welcome to Vintage Therapy — where the past is aching to give our modern souls some care.

In this episode, storyteller and podcast host Hillary Rea joins Jenny Wise for a deep dive into the purpose of storytelling—and how it’s been distorted by digital culture. Together, they explore the growing pressure to narrate every moment of life, package it, and monetize it—often at the cost of truly living it.

From therapy rooms to influencer feeds, story is everywhere. But when storytelling becomes performance or branding, it can trap people in false or premature narratives that disconnect them from truth and healing.

Hillary and Jenny examine the difference between storytelling as a path to integration vs. storytelling as a tool of self-promotion.

They also touch on:

* How social media exploits narrative structures to drive identity and sales

* The masculine vs. feminine modes of storytelling and what happens when we honor cyclical, relational, or open-ended narratives

* The idea that true sanity might begin when we stop making ourselves the center of every story

A conversation starter for anyone curious about reclaiming story as a human art--not just a marketing tactic.

Listen to more of Hillary’s work:

* Five Word Life Story – Hillary helps Jenny find the five words that define her (https://shows.acast.com/five-word-life-story/episodes/jenny-wise-black)

* Rashomon – A multi-perspective storytelling podcast exploring different sides of the same story

* Hillary’s “Linked In” Profile

This week on The Mediatox Podcast, I sit down with my friend, co-author, and longtime collaborator Bob Hutchins—digital strategist, psychologist, and one of my favorite people to learn from.

In our conversation, two themes rise to the surface:

“The medium is the message.” This famous line from Marshall McLuhan isn’t just something Bob quotes—it’s a lens he lives by. You’ll hear how the shape of our tools reshapes our lives, often in ways we don’t immediately see.

The Media Tetrad. Bob introduced me to this framework years ago, and it stuck: every piece of technology does four things—it enhances something, makes something obsolete, retrieves something from the past, and eventually flips into its opposite. Once you learn to spot these patterns, the world makes a little more sense.

This episode is a conversation between two people who care deeply about what it means to be human in a digital age. It’s not about fear or nostalgia—it’s about personal awareness and agency.

Alex MacWilliam was once my student—now, he's my teacher. In this honest and courageous conversation, Alex shares how media trauma nearly consumed him, and how naming it became the first step toward healing.

Alex lives what he preaches. This is his story of what life can look like when you:

* Accept you thoughts and feelings

* Choose values that matter to you

* Take action toward a meaningful life

If you are interested in working with Alex, you can find him here: https://mattersoftheheartcounseling.org/alex-macwilliam-lmft

The first official episode of The Mediatox Podcast is starting off with a tender and personal conversation—an interview with my own kids.

Brandon and Avery join the podcast to talk about growing up in the age of smartphones, what it was like to have a mom glued to her phone (me!), and what changed when I decided to let it go.

It’s honest, fun, and full of insight from the generation we all want to understand better.

If you’ve ever wondered how phones shape our relationships, attention, our daily lives and our children—this one’s for you.

Mediatox helps individuals and organizations reclaim their time, attention and relationships by fostering a healthier relationship with media. Through practical tools, meaningful insights, and a focus on intentional living, Mediatox empowers people to reconnect with what truly matters in a digitally driven world. Take the Mediatox quiz and learn more at Mediatox.net.