Unpacking Life's Crazy

43 year old musician and video game producer, Lange, joins Ms. Phoenix to share some Pride Month perspective as a transgender mother of 4 children between the ages of 11 and 24. She's faced many challenges in her life, from living on the streets at 16 and struggling with schizophrenia to coming out as transgender just 5 years ago. Lennon has a lot to teach listeners about overcoming the odds and living your best life. Esperanza and Lennon have a frank discussion about the bigotry facing the transgender community in 2023. So much to unpack in this celebration of pride.

In part 2 of her exploration into how ADHD affects women, Esperanza explains what the diagnosis process is like, how brains with this condition react in a counterintuitive way to stimulants, the surprising benefits she's experiencing on the medication, and some tools to help integrate into the normie lifestyle. Still so much left to unpack in this episode.

Esperanza shares the knowledge she's gained by growing up with and seeking treatment for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder as an adult.  Many girls with ADHD go undiagnosed and untreated, in part, because the symptoms are less obvious or disruptive to others. In her desire to uncover all she could about Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, Ms. Phoenix amassed more information than she could squeeze into a single episode. Let’s unpack part one of this two part dive into the topic of ADHD in girls and women. Return for part two when Esperanza unpacks the rest and shares some of the gadgets she uses to manage her ADHD.

Expanding sales of my artwork, sculpting with flexible polymer clay, my ADHD,  reproductive rights, ADHD, geriatric pregnancy, what happened with that whole Facebook thing, did I mention ADHD? spring has sprung in Oregon, foraging for mushrooms... we'll unpack all of this, while doing my best to stay on track.

In this episode of Unpacking Life's Crazy, Esperanza shares some of her favorite things about the Facebook platform, how it may have saved her life and also why Meta is a horrible company that totally f*cking sucks. If she loves the platform, why does she think it sucks? This is a complicated love-hate relationship. Let's unpack it.

In episode 30 of Unpacking Life’s Crazy Esperanza shares the details of the big move from the East Bay of California to Beaverton Oregon. Any move can be a nightmarish moving experience, but when you also have to cope with pain due a disability and the WORST moving company EVER, it becomes straight up torture. Spoiler, we don’t recommend moving around the holidays. This one is a comedy of errors folks with a surprising twist at the end and foreshadowing  of a beautiful new life to come in the Pacific Northwest.

In Episode 29 of Unpacking Life's Crazy, Esperanza interviews Eric Newton, writer/comedian and MC of The Empire Strips Back. Are you a Star Wars nerd, Harry Potter fan or theatre geek? If so, this episode is absolutely for you. Eric offers listeners a peek behind the curtain of this Star Wars themed burlesque parody. Enjoy humorous backstage details about this wildly popular "Vegas worthy" burlesque show. We’ll also share when you might expect this show to land on a stage near you. Unpacking some good vibes and lots of love for the Star Wars fandom with this episode, for real.

Formerly from the East Bay in California, Unpacking Life’s Crazy is now coming to your from Beaverton, just outside of Portland Oregon. If you’re a regular listener of the podcast, you know we really belonged somewhere weirder. (We meaning me, my boyfriend does a good job passing as normal.) This is a one woman production. 

In Episode 28 of Unpacking Life's Crazy, a crazy December brought big changes for the podcast. It's January 2023 and implementation of Oregon's Measure 109 has begun. Esperanza explains the basic rules of the measure and why the state's new laws on magic mushrooms are suddenly especially exciting for her.  Enjoy this last episode of the podcast for the Bay Area of California. Beaverton here we come!

The topic of this episode of Unpacking Life's Crazy is rather unexpected. Esperanza offers a frank, and at times humorous, discussion with a dear friend who is recovering from Monkeypox (now known as MPox) in the Los Angeles area. "Flash" shares the graphic (and a bit gross) details of his experience with this virus and his concerns for how this outbreak will affect the LGBTQ community. Esperanza and her guest offer suggestions of how listeners can avoid catching Mpox, the shocking length of time you might be a carrier if you do catch it and where you can find more information about this pox virus. So much to unpack here...

Does psychedelic therapy hold the key to treating PTSD, addiction, anxiety and more? In this all hallows eve episode of Unpacking Life's Crazy, Esperanza shares her experience with micro-dosing magic mushrooms and how using psilocybin has greatly improved her life. Esperanza offers some advice for those interested in pursuing psychedelic therapy for themselves and what you can do to make mushroom therapy available to those who need it most.