Vicky sits down with Ashley Chandler, founder of The Teenage Guide, for a conversation about the shift every parent faces once their child hits middle school: moving from "boss" to "guide." Ashley draws on nearly two decades in education and coaching, along with her own teenage years in the 90s, to explain why the teen years don't have to be something families just survive. They talk about the real skill behind getting a teenager to listen (hint: it starts with listening to them first), why a mother's identity often goes through its own reconstruction right alongside her teenager's, and how to build a friendship-shaped relationship that lasts long after the kids move out.

If you've ever wondered why your once-easy elementary schooler suddenly feels unreachable, or found yourself grieving a version of parenting you're not ready to let go of, this one is for you.

Ashley's path to this work (03:33) — A dual-credentialed educator with 18 years in schools and coaching, Ashley shares what led her to found The Teenage Guide, including her own experience of feeling under-guided as a teenager in the 80s and 90s.

From boss to guide (08:04) — The invisible shift that happens around middle school, why parents feel like they're losing control, and what actually changes underneath that feeling.

Midlife as adolescence in reverse (12:20) — Ashley's framework for understanding why so many women's mental health dips right as their kids hit adolescence, and why the loss of the "PTA mom" identity deserves more attention than it gets.

Redefining self-care and permission (16:00) — Why self-care isn't about bubble baths, and the very Gen X habit of waiting for someone else's permission to rest.

The one move that gets a teenager to actually listen (32:14) — Ashley's approach to validating a teen's opinion before offering your own, even when you strongly disagree, and why "you shouldn't believe that" backfires every time.

What you actually control as a parent (40:00) — With friend groups and outside influences largely out of a parent's hands, Ashley walks through what's left to work with: how you show up, what you allow in your home, and the example you set.

Building perspective and resilience (43:11) — Why exposure to different ways of living matters for teens' emotional intelligence, and Ashley's take on letting kids struggle enough to find out what they're made of.

The sandwich generation, reconsidered (50:23) — A conversation about the parents' side of adolescence: aging parents, kids preparing to launch, and the identity work happening for women in midlife at the same time.

A generational thread (54:19) — Vicky and Ashley trace the throughline from their grandmothers' limited options to their own "you can be anything" upbringing, and what they hope changes for their daughters' generation.

Ashley Chandler is the founder of The Teenage Guide, where she coaches parents to become guides rather than bosses inside their own homes. A dual-credentialed educator with 18 years of experience across public and private education and adult and teen coaching, Ashley blends neuroscience, behavior change, and communication strategy into practical tools for families navigating the middle and high school years.

Connect with Ashley: Website: theteenageguide.com

• The Confident Connected Blueprint (Ashley's live class)

Have a question about navigating the teen years, or a topic you'd like covered on the podcast? Reach out through Women Mastering Midlife.

Let's Keep the Conversation Going

If this episode resonated with you, please rate, review, and share it with someone who needs to hear it. Subscribe to Women Mastering Midlife on your favorite podcast platform to receive weekly conversations that help you navigate perimenopause, menopause, and midlife health with clarity and confidence.

Join the Women Mastering Midlife Community and let's grow stronger together.

Get your FREE guides HERE: www.womenmasteringmidlife.com/freeguides

Share your thoughts and stories on our social channels and tag us @misvictoriabyrd. Let's rewrite the narrative together!

Find more information on our website: www.womenmasteringmidlife.com

Book a FREE 1:1 discovery call to learn more about coaching programs and courses.

This podcast is for entertainment, educational, and informational purposes only. The hosts, guests, and experts featured are not your personal healthcare providers or advisors. The content should not be considered as professional, personalized medical, psychological, or prescriptive advice.

Always consult qualified professionals such as your physician, therapist, pharmacist, or coach for specific concerns and decisions related to your health or lifestyle. Women Mastering Midlife is not responsible for any undesired outcomes resulting from actions taken based on the content of this podcast.

Most women don't think about their brains until something catastrophic happens. A stroke. A diagnosis. A parent who no longer recognizes them. But your brain is quietly sending signals long before that, and in perimenopause, those signals get louder.

In this episode, Victoria talks with Christine Despres, a registered nurse with more than 30 years in healthcare and a certified dementia practitioner who spent much of her career working in hospice and dementia care. That work, combined with losing her mother at 57 and learning she carries the APOE4 gene, is what pulled her toward brain health as the starting point for her coaching practice.

Christine and Victoria talk through what is actually happening to the brain during perimenopause, including research suggesting women can lose up to 30 percent of brain function during this transition, and why symptoms like brain fog, word-finding trouble, and forgetfulness are common but not something to dismiss as normal aging. They walk through the four lifestyle areas the Alzheimer's Association and the US POINTER study identified as having the greatest impact on cognitive decline: exercise, the MIND diet, cognitive engagement, and knowing your numbers.

The conversation also covers genetic testing for Alzheimer's risk, where alcohol fits into a brain-healthy lifestyle, why hormone therapy and brain health is such a contested topic online, and why willpower is not the answer for lasting change. Christine's core message is a practical one: brain health does not require a complicated program. It requires small, consistent shifts that fit into a life you already have.

• Why women account for roughly 75 percent of memory care residents, and what that statistic actually reflects
• The four lifestyle factors the US POINTER study found move the needle most for cognitive decline: exercise, nutrition, cognitive engagement, and knowing your numbers
• What the MIND diet is, how it differs from the Mediterranean and DASH diets, and what a 2025 study found about its impact on cognitive decline
• Why brain fog and forgetfulness in perimenopause are signals worth listening to rather than symptoms to push through
• What genetic testing for the APOE4 gene and P-Tau involve, and how to think about whether testing is right for you
• Where alcohol fits into a brain-healthy lifestyle, and how to think about risk versus reward instead of an all-or-nothing rule
• Why hormone therapy and cognitive health is such a divided conversation online, and what the evidence currently supports
• How cognitive engagement works, including specific ways to build novelty into a life that is already full
• Why willpower is not a reliable strategy for long-term change, and what to focus on instead

• 00:00 Introduction to Christine Despres and her path from dementia and hospice nursing to brain health coaching
• 05:10 Why 75 percent of memory care residents are women
• 12:13 What brain fog and forgetfulness actually signal in perimenopause
• 13:24 The US POINTER study and the four habits that move the needle most for cognitive decline
• 16:39 Where alcohol fits into brain health, and the concept of joy span
• 21:18 The difference between telling someone what to do and coaching them toward lasting change
• 25:37 How to build cognitive engagement into a life that already feels full
• 31:22 The MIND diet explained: what to eat, what to limit, and why consistency matters more than perfection
• 35:38 Genetic testing for Alzheimer's risk, including the APOE4 gene and P-Tau testing
• 38:27 Hormone therapy and brain health: why the research feels contradictory and how to navigate it
• 43:01 Christine's closing thoughts on shifting from willpower to identity-based habits

Christine Despres is a registered nurse with more than 30 years of experience in healthcare and the founder of The Wellness Navigator. She is a board-certified health and wellness coach and a certified dementia practitioner. Christine spent much of her nursing career working in dementia and hospice care, including 15 years as director of nursing at a skilled nursing facility. After losing her mother at 57 and learning she carries the APOE4 gene, which raises Alzheimer's risk, Christine shifted her focus toward helping midlife women protect and strengthen brain function through lifestyle change.

• US POINTER study, Alzheimer's Association
• Dr. Lisa Mosconi's research on the perimenopausal brain
• The MIND diet
• BrainHQ (cognitive training platform used in the POINTER study)
• Recode program, Dr. Heather Sandison and Dr. Bresnan
• Amen University brain coaching program
• Dr. Kerry Burnight's concept of "joy span"

Let's Keep the Conversation Going

If this episode resonated with you, please rate, review, and share it with someone who needs to hear it. Subscribe to Women Mastering Midlife on your favorite podcast platform to receive weekly conversations that help you navigate perimenopause, menopause, and midlife health with clarity and confidence.

Join the Women Mastering Midlife Community and let's grow stronger together.

Get your FREE guides HERE: www.womenmasteringmidlife.com/freeguides

Share your thoughts and stories on our social channels and tag us @misvictoriabyrd. Let's rewrite the narrative together!

Find more information on our website: www.womenmasteringmidlife.com

Book a FREE 1:1 discovery call to learn more about coaching programs and courses.

This podcast is for entertainment, educational, and informational purposes only. The hosts, guests, and experts featured are not your personal healthcare providers or advisors. The content should not be considered as professional, personalized medical, psychological, or prescriptive advice.

In this solo episode, Victoria steps away from interviews to share something personal: at 46, after 15 years out of the workforce, she is heading back to school for a non-traditional PharmD. She talks openly about how a change in her marriage made returning to work a financial necessity rather than a choice, what it has felt like to job hunt after over a decade at home, and why credentialing has become the missing piece between her pharmacy license and the clinical women's health practice she has been building through Women Mastering Midlife.

This one is unscripted and a little winding by design. Vicky wanted to document the process in real time, doubts included, in case it helps someone else who is standing at the edge of their own reinvention.

• Why Victoria is enrolling in a non-traditional, asynchronous PharmD program for already-licensed pharmacists
• The financial and personal circumstances that made returning to work necessary at this stage of life
• What job searching looked like after 15 years out of an employer setting, including the ageism and sexism she encountered along the way
• Why she leaned into health coaching and integrative wellness rather than practicing pharmacy after stepping away in 2011
• How her path through the Institute for Integrative Nutrition and the Integrative Women's Health Institute shaped her coaching philosophy, particularly around behavior change and disordered eating patterns
• What credentialing could open up: working alongside cash-pay physicians, supporting between-visit care, and building toward a clinical women's health pharmacist role
• How two decades of guideline changes, new technology, and a completely different testing and onboarding process make this a different kind of pharmacy school than the one she left
• Balancing school with parenting two daughters, ages 15 and 17, without giving up the availability she has valued as a stay-at-home parent
• An update on her upcoming book, Women Mastering Midlife, which blends podcast guest wisdom with her own experience and closes with guided reflection questions
• Why she is choosing to see this stage as building on who she already is rather than starting over or reinventing herself

Victoria reflects that this chapter is not a rebirth or a reinvention. It is simply the next version of who she already is, built on the same intelligence that got her through pharmacy school the first time.

• Learn more about Women Mastering Midlife: womenmasteringmidlife.com
• Women Mastering Midlife, the book (coming soon)
• Connect with Vicky on LinkedIn

This episode includes personal reflections on divorce, financial pressure, and career transition. It is not intended as financial, legal, or medical advice. If you are navigating a similar transition, individual circumstances vary, and it may help to talk it through with a trusted financial advisor, attorney, or healthcare provider.

Let's Keep the Conversation Going

If this episode resonated with you, please rate, review, and share it with someone who needs to hear it. Subscribe to Women Mastering Midlife on your favorite podcast platform to receive weekly conversations that help you navigate perimenopause, menopause, and midlife health with clarity and confidence.

Join the Women Mastering Midlife Community and let's grow stronger together.

Get your FREE guides HERE: www.womenmasteringmidlife.com/freeguides

Share your thoughts and stories on our social channels and tag us @misvictoriabyrd. Let's rewrite the narrative together!

Find more information on our website: www.womenmasteringmidlife.com

Book a FREE 1:1 discovery call to learn more about coaching programs and courses.

This podcast is for entertainment, educational, and informational purposes only. The hosts, guests, and experts featured are not your personal healthcare providers or advisors. The content should not be considered as professional, personalized medical, psychological, or prescriptive advice.

Most of us associate menopause with hot flashes, sleep disruption, and mood changes, but rarely with our eyes. If you've noticed your vision blurring at the edges, your eyes feeling drier than they used to, or found yourself holding the menu a little further away, there may be a real physiological explanation, and it's one that almost never comes up in menopause care.

In this episode, I'm joined by Dr. Neda Gioia, OD, CNS, FMCP, an optometrist and certified nutrition specialist who founded Integrative Vision, a practice built around treating eye health through a whole-body lens. She is a fellow and former president of the Ocular Wellness and Nutrition Society and trained in functional medicine through the Institute for Functional Medicine. Dr. Gioia brings both a research background and personal experience to this conversation. Like many of us, she has navigated her own perimenopause transition while working to bring more awareness to a topic she feels has been left out of the menopause conversation for far too long.

We talk through what's actually happening with dry eye in midlife, the role estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone play in different parts of the eye, why so many women suddenly need reading glasses in their 40s, and what the current evidence does and doesn't support when it comes to hormones and vision. Dr. Gioia is candid about where the research is strong and where it's still catching up, and she offers a grounded, non-alarmist way to think about being proactive with your eye health at this stage of life.

In This Episode, We Cover

• Why hormone receptors exist throughout the eye, from the cornea to the retina, and what estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone each appear to do in ocular tissue
• The difference between correlation and proof when it comes to hormones and eye symptoms, and why the research gaps in women's health extend into ocular health as well
• Why hormone therapy is not a guaranteed fix for eye conditions, and why some data suggests certain forms of estrogen may worsen dry eye
• What dry eye disease actually is, according to the current clinical definition from the Tear Film and Ocular Surface Society (TFOS), and why it's considered more than an annoyance
• The role of the meibomian glands, tear film composition, and why untreated gland dysfunction can become permanent
• The nutrients most connected to eye health, including omega-3 status (and why estrogen affects your body's ability to convert plant-based omega-3s into the DHA your eyes need), B vitamins, taurine, and the carotenoids lutein and zeaxanthin
• Why sleep, including undiagnosed sleep apnea in women, is an underappreciated risk factor for both dry eye and glaucoma
• What presbyopia actually is (it is not the same as near or farsightedness), why it happens, and why it can feel sudden even though it develops gradually
• The research connecting a shorter lifetime duration of estrogen exposure to increased glaucoma risk, and why Dr. Gioia believes eye screening guidelines should be more personalized for women
• Why she believes eye complaints deserve a place on standard menopause symptom checklists and intake forms
• One practical takeaway for advocating for your own eye health, starting now

Key Takeaway

Your eyes are not separate from the rest of your body. Hormonal shifts, nutritional status, inflammation, and vascular health can all affect your eyes from front to back. Being proactive with routine eye care, even without complaints, is not about fear. It's about staying in the driver's seat of your own long-term health.

Connect with Dr. Neda Gioia

• Website: integrativevision.com
• Instagram (practice): @integrativevision
• Instagram (education): @drnedagioia

Let's Keep the Conversation Going

If this episode resonated with you, please rate, review, and share it with someone who needs to hear it. Subscribe to Women Mastering Midlife on your favorite podcast platform to receive weekly conversations that help you navigate perimenopause, menopause, and midlife health with clarity and confidence.

Join the Women Mastering Midlife Community and let's grow stronger together.

Get your FREE guides HERE: www.womenmasteringmidlife.com/freeguides

Share your thoughts and stories on our social channels and tag us @misvictoriabyrd. Let's rewrite the narrative together!

Find more information on our website: www.womenmasteringmidlife.com

Book a FREE 1:1 discovery call to learn more about coaching programs and courses.

Disclaimer

This podcast is for entertainment, educational, and informational purposes only. The hosts, guests, and experts featured are not your personal healthcare providers or advisors. The content should not be considered as professional, personalized medical, psychological, or prescriptive advice.

Always consult qualified professionals such as your physician, therapist, pharmacist, or coach for specific concerns and decisions related to your health or lifestyle. Women Mastering Midlife is not responsible for any undesired outcomes resulting from actions taken based on the content of this podcast.

Money is one of the topics women are least prepared for and most affected by, especially during the transitions that tend to cluster in midlife: divorce, widowhood, career changes, and retirement planning that suddenly feels urgent. On this episode of Women Mastering Midlife, Victoria talks with Phil Weiss, CFA, CPA, and founder of Apprise Wealth Management, about building financial independence before a crisis forces the issue.

Phil's path into this work started long before his CFA or CPA credentials. When his mother was diagnosed with stage four breast cancer, he discovered that his father had never handled the family's finances, and he stepped in to negotiate with creditors, catch up on bills, and make sure his mother's care was covered. That experience shaped the practice he has built since: helping women understand and manage their money well before a health or life crisis makes it unavoidable.

This conversation covers the practical and the emotional sides of money: how retirement income actually works, what gets overlooked when parents age or a marriage ends, and how a values-based planning process called life planning can change the way you think about both your money and your time.

• Why money is treated like a taboo subject, and how that silence shapes women's financial confidence
• The shift from accumulating money to spending it in retirement, and why that shift is harder than it sounds
• Asset allocation versus tax location, and how account type affects what you actually keep
• The retirement expenses most people don't plan for: healthcare, housing modifications, and long-term care
• Financial and emotional considerations for women navigating divorce or widowhood
• The sandwich generation squeeze: caring for aging parents while raising your own kids
• A simple framework for budgeting that doesn't require obsessive tracking
• Life planning: a process that starts with your values, not your account balances
• How childhood experiences with money shape financial decisions decades laterl

Spending money you saved can feel harder than saving it. Phil describes this as a "retirement paycheck." After decades of saving, many people freeze when it's time to draw that money down, even when the numbers clearly support spending more.

Account type matters as much as account balance. A traditional 401(k), a Roth IRA, and a taxable brokerage account are all taxed differently. Understanding what Phil calls "tax location," not just asset allocation, can meaningfully change what you keep in retirement.

Divorce has a tax dimension that's easy to miss. Splitting retirement accounts evenly by dollar amount can leave one spouse with a much larger future tax bill if the accounts are different types (Roth versus traditional). This is worth raising with an advisor before assets are divided.

A written plan protects against the moments no one wants to think about. Access to accounts, passwords, wills, and care preferences for aging parents are logistical details that become urgent and stressful without preparation.

Life planning starts with values, not numbers. Through a process built on three reflective questions, Phil helps clients identify what actually matters to them before building the financial plan around it. The goal, in his words, is to help people avoid regret, not sit in it.

Phil Weiss is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA), Certified Public Accountant (CPA), and Registered Life Planner, and the founder of Apprise Wealth Management. He began his career in 1987 as a tax professional at Deloitte and Touche, later worked as an equity research analyst covering oil and gas stocks, and built a practice centered on long-term investment strategy paired with values-based life planning. A significant portion of his client base is women navigating major life and financial transitions.

Apprise Wealth Management: apprisewealth.com

If this episode resonated with you, please rate, review, and share it with someone who needs to hear it. Subscribe to Women Mastering Midlife on your favorite podcast platform to receive weekly conversations that help you navigate perimenopause, menopause, and midlife health with clarity and confidence.

Join the Women Mastering Midlife Community and let's grow stronger together.

Get your FREE guides HERE: www.womenmasteringmidlife.com/freeguides

Share your thoughts and stories on our social channels and tag us @misvictoriabyrd. Let's rewrite the narrative together!

Find more information on our website: www.womenmasteringmidlife.com

Book a FREE 1:1 discovery call to learn more about coaching programs and courses.

This podcast is for entertainment, educational, and informational purposes only. The hosts, guests, and experts featured are not your personal healthcare providers or advisors. The content should not be considered as professional, personalized medical, psychological, or prescriptive advice.

Always consult qualified professionals such as your physician, therapist, pharmacist, or coach for specific concerns and decisions related to your health or lifestyle. Women Mastering Midlife is not responsible for any undesired outcomes resulting from actions taken based on the content of this podcast.

What does it actually look like to support women through menopause at work, and who is responsible for making that happen?

In this episode, I sit down with April Haberman, CEO and co-founder of MiDOViA, a workplace menopause support organization working with employers across the United States and drawing on best practices developed in the UK and Australia over the past decade. April was in the room when Washington Governor Bob Ferguson signed an executive order directing state agencies to develop menopause workplace accommodations, and she gives us a clear-eyed breakdown of what that order actually requires, who it covers, and why the for-profit sector should be paying close attention.

We cover a lot of ground in this conversation, from the practical (what do workplace accommodations look like in a road construction crew versus a corporate headquarters?) to the systemic (why are women visiting seven or more doctors before getting care that should be straightforward?). We also talk about the barriers that keep women from speaking up at work, the role of pharmacists like me in closing the access-to-care gap, and why April believes broad organizational training is more important than any single policy change.

If you have ever minimized your symptoms at work, wondered whether your employer is legally required to support you, or felt like the healthcare system is making menopause harder than it has to be, this one is for you.

In This Episode:

• What MiDOViA does and why April and her co-founder Kim Hart saw an unmet need in the workplace four years ago
• A breakdown of Washington State's executive order on menopause workplace accommodations: what it mandates, who it applies to, and what comes next
• Why accommodations look different across industries, from office environments to construction sites to research labs
• The connection between access to care, workplace support, and women's long-term financial stability
• Why pharmacists are positioned to bridge the menopause care gap and what billing barriers stand in the way
• The role of symptom-tracking apps and wearable data in helping women advocate for themselves at medical appointments
• Practical steps women can take right now to plant seeds for menopause support within their own organizations
• What is happening legislatively across the country, including Philadelphia, Illinois, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Maryland, and California

About April Haberman:

April Haberman is the CEO and co-founder of MiDOViA, a menopause-in-the-workplace organization partnered with accredited menopause-friendly workplace programs in the UK and Australia. With a background in PR, marketing, nonprofit health education, and sexual and reproductive health, April brings a uniquely cross-sector perspective to organizational culture change. MiDOViA has worked with more than 600 menopause-friendly member organizations and nearly 200 accredited employers. Learn more at midovia.com.

Resources Mentioned:

• MiDOViA: midovia.com
• Washington State Women's Commission
• Washington State Governor Ferguson's Executive Order on Menopause Workplace Accommodations
• Natural Cycles app (perimenopause tracking feature)
• Oura Ring (wearable health tracking)
• The Balance docuseries

If this episode resonated with you, please rate, review, and share it with someone who needs to hear it. Subscribe to Women Mastering Midlife on your favorite podcast platform to receive weekly conversations that help you navigate perimenopause, menopause, and midlife health with clarity and confidence.

Join the Women Mastering Midlife Community and let's grow stronger together.

Get your FREE guides HERE: www.womenmasteringmidlife.com/freeguides

Share your thoughts and stories on our social channels and tag us @misvictoriabyrd. Let's rewrite the narrative together!

Find more information on our website: www.womenmasteringmidlife.com

Book a FREE 1:1 discovery call to learn more about coaching programs and courses.

menopause in the workplace, perimenopause workplace accommodations, Washington state executive order menopause, menopause policy employers, MiDOViA April Haberman, menopause friendly workplace, women's health at work, midlife women workforce, menopause legislation United States, pharmacist menopause care, perimenopause symptoms at work, women mastering midlife podcast

This podcast is for entertainment, educational, and informational purposes only. The hosts, guests, and experts featured are not your personal healthcare providers or advisors. The content should not be considered as professional, personalized medical, psychological, or prescriptive advice.

Always consult qualified professionals such as your physician, therapist, pharmacist, or coach for specific concerns and decisions related to your health or lifestyle. Women Mastering Midlife is not responsible for any undesired outcomes resulting from actions taken based on the content of this podcast.

I haven’t lifted a weight in almost a year. And I’m the person who tells women that strength training matters in midlife. In this solo episode, I sit honestly in that tension, because I think a lot of you are living in it too. You know you should be working out, you believe it, and right now, while moving through something hard, you cannot find the way in.

We talk about what is actually happening in your body when you are navigating trauma, grief, separation, or sustained stress, why standard fitness advice can backfire in these seasons, and how to fold in gentle movement that protects you instead of depleting you. I also share a change I am making in how I show up online, because I have come to see how daily workout posts and progress pictures feed the same comparison machine that leaves women feeling like they are failing at one more thing.

This is not permission to opt out of your health. It is permission to do it differently, for the season you are actually in.

What We Cover:

• Why intense training on an already-stressed nervous system adds load instead of building strength
• Allostatic load, and the physiology that gives you real permission to ease off in a hard season
• The difference between applying exercise research to an ideal life versus a real one
• Two valid responses to stress: movement as medicine, and rest as medicine, with no shame in either
• Why an off-the-shelf workout program often becomes one more thing to fail at
• The case for a responsive, one-on-one approach that meets you where you actually are, week to week
• Gentle movement as a menu, not a prescription: walking outside, yoga, mobility, ten minutes after a meal
• Protecting your body while your mind heals: stretching, pain signals, and coming back from injury
• Why nutrition and sleep matter more in a hard season, not less
• Why I chose not to drink alcohol through this chapter, and what it did for my sleep and recovery
• The change I am making in how I show up on social media, in real time

Chapters & Timestamps

00:00 The tension I haven’t shared

01:57 Why summer and social media make this harder

04:33 Your nervous system doesn’t care about your workout plan

05:30 Allostatic load: the science that gives you permission

07:00 Two valid responses: movement as medicine vs. rest as medicine

10:42 Why an off-the-shelf program isn’t the answer right now

14:11 The case for a responsive, one-on-one approach

17:18 Showing up with a real life, not a fantasy

17:40 Practical, gentle movement: a menu, not a prescription

21:38 Protecting your body: stretching, pain signals, injury recovery

23:55 Don’t compare your chapter one to someone else’s chapter twenty

26:27 What we forget when we’re surviving: nutrition

29:18 Why I’m not drinking through this season

31:01 The change I’m making in how I show up online

33:18 Permission to rest, and the goal that’s still waiting for you

Moments Worth Sharing:

Your nervous system doesn’t know the difference between a real predator and a divorce attorney’s email.

Sometimes structure isn’t support. It’s one more thing we’re failing at.

The woman on your feed who swears her 5 a.m. lift saved her life isn’t lying. She’s just not you.

We need to start with the truth of life, not the fantasy of it.

Don’t compare your chapter one to someone else’s chapter twenty.

The walk is enough. The rest is enough. Showing up, even quietly, is enough.

Mentioned in This Episode:

• The five pillars of midlife health: nutrition, movement, sleep, stress mitigation, lifestyle
• Allostatic load and the physiology of chronic stress
• Protein as the building block for recovery and strength
• Coming back from injury with slow reps and good form

Work With Vicky:

If you’re in a hard chapter and you want someone to help you build something that fits your real life, not a fantasy version of it, my DMs are always open. That’s where this kind of work starts.

CONNECT

● Website: womenmasteringmidlife.com

● Substack: Victoriabyrd.substack.com

● Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/msvictoriabyrd

● Email: [email protected]

This podcast is for educational purposes and is not a substitute for individualized medical care. Always consult your provider before making changes to medication, exercise, or supplements. Replacing an SSRI or any prescription with exercise should only be done under the supervision of a licensed provider.

This is a conversation that deserves more nuance than a seven-second social media clip. Victoria sits down with Linden Schaffer, psychedelic wellness educator, author, and founder of Reveal, for an honest, evidence-informed discussion on what psychedelics actually are, what the current research says, and how midlife women can think critically about whether any of this belongs in their own wellness journey.

Linden is not a hype machine. She has spent more than two decades at the intersection of wellness, transformation, and psychedelic harm reduction, and she brings that same rigor to this conversation. What emerges is a grounded, thoughtful exchange that honors both the science and the complexity, including the parts the headlines leave out.

What You'll Hear in This Episode

• A plain-language overview of psychedelics, from classic compounds like psilocybin and LSD to lesser-known substances like ibogaine and MDMA
• The history of psychedelic research, from Albert Hofmann's synthesis of LSD in the 1940s to the Nixon-era criminalization that halted decades of promising clinical work
• Why the pandemic became an inflection point for renewed interest in these compounds
• The current legal landscape in the U.S., including Oregon and Colorado's regulated frameworks, decriminalization efforts in cities nationwide, and what federal scheduling still means for your personal risk profile
• How midlife women in particular are being underserved by a medical system that too often defaults to SSRIs without exploring root causes
• What microdosing is, how it differs from larger dose experiences, and why Linden chose it herself when perimenopause symptoms arrived before she could get a hormone therapy appointment
• The critical importance of preparation, integration, and what Linden calls the "wellness toolbox" — and why the compound alone is never the whole story
• How to evaluate a retreat, a facilitator, or an experience using Linden's five-part Reveal Method: screening, set, setting, support, and sustainability
• The intersection of psychedelics and GLP-1 medications, including what is and is not yet known about interactions and timing
• The ethical and cultural concerns around ibogaine, biopiracy, and what happens when pharmaceutical companies enter sacred spaces
• Red flags to watch for in a commercializing marketplace, from Instagram-polished retreat brochures to untested compounds sold in smoke shops

A Note from Victoria

As a licensed pharmacist and certified menopause practitioner, I brought a lot of questions to this conversation, including ones about drug interactions, scheduling law, and what informed consent actually looks like in practice. Linden met every one of them with honesty. This episode is not medical advice, and we are both clear on that throughout. But it is the kind of informed, grounded conversation that I believe midlife women deserve access to, especially as the research and policy landscape continues to shift.

Resources and Links

• Linden Schaffer's website and one-to-one coaching: revealcommunity.world
• Reveal Community on TikTok (live education, Q&A, and community building)
• Linden's online courses: microdosing and large-dose experience preparation
• Global Psychedelic Society
• MAPS (Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies)

If this episode resonated with you, please rate, review, and share it with someone who needs to hear it. Subscribe to Women Mastering Midlife on your favorite podcast platform to receive weekly conversations that help you navigate perimenopause, menopause, and midlife health with clarity and confidence.

Join the Women Mastering Midlife Community and let's grow stronger together.

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Share your thoughts and stories on our social channels and tag us @misvictoriabyrd. Let's rewrite the narrative together!

Find more information on our website: www.womenmasteringmidlife.com

Book a FREE 1:1 discovery call to learn more about coaching programs and courses.

This podcast is for entertainment, educational, and informational purposes only. The hosts, guests, and experts featured are not your personal healthcare providers or advisors. The content should not be considered as professional, personalized medical, psychological, or prescriptive advice.

Always consult qualified professionals such as your physician, therapist, pharmacist, or coach for specific concerns and decisions related to your health or lifestyle. Women Mastering Midlife is not responsible for any undesired outcomes resulting from actions taken based on the content of this podcast.

The word "peptides" is everywhere right now, from your Instagram feed to your doctor's waiting room. But for most women, the information circulating online ranges from genuinely promising science to marketing that moves well ahead of the evidence. In this episode, Victoria sits down with Dr. Jill White, PharmD, a pharmacist with deep expertise in peptide therapy, to have the kind of grounded, evidence-based conversation the topic actually deserves.

This is not a conversation about quick fixes or anti-aging trends. It is a conversation about biology, clinical decision-making, and how to ask the right questions of the people who are caring for you.

What You'll Learn in This Episode:

• The basics of peptide science
• Why peptides are not new
• The GLP-1 story
• Compounded vs. FDA-approved medications
• Who is and is not a good candidate for GLP-1 therapy
• Why muscle preservation matters more than the number on the scale
• Injectable vs. oral peptides
• Other peptides worth knowing about
• How to vet a provider
• Why prescription-sourced compounds matter

About Dr. Jill White, PharmD

Dr. Jill White is a licensed pharmacist and peptide educator who works with both healthcare practitioners and individual clients. She offers a high-touch, one-on-one GLP-1 mentorship program for women and a group-based peptide membership that helps clients build personalized peptide protocols using prescription-sourced compounds. She also provides dedicated pharmacist training in this emerging space.

Connect with Dr. Jill White:

GLP-1 mentorship for women (one-on-one): www.JillWhiteCoaching.com

Personalized peptide protocol membership: www.peptidemembership.com

Use promo code VICTORIA25 at peptidemembership.com to save 25% on your membership fee.

Let's Keep the Conversation Going

If this episode resonated with you, please rate, review, and share it with someone who needs to hear it. Subscribe to Women Mastering Midlife on your favorite podcast platform to receive weekly conversations that help you navigate perimenopause, menopause, and midlife health with clarity and confidence.

Join the Women Mastering Midlife Community and let's grow stronger together.

Get your FREE guides HERE: www.womenmasteringmidlife.com/freeguides

Share your thoughts and stories on our social channels and tag us @misvictoriabyrd. Let's rewrite the narrative together!

Find more information on our website: www.womenmasteringmidlife.com

Book a FREE 1:1 discovery call to learn more about coaching programs and courses.

Disclaimer

This podcast is for entertainment, educational, and informational purposes only. The hosts, guests, and experts featured are not your personal healthcare providers or advisors. The content should not be considered as professional, personalized medical, psychological, or prescriptive advice.

Always consult qualified professionals such as your physician, therapist, pharmacist, or coach for specific concerns and decisions related to your health or lifestyle. Women Mastering Midlife is not responsible for any undesired outcomes resulting from actions taken based on the content of this podcast.

What if the problem isn’t you?

In this powerful conversation, Victoria sits down with clinical psychologist and founder of Risewell Performance Consulting, Dr. Sachi Horback, to unpack why so many high-performing women in midlife feel exhausted, overwhelmed, disconnected from themselves, and unable to “push through” the way they once could.

Together, they explore the hidden systems failing women in midlife — from workplace expectations and invisible labor to hormonal transitions, decision fatigue, identity shifts, and chronic over-capacity living.

Dr. Horback explains why burnout is often misidentified, why “mindset” and productivity hacks are not enough, and how high-achieving women have been conditioned to internalize structural problems as personal failures.

This episode is for the woman who feels like she is doing everything right and still feels depleted.

Inside this episode, we discuss:

• Why high-performing women are not failing — the systems around them are

• The difference between burnout and chronic capacity overload

• How identity suppression impacts women’s performance and well-being

• Why midlife creates a “perfect storm” of hormonal, emotional, cognitive, and professional demands

• The hidden effects of decision fatigue and invisible labor

• Why women often mistake capacity depletion for imposter syndrome

• The concept of “pressure loading” and how it silently drains energy reserves

• How structured recovery differs from traditional “self-care”

• Why pushing harder is not the solution for midlife women

• What sustainable performance actually looks like for women in this season of life

Key Takeaway: “You are not broken. Your system is overloaded.”

This conversation offers a deeply validating and practical reframe for women navigating career demands, caregiving, hormonal changes, leadership roles, and the invisible emotional labor that often comes with midlife.

Connect with Dr. Sachi Horback:

Website: Risewell Performance Consulting

Let’s Keep the Conversation Going: If this episode resonated with you, please rate, review, and share it with someone who needs to hear it. Subscribe to Women Mastering Midlife on your favorite podcast platform to receive weekly conversations that help you navigate perimenopause, menopause, and midlife health with clarity and confidence.

Join the Women Mastering Midlife Community and let’s grow stronger together.

Get your FREE guides HERE: www.womenmasteringmidlife.com/freeguides 

Share your thoughts and stories on our social channels and tag us @misvictoriabyrd Let’s rewrite the narrative together!  

Find more information on our website: www.womenmasteringmidlife.com 

Book a FREE 1:1 discovery call to learn more about coaching programs and courses 

Disclaimer  

This podcast is for entertainment, educational, and informational purposes only. The hosts, guests, and experts featured are not your personal healthcare providers or advisors. The content should not be considered as professional, personalized medical, psychological, or prescriptive advice.  

Always consult qualified professionals such as your physician, therapist, pharmacist, or coach for specific concerns and decisions related to your health or lifestyle. *Women Mastering Midlife* is not responsible for any undesired outcomes resulting from actions taken based on the content of this podcast.