Jen is coming to you from the last two days of Me Camp in Canada, eyeballs on the lake, four weeks into having the volume turned down on every channel. And when the static quiets, the truer things rise up. In this me-to-you episode, Jen kicks off August’s theme of honesty with the idea at the spine of the whole month: there is the thing we say, and then there is a truer sentence sitting an inch underneath it. And usually one inch under that.
Jen shares what her own silence cost in the last years of her marriage, names the difference between truth-telling and truth-throwing, and offers the gentlest possible place to begin: one true sentence, one page, just between you and you.
Three years ago, Katherine May gave us a language for something many of us experience but rarely know how to name: wintering.
Those seasons of life when everything slows down. When grief arrives. When burnout catches up with us. When illness, loss, caregiving, parenting challenges, or unexpected change force us to stop and reconsider how we’re living.
As part of our Sacred Yes: Reclaiming Joy in Midlife series, we’re revisiting this unforgettable conversation because Katherine’s wisdom feels even more relevant today than it did when it first aired.
Together, Jen and Katherine explore what it means to stop treating ourselves like machines and start honoring our humanity. They discuss the value of retreat, the necessity of rest, and why healing cannot be rushed. Katherine challenges the cultural pressure to push through difficult seasons and instead invites us to trust that growth is still happening beneath the surface—even when life appears dormant.
Nestled in this conversation is a gentle reminder that joy isn’t always found by adding more. Sometimes it emerges when we create space. Space for solitude. Space for beauty. Space to notice what’s growing quietly within us.
If you’ve been feeling weary, stretched thin, or ready to step off the hamster wheel for a moment, this episode offers a different path forward—one marked by grace, patience, and the courage to rest before collapse forces it upon us.
In this very gentle and generous conversation, you’ll hear:
- Why every life includes seasons of “wintering”
- The difference between retreat and isolation
- How beauty sustains us during difficult seasons
- Why sadness isn’t something to fix
- Practical ways to create restorative space in everyday life
- What it means to trust the season you’re in
Sometimes the most sacred yes isn’t a leap forward. It’s permission to pause.
There are artists whose music marks a moment—and then there are the ones whose songs stay with us for a lifetime.
This week, Jen sits down with beloved returning guest Amy Grant to talk about her long-awaited new album, a project shaped by time, reflection, and a life that’s been fully lived. After a significant health crisis and a slow, intentional return to music, Amy is creating from a place that feels more open, more grounded, and more honest than ever.
Together, they talk about what it means to come back to yourself after everything changes, how creativity evolves over decades, and why the stories we tell later in life often carry a different kind of weight. Amy shares how her songwriting has shifted, the role of memory and perspective in this new work, and what it looks like to keep making meaningful art in a season that feels both quieter and more expansive.
At the heart of both this album and this conversation is Amy’s quiet but steady intention to be a witness—to tell the truth about a life as it’s being lived, and to honor the people who have shown up along the way. From deeply personal songs shaped by love and loss to collaborations with her husband, Vince Gill, and her daughters, this record reflects not just where Amy is now, but who has helped her get here.
This conversation is thoughtful, unhurried, and full of the kind of wisdom that only comes from living a long time and staying curious along the way.
If you’ve ever felt the quiet fear of placing your body—and your baby—into a healthcare system you don’t fully understand, this conversation is for you.
Today, Jen and Amy sit down with labor and delivery nurse, educator, and internet big sister Jen Hamilton to talk about her brand-new “book baby,” Birth Vibes. With more than a decade at the bedside and millions who trust her honest, compassionate voice, Jen has become a steady guide in one of life’s most vulnerable moments.
In this episode, we pull back the curtain on the delivery room—the expectations, fears, and surprises—and talk about what it actually means to feel prepared. Not in a rigid, checklist kind of way, but in a deeply personal, values-driven way. Because as Jen reminds us, birth isn’t something you control—it’s something you move through.
Today, we talk about:
- Why “perfect birth plans” often set us up for disappointment—and what to hold onto instead
- How to discover your own “birth vibes”—that blend of values, intuition, and informed choice that helps you advocate for yourself
- What it’s like to hold both roles—healthcare provider and influencer—with integrity in today’s world
- How even when birth doesn’t go as planned, it can still be empowering, informed, and deeply ours
Whether you’re expecting, supporting someone who is, or simply curious about the intersection of care, advocacy, and the body’s wisdom, this conversation will leave you feeling steadier, braver, and less alone.
Because at the end of the day, this isn’t just about birth. It’s about learning to trust yourself in the middle of something you can’t fully control—and finding your voice anyway.
If any conversation belongs squarely in our “The Body Knows: Midlife In Our Skin” series, it’s this one, and for one simple reason — pleasure is a body conversation. Desire is a body conversation. And if midlife has shifted how you feel in your own skin, this episode meets you exactly there.
Vanessa Marin is a licensed psychotherapist, sex educator, and bestselling author of Sex Talks: The Five Conversations That Will Transform Your Love Life, co-written with her husband Xander. With over two decades of experience helping people dismantle shame and build genuinely intimate relationships, Vanessa brings the kind of candid, warm, and disarmingly funny voice this conversation has always needed.
Whether you’re partnered or solo, whether your sex life feels complicated or just quietly neglected, whether you’re carrying shame you never asked for — this one is for you. Vanessa is here to help us say yes to communication, to connection, and maybe most of all, to pleasure.
Here’s what we’re getting into:
- Why so many of us have deeply wired, shame-rooted reactions to sex — and where they actually come from
- Why Vanessa says you should start having sex like a man (yes, really)
- The myth about the female orgasm that most of us were never taught the truth about
- The best things you can do for your sex life that have nothing to do with taking your clothes off
- The difference between spontaneous and responsive desire — and why understanding this might change everything
For years, women in their late 30s and 40s have walked into doctors’ offices saying the same thing: “I don’t feel like myself.”
They’re exhausted but can’t sleep. Gaining weight but eating less. Anxious, foggy, irritable, disconnected. And too often, they’re told it’s stress. Aging. Depression. Just part of being a woman.
But what if it’s something else?
This week, Jen and Amy sit down with board-certified OB-GYN and menopause expert Dr. Mary Claire Haver to talk about what’s really happening in perimenopause — the hormonal transition that can begin years before your final period and affect nearly every system in your body.
Drawing from her new book The New Perimenopause, Dr. Haver explains:
- Why the brain may be the first organ to notice hormone shifts
- Why antidepressants are often prescribed before hormones are even discussed
- The dangerous legacy of outdated research and underfunded women’s health
- How bone density, cholesterol, muscle mass, mood, libido, and cognition are all connected
- And why midlife is not a decline — but a powerful window of opportunity
This is not just a conversation about hot flashes. It’s about the “Zone of Chaos.” It’s about medical gaslighting. It’s about reclaiming your body as your ally, not your enemy.
If you’ve ever whispered, “What is wrong with me?” or spent your sleepless nights up Googling dramatic questions like “is my brain broken?” — this episode is for you.
You’re not broken. You’re not weak. And you are definitely not alone.
