Welcome to the Hot Flash Files After Dark… the show where hormones are high, patience is low, and the thoughts we never admit to finally get their time in the spotlight. Tonight we are diving headfirst into intrusive thoughts… the call of the void… those sudden little brain flashes that show up out of nowhere and make you question whether you should be allowed in public without supervision.

You know the ones.

One minute you are minding your business… trying to be a functioning adult… and the next your brain is like… what if you yeeted the laundry basket off the deck… just to watch it soar like a majestic plastic bird.

Or you light a candle, trying to be peaceful and romantic for no one but yourself… and your brain whispers… blow it out with your hair… go on… be a human blowtorch… who needs eyebrows anyway.

Maybe you are cleaning the kitchen and grab your essential oils… the lavender… the peppermint… the ones influencers swear will realign your entire life… and your brain casually suggests… drink it… take a shot… become a peppermint infused ghost story.

And then… we get to the mother of all intrusive thoughts. The Thanksgiving special. You are at the table… passing the mashed potatoes… doing your best to be civil… and suddenly your brain says… tell off your mother in law… do it… say the sentence you have rehearsed in the shower for a decade.

And instantly you break into a stress sweat because you would never actually do it… but the fact that your brain even whispered the idea feels like you committed a small emotional crime.

These strange… dramatic… slightly unhinged thoughts do not mean you are broken. They do not mean you want to do anything wild or dangerous. They are simply your brain running quick little simulations… stress tests… nonsense scenarios… usually when you are hormonal… overwhelmed… overstimulated… or three seconds away from losing your mind because someone chewed too loudly.

In this episode we talk about why these thoughts happen… why they are more common in midlife… why women who have survived a lot tend to experience them more intensely… and why the call of the void is actually a sign of a very alive… very aware… very human brain. We unpack the science in a way that is comforting… not clinical… and we laugh about the intrusive thoughts that almost took us down this week.

Because if there is one thing we all know by now… it is that womanhood comes with a nervous system that refuses to be quiet. And somehow… talking about it together makes it feel a whole lot lighter.

Thank you for being here… for showing up in this late night space… for laughing… for breathing… for letting yourself feel human. If this episode made you feel seen… or normal… or less alone in the chaos that lives inside your head… come back again. There is always more to unravel… more to laugh about… and more to share in the dark hours when the world quiets down and our thoughts get loud.

Until next time… this has been the Hot Flash Files After Dark… and you are always welcome here.

Welcome to The Hot Flash Files: After Dark — where we celebrate the women history tried to silence, underestimate, or shove into a pretty little box… and then act shocked when those same women end up changing the entire world.

Tonight, we’re talking about a woman who was so far ahead of her time, she basically lived in the twenty-first century while everyone around her was still wiping their mouths with lace napkins and calling women “darling.”
Her name? Hedy Lamarr.

The world called her the most beautiful woman alive — which is adorable considering she was also one of the sharpest scientific minds of her generation. Hollywood loved her face; the military ignored her brain; men underestimated her… and she still managed to help invent the backbone of modern wireless communication.
As in: your Wi-Fi, your Bluetooth, your GPS — all rooted in an idea she came up with before most of the men around her learned to tie their shoes.

But let’s start at the beginning.

Before she was Hedy Lamarr, she was Hedwig Kiesler, a brilliant Austrian Jewish girl raised on science, mathematics, and a whole lot of quiet observation. She became infamous at seventeen after starring in the 1933 film Ecstasy, which caused so much scandal that Mussolini literally refused to hand over his personal copy.

While the world obsessed over her beauty, she was busy absorbing information like a sponge.
And then she married Friedrich Mandl — one of Austria’s wealthiest arms dealers. Controlling, possessive, politically connected, and sitting at dinner tables with Hitler, Mussolini, and half the rising fascist regime.

They thought she was decoration.
She wasn’t.
She sat there quietly, listening to technical breakdowns of radio-guided torpedoes, frequency vulnerabilities, and wireless interception like she was attending a masterclass.

When the marriage became unbearable, she didn’t cry into silk pillows — she escaped. Disguised as her own maid. With jewelry sewn into her clothes. As one does.

From there, she reinvented herself in Hollywood. The world swooned; the studios worshipped her; she delivered some of the most iconic performances of the era…
But her mind never stopped working.

When she heard Allied ships were being destroyed because enemies could jam the radio signals guiding torpedoes, she remembered those dinner conversations… and she started building a solution.

Her idea?
Make the signal jump between multiple frequencies so fast the enemy couldn’t jam it.

She teamed up with avant-garde composer George Antheil — a man who synchronized twelve player pianos for fun — and together they created a “frequency hopping” system. In August nineteen forty-two, they were awarded U.S. Patent No. 2,292,387.

The Navy said, “Cute… but no thanks.”
Because of course they did.

But decades later — when the world needed secure, stable, jam-proof communication — engineers circled right back to her design. And today? Every time you use Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, or GPS… you’re using Hedy Lamarr’s brainchild.

History called her a bombshell.
Turns out she was the bomb.

Tonight, we’re raising a glass (and probably our body temperature) to Hedy — the woman who proved you can be brilliant, underestimated, breathtaking, dismissed, and STILL reshape the world in ways the men who doubted you couldn’t imagine.

Because here in The Hot Flash Files: After Dark, we celebrate women who outsmarted everyone… and didn’t apologize for it.

Welcome to Episode One of The Hot Flash Files: After Dark, where we kick this whole ride off with the menopausal dynamic duo nobody asked for but EVERY woman knows all too well: night sweats and day rage.

If you’ve ever bolted awake at three in the morning lying in a puddle like you fell asleep in a sauna… this one’s for you.
If you’ve ever felt your blood pressure skyrocket because someone breathed near you the wrong way… also for you.
If you’ve ever wanted to throw your microwave out the window because it beeped at you ONE extra time… yeah. You’re home.

In this episode, Aussprey tackles the two chaotic companions that show up uninvited the moment hormones decide to jump ship. Think of night sweats as the “midnight monsoon” — your body’s own personal wet-t-shirt contest, starring you and absolutely nobody you want to impress. And day rage? That’s the “sunlit madness” that hits right around breakfast, when the world dares to exist before your coffee has kicked in.

We’re diving into every bit of it:

🔥 Night sweats: the sweat tsunami, the sudden heat waves, the way your pillow becomes a swamp creature by 3:12 a.m.
🔥 Day rage: the hair-trigger fury, the innocent victims (microwaves, slow drivers, husbands breathing “wrong”), and the sudden urge to live alone in the woods.
🔥 Why it happens: hormonal chaos meets real life, without the boring medical lecture.
🔥 How to cope: cold pillows, fans aimed directly at your face, emotional support drinks, and the sacred rule: no small talk before noon.
🔥 The truth nobody tells you: you’re not falling apart — you’re leveling up into the most unapologetically powerful version of yourself.

This isn’t your grandmother’s menopause conversation. This is the After Dark edition — honest, hilarious, a little feral, and meant for every woman who’s ever thought, “Is this normal?” and then immediately snapped at someone for asking.

You’re going to laugh. You’re going to sweat just reading this. You might even feel a little less alone in the hormonal jungle. And by the end, you’re going to walk away with the kind of “aha” moment only a menopausal warrior can understand.

Because here’s the twist — the part nobody tells you — the rest of the story:
Night sweats aren’t weakness. Day rage isn’t madness.
They’re signs you’re becoming a woman who knows what she wants, refuses what she doesn’t, and has absolutely no intention of shrinking herself ever again.

So grab your water bottle, fan yourself if you need to, turn down the thermostat, and settle in.
It’s chaotic.
It’s honest.
It’s hilarious.
It’s menopause — After Dark.

And this is only Episode One.