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Are psychedelics a missing key to personal transformation in midlife?

This week, I speak with Rob Grover and Gary Logan, the founders of The Journeymen Collective, a luxury guided psilocybin retreat company based in the mountains outside Vancouver, BC. These two have helped entrepreneurs, performers, couples—and yes, many women navigating perimenopause, menopause, and midlife transitions—use guided mushroom journeys to reconnect to themselves and release emotional burdens that therapy, medication, or self-help books haven’t resolved.

We talk grief, depression, anxiety, the inner critic, and how to tap into the body’s sacred intelligence when everything feels disconnected. Rob and Gary explain the difference between “tripping” and undergoing a true guided journey, and why that distinction matters so deeply for healing and growth.

Highlights:

• “Most people who find us have done the therapy, read the books, tried the biohacking—and still feel stuck.”– Rob Grover
• “This isn’t about escaping—it’s about meeting yourself more deeply than ever before.” – Gary Logan
• How grief led both Rob and Gary to their first journeys with magic mushrooms—and why it changed everything.
• Why psilocybin is not a shortcut or magic bullet, but a profound reset for the nervous system.
• The science, spirituality, and deep preparation that goes into their luxury retreats.
• Why talk therapy for 10 years often gets outpaced by 4 days of immersive guided work.
• A frank and beautiful discussion about anger, sadness, menopause symptoms—and how they’re often calls to listen to the body, not suppress it.

Links + resources:

• Learn more: The Journeymen Collective
• Follow Rob and Gary on Instagram and LinkedIn
• Mentioned: Red School: Menstruality Education
• Research: MAPS – Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies
• Use code HOTFLASH20 for 20% off at MenoLabs.com

Episode sponsor: Thanks to Menolabs for sponsoring this episode. Use code HOTFLASH20 for 20% off at menolabs.com

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In this honest and energizing conversation, Ann Marie sits down with 64-year-old Australian naturopath, speaker, and wellness rebel Jennifer Jefferies – aka @presentdaywisewoman – to talk about how women can embrace midlife and menopause without fear, extremes, or pharma dependency.

Jen brings over 30 years of clinical experience, a surfboard, and a no-BS attitude to the conversation. Once a burned-out pharmaceutical rep, she made a full 180 after hitting the wall in her 20s and rebuilding her health using naturopathy, Traditional Chinese Medicine, and her beloved “bare-ass minimum” (BAM) approach to wellness.

This is a must-listen episode for any woman feeling confused, overwhelmed, or exhausted by the barrage of menopause messages out there.

Highlights include:

• Why we’re told menopause is a disaster – and why it doesn’t have to be
• How adrenal burnout is at the core of crappy perimenopause (even if your doctor won’t admit it)
• The truth about estrogen “deficiency” and why we’re not meant to keep producing it forever
• What Western medicine gets wrong about hormone therapy
• The rise of adrenal fatigue in the pandemic aftermath
• Jen’s Bare-Ass Minimum Plan to restore vitality, joy, and hormonal balance
• Why she swears by: going to bed before 10 p.m., eating close to nature 80% of the time, and having fun – yes, fun!
• What happens when we stop outsourcing our health and tune into our own wisdom

About Jennifer Jefferies:
Jennifer Jefferies is a veteran naturopath, speaker, author, and wellness educator with over three decades of clinical experience. Based on the Gold Coast of Australia, she’s known for her refreshingly simple, radically realistic, and unapologetically fun approach to health and aging. She surfs at sunrise, gardens in her downtime, and helps women around the world step into their power.

Where to find her:

IG @thepresentdaywisewoman
Learn more: jenniferjefferies.com

Ann Marie’s Takeaway:
If you’ve been overwhelmed by the ever-moving bar of “what you should be doing” in midlife – from maxing out protein to lifting impossible weights – this episode is your permission slip to reset. Jen’s message is simple: go back to basics, listen to yourself, and live from a place of prevention.

Episode sponsor:

Thanks to Menolabs for sponsoring this episode. Use code HOTFLASH20 for 20% off at menolabs.com

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This podcast originally ran on July 11, 2024

In this episode, host and midlife and menopause journalist Ann Marie McQueen speaks with iconic American model Kim Alexis.

They explore Kim's extensive career when she dominated the modeling industry. They talk about what it was like to appear on over 500 magazine – sometimes all of them at once – and cover her journey through competitive sports, her faith, clean living, marriage and menopause.

Kim shares personal stories about her transition into menopause, her choice to use hormone therapy – and the controversial delivery method of pellets – and how she navigates various health claims and misinformation prevalent in the social media age.

They also discuss the impact of environmental disruptors on health and, possibly, menopause, the evolving standards of beauty and self-image in aging, and the importance of self-care, self-inquiry, adaptation and outreach in midlife.

Highlights:

02:32 Kim Alexis on Social Media and Going Viral

03:01 Natural Beauty and Aging Gracefully

06:06 The Modeling Industry Then and Now

10:54 Health, Fitness, and Post-Modeling Career

12:30 Navigating Nutrition and Wellness Trends

21:13 Adapting to Life's Changes

21:19 Skincare from the Inside Out

22:32 Personal Skincare Routines

23:45 Hormonal Shifts and Menopause

28:33 Hormone Therapy Controversy

33:21 Emotional and Soul Searching

36:49 Finding Love Later in Life

39:02 Advice for Reinventing Yourself

42:40 Future Plans and Giving Back

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Episode website: Hotflashinc

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This podcast originally ran on August 1, 2024

You may have been hearing a lot about testosterone lately – what it is, why we need it, why we can’t get it… I’ve gone to Melbourne, Australia to ask an expert in women’s hormones across our lifespan, and one of the few people who has studied testosterone in-depth.

Professor Susan Davis is a clinician researcher, consulting endocrinologist and head of the Monash University Women’s Health Research Program in Melbourne.

She is going to help us to tackle the current confusion – and hype – over testosterone, armed with what she knows best: the evidence. We talk about it all: the evidence, benefits, and potential misconceptions about testosterone supplementation for women, especially during menopause and perimenopause; the difficulty in measuring testosterone accurately, the placebo effect, risks and benefits of different hormone therapies, including testosterone pellets and creams, and the critical importance of credible sources of information. Professor Davis also highlights her extensive research, including studies on the cardiovascular effects of low testosterone and the physiological impacts on women's health.

Highlights:

03:38 Testosterone's role in a women's hormone structure

06:35 Challenges in measuring testosterone

19:50 Testosterone and cardiovascular health

30:02 The misleading promises of testosterone therapy

32:55 The controversy surrounding pellets

36:17 Breast cancer risks and hormone therapy

40:15 Testosterone for menopausal symptoms

42:12 The role of DHEA in hormone therapy

44:49 The impact of birth control pills

46:26 Navigating hormone therapy and misinformation

50:50 Current research and future directions

53:33 The Influence of social media on health information

56:10 Conclusion and credible resources

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This podcast originally ran on October 15, 2024.

Hotflash inc founder and host Ann Marie McQueen sits down with Dr Leigh Erin Connealy, a leading figure in integrative medicine, known for her unique approach in combining conventional and alternative treatments in addressing chronic illnesses and cancer. Dr Connealy is the founder of the Center for New Medicine and the Cancer Center for Healing in Irvine, California and author of two books: The Cancer Revolution and the Be Perfectly Healthy. She is also co-founder of leading hormone brand, Raena Health.

She talks about why so many people are getting cancer, how to make chemotherapy more effective and less lethal, why prevention needs to be the focus. For Dr Connealy, the question we need to be asking: what is going on with your terrain, and why is it making cancer? Everything from the food we eat to the chemicals we surround ourselves with to the emotional work we aren’t doing is causing this. And find out what she thinks our number one risk is – why and what we can do about it. (It’s probably not what you are thinking)

Dr Connealy wants us all to know that in most cases, cancer is 10 years in the making. She has really good guidance for women considering hormone therapy, explaining the differences in synthetic hormones and the importance of the “orchestra”, including progesterone and pregnanalone, and more than one kind of estrogen. She explains why there is no one solution that fits all women – even though that’s what mainstream medicine wants us to believe – and gives guidance on the particular cocktail, with tweaks, that she likes to prescribe. She also gives her take on whether hormone therapy prevents cancer – its worth listening to the end just to hear what she has to say about that – and addresses that ongoing fear women have, which is weighing our fear of breast cancer risk when considering hormone therapy.

Dr Connealy is recognized for her personalized, holistic approach. This episode is nothing short of a masterclass on how to get our inner house in order.

Highlights:

01:56 The importance of personalized medicine

02:07 The rise of chronic diseases

03:09 The need for preventive healthcare

04:44 Challenges in cancer treatment

13:08 The importance of self-care

14:40 The impact of EMFs on health

28:12 The power of essential oils

28:46 Reprogramming the mind with EVOX

29:41 Healing affirmations and subconscious reprogramming

33:37 The importance of sleep and water purification

34:14 Nourishing rour body with proper nutrition

35:01 The role of exercise and movement

35:47 Detoxification and cleasing methods

38:42 Understanding hormonal health and therapy

39:23 Personal experiences with hormonal treatments

46:10 The importance of individualized hormonal care

Join the Hotflash inc perimenoposse:

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This podcast originally ran on October 21, 2023.

This week we get down to basics, and basics are exactly what we need in this confusing world right now. This is THE podcast to listen to if you are confused about all things to do with taking hormone therapy.

Dr Vikram Sinai Talaulikar is a specialist in reproductive medicine at University College London Hospital’s NHS Foundation Trust and an associate professor in Women’s Health at the University College London. He graduated in medicine in India in 2003 and completed a postgraduate degree in obstetrics and gynecology in 2007. He is a certified menopause specialist by the British Menopause Society, a menopause trainer and he is constantly educating others on this transition as well, via online webinars, events and through social media.

He is also part of the trio who established the Menopause Research Education Fund, alongside medical journalist Fiona Clarke and groundbreaking menopause campaigner Diane Danzebrink.

Highlights of our discussion:

• Hormone therapy (HT) 101
• WHI: good, bad and what we can learn from it 20 years on
• Estrogen in the pill vs estrogen in HT
• All the kinds of estrogen and what they are used for strogen too ethinyl estradiolEstrone, Estriol, Estradiol, and Estetrol.17 beta estradiol
• Getting to the bottom of body simila, body identical and bioidentical – and why that varies from country to country
• Pharmaceutical company produced HT vs compounding pharmacy versions
• the big “Catch-22” with compounding pharmacies that keeps their bioidentical hormones out of official recommendations
• the pill, HRT and breast cancer risk
• why problems with the pill don’t get flagged and HRT does
• Evidence over estrogen and breast cancer risk (and randomized trials versus observational data)
• What’s what: progesterone, progestin and progestogens (how they work and which one carries a slight risk for breast cancer)
• how long you really need to take HRT to see if it’s working
• why HT works for some people and not others
• Dr Talaulikar’s favourite non-hormonal treatments

Where to find Dr Talaulikar:

X: @VikramSinai

Web: Menopause Clinic London

Menopause Research and Education Fund

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This is a replay of Episode 129, originally aired on 16 November 2024.

In this solo episode, Hotflash inc podcast host and founder Ann Marie McQueen writes down all the questions she has about hormone therapy (and what we hear about hormone therapy).

This is a long time coming: she's been researching perimenopause, menopause, and women's midlife health for 5+ years now.

Settle in. And if you have any questions of your own, use that handy text message feature and send them our way.

The Hotflash inc Podcast is:
One of the Top 60 Menopause Podcasts
In the top 3% percentile on Listen Notes
#1 on Goodpods’ Top 10 Women’s Health Podcasts list

Join the Conversation:
Tag us on Instagram @hotflashinc and tell us your biggest takeaway from today’s episode!

Disclaimer:
This podcast is for informational purposes only and should not be used as a substitute for professional medical advice. Always consult your healthcare provider before making any changes to your diet, supplements, or treatment plan. Opinions expressed by guests are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of Hotflash inc

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In this episode of the Hotflash inc Podcast, GenX journalist Ann Marie McQueen sits down with Dr Deena Emera, an evolutionary geneticist, senior scientist at the Buck Institute’s Buck Center for Healthy Aging in Women, and author of A Brief History of the Female Body: An Evolutionary Look at How and Why the Female Form Came to Be.

Dr Emera’s research focuses on the genetic basis of reproductive longevity in mammals, and in this fascinating discussion, she breaks down the evolution of menopause, why female bodies age the way they do, and what modern science is uncovering about ovarian health and longevity.

If you’ve ever wondered why menopause exists, how it evolved, and whether science will ever be able to delay or even prevent it, this episode is for you.

Highlights:

• Understanding evolutionary biology (it's not boring, promise)
• The evolutionary mystery of menopause
• What animals do go through menopause?
• Why all women didn't used to die at 50 (and what actually happened)
• How modern life has changed menopause
• Why Dr Emera needs bowhead whale ovaries
• Can we really end menopause?
• The truth about the Grandmother Hypothesis

Quote:

"Menopause itself isn’t surprising – if you live long enough, you will run out of eggs. What’s unique about humans is that we have such a long post-reproductive life stage. That’s the real mystery we need to solve." – Dr Deena Emera

Where to find Dr Emera:

Instagram: @deenaemera
LinkedIn: Deena Emera
Buy her book: A Brief History of the Female Body – Available on Amazon

Thank you to our sponsor Timeline Nutrition Mitopure supports cellular energy and longevity—now available with a 10% discount! Visit timeline.com/HOTFLASH and use the code HOTFLASH to claim your offer!

Disclaimer

This podcast is for informational purposes only and is not intended as medical advice. Always consult your healthcare provider before making any health-related decisions.

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