Tell me more about that moment and why it prompted you to ask what kind of menopause experience we could all be having if we'd been listening to women all along.

I've heard that so many times.

Women say, "I feel like I've aged 10 years overnight." I mean, I feel like if I have a dime for every time I've heard that at a dinner party or elsewhere, and I think it really does feel that way.

I think that menopause can feel like an all body, all mind, all spirit reset.

In some ways that can be very positive, but can feel very tumultuous, as we know.

And I think what happens routinely is that women go to the doctor, they give their list of woes that they're not connecting to this phase of life, and they get the, they'll say, "Oh, well, this is just aging." And I think that crushes me every time I hear it, every time I hear a woman blindly accept that and not feel like she has the authority to push back because the doctor said this is just normal.

And this isn't just menopause, of course.

So

One thing I would love to know, just because you've worked with so many talented writers, editors, and creatives, what have you learned from working with all of these people about being a great leader? And what advice would you give to young women who are listening, who are ambitious, but kind of struggle with that feeling of needing to constantly prove themselves?

Yeah, I think to answer the first part of the question, working with talented people, I think I think my my best talent is actually identifying other talent and understanding that you find sort of people's superpowers.

They're not always, you know, the jobs that they're in, especially when you're in a creative field.

You know, you work with people who are sort of multi-talented people.

They're good at a lot, a lot, a lot of things.

And sometimes they just land in a role that isn't necessarily the one that they should be in.

My former work wife of many years who launched a travel brand called Yolo Journal.

Is there a story that you haven't told yet or something that you have on your mind personally or professionally about your next step in life that might surprise people?

I also think

because...

As a culture, we have set up this sort of hard line, like you hit menopause, that's a year after your last period, and that's it.

And it's not like a light switch.

It's a slow draining or depletion of hormones that have been essential to so many different functions in the body that...

And in the mind that people tend to think, well, if I'm a reproductive age or I'm, you know, I'm not a menopausal woman because I'm not 52, you know, or whatever that, you know, and also there's stigma attached to it and nobody wants to admit it.

So there's sort of shame and denial, even if you are starting to feel those things.

One of my favorite

We sometimes wanna fix things, but you, what is the advice to men when they are encountering a wife, a mom, who is going through something like this?

I think I'd want them to educate themselves, to understand what they're up against.

I, you know, I think when I was going through menopause, I, my kids would kind of roll their eyes and be like, "Mom, do you have Alzheimer's?"

Yes.

That's like a gut punch.

And, and my husband, too.

[laughs] So you know, I, I, they're, they're now actually educating everybody else, um, because they can, I'm, they can't stop hearing me talk about it.

But I think really very critically is you have to listen, and, and really r- not try to fix.

So, does that mean that the tides are finally beginning to turn, do you think?

I think, I am, I am cautiously optimistic that the answer is yes, but we cannot take our foot off of the gas pedal in terms of continuing to tell stories, continuing to write stories, continuing to put pressure on government, on, on our own doctors.

I think even just our individual advocacy is so important when we go into the doctor's office and demand something else, and actually- will leave a practice if they, they are, you know, even if, even if there's a whiff of resistance.

And I actually encourage women to say, to call if they're, you know, interviewing a new doctor or they're going to see a new doctor, make sure that they are open if they are of age, if they...

That they're open to hormone therapy because many doctors are still resistant.

Mm-hmm.

Like hormonal flux is the rule, and I think we need to kind of turn it upside down.

I think we kinda think, oh, it's gonna calm down, and it does.