The Matriarch: Remembering What a Linear World Forgot | Adriana Forte

\*\*\*Note - this is a NEW podcast series The Matriarchal Collective. Please follow the new channel for more episodes like this! What does it mean to become a Matriarch in a culture that has largely forgotten how to initiate women through the stages of their lives? In this first conversation of The Matriarchal Collective, I sit down with Brazilian-born writer and thinker Adriana Forte for a wide-ranging exploration of women's cyclical minds, perimenopause and menopause, modernity, motherhood, grief, community, and the return of the Matriarch. Adriana is currently preparing her book The Matriarch and the Machine: Breaking the Spell of Modernity in Women and the World. Rather than releasing it as a finished work from a single authoritative voice, she is inviting women into the process. Beginning this fall, she’ll release the book chapter by chapter through C-Lab, sharing unfinished material and inviting readers to grapple with the ideas, add their own lived experiences, and help shape what she calls the “Spell-breakers notes.” As Adriana explains in our conversation, if the Matriarch is collective, she wants the book itself to be touched by the collective too. - 01:41 — What does it mean to be a Matriarch? - 05:50 — The Matriarch as a counterbalance to modernity - 10:55 — Perimenopause, menopause & the changing female mind - 15:17 — Cycle dysphoria: cyclical bodies in a linear culture - 24:01 — Grieving fertility, aging & the loss of elder models - 29:19 — “Waking up from the middle” without rites of passage - 32:10 — Why we need women, community & loving challenge - 37:13 — A different model of leadership: collaborative & mycelial - 42:14 — The Matriarch and the Machine, HRT & choices in context - 49:02 — Releasing the book collectively + the return of the Matriarch And this conversation is only the beginning. The Matriarchal Collective is a growing space for women exploring the thresholds of midlife, the wisdom of our changing bodies, and what becomes possible when we navigate these transitions together. Join the conversation on Instagram: The Matriarchal Collective on Instagram We're looking to connect with more incredible woman to be interviewed on The Matriarchal Collective podcast - message me at megan@meganbhatia.com - thank you! IG @matriarchalcollective - for more inspiration!