Hello, Hot Flash: Conversations about menopause, women’s health and mindset for midlife women.

Show Notes

Many women reach midlife and feel like their body suddenly changed without explanation. You’re eating healthy, trying to stay active, and yet your strength feels lower, your metabolism slower, and everyday tasks feel harder than they used to.

This episode explores one of the most overlooked changes of menopause: muscle loss.

Beginning in our late 30s and accelerating through our 40s and 50s, women naturally lose skeleta...

Grief in midlife is different.

When you’re navigating perimenopause and you lose someone you love, the emotional weight doesn’t just sit in your heart—it moves through your body. Sleep changes. Blood sugar swings. Energy drops. Irritability rises. You question your strength. You wonder why you’re not “handling it better.”

In this Tuesday solo episode of Hello Hot Flash, I share personally about losing my last great aunt—...

Perimenopause doesn’t just affect the woman experiencing it—it shapes how the next generation understands their bodies, hormones, and health. Yet most daughters are left completely unprepared for what’s coming, while mothers are navigating it in real time with little support themselves.

In this episode, Stephanie Shaw is joined by Lauren Tetenbaum, therapist, menopause educator, and author of Millennial Menopause, for a ...

Many women in midlife are told that their only options are prescriptions, hormone therapy, or “just learning to live with it.” But what if healing doesn’t start with another pill—what if it starts with understanding how your whole body works together?

In this episode, Stephanie Shaw is joined by Victoria Maizes, MD, founding executive director of the Andrew Weil Center for Integrative Medicine, to explore how women can s...

If you’re eating “healthy,” doing all the right things, and still dealing with stubborn weight, brain fog, fatigue, or digestive issues, your gut—not your willpower—may be the missing link.

In this episode, Stephanie Shaw is joined by board-certified functional health coach Anu Simh, founder of Nine Arms of Wellness, to explore how gut health acts as a command center for hormones, metabolism, inflammation, and energy—esp...

Show Notes

In this episode of Hello, Hot Flash, we unpack what’s really happening when you feel on edge during perimenopause and post-menopause. You’ll learn how shifting estrogen levels impact your brain, mood, and stress response — and why even small stressors can suddenly feel big. We also talk about the hidden role of blood sugar swings, poor sleep, and nervous system overload in anxiety and emotional reactivity.

Then we layer ...

What if menopause wasn’t something to endure—but a story to embrace, reclaim, and even celebrate?

In this powerful and deeply human conversation, storyteller, performer, and cultural icon Satori Shakoor shares her journey from the funk-filled stages of Parliament Funkadelic to the deeply personal, laugh-out-loud honesty of her one-woman film Confessions of a Menopausal Femme Fatale. With warmth, humor, and fearless truth...

If menopause has turned sleep into a nightly struggle, you’re not imagining it.  Midlife insomnia is deeply connected to hormonal shifts, nervous system overload, and rising stress hormones that make rest feel out of reach. This episode offers reassurance, clarity, and practical tools to help you reclaim deeper, more restorative sleep.

We explore why sleep disruption becomes so common during menopause, how declining estr...

Intermittent fasting is often framed as a weight-loss shortcut—but in menopause, it’s far more nuanced than that. For midlife women, fasting can influence blood sugar, inflammation, hormone balance, stress response, and even mental clarity. Done thoughtfully, it can support health. Done aggressively or without context, it can backfire.

In this episode of Hello, Hot Flash, we explore intermittent fasting through both a sc...

If you’ve ever felt like willpower isn’t enough—whether you’re trying to lose weight, stop smoking, or break long-standing habits—this episode offers a completely different approach.

In this conversation, Stephanie Shaw sits down with Rita Black, a clinical hypnotherapist with more than 20 years of experience helping people create lasting change through subconscious reprogramming. Rita explains why traditional dieting, r...

For decades, women have been told their symptoms are “normal,” “just stress,” or something they need to push through. But what if the problem isn’t your body—it's a healthcare system that hasn’t been built with women in mind?

In this powerful episode, Stephanie Shaw sits down with award-winning journalist and author Meghan Rabbitt to unpack why so many women in midlife feel unheard, dismissed, or confused about their hea...

Show Notes

Life in midlife can feel like a constant sprint—especially during perimenopause and post-menopause. Between shifting hormones, changing energy levels, and the mental load of work, family, and health, many women find themselves simply trying to get through the day. But surviving is not the same as thriving.

In this short but powerful episode, we explore what it really means to meditate on God all day—not as a formal pract...

Show Notes 

Menopause is often treated as a reproductive milestone—but the brain may be the most impacted organ of all. As estrogen declines, many women experience brain fog, memory changes, mood shifts, and rising concern about long-term neurological health. This episode reframes menopause as a critical window for protecting the brain, not something to simply “push through.”

Dr. Rhonda Voskuhl, neurologist and professor at UCLA, e...

There’s a moment many women in midlife know all too well.

You finally get the doctor’s appointment. You’ve waited weeks. You’ve rehearsed your symptoms. You walk in determined to speak up—and then something shifts. The room feels cold. The appointment feels rushed. And suddenly, the woman who leads, manages, and carries so much… goes quiet.

In this episode, we talk honestly about that hesitation—and why it’s so common du...

If you’re eating “healthy,” trying to stay active, and doing all the right things—but your energy is low, the scale won’t budge, and your confidence feels shaken—this episode is for you. Menopause isn’t a personal failure; it’s a physiological shift that requires a different strategy.

In this conversation, Stephanie Shaw sits down with Matt Jones, registered nutritionist and sports nutrition expert at Reverse Health, to ...

Stillness can feel almost impossible in midlife—especially for women navigating perimenopause or post-menopause. Hormonal shifts, fatigue, mental overload, and packed schedules often push us to do more, try harder, and stay constantly in motion. But what if that constant busyness is working against healing?

In this solo episode, Stephanie reflects on a personal season of relentless activity and hormonal chaos, when even ...

Migraines often become more frequent, more intense, or more unpredictable during perimenopause and menopause—and for many women, medication either stops working or introduces new problems. If you’ve ever wondered why your body feels harder to manage in midlife, this episode offers a new, compassionate lens.

In this conversation, we explore migraines as more than isolated headaches. Hormonal fluctuations, stress overload,...

In this solo episode, Stephanie Shaw explores how menopause, stress, and hormonal fluctuations can amplify our emotions and lead us to speak before we think. Learn how to pause, reflect, and let God guide your words—turning everyday interactions into moments of connection rather than conflict.

What You Will Learn

1. How hormone fluctuations during perimenopause and menopause affect your emotional brain and can trigge...

Every New Year, women are told to make resolutions: eat better, move more, fix sleep, get disciplined. Planning matters—but many women enter midlife already feeling boxed in by rules, expectations, and pressure to “do it right.”

What if this year isn’t about tighter boxes—but deeper alignment?

It’s New Year’s Day. A blank calendar. A clean slate.

And for many women in midlife, a quiet question underneath all the goal-setting: