Women's Bodies are Metabolically Expensive (Why Things Break So Easily) - Dr. Suuzi Hazen

Birth opens the door, but what comes after walks you through it. Many new parents find themselves moving through the first year feeling lonely, confused, and wondering why it’s so hard. In this episode, I’m joined again by Rachelle Seliga of Innate Traditions, who has spent over 20 years teaching and gathering communities to explore postpartum, motherhood, and revillaging. Together, we open the conversation wider — into the realm of fatherhood — with Rachelle’s signature depth, wisdom, and grounded practicality. Whether you’re preparing for birth or reflecting on your own postpartum journey, this conversation offers insight, validation, and a new lens on what it means to be reshaped by parenthood. Planning for the Fourth Trimester for Mothers & Fathers workshop with Rachelle and Dan  Two Medicine Stories Patreon bonuses: 1) extended interview w/ Rachelle giving me her hot takes on controversial wellness/spirituality topics and 2) audio recording of me giving a podcast/medicine/life/health status update Rachelle’s previous Medicine Stories appearance Revillaging: Maternal, Cultural, and Planetary Wellness Are One Take our fun quiz Which Healing Herb Matches Your Energy? Innate Traditions Website Innate Traditions Instagram Mythic Medicine Website Mythic Medicine Instagram Music by Mariee Siou (from her beautiful song Wild Eyes)

15 Sep 1h 11min

In 2021 Tara and her family got the knock on their door that every parent fears most. In the days that followed they discovered eighteen-year-old Mila’s journal and were able to piece together the shocking and devastating chain of events that led to her death. Tara’s Instagram and Substack, Slowdown Farmstead, is followed and admired by tens of thousands of people. Tara and her husband raised their three daughters on their beautiful Canadian farm, lovingly tending to and butchering their own livestock in order to nourish their family and community. Deeply acquainted with the cycles of nature, Tara has a perspective on the interconnectedness of life and death that was the daily reality for our ancestors but eludes most modern people. But that did not prepare her for what could happen when a drug that is now bred to be as strong as any pharmaceutical- and which is often misunderstood as being a benign herbal medicine- snuck its way into her daughter’s life at a vulnerable time and completely rewired her brain in a matter of months. It is our hope that sharing Mila’s story will make more people aware of the increasingly common psychosis that is a side effect of the new high-THC strains of cannabis on the market, and especially of its dangers for the developing teenage brain. Please read the articles linked below for more. Tara's essay What Happened To Our Daughter- don't miss the dozens of resources about the risks of cannabis at the end How Weed Became the New OxyContin: Big Pharma and Big Tobacco Are Helping Market High-Potency, Psychosis-Inducing THC Products as Your Mother’s ‘Medical Marijuana’ Patreon bonus conversation- What We Want Our Daughter To Know: women, restriction, chronic illness & more on Tara’s metabolic journey Learn more about Tara’s book Radiance of the Ordinary Slowdown Farmstead on Substack and Instagram Cannabinoid Hyperemesis Syndrome Take our fun quiz Which Healing Herb Matches Your Energy? My website MythicMedicine.love  Mythic Medicine on Instagram Medicine Stories Facebook group Music by Mariee Siou (from her beautiful song Wild Eyes)

9 Apr 1h 33min

My most beloved herbal elder and I talk about our favorite subject- women throughout time using plants for self care, family healing, and community connection. After nearly 4 decades as a practicing herbalist and teacher, and in an age of informational overabundance, Kami has seen what actually works when it comes to truly embodying herbal knowing. Find Kami’s freebies & learn more about Handcrafted Healing Herbal Oils (including the peek at what you see when you log in to the course). Two Patreon bonuses for this episode- 1) an extended conversation with Kami where we share our stories of Mothering Without Elders 2) two free videos with Kami entitled Garden Herb Walk- meet 9 favorite garden herbs that can calm the nerves, help with digestion, heal the skin, kick a cold, and more! Let’s meet beautiful edible and medicinal flowers, weeds, leaves and seeds and find out which ones are used for what. Kami’s book The Herbal Kitchen Amber’s website MythicMedicine.love  Take our fun quiz Which Healing Herb Matches Your Energy? Amber/Mythic Medicine on Instagram Medicine Stories Facebook group Music by Mariee Siou (from her beautiful song Wild Eyes)

1 Mars 1h 32min

Suuzi and I continue the discussion sparked by my last episode about culty trends in the wellness space by talking about her past with Kundalini yoga- what drew her in and, eventually, how noticing the state of nourishment of those deepest into the cult precipitated her exit. We then catch listeners up on our midlife metabolic meltdown hEaLinG jOuRnEyS and what path we’re taking forward as we continue to recover our vitality and deepen our understanding of why women’s bodies are so metabolically expensive. Patreon bonuses for this episode include an extended conversation w/ Suuz about the reaction to the German New Medicine episode (114) & how it surprisingly kindled a discussion amongst patrons about a remarkably similar ideology, a 10% off coupon code for Suuzi’s grass fed, grass finished liver pills, and a chance to ask us questions. Also photos of Suuzi in turbans! Dr. Suuzi on Instagram Mother’s Best Liver Pills Amber’s website MythicMedicine.love  Take our fun quiz Which Healing Herb Matches Your Energy? Amber/Mythic Medicine on Instagram Medicine Stories Facebook group Music by Mariee Siou (from her beautiful song Wild Eyes) Mentioned in this episode: Kimberly Ann Johnson on Whose Body Is It Breath of Fire Kundalini cult/Guru Jagat documentary Kathleen Stewart's story The Rooted in Resilience podcast and specific Minnesota Starvation Experiment episodes with Kathleen Stewart The Energy Balance Podcast The group coaching program Suuzi is in is Transfrom Cronometer nutrition tracking app How to Not Get Fat on the “Pro-Metabolic Diet”: a guide for switching to nourishing foods while avoiding fat gain by Kaya of Fundamental Nourishment Eating a “Pro-Metabolic Diet” Will Not Heal You: an appeal for having context to understand the big picture by Kaya of Fundamental Nourishment

17 Feb 1h 53min

GNM is an alt health trend that has grown in popularity in recent years. It is attractive to so many (including me and my guest, once) because it acknowledges the role that emotions and trauma play in physical health and symptom manifestation, something that mainstream medicine still somehow refuses to do. But just because some aspects of an ideology are true and helpful does not mean that the entire framework is valid. Critical thinking and humility are essential tools for navigating information overload and complex frameworks, especially when it comes to health. The allure of certainty and specialized knowledge can lead people to adopt rigid belief systems that don’t hold up to critical thinking, and the the zealotry of believing that your group’s belief system will save the world only further strengthens unconscious confirmation bias (along with other logical fallacies common in GNM- loading the language, heads you lose tails I win, us v them thinking, bizarre antisemitic conspiracies, etc). But what might be most worrisome about this growing movement is the purity mindset demanded of its more extreme adherents- the belief that nothing outside of us can affect us if only we believe strongly enough in our own omnipotence and prove our righteousness and purity by attaining a total lack of symptoms. What is viewed as radical sovereignty and empowerment is really just outright magical thinking reinforced by an absence of humility, mystery, and the reality that ultimately we are not in control of what happens to us. The body is not a closed system; we are deeply embedded in overlapping ecologies. This episode has been years in the making, and I have been asked time and time again for my take on GNM. When I was sent Demetra’s essay on the subject I knew that I had finally found the right person to have this conversation with. Her past cult experience, and my years of deep dives into culty thinking and behavior, provide a lens through which to view this phenomenon. Though we do not claim that GNM is a cult in the traditional sense, cultishness is a spectrum and GNM is definitely on that spectrum. Also its tenets are demonstrably false, and have led to death in some cases. NBD. In our Patreon bonus conversation Demetra shares her cult story- joining what she thought was a good thing, slowly realizing it wasn’t, leaving, being attacked by the leader and other members, and the long “deprogramming” and stabilization process that all cult survivors undergo Demetra’s essay The Culty Fraud of German New Medicine Dr. Moss’s report German New Medicine- Hope or Hoax? Demetra’s podcast Impolite Company on Spotify and Apple Amber’s website MythicMedicine.love  Take our fun quiz Which Healing Herb Matches Your Energy? Mythic Medicine on Instagram Medicine Stories Facebook group Music by Mariee Siou (from her beautiful song Wild Eyes) Mentioned in this episode: Tension Myositis Syndrome Cell Danger Response A Little Bit Culty podcast (the best!) Cult documentaries (by no means an extensive list)- The Vow (NXIVM), Stolen Youth: Inside the Cult at Sarah Lawrence, Breath of Fire (Kundalini yoga), The Way Down: God, Greed, and the Cult of Gwen Shamblin Steven Hassan’s BITE model Cult expert Robert Jay Lifton

5 Feb 1h 38min

What metabolic patterns did you inherit from your parents, and what may you have passed down to your own children? Many behavioral issues, and even what are usually considered personality traits (like that of high sensitivity), can be linked to mineral imbalances and overall health.  Heavy metals often accumulate in individuals due to stress, compromised metabolic function, or ancestral imprints, not necessarily always due to direct exposure. Heroic detoxification protocols should be approached with caution, as forcing the removal of metals without addressing underlying nutrient deficiencies can have unintended consequences. Let us welcome in the medicine of sitting with the right questions as we collectively navigate information overwhelm, and walk slowly together toward ever deeper levels of self attunement and inner resourcing. Resources: Eat To Go Deep Niecia on Instagram Medicine Stories Patreon (extended convo w/ Niecia + more) Take our fun quiz Which Healing Herb Matches Your Energy? MythicMedicine.love  Mythic Medicine on Instagram Medicine Stories Facebook group Music by Mariee Siou (from her beautiful song Wild Eyes) Mentioned in this episode: Lead Safe Mama

13 Jan 1h 35min

Fertility is not just the ability to conceive, but is an indicator of overall health and the capacity to nurture life; it is how we extend genetic strength across time and space into generations we will never know. Pregnancy and menopause are transformative states that reveal underlying metabolic and hormonal imbalances, emphasizing the complex interplay between biochemistry, psychology, and lifestyle. In an age of rampant metabolic dysfunction, let us together find our way to renewed vitality, for ourselves and for those yet to come. Resources: Eat To Go Deep Medicine Stories Patreon (extended convo w/ Niecia) Niecia on Instagram Take our fun quiz Which Healing Herb Matches Your Energy? My website MythicMedicine.love  Mythic Medicine on Instagram Medicine Stories Facebook group Music by Mariee Siou (from her beautiful song Wild Eyes) Get the transcript here Mentioned in this episode: Wise Women Diaries podcast interview w/ Niecia telling the story of her first birth, instagram of podcast host is Trusting Life Casey Means Niecia has learned about biomechanics in pregnancy and birth from Adelaide Meadow Reclaiming Childbirth as a Rite of Passage by Rachel Reed Mary Lou Singleton on early motherhood

5 Dec 20242h 6min