A nurse practitioner with more than 25 years of clinical experience, Cynthia has become one of the leading voices in the perimenopause space through her podcast, writing, and widely viewed TEDx talk on intermittent fasting. But this conversation moves beyond wellness trends and into the mechanics of what actually changes in midlife: the decline in microbial diversity, the role of the estrobolome in estrogen metabolism, the relationship between cortisol and intestinal permeability, and why chronic inflammation so often sits underneath hormonal symptoms.

We’re Kerstin Recker and Helen Grimshaw, co-founders of Peli Health. One of us came through an emergency c-section with excruciating pelvic pain and no guidance on what came next. The other started noticing pelvic symptoms during perimenopause and had no idea they were connected to her hormones. Between us, we visited multiple doctors trying to get answers, and heard, more than once, that the solution was to “have a glass of wine and relax.” 

Policy is often discussed in the abstract, as spreadsheets or legislation. But for Dr. Maya Rockeymoore Cummings, policy is something we carry in our cells. As a distinguished scholar and CEO of the health tech company HyperVigilant, she has spent over 25 years studying the lethal combination of racism and ageism she calls "rageism," and how these systems dictate who is protected and who is left to weather the storm. Her new book on the subject, RAGEism: Racism, Ageism, and the Quest for Liberation Democracy, is set for release on May 5th.

Endometriosis is often framed as a private health issue. Something to manage quietly, around meetings, deadlines, and expectations that don’t bend. But for millions of women, it creates a hidden productivity tax - one workplaces are not currently designed to account for, and it imposes a cost that falls almost entirely on them - in lost income, missed opportunities, and careers quietly derailed. Nicole Notar is part of a growing movement pushing that conversation into the open in the United States.