Virago 24/7

Home can be the word that comforts you or the word that hurts. We sit down with Amy Smyth Miller, educator and author of "Home: A Memoir of Family Forgiveness and Healing from Complex PTSD", to talk about what happens when childhood survival strategies follow you into adulthood and start running your relationships, your nervous system, and your sense of self. Amy shares the moment that p...

Fear has a sneaky way of sounding like logic. It tells us to wait, to perfect the plan, to keep everyone happy, and to stay small so we don’t get judged. And for a lot of women, that voice gets so loud that we end up watching our own life from the sidelines.  I’m joined by Cortney Hackett, the woman behind Grit and Grace and an IFBB figure pro, for a grounded, practical conversation about self lea...

What if the habits you hate most aren’t personality flaws at all, but protection strategies your nervous system learned a long time ago? I sit down with Owen Smithyman from Optimized Consciousness to look at anxiety, self-doubt, people pleasing, and perfectionism through the lens of trauma and the unconscious patterns that keep looping until something truly changes at the root.  Owen shares how he...

Autopilot can look like a full calendar, a “nice” personality, and relationships you keep maintaining even when you feel drained. I’m joined by Kirsten Davidson, a registered psychotherapist in Ontario and the founder of Mind the Gap Psychotherapy, to name what’s really happening underneath those patterns and how to start changing them without shame.  We talk about the “Mind the Gap” idea as the s...

Money can be the loudest place we silence ourselves and it doesn’t have to stay that way. I’m joined by Lisa Clements, a financial planner and the founder of Clear Springs Wealth, for a real talk about women, wealth, and what financial confidence actually looks like when you’re building a life on purpose. Lisa shares her path from a long corporate career to helping women get clear on investing, re...

Grief can knock the air out of your life, then leave you wondering who you are without the person you lost and what you even believe now. We sit down with Beth Lynch, an evidential medium, meditation teacher, author, and founder of Inner Light Teaching, to talk about what helps when the mind is loud, the heart is tender, and you still need a way to keep going. We get practical about spirituality a...

We sit down with author and poet Linda Drattell to get to the stories under her books and the lived moments that shaped her voice, including life across three continents, the shock of feeling “other” in new cultures, and the deep question of what it really means to belong. Linda shares how progressive hearing loss in her 30s pushed her toward sign language, Deaf culture, and a community that refus...

Mental illness does not only shape the person who lives with it. It can shape the kids who grow up around it, the stories they keep silent, and the versions of themselves they build as survival. We sit down with Suzanne Sherman, a writing coach, editor, and author whose new book, "Living in the Long Shadow: Surviving a Legacy of Mental Illness", traces what it was like to grow up with a...

You can spend a lifetime trying to become “better,” only to realize the life you want starts when you stop abandoning yourself.  I’m joined by psychotherapist, Diamond Approach teacher, and memoirist Rosanne Annoni, author of "Unfolding the Heart", for a conversation about what happens when you finally get quiet enough to hear the truth you’ve been editing for years. Rosanne takes us bac...

A tablespoon of oil seems harmless until you ask what processing and heat actually do to it. We talk with legendary nutrition educator and author Udo Erasmus, known for “Fats That Heal, Fats That Kill” and “Your Body Needs an Oil Change”, to unpack why the real health risk is often not “fat,” but the damage done to fats by industrial refining and by high-heat cooking. If you’ve been confused by he...

A joking question about an “assassin ex” turns into a story you will not forget: Lyanette Talley, Briana Deck, and Shiney Eapen are back! But the real reason we hit record is bigger than the plot twist. We are three friends catching up after months apart, comparing notes on what changes when you finally choose peace, stability, and your own life again.  We talk about a long awaited promotion into...

Your body is telling the truth long before your mind can build an argument. Lyanette Talley sits down with Allison Pagano, founder of Embodied Dance, to explore embodiment, somatic healing, and how movement can become a direct path to emotional processing, nervous system regulation, and real self-trust. We talk about why so many women feel disconnected from their intuition and stuck in “push throu...

Her voice has filled arenas alongside legends like Pink Floyd and Sting, but the most gripping part of Machan Taylor’s story is what happened offstage. We talk about the private weight that can live behind public success: imposter syndrome, loneliness on the road, and the long echo of childhood trauma. Machan takes us back to her earliest chapters, from being born in post World War II Japan to mov...

Overthinking can look like “being responsible,” but it often feels like your brain running laps with no finish line. I sit down with therapist and life coach, Katherine Flechaus, to get honest about the patterns so many of us live in: excessive worry, people pleasing, perfectionism, and that constant background fear of being “not enough.” Katherine explains how these habits usually start as protec...

Some stories don’t tie themselves into a neat bow. They pull you backward through memory, family, and the moments you’d rather skip, until you finally see what shaped you. That’s why I wanted to sit down with Annie Dike, author of “Clovis”, a character-driven coming-of-age novel that’s raw, funny in places, and unflinching where it counts. We talk about what’s rooted in Annie’s real life and what...

You can look “fine” and still be running on empty and your body will keep sending signals until you finally listen. I sit down with Dr. Alicia Newsome, physician, speaker, and women’s health advocate, to talk about what’s really happening when high-achieving women feel exhausted, overwhelmed, moody, and disconnected from their bodies, especially as hormones start shifting in perimenopause.  We dig...

Your brain tells you to be furious, scared, or ashamed and then your body follows. But what if those reactions aren’t “just who you are,” and what if you could turn down the emotional charge in minutes? We sit down with Stacey Nye, co-creator of the F.I.X Code, to unpack a simple, repeatable emotional clearing process that Stacey says works for everyone from CEOs and sales teams to school staff, m...

Some of the strongest women I know are the ones quietly unraveling in private, not because they’re weak, but because they’ve been carrying too much for too long. I’m joined by Vivian Moyo, a therapist and the founder of Moyo Wellness Therapy, to talk about emotional burnout, unspoken grief, and the way culture and family expectations can train us to stay silent even when we’re hurting. Vivian open...

You can have the affirmations, the routines, and the “strong mind” and still feel strangely disconnected inside. That’s the moment we lean into here: not more hustle, not another identity upgrade, but integration. I’m joined by Marvin L. Wilkerson, a spiritual coach, hypnotherapist, and astrologer with decades of experience helping people uncover karmic patterns, release emotional blocks, and alig...

What if peace isn’t something we pursue out there, but something we practice inside our own bodies first? We sit down with Barbara With—composer, author, peace activist, and psychic channel—to unpack a down-to-earth process for untangling conflict by separating emotion, intuition, and intellect. Her journey from the stage to “going into the nothing” reveals how creative listening trained her to no...

One choice can change everything. That’s the heart of this raw, unguarded conversation about alcoholism, binge drinking, bulimia, and the quiet rituals people use to cope with pain. I, along with Briana Deck, sit down with author and coach Colleen Clifford (Life Beyond the Binge) to unpack the 95/5 factor—the idea that most drinking nights seem “fine,” but the rare wild-card moment can upend a lif...

When love is on the line, panic makes smart people do reckless things. We brought in Dr. Becky Whetstone, a nationally recognized marriage crisis manager, to show how to stop the spiral, make clear choices, and protect your family whether you reconcile or part.  We walk through the moments that matter most: how to tell if change is possible, the difference between treatable issues and entrenched p...

The laughs hit first, but the truths land deeper. We brought the Men of Virago back to the table after a long gap to compare notes on love, loss, growth, and how to build a partnership that lasts. Justin shares career wins and the shock of discovering anxiety through therapy, Philip balances thriving work with the grief of losing loved ones, and Milky—now deep into dental school—opens up about fin...

We unpack how Mirko Beljanski’s environmental view of cancer led to selective plant extracts that target destabilized DNA, and how a SWAT raid in France sparked Sylvie Beljansky’s decades-long effort to prove, publish, and preserve this research. We share new findings on cancer stem cells, synergy with chemotherapy, and practical ways patients can access support safely and legally. • Mirko’s insig...

What if the secret to thriving in a male-dominated field isn’t louder toughness, but smarter design—of your leadership style and your whole life? That’s the throughline of our conversation with author and mechanical engineer Josee Tremblay, who turned three decades in STEM into a clear playbook for women building influence, authority, and a sustainable home base. We start with the real-world frict...