Shedding the Shame

What happens when you survive breast cancer, but the life and body you return to look nothing like the ones you had before? In this episode of Shedding the Shame , I'm joined by Natasha Golinsky, who was diagnosed with stage two triple-negative breast cancer in September 2024 at age 43. Despite living a healthy, active lifestyle and having no family history of breast cancer, Natasha found a lump t...

This is a different kind of episode. It's just me, sharing what's been happening in my life over the past few weeks, and being honest about something I don't always find easy to admit: I'm not okay right now. I thought 2026 was going to be my year. There have been some incredible highs, but also some devastating lows, and the past few weeks have been especially hard. In this bonus episode, I share...

What happens when you lose someone who has been your friend for most of your life? In this episode of Shedding the Shame , I’m joined by Jenniah Minchin, who came to me wanting to talk about something we don’t talk about nearly enough: friendship breakups. Jenniah and her best friend met when they were just six years old and remained friends for roughly 16 years. But over time, the friendship beca...

What happens when you spend most of your life feeling like you don't quite fit in, only to realize that the very things that made you different might be the things that make your story worth telling? In this episode of Shedding the Shame , I'm joined by Leah Yard, founder and designer behind Leah Yard Designs and host of the Voted Least Likely podcast. Leah's path to entrepreneurship was anything...

What happens when shame becomes so familiar that it starts to feel like part of who you are? In this episode of Shedding the Shame , I’m joined by Amber Romaniuk, emotional eating, digestive and hormone expert and host of The No Sugar Coating Podcast . Amber shares the deeply personal story behind the work she does today, including being called “fat and ugly” as a five-year-old, years of dieting a...

What if you stopped waiting until you felt confident, comfortable, or “ready” before you went after the things you want? In this episode of Shedding the Shame , I’m joined by Natasha Jeshani, president and CEO of Career Contacts, founder of Training Arch, author, keynote speaker, and someone who has built an impressive career while navigating some very personal struggles behind the scenes. Natasha...

What happens when the things you experienced as a child continue to affect your body, your relationships, your parenting, and your mental health decades later? In this episode of Shedding the Shame , Tami is joined by Julianna Burmesch, a former school principal, speech pathologist, early brain development trainer, parent educator and author of Life with Less of Me . Julianna’s memoir explores her...

What happens when you realize your daughter is watching the way you treat your own body? For Jess M, that realization became a turning point. Jess is a mom of two based in Melbourne, Australia, who has spent the past eight years navigating lichen planopilaris (LPP), a rare form of scarring alopecia that has progressively changed her relationship with her hair, her identity, and herself. But her st...

What happens when a life you imagined doesn’t happen? How do we grieve something that never quite existed? And what does it look like to completely reinvent yourself in your 50s? In this episode of Shedding the Shame , Tami is joined by Sarah Savoy, a Vancouver-based end-of-life doula, for a deeply honest conversation about grief, uncertainty, reinvention, and what it means to live more intentiona...

What if the thing you spent years trying to hide became the very thing that shaped your purpose? Michelle Doan, founder of Emani Cosmetics, knows what it's like to feel like you're hiding in plain sight. Michelle struggled with painful cystic acne from a young age, describing herself as an "ugly duckling" and feeling like her appearance affected her confidence and how she believed others saw her....

What happens when you've accomplished everything you thought would finally make you feel worthy, and it still isn't enough? Season 2 of Shedding the Shame starts with this deeply moving conversation. Tami sits down with bestselling author, leadership coach, and Embrace Global co-founder Jane Chen to explore the hidden shame that can fuel achievement, perfectionism, and burnout. Jane shares the inc...

What happens when you've done everything "right," achieved the prestigious career, and still feel like something is missing? In this episode, I sit down with physician-turned-medicine woman Dr. Alexandra Perel-Winkler to explore the shame that comes with feeling like the black sheep. From a young age, Alexandra felt different. While training as a physician and later specializing in rheumatology, s...

Confidence isn't about feeling fearless. It's about trusting yourself enough to take the first step anyway. In this episode of Shedding the Shame , I sit down with Sheena Yap Chan , Wall Street Journal bestselling author, TEDx speaker, host of The Tao of Self-Confidence podcast, and creator of the VISIBLE™ Framework. For nearly a decade, Sheena has been helping women build confidence and step into...

Some people find this podcast and wonder... Who is Tami? And why is she talking about shame? In this deeply personal solo episode, I'm answering that question. I'm sharing the experiences I've spent decades carrying quietly, from living with hair loss since I was 15, to growing up in an emotionally unsafe home, navigating religious shame, experiencing abandonment, infertility, miscarriage, grief,...

Hair loss is often dismissed as "just cosmetic." But for many women, including host Tami Wong, it affects every part of their lives. In this episode of Shedding the Shame , Tami sits down with Emily Shea, founder of Flox Hair, a wig brand in Halifax, Nova Scotia, to talk about her decades-long journey with hair loss, the devastating impact it had on her mental health, and how she turned her bigges...

After losing her son Fletcher at 20 weeks pregnant, Libby Baxter's world came to a standstill. While everyone around her seemed to move on, she was left navigating unimaginable grief, unanswered questions, and the painful reality of returning to a life that no longer felt familiar. In this deeply moving conversation, Libby shares her experience of stillbirth, the isolation that often follows pregn...

What happens when you're labeled "not smart enough" as a child and spend years trying to prove everyone wrong? In this episode of Shedding the Shame, I sit down with business strategist, certified Imposter Syndrome Coach, and founder of Creative Dynamics Virtual Services, Brittney Ashley, for an honest conversation about growing up with dyslexia, navigating ADHD, and learning to challenge the stor...

Money is one of the most emotionally loaded topics for so many women, yet it’s something we’re rarely taught to talk about openly. In this episode of Shedding the Shame, Tami sits down with financial planner, coach, and financial literacy advocate Krista Lee Hynes for a powerful conversation about money stories, financial shame, and why so many women struggle with fear, guilt, scarcity, and feelin...

In this deeply personal bonus solo episode of Shedding the Shame , host Tami Wong opens up about her current experience with EMDR therapy, living with CPTSD, and what it really looks like to heal from abandonment wounds, people-pleasing, perfectionism, and years of staying small to keep others comfortable. She shares why she finally decided to start EMDR, what the process has actually been like em...

In this episode of Shedding the Shame , Tami sits down with her friend and former coworker, Jenna Van Dusen, for an honest conversation about living with Type 1 Diabetes. Diagnosed at just two and a half years old, Jenna shares what it was like growing up constantly managing a life-threatening chronic illness while also carrying the emotional weight, stigma, and shame that often comes with it. Fro...

Penny’s story doesn’t start with an eating disorder. It starts with a little girl who felt different: clumsy, quiet, and out of place. She didn't understand body image, shame had already taken root. In this episode, Penny shares how early experiences- feeling uncoordinated, misunderstood, and later undiagnosed ADHD- shaped the way she saw herself. By 13, she turned to food restriction and over-exe...

Ruth’s story starts at five years old; watching her father abuse her mother. Years later, she found herself in a relationship that looked painfully familiar. In this episode, Ruth shares her journey through domestic violence, the reality of being a young bride and mother, and the moment everything changed; the moment she knew she had to run. We talk about the parts people don’t always understand:...

In this solo episode of Shedding the Shame , Tami shares her deeply personal 30-year journey with alopecia. Her story began at just 15 years old after taking Accutane, when she first noticed changes in her hair that would continue for decades. What followed was a long and often isolating experience of thinning hair, shame, and trying to hide something she didn’t understand and felt she couldn’t ta...

In this episode of Shedding the Shame , I sit down with Tina Warren, who joins us all the way from Sydney, Australia, to share her deeply personal journey with alopecia, dating, and self-worth. Tina opens up about experiencing hair loss as a teenager and how it impacted her confidence, relationships, and sense of identity. From navigating cruel comments and rejection to enduring toxic relationship...

This is one of the most layered and vulnerable conversations on Shedding the Shame . In this episode, Tami sits down with a guest who has chosen to remain anonymous to share her story of divorce, a seven-year relationship with a married man, and the emotional complexity that comes with it. This isn’t a conversation about blame or scandal. It’s about what happens when a woman realizes she’s been le...