Modern Hysteria

WELCOME TO PINKPILLED. These mini-sodes expose how patriarchy and medical misogyny affect our brains and bodies. In honor of Endometriosis Awareness Month, we’re starting off with endometriosis , a little-understood and shockingly-common chronic illness. 🩸 What is endometriosis? Endometriosis — or “endo” — is chronic illness that can affect women and people assigned female at birth from their fir...

Most of us hold a deeply-entrenched belief that women’s value rests on our appearances. Specifically, how well we adhere to a very narrow and problematic standard of beauty: thin, white, feminine, and ageless. It’s an impossible standard, and one that we carry with us both consciously and subconsciously. It motivates us to spend, globally, 73 billion USD every year on “anti-aging” (projected to hi...

Fertility is about more than just an egg count or a sperm sample. It’s a whole-body process. And we often overlook one basic question when trying to conceive (TTC): Are you giving your body the things it needs to thrive outside of your fertility ? In this episode, fertility nutritionist Neema Savvides breaks down how nutrition and other commonly-overlooked health factors impact fertility, why diet...

⚠️ Content warning: This episode contains descriptions of abuse and intimate partner violence This week, we’re talking about the protective effect of our gal pals on our health, our wellness, and our ability to survive and escape toxic relationships with crisis counselor, coach, author, and podcaster Stephanie McPhail. We ask and answer: Why do we stay in the cycle of unhealthy romantic relationsh...

This week we’re talking about one embarrassing and annoying — and common but NOT NORMAL — side effect of childbirth: Peeing in your pants. In this episode, sports scientist and semi-pro athlete Patricia Siegel walks us through: * ⚠️ pelvic floor dysfunction * 🏆 her battle with urinary incontinence as a mom and runner The Taboo PEEING YOUR PANTS IS EMBARRASSING. Or, at least, that’s the stigma we...

This week we’re talking about narcissistic abuse in the workplace. In this episode, Sarene Leeds takes us back to her tenure at Rolling Stone and experiences with: * ❤️‍🩹 narcissistic abuse , where a person — usually someone with narcissistic traits — manipulates, controls, and harms others * 🕹️ coercive control , a pattern of behavior used to dominate and manipulate someone * 😶‍🌫️ gaslighting ,...

T rauma therapist Grace Bithell explains: * 🧠 complex post-traumatic stress disorder (CPTSD) , an oft-overlooked mental health condition that affects your self-image and relationships * 🖤 reparenting yourself to heal from CPTSD (and “break the cycle”) The sneaky thing about CPTSD is that the people who have it are often the last to believe it. Most people haven’t even heard of it. I, too, brushe...

This episode confronts the deeply-ingrained taboo that women’s sexual desire should be effortless, constant, and primarily for the benefit of others. We'll talk about the sex you might have: * out of obligation * to “check it off your to-do list” * to “talk yourself into” The Taboo * We’re told that a “good” woman is sexually available—but not “too much.” * We’re taught that if we don’t want sex,...

⚠️ Content warning: This episode on postpartum care and maternal mental health includes mentions of postpartum psychosis and infanticide In Part 2 of my conversation with birth researcher and postpartum doula Kelsey Marr, we talk PMDs — perinatal mood disorders — like postpartum depression, anxiety, and psychosis. Kelsey gives practical strategies for preventing PMD and the importance of planning,...

This week we’re saying the quiet parts OUT LOUD about why the postpartum chapter of our lives often feels overwhelming and isolating ( how did we get here?? ) and how systemic factors — like lack of support or maternity leave — exacerbate postpartum anxiety and depression. Time stamps * [05:55] Becoming a postpartum doula * [07:12] What is IVF? * [11:26] Comparing postpartum care: Scandinavia vs....

One of the defining moments in my health was the birth of my son in 2019. Like many moms who experienced traumatic childbirth, I grieved (and still grieve) the loss of the birth and pregnancy I so desired. Instead, I felt: * guilt, grief, and anger that my body “let me down” * invalidated by comments like, “at least your baby is okay” * pressure to “bounce back” after birth despite the trauma I ex...

Hi, friend. This is Micah Larsen, host of the Modern Hysteria podcast and newsletter exposing the taboo topics of women’s health so you feel seen, heard, and can live without shame. I spent one morning this week in the doctor’s office, watching a dizzying number of vials of my blood drawn for a battery of tests. For the past few months I’ve been overtaken by joint pain, fatigue, and depression. Co...

Hi, friend. It’s Micah of Modern Hysteria, your podcast (and newsletter) about the taboo topics of women’s health. And, in this episode, we talk about how to rewrite the narrative of shame we have around our sexuality and sex lives — not just for ourselves but for our kids — and what society teaches us (and doesn’t teach us) about women’s pleasure. Time stamps: * 5:34: The importance of consent an...

Hi, friend. Did you get on the sourdough bandwagon during COVID? Sourdough baking trended in 2020 while we all sat in our individual homes, looking for ways to feel productive, and, according to Google search trends, it’s still having a renaissance moment. Like a lot of aspiring sourdough-ers, I failed repeatedly at sourdough starter and nearly gave up entirely. That is, until my guest this week,...

Hi! It’s Micah of Modern Hysteria. In our second full episode, multitalented writer and photographer Tiffany Torres Williams tells us about her experiences growing up in evangelical Christianity during the heyday of purity culture, and how it affects all of us in the bedroom (and our brains). ⚠️ Content warning: Mention of sexual assault and high-control religion Purity culture — religious ideolog...

Hi, there — It’s Micah of Modern Hysteria , and this is our FIRST-EVER full episode of the Modern Hysteria podcast, the “women’s bathroom of the internet,” where I ask experts the questions about women’s health you may not have known to ask (because when we know better we can do better). In the past year I’ve been through a rapid-fire process of aging. And, selfishly, I find our guests’s take on a...

Hi! This is Micah from Modern Hysteria — and, now, the Modern Hysteria PODCAST! This pod has been a long time coming … ten years , in fact. My anonymous egg donation in 2014 was the catalyst for an unraveling of my body and brain through anxiety, depression, pregnancy loss, preeclampsia, hysterectomy, PMDD, and surgical menopause . The earlier years, the ones during which I felt most alone, were t...