The Menstruality Podcast

Kim McCabe, the founder of Rites for Girls says that without puberty rites of passage, young people self-initiate. The media tells them how they should be and our youngsters create their own ways of proving their adulthood through feats, dares, and adventures. They try to appear like adults in what they do and how they look: using clothes, make-up, drink, cigarettes, cars, and sex. According to Ki...

At the beginning of the pandemic, Claire Baker released her first book, and went into a hyper-productive mode, galvanised by the new world we were all suddenly pushed into. At the end of 2020 she was depleted, suffering from critic attacks and her ambition completely dissolved. It’s only now in early 2023 that her creative energy is returning.  In our conversation today we speak about the many way...

How has your intimacy with your cycle (or your menopause process) changed you, and your life? It’s an important question to ask, in quiet moments, perhaps in your inner winter. Cycle awareness offers many fruits, and they can easily be missed in a linear world that rarely—if ever—shines a spotlight on your cyclicity and what it is awakening in you. On the podcast today, the tables are turned as Sj...

Hinewai Waitoa is doing powerful work to reclaim  Maori menstrual wisdom . In her words: “Colonisation took so much of what was magic about Maori culture when it came to things like menstruation practices. We are still reclaiming our sacred ways here in Aotearoa”. Hinewai is a māmā to two unschooled mini beings and the creator of Waikuranuku Indigenous devoted to wholistic womb wellness, reclamati...

How do you experience the pre-ovulation phase of your cycle - your inner spring? Is it a time of ease and flow,  or perhaps anxiety and insecurity? Maybe  a mixture of both?  Whatever your experience, we hope that today's episode will shed some light on the powers of inner spring for you. It's our first Q+A episode where Red School founders Alexandra and Sjanie will answer your questions...

Today we’re welcoming back Ruby May to the podcast, who is the new community leader here at Red School. Ruby is the founder of the Know Your Flow cycle awareness course and community - she’s an earth-lover, a truth-seeker, an edge-dweller and a mischief-maker passionate about how we can each midwife a culture of deeper connection – to our bodies, each other and our planet through menstrual cycle a...

Wild Power is five this month! We love watching this book work its magic, and hearing what it’s waking up in readers across the globe. (We’re thrilled that it’s now available in 8 languages—French, Italian, Spanish, German, Korean, Dutch, Czech, Russian—with a couple more in the pipeline).  Thank you to everyone who has been writing in or tagging us with your greatest takeaway from the book. Here...

We’re having an important, needed, hard conversation today about endometriosis. Luckily we are guided by an amazing guest who seems to be able to bring lightness and humour to even the darkest topics, author Emma Bolden. So we invite you to laugh, and cry with us. Emma’s memoir, The Tiger and The Cage exploring her decades-long rollercoaster with endometriosis was recently featured by the brillian...

Our guest today, Shereen Oberg draws from a unique and rich mix of influences in her women’s empowerment work. She is the author of The Law of Positivism, she’s a yoga teacher and acupuncturist, and alongside this she holds a business and economics degree, and has recently completed a Master's degree in Global Sexual and Reproductive health and rights.  She comes from a long lineage of strong...

Alexandra is your host today as this is the next in our Wise Power Retreat series ,  where she is having conversations with thought leaders, teachers and change-makers about what menopause revealed and awakened in them.   Her guest is Lynne McTaggart - who is regularly voted in the top 100 of spiritual teachers for her work around the power of intention. The arrival of Lynne's children birthe...

The menstrual cycle is encoded with wisdom that can support us through life’s greatest challenges. Learning to read and receive this wisdom is a lifelong process - and in today’s conversation with psychotherapist and author, Carly Mountain, we explore what one of our oldest goddess myths can teach us about embodying cyclical wisdom as we face all that life throws our way.  Carly has worked in a cy...

What are the gifts of the inner spring? How can inner spring help us step into leadership? What is needed to access the power of the inner spring? And how can we manages the challenges of this inner season? So many of you have asked for an episode about inner spring and how we can harness it's strengths and manage its challenges, and here it is - the first of two episodes dedicated to pre-ovu...

What does it really take to be a visionary leader? And how can menstrual cycle awareness support us to face the challenges and stretch that leadership always brings? In today's episode we share excerpts from our Menstruality Leadership Lab - a free, four-day online leadership training exploring how the hidden powers of the menstrual cycle and menopause can help us lead sustainably, with heart...

After giving birth to her son Fulano in 2003, Latham Thomas set out on a mission to help women reclaim birth. A graduate of Columbia University & The Institute for Integrative Nutrition, Latham is a maternity lifestyle maven, world renown wellness leader and master birth doula on the vanguard of transforming the wellness movement. She has been named one of Oprah’s Super Soul 100. I experienced...

In today's episode Red School's founders, Sjanie an Alexandra reveal intimate stories about their current leadership edges and how their menstrual cycle awareness and conscious menopause is skilling them up to face them in a sustainable way. The leadership challenges include; - How to manage a sensitive nervous system when you have a demanding to do list. - How to navigate the inner crit...

We’re welcoming back Bethany Webster, the author of “Discovering The Inner Mother”.  She’s considered to be the global expert on healing the “Mother Wound” - something we all inherit to varying degrees living in a patriarchal society.  Bethany was a guest at our Wise Power Retreat, where she spoke about healing the Mother Wound during menopause. In our conversation today, we look at the Mother Wou...

Menstruation and menopause awaken us to our deep selves, but to do that, they ask that we pull away from the world, stop and rest. The trouble is that rest can be a great challenge for most if us given the momentum at work in our world today.  If you struggle to ‘just let go’ and rest when you bleed, or during the unfolding of your menopause process, this episode is for you. We explore: How our in...

This conversation moved me deeply. Teacher and writer Krista O’Reilly Davi-Digui explores what it is to be a brave and beautiful human in progress, particularly in the messy middle of life, and especially living inside a grief and trauma illiterate culture.  In 2019, when Krista was in the midst of the ‘Quickening’ of perimenopause she lost her son Jairus to suicide.  In this conversation, she sha...

This bonus episode is the next in our ‘Wise Power Retreat’ series where Alexandra is interviewing people about what menopause revealed and awakened in them.  Alexandra and Lara have been working alongside each other in this field for over 30 years. Dr Lara Owen is an author, teacher, researcher, consultant, mentor and an expert on the culture, politics and organisation of the menstrual cycle and m...

Sjanie’s period came very early last month. She suddenly found herself bleeding on day 12 and the experience was akin to a zen meditation master slapping their student on the back when they’ve momentarily gone unconscious. She was reminded that there is a wild intelligence within her that was outside of her control, and was invited to dance with the mystery and yield to something bigger. This is o...

Our guest today is someone we’ve been wanting to interview for a while. She has inspired 1000s of people to find their way of doing less inside a culture that so often pushes us to do more.  Kate Northrup is an entrepreneur, mother and bestselling author of Do Less: A Revolutionary Approach to Time Management for Ambitious Women. Her book centers menstrual cycle awareness as a secret productivity...

For many years Karen, the founder of ‘Daring to Rest’ experienced severe panic attacks. It wasn’t until she started a deep rest practice that she learned how to meet her anxiety with grace and she hasn’t had a panic attack since.  During her menopause process, this devoted practice of rest enabled her to clearly feel her ‘no’ and ‘yes’ in her body, process the rage arising and listen for what she...

As we enter 2023, we explore what menstrual cycle awareness can teach us about how to begin things well. We each share a bumpy beginning that we’re currently navigating, and how the deep intelligence within the cycle is guiding us through the highs and lows. Whether you’re wanting to start the year with intention and a clear vision, you’re in the midst of a new beginning such as a new job, a new r...

Today we explore how menstrual cycle awareness schools us in endings. Each month we have an opportunity to practice ending the cycle well, aligning with the deep intelligences at work within us. .. In this episode we break down the different processes at work as we descend towards menstruation and what they can teach us about how to navigate all of life’s endings; the smaller, more surface level o...

Today we’re continuing our inner autumn, premenstrual theme and sharing the last in a three-part series exploring the powers of the premenstruum, how to awaken these powers, and now a conversation about what this looks like in real life. (And we’re excited to be trying something new today - weaving in comments and insights from the community of podcast listeners about your premenstrual experience....