Tamsen Fadal

Hi Reader, I have to share this story with you - because I think you will understand. Ira and I were at a restaurant in LA and I kept smelling eggs. I smelled eggs on the clean glass, on my napkin and even on my fork. Ira could not smell anything. I felt like I was losing it. And it's not the first time it's happened! (I even posted the video of him sniffing a plate in a restaurant. He’s a good sport.) I never once considered it could have anything to do with menopause.Have you ever had a...

Hi Reader, Two weeks ago on the podcast, I opened up about narcissism and shared my experience of being in a relationship that slowly chipped away at my confidence. The response was overwhelming. So many of you wrote to me with your own stories, questions, and a desire to understand what had happened in your relationships. You wanted to know how to recognize narcissistic behavior, why it can be so difficult to see when you are living inside it, and how to begin trusting yourself again. That...

In this episode: the real reason adult friendships fade, what the decades-long Harvard happiness study says about it, and 4 practical ways to find your people again. Hi Reader, Do you ever look around and realize you don't actually know who you'd call if something fell apart? I ask because that used to be me. Last week, over coffee, one of my closest friends looked at me and said, "I don't know how I'd get through this year without you." It caught me off guard, because I remember a decade ago...

Quick preview: I pulled together the best belly fat advice from 4 amazing experts into one episode, plus the toolkit I built from everything they told me. Hi Reader, If you've been eating well, working out, maybe even working out harder, and your belly still isn't budging, I want you to hear this before anything else: it's not your fault. It never was. I remember standing in front of the mirror during perimenopause thinking, what is happening to my body? I hadn't changed how I was eating. I...

Hi Reader, Do you ever have a moment where you catch yourself asking, am I too old for this? I still get one every once in a while. I'm 55 now, and I wonder it more than I'd like to admit. Should I have done this earlier? Have I already missed my window? I sat down this week with Chrissy Metz, the actress best known for playing Kate Pearson on This Is Us, a role that earned her Golden Globe and Emmy nominations. She told me about the eight shows a week she's doing on Broadway right now, and I...

Hi Reader, Do you ever avoid getting into bed at night because you don't want to lie there awake? There was a stretch of my life when I did that constantly. I would find anything else to do until I was exhausted enough to guarantee I'd fall asleep the second I laid down. I had an actual fear of getting into bed. It sounds ridiculous typing it out, but if you know, you know. On today's episode, I sat down with Dr. Chris Winter, one of the country's most sought-after sleep specialists and the...

Hi Reader, Have you ever caught yourself apologizing and realized, mid-sentence, that you didn't do anything wrong? I did. For years. I was in a relationship with a narcissist. Two, actually, and they looked nothing alike. One sent me books and taught me how to order wine, and I mistook being built for being loved. The other needed the spotlight in every room, so I got quieter and smaller to make space for him. The charm was real. That's what kept me stuck. Everyone adored him, so I decided...

Hi Reader, Have you ever stayed in a relationship long after you knew it wasn't working, and couldn't quite explain why you didn't leave sooner? I sat down with therapist Kelly McDaniel, author of the book Mother Hunger, and she helped me understand where that pattern may actually come from. She calls it mother hunger: a craving for the nurturing, protection, and guidance we're supposed to get from our mothers, one that starts forming before we're even five years old. When it's not met, it...

Hi Reader, Have you ever caught yourself saying something about your own body or your own work that you would never, ever let a friend say about herself in front of you? I have. For most of my 30s, actually. Lately I've had so many different generations in my life at once. My bonus daughter, my daughter-in-law, the Gen Z and Millennial women on my team, and all of you writing in every day looking for the same kind of guidance. It got me thinking about what I would actually say if I could sit...

Hi Reader, If you've been told that bloating, belly fat, and exhaustion are just "part of menopause," you've been lied to. Let me tell you about my eggplant problem... I have loved eggplant my whole life. Every Italian restaurant, I'm ordering it. But the last two or three years, every single time I eat it, I end up with this huge bloated stomach. I kept blaming the restaurant. Maybe it wasn't cooked right. Maybe it was the breading. I probably tried it ten more times before I admitted it. It...