Things My Mother Forgot to Mention
Things My Mother Forgot to Mention is the podcast for every woman who’s ever said, “Wait—why didn’t anyone mention this to me?” Join Jan and Patti—two outspoken, curious, outrageous women—as they dive headfirst into the messy, magical, and often WTF realities of aging, health, and womanhood. From rogue chin hairs and vaginal thinning, to mental status, perimenopause, and scalp cancer (yes, really)—nothing is off limits. It’s funny. It’s raw. It’s real talk your mother definitely skipped.
Episodes
28 episodes
The Messy Reality of Leaving a Long-Term Relationship
This week we got into something we know almost everyone has struggled with: what it actually takes to walk away from a long-term relationship.We both share our personal experiences of leaving long relationships, including the whys, the g...
Mama Trauma with Stephanie Baker
In this episode, we're joined by Stephanie Baker, a licensed trauma counselor, Army veteran, and EMDR therapist who knows firsthand that birth doesn't always go according to plan. What started as a near-perfect pregnancy took a sharp turn, and ...
Open Wide: Horror Stories From the Chair
Teeth. The thing nobody warns you about until you're crying in the dental chair with half your face numb and a stranger drilling into your mouth for the third time that visit.This episode is Jan and Patti getting brutally honest about th...
Hip Replacements, Leukemia, and Learning to Advocate with Nicole Grose Ph.D
Nobody sat us down and said, "Hey, one day your hips might just stop working." And yet here we are.In this episode, Jan and Patti are joined by the brilliant Nicole Grose, a retired professor, Gen X middle child, leukemia survivor, and n...
The Joint Adventure: Hips, Knees, and Everything Nobody Told You
So Jan's basically building a new body one joint at a time, and we figured it was time to talk about it.As of recording, Jan is eight weeks out from her fourth joint replacement, a knee this time, and we got into all of it. The parts the...
Obesity, Eating Disorders & the Shame No One Names with Melinda J Watman
This week, Jan connected us with Melinda Watman, a woman who has lived inside the obesity and eating disorder world since she was two and a half years old, and who somehow turned that into a career that's literally changing how pharmaceutical c...
Permission to Eat: Healing Disordered Eating
Today we’re talking about something so many women carry quietly: disordered eating and body image stuff. We get honest about our own histories (yep, both ends of the spectrum) and what actually helped us move toward peace—without shame...
The Grief Timeline: How Loss Shapes Us with Dr. Rick Butts
The conversation this week with our colleague and friend, Dr. Rick Butts, stopped us in our tracks—in the best way.Rick walked us through his grief timeline, beginning with losing his grandmother at 7, his father at 10, and late...
The Grief of Everything
In this episode, we talk about the many faces of grief—and how it's not just about death. From heartbreak and dementia to aging bodies and old friendships, this one’s for anyone who’s had to say goodbye to something (or someone) they loved....
A Stroke, a Tumor, and the Angel of Death with Ma Sherry Glaser
In this episode, we sit down with the wildly talented and utterly honest Ma Sherry Glaser—actress, playwright, author, and activist. Sherry shares her harrowing (and strangely funny) journey through a stroke, a cancer diagnosis, and a ki...
So... We’re All Gonna Die, Right?
In this episode, we go there—into the deep, raw, and very real territory of death and dying. Sounds jolly, right? But seriously, it's the conversation no one prepared us for, and that’s exactly why we’re having it.We're g...
Safe Spaces, Real Stories: Kristy Dillon on Sexual Trauma
In this episode, we sat down with Kristy Dillon—therapist, survivor, and truth-teller—to talk about something that too many people still struggle to say out loud: sexual abuse.This conversation is raw, honest, and full of the kind of wis...
Breaking the Silence: Living Through and Beyond Sexual Abuse
In this episode, Patti shares her experience of childhood sexual abuse, what healing has looked like over the decades, and why it’s so important that we talk about the things that were buried under shame, silence, or secrecy for way too long.
Why Every Woman Needs to Get That Mammogram with Laura Williams
This week, we’re getting real about something that hits close to home.We’re joined by Jan’s dear friend and fellow therapist Laura Williams, who bravely shares her journey through an unexpected breast cancer diagnosis. Stage zero
From Baby Oil to Biopsies: Our Wake-Up Call on Skin Health
Today we’re diving deep into skin health and cancer — not as experts, but through sharing experiences we’d like to help you avoid.In this episode we talk:How baby oil and iodine once were Jan’s “sunscreen” (ye...
Breaking the Shame Around Anxiety with Susan Kay
In this episode, we’re talking with Susan Kay, a psychiatric nurse practitioner with over 40 years of experience treating anxiety, panic, and mood disorders.Susan opens up about her own lifelong journey with anxiety—from childhood panic ...
Anxiety Isn’t Just in Your Head, It’s Also in Your Body
In this episode, we’re going deep into a topic we wish someone had warned us about: anxiety.From panic attacks to lump-in-the-throat discomfort and the reality of being “on edge” for decades—we’re talking about how trauma...
Menopause Is One Day. What Happens Before and After Matters More with Kathleen Sachs
We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again: we need to talk about this stuff. This week, we sat down with the wonderfully wise and funny Kathleen Sachs, and wow—did she deliver.Here’s what we covered:How men...
When Your Uterus Drops and Your Vagina Tightens: A Menopause Saga
This one’s a whole journey, so buckle up (or maybe unbutton your jeans and get comfy). Jan’s sharing her deeply personal—and yes, wildly specific—story of life post-menopause. From tight pelvic floors to uteruses that drop...
Teaching Teens What Their Parents Forgot to Mention with Dr. Tracy Meyer
In this episode, we’re joined by Dr. Tracy Meyer—a psychology professor, mom, and longtime educator who’s spent over 20 years teaching young adults about sexuality, development, and the things lots of mothers forgot to mention.We talk ab...
Bloomers, Boobs & Bodies: Coming of Age in All Its Awkward Glory
This episode is all about that wild ride known as coming of age. We dig into the physical changes, the unspoken questions, and the things that were forgotten to be mentioned.Here’s what we explore:Our first memories of starti...
The Sex Talk We Never Got: Consent, Safety & Self-Worth with Kandy Christensen
**Content warning: This episode mentions rape**On this episode, we’re joined by our guest, Kandy Christensen, who shares her powerful personal journey—from being raised to comply, to reclaiming her voice and agency after years of ...
Let’s Talk About Sex, Baby!
Content Warning: We mention Sexual Abuse in this episode.Today we're going there! We're talking sex, in all its confusing, complicated, hilarious, and healing glory.You’ll hear:How sexual trauma shaped Patti’s...
The Real Rules of Healthy Relationships with Lisa Merlo-Booth
This one hits close to home. We brought in our dear friend and seasoned relationship coach, Lisa Merlo-Booth, to unpack the relationship lessons we didn’t get from our mothers (or Hollywood, for that matter).In this episode, we ...
Learning Love the Hard Way: What We Wish We Knew
This episode’s all about the messy, magical reality of relationships—and how many of us entered them without a clue. We dive into our personal stories, the generational myths that shaped us, and what we’ve learned the hard way.H...
