E176 - Dr. Mindy Pelz: Why Midlife Feels So Disorienting (And What It’s Trying to Teach You)
Know Thyself
André Duqum
4.8 • 658 Ratings
🗓️ 16 December 2025
⏱️ 117 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Dr. Mindy Pelz returns to explore the deeper meaning of aging, menopause, and the profound psychological and neurological transformations women undergo as they grow older. Drawing from neuroscience, anthropology, mythology, and personal experience, Mindy reframes menopause not as a decline—but as an initiation into wisdom, sovereignty, and inner authority.
We discuss the concept of the “second innocence,” the pruning and rewiring of the female brain across hormonal transitions, the grandmother hypothesis, and why modern culture fears aging women. Mindy shares how trauma, grief, solitude, and uncertainty can become gateways to resilience, neuroplasticity, and self-discovery—especially when women stop outsourcing their worth and begin listening inward.
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00:00 Intro - Dr. Mindy Pelz
03:39 The return to the second innocence
08:18 What’s the purpose of menopause?
16:09 Where the shift begins
23:04 Supporting others without abandoning yourself
31:57 Being considerate vs owning others’ emotions
34:14 Ad: Pique Life
35:55 The power of solitude
43:26 Letting go
52:48 From power over to power within
56:48 The brain architecture of wisdom
1:02:24 Transformation: From a caterpillar to a butterfly
1:19:58 Fasting during menopause
1:26:35 Knowing when and how to detox
1:32:31 Healing through breathwork, EMDR, psilocybin
1:45:12 Lacking a support system
1:49:07 Closing thoughts
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Episode Resources:
Her new book: https://bookshop.org/p/books/age-like-a-girl-why-the-brain-changes-that-happen-after-40-set-you-up-for-your-best-life-yet-dr-mindy-pelz/1d7c0fe95ab52c4f?ean=9781401975562&next=t
https://www.instagram.com/dr.mindypelz
https://www.drmindypelz.com/
https://www.instagram.com/andreduqum/
https://www.instagram.com/knowthyself/
https://www.youtube.com/@knowthyselfpodcast
https://www.knowthyselfpodcast.com
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Between the ages of 45 and 55 is the most common time |
| 0:04.5 | for a woman to kill herself. |
| 0:06.0 | After 40, 70% of divorces are initiated by women. |
| 0:10.0 | I just boiled it down to one single statement, |
| 0:13.0 | which is now's the time to get to know yourself. |
| 0:15.0 | If you had a megaphone that reached every woman on the planet |
| 0:18.0 | and 60 seconds to share an important message |
| 0:21.7 | about the truth of aging, what would it be? |
| 0:24.9 | I started to notice women who were in my practice |
| 0:27.9 | would tell me stories that they wouldn't say |
| 0:30.1 | in front of their family, |
| 0:31.3 | and the stories went something like, |
| 0:33.7 | so what I want women to know is, |
| 0:35.7 | it's so liberating, try it out, so liberating when you do not care. |
| 0:40.3 | When women are like, I had a hunch this is going to happen, that actually is a physiological state in your brain. |
| 0:46.3 | And on the last day I said something that it freed me and I think could free all women. |
| 0:51.3 | And I said, I'm not okay. |
| 1:09.0 | Hey, everyone, welcome back to the Know Thyself podcast. Our guest today is a returning guest. She is a best-selling author, a keynote speaker, a functional health expert. Y'all loved our conversation last time on fasting. |
| 1:12.5 | And she is just such an incredible communicator. And I'm really looking forward to diving into |
| 1:17.2 | this new topic about aging and all the things that come with us growing and learning more about |
| 1:22.3 | ourselves as we grow. And yeah, Dr. Mindy Pallas, thank you so much for coming back. |
| 1:26.9 | Oh, thank you for having me. I want to say I've done a lot of podcasts, and yours is one of |
... |
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