How well is your body turning food into fuel? At its core, every function in the body depends on cellular energy- your ability to convert carbohydrates, fats, and proteins into usable fuel. When that process is working well, the body has what it needs to detoxify, to sleep deeply, to regulate hormones, and to maintain resilience. When it's not, we can find ourselves chasing symptoms- fatigue, inflammation, hormone imbalance, chronic illness-without realizing they may all trace back to impaired metabolism.

In this episode, I'm joined by Kaya, an independent health researcher and the voice behind Fundamental Nourishment. Kaya has a rare gift for translating complex scientific research into clear, grounded insight, helping bridge the gap between dense primary literature and real-life healing. Together, we explore metabolism as a central lens for understanding health, why so many modern conditions may stem from low cellular energy, and how shifting our focus toward nourishment- rather than restriction- can create meaningful change.

On Patreon, we take this conversation further with a bonus episode: What Prometabolic Influencers Get Wrong. We unpack how the "prometabolic" label has become diluted online, the original ideas behind it, and where things have gone off track- from misinterpretations of Ray Peat's work to the unintended consequences many experienced when trying to follow rigid versions of this approach. Kaya also shares practical guidance for getting started with nourishment in a way that's grounded, bioindividual, and sustainable-without falling into another set of confusing food rules.

If you value content created for humans, not algorithms, please consider joining Patreon to support this work.

LINKS:

Medicine Stories Patreon extended conversation- What Prometabolic Influencers Get Wrong (& a Focus on Fundamental Nourishment)

Kaya's Substack Fundamental Nourishment

Healing Waters Nature Immersion Retreat in Costa Rica Nov 3-8

The Mythic Medicine herb shop

Quiz: Find Your Wise Woman Archetype

Kaya on Instagram

Amber on Instagram

Medicine Stories Facebook group

Music by Mariee Siou (from her beautiful song Wild Eyes)

Perimenopause & menopause are often framed as a problem to fix- and the conversation quickly collapses into a single question: HRT or not?

But women's bodies are rarely that simple.

In this episode, Jane Hardwicke Collings and I explore a more expansive and grounded approach to the menopause transition. Rather than asking whether hormones are the right answer for everyone, we look at a deeper question: how can we support the complex physiological process the body is already moving through?

Our conversation examines the growing tendency to position hormone replacement therapy as a universal solution for perimenopause symptoms, and how that pattern echoes earlier chapters in women's healthcare, such as when the pill was prescribed for nearly every hormonal concern or when medical intervention became the default in birth.

This isn't an anti-HRT conversation. It's an invitation to widen the lens.

We talk about the many systems that influence the menopause transition and why supporting the body's foundations can be just as important as the hormonal conversation itself.

For some women, HRT may become a meaningful part of their path. For others, it may not. But reducing the entire transition to a single intervention risks overlooking the complexity and intelligence of the female body.

Just as we've begun shifting the conversation around menstruation and birth toward working with the body instead of overriding it, it's time to bring that same perspective to menopause.

LINKS:

Medicine Stories Patreon extended conversation- The Red Thread: Stories of Our Motherlines

The Womancraft Way

Quiz: Find Your Wise Woman Archetype

Healing Waters Nature Immersion Retreat in Costa Rica Nov 3-8

The Mythic Medicine herb shop

Jane on Instagram

Amber on Instagram

Medicine Stories Facebook group

Music by Mariee Siou (from her beautiful song Wild Eyes)

Many (if not most) women today are- often unintentionally and without realizing it- undernourishing to the point that our basic biological needs are not being met. Exhausted, anxious, and chasing down symptom after symptom, we are spending time, energy, and money on hormone testing, microbiome analysis, genetic sequencing, supplement protocols, etc. all while unknowingly not taking in enough calories and/or micronutrients for our bodies to work properly in the first place.

Our culture today is awash in contradictory health information, food fear, warped wellness idealogies, and impossible beauty standards, but confusion around food and bodies goes back to at least our grandmothers' generation. We inherit nourishment beliefs and practices just as we inherit our mineral and nutrient stores.

Ashley Wulkan- mother, herbalist, nutritionist, and mineral balancing practitioner- and I wish to simplify nourishment for women, not add to the noise. We do this for not only ourselves but for our collective mothers who never overcame their own food issues, and for our collective daughters who we fervently pray will adequately nourish themselves and their descendents far into the future.

Let's rewrite the story.

LINKS:

Medicine Stories Patreon- bonus conversation on The Imprint of Nourishment- what we inherit and what we pass down

Healing Waters Nature Immersion Retreat in Costa Rica Nov 3-8

The Mythic Medicine herb shop

Ashley's Free Guide Fundamental Nourishment for the Mother Body

Ashley on Instagram

Amber on Instagram

Quiz: Find Your Wise Woman Archetype

Medicine Stories Facebook group

Music by Mariee Siou (from her beautiful song Wild Eyes)