You Might Also Like: The Tamsen Show

Tamsen Fadal (0:06)

Hi friends, I am so glad you're here. I think a woman can become so accomplished at living the life expected of her that she stops noticing whether it still feels like her own. We learn how to be successful, rational, productive, agreeable, attractive, you name it.

We become very good at looking outside ourselves for proof that we're making the right choices.

By midlife, many of us have lost touch with that quieter form of knowing what our bodies are telling us, maybe what we desire, what feels meaningful still, and then what we understand before we can explain it. My guest today believes what we need more of is magic. Dr. Ellen Vora is a board certified psychiatrist who earned her undergraduate degree at Yale and attended medical school at Columbia. I cannot wait for you to meet her. She's an acupuncturist, a yoga teacher and author of The Anatomy of Anxiety.

She was trained to understand the mind through science and medicine. And she spent much of her life deeply skeptical of anything she couldn't measure or prove. Then her mother died suddenly while Ellen was pregnant. And Ellen began having experiences that her training could not explain. That loss opened her to intuition, synchronicity, mediumship, and the possibility that our relationships may continue beyond death. Her new book is called Season of the Witch, A Psychiatrist's Case for Magic. Ellen argues that women have been taught to abandon essential parts of themselves in order to be credible, lovable, and successful.

Her prescription is to return to the body, reclaim our attention, and become more receptive to mystery. And also remember that not everything meaningful can be optimized or proven.

Today, I really want to understand what we lose when we become who the world expects us to be and we do it a lot. Trust me, I do.

How we learn to hear ourselves again, and what might change if we allowed more magic into our lives. Before we start, I have to share something because I am so excited. The Tamsen Show is nominated for seven Signal Awards. Basically, the Emmys of podcasting, and we would not be here without this community. You watch, you listen, you share these conversations, and you have truly helped us build this show into what it is. So thank you, truly. Now, I'm asking for one more thing. Please vote for us. It literally takes one minute. And make sure you confirm your email after you vote so it counts. The link is right in the description. Thank you so much. It would mean so much to me.

There was a point where I genuinely didn't know what was happening to my own body. The 3 a.m. wakeups, the brain fog, and every time I brought it up, I got told it was stress or just aging or just something to deal with. Nobody was actually listening. That's exactly the gap MIDI Health fills. It's not just another one size fits all telehealth platform. It's a virtual care built specifically for women's hormonal health, run by women who actually understand what you're going through, because they've been through it too. And it's covered by most major insurance plans. I started using MIDI myself. And if you've been dismissed by a doctor even once about your experience, you've got to try it too. It's time to get back to feeling like yourself again. Visit joinmidi.com right now to book your first visit today. That's joinmidi.com to book your first visit. Insurance coverage varies. Check your plan for coverage.

SPEAKER_2 (3:17)

You know that feeling when too many things fall through the cracks? monday.com was built for that gap. The AI work platform where people and agents work side by side to deliver more together. Create your first Monday agent today at monday.com.

Tamsen Fadal (3:33)

Ellen, it's so good to see you.

Ellen Vora (3:35)

Tamsen, it's so good to see you.

Tamsen Fadal (3:36)

We have a history together in the women's health space. But today we're talking about something a little bit different, which is exciting, which is your new book, the title, Season of the Witch. And I think that people might see the title and assume you've always been very comfortable with spirituality and intuition, but that's not really the case. A lot of your life, you were a skeptic.

Ellen Vora (3:59)

Yeah, no, quite the contrary. In a way, I'm the preacher who has sinned. Like I am the witch who was very left brained and skeptical and sort of made an identity around not being into woo woo things.

Tamsen Fadal (4:12)

And science, all science.

Ellen Vora (4:14)

I was obsessed with science.

Tamsen Fadal (4:15)

And you still are, I assume.