Out Loud With Cindy Schwartz

Cindy Schwartz
  • 5.0 (2)
  • Personal Journals
  • Updated Biweekly

Cindy Schwartz is the host of Out Loud, a storytelling podcast where the mic is passed to the lived experiences of everyday women. It's where we talk about hard subjects, Out Loud. As a professional coach, Cindy has spent years bearing witness to deeply personal and nuanced stories. No matter the circumstance, the common theme that consistently emerges: resilience and liberation. She created Out Loud from the belief that in today's world we need to feel heard, and we also need to hear the stories of others. Listening to lived experiences helps us better understand our own lives and reminds us that we belong to something bigger than ourselves. In each episode, a woman shares a story that is hers to tell. Together, Cindy and her guest uncover the wisdom within these moments and brings those insights forward to be shared, Out Loud.

Episodes

  1. 6d ago

    "I Felt Like My Mind Was in a Cage" with Christine Guenette

    What if the darkest moments of your month weren't simply PMS, but a serious and treatable medical condition? In this powerful and deeply personal conversation, Christine shares her experience living with Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder (PMDD), a severe and often misunderstood condition that affects millions of women yet remains significantly underdiagnosed. For years, Christine found herself trapped in a cycle of emotional and psychological symptoms that seemed to take over her life. During certain phases of her menstrual cycle, she experienced intense shifts in mood, thinking, and emotional regulation that left her feeling as though she had lost access to mental facilities. As she describes it, it felt like her mind was in a cage. Because PMDD symptoms can closely resemble anxiety, depression, and other mental health conditions, many women spend years searching for answers without realizing that their symptoms may be linked to their hormonal cycle. Despite its prevalence, awareness of PMDD remains surprisingly low, leaving countless women struggling in silence. Christine shares her journey to diagnosis, the challenges of navigating a condition she didn't understand, and the relief that came with finally finding the right support, treatment, and medication. Today, she is living well and using her story to help others recognize the signs, ask questions, and seek the care they deserve. Whether you've heard of PMDD before or are learning about it for the first time, this conversation offers hope, validation, and a deeper understanding of a condition that deserves far more awareness. If this conversation resonates with you, please share it with someone who may need to hear it. Greater awareness can help more women find answers, support, and hope. christine-guenette.com

    "I Felt Like My Mind Was in a Cage" with Christine Guenette

  2. Jul 3

    "You're starting chemo on Monday are the best words I've ever heard" with Lisa Braidwood

    At just 28 years old, a week after getting engaged, Lisa Braidwood was diagnosed with stage 3C breast cancer and was forced to confront an uncertain future at the very moment her life was just beginning. Twenty-one years later, she is living proof that the story doesn't always end where it's predicted to. In this episode, Lisa shares the raw, unfiltered reality of her diagnosis, treatment, but this is not just a cancer story. It's a story about what happens after: the unexpected paths, the identity shifts, the resilience built over time, and the deep gratitude that comes from simply being alive. Lisa's perspective is grounded, powerful, and deeply human. She doesn't sugarcoat what she went through, but she also doesn't live there. Instead, she brings us into how she learned to move with life rather than resist it, and how overcoming cancer shaped her into someone who meets every chapter with presence, grace, and acceptance. A story of living, but more importantly, a story of becoming.

    "You're starting chemo on Monday are the best words I've ever heard" with Lisa Braidwood

  3. Jun 19

    "I found my value in abandoning myself for others" with Erin Marguerite

    What happens when the life you've been told to want isn't the life you actually want? In this episode, Cindy sits down with Erin Marguerite to talk about choosing an unconventional path long before it became trendy to do so. Growing up as the oldest of four children, Erin learned early that her role was to help. She describes feeling "shrink-wrapped" by family expectations, often putting her own needs aside while caring for her younger siblings and becoming the dependable people-pleaser everyone counted on. Like many of us, Erin followed the path that seemed laid out for her. She went to university with plans of becoming a teacher, but quickly realized that a traditional career and a 9-to-5 life didn't fit who she was. Sitting behind a desk and following a prescribed path felt disconnected from the freedom and creativity she craved. Rather than continuing to live according to other people's expectations, Erin began creating a life that reflected her own values. Over the years, she has continually reinvented herself, giving herself permission to evolve, explore new possibilities, and choose herself again and again. Now, as she steps into her next chapter, Erin is helping other women break free from the roles they've outgrown and build lives that feel authentic, expansive, and fully their own. This conversation is about people-pleasing, identity, self-trust, belonging and the courage it takes to create a life that looks different from what others imagined for you. Erin's podcast https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/own-your-wild/id1518657803 Erin's website  https://www.erinmarguerite.com/ Erin Book: BOOK LINK

    "I found my value in abandoning myself for others" with Erin Marguerite

  4. Jun 5

    "Humour was the only way I knew to deal with Life" with Amy Miller

    Amy Miller spent most of her life wondering why she felt different. Growing up, humour wasn't just entertainment, it was survival. Amy learned early on to use comedy as a way to navigate life's challenges, mask her struggles, and find connection in a world where she never quite felt like she belonged. She talks openly about feeling out of step with others, speaking too fast, thinking too fast, and constantly questioning her place.  When the most important person in her life, her mother and lifelong map, died, Amy found herself navigating a world she no longer knew how to move through. After years of trying to reinvent herself and understand who she was, she continued searching for answers. It wasn't until perimenopause amplified symptoms she had unknowingly lived with for decades that Amy was finally diagnosed with ADHD in her 40s. Suddenly, a lifetime of experiences began to make sense. In this candid conversation, Amy shares how ADHD shaped her identity, and how understanding her neurodivergence changed the way she sees herself and her past. Today, she is passionate about helping others who have spent their lives feeling different, misunderstood, or like they never quite fit into the boxes the world created for them. This is a conversation about identity, belonging, resilience, and what happens when the missing piece finally falls into place.

    "Humour was the only way I knew to deal with Life" with Amy Miller

  5. May 22

    "It Was the Darkest Time in My Life" with Kat Teller

    Kat was so focused on the pregnancy and delivery that she never stopped to think about what would come after. Postpartum depression wasn't on her radar. Her story begins when her new baby arrived and the joy she had been promised didn't. Instead, there was a darkness she didn't recognize. Thoughts that didn't feel like her own. A disconnection from her newborn that left her completely lost during what was supposed to be the most beautiful time in her life. Despite being a Coach, Yoga and mindfulness teacher, none of her tools were working. One of the scariest parts, Kat says, is that many women don't even realize it's happening to them. Shame keeps so many mothers silent. They're afraid to say the thoughts out loud, afraid of what it means if they don't feel the connection everyone tells them they're supposed to feel.  She tells her story softly, but you can feel how fresh the scars still are. Honest, raw, and deeply grounded, Kat reflects on her experience and turns it outward, because more than anything, she wants other women to know they don't have to figure it out alone and that there are many paths to freedom.  Let's be very clear; postpartum depression is not the baby blues. It is a debilitating mental health condition, and too many women are suffering in silence because the people around them don't know what to look for or how to recognize the signs. This episode is for new moms and the people who love them. Women need the people closest to them to recognize when something is wrong. This is one woman's real and honest truth about one of society's biggest shames. Let's break the cycle.

    "It Was the Darkest Time in My Life" with Kat Teller

  6. May 15

    BONUS episode- The Science of Diets & Weight-With Robin Glance and Melanie Richards

    The conversation wasn't finished. So we went back in. Following the powerful episode 3, Cindy Schwartz and Melanie Richards sit back down,  this time with Robin Glance, Montreal-based registered Anti-diet dietitian, Health at Every Size advocate, and the woman who will quietly change the way you think about food, your body, and what healthy actually means. Robin doesn't do diets. She doesn't weigh her clients. She doesn't count calories or sell quick fixes. What she does is help people rebuild their relationship with food, gently, honestly, and without judgment. In this special episode, Robin brings us the science behind dieting, and talks about what the research actually says about weight and health, how diet culture has been lying to us, and what it really means to nourish our bodies from a place of love rather than control.  This is the episode brings us the science and roots behind Melanie's F**k skinny culture revolution. We debunk myths you may have believed as truth your whole life. Tune in and learn the truth to reclaim your own body sovereignty Robin's website: https://robinglancenutrition.com/about/  Melanie's website: https://happytreeyoga.com/  The Anti Diet https://christyharrison.com/foodpsych Fearing the black body; the racial origins of fat phobia https://a.co/d/0iGbhpMS Intuitive eating: https://a.co/d/0cJgK181 Ayurvedic doshas: https://kripalu.org/living-kripalu/ayurvedic-doshas  The Association for Size Diversity  https://asdah.org/

    BONUS episode- The Science of Diets & Weight-With Robin Glance and Melanie Richards

  7. May 8

    "I didn't know I was supposed to be vulnerable" with Marianna Guenette

    When Mariana's world was shaken by three unexpected words from her husband, her first instinct was to do what she'd always done, give more, try harder, hold on tighter.  What she didn't yet know was that her anxious attachment style had been quietly writing the rules of her relationships her whole life, tracing all the way back to her childhood.  It wasn't until she stopped trying to fix everything around her and turned inward that everything began to shift and along the way, she shared the secrets that helped her find peace and leave old patterns behind for good.  Mariana's story is one of radical honesty, hard-won self-awareness, and a transformation that can only come when you're finally brave enough to look at yourself clearly.  Attachment theory https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attachment_in_adults?wprov=sfti1 Marianna's LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/mariannaguenette?utm_source=share_via&utm_content=profile&utm_medium=member_ios

    "I didn't know I was supposed to be vulnerable" with Marianna Guenette

  8. Apr 24

    "It all seemed like a massive crapshoot" with Lana Burton

    Lana Burton is an educator, a mom of two, wife and rugby referee & one of the most fiercely honest, unflinchingly real voices you'll hear this season. She joins Cindy to talk about what happens when you want something with every fiber of your being, but your body betrays you, and no one can tell you why. Her epic quest to become a mother was fraught with more than a dozen failed rounds of IVF, and then eventually into forced menopause. Lana details very honestly not just the physical but the emotional cost that no one warned her about.  There is a persistent grief she carried in moving through a world that never learned how to hold space for women trying to make a family at any cost.  Lana is unfiltered and unapologetic, but more than anything, she's generous. She's sharing her story because she wished someone had when she needed it most.  You'll feel her frustration and her relief, sometimes in the same breath. This one is for you if you have ever felt invisible in your pain.  Lana's kids Book Cindy's website: www.becoached.ca

    "It all seemed like a massive crapshoot" with Lana Burton

  9. Apr 10

    Did you ever ask your body if it wanted to be skinny? With Melanie Richards

    Most of us have spent years trying to shrink ourselves, and rarely stopped to wonder whether our bodies actually wanted that. Melanie Richards is the founder of Happy Tree yoga, and the force behind F**k Skinny, a movement based in reclaiming joy, health, and identity from a culture obsessed with thinness. In this conversation, we talk about what disordered eating really looks like, how clean eating in the name of health and wellness can cause just as much harm, and the quiet devastation of living in a society that tells you that you are not good enough unless you meet its unrealistic beauty standards.  But mostly, we talk about what it means to finally learn to love yourself at any size.  This is a conversation for EveryBody. Literally. Please note that this is a sensitive topic in which we discuss eating disorders and the devastating potential consequences. Listener discretion is advised. Melanie's online series starting Monday, April 13: https://onlinecourses.happytreeyoga.com/spring-awakenings Melanie's website: https://happytreeyoga.com/ Melanie's facebook https://www.facebook.com/melanie.richards.10  The Anti Diet https://christyharrison.com/book-anti-diet-intuitive-eating-christy-harrison Health at every size: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_at_Every_Size  Cindy's website: www.becoached.ca

    Did you ever ask your body if it wanted to be skinny? With Melanie Richards

  10. Mar 27

    "The best gift he ever gave me was leaving" with Beca Salmon​

    Beca is a nurse practitioner, yoga teacher, and author of The Third Option, a memoir centered on the final year of her marriage and its unexpected unraveling. In this thoughtful conversation, Beca and Cindy explore the lessons she learned, the accountability she found in examining her role, and the power of narrative that led her to her liberation. It's about so much more than the ending of a 17 year relationship. It's about what's on the other side of the choices we are afraid to make. What makes her perspective compelling is that it's not the typical post-divorce narrative; she's honest, grounded, and surprisingly full of light. This episode speaks to anyone standing at a crossroads in their relationships, of any kind, and wondering what freedom might look like on the other side of surrender, and what happens when we take responsibility for our own life and happiness instead of leaving it in someone else's hands. https://atmospherepress.com/books/the-third-option-by-beca-salmon/ Cindy's website; https://www.becoached.ca/

    "The best gift he ever gave me was leaving" with Beca Salmon​

  11. Mar 12

    Getting out of my own way with Cindy Schwartz

    After 22 years in a corporate leadership career, Cindy Schwartz faced the question many people quietly ask themselves: Is this really the life I want? She made the bold decision to leave the identity she had built and step into something far more uncertain, but far more aligned. Joined by her dear friends Hilary and Jenn, Cindy shares the honest story behind that leap, unpacking the deeply personal path that brought her here: from childhood loneliness, to becoming the responsible one, to finally surrendering to a more creative and intentional life as a coach and podcast host. This is the origin story behind the mic. Book referenced: https://untetheredsoul.com/ Cindy's website: www.becoached.ca

  12. Mar 9

    Trailer

    Out Loud With Cindy Schwartz

  • 12 Episodes

Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
2 Ratings

About

Cindy Schwartz is the host of Out Loud, a storytelling podcast where the mic is passed to the lived experiences of everyday women. It's where we talk about hard subjects, Out Loud. As a professional coach, Cindy has spent years bearing witness to deeply personal and nuanced stories. No matter the circumstance, the common theme that consistently emerges: resilience and liberation. She created Out Loud from the belief that in today's world we need to feel heard, and we also need to hear the stories of others. Listening to lived experiences helps us better understand our own lives and reminds us that we belong to something bigger than ourselves. In each episode, a woman shares a story that is hers to tell. Together, Cindy and her guest uncover the wisdom within these moments and brings those insights forward to be shared, Out Loud.

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