Wise Women Forward

Wise Women Forward

The origin story of humanity is wrong. This is the correction. A companion to the documentary Wise Women: Humanity’s Untold Origins, this podcast explores the ideas we were never meant to question—women’s power, post-reproductive wisdom, evolution, and the cultural systems that buried them. Hosted by filmmaker Christopher Henze and producer Dominique Debroux, Wise Women Forward features conversations with thinkers, elders, artists, and disruptors who challenge the myths of patriarchy, menopause, and “how things have always been.” This isn’t self-help. It’s a reframe of who we are—and where

  1. 2d ago

    I’m Allowed to Be Wise Now: Catherine O’Kane on Love, People-Pleasing & Coming Back to Yourself

    What happens when you stop trying to be everything for everyone? Dominique talks with Canadian registered clinical counsellor, relationship expert and author Catherine O’Kane, co-author with her husband Duane of Real: The Power of Authentic Connection. Their conversation goes straight into the stuff many of us have spent decades quietly carrying: people-pleasing, over-functioning, romantic expectations, gender roles and the impossible idea that one person should somehow fulfill all our needs. Catherine explains why humans are built for connection and community—and what can happen when we stop performing our assigned roles and begin showing up as whole, vulnerable people. They also talk about Catherine's own marriage, the subtle ways patriarchal expectations become embedded inside us, and the unexpected authority that can arrive with age. As Catherine says of her gray hair: “I’m allowed to be wise now.” And there's a particularly uncomfortable little truth for those of us who chronically give and give: when we over-function, Catherine argues, we may actually be training the people around us not to do their part. Ouch. Also: worth hearing. A warm, funny and wonderfully candid conversation about relationships, community, authenticity and what changes when a woman comes back to herself. Find Catherine Website: Catherine and Duane O’Kane Inc.Book: Real: The Power of Authentic Connection by Catherine & Duane O’KaneDocumentary: REAL And from Wise Women… Learn more about our film Wise Women – Why Menopause Matters at wisewomenmovie.com Rent the film at bingeable.net/wisewomen

    I’m Allowed to Be Wise Now: Catherine O’Kane on Love, People-Pleasing & Coming Back to Yourself

  2. Aug 5

    Science Meets the Body’s Wisdom with Dr. Debs Eastwood

    Dr. Debs Eastwood is a medical doctor, anesthetist, wellness educator, and founder of Your Wellness on Tap. After nearly 20 years in the NHS, she is stepping away from conventional medicine to build a more integrated vision of health through the Sage Health Institute. In this episode, Debs shares how the loss of her younger brother transformed her understanding of medicine, healing, and purpose. She and Dominique discuss the strengths and limitations of acute medical care, the art within anesthetics, clinical hypnotherapy, holistic therapies, and why the body must be treated as a whole—not a collection of isolated symptoms. They also explore midlife reinvention, learning to trust intuition, and what becomes possible when women stop measuring success only by what looks impressive on paper. This is not a rejection of medicine. It is an invitation to take the blinkers off. Your Wellness on Tap: https://yourwellnessontap.com/ Dr. Debs Eastwood on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/debs-eastwood-31309b112/ Wise Women official site: https://wisewomenmovie.com Watch the film: https://bingeable.net/wisewomen Women’s health, holistic health, integrative medicine, midlife, reinvention, menopause, clinical hypnotherapy, wellness, women in medicine, mind-body health Keywords / Tags Women’s health, holistic health, integrative medicine, midlife, reinvention, menopause, clinical hypnotherapy, wellness, women in medicine, mind-body health

    Science Meets the Body’s Wisdom with Dr. Debs Eastwood

  3. Aug 1

    Say It and Stay: Tia Newcomer on Women’s Voices at Work

    CEO and board director Tia Newcomer joins Wise Women Forward for an honest conversation about purpose, caregiving, menopause and the power of women using their voices at work. Tia shares the personal turning point that led her from major corporations into mission-driven leadership—and explains why culture and performance are inseparable. We discuss the pressures that can push women out of the workforce, the professional double standards surrounding emotion and communication, and what leaders can do to support women through pregnancy, caregiving and menopause. Her advice to women who are thinking about walking away? “Say it and stay.” Before you leave, name what you see, ask the difficult question and give change a chance. We also explore how wise women can pay their experience forward by talking more openly about health, careers, money and the choices women face throughout their lives. Connect with Tia: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tianewcomer/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tia_newcomer_ceo Learn more about Wise Women:https://wisewomenmovie.com Rent the film:https://bingeable.net/wisewomen

    Say It and Stay: Tia Newcomer on Women’s Voices at Work

  4. Jul 14

    Where Wisdom Meets Medicine: Dr. Carla Rotering on Healing, Agency, and the Power of Midlife

    What happens when a physician at the height of her career realizes she has lost her way in her own healership? Dr. Carla Rotering—physician, author, speaker, leadership mentor, and psychospiritual teacher—joins Dominique Debroux and Christopher Henze for a powerful conversation about bringing the human being back into medicine. Carla shares how professional overwork and a personal “existential freefall” led her to reconsider everything she had been taught about healing. A lung specialist who had never spoken to her patients about breath as medicine, she began exploring what conventional care leaves out: relationship, intuition, collaboration, spiritual well-being, and the expertise each person carries within their own body. Together, they examine why women’s symptoms and inner knowing are still too often dismissed, how medical culture can silence both patients and practitioners, and why healing must become a partnership rather than a hierarchy. Carla also reflects on the liberation of postmenopausal life—the moment when approval loses its grip, the hormonal storms settle, and a woman can say: “I have nothing left to prove. I’m all about putting goodness into the world.” A soulful, candid conversation about courageous leadership, patient agency, women in medicine, and the wisdom available when we stop treating aging as decline and begin recognizing it as a generative new phase. Learn more about Dr. Carla Rotering:https://www.drcarlarotering.com/ Discover Wise Women – Why Menopause Matters:https://wisewomenmovie.com/ Rent the film:https://bingeable.net/Dr._Carla_cares

    Where Wisdom Meets Medicine: Dr. Carla Rotering on Healing, Agency, and the Power of Midlife

  5. Jul 9

    Jonathan & Carla Sanger: Why Wise Women Still Matter

    In this episode of Wise Women… Forward, Dominique and Christopher sit down with Jonathan and Carla Sanger—two dear collaborators on Wise Women – Why Menopause Matters and two people who understand that storytelling is never just storytelling. It is how culture decides who matters. Jonathan Sanger is an award-winning film, television, and theater producer and director whose career includes The Elephant Man, Frances, Flight of the Navigator, Vanilla Sky, Marshall, and Cabrini. He has produced more than fifty films, shorts, and documentaries, and his work has been connected to Academy Award, BAFTA, and César recognition. (Wikipedia⁠) Carla Sanger brings her own remarkable legacy as the founding CEO of LA’s BEST, an after-school enrichment program serving children with the greatest needs and fewest resources in Los Angeles. In this conversation, she speaks with the kind of grounded authority that doesn’t need to announce itself before changing the room. Together, Jonathan and Carla reflect on why they were drawn to the Wise Women project, what surprised them about the film’s thesis, and why post-menopausal women are not meant to fade into the background. As Jonathan says in the conversation, post-menopausal women are “uniquely suited to being leaders” and among the strongest advocates for a more positive, humanistic society. We talk about women’s confidence, the danger of treating retirement as “after success,” the difference between worshiping women and truly partnering with them, and why men have an essential role to play in helping dismantle the stories that have kept women marginalized and underused for far too long. It’s warm. It’s wise. It’s funny in the places truth always gets funny. And it leaves us with a word we could all use more of right now: hope. Find out more about the movie:https://wisewomenmovie.com Rent the film:https://bingeable.net/wisewomen Learn more about Jonathan Sanger:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Sanger

    Jonathan & Carla Sanger: Why Wise Women Still Matter

  6. Jul 3

    Margaret Cho: Menopause, Power, and the Unionization of Wise Women

    Margaret Cho joins Wise Women… Forward for a fearless conversation about menopause, identity, power, aging, comedy, politics, and the freedom of no longer living as the woman the world expected you to be. Margaret describes menopause as the moment when the old mythology of the self begins to fall away. Hormonal imperatives quiet. Social expectations lose their authority. And a new woman starts to emerge—clearer, freer, and far less interested in behaving politely. In this episode, we talk about: • Menopause as a time of greatness and power• Losing the identity you thought was fixed• Aging and invisibility in Hollywood• Mentoring younger women in comedy• Supporting trans women and expanding sisterhood• How patriarchy harms men as well as women• Why older women must use their power to open doors• The liberation of speaking without apology Margaret also delivers one of our favorite lines yet: “Aging women have been around since the beginning of time, but we’ve never thought to unionize.” Well. Perhaps now we have. Follow Margaret Cho: Website: https://margaretcho.com/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/margaret_cho/TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@themargaretcho Watch Wise Women Rent the film: https://bingeable.net/wisewomenLearn more: https://wisewomenmovie.com

    Margaret Cho: Menopause, Power, and the Unionization of Wise Women

  7. Jun 23

    Radicalized Into the Matriarchy: A Conversation with Dr. Jonna Cohen

    In this conversation, Dr. Jonna Cohen, founder of She Rises in Abundance, joins Wise Women Forward to talk about women’s stories, joyful resistance, menopause, social media, and the growing movement toward a more compassionate, collective form of leadership. We explore what it really means to be “radicalized into the matriarchy” — not as women replacing men at the top, but as a return to community, care, children, elders, the vulnerable, and the wisdom women have carried all along. In this episode, we talk about: • Why women’s stories can transform culture • How social media is helping women find one another • The freedom and clarity that can come with midlife and menopause • Why joy, playfulness, and optimism are acts of resistance • What leadership can look like when it centers community instead of hierarchy Follow Jonna and She Rises in Abundance: Instagram: @sherisesinabundance Rent Wise Women – Humanity’s Untold Origins: https://bingeable.net/wisewomen

    Radicalized Into the Matriarchy: A Conversation with Dr. Jonna Cohen

  8. Jun 18

    She Never Raised Her Voice—She Changed the Business | Nancy Cushing-Jones

    Nancy Cushing-Jones entered Universal Studios in 1979, when only three other women at the company worked above the level of secretary. She went on to become the first female division president in the studio’s history, transform publishing into a global revenue-generating business, and help build the emerging video-game licensing industry.   But this conversation is about more than an extraordinary résumé. Nancy joins Wise Women… Forward to talk about the quiet architecture of power: keeping your back straight, setting clear boundaries, asking for what you deserve, and refusing to confuse aggression with authority. She shares what happened when men assumed she was there to fetch their coffee, how she stopped a notorious Hollywood screamer before he could begin, and why being underestimated can become an advantage—provided you know who you are when you enter the room.   It is a masterclass in leadership without theatrics, confidence without ego, and speaking the truth without surrendering your dignity. Because sometimes power does not shout. Sometimes it smiles politely and says, “No, I don’t think so.” Nancy's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nancy-cushing-jones-366b7/ Rent the Wise Woman Movie - bingeable.net/wisewomen Info about the film wisewomenmovie.com

    She Never Raised Her Voice—She Changed the Business | Nancy Cushing-Jones
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About

The origin story of humanity is wrong. This is the correction. A companion to the documentary Wise Women: Humanity’s Untold Origins, this podcast explores the ideas we were never meant to question—women’s power, post-reproductive wisdom, evolution, and the cultural systems that buried them. Hosted by filmmaker Christopher Henze and producer Dominique Debroux, Wise Women Forward features conversations with thinkers, elders, artists, and disruptors who challenge the myths of patriarchy, menopause, and “how things have always been.” This isn’t self-help. It’s a reframe of who we are—and where

Information

  • Creator
    Wise Women Forward
  • Years Active
    2026
  • Episodes
    24
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Wise Women Forward
  • Show Website
    Wise Women Forward