Feed the Matriarchy – Details, episodes & analysis

We often spend our lives playing a high-stakes game of 'If/Then'—if I lose the weight, if I stop the habit, if I perfectly manage the household, then I’ll finally be happy. This week on Feed the Matriarchy, we’re joined by Jen Butler, author of Mom Rediscovered, for a raw conversation on what happens when you finally stop trying to 'fix' yourself and start listening instead. Jen opens up about her journey through sobriety and the radical act of dropping out of diet culture, revealing how perfectionism often acts as a mask for our deepest needs. We explore the terrifying, beautiful process of peeling back the symptoms to find the woman who was there all along. If you’ve ever felt lost under the weight of your own expectations, this episode is a roadmap for finding your way back to your own table.

In this episode of Feed the Matriarchy, we are joined by Amanda Pyle, a powerhouse leader in disability advocacy, to discuss the radical act of taking up space physically, emotionally, and historically. We dive deep into the exhausting reality of "auditing" our own presence to make others comfortable and explore how to pivot from asking for permission to expecting others to move for us. From navigating the world in a fat body to reclaiming ancestral history and embracing "no fucks left to give" healing, this conversation is a masterclass in body sovereignty. Amanda reminds us that our value is the only thing not up for public debate, and that claiming our right to exist is the first step toward true liberation.

In this episode of Feed the Matriarchy, we sit down with Deb Benfield, MEd, RDN/LDN, RYT and author of Unapologetic Aging, for a powerful conversation on what it means to age on our own terms. Together, we unpack how diet culture and ageism keep us chasing control, youth, and “relevance,” and how stepping outside of those narratives creates space for something far more meaningful. Deb invites us to see our bodies as evolving ecosystems—not problems to fix—and to consider the legacy we’re shaping when we choose body liberation over body control. This episode is a call to unlearn harmful messages, reclaim our energy, and define aging not as decline, but as a deeper, fuller expression of who we are.

In this episode of Feed the Matriarchy, Johanna and Heather dig into the ways women’s bodies have been turned into commodities—measured, controlled, and constantly evaluated. We talk about body fascism, the cultural pressure to keep women small and manageable, and how diet culture functions as a tool of the patriarchy. But we also explore the antidote: body autonomy. What happens when women stop performing their bodies for approval and start reclaiming them as their own? This conversation is about resistance, liberation, and what it means to take up space in a world that profits from women's shrinking.

In this episode, Johanna and Heather bring in special guest Christina Hartment to dig into intuition—how we reclaim it after a lifetime of being told not to trust ourselves. We talk about taking up space, unlearning the scripts around women’s worth, and why self-trust is a radical act. Christina shares her own journey of following intuition, embracing vulnerability, and redefining success on her own terms. This conversation is about rebuilding trust in ourselves—and helping other women do the same.

In this episode of Feed the Matriarchy, we’re joined by sociologist Ignacia Eschelbach to unpack how bodies come to be labeled “normal” or “deviant”—and who benefits from those classifications. From “too thin” to “too fat,” “too much” to “not enough,” we explore how the rubric for women’s bodies is constantly shifting, ensuring perpetual failure by design. Together, we examine the social, political, and economic forces behind body judgment—and what resistance looks like when we stop turning that scrutiny inward and start naming the system instead.

In our first-ever guest episode, we sit down with Jenn Heettner to unpack the profound, often messy, and beautiful transition known as matrescence. Much like adolescence, the shift into motherhood is a total identity overhaul, yet society often expects us to navigate it quietly. Jenn joins us to discuss the radical act of taking up space—emotionally, physically, and socially—during a time when the world often asks us to shrink. We dive deep into the practical side of this transition, discussing how to scaffold support for yourself during the postpartum period so you aren’t just surviving, but actually held. Whether you are currently in the thick of it or preparing for the journey, this episode is a permission slip to stop "toughing it out" and start building your village.

During our conversation, we reference the Black Women’s Health Imperative (BWHI), an organization dedicated to improving the health and wellness of Black women and girls, specifically through their contributions to Black maternal support and advocacy. Including the link for those that feel compelled to show support.

In this follow-up to our deep dive into the diets, Heather and Johanna explore the quiet, often radical act of rediscovering your own autonomy. Now that we’ve started to dismantle the external rules, we’re asking the big question: What comes next? They discuss the messy, beautiful process of tuning back into your inner voice and learning to trust your intuition after years of being told it couldn't be trusted. From navigating hunger cues to honoring emotional needs, this episode covers all that "listening to yourself" actually entails—moving past the noise of the world and finally coming home to your own body.

In this episode, Heather and Johanna pull back the curtain on the relentless cycle of the diet industry, tracing its history and the ways it has shaped our relationship with food. They get vulnerable about their own years of "experimentation" from the fad diets that promised everything to the quiet exhaustion of constant restriction. They share their personal histories of diets and when they finally said, "fuck it, it's time to get off the roller coaster". This raw, honest look talks about what it actually takes to break free from the noise and finally start feeding the matriarchy from a place of self-trust.

In the first episode of Feed the Matriarchy, Heather and Johanna kick off the podcast by talking about where they learned to shrink-- bodies, voices, and needs—and why unlearning that conditioning matters now more than ever. From diet culture to motherhood to the quiet ways women are taught to disappear, this episode sets the foundation for a podcast rooted in nourishment, nuance, and resistance