She's back. In Part 2 of one of the most requested conversations in Getting Naked history, Valerie and Mackenzie Phillips pick up right where they left off — and go even deeper.
They begin with listener voicemails, including questions about working together again and about Mackenzie's memoir High on Arrival — a book Mackenzie is clear about: it's not a book about incest. It's a memoir. A full life, on the page, with honesty and courage.
From there, the conversation moves into some of the most raw and important territory the podcast has ever covered: the 90-day trauma program that changed Mackenzie's life, the letter she received at work years after the book came out that confirmed what she had always had a knowing about, and the EMDR therapy that finally helped both women begin to process what had happened to them. They talk about carrying someone else's shame, about forgiving a father on his deathbed not for him but for herself, and about what recovery actually means — for drugs, for trauma, for survival of any kind.
They also talk about grief — the recent loss of Mackenzie's dearest friend Marissa, who died four weeks after being diagnosed with anaplastic thyroid cancer. About discovering in your 60s that you're actually an introvert. About celibacy, boundaries, and the radical act of caring for yourself.
And they end where all the best conversations end: with two women who have known each other for over 50 years, sitting across from each other for the first time, saying I love you and meaning every word.
In the Full Reveal — exclusively for Valerie's Place members — they get into the naked truth about recovery: what it really takes, the many paths to the top of the mountain, and why, as Gabor Maté says, the question is never "why the drugs" but always "why the pain."
📅 September 18th at 1pm ET — Live After-Show with Mackenzie Phillips. Submit your questions and join live. Available to all paid members only on Valerie's Place.
