The goop Podcast

Drop into this conversation between new friends GP and the brilliant Janet Mock—who is currently a writer, producer, and director on the FX show Pose (along with GP’s fiancé Brad Falchuk). GP and Janet talk about what it’s like to be on the frontlines of a shifting culture and the moment that Janet realized she had to stop waiting for her role model and become the person she had been waiting for. They talk about giving up “dream jobs” for new dreams. Janet schools GP—in the best way—on transgender issues that are really all of our issues. And GP asks Janet’s advice for parents whose children are struggling to be seen by society for who they are.

Laura Lynne Jackson is one of the most incredible psychic mediums of our time. She’s also the New York Times-bestselling author of the thoroughly enjoyable, uplifting read The Light Between Us. Today, she shares some of her profound intuitions with us—like why she believes we all have psychic abilities, how we can change the trajectory of grief, where we can find an endless source of love and connection, and what she thinks we’re meant to learn here on earth.

When Dr. Oscar Serrallach first wrote about postnatal depletion on goop, he hit a nerve—particularly with the revelation that some women experience the aftereffects of having a child for several years. In his Australia-based practice, Dr. Serrallach has focused on helping moms new and years out to restore their health and vitality. And in this episode, he’s sharing his simple strategies, nutrition tips, and a hormone primer so that more of us can finally feel like ourselves again. (For more, see Dr. Serrallach’s new book The Postnatal Depletion Cure and visit goop.com/thepodcast.)

Multi-hyphenate Olivia Wilde is a producer, actor, director, and activist, who believes we need to empower more women to tell their stories—and take a closer look at the stories that we’ve all told ourselves. In this episode, she tells us a few of her own that have changed her perspective. She talks about what it was like being raised by two working parents who were both war-time journalists (one is running for office now). And she talks about the process of changing peoples’ minds. She also makes us laugh—a lot.

Psychotherapist Barry Michels—bestselling coauthor of The Tools—doesn’t believe that uncovering the roots of problems sets people free. Instead, he’s designed quick, accessible tools for getting unstuck and moving through fear, which he coaches some of the most prolific, creative, and established people in the world to use. Part of this work is learning how to find the opportunity in a problem, and part is making peace with the aspects of yourself you’ve always put down, repressed, ignored.

A cardiologist by training, Dr. Alejandro Junger is a trailblazer in functional medicine and the founder of the Clean program. He’s also goop’s OG expert M.D. and our constant guide through new paths of healing. One of the most powerful tools he uses to restore health is detoxification. Detox has become a hotly debated topic, but Junger says it’s not a modern concept, nor a fad, nor a method of deprivation. It’s a way, he believes, of removing blocks and filling in gaps so the body can recover its innate ability to heal itself.

Functional medicine doctor Taz Bhatia, M.D., says that stress overload manifests in different ways in her patients. For some, stress contributes to weight gain or weight loss resistance; for others, stress may be a factor in thyroid disorders, anxiety, PCOS, or gut issues. Here’s what Dr. Bhatia does not tell her patients: to slow down, to calm down, to give something up—things she has no interest in being told or doing herself. Instead, she has drawn from conventional medicine, Ayurveda, traditional Chinese medicine, research, and her own health struggles to come up with a toolbox that women can use to optimize their health one simple, concrete step at a time. 

In 2008, after falling into a deep coma, academic neurosurgeon Eben Alexander had a near-death experience that defied his understanding of how the brain works. For him, it was proof of heaven, which became the name of his New York Times–bestselling memoir. Since then, he’s been exploring the science of consciousness, connection, and spirituality with Karen Newell, an innovator in sound meditation. Together, they share how they’ve learned to tap into a higher consciousness, the existing evidence of a spiritual universe, and why they think we’re on the verge of the greatest shift in human thought.  

When Audrey Gelman opened the women-only co-working and community space the Wing in the fall of 2016, she had no way of knowing that it would quickly become swept up in a larger movement around women’s rights. As the Wing expands around the US and the world, we asked Gelman about navigating this highly charged cultural moment and the push-back that women often get when they go after what they want.

No one emerges from childhood unscathed, says psychiatrist and author of Permission to Parent Robin Berman. Her great talent lies in helping people come to terms with their imperfect past and move beyond any self-limiting beliefs, attachment issues, or disappointments they collected along the way. Whether you had a narcissist for a role model, you didn’t get everything you needed as a kid, or you’ve never been able to forgive your dad’s one mistake, her insight makes it possible to re-parent yourself and finally say goodbye to the baggage that isn’t you.

Sought-after sexuality expert and psychotherapist Esther Perel peels away the layers of desire to reveal some surprising truths about what actually turns women and men on. For one: The secret to female sexuality, Perel says, is how narcissistic it is. She also has some revelatory ideas about why desire dries up in long-term relationships and how to reinvent your intimate life, and she even makes a compelling case for reconsidering the way we think about jealousy as well as infidelity.

In this personal and candid conversation, GP and her mom, Blythe Danner, talk about what it was like living and then acting together, why Blythe was hard on her daughter, and things they would have done—or said—differently. They talk about old boyfriends, Tinder, and vibrators. They talk about the strange thing that happens when you win a major award (an Oscar for GP, a Tony for Blythe) at twenty-six. They talk about co-parenting and forgiveness. They talk about what’s left to accomplish—and the beauty of letting go.

Family therapist and teacher Terry Real has steered many troubled couples away from the brink of divorce, coaching them through struggles with intimacy, honesty, and transparency. In his unconventional approach, he actually gets off the therapist bench and gets involved, lending his own experience to the conversation. He is full of tips for promoting passion in long-term relationships—something he says we aren’t taught how to do.

Dr. Steven Gundry’s career in cardiac surgery took a surprising turn when he met a seemingly hopeless patient who reversed heart damage with food and supplements. Curious, Gundry went on to explore the power of nutrition and search for cures for notoriously difficult-to-treat conditions. He’s become known for cutting lectins (plant proteins) out of his patients’ diets and for his books The Plant Paradox and The Plant Paradox Cookbook. His take on why too many women have been dismissed in the doctor’s office is also compelling. End-of-episode bonus: GP does a round of AMA on being blonde.

Anita Moorjani, the author of Dying to Be Me and What If This Is Heaven?, takes us on a crazy ride through her near-death experience and spontaneous healing from cancer. Apart from that wild story, what’s most striking is how she learned to take autonomy over her health without shouldering self-blame or guilt. For Moorjani, the secret to striking this balance lay not in doing more—but in discovering how to be who she already was. In turn, GP answers a question on her own spirituality.