Hysteria Hotline

About Hysteria Hotline

Welcome to Hysteria Hotline — a space for the chronically unheard. Here, we share stories of invisible illness, dismissed pain, and the daily struggle of navigating care systems never built for us. If you’ve been told ‘you’re fine’ while your body screamed, or heard ‘it’s all in your head’ more times than you can count, this space is for you. This is where we get honest about the frustration, the strength, and yes, the rage, of living in a world that still brands women and marginalised people ‘hysterical’ instead of listening. You’re not overreacting. You’re not imagining it. And you are definitely not alone. hysteriahotline.substack.com (https://hysteriahotline.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast)

Publisher

Vesna Vavladellis, Dr Nurse Paula & Jacky Pelcastre

Category

health & fitness · society & culture

Language

en

Explicit

Yes

First episode

1 Dec 2025

Latest episode

8 Jun 2026

Latest episodes

16 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   8 Jun 2026

   Season 2 | Episode 8: Our Stories Are Medicine (Season 2 Finale)

   ☎️ Episode 8: Our Stories Are Medicine (Season Finale) In this season finale, Vesna, Jacky & Dr Nurse Paula reflect on the power of the spoken word and the way one person’s story can become medicine for a stranger who needed to know they weren’t alone. Vesna, Dr. Nurse Paula, and Jacky come together for the Season 2 finale to do what this podcast has always done best, sit with the stories, honour what was shared and refuse to wrap it all in a tidy bow. Because there are no tidy bows here, just truth. Across eight episodes and two continents, they heard from women and people in female bodies who were dismissed, disbelieved, backed into corners, and told to just get on with it. And still they showed up. They shared their stories. They gave us a part of themselves, and that as it turns out, is medicine. In this closing conversation, they reflect on the themes that wove themselves through this season: * The revolutionary act of being truly heard * Informed consent and how often it’s really just acquiescence dressed up in paperwork * The history of the word hysteria and the brain cancers that were missed because no one would listen * Endometriosis diagnosed in a man and suddenly there’s a blood test by Friday * What it means to stop trying to fix and start learning how to be with pain * Grief as resistance, wailing as reclamation, keening as an act that was once banned and is now being reborn * The female oral tradition, from nursing handovers, to kitchen tables, to this very podcast * And the quiet aching tenderness of caring for someone as they cross the threshold This is not a recap. It’s a closing circle. We are already so grateful for the guests joining us in Season 3 and if you have a story you’re ready to share, we want to hear it. Reach out. Come sit with us on the hotline. 💌 Subscribe to stay with us as Season 3 unfolds and thank you, from the bottom of our hysterical little hearts, for being here. Listen now → 🎙️ Episode 8: Our Stories Are Medicine(Available wherever you get your podcasts.) Disclaimer: Hysteria Hotline is for listening, laughing, and occasionally raging, not for medical advice. This podcast contains strong language, sensitive topics, personal stories, blunt opinions, biting truths, and the horrors of the patriarchy. By tuning in, you accept that we’re here to expose bias, share experiences, and spill the tea on medical nonsense — not prescribe treatment, give medical advice or diagnose. If you have health concerns, always seek the guidance of a qualified healthcare provider with any questions regarding a medical condition. For everything else like commiseration, validation, and a healthy dose of outrage, then you’re in the right place. Side effects may include laughter, rage, validation, and the sudden urge to demand better care. By listening, you acknowledge that the hosts and producers of Hysteria Hotline are not responsible for any actions taken based on the content of this podcast. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit hysteriahotline.substack.com (https://hysteriahotline.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1)

2. 

   18 May 2026

   Season 2 | Episode 7: The Weight of Their Words

   ☎️ Episode 7: The Weight of Their Words What happens when the people meant to heal you become the ones who harm you? This is not a story about weight loss, it’s a story about survival & the cost of being told your body is a problem to fix. At 20 years old, Rachel Blake was told she wouldn’t live to see 30 unless she had bariatric surgery immediately. With no comorbidities and no time for a second opinion, she was rushed into a life altering procedure that left her battling post-surgical complications, chronic deficiencies and a long road to recovery. In this episode of Hysteria Hotline, Vesna, Dr Nurse Paula & Jacky sit with Rachel thirteen years on, as she reflects on the courage it takes to do the slow, painful work of reclaiming her body and her voice. Together they unpack: * How early conditioning to “just trust the experts” can silence self-advocacy especially in women and marginalised people * The devastating consequences of medical coercion and fear-based care * How weight stigma shapes healthcare, turning body size into a moral and medical crisis * Why the absence of informed consent is a breach of medical ethics * The myth that thinness equals wellness Rachel’s journey through medical trauma and recovery reminds us that the body remembers what the system forgets. This episode is a testament to resilience, courage and the radical act of listening to ourselves and to each other. 💌 Subscribe for stories from the unheard, the dismissed, the chronically doubted and the so‑called hysterical. Stay on the line as we continue reclaiming our bodies, our stories and our right to be believed. Listen now → 🎙️ Episode 7: The Weight of Their Words(Available wherever you get your podcasts.) This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit hysteriahotline.substack.com (https://hysteriahotline.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1)

3. 

   11 May 2026

   Season 2 | Episode 6: Stop Trying to Fix Me

   ☎️ Season 2 | Episode 6: Stop Trying to Fix Me Dropping the cure, rewilding the nervous system and trading the “spoon theory” for something a little more honest…the “f*ck bucket”. In this episode, Vesna and Jacky sit down with Lori Glazebrook, a somatic practitioner who spent decades navigating chronic pain while being handed the same answer on repeat, you’re fine. She was not fine. She was just really good at being dismissed. A hysterectomy, a series of complications nobody prepared her for and finally, three diagnoses, peripheral neuropathy, POTS and Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome. The relief didn’t last long, because after then came the real work of learning to live in a body the world wasn’t built for. Rewilding a nervous system that had been held in captivity for years. And somewhere along the way, swapping I’m going to be productive today for something that actually felt true, I’m going to be creative today. We explore what happens when you stop chasing a cure and start learning to live. Lori shares her journey through nervous system rewilding, a lot of unlearning and an energy management system she calls the f*ck bucket…spoon theory, it is not. Together we unpack; * Why the obsession with cure keeps patients stuck * Disability as grief, as gift and as identity, holding it all without letting the pursuit of a cure taking the wheel * What it looks like to stop apologising for your body and start listening to it instead * Captivity culture vs. liberation and what it actually means to choose the latter * The “f*ck bucket” energy management system and why it works * Capitalism, productivity, and the poem that cracked something open “Stop trying to fix me. Help me learn how to be with this reality.” This episode is about more than chronic illness. It's about identity, autonomy, and the quiet act of deciding that your body, exactly as it is, is worth being with. Stay on the line. 💌 Subscribe if you've ever been sent home with a shrug, told it was stress, or made to feel like the problem was you. It was never you. Stay on the line. Listen now → 🎙️ Episode 6: Stop Trying to Fix Me (Available wherever you get your podcasts.) Guest Info/Resources: Lori Glazebrook - Somatic Practitioner My work goes beyond mapping and naming—as a somatic practitioner I help people deconstruct the nervous system patterns that keep the cycle going—the functional freeze, the burnout, the self-doubt—I help people access their inner-agency and authority, so they have the capacity to live a full life. I also work as a consultant to organizations who want to create cultures of liberation and care for their people. You can find the Raised in Captivity framework and find out how to work with me at rewildingthenervoussystem.com (https://rewildingthenervoussystem.com) and follow my weekly Substack, Reflections From the Roots (https://substack.com/@reflectionsfromtheroots) to learn more. https://www.loriglazebrook.com (https://www.loriglazebrook.com) https://rewildingthenervoussystem.com (https://rewildingthenervoussystem.com) https://substack.com/@reflectionsfromtheroots (https://substack.com/@reflectionsfromtheroots) Disclaimer: Hysteria Hotline is for listening, laughing, and occasionally raging, not for medical advice. This podcast contains strong language, sensitive topics, personal stories, blunt opinions, biting truths, and the horrors of the patriarchy. By tuning in, you accept that we’re here to expose bias, share experiences, and spill the tea on medical nonsense — not prescribe treatment, give medical advice or diagnose. If you have health concerns, always seek the guidance of a qualified healthcare provider with any questions regarding a medical condition. For everything else like commiseration, validation, and a healthy dose of outrage, then you’re in the right place. Side effects may include laughter, rage, validation, and the sudden urge to demand better care. By listening, you acknowledge that the hosts and producers of Hysteria Hotline are not responsible for any actions taken based on the content of this podcast. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit hysteriahotline.substack.com (https://hysteriahotline.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1)

4. 

   4 May 2026

   Season 2 | Episode 5: Field Notes from the Oncology Ward

   ☎️ Episode 5: Field Notes from the Oncology Ward When you’ve spent decades studying how humans build hierarchies and power structures and then you find yourself inside one, you start taking notes. In Episode 5, Vesna, Jacky & Paula sit down with Karin Costenoble, former anthropologist, systems lover and ongoing breast cancer patient who shares her experience navigating cancer care in Australia. What unfolds in this episode is not just a cancer story. It’s a systems story. Karin was diagnosed just over 12 months ago and what followed was a crash course in medical hierarchy, siloed communication, conflicting specialist opinions, a treatment plan delivered by text messaged and a language that somehow still finds a way to call breasts “dense”, a uterus “bulky” and a cervix “incompetent.” Karin coped the way she knew how. She observed, she documented, she bought stationery. There were notebooks, there were tabs, there was a ring binder and when things started to get serious, the clipboard eventually came out. Because when the system doesn’t hand you a map, you make one. This episode moves beyond one diagnosis and into something bigger, the anthropology of modern medicine. Together we unpack; * The quiet indignities embedded in medical terminology. * How “standard of care” seems to depend on which surgeon you see. * The hierarchy embedded in hospital systems. * The emotional labour placed on patients to “manage” their own care. * And the simple fixes that could exist if systems valued patient experience as much as surgical throughput. We talk about simple solutions, checklists, follow-ups, standardised education and why they remain inconsistently applied. Because the issue isn’t a lack of resources. It’s a lack of integration. Karin is still currently in the depths of treatment. This isn’t a retrospective critique from safe distance, it’s field notes written in biro, sometimes through gritted teeth, inside the system itself. This is not a rant, it’s a systems audit. Because systems don’t improve without critique and patients shouldn’t need anthropology training or a clipboard to survive them. 💌 Subscribe for honest audits of women’s healthcare, invisible labour, medical hierarchy, and the design flaws we’re no longer whispering about. Stay on the line. Listen now → 🎙️ Episode 5: Field Notes from the Oncology Ward (Available wherever you get your podcasts.) Resources: Cancer Council Australia https://www.cancer.org.au (https://www.cancer.org.au) Cancer Australiahttps://www.canceraustralia.gov.au (https://www.canceraustralia.gov.au) National Breast Cancer Foundation Australia https://nbcf.org.au (https://nbcf.org.au) Breast Cancer Network Australiahttps://www.bcna.org.au (https://www.bcna.org.au) Think Pink Foundation (Breast Cancer Care & Support)https://www.thinkpink.org.au (https://www.thinkpink.org.au) McGrath Foundation: Cancer Care Support & Awareness https://www.mcgrathfoundation.com.au (https://www.mcgrathfoundation.com.au) Disclaimer: Hysteria Hotline is for listening, laughing, and occasionally raging, not for medical advice. This podcast contains strong language, sensitive topics, personal stories, blunt opinions, biting truths, and the horrors of the patriarchy. By tuning in, you accept that we’re here to expose bias, share experiences, and spill the tea on medical nonsense — not prescribe treatment, give medical advice or diagnose. If you have health concerns, always seek the guidance of a qualified healthcare provider with any questions regarding a medical condition. For everything else like commiseration, validation, and a healthy dose of outrage, then you’re in the right place. Side effects may include laughter, rage, validation, and the sudden urge to demand better care. By listening, you acknowledge that the hosts and producers of Hysteria Hotline are not responsible for any actions taken based on the content of this podcast. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit hysteriahotline.substack.com (https://hysteriahotline.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1)

5. 

   27 Apr 2026

   Season 2 | Episode 4: Limits of Our Language

   ☎️ Episode 4: Limits of Our Language In this episode, we unpack a central truth; language doesn’t just describe reality, it constructs it, and in healthcare and helping systems, that construction is shaped by power. Vesna, Jacky & Dr. Nurse Paula are joined by Maria Papadontas, a mother, social worker of nearly 30 years, trauma counsellor, and somatic-based trauma-informed yoga teacher, for a conversation that moves between culture, migration, medicine, and the body. Maria reflects on connection as something we are wired for, yet increasingly distanced from by fast-paced systems, productivity culture, and institutional structures that prioritise throughput over presence. From growing up in Australia to living in Greece, she shares how culture shapes belonging and how language shapes what feels possible. At the heart of this episode is an exploration of discourse in healthcare. How women’s bodies have historically been framed as emotional, hormonal, unreliable. How those narratives seep into clinical spaces. How power shows up quietly, in tone, in documentation, in what gets written down and what gets dismissed. Together, the conversation explores what happens when women preface their pain with apology.“I’m sorry.”“It’s probably nothing.”“I know you’re busy.” And what it means when tears in a woman confirm a narrative, but tears in a man signal severity. At the heart of this episode is repair as practice. Not being nice. Not being perfect. But staying. Sitting in discomfort. Naming mistakes. Allowing both stories to exist in the same room. Together, they unpack: • How language shapes embodied authority • The impact of cultural and colonial narratives on care • Why women pre-discredit themselves in medical spaces • The power of rupture and repair in therapeutic relationships This episode is about slowing down inside systems that reward speed and choosing connection anyway. 💌 Subscribe for honest conversations on women’s health, invisible illness, trauma, systems and healing. Stay on the line with us as Season 2 continues to unfold. Listen now → 🎙️ Episode 4: Limits of Our Language (Available wherever you get your podcasts.) Disclaimer: Hysteria Hotline is for listening, laughing, and occasionally raging, not for medical advice. This podcast contains strong language, sensitive topics, personal stories, blunt opinions, biting truths, and the horrors of the patriarchy. By tuning in, you accept that we’re here to expose bias, share experiences, and spill the tea on medical nonsense — not prescribe treatment, give medical advice or diagnose. If you have health concerns, always seek the guidance of a qualified healthcare provider with any questions regarding a medical condition. For everything else like commiseration, validation, and a healthy dose of outrage, then you’re in the right place. Side effects may include laughter, rage, validation, and the sudden urge to demand better care. By listening, you acknowledge that the hosts and producers of Hysteria Hotline are not responsible for any actions taken based on the content of this podcast. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit hysteriahotline.substack.com (https://hysteriahotline.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1)

6. 

   20 Apr 2026

   Season 2 | Episode 3: Nurse Mildred & The Responsibility Thread

   ☎️ Season 2 | Episode 3: Nurse Mildred & The Responsibility Thread If you’ve ever powered through exhaustion, been praised for coping or your body whispered slow down and then eventually screamed it, this space is for you. In this episode of Hysteria Hotline, we welcome back Thea Baker, a trauma-focused somatic psychotherapist, counsellor, and PhD researcher at Deakin University, who first joined us in Season 1 for The Imposter (https://hysteriahotline.substack.com/p/season-1-part-2-episode-7-the-imposter?r=2m32md). This time, we meet her on the other side of a clinical trial, a transcontinental caregiving trip and a body that said “enough.” After months of holding space professionally, parenting, navigating aging parents, and carrying the invisible labour that so many women know intimately, Thea returned home to Australia and collapsed into forced rest. Infection. Inflammation. Antibiotics. Corticosteroids. A system that had quietly accumulated more than it could metabolise. Together, they unpack: * The lifelong thread of over-responsibility * Being the emotional regulator in your family of origin * The sandwich generation squeeze, adult children and aging parents * When burnout turns into bodily shutdown * The grief of not launching into the New Year at full speed * And the radical practice of asking: Is this actually mine to carry? Thea shares the moment she caught herself holding other people’s imagined sadness and chose gently to put it down. The practice of interrupting the default and the power of naming parts. Where even Nurse Mildred, a caregiving alter who gets shit done, makes an appearance. There is laughter. There is grief. There is the messy in-between of shedding skins and renegotiating who we are as daughters, mothers, carers, professionals and women moving through another round around the sun. We explore what it means to stop logging ourselves to death. To notice the voice that says “What about them?” and gently respond, “Not mine.” To sit in disappointment without turning it into failure. To refine instead of shame. This is a conversation about capacity. About boundaries that evolve. About inherited expectations we never signed. About forced rest as initiation. About being the lizard in the Australian summer instead of the martyr at the altar of productivity. 💌 Subscribe for conversations on women’s health, invisible labour, trauma, caregiving and the quiet rebellions that change everything. Listen now → 🎙️ Episode 3: Nurse Mildred & The Responsibility Thread (Available wherever you get your podcasts.) Guest Info/Resources: Thea Baker - Thea Baker Wellbeinghttps://www.theabaker.com.au (https://www.theabaker.com.au)https://www.instagram.com/theabakerwellbeing (https://www.instagram.com/theabakerwellbeing) Disclaimer: Hysteria Hotline is for listening, laughing, and occasionally raging, not for medical advice. This podcast contains strong language, sensitive topics, personal stories, blunt opinions, biting truths, and the horrors of the patriarchy. By tuning in, you accept that we’re here to expose bias, share experiences, and spill the tea on medical nonsense — not prescribe treatment, give medical advice or diagnose. If you have health concerns, always seek the guidance of a qualified healthcare provider with any questions regarding a medical condition. For everything else like commiseration, validation, and a healthy dose of outrage, then you’re in the right place. Side effects may include laughter, rage, validation, and the sudden urge to demand better care. By listening, you acknowledge that the hosts and producers of Hysteria Hotline are not responsible for any actions taken based on the content of this podcast. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit hysteriahotline.substack.com (https://hysteriahotline.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1)

7. 

   13 Apr 2026

   Season 2 | Episode 2: Hysteria & The Womb Awakening

   ☎️ Season 2 | Episode 2: Hysteria & The Womb Awakening If you’ve ever been told your pain is normal, your cycle is inconvenient, or your body is something to override rather than understand, this episode is for you. In Episode 2, Vesna, Dr. Nurse Paula and Jacky sit with Fotini, a traditional women’s body worker and womb keeper, for a conversation that traces hysteria back to its roots, not as disorder, but as disconnection. From the Greek hystera, meaning womb, this episode explores how women’s bodies became medicalised, silenced and separated from their own intelligence. What unfolds is not just a story of illness, but of remembering. Returning to the womb as an epicentre, to cycles as guidance and to intuition as knowledge. Fotini shares her lived experience of growing up with painful cycles that were normalised, learning early to disconnect from her body and navigating years of dismissal before receiving a diagnosis of endometriosis. This conversation is not about pathology, it is about what happens when pain is ignored long enough that disconnection feels normal. Together, they unpack: * The origins of “hysteria” and the medicalisation of the female bodies * Menstrual shame, silence, and inherited narratives around women’s pain * Living with endometriosis and navigating systems that don’t always listen * Traditional womb and pelvic healing practices across cultures * Reclaiming intuition, boundaries, and cyclical intelligence * What shifts when women return to the centre of their own bodies This episode is about awakening to what was never truly lost. Not hysteria. Not weakness. Not disorder.But wisdom, long silenced, now heard. 💌 Subscribe for conversations that listen differently. Listen now → 🎙️ Episode 2: Hysteria & The Womb Awakening (Available wherever you get your podcasts.) Guest Info/Resources: Fotini - Inna Somahttps://www.instagram.com/_innasoma_ (https://www.instagram.com/_innasoma_) Book Recommendations: Her Blood is Gold by Lara OwenWild Power: Discover the Magic of Your Menstrual Cycle and Awaken the Feminine Path to Power by Alexandra Pope and Sjanie Hugo Wurlitzer Disclaimer: Hysteria Hotline is for listening, laughing, and occasionally raging, not for medical advice. This podcast contains strong language, sensitive topics, personal stories, blunt opinions, biting truths, and the horrors of the patriarchy. By tuning in, you accept that we’re here to expose bias, share experiences, and spill the tea on medical nonsense — not prescribe treatment, give medical advice or diagnose. If you have health concerns, always seek the guidance of a qualified healthcare provider with any questions regarding a medical condition. For everything else like commiseration, validation, and a healthy dose of outrage, then you’re in the right place. Side effects may include laughter, rage, validation, and the sudden urge to demand better care. By listening, you acknowledge that the hosts and producers of Hysteria Hotline are not responsible for any actions taken based on the content of this podcast. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit hysteriahotline.substack.com (https://hysteriahotline.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1)

8. 

   6 Apr 2026

   Season 2 | Episode 1: The Listening Begins

   ☎️ Episode 1: The Listening Begins Welcome to Season 2 of Hysteria Hotline, in this episode we begin with a conversation about listening not as a concept, but as a practice of care. Vesna and Jacky welcome Peter, a TCM practitioner and acupuncturist working in women’s health. Peter shares that this was never the path he intended to take. As a young practitioner, he actively tried to avoid women’s health like the plague. But when someone said it couldn’t be done well (“as a guy”), that resistance became the spark that turned into inspiration. Peter shares how his work in women’s health, shaped by the stories of his patients and the love for his daughters, fuels his commitment to creating a future where women don’t have to fight to be believed. At the heart of this episode is a deeply personal reflection. When asked what he would say if his mother were listening, Peter speaks about creating a space where she would feel safe, deeply heard, and supported. A space where her story mattered and where he would “go above and beyond to figure out her puzzle.” It becomes a powerful example of what real listening can look like, not just in clinics, but in families, across generations and within cultures where women’s pain is often unspoken. Together, the conversation explores what happens when medicine moves from division to integration where listening becomes the first act of healing. Together, they unpack: * Why being truly heard can be medicine * The silent weight carried by women navigating chronic and invisible illness * The growing realities of endometriosis, adenomyosis, infertility, heavy bleeding, and postnatal depletion * Why postnatal depletion deserves as much voice as postnatal depression * The power of integrating traditional, holistic, and Western medicine * How knowledge, body literacy, and compassionate care can change generational stories This episode is about more than healthcare. It’s about safety, voice, recognition and the quiet revolution that begins when someone finally says, I hear you. 💌 Subscribe for honest conversations on women’s health, invisible illness, trauma, and healing — and stay on the line with us as Season 2 unfolds. Listen now → 🎙️ Season 2 | Episode 1: The Listening Begins(Available wherever you get your podcasts.) Guest Info/Resources: Dr. Peter Mejia - Holistic Minds Holistic Bodieshttps://www.hmhb.com.au/drpeter (https://www.hmhb.com.au/drpeter)https://www.instagram.com/the_fit_acupuncturist (https://www.instagram.com/the_fit_acupuncturist)https://www.instagram.com/hmhb_clinic (https://www.instagram.com/hmhb_clinic) Book Recommendations: Heal Endo by Katie EdmondsThe Postnatal Depletion Cure by Dr. Oscar SerrallachPerimenopause Power by Maisie HillPeriod Power by Maisie Hill Disclaimer: Hysteria Hotline is for listening, laughing, and occasionally raging, not for medical advice. This podcast contains strong language, sensitive topics, personal stories, blunt opinions, biting truths, and the horrors of the patriarchy. By tuning in, you accept that we’re here to expose bias, share experiences, and spill the tea on medical nonsense — not prescribe treatment, give medical advice or diagnose. If you have health concerns, always seek the guidance of a qualified healthcare provider with any questions regarding a medical condition. For everything else like commiseration, validation, and a healthy dose of outrage, then you’re in the right place. Side effects may include laughter, rage, validation, and the sudden urge to demand better care. By listening, you acknowledge that the hosts and producers of Hysteria Hotline are not responsible for any actions taken based on the content of this podcast. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit hysteriahotline.substack.com (https://hysteriahotline.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1)

9. 

   26 Jan 2026

   Season 1 (Part 2) | Episode 8: Take Up Space (Season Finale)

   ☎️ Episode 8: Take Up Space (Season Finale) You don’t need permission to take up space, but here it is anyway. This is a closing circle. A pause. A place to notice what has been said and what was finally allowed to be heard. This isn’t a recap. It’s a moment to stop, listen, and breathe. In the Season 1 Finale, Vesna, Jacky & Dr Nurse Paula come together to reflect on the stories shared throughout the season and on what it means to truly listen. There are no conclusions here. No fixes. Just space. Space to speak without interruption. Space to be believed without explanation. Space to laugh, grieve, remember, and make meaning from experiences that were once silenced or dismissed. Across the season, women and people in female bodies shared stories of medical trauma, birth, chronic illness, ageing, care work, and survival. A single truth threads them all, sharing stories is medicine. Episode 8 closes the season by honouring vulnerability as strength and storytelling as resistance. Not to give answers, but to remind you that you were never too much. Your questions are not the problem. Your voice matters, even when it shakes, even when it laughs, even when it takes its time. You are allowed to take up space. 💌 Subscribe for stories from the unheard, the dismissed, the chronically doubted, and the so called hysterical. Stay on the line as we continue reclaiming our bodies, our stories, and our right to be believed. Listen now → 🎙️ Episode 8: Take Up Space(Available wherever you get your podcasts.) Thanks for reading Hysteria Hotline! This post is public so feel free to share it. Disclaimer: Hysteria Hotline is for listening, laughing, and occasionally raging, not for medical advice. This podcast contains strong language, sensitive topics, personal stories, blunt opinions, biting truths, and the horrors of the patriarchy. By tuning in, you accept that we’re here to expose bias, share experiences, and spill the tea on medical nonsense — not prescribe treatment, give medical advice or diagnose. If you have health concerns, always seek the guidance of a qualified healthcare provider with any questions regarding a medical condition. For everything else like commiseration, validation, and a healthy dose of outrage, then you’re in the right place. Side effects may include laughter, rage, validation, and the sudden urge to demand better care. By listening, you acknowledge that the hosts and producers of Hysteria Hotline are not responsible for any actions taken based on the content of this podcast. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit hysteriahotline.substack.com (https://hysteriahotline.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1)

10. 

    19 Jan 2026

    Season 1 (Part 2) | Episode 7: The Imposter

    ☎️ Episode 7: The Imposter Ever tried to survive a medical appointment without developing a full-blown identity crisis? If you’ve had your symptoms dismissed, your instincts undermined, or been told to “just relax” while a metal instrument is inside you, stay on the line, Thea Baker is here. In this week’s episode, we sit down with Thea Baker, a mother, counsellor, trauma-focused somatic psychotherapist, personal trainer, PhD researcher at Deakin University in Melbourne and wonderfully noisy advocate for women’s health. Thea joins us at the intersection of lived experience, clinical insight, and systemic frustration. Her story begins not with a medical chart, but with a poem, a reflection of her experience and a love letter to every woman who’s ever been made to feel incompetent in their own body. Thea shares her own story of navigating reproductive and general healthcare as a woman, across years, continents, procedures, and countless missed questions. Instead of safety, she encounters assumption.Instead of curiosity, condescension.Instead of collaboration, a power imbalance so entrenched, even knowledgeable women are made to feel small. And that’s the point, Thea isn’t just a patient. She’s a mental health professional, a trauma specialist, a researcher. She speaks the language. She understands the system. She knows her body. But even now with all of that, she still finds herself shrinking in exam rooms, over preparing for appointments, and replaying every conversation afterward wondering, “Why didn’t I say it better?” Together, we unpack: * The expectation for women to “relax,” stay quiet, and surrender your voice in places of care when you’re already quietly losing your mind * How dismissive care like “it’s just age” derails real investigation * Being repeatedly asked about sex and the cost of clinicians asking the wrong questions, leaving women to piece together their own diagnoses * Informed consent and the need for trauma informed care in medical spaces Thea also shares her groundbreaking research project that bridges mental health with physical activity through a non-contact cardio-boxing program developed for victim-survivors of gender-based and intimate partner violence. A space where women relearn safety, agency, and the power of inhabiting their bodies without apology. Her honesty, humour, and vulnerability remind us:You never needed a ring.Just you. Thea’s story is a testament to every woman who has ever walked into a medical room and felt themselves disappear and to every woman fighting to return to her own authority. 💌 Subscribe for real conversations about invisible illness, trauma, and the radical act of trusting your own body, especially when the system doesn’t. Listen now → 🎙️ Episode 7: The Imposter(Available wherever you get your podcasts.) Disclaimer: Hysteria Hotline is for listening, laughing, and occasionally raging, not for medical advice. This podcast contains strong language, sensitive topics, personal stories, blunt opinions, biting truths, and the horrors of the patriarchy. By tuning in, you accept that we’re here to expose bias, share experiences, and spill the tea on medical nonsense — not prescribe treatment, give medical advice or diagnose. If you have health concerns, always seek the guidance of a qualified healthcare provider with any questions regarding a medical condition. For everything else like commiseration, validation, and a healthy dose of outrage, then you’re in the right place. Side effects may include laughter, rage, validation, and the sudden urge to demand better care. By listening, you acknowledge that the hosts and producers of Hysteria Hotline are not responsible for any actions taken based on the content of this podcast. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit hysteriahotline.substack.com (https://hysteriahotline.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1)

11. 

    12 Jan 2026

    Season 1 (Part 2) | Episode 6: The Memory In Our Bones

    ☎️ Episode 6: The Memory In Our Bones What if the moment that silenced you became the one that shaped your power? What happens when the earliest version of you, the one who was three, terrified, unseen, and taught to “be a good girl” grows up and starts talking back? This week, we sit with Michelle Maulette-Evans (Aunty Mixch) a healer, storyteller, an absolute powerhouse and birthday girl, as she brings us into the memory that shaped her body, her voice, and her lifelong way of navigating systems that were never built with her in mind. Aunty Mixch brings us into the hospital room from the perspective of her three-year-old self. To the masked faces and harsh voices, where she was told to be calm, compliant and to be a “good girl”. Left wondering and confused at a time when she was in desperate need of her Mother’s presence and touch. Aunty Mixch shares with us how that moment, instead of silencing her, sparked a lifelong superpower. The ability to gather her many selves, negotiate with her body, and to choose celebration over oppression. Together, we unpack: * The immigrant “good girl” conditioning that follows us into adulthood, motherhood, and medical rooms. * How early memories live in the body and reappear as protectors, tricksters, and guides. * What it means to grow up without the luxury of questioning and how reclaiming voice becomes an act of liberation. * The complicated tenderness of mothering, being mothered, and mothering our mothers. * Why cultural memory, ancestral rhythm, and the stories in our bones matter when Western systems fail to listen. This episode is a tender and fierce reminder that even when the world tries to quiet you, your body will keep speaking. Even when you’re small, you know what you need and even when you’ve been shackled, you can still dance. 💌 Subscribe for stories from the margins, the mothers, the misfits, and the hysterical, and join the movement reclaiming our bodies, our stories, and our power. Listen now → 🎙️ Episode 6: The Memory In Our Bones(Available wherever you get your podcasts.) Disclaimer: Hysteria Hotline is for listening, laughing, and occasionally raging, not for medical advice. This podcast contains strong language, sensitive topics, personal stories, blunt opinions, biting truths, and the horrors of the patriarchy. By tuning in, you accept that we’re here to expose bias, share experiences, and spill the tea on medical nonsense — not prescribe treatment, give medical advice or diagnose. If you have health concerns, always seek the guidance of a qualified healthcare provider with any questions regarding a medical condition. For everything else like commiseration, validation, and a healthy dose of outrage, then you’re in the right place. Side effects may include laughter, rage, validation, and the sudden urge to demand better care. By listening, you acknowledge that the hosts and producers of Hysteria Hotline are not responsible for any actions taken based on the content of this podcast. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit hysteriahotline.substack.com (https://hysteriahotline.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1)

12. 

    5 Jan 2026

    Season 1 (Part 2) | Episode 5: The Doctor Said What?

    ☎️ Episode 5: The Doctor Said What? Have you ever dragged yourself to yet another doctor’s appointment, hoping for some answers, but got misogyny instead? If you’ve ever watched your health spiral while doctors assured you everything was fine, Jessica Rizos’ story will feel achingly familiar. Welcome to Episode 5 of Hysteria Hotline, today we introduce our first guest, Jessica Rizos, who shares the year everything came crashing down. Navigating her son’s difficult transition into school, receiving her own ADHD diagnosis, and then, just as she began finding her footing, watching her health unravel faster than anyone would take seriously. What starts as fatigue quickly escalates into: * Severe iron deficiency and repeated infusions * An IUD inserted without pain relief, followed by months of bleeding * Swollen lymph nodes, fevers, weight loss, gastric symptoms, night sweats * A blur of specialists, scans, colonoscopies, biopsies, and blood tests, but still no clear diagnosis But instead of urgency or investigation, Jess is met with the familiar script of medical misogyny; “It’s stress”, “Do you think that maybe it’s depression?”, “It’s not that bad”, “You know anxiety can cause this”. Her declining health becomes a mirror for the system’s reflex to psychoanalyse women instead of examining their bodies. Jess is forced to justify her symptoms and defend her sanity in the very places that are supposed to be helping her. All while she’s navigating care systems, running her own business, parenting, managing school crises, and trying to survive each day through fevers, pain, and fear. Together, we unpack: * How misogyny and bias shape “acceptable” levels of women’s suffering * Why women are expected to function through symptoms that would hospitalise a man * The emotional labour of masking pain until your body collapses * The shame, self-doubt, and internalised minimising that medical dismissal creates Jess’s story is a raw, powerful reminder that women shouldn’t have to break, bleed, or become hysterical to be believed. Her courage in sharing, while still in the thick of it is a testament to every woman who has ever been dismissed. 💌 Subscribe for real conversations about invisible illness, women’s health, and resilience, because being believed shouldn’t be this hard. Listen now → 🎙️ Episode 5: The Doctor Said What?(Available wherever you get your podcasts.) Disclaimer: Hysteria Hotline is for listening, laughing, and occasionally raging, not for medical advice. This podcast contains strong language, sensitive topics, personal stories, blunt opinions, biting truths, and the horrors of the patriarchy. By tuning in, you accept that we’re here to expose bias, share experiences, and spill the tea on medical nonsense — not prescribe treatment, give medical advice or diagnose. If you have health concerns, always seek the guidance of a qualified healthcare provider with any questions regarding a medical condition. For everything else like commiseration, validation, and a healthy dose of outrage, then you’re in the right place. Side effects may include laughter, rage, validation, and the sudden urge to demand better care. By listening, you acknowledge that the hosts and producers of Hysteria Hotline are not responsible for any actions taken based on the content of this podcast. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit hysteriahotline.substack.com (https://hysteriahotline.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1)

13. 

    22 Dec 2025

    Season 1 (Part 1) | Episode 4: When Pain Is Real and Nobody Believes You

    ☎️ Episode 4: When Pain Is Real and Nobody Believes You Proving you’re suffering shouldn’t be a full-time job… but it is. If you’ve ever pushed through pain because no one took it seriously, this space is for you. In this episode, Paula continues her story from childhood hypermobility and endless injuries, to being put on opioids at 17 and left there without follow-up for years. She shares how her shoulder repeatedly slipped out of place, how nerve pain took over her life, and how even the “best” medical institutions told her she couldn’t possibly be feeling what she was feeling. Vesna and Jacky sit with the heartbreak and resilience woven through her story. The night shifts, the falls, the shame around medication, the pressure to be exceptional, and the silence that grows when no one believes what you feel all because it doesn’t fit the textbook. Together, they unpack: * How chronic pain collides with work, identity, and survival, especially in nursing. * How hypermobility presents and why it’s so often overlooked. * Gender bias built into pharmaceutical studies. * The long road to finally finding practitioners who will actually listen. At its heart, this episode is a reminder that believing yourself is an act of survival and sometimes, the only way to get answers is to learn the language of the system that keeps shutting you out. 💌 Subscribe for stories at the intersection of women’s pain, medical bias, and the courage it takes to trust your own body again. Listen now → 🎙️ Episode 4: When Pain Is Real — and Nobody Believes You(Available wherever you get your podcasts.) Disclaimer: Hysteria Hotline is for listening, laughing, and occasionally raging, not for medical advice. This podcast contains strong language, sensitive topics, personal stories, blunt opinions, biting truths, and the horrors of the patriarchy. By tuning in, you accept that we’re here to expose bias, share experiences, and spill the tea on medical nonsense — not prescribe treatment, give medical advice or diagnose. If you have health concerns, always seek the guidance of a qualified healthcare provider with any questions regarding a medical condition. For everything else like commiseration, validation, and a healthy dose of outrage, then you’re in the right place. Side effects may include laughter, rage, validation, and the sudden urge to demand better care. By listening, you acknowledge that the hosts and producers of Hysteria Hotline are not responsible for any actions taken based on the content of this podcast. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit hysteriahotline.substack.com (https://hysteriahotline.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1)

14. 

    15 Dec 2025

    Season 1 (Part 1) | Episode 3: Weighing In on Medical Bias

    ☎️ Episode 3: Weighing In on Medical Bias Welcome back to Hysteria Hotline, the podcast for the chronically unheard, where being believed shouldn’t be a radical act. If you’ve ever been told “you’d be fine if you just lost some weight,” this episode is for you. In Episode 3 of Hysteria Hotline, hosts Vesna, Paula, and Jacky sit down for an unfiltered conversation about how medical bias seeps into every corner of care, from fertility and pregnancy to chronic pain and self-worth. Jacky shares how being told her fertility struggles were due to her weight brought fear, shame, and disconnection from her body; patterns that began with dieting at twelve and shifted as she reclaimed her health through ancestral medicine, spiritual practice, and de-colonial healing. Paula examines how bias runs through healthcare itself, from policies to education to insurance, keeping outdated ideas like BMI alive and shaping care. Vesna offers a grounded perspective as both patient and healthcare worker, reflecting on holding empathy in a system that often leaves little room for it. Together, they explore: * How medical systems continue to blame bodies instead of listening to them * The roots of racism, sexism, and size bias in modern medicine * What it takes to rebuild trust in your body after being dismissed * How cultural, ancestral, and holistic healing can restore what medicine forgets Through honest storytelling, laughter, and deep reflection, this episode weighs the cost of bias, and the power of reclaiming your body as your own source of truth. 💌 Subscribe for real stories about women’s health, trauma, and healing and join the movement to make the unheard impossible to ignore. 🎙️ Listen now → Episode 3: Weighing In on Medical Bias(Available wherever you get your podcasts.) Disclaimer: Hysteria Hotline is for listening, laughing, and occasionally raging, not for medical advice. This podcast contains strong language, sensitive topics, personal stories, blunt opinions, biting truths, and the horrors of the patriarchy. By tuning in, you accept that we’re here to expose bias, share experiences, and spill the tea on medical nonsense — not prescribe treatment, give medical advice or diagnose. If you have health concerns, always seek the guidance of a qualified healthcare provider with any questions regarding a medical condition. For everything else like commiseration, validation, and a healthy dose of outrage, then you’re in the right place. Side effects may include laughter, rage, validation, and the sudden urge to demand better care. By listening, you acknowledge that the hosts and producers of Hysteria Hotline are not responsible for any actions taken based on the content of this podcast. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit hysteriahotline.substack.com (https://hysteriahotline.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1)

15. 

    8 Dec 2025

    Season 1 (Part 1) | Episode 2: Strength, Dismissed Pain & Being Your Own Advocate

    ☎️ Episode 2: Strength, Dismissed Pain & Being Your Own Advocate Sometimes strength looks like survival, especially when your pain keeps being dismissed. When you’re constantly told you’re fine, the body starts to protect itself by going quiet. In this episode of Hysteria Hotline, Vesna, Paula, and Jacky explore the complicated relationship between strength, pain, and dissociation and what it means to live in a body that medicine too often refuses to see. Vesna opens up about how her body learned to survive through dissociation, the kind of numbness that looks like resilience from the outside but feels like absence from the inside. Jacky shares her own experience of being dismissed by doctors, the disbelief that left her questioning her own instincts, and the slow process of rebuilding trust in her body. Paula brings insight from inside the healthcare system, naming how women’s pain is too often minimised and how that fuels the cycle of silence and shame. Together, they talk about: * The fine line between strength and shutdown * How dissociation can look like coping, but keeps us disconnected * The exhaustion of self-advocacy and the power of finally being believed This conversation is raw, reflective, and deeply human, a reminder that real strength isn’t about enduring pain silently, but about finding your way back to yourself after being dismissed. 💌 Subscribe for honest conversations about women’s health, invisible illness, and healing, because being strong shouldn’t mean being silent. 🎙️ Listen now → Episode 2: Strength, Dismissed Pain & Being Your Own Advocate(Available wherever you get your podcasts.) Disclaimer: Hysteria Hotline is for listening, laughing, and occasionally raging, not for medical advice. This podcast contains strong language, sensitive topics, personal stories, blunt opinions, biting truths, and the horrors of the patriarchy. By tuning in, you accept that we’re here to expose bias, share experiences, and spill the tea on medical nonsense — not prescribe treatment, give medical advice or diagnose. If you have health concerns, always seek the guidance of a qualified healthcare provider with any questions regarding a medical condition. For everything else like commiseration, validation, and a healthy dose of outrage, then you’re in the right place. Side effects may include laughter, rage, validation, and the sudden urge to demand better care. By listening, you acknowledge that the hosts and producers of Hysteria Hotline are not responsible for any actions taken based on the content of this podcast. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit hysteriahotline.substack.com (https://hysteriahotline.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1)

16. 

    1 Dec 2025

    Season 1 (Part 1) | Episode 1: The Story Begins Here

    ☎️ Episode 1: The Story Begins Here Welcome to Hysteria Hotline — a podcast for the chronically unheard. If you’ve ever been told “you’re fine” while your body screamed otherwise, this space is for you. In our very first episode, hosts Vesna, Paula, and Jacky open up about what inspired Hysteria Hotline, a space built for every woman and marginalised person who’s ever felt dismissed, disbelieved, or invisible in the healthcare system. Vesna shares her deeply personal story of surviving a traumatic birth and the long, unseen recovery that followed. Paula, a nurse practitioner, and Jacky, an energy practitioner and caregiver, reflect on their own experiences navigating both sides of medicine, as patients and as healers. Together, they unpack: * Why medical gaslighting continues to silence women’s pain * How bias and neglect are still built into modern healthcare * What trauma-informed care could look like if we were truly heard This isn’t just the beginning of a podcast, it’s the beginning of a movement.A call to reclaim women’s stories, confront the stigma around invisible illness, and make the unheard impossible to ignore. 💌 Subscribe for honest stories about women’s health, trauma, and healing, and join the movement to make the unheard impossible to ignore. Listen now → 🎙️ Episode 1: The Story Begins Here(Available wherever you get your podcasts.) Disclaimer: Hysteria Hotline is for listening, laughing, and occasionally raging, not for medical advice. This podcast contains strong language, sensitive topics, personal stories, blunt opinions, biting truths, and the horrors of the patriarchy. By tuning in, you accept that we’re here to expose bias, share experiences, and spill the tea on medical nonsense — not prescribe treatment, give medical advice or diagnose. If you have health concerns, always seek the guidance of a qualified healthcare provider with any questions regarding a medical condition. For everything else like commiseration, validation, and a healthy dose of outrage, then you’re in the right place. Side effects may include laughter, rage, validation, and the sudden urge to demand better care. By listening, you acknowledge that the hosts and producers of Hysteria Hotline are not responsible for any actions taken based on the content of this podcast. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit hysteriahotline.substack.com (https://hysteriahotline.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1)

Contact Hysteria Hotline

Guest appearances

Books guests

Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.