The Matriarch: Remembering What a Linear World Forgot | Adriana Forte

***Note - this is a NEW podcast series The Matriarchal Collective. Please follow the new channel for more episodes like this!

What does it mean to become a Matriarch in a culture that has largely forgotten how to initiate women through the stages of their lives?

In this first conversation of The Matriarchal Collective, I sit down with Brazilian-born writer and thinker Adriana Forte for a wide-ranging exploration of women's cyclical minds, perimenopause and menopause, modernity, motherhood, grief, community, and the return of the Matriarch.

Adriana is currently preparing her book The Matriarch and the Machine: Breaking the Spell of Modernity in Women and the World. Rather than releasing it as a finished work from a single authoritative voice, she is inviting women into the process. Beginning this fall, she’ll release the book chapter by chapter through C-Lab, sharing unfinished material and inviting readers to grapple with the ideas, add their own lived experiences, and help shape what she calls the “Spell-breakers notes.” As Adriana explains in our conversation, if the Matriarch is collective, she wants the book itself to be touched by the collective too.

• 01:41 — What does it mean to be a Matriarch?
• 05:50 — The Matriarch as a counterbalance to modernity
• 10:55 — Perimenopause, menopause & the changing female mind
• 15:17 — Cycle dysphoria: cyclical bodies in a linear culture
• 24:01 — Grieving fertility, aging & the loss of elder models
• 29:19 — “Waking up from the middle” without rites of passage
• 32:10 — Why we need women, community & loving challenge
• 37:13 — A different model of leadership: collaborative & mycelial
• 42:14 — The Matriarch and the Machine, HRT & choices in context
• 49:02 — Releasing the book collectively + the return of the Matriarch

And this conversation is only the beginning. The Matriarchal Collective is a growing space for women exploring the thresholds of midlife, the wisdom of our changing bodies, and what becomes possible when we navigate these transitions together. Join the conversation on Instagram: The Matriarchal Collective on Instagram

We're looking to connect with more incredible woman to be interviewed on The Matriarchal Collective podcast - message me at megan@meganbhatia.com - thank you!

IG @matriarchalcollective - for more inspiration!