The Approval Trap: Do You Want To Be Liked or Loved? With Meditation Maven Megan Monahan
Release Date: 07/22/2025
How To Stay Informed Without Spiraling with Jessica Yellin
Circle This
In this episode, Dre sits down with journalist and News Not Noise founder Jessica Yellin for a conversation about how to stay informed without losing yourself in the process. From her time as Chief White House Correspondent at CNN to now speaking directly to millions from her living room, Jessica shares the real story behind her evolution and the isolation, pressure, and purpose that came with it. They get into the real impact of the 24/7 news cycle on the body, the mind, and the nervous system and why so many of us feel overwhelmed, disconnected, or unsure what’s...
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Proof of Miracles: Signs, Synchronicity & Everyday Magic with Dre & Em
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In this episode, Dre and Em follow the thread of signs, synchronicities, and the moments that feel too precise to be random. From a spontaneous “Sing with Emily” exchange echoed by a billboard, to ladybugs showing up at pivotal life and creative moments, to standing on the exact New York corner described in a voice note as it plays—they track the patterns that blur the line between coincidence and connection. They break down the difference between signs and synchronicity (a term coined by Carl Jung), and explore insights from Laura Lynne...
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Quietly Quitting A Life That Doesn’t Fit: Reclaiming Self with Monica Corcoran Harel
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In this episode Monica Corcoran Harel, screenwriter, bestselling author and founder of PRETTY RIPE and author of the viral essay “The Women Quietly Quitting Their Husbands” joins for a conversation that goes straight to the truth many women have been living but not naming. What happens when the life you’ve built no longer fits? Monica shares how her popular essays tap into a larger cultural shift—where women are questioning endurance, redefining marriage, and choosing agency over performance. The conversation moves into parenting and the...
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Beyond Us & Them: Circle Practices Transforming Prisons, Police & People with Jared Seide
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In this episode of Circle This, Dre sits down with Jared Seide, Executive Director of Beyond Us & Them, a groundbreaking nonprofit bringing compassion, connection, and real tools for transformation into some of the most unlikely places—prisons, law enforcement agencies, healthcare systems, and policy spaces. Through circle and council practices, along with mindfulness-based techniques, Jared and his team train individuals within these systems to develop self-awareness, emotional regulation, and authentic connection. These programs go beyond...
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Representation Is the Remedy: Being Truly Seen with Jenna Laurenzo
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Award-winning filmmaker, writer, actor, and creative force Jenna Laurenzo joins Dre and Emily for a conversation about storytelling, representation, and the courage to create the stories we long to see. When Jenna entered the film industry, she quickly realized that the stories reflecting her own experience as a queer woman were largely missing. Instead of waiting for them to appear, she began creating them herself. Her award-winning film Lez Bomb and the viral Girl Night Stand series opened doors for representation, humor, and deeply human storytelling to take center...
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We’re Doing Death Wrong: What Facing Death Taught Me About Living with Dre & Em
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In this episode Dre shares the ongoing integration of her recent death doula training — an experience that began with a surprising invitation: before learning how to support others at the end of life, she first had to face her own mortality. What started as curiosity quickly opened into something deeper. Dre and Em circle around grief, awe, ritual, and the ways our culture avoids talking about death — often making loss even harder when it inevitably arrives. Dre reflects on her father’s passing, the unexpected healing that can happen in the...
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Inner Fire: Menopause, Micro-dosing & Midlife Sovereignty with Ashley Turner
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In this episode, Dre sits down with Ashley Turner—licensed depth psychotherapist, yoga and meditation teacher, psychedelic therapist, and menopause advocate—to explore what’s rising at the intersection of midlife transformation, mental health, sovereignty, and the psychedelic renaissance. Together, they unpack perimenopause vs. menopause, myth-bust the most common symptoms, and explore the link between libido, creativity, and inner fire. They dive into trauma resurfacing during midlife, hormone therapy, medical bias, and the staggering truth that women’s bodies...
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Second Marriage, Same Person: Love After The Earthquake with Odette & Dave Annable (Part 2)
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Odette and Dave Annable return for Part 2 to take us deeper into the rupture, the repair of their partnership and their choice to begin again. They were on the brink of divorce, separate homes, papers nearly signed, when COVID forced them back under one roof with nowhere to escape. What followed became what they now call “our second marriage… it just happens to be with each other.” But reconciliation didn’t begin together. It began alone, through therapy, retreats, journaling, and the courageous work of facing their own patterns. As one therapist asked them, Are...
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Unlocking the Truth About Love: Healing the Wound Beneath Conflict with Odette & Dave Annable (Part 1)
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Actors and real-life married couple Odette Annable and Dave Annable join Dre for a candid conversation about what it actually takes to stay connected in modern marriage—through the peaks, the valleys, and the chapters you don’t post. Odette and Dave share their near-miss origin story, the season when “this shouldn’t be this hard” almost became the end, and how therapy helped them reframe conflict into something wildly more honest: Dave’s core question is “Am I safe?” and Odette’s is “Am I worthy?” Once you can name that, you can stop fighting the...
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The Village Is a State of Mind: Welcome Back with Dre & Em
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We’re back. And instead of rushing into “new year, new you” energy, Dre and Em open the season by honoring winter, integration, and the deep exhale that comes after a big creative year. With 55 episodes behind them (and a podcast ranked in the top 2% globally), they circle around what’s sustaining them now: chosen family, learning to receive support, and expanding the places love is allowed to live. This episode is a love letter to the village—real village energy, not fantasy commune aesthetics. Dre and Em reflect on a recent desert...
info_outlineIn this episode of Circle This, Dre sits down with meditation teacher and author Megan Monahan to explore the question Do I want to be liked, or do I want to be loved? A layered conversation about the places where spirituality meets humanity and where our practices are tested not on the meditation cushion, but in the messy moments of real life.
Megan and Dre share about the patterns of codependency, the subtle addiction to being liked, and the uncomfortable but necessary shift toward true self-connection and interdependence. They talk about emotional bandwidth, spiritual bypassing, and how to stop outsourcing your worth to others. This episode invites you to notice your triggers, to hold yourself in discomfort, and to honor the sacred practice of being, rather than constantly doing.
They discuss what it means to embody the divine feminine, how to walk through resistance with integrity, and how to recognize the proof-of-concept moments that show you just how far you've come. Healing doesn’t always look graceful and transformation rarely asks for your approval.
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Follow Megan: @megmonahan
Learn more at: meganmonahan.com
Check out her 21-day meditation series: Link Here!
Stay connected with the Circle This team: @andreabendewald @circlethispodcast @emkratter @goodmessmedia @tracenthomas
To sponsor Circle This, email: circlethispod@gmail.com