EP 232: Attachment and Mothering through Life’s Seasons with Bethany Saltman
Sex Birth Trauma with Kimberly Ann Johnson
Release Date: 07/14/2025
EP 244: Consistency, Not Perfection - Nutrition for Menopause and Beyond with Karen Newby
Sex Birth Trauma with Kimberly Ann Johnson
Kimberly wanted to speak with someone who was neither hormones-or-nothing nor going to offer complicated longevity protocol. Karen Newby is a UK nutritionist with a BSc in Nutritional Medicine and fifteen years of clinical practice, and she speaks with clear-eyed candor about how to support women’s nutrition through midlife and beyond. What follows is a genuinely practical conversation. Karen explains why menopause is now classified as an inflammatory transitional event, what that has to do with joint pain, foggy head, eczema, and autoimmune flares, and how the shift in estrogen changes...
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EP 243: Eating the Shadow – Mythopoetic Men’s Work, the Lover Archetype, and Repair in a Villageless World with Ian MacKenzie
Sex Birth Trauma with Kimberly Ann Johnson
In this episode, Kimberly speaks with Ian MacKenzie, filmmaker, writer, mythosomatic guide, and host of The Mythic Masculine, about what men’s work looks like in 2026. A fellow Orphan Wisdom scholar, Ian traces the mythopoetic lineage back through Robert Bly’s Iron John, Carl Jung, and Marie-Louise von Franz, and describes how discovering Bly’s book in his late grandfather’s study set him on this path alongside his film work on feminine archetypes (Amplify Her). They talk candidly about the cultural moment — the “Rape Academy,” the Pelicot case, the question of where the men are,...
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EP 242: Arbitrary Intelligence - Tools, Limits, and the Willies of What’s Coming with Stephen Jenkinson
Sex Birth Trauma with Kimberly Ann Johnson
In this episode, Kimberly is re-joined by Stephen Jenkinson, author of Trembling Still: The Awful Clarity of a Mind in Eclipse, about the moment we find ourselves in with artificial intelligence and what it asks of us. They unpack the claim that AI is merely a tool; a real tool elaborates the capacities of the human hand just enough to reveal its God-given limits. Jenkinson suggests renaming AI “arbitrary intelligence,” and traces how the rollout was designed to anticipate and absorb resistance before it could even form. Kimberly shares her own encounters with AI’s creep into branding,...
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EP 241: Furious or Curious - Safety and Security, Frog Farmers, and What Men Actually Need to Hear with Alison Armstrong
Sex Birth Trauma with Kimberly Ann Johnson
In this episode, Kimberly speaks with Alison Armstrong, author of The Queen’s Code, about her complex work around understanding men and women. Alison has been studying the dynamics between men and women since 1991, when she discovered she was what’s called a “frog farmer:”a woman who unknowingly turns princes into frogs through culturally inherited patterns of emasculation, criticism, and control. They explore how what was once a subterranean pattern of diminishing men has become amplified in our current moment, and why nobody is fundamentally broken. Alison explains how testosterone...
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EP 240: Hunting and Making God – Motherhood, Creativity, and Building a Church of Her Own with Ranier Amiel
Sex Birth Trauma with Kimberly Ann Johnson
In this episode, the third in the Santa Fe trilogy, Kimberly speaks with Ranier Amiel, an artist, bodyworker, and single mother who is restoring a century-old church in Truchas, New Mexico, and turning it into a home, studio, and eventually a space of community and sacred inquiry. Recorded inside the church itself, their conversation moves between the balance of motherhood and creativity, the grounding power of physical labor, and what it means to hunt for and make God after losing faith in the spiritual community you were raised in. Ranier shares her vulva portraiture work, including its...
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EP 239: The Image of the Wound – Emergent Teaching, Art as Alchemy, and Living Between Languages with Dr. Chanti Tacoronte-Perez
Sex Birth Trauma with Kimberly Ann Johnson
In this episode, Kimberly speaks with Dr. Chanti Tacoronte-Perez, an artist, educator, and depth psychologist based in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and the designer of the cover of Kimberly’s upcoming book Erotic Seasons. Part of Kimberly's Santa Fe trilogy, this conversation explores what it means to teach and live emergently: responding to what’s present rather than what’s planned. Chanti shares her doctoral work on the wound of homelandlessness as a Cuban American, and how she developed a practice of creating and living with the image of one’s wound as a daily, evolving relationship rather...
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EP 238: The Body Innate – Yin Warriorship, Communal Eros, and Leading Atmospheres with Jaye Marolla
Sex Birth Trauma with Kimberly Ann Johnson
In this episode, Kimberly speaks with Jaye Marolla, a bodyworker, martial artist, Qigong teacher, and founder of The Body Innate and the Yin Dojo in Santa Fe, New Mexico. They explore the integration of martial arts, bodywork, and Qigong as a path of healing and sovereignty, and what Jaye calls “yin warriorship:” a reclamation of the warrior archetype rooted in surrender, Eros, and facing one’s own mortality rather than competition or heroism. They discuss how Jaye came to open her home as a dojo, the ancient tradition of merging practice space with living space, and the energetic...
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EP 237: “Sage-escence” – The Natural Menopause Movement, Shamanic Midwifery, and Birthing the Wise Woman with Jane Hardwicke Collings
Sex Birth Trauma with Kimberly Ann Johnson
In this episode, Kimberly speaks with Jane Hardwicke Collings, a post-menopausal grandmother, former midwife, and founder of the School of Shamanic Womancraft. They explore how the lessons learned from the natural childbirth movement must now be applied to menopause, discussing what Jane calls “sage-escence,” the becoming of the wise woman. Jane shares her journey from hospital nurse to home birth midwife, how her midwifery awakened her to the patriarchy’s medicalization of women’s bodies, and why she sees a natural menopause movement emerging. They dive deep into the connections...
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EP 236: The Art of Receiving and Giving - The Wheel of Consent with Dr. Betty Martin
Sex Birth Trauma with Kimberly Ann Johnson
Kimberly is joined by luminary thinker Dr. Betty Martin as they discuss the evolution and impact of the Wheel of Consent, a vanguard model for enthusiastic consent, asking for what you want, and living out embodied intimacy. Dr. Martin, who developed the model, shares her journey from creating the wheel through her hands-on workshops to writing a book so the wheel may reach an even larger audience, with Kimberly noting just how deep of an impact Betty’s work has had on Kimberly’s teaching and offerings. They explore the challenges of enthusiastic consent, the importance of feeling with...
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EP 235: “Hold Nothing” - Radical Forgiveness, Daily Stillness, and Finding Stability with Elena Brower
Sex Birth Trauma with Kimberly Ann Johnson
In this episode, Kimberly and Elena discuss and reflect on their life experiences through nearly two decades of knowing one another. They discuss radical forgiveness for our families of origin, the importance of stillness and meditation, children leaving the home, and menopause. They also discuss what led Elena to write her upcoming book “Hold Nothing,” which offers stories and prompts as an artful contemplative guide towards personal, daily practice for self-discovery and self-wisdom. Kimberly reads powerful excerpts aloud, and you can preorder the book in the link below. Bio Elena...
info_outlineIn this episode, Kimberly and Bethany discuss their reflections and experiences of attachment and mothering their adult children. Bethany describes changes in how she viewed herself and parenting while her daughter became an adult herself while Kimberly shares her experiences mothering her daughter who is about to move out of their home for the first time. They share challenges, frustrations, and confusing moments around their attachment and parenting, particularly as they age themselves. As most parenting content focuses on the early years, this conversation reveals the nuances of what attachment parenting actually is and how they are navigating its challenges while parenting their grown daughters.
Bio
Bethany Saltman is a literary agent, mother, wife, zen practitioner, and author of “Strange Situation: A Mother’s Journey Into the Science of Attachment.” She has an extensive background in writing, teaching, publishing, and devotes her time as a literary agent helping people put their stories into the world. She is a long-time friend of Kimberly’s and a repeat podcast guest.
What She Shares:
–Different kinds of attachment and the adult attachment test
–Mothering through seasons
–Generational differences of parenting
–Navigating challenges of mothering adult children
What You’ll Hear:
–Different types of attachment
–Securely attached is independent
–Develop through creativity and exploration with secure base
–Flexibility and response with parenting
–Behavior versus attachment
–Parameters for boundaries when discussing children publicly
–Posting children on social media
–Attachment research with adults
–Generational leaps around attachment and development
–Mothering through perimenopause
–Hormonal changes through mothering and phases
–Similarities between toddler and teenage years
–Experiencing the second half of life while mothering
–Values shifting through mothering phases
–Cultural differences around parenting young adults
–Leaving versus staying the nest
–Generational differences of survival wiring
–Frustrations of parenting adults
–Self-actualization leaving parents’ house
–Adult attachment interview protocol
–Mixed feelings shows secure attachment in adulthood
–Importance of rupture and repair instead of only positive
–Spirituality, religion, and parenting
Resources
Website: https://www.bethanysaltman.com/
IG: @bethany_saltman
Class
Sign up for Jagamama Summer School here: https://kimberlyannjohnson.com/jagamama/