Hot flashes! Weight gain! Headaches! Rage! If these symptoms sound familiar, you may be in perimenopause. But who among us actually knows what perimenopause is? Menopause specialists Dr. Rebecca Dunsmoor-Su and Dr. Amy Voedisch offer an informative and irreverent primer.

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More episodes about clinicians as patients

• #183 Postpartum House Arrest

• #230 Secrets from the Vagina Whisperer

• #38 Pediatricians, They’re Just Like Us

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More from the docs

• Rebecca and Amy’s podcast about perimenopause: OvaryActive

• Rebecca and Amy’s book: Estrogen Interrupted: A Guide to Surviving and Thriving in Perimenopause (purchasing/pre-ordering through our link helps support LST!)

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Episode resources

• Find a provider through the Menopause Society

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• Join LST+ for community and access to You Know What, another show in the Longest Shortest universe!

• Follow us on Instagram

• Sign up for our newsletter, where we recommend other parenting + reproductive health media

• Buy books by LST guests (your purchase supports the show!)

• Website: longestshortesttime.com

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Audience faves The Accidental Gay Parents return. This time Trystan is pregnant.

⭐️ This episode originally ran on April 26, 2016 and is a favorite from the archives. We hope you enjoy, and we’ll be back next week with a brand new episode.

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Check out the entire Accidental Gay Parents series!

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• Join LST+ for community and access to You Know What, another show in the Longest Shortest universe!

• Follow us on Instagram

• Sign up for our newsletter, where we recommend other parenting + reproductive health media

• Buy books by LST guests (your purchase supports the show!)

• Website: longestshortesttime.com

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Is The Summer I Turned Pretty romantic or toxic? Is Heartstopper sweet or cringe? Hillary talks with pop culture critic Kristen Meinzer and sex educator Shafia Zaloom about love stories in YA TV, old classics teens are into, and why so many of these shows end with a dude chasing a woman down in Paris.

Do you want to talk about these shows with Hillary? You can, on our new Discord! All you need to do is join LST+.

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Shows discussed

• The Summer I Turned Pretty

• K-Pop Demon Hunters

• Heartstopper

• Heated Rivalry

• Friends

• Sex and the City

• Sex Education

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Recommendations from the archive

• #241 TV to Spark Conversations with Adolescent Kids

• #238 Shafia Zaloom’s Playful Approach to Sex Ed

• #237 YOU KNOW WHAT: An LST Spinoff

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More Shafia

• Sex, Teens, and Everything in Between

• Getting Real About Sex Ed

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More Kristen

• The Nightly - a bedtime podcast for pop culture lovers

• Happy to Be Here - featuring a My So-Called Life rewatch

• How to Be Fine

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• Join LST+ for community and access to You Know What, another show in the Longest Shortest universe!

• Follow us on Instagram

• Sign up for our newsletter, where we recommend other parenting + reproductive health media

• Buy books by LST guests (your purchase supports the show!)

• Website: longestshortesttime.com

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The "accidental gay parents" return. This time with John's side of the story.

⭐️ This episode originally ran on July 17, 2015 and is a favorite from the archives. We hope you enjoy, and we’ll be back next week with a brand new episode.

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Check out the entire series!

We’ll be airing the entire 6-part Accidental Gay Parents series every other week. Or, binge the entire thing here. The story takes so many twists and turns. It’s heartwarming at times; heartbreaking at others. Super relatable always.

…

• Join LST+ for community and access to You Know What, another show in the Longest Shortest universe!

• Follow us on Instagram

• Sign up for our newsletter, where we recommend other parenting + reproductive health media

• Buy books by LST guests (your purchase supports the show!)

• Website: longestshortesttime.com

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Maia Molina-Schaefer is a boxing champ and combat veteran. But nothing has exhausted her like raising a kid. Today she shares her remarkable story of making history in the military… and pumping in a closet like any working mom.

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Recommendations from the archive

• #77 Behind Family Lines

• #87 The Mortality of Motherhood

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• Join LST+ for community and access to You Know What, another show in the Longest Shortest universe!

• Follow us on Instagram

• Sign up for our newsletter, where we recommend other parenting + reproductive health media

• Buy books by LST guests (your purchase supports the show!)

• Website: longestshortesttime.com

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

One weekend Trystan and his boyfriend were clubbing in Vegas; the next they were steeped in diapers and Legos. The story of how two twenty-somethings became parents.

⭐️ This episode originally ran on June 19, 2015 and is a favorite from the archives. We hope you enjoy, and we’ll be back next week with a brand new episode.

…

Check out the entire series!

We’ll be airing the entire 6-part Accidental Gay Parents series every other week. Or, binge the entire thing here. The story takes so many twists and turns. It’s heartwarming at times; heartbreaking at others. Super relatable always.

…

• Join LST+ for community and access to You Know What, another show in the Longest Shortest universe!

• Follow us on Instagram

• Sign up for our newsletter, where we recommend other parenting + reproductive health media

• Buy books by LST guests (your purchase supports the show!)

• Website: longestshortesttime.com

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As the daughter of an OBGYN, Danielle Bezalel learned all about vaginas — but pleasure wasn’t part of the conversation. Now she’s on a mission to help people prioritize pleasure. Today, she shares the incident that motivated her to become a sex educator, her own struggles with birth control, the orgasm experiment she did on herself, and tips for getting in the mood as a busy parent.

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Recommendations from the archive

Sex & Parenthood Series

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Episode resources

• Danielle’s podcast: Sex Ed with DB

• Find your shortcut to getting in the mood with Danielle’s smut quiz

• Danielle’s personal Magic Wand experiment

• Official Magic Wand study

• Planned Parenthood birth control quiz

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Sponsors (using our links supports the show!)

• Quince: Quince.com/longshort for FREE shipping + 365-day returns

• Brodo: Brodo.com/LST for 20% off your first subscription order + code LST for additional $10 off

• Wayfair: Wayfair.com

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• Join LST+ for community and access to You Know What, another show in the Longest Shortest universe!

• Follow us on Instagram

• Sign up for our newsletter, where we recommend other parenting + reproductive health media

• Buy books by LST guests (your purchase supports the show!)

• Website: longestshortesttime.com

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Alex was itching to ask her partner Ben whether he’d be up for having kids one day — a question that felt scary and extra complicated because she has Cerebral Palsy. To muster some courage, she turned to an unexpected ally: a tiny stuffed lamb that can see the future.

⭐️ This episode originally ran on August 16, 2017 and is a favorite from the archives. We hope you enjoy, and we’ll be back next week with a brand new episode.

…

• Join LST+ for community and access to You Know What, another show in the Longest Shortest universe!

• Follow us on Instagram

• Sign up for our newsletter, where we recommend other parenting + reproductive health media

• Buy books by LST guests (your purchase supports the show!)

• Website: longestshortesttime.com

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

College student Zaraia Fabunmi became a sex educator and a doula as a teenager. Today she shares how she's used that training to help her peers — and, at times, her teachers — plus the fascinating reproductive health research she did in India.  

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Recommendation from the archive

Zaraia is also in Ep #237: YOU KNOW WHAT: An LST Spinoff, a pilot we made featuring three super cool college kids talking about sex, dating, and relationships. (We are still trying to make this show! Email hello [at] longestshortesttime [dot] com if you’re interested in sponsorship opportunities!)

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Episode resources

• Planned Parenthood resources for teens

• You Know, Sex (Silverberg/Smyth): wonderfully dynamic and comprehensive book for tweens + teens

• Sex, Teens, and Everything in Between (Zaloom): great info and practice scenarios for teens + parents

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• Join LST+ for community and access to You Know What, another show in the Longest Shortest universe!

• Follow us on Instagram

• Sign up for our newsletter, where we recommend other parenting + reproductive health media

• Buy books by LST guests (your purchase supports the show!)

• Website: longestshortesttime.com

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A young Mormon plays a long con on his childhood crush—in the hopes of starting a family with her.

⭐️ This episode originally ran on January 17, 2016 and is a favorite from the archives. We hope you enjoy, and we’ll be back next week with a brand new episode.

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Sponsors (using our links supports the show!)

Blueland: 30% off during Blueland’s holiday sale by 12/7/25 at blueland.com/longshort

…

• Join LST+ for community and access to You Know What, another show in the Longest Shortest universe!

• Follow us on Instagram

• Sign up for our newsletter, where we recommend other parenting + reproductive health media

• Buy books by LST guests (your purchase supports the show!)

• Website: longestshortesttime.com

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Pop culture critic Kristen Meinzer joins us to share how as a tween, The Golden Girls — a show with grownup themes — helped her bond with her mom and grandma. She also recommends contemporary shows she loves watching with adolescents to spark fun and deep conversations.

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Recommendations from the archive

#118 All the Feels with Rob Huebel

#140 Zombies, Caillou, and Other Creepy Things

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Kristen’s full list

We couldn’t fit Kristen’s full list in the show. Find all of her recommendations here!

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More on Kristen Meinzer

Kristen has all kinds of amazing projects, which you can find at her website. Here’s a sampling:

• Kristen is a featured voice in ABC-HULU’s official 40th anniversary Golden Girls documentary, available in November

• She’s a host of The Nightly, a pop culture bedtime podcast

• She’s the co-author of How to Be Fine: What We Learned from Living by the Rules of 50 Self-Help Books

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Join LST+ for community and access to You Know What, another show in the Longest Shortest universe!

Follow us on Instagram

Website: longestshortesttime.com

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices