Circle This

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 dying process, and the truth she discovered through the training: the body knows how to die, just as it knows how to be born.
 
 
 
They explore why we are such a death-phobic culture, what it means to "die well," and how learning to witness — rather than fix or control — may be one of the most sacred roles we can play for one another.
 
 
 
This conversation moves through grief, laughter, fear, love, and even Dre's imagined memorial service. Because for Dre, death is not simply an ending — it's part of the same mystery that makes life so precious.
 
 
 
If facing death can bring us more fully into the present moment, maybe learning how to die is actually one of the greatest invitations to live.
 
 
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Stay connected with the Circle This team:
@andreabendewald @circlethispodcast
@emkratter @goodmessmedia @talkwithtrace
For sponsorship inquiries, email: [email protected]

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 weren't required to be included in medical studies until 1993.
 
 
 
The conversation also explores psychedelics and integration—how the default mode network quiets, how new neural pathways can form, and why connection—not isolation—is the medicine.
 
 
 
At one point, Ashley drops an iconic truth straight from the heart: "There's nothing scarier than someone who doesn't need you." Now we see menopause as more than a health conversation— but possibly a cultural revolution.
 
 
 
FOLLOW: @ashleyturner1, @haven_membership
LEARN MORE AT: https://yoga-psychology.co/
 
 
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Stay connected with the Circle This team:
@andreabendewald @circlethispodcast
@emkratter @goodmessmedia @talkwithtrace

For sponsorship inquiries, email: [email protected]

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 you both done hurting one another? Their answer changed everything.
 
 
 
We talk about what brought them back into the same room and how understanding each other's brains softened blame and defensiveness. We explore why healing is a group sport, what happens when you give six months of your best with zero expectations, and how conflict can become a doorway to deeper intimacy instead of a reason to leave.
 
 
 
FOLLOW: @OdetteAnnable & @dave_annable
 
 
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Stay connected with the Circle This team: 
@andreabendewald @circlethispodcast
@emkratter @goodmessmedia @talkwithtrace
For sponsorship inquiries, email: [email protected]

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 surface and start tending to the root.
 
 
 
They open up about separation and recommitment, the loneliness that can exist even inside love, Odette's infertility journey, and Dave's experience of grief—plus a powerful reminder: your partner can't be your everything, and that's not a failure, it's a design feature. Community matters. Self-reflection matters. And love isn't "happily ever after"… it's choosing each other again and again, with eyes open.
 
 
 
Follow: @odetteannable @dave_annable
 
 
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Stay connected:
@andreabendewald @circlethispodcast
@emkratter @goodmessmedia @talkwithtrace
Sponsorship: [email protected]

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 celebration for their beloved mentor and friend Leigh Kilton Smith—a living example of community in action. Flash mobs, art-making, campfire circles, and collective participation become a case study in what happens when everyone gets to belong, be witnessed, and be held.
 
 
 
They also dive into what love looks like in everyday life: the "small acts" that make someone feel deeply loved, the subtle ways people block care and celebration, and why letting others love you can be one of the most radical forms of self-love.
 
 
 
Chosen family isn't built through networking. It's built through orientation. A state of mind. A way of being. And a choice. 
 
 
 
Wand Drops:
"If you are willing to love yourself through your friends, it can heal the world."
"Think like a circle: every part matters and we take care of the whole."
 
 
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Stay connected with the Circle This team:
@andreabendewald @circlethispodcast
@emkratter @goodmessmedia @talkwithtrace

For sponsorship inquiries: [email protected]