The wildest part of Machan Taylor’s story isn’t the backstage access or the legendary names. It’s the quiet moment when she realizes the life that looks “made” from the outside is still built on old trauma, old shame, and a nervous system that never learned safety.

I sit down with Machan, a singer, songwriter, educator, and author of the memoir “Naked Out Loud,” to talk about what happens when you stop saving face and start telling the truth. We get into her Japanese American upbringing, the early rupture of leaving Japan as a child, and the long shadow of not belonging. Machan shares how family dysfunction and an alcoholic father shaped her self-worth, and how those patterns echoed later in an abusive marriage she ultimately had to leave to survive. We also talk candidly about panic attacks, anxiety, and the way trauma can imprint on the body for years.

From there, the conversation opens into the healing tools that helped her rebuild from the inside out: chanting and Buddhism, meditation and yoga, intuition and energy, and the sacred, demanding work of psychedelic-assisted therapy. Machan explains her guided experiences with MDMA and psilocybin, why intention and integration matter, and how those sessions helped her find the “original” wound that talk therapy never fully reached. We end with the part I want every midlife listener to hear: reinvention is real. Machan goes back to school at 54, becomes a professor at NYU, keeps performing, and proves that turning 70 doesn’t mean shrinking your life.

If you take something from this, subscribe or follow, share it with a friend who needs a second act, and leave a five-star rating and a review so more women can find this work.

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Tantra Talk Part 2

Tantra has a branding problem, and it’s costing a lot of us the exact thing we’re craving in midlife: peace in our bodies, clarity in our desires, and real connection that doesn’t require performing. I’m back with Rosa, founder of the London School of Tantra, to strip the topic down to its roots. Tantra, as Rosa defines it, is a tool for weaving and expanding consciousness, a path of liberation that includes sexuality without being reduced to it.

We talk about how tantra got popularized in the West through neo-tantra, why desire was treated as “bad,” and what changes when you stop shaming your wants. Rosa breaks down key concepts like Shiva and Shakti, kundalini life force energy, and polarity in relationships, with a grounded take that keeps it practical instead of preachy. If libido feels flat, intimacy feels tense, or you’re tired of leaking energy through people-pleasing, this part will hit home.

Then we get into Rosa’s framework: the 12 fundamentals of the human experience. We walk through the base fundamentals that create safety (boundaries, desire, rejection, emotional connection), the core that brings your magnetism back online (authenticity, presence, love, play), and the source tier that expands everything (surrender, intuition, sexuality, energy). You’ll also hear why real change takes work at the subconscious level, the nervous system level, and the behavior level, plus a guided foundation breath you can try today.

If you’re ready to feel more alive, more sovereign, and more you, press play. Subscribe or follow so you don’t miss what’s next, share this with a friend who needs a reset, and leave a five-star rating and review to help more women find the show.

Rosa Maxwell is the founder of the London School of Tantra, the UK’s largest female-founded Tantra school, and a leading voice in the modern Tantra movement

An international facilitator and sex magic expert, Rosa is the creative force behind the school’s visionary approach that unites science, spirituality, and sexuality. With over a decade of experience in psychology, coaching, and embodiment, Rosa bridges ancient wisdom with modern neuroscience to create world-class training for facilitators and profound transformation for her students. Her work helps people regulate the nervous system, awaken erotic energy, and experience true freedom—living, loving, and leading from authenticity and liberation.

When she’s not holding space, Rosa can usually be found with a cacao in hand, dancing barefoot somewhere warm, or dreaming up new ways to make spiritual work more accessible, inclusive, and deeply human.

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Rosa's Website

The Secret Diary of a Tantrica Secret Podcast

Rosa on Instagram

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email: Jen@HalfwayToDeadPodcast.com

Tantra Talk with Rosa Maxwell Part 1

Your body can look calm while your nervous system is in full survival mode, and if you’ve ever wondered why talk therapy alone doesn’t always create lasting change, this conversation clicks things into place. We sit down with Rosa Maxwell, founder of the London School of Tantra and an international facilitator known for trauma-informed coaching that weaves together embodiment, nervous system regulation, spirituality, and sexuality without the fluff.

Rosa shares the behind-the-scenes story most people never see: just a few years ago she’s dealing with depression, severe anxiety, numbness in her body, and trauma flashbacks that derail her life in the corporate world. EMDR helps stop the flashbacks and ease PTSD symptoms, but it doesn’t automatically reconnect her to pleasure, desire, and aliveness. That search leads her to Tantra, and what starts as curiosity about sex becomes something much bigger: a daily practice of coming back home to herself, peeling away what isn’t truly her, and building real inner safety.

We also unpack a powerful moment for Jen at a retreat in Greece where a sudden burst of rage triggers a freeze response. Rosa explains what’s happening through the lens of fight, flight, freeze, dissociation, and co-regulation, including why gentle grounding and being witnessed can shift the body faster than logic ever will. If you’re exploring somatic healing, inner child work, IFS-informed practices, or midlife spirituality, you’ll leave with language and insight that makes your own patterns feel understandable, not shameful.

Part two goes deeper into Tantra fundamentals and myths, so make sure to hop over and listen now! If this resonates, share it with a friend and leave a five-star rating and review so more people can find the path back to embodiment.

Rosa Maxwell is the founder of the London School of Tantra, the UK’s largest female-founded Tantra school, and a leading voice in the modern Tantra movement.

An international facilitator and sex magic expert, Rosa is the creative force behind the school’s visionary approach that unites science, spirituality, and sexuality. With over a decade of experience in psychology, coaching, and embodiment, Rosa bridges ancient wisdom with modern neuroscience to create world-class training for facilitators and profound transformation for her students. Her work helps people regulate the nervous system, awaken erotic energy, and experience true freedom—living, loving, and leading from authenticity and liberation.

When she’s not holding space, Rosa can usually be found with a cacao in hand, dancing barefoot somewhere warm, or dreaming up new ways to make spiritual work more accessible, inclusive, and deeply human.

Let's Connect!

Rosa's Website

The Secret Diary of a Tantrica Secret Podcast

Rosa on Instagram

Halfway To Dead Podcast

Website

Facebook

Instagram

email: Jen@HalfwayToDeadPodcast.com