PODCAST · health
Becoming Real with Dr. Lori
by Lori Stevic Rust, PhD
Becoming Real with Dr. Lori offers real conversations in a world full of noise. Fake is everywhere. Curated lives. Performative confidence. Quick answers that promise easy fixes but rarely lead to real change. And after a while, all that pretending disconnects us — from each other and from ourselves. This is a podcast for anyone hungry for something more honest, and especially for women who are tired of carrying so much and having so little space to say what is real. I’m Dr. Lori Stevic-Rust, a board-certified clinical health psychologist, author, and speaker, and here we explore mental health, physical health, caregiving, grief, women’s health, brain health, stress, relationships, the hard conversations we avoid, and the courage it takes to live more honestly. Drawing on more than forty years in the therapy room, I share what I’ve learned from listening closely to real human stories. Some episodes are solo reflections. Others featur
Episodes
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Loneliness and Mental Health: Why We Weren't Built to Face Hard News Alone
My husband Jay doesn’t open his MyChart unless we’re sitting together, holding hands. We made that agreement after the morning he found out, alone on the couch in the dark, that his prostate cancer had returned. In this episode, I look at what connection actually does in the brain and body when...
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Why Intergenerational Relationships Matter: Loneliness, Ageism, and Belonging
“I have a voice in my head, and I want you to hear it.” The voice belongs to my Nana—a four-foot-eleven, blue-eyed, raspy-voiced Polish woman who was my soulmate. Her voice is why I wrote Greedy for Life, why I led a TEDWomen workshop on intergenerational relationships and why I started Nana’s...
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Self-Care for Women: Why Functioning Isn't the Same as Being Well
Self-Care for Women: Why Functioning Isn't the Same as Being Well I'm recording this one from a road trip, and if you know me at all, you know driving is not my idea of relaxing. I spend most of the ride working an imaginary brake from the passenger seat. But I chose to make this trip because…
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Abortion Bans and High-Risk Pregnancy: What Happens When the Law Is in the Exam Room
What happens when a physician knows what care a pregnant patient needs—but providing it could expose that physician to criminal charges? I sit down with maternal-fetal medicine specialist Dr. David Hackney, author of Impossible Choices, to examine what changed inside the exam room after the…
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Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT): Benefits, Risks, and a Generation of Misinformation
What happens when your lab results are normal, but you know you do not feel like yourself? In this episode, I sit down with Ann Konkoly, DNP, MBA, WHNP-BC, MSCP, a board-certified women’s health nurse practitioner and Menopause Society Certified Practitioner, to talk about the hormonal changes…
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Menopause Brain Fog or Dementia? How to Tell the Difference
You walk into a room and forget why you're there. A word you've used a thousand times won't come. And somewhere underneath the frustration, a quieter fear starts to build — is this menopause, or is it something more serious? In this episode, Dr. Lori draws on decades of clinical work with…
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Painful Sex After Menopause or Cancer Treatment: Low Desire, Orgasms and Pelvic Floor Health
Why does sex become painful for some women? Why can orgasms take longer—or feel different—during perimenopause and menopause? And why are women rarely asked about sexual health after cancer? Dr. Lori talks with Dr. Rachel Pope, a gynecologic surgeon and women’s sexual health specialist, about the...
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Postpartum Depression, Anxiety & Psychosis: The Hormone Connection
Pregnancy and postpartum can change far more than a woman’s body. Hormonal shifts can also intersect with anxiety, depression, intrusive thoughts, OCD and, in rare cases, postpartum psychosis. But how do we know when what a woman is experiencing has moved beyond the expected exhaustion and...
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Brain Health for Women: Why Alzheimer's Risk Isn't Just Genetics
Alzheimer's may be diagnosed late in life, but brain health is built decades earlier. And nearly two-thirds of people living with it are women. In this solo episode kicking off a new women's health series, Dr. Lori breaks down why the line between mental and physical health has never made sense…
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SAVE Act Part 2: Who Controls Your Vote?
When I released the first SAVE Act episode with attorney Pat Schraff, I thought it was a one and done. We talked about names — what women have historically had taken from them, and what happens when your birth certificate no longer matches the name you have carried for forty years. The response...
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The Power of Play for Adults: Why You Need Recess More Than a Vacation
It started with an offhand comment from my daughter: grown-ups need recess. We laughed — and then I couldn't stop thinking about it. Because somewhere between the playground and now, the bell just quietly stopped ringing, and nobody told us we'd had our last one. In this episode, I'm making the...
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What If I Don’t Want to Be the Caregiver?
What if the person who needs care is the parent who abused you, the mother you have not spoken to in years or the spouse you were preparing to leave before the diagnosis? We talk about caregiving as an act of love. But that leaves little room for the person who does not feel safe, the person who...
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People Pleasing Is Not Really About Pleasing People-Why You Say Yes When You Mean No
Why do you say yes when part of you already knows you mean no? People pleasing can look like kindness, generosity, and being easy to get along with. But underneath it, there is often something else happening: the attempt to prevent disappointment, avoid tension, and keep the people around us...
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Can We Trust Each Other Again? DEI, Belonging, and Staying Curious in a Divided World
Can we trust each other again? In this episode of Becoming Real, Dr. Lori talks with Dr. Debbie Plummer, national thought leader on social trust, DEI, and belonging. Together, they explore what it means to stay curious in a divided world, how we rebuild trust across our differences, and why...
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The SAVE Act and Women’s Names: Voting Rights, Marriage, and the Law
The SAVE Act is being framed as a bill about election integrity and proof of citizenship. But for many women, especially married, divorced, remarried, or older women, “just bring proof” is not always simple. In this episode, Dr. Lori talks with attorney Patricia J. Schraff about how women’s…
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Women Are Better Investors — Money, Psychology & the Conversations We Avoid
Most of us picked up whatever we know about money from watching our parents, winging it in our 20s, and hoping for the best. We were taught just enough to get by — but not nearly enough to get ahead. The real conversation — investing, building wealth, understanding what your money can actually do...
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Why Women Can't Accept a Compliment — The Psychology of Self-Worth, Confidence & Learning to Receive
Someone tells you that you look beautiful today. What do you do? If you're like most women, you immediately tell them about the sale rack, the dry shampoo, and the bad lighting. Studies show that only 22% of compliments between women are actually accepted — and women accept compliments from men...
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Prostate Cancer Explained: What Every Man Needs to Know
The advice on prostate cancer screening has swung back and forth for years. Test, don't test, wait, ask your doctor. And all that contradiction leaves a lot of men doing the one thing they shouldn't. Nothing. Even former President Biden, with all the medical scrutiny in the world, was diagnosed...
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Prostate Cancer: One Man's Honest Story
He had no symptoms. He was healthy, in good shape, and the only reason anyone tested him at all was a routine physical he needed to renew a racing license. This week my husband Jay sits down with me to talk about prostate cancer from the patient's side. Not the clinical version, not the tidy...
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There is No Small Talk in a Cancer Waiting Room
There is no small talk in a cancer waiting room. I learned that sitting in one for thirty-three days in a row, waiting through my husband's radiation treatments for prostate cancer. I went in thinking I knew something about fear. I came out understanding something else entirely, and it had almost...
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The Voices in Your Head: Whose Are They Really?
You have voices in your head that talk to you all day long. But here's what most of us never stop to ask: whose voice is it, really? In this episode, Dr. Lori Stevic-Rust — clinical health psychologist with over 40 years of experience — unpacks the truth about the voices in our heads. They aren't...
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Alzheimer’s Caregiving: Ambiguous Loss and the Slow Grief of Dementia
In this episode of Becoming Real with Dr. Lori, Dr. Lori talks with Dr. Melodie Yates about the emotional reality of Alzheimer’s caregiving and the slow grief of dementia. After spending 16 years caring for her husband through Alzheimer’s disease, Melodie brings an honest, deeply human voice to a...
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The People Saving You Without You Knowing It: How Emotional Support Fuels Healing and Growth
What if the people holding your life together don't even know they're doing it? In this episode of Becoming Real with Dr. Lori, psychologist Dr. Lori Stevic-Rust explores the quiet, often invisible support system that carries us through our hardest moments — and why naming it is one of the most...
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A Belief That Chose You: Propaganda, Cognitive Dissonance, and Thinking for Yourself
How can they possibly think like that? If you've asked that question lately — about a family member, a friend, someone you used to feel close to — this episode is for you. The truth is, we don't come to our beliefs the way we like to think we do. We don't gather the facts, weigh the evidence, and...
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The Day I Became Real: Imposter Syndrome and Authentic Living
I became real in August of 1988. On my first day as a clinical intern at Henry Ford Hospital, I walked into Room Three and met a young man named Nelson — and nothing I had been trained to do prepared me for what happened next. This episode is the story underneath this entire podcast. It's about...
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Why Becoming Real Exists: Real Conversations in a World Full of Noise
About this episode What does it mean to become real in a world that keeps rewarding performance? In this first solo episode of Becoming Real with Dr. Lori, I talk about why this podcast exists, what it means to become real in a noisy world, and why honest conversation still matters. In this...
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Trailer
This is not another podcast full of quick tips and polished advice. This is an invitation to something more honest than that. Something happens when we stop pretending — when we put down the performance and start paying attention to what we actually know, feel, and need. Things begin to change.…
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
Becoming Real with Dr. Lori offers real conversations in a world full of noise.
Fake is everywhere.
Curated lives. Performative confidence. Quick answers that promise easy fixes but rarely lead to real change.
And after a while, all that pretending disconnects us — from each other and from ourselves.
This is a podcast for anyone hungry for something more honest, and especially for women who are tired of carrying so much and having so little space to say what is real.
I’m Dr. Lori Stevic-Rust, a board-certified clinical health psychologist, author, and speaker, and here we explore mental health, physical health, caregiving, grief, women’s health, brain health, stress, relationships, the hard conversations we avoid, and the courage it takes to live more honestly.
Drawing on more than forty years in the therapy room, I share what I’ve learned from listening closely to real human stories. Some episodes are solo reflections. Others featur
HOSTED BY
Lori Stevic Rust, PhD
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does Becoming Real with Dr. Lori have?
Becoming Real with Dr. Lori currently has 27 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is Becoming Real with Dr. Lori about?
Becoming Real with Dr. Lori offers real conversations in a world full of noise. Fake is everywhere. Curated lives. Performative confidence. Quick answers that promise easy fixes but rarely lead to real change. And after a while, all that pretending disconnects us — from each other and from...
How often does Becoming Real with Dr. Lori release new episodes?
Becoming Real with Dr. Lori has 27 episodes. Check the episode list to see recent publication dates and frequency.
Where can I listen to Becoming Real with Dr. Lori?
You can listen to Becoming Real with Dr. Lori on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts Becoming Real with Dr. Lori?
Becoming Real with Dr. Lori is created and hosted by Lori Stevic Rust, PhD.
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