Storytelling, Aging & Agency with Tamika Thompson

What happens when we stop trying to outrun aging and start thinking about what it means to live fully in the bodies and lives we have? This week, Tanya and Jessica are joined by award-winning author and former journalist Tamika Thompson for a wide-ranging conversation about storytelling, horror, aging, health, motherhood, rest and the power of knowing yourself.

Tamika shares how growing up in Detroit, her family’s Southern storytelling traditions, and experiences with violence shaped her work as a horror writer. The conversation moves from the stories we inherit to the ones we tell ourselves about getting older, including beauty standards, perimenopause, preventative health and why women are too often left to piece together what is happening in their own bodies.

They also talk about raising Black children with agency, finding connection in a world that often feels disconnected, and Tamika’s “Wellness Wednesday,” a practice that makes health, therapy, movement and even the bureaucracy of taking care of yourself a priority. And perhaps the biggest reminder of the conversation: rest is not something we have to earn.

It’s a conversation about getting older, knowing yourself better, taking care of the body carrying you through it all, and becoming more fully who you are. Women in Full. ***Connect with Tamika Thompson Web: Blog: FB: IG: Threads: BlueSky: TikTok: Tamika Thompson is an award-winning author and former journalist whose latest novel, The Curse of Hester Gardens, was released by Erewhon/Kensington.

She is also the author of Unshod, Cackling, and Naked, winner of the 2024 Next Generation Indie Book Award for Horror, and Salamander Justice. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, Prairie Schooner, Interzone and numerous speculative fiction anthologies.

A former journalist and producer with credits at NBC, ABC News and Clear Channel Media and Entertainment, Tamika is a graduate of Columbia University and USC and lives in the San Francisco Bay Area. **Enjoying the show? Buy us a coffee!

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If you have questions for our hosts or want to suggest a topic for the show, please email us at podcast.girlcallme@ Website: Follow on Instagram: podcast.girlcallme Follow on Facebook: @girl.callmepodcast Join our YouTube Channel: @PodcastGirlCallMe