The Modern Ancestral Mamas Podcast

🌿 Earthley creates truly natural, non-toxic herbal remedies made with simple, real ingredients you can trust.

Use code ancestral10 for 10% off → https://www.earthley.com

 

What if everything your garden needs is already sitting in your kitchen?

 

In this episode, Corey and Christine welcome back Sophie Eng, author of The Nourishing Asian Kitchen and the forthcoming The Nourishing Asian Homestead. The daughter of Vietnamese refugees, Sophie grew up beside her grandfather's garden, learning to ferment, compost, and work with the land long before she knew it had a name. She and her husband Tim traded Silicon Valley for six acres in California and now homestead on 40 acres off the side of a mountain in East Tennessee, where they're raising their two daughters in the traditions their family carried across an ocean.

 

Together, they dig into Korean Natural Farming (KNF), the centuries-old Asian approach Sophie and her whole family got certified in, built on one deceptively simple idea: feed the soil, not the plant. Sophie shares how she turns rice rinse water, leftover milk, fish scraps, and fast-growing weeds like kudzu into free, truly organic fertilizers, the same "liquid gold" her grandfather made on a tiny scale in Vietnam. The conversation gets honest about food freedom in a fragile supply chain, why a single ton of fertilizer nearly doubled in price overnight, how community is the missing half of self-sufficiency, and the real challenge of raising grounded kids in a Doritos-and-Monster world.

 

✨ Topics Covered in This Episode:

✔️ What Korean Natural Farming (KNF) is and how it differs from regenerative agriculture

✔️ The core principle: healthy soil grows healthy plants, animals, and people

✔️ How to make free fertilizer from rice rinse water you'd normally pour down the drain

✔️ Lactic acid bacteria (LAB): one ferment for your gut, garden, coop, and laundry

✔️ Fermented plant juice and fish amino acids, and why kudzu is perfect for it

✔️ Indigenous microorganisms (IMO 1 through 5) and collecting wild soil microbes

✔️ Why grocery-store produce isn't as nutrient-dense as it used to be

✔️ Food freedom and breaking free from imported, supply-chain-dependent inputs

✔️ Trading milk, butter, and yogurt for hay and honey instead of cash

✔️ Simple starting points: bone broth, one daily ferment, and stretching protein with soup

✔️ Raising mature, grounded kids who choose real food over fitting in

 

📚 Resources & Links Mentioned:

📍 Sprinkle With Soil (Sophie's family blog) – https://sprinklewithsoil.com

📍 Pre-order The Nourishing Asian Homestead & shop The Nourishing Asian Kitchen – https://sprinklewithsoil.com

📍 Joy and Jolie (her daughters' organic pho spice mixes) – https://joyandjolie.com

📍 Call to Farms Podcast – https://calltofarms.com

📍 The Homesteading Agent (find & fund your homestead) – https://thehomesteadingagent.com

📍 Sophie on Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/sprinklewithsoil/

📍 Join our Patreon Community – https://patreon.com/modernancestralmamas

📍 NEW Website – https://www.modernancestralmamas.com

📍 Earthley – https://www.earthley.com (code: ancestral10 for 10% off)

 

✨ Support the Show!

👍 Like & Subscribe for more ancestral motherhood conversations

⭐ Leave a 5-star review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify

💬 Comment below: What's one kitchen scrap you'll never throw away again?

 

#koreannaturalfarming #homesteading #soilhealth #foodfreedom #ancestralliving #fermentation #regenerativeagriculture #ModernAncestralMamas #RealFood #MotherhoodWellness #MomLife

 

📲 Stay Connected:

Patreon Community | https://www.patreon.com/c/ModernAncestralMamas

@fornutrientssake | https://www.instagram.com/fornutrientssake/

@nourishthelittles | https://www.instagram.com/nourishthelittles/

@modernancestralmamas | https://www.instagram.com/modernancestralmamas/

YouTube | https://www.youtube.com/@ModernAncestralMamas

🌿 Earthley creates truly natural, non-toxic herbal remedies made with simple, real ingredients you can trust. Use code ancestral10 for 10% off → https://www.earthley.com

 

You're eating clean. You're working out. So why is the scale still going up?

 

In this episode, Corey and Christine welcome functional nutritionist Deanna DeWitt, a women's hormone specialist who spent her late 20s and early 30s battling gut issues, anxiety, and hormone chaos before the conventional medical system left her with little more than an IBS label and a handful of prescriptions. After healing herself, she traded her fast-paced LA career for functional nutrition school and has now spent nearly a decade helping women lose weight without starving themselves, over-exercising, or counting a single calorie.

 

Together, they take apart the "eat less, exercise more" advice that fails most women after 35, why chronic stress signals your body to store fat for safety, and how cortisol quietly spikes blood sugar even when you're eating the cleanest diet imaginable. Deanna explains metabolic flexibility, the sugar-burner vs. fat-burner switch, and why your thyroid actually needs carbs. The conversation gets honest about calorie restriction, the keto and carnivore crash so few are talking about, 4am workouts that backfire, and how to start syncing your nutrition and movement with your cycle.

 

✨ Topics Covered in This Episode:

✔️ Why "eat less, exercise more" stops working after your mid-30s

✔️ How chronic stress puts your body into fat-storage survival mode

✔️ The hidden link between cortisol and blood sugar (even on a clean diet)

✔️ Metabolic flexibility and the sugar-burner vs. fat-burner switch

✔️ Why your thyroid needs carbs, and the keto/carnivore crash no one talks about

✔️ Calorie restriction and why 1,500 calories may be keeping you stuck

✔️ The truth about 4am workouts and how they backfire on your hormones

✔️ Strength training vs. HIIT vs. Pilates for women's hormones

✔️ Cycle syncing your food, fasting, and movement throughout the month

✔️ Why morning sunlight is a non-negotiable metabolic reset

✔️ Blue light, circadian rhythm, and evening snacking

✔️ Navigating perimenopause and menopausal belly fat naturally

✔️ The body's "whispers" — early signs your hormones need support

 

🧠 More About This Episode: This episode is for every woman who's doing everything "right" and still feeling stuck, frustrated, and betrayed by her own body. It's for the mom in her late 30s and 40s wondering why the rules suddenly changed, and for anyone navigating perimenopause, weight-loss resistance, or the exhaustion of chronic stress. Practical, validating, and full of micro-habits you can start tomorrow morning.

 

📚 Resources & Links Mentioned:

📍 Deanna's Nourish Program & Website – https://deannadewitt.com/

📍 Deanna on Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/deannadee/

📍 The Minnesota Starvation Experiment (referenced study)

📍 Join our Patreon Community – https://patreon.com/modernancestralmamas

📍 NEW Website – https://www.modernancestralmamas.com

📍 Earthley – https://www.earthley.com (code: ancestral10 for 10% off)

 

✨ Support the Show!

👍 Like & Subscribe for more ancestral motherhood conversations

⭐ Leave a 5-star review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify

💬 Comment below: What's one piece of weight-loss advice you've stopped believing?

 

#weightloss #perimenopause #hormonehealth #ancestralliving #cyclesyncing #ModernAncestralMamas #RealFood #MotherhoodWellness #MomLife #functionalnutrition

📲 Stay Connected:

Patreon Community | https://www.patreon.com/c/ModernAncestralMamas

@fornutrientssake | https://www.instagram.com/fornutrientssake/

@nourishthelittles | https://www.instagram.com/nourishthelittles/

@modernancestralmamas | https://www.instagram.com/modernancestralmamas/

YouTube | https://www.youtube.com/@ModernAncestralMamas

Website | https://www.modernancestralmamas.com

🌿 Earthley creates truly natural, non-toxic herbal remedies made with simple, real ingredients you can trust. Use code ancestral10 for 10% off → https://www.earthley.com

 

The crunchy movement has a dogma problem, and even the homesteaders are starting to question it.

 

In this episode, Corey and Christine sit down with Sarah Stutsman of Wellfolk Revival, a homesteading mom of three teen daughters in Pennsylvania who has spent nearly two decades raising chickens, milking cows, fermenting everything, and teaching community classes in her renovated garage. But Sarah comes to the conversation with a confession: she's been holding her ancestral lifestyle a little too tightly. She's reading *The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry*, taking candle-light showers, and just last week, she bought cereal at the regular grocery store. Not the organic kind. And she's wondering if some of what she's been doing has cost her joy.

 

Together, they unpack the trap of "perfect" ancestral living, why Sarah is rethinking the high-fat carnivore-leaning approach as she enters her mid-40s, the truth about perimenopause (and whether the word itself is a pharmaceutical invention), and how chronic stress may be spiking our blood sugar without a single bite of food. Corey and Christine also get into the cultural addiction to busyness and self-sabotage, the power of effort-based dopamine, and why Sarah installed a landline in her farmhouse to fight the constant phone reach.

 

✨ *Topics Covered in This Episode:*

✔️ Why ancestral living can become its own form of diet culture

✔️ Sarah's countercultural rhythms: candle-light showers, dry brushing, castor oil packs

✔️ Installing a landline in 2026 (and why more families are doing it)

✔️ Cory's no-baby-containers approach with her newborn

✔️ The truth about perimenopause and whether it's a modern construct

✔️ Why indigenous women historically didn't experience perimenopause

✔️ How stress alone can spike blood sugar without food

✔️ Effort-based dopamine vs. instant gratification (and why your brain needs the hard stuff)

✔️ "Power-down hours" for the whole family, including teens

✔️ Raising three daughters with one shared phone

✔️ Why busyness is its own addiction and self-sabotage is a cultural pattern

✔️ The lost art of doing hard things together (canning, processing, putting up food)

✔️ Why your friends actually want to be your burden

✔️ Sarah's Wellfolk Revival community classes and how she built them from scratch

 

🧠 *More About This Episode:*

This episode is for any mama who's deep in the crunchy world and starting to feel the weight of it, anyone questioning whether perfect ancestral living is actually serving her family, and every mom navigating the messy middle of hormonal shifts, teen daughters, and modern motherhood. It's honest, reflective, and a little bit of a permission slip.

 

📚 *Resources & Links Mentioned:*

📍 *Wellfolk Revival* (Sarah's website, classes, and upcoming hormone guide) – https://www.wellfolkrevival.com

📍 *Sarah on Instagram* – @wellfolkrevival

📍 *The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry* by John Mark Comer

📍 *Join our Patreon Community* – https://patreon.com/modernancestralmamas

📍 *NEW Website* – https://www.modernancestralmamas.com

📍 *Knead Your Cure Conference* (August 2026 in Oxford, MS) - https://www.kneadyourcure.com/

📍 *Earthley* – https://www.earthley.com (code: ancestral10 for 10% off)

 

✨ *Support the Show!*

👍 Like & Subscribe for more ancestral motherhood conversations

⭐ Leave a 5-star review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify

💬 Comment below: What's one part of crunchy living you've started to question?

 

#homesteading #perimenopause #ancestralliving #crunchymom #slowliving #ModernAncestralMamas #RealFood #MotherhoodWellness #MomLife #WellfolkRevival

 

📲 Stay Connected:

Patreon Community | https://www.patreon.com/c/ModernAncestralMamas

@fornutrientssake | https://www.instagram.com/fornutrientssake/

@nourishthelittles | https://www.instagram.com/nourishthelittles/

@modernancestralmamas | https://www.instagram.com/modernancestralmamas/

YouTube | https://www.youtube.com/@ModernAncestralMamas

🌿 Earthley creates truly natural, non-toxic herbal remedies made with simple, real ingredients you can trust. Use code ancestral10 for 10% off → https://www.earthley.com

 

The fourth trimester is a lie, and your body knows it.

 

In this episode, Corey and Christine sit down for a long-overdue catch-up after Christine's maternity leave from the podcast. Now six weeks postpartum with baby #4, Christine shares the realization that's reshaped how she thinks about motherhood: humans aren't built to bounce back. We're "carrier mammals," biologically wired to hold our underdeveloped babies for months after birth, and the cultural expectation to return to "normal" in 12 weeks is working against every instinct our bodies have.

 

Together, they unpack the three types of mammals (and why it matters for new moms), why Christine says it took her three full years to feel like herself after her last baby, and how doing postpartum #4 with real support, including family, a postpartum chef, and extra help in the home, opened her eyes to what previous postpartums had cost her. Corey and Christine also push back on mommy wine culture, talk about why the most chill moms they know are the ones with the biggest families, and reflect on six years of doing this podcast together.

 

✨ *Topics Covered in This Episode:*

✔️ The three types of mammals (nesting, carrier, and follower) and why humans are carriers

✔️ Why babies are essentially "born three months early" and need to be held

✔️ Christine's six-week postpartum update with baby #4

✔️ Why the fourth trimester is closer to two or three years than three months

✔️ What it's like to do postpartum with a real village vs. completely alone

✔️ Hiring a postpartum chef and why nourishment matters more than restriction

✔️ Why big-family moms are often the most joyful and relaxed

✔️ Pushing back on mommy wine culture and motherhood-as-drudgery

✔️ Corey's new cookbook *What Do I Feed These Kids?*, a real food cheat sheet

✔️ The launch of the Modern Ancestral Mamas website

✔️ Upcoming conferences in 2026, including Need Your Cure in Oxford, MS and Weston A. Price in DC

✔️ Why women were never meant to do postpartum alone

 

🧠 *More About This Episode:*

This episode is for any mom in the trenches of postpartum, any mother who has ever wondered why she didn't feel like herself for years after having a baby, and anyone who needs the reminder that motherhood is a calling worth celebrating, not a chore to survive. It's warm, honest, and a little nerdy about mammal biology.

📚 *Resources & Links Mentioned:*

📍 *What Do I Feed These Kids? A Real Food Cheat Sheet* by Corey – https://www.fornutrientssake.com/shop/p/4xp1fet4qsg0260nqneem6ahlpkq54

📍 *Join our Patreon Community* – https://patreon.com/modernancestralmamas

📍 *NEW Website* – https://www.modernancestralmamas.com

📍 *Knead Your Cure Conference* (August 14-15, 2026 in Oxford, MS) - https://www.kneadyourcure.com/ 📍

*Weston A. Price Foundation Conference* (October 2026, Washington DC) - https://www.westonaprice.org/get-involved/conferences/?gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=415527510&gbraid=0AAAAADiY3lq80cXhgOfdh2V-vU5CtgjOj&gclid=Cj0KCQjwlLDQBhDjARIsAPlIefHdvKOKIxAO69qxYuEjEKK1IvRjeA0k2V-qnS4C5pnW3p4Y8IOy3pIaAoxHEALw_wcB#gsc.tab=0

📍 *Masienda* – nixtamalized masa for homemade tortillas - https://masienda.com/?srsltid=AfmBOoq1OGBPk3ti3xPzBeHk167J8DKl1hBkJa4H0xcWfFPQNUm-sNCz

📍 *Vitamin T* cookbook by Masienda - https://masienda.com/products/vitamina-t?srsltid=AfmBOop82fVnQmXWMFdXjoehRWzJm_m68M8jT74Zf1R-2qUb6lWUzaYC

📍 *Earthley* – https://www.earthley.com (code: ancestral10 for 10% off)

 

✨ *Support the Show!*

👍 Like & Subscribe for more ancestral motherhood conversations

⭐ Leave a 5-star review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify

💬 Comment below: What's one thing you wish someone had told you about postpartum?

 

#postpartum #fourthtrimester #carriermammals #AncestralLiving #MotherhoodWellness #ModernAncestralMamas #RealFood #PostpartumSupport #MomLife #NewMom

📲 Stay Connected:

Patreon Community | https://www.patreon.com/c/ModernAncestralMamas

@fornutrientssake | https://www.instagram.com/fornutrientssake/

@nourishthelittles | https://www.instagram.com/nourishthelittles/

@modernancestralmamas | https://www.instagram.com/modernancestralmamas/

YouTube | https://www.youtube.com/@ModernAncestralMamas

🌿 Earthley creates truly natural, non-toxic herbal remedies made with simple, real ingredients you can trust. Use code ancestral10 for 10% off → https://www.earthley.com

 

The generation raised on ultra-processed food is starting to fight back.

 

In this episode, Corey and Christine welcome Bishaka Chowdhury, a Gen Z health advocate and content creator behind @foodlicious444, for the third installment of their series: Gen Z and How One Generation Is Changing the Future of Food. Born in Bangladesh and raised in the U.S., Bishaka shares how growing up between two food cultures, going vegan and watching her health crash at 80 lbs, and finally returning to nutrient-dense, ancestral eating shaped her mission to wake up her generation to what's really in their food.

 

Together, they unpack why Gen Z is fed up with ultra-processed everything, how Bishaka's parents developed diabetes after moving to the U.S., and why her mom still drives hours to source real ingredients from her home country. Bishaka gets honest about the cultural pressure to grab fast food on every corner, the "cheat day" mindset that keeps her peers stuck, and why she thinks millennials were "the guinea pig generation" — raised on the food experiment Gen Z is now refusing to continue.

✨ Topics Covered in This Episode:

✔️ Bishaka's journey from vegan health crash to nutrient-dense eating

✔️ Growing up between Bangladeshi food culture and the standard American diet

✔️ How her parents developed diabetes after moving to the U.S.

✔️ Why traditional fats like ghee are being replaced with seed oils — even in cultural cuisine

✔️ The Seed Oil Scout app and finding real food when you eat out

✔️ Why Gen Z is "fed up" and demanding better food quality

✔️ How millennials became the guinea pig generation for ultra-processed food

✔️ Why convenience culture and fast food on every corner keep Gen Z stuck

✔️ The "cheat day" mindset and why it's keeping people sick

✔️ How to date and find like-minded partners outside the club scene

✔️ The rise of Botox, fillers, and plastic surgery in girls as young as 18

✔️ Practical first steps for parents and teens transitioning to real food

 

🧠 More About This Episode:

Bishaka Chowdhury is a Gen Z health advocate and content creator who shares nutrition and ancestral eating content with her growing community on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, and Facebook under the handle @foodlicious444. Born in Bangladesh and raised in the U.S., Bishaka studied health sciences in college and quickly realized how little emphasis is placed on real nutrition in mainstream education. After a vegan diet left her depleted and underweight, she returned to nutrient-dense, whole-food eating and now uses her platform to help others — especially her peers — reclaim their health through real food.

 

This episode is for any parent raising Gen Z or Gen Alpha kids, anyone curious about how the youngest generation is reshaping food culture, and anyone who needs a reminder that whole food living doesn't require a degree — just the willingness to start. It's honest, hopeful, and a little bit feisty.

 

📚 Resources & Links Mentioned:

📍 Follow Bishaka – @foodlicious444 on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube & Facebook

📍 Seed Oil Scout app – for finding restaurants that don't cook with seed oils

📍 Earthley – https://www.earthley.com (code: ancestral10 for 10% off)

📍 Join our Patreon Community – https://patreon.com/modernancestralmamas

 

✨ Support the Show!

👍 Like & Subscribe for more ancestral motherhood conversations

⭐ Leave a 5-star review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify

💬 Comment below: What's one ancestral food tradition from your family or culture that you want to bring back?

 

#genzhealth #RealFood #AncestralLiving #WholeFood #AntiProcessedFood #MotherhoodWellness #ModernAncestralMamas #SeedOilFree #GuineaPigGeneration #NutrientDense

 

📲 Stay Connected:

Patreon Community | https://www.patreon.com/c/ModernAncestralMamas

@fornutrientssake | https://www.instagram.com/fornutrientssake/

@nourishthelittles | https://www.instagram.com/nourishthelittles/

@modernancestralmamas | https://www.instagram.com/modernancestralmamas/

YouTube | https://www.youtube.com/@ModernAncestralMamas