Las Doctoras Podcast

Today, Dr. Renee and Dr. Cristina close Season 4 of Las Doctoras with a conversation with two special guests! Our first guest is Monica Simpson, queer Black activist, artist, and executive director of SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective. She takes us through her over 20 years of social justice work with a keen focus on sexual reproductive justice. Monica starts all of her training sessions at SisterSong with the line: We all have a story to tell. She firmly believes...

Today, Dr. Renee and Dr. Cristina take the opportunity to analyze their Human Design Charts with life coach Elyse Preston, the founder of Be More Connected. Listen in as our hosts—both Emotional Generators—learn more about themselves and each other through this unique window into the soul! When you look at a Human Design Chart, you’re essentially looking at a map—a blueprint mapping out the strengths, gifts, and essences that your soul chose to support you in tapping into your highest...

Today, Dr. Renee and Dr. Cristina sit down with friend, political advocate, and fellow teacher Anna Lily. The three share an inspiring message of change and daily action, encouraging us to go beyond visualizing a utopian future and start creating a system of liberation today. To kick things off, Dr. Renee, Dr. Cristina, and Anna Lily go through a lightning round of fun questions around how they would do things if they were President. The questions include: “Who would you have on to sing the...

Today, Dr. Renee and Dr. Cristina sit down with their good friend and former student Bernice to discuss Mariposa de Barrio, the telenovela based on the life of Jenni Rivera. One of the most striking parts of Jenni’s story is the fact that she built a career in a man’s industry. She is a true trailblazer who single-handedly made other women who are fans of Banda—a male-dominated music genre—feel validated. There is a surprising amount of domestic and sexual violence depicted in the...

Today, Dr. Renee and Dr. Cristina sit down with money coach Nathalia, known to most as @mom_money_boss on Instagram to talk all things money and financial freedom. From budgetingto generational wealth, Nathalia wants to be a powerful voice in her community, many members of which lack the mentorship and resources to grow their money mindset and leave a legacy to their family. This hits especially close to home for her as she also had only recently been on a journey to pay down her student...

Creativity. It’s a huge part of our lives, and one that Dr. Renee and Dr. Cristina believe we all need to have more conversations around. Today, the two specifically zoom into priming our entire being to embody creative states. Believing that creativity requires everything in us—body, mind, and soul—in order for us to express it fully, Las Doctoras encourage us to see creativity as a holistic process that is just as powerful as a tool for meditation as it is a tool for productivity. Most of...

Dr. Renee and Dr. Cristina sit down with CPA Benjamin Perez (@perezadvisor on Instagram) to touch on his evolving views on masculinity, both within himself and among the Latino community as a whole. Benjamin considers the various aspects of the complex topic that is masculinity from the point of view of his lived experience, particularly as a Latino. He breaks down the old beliefs that he had to overcome such as traditional machismo and gender roles. Speaking of unlearning, Benjamin talks...

Welcome to the 40th episode of Las Doctoras! Today’s topic (and one which Dr. Renee and Dr. Cristina will continue to unpack in the next few episodes) is masculinity. Being mothers to young boys, this is an especially personal topic for the two. Listen in as they share how they intend to help their sons navigate a culture where toxic masculinity continues to prevail, as well as how they define the healthy sort of masculinity that they hope their sons can embody growing up. Our hosts reflect...

Dr. Renee and Dr. Cristina continue their discussion on the state of academia and attempt to pull back the curtain behind its hierarchical structure, based on their personal experiences in this world. Today’s guest, Dr. Ana Linda Arellano Nez, first met our hosts through their writing course and today works as the copy editor for Saint Lunita magazine alongside being an ethnic studies professor at California State University, Fullerton. Our hosts and Dr. Ana Linda reflect on their search...

Today, Dr. Renee and Dr. Cristina sit down with Diane Nevarez, a professor in the Education department at University of California Irvine. They do a deep dive into the current state of academia with a focus on the many challenges that the American university system poses, both in general and specifically around the pandemic. There is a lot of exploitation that takes place among adjunct professors precisely due to the contractual or part-time nature of the job. The hiring process is toxic...

As we approach Día de los Muertos, Dr. Renee and Dr. Cristina revisit the topic of grief and loss by speaking on their personal experiences loosing the people closest to them. Dr. Renee reflects on her father’s death seven years later. From his final request (“If anything happens, write the book.”), to the chaos of having countless long-lost relatives flying in once it was clear the situation was grim, to the moment Dr. Renee realized that it was time to let him go nine days after being...

Dr. Renee and Dr. Cristina welcome Tida Beattie, a 1st generation Thai-American end-of-life doula, community educator, and grief activist; and Soyeon Davis is a 1.5 generation Korean-American end of life doula. Tida and Soyeon are the co-founders of MESO, which provides advocacy, assistance, and support to immigrant families dealing with chronic illness and/or aging. Much of Tida and Soyeon’s work at Meso is a product of their lived experience. Having lost many family members of their own...

Season 4 has arrived! Dr. Renne and Dr. Cristina are rested and ready to launch into a new phase of the podcast and, of course, the community. Having returned from their well-deserved rest in July, Dr. Renee and Dr. Cristina are raring to get back into action! But not before thanking the community, whether through the podcast, book club, writing course, or magazine. So much opportunity came out of this supportive and encouraging family, and the ladies are forever grateful! Speaking of the...

This episode is centered around rest. “Rest” is not usually something you find on someone’s list of things to celebrate, but Dr. Renee and Dr. Cristina sit down to discuss exactly why the right amounts of rest, in the truest sense of the word, helps us move forward stronger and wiser with a renewed sense of purpose. ● Rest is something that helps us recover with more vigor to do the most important things in our lives. Dr. Renee and Dr. Cristina note that capitalism always pushes us to rush...

This episode is centered around home. Whether an actual physical home or a community that makes you feel at home Dr. Renee and Dr. Cristina touch on how to find your place of belonging, operate from a place of abundance, and do your part to build a world free of injustice by becoming more conscious of how you raise the next generation. ● Dr. Renee and Dr. Cristina kick off this episode by sharing the importance of setting aside time and energy to recharge and refill your creative tank and...

This episode is all about celebration! Dr. Renee and Dr. Cristina have a lot to celebrate, so join them in shining light on jaw-dropping achievements, exciting news, and new opportunities for growth and connection. Dr. Renee and Dr. Cristina kick off this episode by celebrating the sold out Sacred Writing Course and all that it has created for them and their community. In creating the spaces they need for themselves, they’ve held space for so many amazing women to connect to the sacredness...

We’re celebrating 30 episodes with a special discussion about motherhood in the patriarchy. We’ll examine our own personal experiences with parenting and the emotional labor and expectations handed to women and femmes in a male-dominated society. 1:58 Announcing our latest “Writing to our Ancestors” course with a new series called “Sacred Writing.” Learn more about it here. 4:12 Launching our online magazine! Watch a Chisme Session with editor Selisa here. 7:58 Decolonizing...

In this episode, we discuss our own sexual journeys and the fluidity of sexuality as we age particularly as it relates to our sexual preferences. Join us for a a very raw conversation about sexuality, gender binaries and intimacy.

We are inviting Norma back onto the show. She previously came onto the show to talk about her article on colorism in the family. Norma is a first-generation American and a Sagittarius. She is an attorney by trade and she started to write during her time as a stay at home mom. She was driven by a mission to share the stories of brown women raising their children. After she published an article in the New York Times she started thinking about the power of representing her community through...

In this episode, we interview Esoteric Esa, an astrologer, numerologist, and creator of an oracle deck. We are doing a reading with her. We have each recently had individual readings with her, and today we are getting a deeper insight into the soul work we do together. We are getting a synastry reading, meaning that we are having our two charts compared to each other. Esa does this for couples, business partners, friends, and any two people who want a deeper understanding of their...