Episode One- Who We Are & Why the Podcast

The podcast "Weaving Through Life" aims to provide education and humor about the medicinal value of cannabis. The host, Megan, shares her personal journey with multiple sclerosis and how she turned to cannabis as an alternative treatment. She discusses her initial fears about going to a dispensary and her gradual transition off pharmaceuticals. Megan emphasizes the importance of individualized approaches to health and the need to confront and address our health issues. She is excited about her future and hopes to share her knowledge and experiences with others. Okay, so I'm gonna continue to do my low marker. This is Episode 1, What Weaving Through Life, the podcast, is all about. Okay. Now it's time to spin the Wheel of Weed. You gotta take two gin jams. Okay, hey guys, it's Megan and Sean. You got in there before I did. And welcome to Episode 1 of Weaving Through Life. And Sean brings up a great point of part of what the impetus behind this podcast is, which is to not put the circusry and gimmicks behind a plant that is really medicinally valuable, and to just provide a place that provides education and funny antics. We don't claim to know more than anybody else, but we've learned a lot, and my life has changed a lot, and I have so many different things I want to say to the world, and I don't have enough time to write them down, so I'm giving this a go. Pretty sure I'm not gonna be happy with this, and I'm pretty sure I'm gonna have to say we're doing this again. I was gonna say, I don't think your computer has enough storage for all you have to say. So, for the longest time, I've been thinking about doing a podcast. I even paid for a podcast name for a while, back when I was still working, and oh my god, it's not gonna work. It's perfect. For those who do know us through our social media, if there's an underlying sound of a snore, that is exactly what it is. Finky is right below the table snoring away, so I guess it's apropos. Look at that, I got that word in on their first episode. Anyway, I had always thought that I was gonna do a podcast by myself, but as I've just turned to Sean, even with him here with me, this is a daunting task, because really what I'm saying is, hi, look at me, I'm wonderful, do as I do, and that's not really the message I'm trying to get across. It's more that there are alternative ways of dealing with one's health, but more importantly, I think, is that we as a society kind of tend to ignore our health rather than confronting it head on, and we, this is where I get into the hippy-dippy shit, we have the power within ourselves to heal a lot, and I've learned that over the last seven years. And I'm so enthusiastic and encouraged about my future, because I know that I'm gonna continue to be healing and getting better. That's to my husband's chagrin, because he's retiring, and he just wants to sleep in and hang out on the couch. Have peace and quiet. Yeah, good luck with that. So, yeah, and we've been sitting here on the couch, I've got this enormous pad of paper that I've been taking notes on, dreaming about this. I mean, I have dreamed about this. Not necessarily, I didn't think I would ever get him to agree to do this. I didn't. You did agree. You said you would make me a big drink if I would sit here. Good, and he's drinking a vodka tonic right now, so I may be natural and hippy-dippy, but he's not. And I think that's, for the longest time I've talked about having a podcast, my kids would be like, yeah, mom, okay, whatever, whatever, and no one ever paid attention. And the minute I let it drop that Sean was gonna be in on this, everybody all of a sudden was really encouraging and enthusiastic. I don't know what that says. That was before I knew. Oh, man. But then they explained it's because he makes fun of me, and that's what everybody enjoys, unfortunately. But I think it is, we are a good mix, because there are a lot of things that are kind of heavy and embarrassing that I talk about, and he adds the levity to it, the humor, the bad dad jokes, as he likes to say. So he may not say a whole lot, but when he does, it's really valuable, I promise. I'm just trying to butter him up, because I want him to like this experience. Gonna take another drink. Okay, so we might be taking a drink break. Okay, so we've gotten through that bit, and we haven't jumped ship, ship, ship, ship, ship, ship. So let me dabble a little bit into who we are, what our stories are. My name is Megan, and I was born and raised in Connecticut, and I lived in Seattle, Washington, with my ex-husband, and I had three children. And at the age of, gosh, 36, 37, I was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, and I immediately began using pharmaceuticals as my means of trying a preventative method. And my life drastically declined, my health and my well-being, as the years went on, and I took different pharmaceuticals. There were many other things going on in my life. I mentioned my ex-husband, so that is not the man who is sitting next to me. You were gonna say something, right? And then you were like, oh, this is gonna go out public. We had a little talk about, I'm not very good at editing, so we just have to behave ourselves and not say anything that we wouldn't want the world to know, because I don't know how the fuck to get it out of here. We're just going all natural. Bras are off, babe. So, anyway, I went through many things, like a divorce, and then meeting this man that is next to me, but in 2015, my health had declined drastically, and I was about 75 pounds overweight, and drinking about two bottles of wine a night to self-medicate. I had gone back to smoking cigarettes. I tell people, I never considered suicide, because I took being a mother, and I don't doubt, or I don't, how do I say this? I have never thought about taking my life, because I never wanted to abandon my children, but there were many, many times where I didn't know how I was gonna do another tomorrow. That's how unenjoyable my life got, and the thing about me is I put on a really good game face. I mean, shit can be really, really bad, like really, really bad, and I just roll with it, and the dork dog snores on. Excuse me. I forgot what I was saying now. This is not gonna be a good podcast now. No. I know. I think you were getting bored, too, because this is all the stories you've heard. Anyway, okay, so yes, 2015. I was fat. I was on the couch. I was miserable. I was drinking. I was smoking cigarettes, and my life was not the quality I wanted it to be. I used to run six to eight miles a day, and I was the woman who swam two miles on the day I gave birth to my first child. I mean, I've always been crazy energetic and active, so I was miserable, even though I had found true love, and I had this fantastic man who supported and made fun of me. And I got to a point where I had to make a decision, and I decided to come off all the pharmaceuticals and give cannabis a try. It took me about 18 months to come off of all the different drugs that I was on. I went incredibly slow, did it by myself, and then went raw, which is basically no medications in my body for about four months, mainly because I wanted to see what it felt like. And the alarming thing was, although I had come off of nine different very strong medications, there was absolutely no difference in my pain or my symptoms or anything, and that was incredibly alarming. But I also was really, really, really scared to go to a dispensary. I grew up with a brother who smoked weed, and to be honest, he was never a really nice person, and so I had that negative association. But I also was convinced that the dispensary, like the Spicoli, I know who that is now. I hadn't watched Fast Times at Bridgemont High up until very recently, and people were always saying Spicoli to me, and I never knew what it meant. No, I do. I actually really liked the movie. Where was I going with that? What was I? Oh, you were trying to get into the dispensaries. Oh, yeah. So I was worried that there was going to be some surfer dude who was going to be like, I'm going to get the soccer mom stoned. Bark. So it took me a long time, and that will be another episode or two because there have been some fantastic stories about my dispensary visits and whatnot. But through it all, so this has been seven years now that I have been off of the pharmaceuticals and using cannabis and CBD along with exercise and diet and all the other hippy-dippy shit. And as I said to my husband, who's here, he's just quietly enjoying the fact. I know. I've never heard the story before. He's so enthralled with the story. Hi, honey. Hi. Fuck, I forgot again. This is going to be so bad. I shouldn't do this. It's also my job to distract her. He likes to do that. He does a really good job of it. So what I was going to say is seven years into being, I'm not pharmaceutical-free because I have had a bout with, a severe bout with anemia and SIBO. So I mean, I have reasons that I have taken medications, but I am not on anything full-time, nor do I ever intend to be again. But I am now almost 17 years into having this disease, and I am so excited about my future. There are so many other things in my health rehabilitation that I have on my list of things to do. And the way I go about things, I do one thing at a time very methodically and slowly so that I know if it's truly helping or not, because there are so many different gimmicks and things out there. And the other thing is every person is an individual, and we all have different needs that need to be met. And so something that works for me may not work for somebody else. And so I just slowly dabble away at it, but because there are just so many different areas that I know I've been negligent in, I'm super excited about my future. And that is such a difference from where I was seven years ago where I dreaded every single day. I mean, I couldn't, I didn't want to play anymore. So I have all these words, and I am a writer. Oh, here's a good opportunity. I wrote a book. She wrote a book. Have you read the book? No. But please buy the book. Just leave. Just buy the book. She's going to buy me a bigger boat. You're going to buy a lot of things. The list keeps getting bigger. The list is really, really big. At this point, I have learned so much, and it has changed my life so much, and I want others to know what I know. And what I have found in the industry is that although there are many that say they want to get away from the Spicoli-like stoner stereotypes, that over and over again I'm confronted with, they're still clinging to those stereotypes. And that's absolutely fine, because there's absolutely nothing with recreational use, and even the part-time medical use. All of that, I support all use, but to truly, truly heal is a different thing to every single time you're consuming the plant or any plant or any medicine, you're thinking about how it is healing your body and improving your body and what it's doing. And so that's just a completely different angle. And so that is what I am after with this podcast. And as I said, I always thought I would be doing it by myself. Kids never really were interested. Everybody was on board the minute they heard that Mr. Tabert was going to do this with me. And to be honest, I get it, because as I said, he makes fun of me. But there are many things that are going to be tough that I talk about, and he adds the humor to it. He helps me laugh through the really, really shitty parts of my life, and I really, really appreciate it. So I have to say to him that I really appreciate that he's willing to do this. Thanks, Sonny. Oh, geez, the dog just farted. All right, well, I think that might be a good ending. You didn't really have to say that much. It's a good thing the smell doesn't come over that. We don't have smell-o-vision. So I'm eventually going to try to figure out how to do video with this. You can see the dog farting. That would be fun. Hopefully, I'm going to be satisfied with this, and we'll go with it and say that we have episode one in the books. Or you can figure out how to edit it. Well, that's not going to happen. You saw all those buttons and stuff. I know. I see all the loops. All right. Do you want to figure out a good ending? I'm just going to burp into the microphone. Is that how you're going to sign off for the day? I'll put a Benny Hill song. If we can't, they'll take it off. We're not allowed to. You can sing it, though. There's no words to it. No, but you do your... Do your little banjo thing. All right. We'll figure out something for future episodes. Now, what is... That's a stop.