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Work in Progress: Jeannie Mai

Work in Progress with Sophia Bush

Wed Jan 21 2026

Summary

Work in Progress with Sophia Bush: Jeannie Mai

Aired: January 21, 2026
Host: Sophia Bush
Guest: Jeannie Mai

Episode Overview

This candid and enlightening episode features Emmy-winning television host, producer, and cultural commentator Jeannie Mai. The discussion centers on Jeannie’s journey with perimenopause and the new docuseries she’s executive producing, Balance: The Perimenopause Journey. Jeannie and Sophia explore the hidden realities of perimenopause, the broader cultural silence surrounding women’s health, dismantling shame, and the power of community support. The conversation is both personal and universal, blending humor, vulnerability, and advocacy in true "Work in Progress" style.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Embracing Age and Changing Narratives (03:20–09:15)

Jeannie shares reflections on her 47th birthday and the evolving perception of age:
- “I’m like a shiny, brand new 47. And I’m getting into the skin right now... that age is so crazy to me. Like, it’s so grown up.” (05:46, Jeannie)
- Both agree that today’s women are redefining what aging looks and feels like, overturning the narrative of invisibility or decline.
Sophia adds:
- “We’ve always been told that aging was going to be this thing where we would, like, become invisible… and it’s like, I think we’re having a great time.” (07:53, Sophia)

2. Channeling Childhood Self & Raising the Next Generation (09:15–14:08)

Sophia’s signature question prompts Jeannie to reflect on her core childhood traits:
- Jeannie describes her innate curiosity and love for people. She notices the same in her daughter, Monaco, and seeks to nurture that while teaching discernment.
- “Vivacious curiosity—like insane. Why? But then why? … And also extreme love for people and relationships.” (11:15, Jeannie)
They connect this to women’s advocacy, and how teaching children (especially girls) to trust themselves is revolutionary in a world that doesn’t always encourage that.

3. Trusting Yourself Amid Societal and Medical Gaslighting (14:08–22:29)

Jeannie and Sophia discuss self-trust, and how negative experiences or environments can mute your inner voice:
- “The constant reminder to yourself throughout life is to actually tune up the voice that is talking or whispering sometimes within you…” (14:44, Jeannie)
The pair examine how medical and societal systems often dismiss women’s experiences, particularly around perimenopause.
Sophia’s pointed observation:
- “Who you become when you’re being smothered is not who you are... the longer you are in an unhealthy situation, the more unhealthy you become to yourself and others also.” (21:08, Sophia)

4. Breaking the Silence on Perimenopause (22:31–26:21)

Jeannie explains how the lack of language and knowledge about perimenopause fuels shame and confusion:
- “The gaslight in between this journey is so real, is so real that we have to take a second for ourselves and actually call each other out to be like, no, sis, what you’re feeling is real.” (23:43, Jeannie)
Sophia and Jeannie discuss the double standards in medical research and treatment for men and women:
- “They pulled [male birth control] off the market because the men got nauseous... I’m so sorry. What, like, you want to talk about nausea, cramps… What y’all got nauseous?” (25:38, Sophia)

5. The Docuseries: How Balance Came Together (26:22–35:41)

Jeannie shares the origin story of the docuseries, sparked by conversations among friends and filmmakers who realized their symptoms were related to perimenopause:
- “At first, when I heard the word perimenopause, I was honestly thinking hot flashes. Like, that’s how archaic my understanding of it was.” (30:19, Jeannie)
The docuseries aims to expand awareness of the wide-ranging symptoms of perimenopause (from brain fog to emotional dysregulation) and to unite women through shared stories and expert advice.
Jeannie describes the personal resonance and awakening that came with learning about the breadth of perimenopause symptoms:
- “The symptoms of perimenopause could be memory loss, emotional dysregulation, disrupted sleep patterns, insomnia, weight fluctuations, extreme emotional volatility, dizziness, nausea...” (30:20, Jeannie)
- “And I was confused and I was in many ways angry at myself. My inner dialogue began to get very shaming and impatient...” (32:11, Jeannie)

6. From Shame to Agency—Reframing the Experience (40:41–44:57)

Jeannie passionately explains the shame women feel when white-knuckling difficult symptoms, and how information can transform that:
- “White knuckling it is always aligned with shame... The whole point of the docu series is to provide answers so that we change your shame to having agency.” (40:41, Jeannie)
Sophia highlights Jeannie’s pithy quote:
- “How come nobody told me perimenopause feels like puberty going backwards, dude.” (41:35, Jeannie)
They discuss how the lack of normalizing language and medical support makes women internalize blame rather than seek help.

7. Navigating the Medical Maze (44:57–49:52)

Sophia asks what steps women should take to get help—OB-GYN, rheumatologist, GP?
Jeannie is honest that finding the right doctor is still a struggle, even with connections, and credits the docuseries experts with giving women actionable questions to ask providers:
- “I myself am still trying to find that right doctor for me. I’m still in that journey.” (45:27, Jeannie)
- “Our healthcare system often treats women’s pain as anecdotal instead of diagnostic. If your lab work looks normal, well then women [are] told they’re fine, even when their lived experience says otherwise.” (48:31, Jeannie)

8. The Importance of Community and Conversation (51:02–55:30)

Jeannie describes the power of group chats and intergenerational conversations in demystifying perimenopause for all ages:
- “For me it’s all about the group chat. Like, it goes down in the group chats.” (51:02, Jeannie)
She notes how sharing among friends has helped her—and can help others—find support, swap recommendations, and prepare for what’s coming.
The docuseries aims to make this sense of agency and information accessible beyond Hollywood circles to everyone, everywhere.

9. Hopes for Big-Picture Change (55:43–58:41)

Jeannie articulates her vision for Balance:
- “I hope that women leave feeling seen and informed and less alone. I hope the people who love them also leave better equipped to listen.” (55:59, Jeannie)
- “Our docu series reframes aging as a transition that deserves preparation, not punishment... It’s about recalibration.” (56:26, Jeannie)
Both agree that perimenopause is not a “decline” but a transformation that must be understood and celebrated by society at large.

10. Including Everyone—Men as Allies (58:10–65:52)

Sophia and Jeannie discuss the importance of partners being included and educated:
- “I have more respect when men take an open, energetic, enthusiastic approach to this… you asked what you can do for a woman who’s going through perimenopause... Take off my clothes. I’m like, wait a minute, this is everything.” (58:27, Jeannie)
They also touch on relationship dynamics and support needs, humorously calling for real presence and attentiveness from men.

11. Final Reflections & "Work in Progress" (67:17–68:48)

Sophia closes with her signature question about each guest’s “work in progress.”
Jeannie’s heartfelt answer:
- “My work in progress is my healing. I’ve had a tumultuous last couple of years, and I would like to be honored with the understanding of healing from here until my last day... The fruit of that will be my daughter... I am very thankful to say that my healing will get to show up right in front of my eyes with my family.” (67:34, Jeannie)

Notable Quotes & Moments

Redefining Aging:
“I feel like we’re redefining age, like actually this whole generation... so I’m actually really proud that I’m 47 and I sound, talk, look, get this, you know?”
— Jeannie Mai (07:04)
About Self-Advocacy:
“The greatest power we have, that is also the detriment to being alive if you lose it, is the ability to trust yourself.”
— Jeannie Mai (14:08)
On Perimenopause Awareness:
“Every woman, not just some, every woman is going to experience perimenopause. So let’s talk about this. Let’s open the group chat up. Like, that’s insane.”
— Jeannie Mai (24:57)
Medical Double Standards:
“They pulled [male birth control] off the market because the men got nauseous... I’m so sorry. What, like, you want to talk about nausea, cramps, like, period diarrhea and like, all the… What y’all got nauseous?”
— Sophia Bush (25:38)
Shame to Agency:
“The whole point of the docu series is to provide answers so that we change your shame to having agency.”
— Jeannie Mai (41:14)
Puberty—In Reverse:
“How come nobody told me perimenopause feels like puberty going backwards, dude.”
— Jeannie Mai (41:35)
Rethinking the Narrative:
“We shouldn’t look at our bodies and perimenopause as a decline. It’s about recalibration. It’s about women deserving support through that recalibration...”
— Jeannie Mai (56:26)

Timestamps for Key Segments

Welcome and Main Topic Introduction: 03:20
Jeannie on Age and Birthday Reflection: 05:46–07:48
Childhood Self & Parenting Monaco: 09:15–12:54
Self-Trust and Internal Voice: 14:08–15:52
Societal Gaslighting & Medical Dismissal: 20:28–23:43
Double Standards in Medicine: 25:03–26:21
Balance Docuseries Origin Story & Jeannie’s Realizations: 26:51–35:41
Shame, Agency, and the Power of Knowledge: 41:14–44:57
Navigating Medical Care & Provider Selection: 44:57–49:52
Conversation, Community & Group Chats: 51:02–55:30
Jeannie’s Hope for Societal Change: 55:59–57:14
Men as Allies & Relationship Insights: 58:10–65:52
Final "Work in Progress" Reflections: 67:17–68:48

Concluding Thoughts

This episode is a masterclass in vulnerability, education, and advocacy around women’s health and perimenopause. Jeannie Mai’s openness, combined with Sophia Bush’s empathetic and informed hosting, makes this conversation both deeply relatable and actionable. Listeners are left with a sense of agency, connection, and the affirmation that aging—and the transitions that come with it—deserve compassion, community, and celebration, not shame.

For those navigating their own perimenopause experience, or for anyone seeking to better understand and support the women in their lives, this conversation is a must-listen—and Balance: The Perimenopause Journey is a docuseries to watch.

Connect with Jeannie Mai & Balance Docuseries:

Instagram: @thejeanniemae
@balancedocuseries
Premieres Jan 30, on Amazon Prime & Apple TV.

"Work in Progress" with Sophia Bush—where every masterpiece is a work in progress.

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Transcript

Jeannie Mai (0:00)

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Jeannie Mai (27:13)

Yeah. To be honest, I have to thank the very team that brought it together to wake me up to understand that I was in perimenopause. These beautiful filmmakers. Yeah, yeah. These beautiful, beautiful filmmakers. Two of them award winning on a boutique and sadali. They are, they are monks, but in AKA to me, they're angels. Uh, we have worked together to create a few phenomenal pieces of work to fight anti trafficking years ago. And today, as we've gotten older and we keep in touch, they send me birthday wishes, they check in on my daughter. They begin to recognize that they're going through perimenopause and they're like, wait a minute, I feel different. I don't like my body. I feel out of touch with what's going on. And these, what's, what's fascinating is these ladies live such a regimented life with their, with their work on their sanctuary and their, the way that they move. Every day is pretty scheduled, whereas I, my Monday, every day is a different Monday. My schedule, I can't remember what I did, but I also don't have the same schedule being an entertainer. So when they started to be able to recognize that their bodies were changing and their emotional needs were changing and their behavior towards each other was changing because they lived in a, you know, a, a, again, a very, a very scheduled, traditional, everyday life together. They were sound enough and aware enough to say, wait a minute, something's changing. I'm reacting differently towards you. Your needs are different from, from before. Like what's happening right now. They begin to take a more investigative approach towards what this is and realized that there's this thing called perimenopause that they've entered into. All of the symptoms they're having are checking off. And why is nobody giving them the direct right answers on how to treat this? Because at the end of the day, your entire makeup is built off of hormones. And when your hormones are out of balance, who gonna tell you? What are you taking? What are you doing about it? This doctor will tell you five different things from this doctor. All of the doctors will actually give you a different read on it. Nobody actually calls out what perimenopause is and what is the answer when you find it, by the way. And so both of these brave women take this two very different journeys to give us a close, in depth understanding of what is perimenopause. How do you know if you're in it? What are the options out there and what really works? So they talked to the best experts in the world to really get down to the answers and called me along the way to tell me what they were experiencing. And at first, when I heard the word perimenopause, I was honestly thinking hot flashes. Like, that's how archaic my understanding of it was.

Jeannie Mai (30:20)

I was like, I'm not getting hot flashes. I actually get cold a lot. I actually, you know, I don't experience. I, I want to get hot. I'm like, I. If I got a hot flash, I'd probably be excited about it. You know, what else could it be? And they're like, actually, that's like the least of the, the, the of the side effects or the symptoms. The symptoms of perimenopause could be memory loss, emotional dysregulation, disrupted sleep Patterns, insomnia, weight fluctuations, extreme emotional volatility, dizziness, nausea. The list just went on and on in such a way that I was like, wait, yes, yes, yes. Go back to the memory loss part. Okay, extreme, yes. Brain fog, yes. And then going down to explaining things like walking to a room and forgetting exactly why you came there, saying something like being as emphatic and as expressive as I am being in a conversation, and completely forgetting, like, as if you fell off a cliff where you were going with it. These were actual things, tangible things that I could remember just in that day that I was experiencing. And I was like, wait a minute, wait a minute. This is perimenopause. Are you serious? And when I began to listen to the doctors that were responding to our docu series and to hear how important hormones are and how much they fluctuate, sometimes severely, sometimes as early as 35, I began to actually be able to see my life as this timetable and see where things started to happen, where I almost could track where perimenopause started for me, because I know how sharp and how capable and how, like, on it I was. I saw on your Instagram, Sophia, that you posted this adorable picture of you on a horse, and you were like, it's the year of the horse. I'm so ready. I was bored on the year of the Horse in Vietnamese culture. And the horse is strategic. It's super sensitive to all the needs around them. It's a go getter. It's just, it charges. And, and I was not charging for the last five years. I was wandering. I was isolating because of my wandering. And I was confused and I was in many ways angry at myself. My inner dialogue began to get very shaming and impatient and. God, why, why would you forget that? You would literally set an alarm for that. How could you have missed that? And, and, and why doesn't this make sense anymore? I used to remember this. I. I know this like the back of my hand. Why am I needing more help here? I feel stupid. Like my, my. I, I recognize that the, that the talk around me just started to become very, very vicious. And I would also see, you know, times in my, in my everyday, you know, work and exchange with people, like flashes too, where, you know, I get a little short on this, or I'd have to call a friend and be like, you know what? I'm sorry, that came out of nowhere and that wasn't cool. Like, I apologize. And from that, I would go into like two or three days of just, like, shame spiral. Yeah. Yes, the rumination of like, what's going on?

Jeannie Mai (52:49)

Yep, yep, yep. Yeah, cold cream. You've got your hair rollers, you can barely walk, your back cracks, like, all these things. And I'm like, low key. That happens too. But don't neglect that what you can learn and what I can teach you now will allow you to prepare for it. I've had so many exchanges with people where I know the perimenopausal symptoms affected me in a way that I would have handled those so differently. And I hate that. Yes, you know, Yes, I know now because I know myself. Like, because I've tuned into listening to myself so much more and I see myself asking the questions in my group chats and I see myself talking with my friends so vividly about, about how we handled this situation because we know this is happening. So we've, you know, we've. We've taken the nap, we've. We've gone to sleep earlier. We've done the changes and also went and saw this doctor and got a, you know, just, you know, one of my friends even just being as. As real as telling me the testosterone level that she found she was so low on and needed to replenish differently with her new intake of. Of her testosterone, like how stronger she was in a. A new business that she started opening up and that she. This business that she started, she had to close down at first a few years ago when she didn't have this information. And as soon as she started hormone therapy, she immediately. We started the business back up in three months and was like, I can now navigate this so much differently because I saw exactly where I wasn't strong before, and I talked myself down and beat myself up to the point of no return because of how badly I didn't understand myself. Now if I feel the memory fog, I know where to administer this. And if I feel like I'm getting a bit of sleep fatigue, I know where to go to bed earlier and put a little melatonin and magnesium on my feet. And she, she's just got it all dialed where she knows now, almost like a dj, where to crank it up to get the best pure sound in her everyday activity. And I was like, yeah, I want to be there. Like, get me there, you know? And so because of that, because of conversations like that, we're able to exchange doctors or things we're trying. And even with the directors of the film, Sodali and Adebuti, they're. They're constantly, you know, suggesting to me different things that have worked for them. And, and it's great that we have. I have a community that I can navigate this through with, but I keep thinking about my mom or my friends that aren't in Hollywood that don't have that access. And that's the point of balance. We want to create that agency so that it's accessible and tangible to everybody at any place that you live with, any work field that you're at, or any home that you're operating out of.