Chavie and Paola open by reminiscing about how they first connected when Paola walked into Chabad of Bozeman for a Passover seder 18 years ago and instantly felt at home. Paola talks about her childhood as a first generation American, the daughter of two physicists, a Holocaust survivor father who fled to Israel before eventually founding the physics department at UCSD, and what it was like growing up in a home where intellect was everything. Paola shares how she struggled with depression as a teenager and found her way through nature and eventually yoga, which became the spirituality she hadn't known she was looking for. Chavie asks Paola to go deep on what yoga actually is beyond the physical poses, and they talk about breath, what it means to really be in your body, and Chavie opens up about her own struggles connecting to her breath. Paola then walks through three defining moments of grief and loss in her life and how each one eventually led her to Ayurveda, which has now become a central part of how she works with clients. Chavie asks Paola to use her as a live case study, and Paola maps out Chavie's Ayurvedic constitution right there in the episode.

Paola Feher holds a Master’s in Biomechanics and a Master’s in Ayurveda. She is a massage therapist and yoga therapist who started her own practice in 1997, working with chronic pain, injury rehabilitation, and injury prevention. When she is not working, Paola loves to be outside. She has an extensive garden where she grows her own fruits and vegetables in the summer and preserves them for the winter. She also loves ice climbing, skiing, mountain biking, hiking, climbing peaks, swimming, running, and practicing yoga. She shares her life with two kitties, her partner, and close friends and family she adores.

This Week's Prompt

Did You Ever Experience Burnout and What Did That Feel Like?

This is a NEW segment at the end of every episode featuring voice notes from listeners with their HOT TAKES on a given prompt!

Referenced On the Pod

• 37:11 T. K. V. Desikachar
• 1:59:52 Hunt Gather Parent by Michaeleen Doucleff

Stay in touch with Paola!

www.bozemanhealingarts.com

Stay in touch with Chavie! @chaviebruk on Instagram www.totallyunexpected.blog Totally Unexpected! on Youtube

Want to sponsor or dedicate an episode? Reach out to Chavie on Instagram or by email at chaviebruk@gmail.com.

Aimee opens up to Chavie about her childhood in Lakewood, where her Holocaust survivor grandparents had a chicken farm. She shares how she became religious and didn’t go to prom because it was on a Friday night. Aimee talks about her path through medicine, and the fertility journey that changed her life: four miscarriages in a row and the miracle twins who were born after. Aimee shares how she founded I Was Supposed To Have A Baby and explains why success isn’t always about having a baby. Aimee and Chavie talk about burnout, what happens when holding everyone else’s pain catches up with you, and how sometimes the work is learning to live with what is unfinished.

Aimee Baron, MD, FAAP, is the founder and executive director of I Was Supposed to Have a Baby (IWSTHAB), an organization transforming how the Jewish community cares for people navigating fertility struggles and loss. After years of secondary infertility and multiple pregnancy losses, Dr. Baron became deeply aware of the need for better emotional, communal, and practical support for those trying to build a family. IWSTHAB provides mental health support, educational resources, digital programming, communal spaces, and connections to wider support networks for people experiencing infertility, miscarriage, stillbirth, infant loss, termination for medical reasons, donor conception, adoption, surrogacy, and more. Dr. Baron is passionate about creating community where people in pain feel validated, comforted, and held, and where those around them know how to show up with care. She previously served as Director of Innovation and Growth at NechamaComfort and worked as an attending pediatrician in the newborn nursery and neonatal intensive care unit at St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital. She lives in the New York area with her husband and children.

This Week's Prompt

Are You a Home Birth Mama or Only In the Hospital Mama?

This is a NEW segment at the end of every episode featuring voice notes from listeners with their HOT TAKES on a given prompt!

Referenced On the Pod

• 20:58 NCSY
• 32:53 Chabad of Binghamton
• 32:57 Rivkah Slonim Interview on Totally Unexpected!
• 36:35 Chabad of Harvard - Rabbi Hirschy & Elkie Zarchi
• 38:35 Chabad at Syracuse - Rabbi Yaakov & Chanie Rapoport
• 1:20:17 Nechama Comfort - Reva Judas, Founder & Director
• 1:24:15 ATIME
• 1:24:15 Bonei Olam
• 1:24:15 PUAH
• 1:24:15 Knafayim
• 2:27:14 Ina May's Guide to Childbirth by Ina May Gaskin
• 2:28:09 Aura Rosenblatt interview on Totally Unexpected!

Stay in touch with Aimee!

• www.iwassupposedtohaveababy.org
• IWSTHAB Resource Library & Support Groups
• @iwassupposedtohaveababy on Instagram
• Talking Away The Taboo Podcast
• LinkedIn

Stay in touch with Chavie! @chaviebruk on Instagram www.totallyunexpected.blog Totally Unexpected! on Youtube

Want to sponsor or dedicate an episode? Reach out to Chavie on Instagram or by email at chaviebruk@gmail.com.

Chavie sits down with Dassi, who starts out by sharing how she was born in Iran in the middle of the Iran-Iraq war, where her mother delivered her by emergency C-section during a blackout. Dassi talks about her family's escape from Iran, her grandparents being smuggled out through the Baluchi mountains, and how her parents left behind everything they had built to start over in America with nothing. Dassi shares what it was like growing up as a Persian Jew in New Jersey, caught between two cultures, never fully belonging to either, and how that sense of not fitting in eventually led her on a spiritual quest exploring Kabbalah and Chassidus.Chavie asks about Dassi's years working as a doula and hypnobirthing educator before she was even married, attending hundreds of births and co-founding the Boston Doula Circle, and what it was like to witness so much life coming into the world before navigating her own fertility journey. Dassi opens up about six years of infertility, the pregnancy with her second daughter, and how that collided with the unraveling of her marriage. Chavie and Dassi talk about IFS therapy, energy work, and learning how to heal by listening to the body.

Dassi Zar is a mom of two, the founder of The Resilient Minded Mom, and an IFS-informed coach who helps women navigate life with clarity and self-trust. A former Shlucha in Lower Manhattan, as well as a Yoga and Pilates instructor, she brings both depth and lived experience to her work. She is also the owner of The 50FF Wig, a business rooted in confidence and accessibility. Having moved through her own seasons of challenge and growth, Dassi is deeply committed to authenticity, truth-seeking, and ultimately helping women come home to themselves.

This Week's Prompt

Jewish Books vs Non Jewish Books - Where Do You Draw the Line?

This is a NEW segment at the end of every episode featuring voice notes from listeners with their HOT TAKES on a given prompt!

Referenced On the Pod

15:46 HIAS Org (Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society) https://hias.org/

21:10 The Ben Ish Chai https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yosef_Hayyim

37:33 Machon Chana https://www.machonchana.org/

47:53 Moshe weinbaum ep https://open.spotify.com/episode/02tJfMvr9wlnI5tDfZ49Fc?si=wXFBiu-NTHGo_Q1dZJukqw

1:21:00 IFS: Internal Family Systems https://ifs-institute.com/

1:26:25 Eckhart Tolle https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eckhart_Tolle

Stay in touch with Dassi!

@bowerymama on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/bowerymama/

@the50ffwig on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/the50ffwig/

Stay in touch with Chavie! @chaviebruk on Instagram www.totallyunexpected.blog Totally Unexpected! on Youtube

Want to sponsor or dedicate an episode? Reach out to Chavie on Instagram or by email at chaviebruk@gmail.com.