HBM150: Cold Water

July 1, 2021·40 min·4 clips

Julia reveals how daily cold swims in the winter sea drastically healed her from chronic fatigue within two weeks.

Cold water is the first test. The host starts beside the water, easing the temperature until it can be felt without hurting, then heads toward the living room where the sound is less soaked. That small shift says plenty. Season nine closes as a check-in from inside the work of making the show, with pride, tiredness, gratitude, and doubt all sharing the room. The season was hard. It was also the first independent run in a long time, and the host names 10 new episodes, sound experiments, listener sponsors, Patreon support, and emails that landed. Then the episode turns inward. The speaker talks about being told they might be special, or might have the potential to be a healer, while wondering whether that sense is real or just a hope many people carry. The body is right there. Chronic fatigue comes across as the worst feeling the speaker has known, so painful that even thinking about it is difficult. The childhood story resists a clean shape. There was neglect around warmth, food, and safety, alongside a mother described as loving and present now. The boarding house stays important. The speaker remembers parents caring for 56 schoolgirls while raising their own children, and remembers disappearing for hours without being found. Then adolescence cracks open. At 14, the speaker says their mother had breast cancer, their parents divorced, and they lived with their father while their mother was mostly away in hospital. The episode handles that break gently. It does not turn pain into a lesson. It lets the speaker connect heartbreak, illness, family rupture, and the long aftermath of not feeling held. The ending comes back to the show. The host asks for thoughts, points listeners to Patreon, thanks people for money, kind words, and word of mouth, and admits that after almost a decade the show is still being figured out.

As heard by us

A cold-opened season wrap gives way to a candid account of fatigue, neglect, and family rupture.

The episode starts with a careful cold-water ritual and then turns into a season-nine wrap-up. The host calls the season challenging and rewarding, notes that this was the first return to independent release in a long time, and credits 10 new episodes, independent sponsors, more…

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

Cold-water opening, season-end reflection, and a hard-earned personal story.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

Listen to the show on

Apple Podcasts Spotify

Play clips from this episode More from Here Be Monsters