By playing, you agree to uListen's Terms and Privacy Policy and YouTube's Terms of Service.

What Now? With Trevor Noah

The Second Coming of Halle Berry | What Now? with Trevor Noah Podcast

Halle Berry has found her purpose. She’s chatting with Myself and Christiana about the jaw dropping personal experience that led her to her new project: promoting the conversation around women’s longevity and creating tools for those…

Trevor NoahhostChristianahostHalle Berryguest

Feb 20, 202553mWatch on YouTube

Summaries, chapters, transcripts, and FAQs on this page are made by uListen, not YouTube.

Great conversations run long. Their best ideas don't have to.

uListen is free on iPhone, iPad, Android, Chrome, and Claude.

CHAPTERS

Jump to publisher timestamps

Chapter summaries

Halle's Age and Her Second Act Purpose
The conversation opens with banter about Halle Berry's age, including her glycan and metabolic age. Trevor Noah says she seems to be turning an apparent ending into a new beginning, and Halle says her purpose is to be a voice for women in midlife.
- •Halle says she is 58 but that her glycan age is 40
- •Trevor Noah describes her as being in a "menopause of life" that is a new beginning
- •Halle says she is approaching her second act and has found her "why"
- •She wants to be a voice for women in midlife, a stage she calls forgotten and underserved
- •She asks what longevity looks like for women who live longer but in poor health
Silence Around Perimenopause and the Decision to Tell Her Story
Christiana says her friends' mothers never discussed menopause with them, and perimenopause is explained as the difficult stage before menopause. Halle admits she thought she would skip it. Trevor Noah and Christiana urge her to tell the full story.
- •Christiana says mothers and grandmothers never gave their daughters a guidebook for this
- •Perimenopause is described as chaotic, with memory loss and anxiety, and Halle says it is harder than menopause itself
- •Halle says she got off insulin after a Type II diabetes diagnosis and assumed she could skip perimenopause
- •Trevor Noah shares his mother's idea that you are chosen because you are best placed to act
The Herpes Scare: Halle's Story
Halle recounts waking up unable to urinate after a night with her partner, the severe pain that followed, and her doctor's herpes diagnosis. She describes 72 hours of blame between them before tests showed she did not have herpes. Nobody could tell her what was wrong.
- •Halle has been divorced three times and says she then found the person she believes is right for her
- •The pain the morning after sex was worse than anything but a scratched cornea, and she says worse than unmedicated childbirth
- •Her doctor said it looked like a severe case of herpes
- •She and her partner argued for 72 hours until his test came back first and then hers did too
- •No doctor could explain what had happened, which sent her on her own investigation
Why Doctors Don't Know: Gaps in Women's Health Knowledge
Halle says her research showed her symptoms were common in perimenopause, yet none of her six doctors had raised it. She and the hosts discuss how little medicine knows about women's health, noting that women were only included in clinical studies in 1993. Halle also describes the wide effects of losing estrogen.
- •Halle says she was 54 and none of her six doctors discussed perimenopause
- •Trevor Noah contrasts this with routine prostate-check warnings at 40
- •Halle says women were only included in clinical studies from 1993
- •She says only 13% of doctors understand the menopausal body and medical school gives it one chapter
- •Losing estrogen affects the brain, heart, bones, skin and mood, and Halle says women are put on antidepressants instead of having hormones replaced
What Vaginal Atrophy Is
Trevor Noah shares how his mother talked openly about menopause, then asks what vaginal atrophy is. Halle explains it as thinning, cracking vaginal walls that she says affects about half of women in perimenopause, and why it causes the pain she felt.
- •Trevor Noah's mother described menopause to him in detail and said she felt strong afterward
- •Halle says 50% of women going through perimenopause experience vaginal atrophy
- •She says collagen loss thins the vaginal walls so they crack during sex
- •Urine touching the cracks the next morning explains the pain she felt
Respin Community and the Debate Over HRT
Asked where women can turn, Halle describes the Respin 2.0 platform as a community connected to doctors and researchers. The talk moves to hormone replacement therapy, the fear left by an old study that Halle calls debunked, and her decision to stay on it. Non-hormonal options and the federal menopause bill follow.
- •Respin is built around community and guidance from doctors, professionals and scientists
- •Halle says the old study behind fears of HRT was debunked
- •She says women should decide based on education, not on fear or what others say
- •Halle says she will stay on HRT for life
- •She has lobbied for a $265 million menopause bill to fund research and non-hormonal therapies
- •Collagen, bone broth, the vFit and estradiol vaginal inserts come up as other remedies
Shame and the Pressure to Stay Forever Young
Christiana asks why shame is attached to menopause. Halle says women have been sold the idea that they must stay forever 30 and are only valuable when young, so they talk about procedures instead of aging. She says the goal should be aging gracefully with confidence that real value lies within.
- •Halle says women have bought into the ideology of staying forever young
- •Women talk about how to stay young rather than about menopause
- •She says women are victims of this way of thinking too
- •Halle says the goal should be to age gracefully, with value found within
Beauty as a Limitation and Why Halle Is the Right Messenger
Trevor Noah describes finding early 1990s interviews in which her beauty always came first, and raises the double standard for women in Hollywood. Halle says being reduced to "pretty" for four decades is hard, and that it makes her the right person to talk about menopause. She says her career as a Black woman left her unafraid of the backlash.
- •Trevor Noah contrasts how Hollywood treats aging actresses with George Clooney and Brad Pitt
- •Halle says she has longed to hear anything other than "pretty"
- •She says this cause gives her a platform to talk about something else
- •She told doubters that being a Black woman in this industry was already harder than this risk
- •She says she had no trepidation about telling the story
Advice for Black Women and Taking Health into Our Own Hands
Christiana raises Black women's experience of menopause and reproductive health, which she says is marked by misdiagnosis and underdiagnosis. Halle says women must take health into their own hands and educate themselves. She says they should question doctors and switch to a better one, even in another state.
- •Christiana says Black women are misdiagnosed and underdiagnosed
- •Halle says Black women are at greater risk and suffer disproportionately
- •Women should recognize what is happening, talk about it and do their own research
- •Halle says if a doctor doesn't know about our bodies, get a new doctor
- •She says that may mean finding guidance outside your local area
Taboos: Halle in Sweden, Intimacy Gel and Why Sex Matters
Trevor Noah recalls Halle speaking in Stockholm and the mixed reaction from polite Scandinavian women. He links menopause and lubricant as overlapping taboos. Halle says she made the product she most needed, and argues that sex is part of staying healthy for women as well as men.
- •Trevor Noah describes Swedish women stiffening and then wanting to hear more
- •An elderly woman remarked that now they know Halle has a vagina
- •Halle wants women to ask for Let's Spin in a store without shame
- •She says she created a product she herself needed
- •She argues women need to keep having sex to stay healthy, as men do
Marriages Saved and the vFit Device
Halle tells of a friend about to divorce because his wife pulled away. Halle suggested he ask about perimenopause, and he found the cause was painful sex. She then explains the vFit red light therapy device and how she used it.
- •Her friend thought his wife no longer wanted him
- •The wife had been enduring painful sex and had not been able to say so
- •Once they could talk about it, the marriage recovered and she used Respin products
- •The vFit is a red light therapy device meant to rebuild the vaginal walls
- •Halle used it daily for about three weeks, then as maintenance weekly or every two weeks
Is It Too Late? Starting Early at 35
Christiana asks whether a woman in her early 70s can still benefit. Halle says she can use the vFit and Let's Spin but should consult a menopause doctor about hormones, since starting late may be an issue. She urges women to start talking to doctors at 35.
- •A woman in her 70s can use the vFit and Let's Spin
- •Hormone therapy for someone that age is a question for a menopause doctor, and Halle says she has heard starting too late can be a problem
- •Halle says women should start thinking about it at 35, when estrogen begins to leave
- •Women should raise the topic with doctors themselves and find the right doctor
Finding a New Purpose and the Teacher Who Shaped Her
Trevor Noah asks how Halle handled letting go of an identity and moving into a new chapter, given her Oscar-winning career. She says Respin's purpose became clear once she saw menopause needed the biggest respin of all. Halle says growing up feeling at the bottom of society as a Black woman gave her drive. She credits her fifth-grade teacher, Yvonne Sim, for her sense of worth.
- •Halle says she built Respin before she knew its true purpose, which came into focus around menopause
- •She says she has always felt at the bottom of society and had to work ten times harder
- •Her fifth-grade teacher Yvonne Sim invested in her from age 10, which taught her she had value
- •She says she was also chosen to open a door by winning her Oscar, and hopes someone will stand beside her
- •She says her second act purpose is to change the narrative for women

Publisher timestamps

Get more out of YouTube videos.

Read along on your phone, search it beside the video, or ask your favorite AI app what was said.