MID

Welcome back, MIDs, and please send this episode to your best friend immediately. Because it's about the power of the most important relationships in many of our lives - the one we have with our great mates. You know Amanda Keller from her many decades as an Australian television and radio presenter, comedian, writer, actress and journalist. You might be meeting her best friend forensic psychologist Anita McGregor for the first time, but once you have, you'll know exactly why these two have been inseparable since they first met, 17 years ago. This conversation goes everywhere from the things your friends can hold your hand through and what they can't. When and if you should offer your best friend "feedback", and what happens to your relationships with everyone and everything - from your friends to your work and your grown-up kids, as you move more into Mid. You can listen to Amanda and Anita on their podcast, Double A Chattery, here THE END BITS:  Share your feedback! Send us a voice message or email us at podcast@mamamia.com.au  Follow us on Instagram @MidbyMamamia or sign up to the MID newsletter, dropping weekly here.  CREDITS: Host: Holly Wainwright Executive Producer: Naima Brown Senior Producer: Grace Rouvray Producer: Tahli Blackman Audio Producer: Jacob Round Mamamia acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the Land we have recorded this podcast on, the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation. We pay our respects to their Elders past and present, and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

MID is coming back to your ears on Tuesday 4th Feb. While you're waiting... Holly has some thoughts on Nicole Kidman's "controversial" new film, Babygirl, and the fact that Gen X's most iconic actresses are dominating Hollywood ATM. Is it because "old" no longer looks "old"? Or is it because... they're incredible? THE END BITS:  Share your feedback! Send us a voice message or email us at podcast@mamamia.com.au  Follow us on Instagram @MidbyMamamia or sign up to the MID newsletter, dropping weekly here.  CREDITS: Host: Holly Wainwright Executive Producer: Naima Brown Producer: Tahli Blackman Audio Producer: Jacob Round Mamamia acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the Land we have recorded this podcast on, the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation. We pay our respects to their Elders past and present, and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

MIDs, I couldn't sign off for the year without one more little moment with you, the women who have made my year by joining me here on this podcast for Gen X women who are anything but...so please enjoy this end-of-year wrap-up and contemplation on what seems to have been a year when MID women have taken centre stage. Here's to more of us in 2025 - meet you there. xo Holly THE END BITS:  Share your feedback! Send us a voice message or email us at podcast@mamamia.com.au  Follow us on Instagram @MidbyMamamia or sign up to the MID newsletter, dropping weekly here.  CREDITS: Host: Holly Wainwright Executive Producer: Naima Brown Producer: Tahli Blackman Audio Producer: Jacob Round Mamamia acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the Land we have recorded this podcast on, the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation. We pay our respects to their Elders past and present, and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

What if it took you until MID life to say out loud something that you’ve been trying to find the words for your whole life. Something like: “Yes, I know I am a mother, married to a man, but I am also bisexual…and I’m ready to date women.”That’s the story of today’s guest, the novelist Julie Cohen. Julie was in her 40s when she came out as bisexual. She tells Holly Wainwright that some people asked her why she bothered. As if age, itself, rendered her sexuality irrelevant. Others suggested that just as an adolescent’s sexuality can be dismissed as a “phase” -  perhaps hers was simply a mid-life crisis. Dating after divorce, navigating the apps and the first post-long-term relationship sexual encounters are interesting and nerve-wracking for anyone, and Julie says that was no different for her. You’re going to hear how it all went, the pleasures of post-penis sex, what she found the differences in dating men and women to be, and just how it felt to be living the version of herself that, as Julie says, she didn’t even have a word for when she was growing up. You can follow Julie Cohen on Instagram here. You can find Julie’s books here. THE END BITS:  Share your feedback! Send us a voice message or email us at podcast@mamamia.com.au  Follow us on Instagram @MidbyMamamia or sign up to the MID newsletter, dropping weekly here.  CREDITS: Host: Holly Wainwright Executive Producer: Naima Brown Producer: Tahli Blackman Audio Producer: Jacob Round Mamamia acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the Land we have recorded this podcast on, the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation. We pay our respects to their Elders past and present, and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Does ambition die in midlife, or are we just getting started? And what happens when your drive is as strong as ever, but your body is screaming 'stop'? Holly Wainwright is interviewing Bruna Papandrea, one of the most successful women in Hollywood. One of the most successful people in Hollywood, full stop. The Australian super-producer came from a working-class background in Adelaide to be in the rooms where things happen - namely bringing massive movies and TV shows to the screen, from Gone Girl and Wild to Big Little Lies and Strife and The Dry. But Bruna’s “ambition” story isn’t a simple one. Her success exists alongside her management of Lupus, a chronic auto-immune disease. Like other forms of insidious, invisible conditions, it makes everything harder, and the hormonal flares of midlife don't help. Listen to more from Bruna on this episode of No Filter with Mia Freedman from 2016 here. Find out more about Bruna’s projects, here.  THE END BITS:  Share your feedback! Send us a voice message or email us at podcast@mamamia.com.au  Follow us on Instagram @MidbyMamamia or sign up to the MID newsletter, dropping weekly here.  CREDITS: Host: Holly Wainwright Executive Producer: Naima Brown Producer: Tahli Blackman Audio Producer: Jacob Round Mamamia acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the Land we have recorded this podcast on, the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation. We pay our respects to their Elders past and present, and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Are you "difficult" if you speak your mind, or have you just grown into yourself?  Do you just finally know what you want and how to ask for it? We asked Tina Arena. She's a Gen X icon with immense success under her belt, who can speak and sing and win awards in four languages, who has lived all over the world, and who, in recent years, has been refreshingly open about everything from politics to parenthood and to ageism in the music industry. Not everybody likes that. But as Holly learned in this conversation about standing up for yourself, speaking your mind, about the music industry, about her son moving overseas with his dad, about beauty and ambition and truth… is that Tina doesn’t mind if you disagree with her, she just wants us all to tell our stories fearlessly. She’s going first. THE END BITS:  Share your feedback! Send us a voice message or email us at podcast@mamamia.com.au  Follow us on Instagram @MidbyMamamia or sign up to the MID newsletter, dropping weekly here.  CREDITS: Host: Holly Wainwright Executive Producer: Naima Brown Producer: Tahli Blackman Audio Producer: Thom Lion Mamamia acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the Land we have recorded this podcast on, the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation. We pay our respects to their Elders past and present, and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Nikki Parkinson's husband kept assuring her that her suspicions about infidelity were all in her head. And then one day, she got an email in the middle of the night that changed everything...What happened next took Nikki's life apart piece by piece.  Six years on, former lawyer Nikki says she made so many mistakes during that time she never wanted other women to do the same. Now she's turned that into her work, becoming a Divorce Coach, Separation Strategist and Co-Parenting expert, and she wants us to celebrate the end of bad marriages as much as we celebrate the beginning of good ones. This is a story of the hard-won expertise that only comes from lived-experience - no matter where you are on the relationship spectrum, Nikki’s story has something to teach you about self-preservation, smart preparation, and rising from the ashes of a life you thought was set in stone. LINKS:  The Divorce and Separation Hub Website Instagram Facebook Linkedin Podcast THE END BITS:  Share your feedback! Send us a voice message or email us at podcast@mamamia.com.au  Follow us on Instagram @MidbyMamamia or sign up to the MID newsletter, dropping weekly here.  CREDITS: Host: Holly Wainwright Executive Producer: Naima Brown Producer: Tahli Blackman Audio Producers: Thom Lion Mamamia acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the Land we have recorded this podcast on, the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation. We pay our respects to their Elders past and present, and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It’s not an actual list of dickheads, although let’s face it, by this stage of life, we’ve all met a few of those. No, this list is for Kasey Chambers herself. It’s a list that signals to her that she isn’t listening to her gut - something that, by now, many of us MIDs have learned is our secret weapon... Kasey has built a career tuning into her gut - she calls it her little foghorn. The foghorn told her that her first album should be called The Captain, despite the suits thinking it was a terrible idea. The Captain went on to go platinum three times. The foghorn who pushed her to ask Ed Sheeran if he might like to sing with her, even though she was pretty convinced he might be… busy. (Spoiler Alert: He did).  The foghorn that told her to seek help for an eating disorder that brought her to her knees, to leave a marriage that was no longer working, to parent against the grain, and to step off the glamorous but arduous international touring circuit to get back to what she loved. She travelled around Australia, in a van, with her family, singing songs to people who wanted to hear them. This conversation is an absolute gem because Kasey is. It’s dripping with hard-won mid-lessons, good advice and stories of times everything went tits up, many of them recounted in Kasey’s book, called - you guessed it - Just Don’t Be a Dickead. LINKS:  You can follow Kasey here. You can find Kasey’s book here. THE END BITS:  Share your feedback! Send us a voice message or email us at podcast@mamamia.com.au  Follow us on Instagram @MidbyMamamia or sign up to the MID newsletter, dropping weekly here.  CREDITS: Host: Holly Wainwright Executive Producer: Naima Brown Producer: Tahli Blackman Audio Producers: Thom Lion Mamamia acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the Land we have recorded this podcast on, the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation. We pay our respects to their Elders past and present, and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Gen X can be funny about food. A lot of us were raised on a diet of Kate Moss, cigarettes and coffee. We were happy to talk openly about skipping meals, cutting carbs, and cabbage soup cleanses. We swam in a sea of celebrity diet tips, fads and…shame. In today’s episode of MID, Holly is talking about food and the absolute necessity of small joys with Virginia Trioli. Virginia Trioli is one of the most highly-regarded journalists and broadcasters in Australia. She’s a two-time Walkley Award winner, and her voice, on radio, on television has lent authority and comfort to some of the most difficult moments we’ve lived through as a nation. And this has given her a lot to say about…joy. That’s what her new book, A Bit On The Side, is about. Because for her - and for Holly - food is part of that joy. And allowing ourselves to lean into the small pleasures that make a life, without guilt or shame, is a radical act, really. Particularly for women, when we have been taught that self-sacrifice and deprivation are our life’s lot. So please feast on this conversation between Holly and Virginia - talking about food, love, and hard-fought parenthood and step-parenthood and losing your parents and wisdom and age and work and friendship and pleasure and letting go - and those times when you just have to… grow up, apologise and eat a shit sandwich. LINKS:  You can follow Virginia here. You can find her book, A Bit On The Side, here. THE END BITS:  Share your feedback! Send us a voice message or email us at podcast@mamamia.com.au  Follow us on Instagram @MidbyMamamia or sign up to the MID newsletter, dropping weekly here.  CREDITS: Host: Holly Wainwright Executive Producer: Naima Brown Producer: Tahli Blackman Audio Producers: Thom Lion Mamamia acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the Land we have recorded this podcast on, the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation. We pay our respects to their Elders past and present, and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Welcome to our first MID episode about hormones & peri & meno…we meant to do it earlier, but, you know: brain fog. For more than twenty-five years, Grace Lam lived and breathed the rarefied air of high fashion as a Vogue editor. Everything was going according to plan for the talented, organised, focused Grace until hormones entirely upended her tidy world. She’s going to tell you about exactly what that felt like. Fast forward a few years, and Grace has become a loud and important voice for women being messed with by their hormones. She’s just appeared before the Western Australian Senate Public Hearing on issues related to peri/menopause, presenting the practical changes we need our medical and government institutions to make to catch up with what we need. Grace is sharp and funny and honest and no bullshit. Like you. I think you’re going like her. OH, and she’s sweary. So. Yes, you’re definitely going to like her. Grace is also generous - and has opened up her Instagram Rolodex with some links to follow for more information and inspiration about perimenopause & menopause. As always - please do your own research, but this could be a good place to start. LINKS:  You can follow Grace here. Grace’s Suggestions Below: @peripausers @heramenopause @menopause_doctor @samtalkssex @doctorginni @rhitrition @dr_naomipotter @glucosegoddess @drjengunter @physicalkitchness @menopausepilates @dremilyleeming THE END BITS:  Share your feedback! Send us a voice message or email us at podcast@mamamia.com.au  Follow us on Instagram @MidbyMamamia or sign up to the MID newsletter, dropping weekly here.  CREDITS: Host: Holly Wainwright Executive Producer: Naima Brown Producer: Tahli Blackman Audio Producers: Thom Lion & Leah Porges Mamamia acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the Land we have recorded this podcast on, the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation. We pay our respects to their Elders past and present, and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.